I’m fairly certain Tess is more than a platonic partner, considering she sleeps with Joel during the night. Also, I’m a bit confused about this reviewer’s background. What exactly is their relationship to the game? Have they played it or not, and if not, how do they know what sequences and dialogue were lifted from it?

It’s still wild to me that they do a fair amount of story content in the seasons that just... expires. I dunno what the numbers look like in terms of folks who would like to play (or replay) that content down the road vs. the FOMO making players play every month in order to see this content, but it really feels…

I’m mixed on the BB finale. On one hand, Walt gets what he deserves - miserable, lonely, hated by his son, feared by his wife. But there’s still too much Super Walt with the machine gun bit, strong-arming Elliot and Gretchen to get Jr the money, etc.

If you’ve seen any of Jonathan Banks’ interviews with castmates from BB and BCS, he almost always gets emotional. You can see how much this world has meant to him. I thought that was a great last scene for Mike Ehrmantrout. 

I think that he was serious. Jimmy was always like this in a sense. He always had the Slippin’ Jimmy side to him since he was a kid as far as stealing cash from registers and pooping in sunroofs. It’s why Walt reacted with “you were always like this?” and how Mike reacted similarly too.

Jimmy doesn’t give serious answers to either Mike or Walter White about his regrets, but it’s important to note he’s the one that initiates the question in the first place. As long as he kept the mask of “Saul” on, he’d never gain the personal growth that he truly, deep down, wanted to seek.

Donna Bowman has been recapping this season on a substack! You can sign up for the free version here: https://episodicmedium.substack.com/s/better-call-saul

What was really great about this episode was Mike’s goodbye to the series which i’m glad we got. That he regretted becoming who he was and recognized that his lifestyle, his corrupt cop life, is what got his son killed. He wishes he could take it all back and and how that connected with his final scene with Papa…

Another note - when Jimmy asked Walt about regrets, Walt looked at the watch Jesse gave him on his birthday (implying Walt probably regretted handing Jesse over to Jack). 

This is a really key moment in the show that is often overlooked. Jimmy’s actions at the hearing could be somewhat justified as self-defense against Chuck’s relentless grudge against him. But that petty, completely unnecessary action of letting the insurance agent know about Chuck’s condition, really set events in…

That was very insightful.  He plays people for suckers then hates them for not knowing they’re being conned.  It’s the oldest excuse in the book. That people are complicit in their own victimization of the crime perpetrated on them.

It’s Donna Bowman level quality.

What set Marion on to Gene was that, for someone who had claimed to have no knowledge of Albuquerque and never been there, this Cinnabon manager suddenly seemed to have an awful lot of knowledge both of ABQ and the law. He was blithely and all-too-eagerly reassuring her “Oh, don’t worry, Nebraska doesn’t have bondsmen…

Jeff also knows that if Saul is caught in the house, he could be implicated in their previous crimes (which Saul explicitly threatened to do). This wasn’t Jeff panicking, this was a diversion. I didn’t think there was any other way to read it. I also noticed that in the phone call to Kim, Saul is STILL unsure about…

Apply to a.v. club my dude. This comment could be a featured article and is way better than anything they have up right now.

And speaking of sloppy, maybe when you call the mother of your criminal associate— whom she knows got into legal trouble in the city that you had to flee and assume another identity— to tell her he’s been arrested, don’t act like you, ostensibly a Cinnabon manager, have a thorough understanding of the difference…

Something I just realized after finishing this episode: Jimmy is always at his most vengeful when people attempt to hold themselves accountable. Note how his true rage at Howard started when Howard confessed that he felt responsible for Chuck’s death. When Kim comes in to sign the divorce settlement, his performance…

Jeff just gunning it straight into the back of a nearby car for absolutely no reason.

I am both envious of and happy for future binge-watchers of this show who will be able to watch these last b&w episodes with no commercials. I didn’t know the show’s title until just now, (good title btw) but it could easily have been “Breaking Bad part 2" because Gene really, for a second there, both considered using…

It was absolutely an intentional insult by Kim. Kim knew of Howard’s marital troubles, but Cheryl did not know that Kim knew this.