I can only echo what the majority has said before me, and am enthralled with excitement to see what the two-part finale has in (the convenience?) store for us. One thing I’ll add to the discussion:

My biggest gripe with the slimmer Mitchum brother happened when I saw him eat his damn cereals. God how I hated how he ate those cereals.

Definitely. Revisited his short films after this episode and thought Brakhage's "Mothlight" (1963) and "Stellar" (1993) might have been specific inspirations for the nuclear sequence.

Now I'm remembering that Tim&Eric skit where Ray Wise (!) explains how to give a hug and ends with "Ah, the greatest hug!"

I agree - and considering that BCS is *about* the Jimmy/Saul transition, I'd go further and say that this third season might possibly have been the most important season of the show. I predict that S4 will feel even more like BrBa, with Gus' (and maybe Nacho's) roles likely increasing.

After feeling those strong Hal Ashby's-Being There-vibes from innocent-Cooper's storyline, I can now add another 70s classic to the new Twin Peaks' likely influences: for me, Jacoby's hilarious vlog rant over the internet totally channeled Howard's "Mad as hell" scene in Altman's Network. I get a feeling that these…

Ah, yes, I've thought of him as well… that's just the formal aspect, though; I see Deren in the content (the surreal elements and how they unfold).

I really loved that there's Franz Kafka's photograph hanging prominently on the wall in Gordon Cole's FBI office, facing the photo of a mushroom cloud.

Re: the voice actor for "the evolution of the arm" - I actually think it's David Lynch himself, with his voice processed. I recently re-watched Dumbland—Lynch's crude flash animation web miniseries where he voices all characters—and it definitely sounds to me that way.

Just to continue your idea: in this episode we see Varga using online information and tapping phones to find out about and intimidate his victims, but since we already know from last episode that Gloria doesn't have a facebook/web presence nor smartphones or the like, he might not see her coming at all.

I was getting increasingly more tense waiting for the reveal of what Huell has planted on Chuck, which I thought was a cell phone, that Jimmy would get someone (presumably Huell) to call at a critical point. The actual reveal was just as satisfying, though.

Dude, when I heard Tidal Wave playing in BB it was one of my favorite moments, because I liked the song so much and didn't think it was well known!

He was also great in Killing Them Softly and The Rover — two films I could recommend to any Fargo (FX) fan.

That's like lumping together Jews and Israelites, dude. I wouldn't do that, and I haven't been a Jew nor an Israelite for my whole life. And I'm not bragging about it either.

Broaden your horizon a bit. Neither H&P nor F&G have anything on Fassbinder's 1980 miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz (14 eps).

Hm, I don't know why anyone would've had reason to doubt Chuck's statement in the cold opening. At the end of the ep, Jimmy has his whole career hanging on his confession. But you may have a point that Jimmy would never expect Chuck to pull a dirty move like that. …Still tho, damn, Jimmy

All in all, great episode. I loved the cold open, too. But from the moment Chuck said the reason for his retirement is because he believes that he made the "16"/"61" address mistake himself, I knew it had to be a ploy, and an obvious one at that. I kept expecting Jimmy to make a decision based on the knowledge that…

Do you know one of the two's YouTube channel? Josh Fadem is his name, and he sure knows how to do some slapstick comedy gold: https://www.youtube.com/use…

Ya can't write barflies without barf

I feel ya. I don't know if I'd call it high budget, though. Depends in which context. For TV it probably wouldn't be considered high, although considering some of the well-known actors&actresses, I can't be sure.