Review Of Better Call Saul Season 3 Episode 4 – Sabrosito

We are given a short backgrounder on Hector Salamanca’s (Mark Margolis) motivations and a history of his feud with Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). It may seem oddly coincidental that he is delivering profits to the charismatic Don Eladio at the same time that Fring’s profits are delivered there too, but we take it all in stride considering how important the scene is to understanding one of the most powerful individuals in the show (incidentally Don Eladio it turns out is played by Steven Bauer, who is famous for his role in Scarface (!!). I thought I recognized him).

Hector is Embarrassed

By far however, the scenes indicating that Mike (Jonathan Banks) is getting tired of it all are the most telling of this episode. He is first shown to ask about joining his daughter in law for dinner where he hesitates but gives in eventually. And in another he says how it feels ‘nice to fix something for once’ when Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) asks him if he fixed Chuck’s door when he pretended to be a handyman. Later on he is shown reading a DIY magazine while at work.

Mike the Fixer

And finally, Kim’s (Rhea Sheehorn) smile as she says ‘Bingo’ is leaving us all at the edge of our seats wondering what the two of them have planned for Chuck (Michael McKean).

Kim Bingo

Incidentally, the wife is currently heavily binge watching The Good Wife, a 2009-2016 drama in a legal setting also on Netflix starring Julianna Margulies. In this show there is a character called Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), a non – legal but essential element in the law office where they both work in resolving difficult cases.

I bring this up because what Kalinda does to help them win cases is, like Jimmy’s, bordering on illegal if not entirely so. In almost every episode, Kalinda breaks into scenes of crimes, gathers evidence, conducts interviews and investigations despite not having authority to do so all while being careful not to get caught. It’s hard not to notice her as me and the wife often mention how inutile her law firm would be without her and that she probably commands a fee equal to if not more so than the partners themselves, being so capable and indispensable to them.

After having watched that show and realized how accepting people are of Kalinda’s ways I have to wonder then how different therefore are Jimmy’s and Mike’s techniques to get cases to go their way. Mike posed as a handyman to gain access to Chuck’s house, and Jimmy changed the address on important documents to make Chuck lose a case and look like a fool. Kalinda would do both  those things on her lunch break while breaking into a police database for damning information against their State Attorney. All in a day’s work for her.

I don’t really have a point here except maybe to say how the interpretation of those acts play such a big role of whether they are deemed acceptable to the public. Kalinda breaking and entering into homes seems ‘legit’, while Gilligan manages to make Kim’s calling every handyman  in town to check which one is going to Chuck’s house look like a full blown federal level crime.

 

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