BETTER CALL SAUL SCRAWL: GETTER BETTER WITH EPISODE 104 HERO

E4: HERO Grade: B+

“Upon this rock,” Jimmy McGill says, with a nice payday in front of him, hunkered in the beauty parlor's backroom office. “I will build my church.”

And finally, we the audience have a place to almost worship. For Jimmy McGill has true purpose in life. And yet he still struggles with being a perfectly honest dishonest lawyer. And the storyline in HERO, Episode Four, is beginning to straighten things out.

The Kettlemans, from NACHO

Bookended with ambitious scams that should have been completely predictable, they actually work. One dealing with the young Saul (“It’s All Good, Man”), supposedly in his twenties, and then in the present time – which is still a backstory to the BREAKING BAD aftermath universe. Knowing what we know about Saul – being one of the most crooked lawyers on Earth – and now learning about his youthful mullet-era, conning on the street, sheds an intriguing balance… like that judicial scale… of a guy who wants to be more honest than he was in the past, but, without realizing, he's fighting the inevitable result of his future.

Jule Ann Emery

And this is the only episode truly worth re-watching. Nuances and subtle moments you might have missed shed more light. Only Michael McKean's weird space suit remains an awkward enigma, and the almost love interest, Kim, still doesn’t completely feel at ease. Their conversations flow nicely, but drag on too long.

Being a serial, there are particular elements finally worth waiting for: Jimmy’s only real customer, Nacho, although seeming a contrived BAD throwback, has a genuinely lethal persona. Best yet, through this threat we know Mike will have Jimmy’s back, and could get out of that booth and actually do something. And last but not least, those seemingly perfect yuppies, The Kettlemans. Of the crazy drug dealers and lowlifes Jimmy deals with, this upper class suburban couple, thinking they’re too good for his slimy services, hold an extremely important element, and what Jimmy wants more than anything: legitimacy as a lawyer. Yet the true villain is his brother's former partner, a high class lawyer who sets the theme for this entire episode. Which includes two dopey young cameramen, the mental equivalent of the skateboard shysters from last time. Jimmy lecturing dimwitted punks is a reoccurring theme.

So for now, BETTER CALL SAUL isn’t trying too hard, and let’s hope this course continues. Even the movie references are improving. THE THING. Kurt Russell. Good call. Although that reference wasn’t from Saul. Better give his Girl Friday some credit.