Better Call Saul strives for an epic legal team from Wexler-McGill

I took out my notes to start writing this review, saw the name of the episode and started smiling like an idiot. How, in the name of paradise, does this show know with such strange precision how to make me happy?

"Coushatta" is an in-depth case study of something You better call Saul – and breaking Bad before him – we always knew and constantly represented to us: what it means to be ready to do the work. I can not think of this theme without remembering what Teller (Penn & Teller) said about magic. People are always looking for the stuff. But sometimes the thing is to be willing to go so far to snatch something that no one would believe it.

That's what Kim wanted to send Jimmy to Louisiana and make a Miracle on 34th Street Judge Munsinger is – a shoot-the-moon ploy so out of proportion to the case and his humble place that no one can understand it. And remember, even though Jimmy does not intend to write his letters to all the passengers on the bus (which he learns from one of the names), Kim is doing it alone. She knows that her very presence annoys this particular judge; it's him who warned him not to hang out in his audience hall The verdict. (You have to respect the likes of Hizzonor in classic movies.) The pressure on ADA Ericsen to solve the case is a brilliant move.

But then, my friends! The true superior engineering movement, the true spirit of the scammer, is to know that the DA will respond by avoiding giving in to Kim's request. She also has an idea of ​​what it means to be willing to do the job, but her idea is to get a return on sunk costs. She took a stand on this case and must buy back this personal investment. So she keeps everyone away from her office to get to the bottom of this Babineux affair. Imagine all this energy for a guy who gets hit by a sandwich.

And Jimmy is ready. The episode does not know if he contributed to Kim's letter writing campaign, but if you rely on how he uses all his resources, I'll give him the credit. Dozens of phones labeled with the names and backstories of letter signers, which Jimmy carefully followed in his notebook on the bus. The film crew of the local college with which he directed his commercials committed himself for the day to answer the phone calls of these personalities and to sing the praises of Huell. And the piththis of redresistance, the touch that made me turn my head with delight: a fake church website showing a slideshow of Huell, the pious servant of the community and the local hero, accompanied by a vignette of gift for his defense. At a key moment, while "Pastor Hanford" tells the story of the prosecutor with the way Huell saved the elderly from a fire, Jimmy signals to one of the students who is waiting with his laptop. Ding! The total amount of donations increases, leaving Erickson to see busloads filled with Bayou Free Will Baptists riding in Albuquerque to take Justice Munsinger's courtroom.

Mike has his own blind spot regarding sunk costs. Despite the fact that Gus is the master of unimaginable efforts to conceal an incredibly daring operation, Mike feels that they are too far away with their German team to let Kai's handsome right at the strip club -tease them. He tells Gus that he gave Werner a "coming to Jesus" and that he guarantees the stability of the crew under his direction. I predict he will come to regret his lack of imagination in the prospect of a break and change of team, difficult to consider for anyone (other than Gus).

And hey, Nacho is back! His story also moved eight months, during which he took over the operation from Salamanca to the ABQ and promoted Krazy-8 to occupy his former position. The work accompanies a sophisticated modernist house and junkies running on furniture, but Nacho is stressed. The question his father asked about his exit seems more unrealistic than ever. At the end of the episode, a brand new "Salamanca" comes to Mexico – Eduardo, in the kitchen and in the routine of collections. No matter how far you get up, there are always smiling assholes slipping into the slot above you because of the connections. The underworld is not a meritocracy.

But it is Kim for whom the link between the extra effort and the desired results is felt. When she leaves Ericsen's office after opposing her "shock and fear" tactic, she draws an irregular breath. she does not have the habit of bluffing in her legal personality. But the reward makes it soar. It's not Huell who walks with four months of probation and the time spent caring for her. it's a pleasure to get a job. Jimmy thinks that they will return to a normal life after their team – he looks at the increasingly sad offices she's at Mesa Verde meetings – but Kim has a moment of clarification in one of those meetings. Kevin and Paige think in terms of practice, not possible. They will never make absurd efforts to get what they really want; they will always be satisfied with a sensible alternative.

And that's not what makes Kim alive. The sensitivity is damned. "Let's do it again."

"Parasitic observations:

• Before Jimmy turns the bus into a production line, he tries to vary his writing, including at some point, writing with his left hand. Then he must direct the workers to the task while directing the students into his improvised boiler room: "I love your passion, but could you ease the anger?" "Do not use de jure … We'll have to lose that one. "
• Nacho has a Manitoba driver's license in his safe for him and his father. He has an exit strategy in place, but when will he get the chance to run?
• Mike's willingness to free himself from Werner is due to Werner's interest in him – teaching him German as we saw last week, questioning his family, comparing his relationship with his father to Werner's work. at the Sydney Opera House. We did not see another man show such sensitivity to Mike, but only women like Stacey and Anita.
• Kim has Stereolab in his headphones reviewing Huell's record and remaining strictly professional with Jimmy.
• Werner is certain that his drawing on the coaster is not a problem: "No detail, no ladder at all!" He doubts the bar guys will remember him. Mike has a more yellow grip: "A German national. In the middle of Albuquerque. Talk about pouring tons of concrete into a secret place. "
• My favorite detail of the hilarious imitation of Pastor Coushatta by Jimmy ("Free Will Baptist, Pastor Hanford speakin," who says? ") Is his invention of Clarence, who practices the organ (" I just go out into the hallway ") and nonsense with dresses (" these are for communion! "). I must admit that I held my breath on it – Free Will Baptists called it the Lord's Supper, not communion – but ADA Ericsen does not seem to have read sacramental theology.
• "I have crawdads in my pants!", Lance Jimmy when Kim asks for more Louisiana accent in bed. "It's something that happens to you when you sit in the bayou."
• "I saw your esteem in the parking lot."