Well, for most people who have Chuck's "condition" it's all in there head as there's no medical confirmation of electro-magnetic fields having such extreme effects on a person. And people who claim to have this condition have shown know reliable detection of being exposed to an EM field over simply guessing.
It was also pretty clear Mike was currently estranged from his family, that woman who drove past him was his daughter, and he's not currently part of Kaylee's life. I can't imagine any kind of way electromagnetic fields would interact with a human being unless they have metal implants in really unfortunate shapes or something. Also I loved the part about the guy trying to secede from the US who tried to pay him with his own money he minted.
It's inevitable, if a little unfair, to compare this show to Breaking Bad, since they're quite different in terms of theme and structure. But I'd place 5-0 up there with the best episodes of Breaking Bad. Just a remarkable piece of writing with an amazing, Emmy-worthy performance Jonathan Banks, essentially carrying the whole episode. We're so used to seeing Mike's stoicism and unbreakable nature, that his complete breakdown here and uncharacteristic monologue is made all the more powerful for it. I teared up when he said --with absolute anguish-- "I broke my boy." You knew from the time-shifting structure that the two cops that killed his son were going to get their comeuppance, but I was still on the edge of my seat watching how Mike set the pieces in place for his revenge. Just masterful. I think it's pretty cool that the show can do an entire episode where its title star is barely a factor and still have a depth of writing and cast to make a magnificent episode out of it. It also shows the versatility of this format; in varying between comedy and serious drama, while completely avoiding the cliches of the million other legal shows that have been on television. This has been, by far, my favorite episode of the series as of yet, and it gives me great hope for the future of the show and the types of stories they can tell in this universe. A+.
Episodes like this show how you can bring Gus in the show eventually. In BB, Saul says he never met Gus, but since they can do Mike centric episodes we can see Gus and Mike and not have to have Saul directly involved with it.
Episode last night was great and I hope the show will continue on this level. Until last night, to me it felt really a one man show and I think to be successful we need to buy into the other characters. Mike is a great start because most (including myself) already have strong feelings about him from BB. It was great to see the focus on him for a week. Can't wait for the next one!
I don't remember, was there ever anything said about Hank running into Saul before BB? That one would make some sense. (In case they have a story to tell of course, not just for the sake of being cute.)
Yes, terrific episode. When the two cops took Mike's gun, I just knew he had a back up. Those two guys really underestimated Mike, who apparently came out of the womb a badass. Mike may have known Saul/Jimmy was going to eventually spill the coffee, but I sure didn't. It came as a complete surprise to me. I loved the way Mike, without a moment's hesitation rushed over to steal the notebook even though the coffee spill didn't happen when he originally wanted it to. Imagine the anguish Mike feels. Just before his son is killed, he causes him to do something that robs the kid of his dignity. He's got to live with that. Agree with everyone else, these scenes were brilliantly acted. Odenkirk had only a couple of scenes but made the most of them. We'll say what we will about Jimmy's overall patheticness but as a lawyer and a guy who can think on the fly, he is as on top of things as Walter White ever was. That is something I loved about BB and am loving in Saul, the main protagonists are unorthodox (given their respective chosen lines of work) in their methods of getting what they want, but both smart as hell.
It was also brilliant the way you see him prying open the cop car door, but you don't see what he did to the car. The entire thing went down exactly the way he planned it. He didn't have any kind of proof or intention of proving that they killed his son, he wanted to scare the cops into murdering him so they would bring him to a secluded area. Then he acted really drunk so they would feel safe. I hope they develop new characters as deeply as they did for Mike this week. Like, I wouldn't mind seeing an entire episode from his brother's POV. There's no specific confirmation that Hank met Saul before, but Hank is a DEA agent and Saul is a lawyer in his jurisdiction, so it would not contradict anything if Hank showed up.
I'm pretty sure Hank just knew Saul from the commercials. I, like the others here, really loved this episode. To be honest, if it weren't for Breaking Bad, I don't know if I would have stuck with this show as long as I did, but with "Five-O," it showed it has the potential to be a great show. They really had me with the beginning parts, as I thought, maybe, Kaylee was Mike's partner's daughter and not his own granddaughter. Maybe I missed something in Breaking Bad that would prove me wrong, but I couldn't tell where they were going with the beginning part as it took a long time for them to reveal that Matty was Mike's son. Mike being Mike, it would not have surprised me to find out that Kaylee was not his biological granddaughter, but rather, his (much younger) partner's daughter, to whom Mike felt duty bound to look out for. Hell, the way they write this show, being ambiguous, I was thinking for a moment there that Kaylee's mother was Mike's estranged daughter, who got upset at him for messing up his life and couldn't call him by "Dad," rather referring to him as "Mike." Breaking Bad did this too, forcing you to pay attention as you were never sure what was going on, even when things seemed straight forward. I have to admit, I tend to watch TV with a device in my hand, giving partial attention to both, but shows like Better Call Saul make me pay full attention, lest I miss something.
I was very impressed with the way things were revealed - naturalistic dialogue, anachronic structure, no audience hand-holding, no clunky exposition. Masterful story telling, masterful acting. Banks was amazing.
I think he was planting the second gun in the back seat, knowing that they would take his own gun away.
Yeah, that's what he was doing, no question about it. I've been a fan of Banks since Wiseguy, and after BB it's no revelation to see how good he can be, but everything really came together nicely in that episode. A fairly serious and very effective counterpoint to the tone of the Jimmy-centered episodes so far.
Yeah, but I mean, you don't know exactly what he did in the car until later when he fetches the second gun.
I'm part-way through season 4 of BB and have really liked the show. I really look forward to hopefully seeing more from Mike's character as "Saul" progresses.