Decker

Wow, the title of S6E11 just dropped :



Decker

And along that line, this makes total sense :

Nesbit

Are they going to Back to the Future 2 Kim Wexler into some important event or period of Breaking Bad? I don't know where else they go with it time wise with both Gene and Jimmy's stories at stopping points and 3 hours left. I wish they had avoided Walt and Jesse altogether but have faith it'll be fun.

jpcamb

Kim could come in as a CODA after "Gene" is gone getting a package with $ in the mail for a final scene too. I'd love to see where she ended up at some point. I don't think there are enough BCS characters we don't know the fate of to do an epic ending like Six Feet Under did.

Geofferson

I watched the episode again. Anything to Gene carrying the KC Royals tote bag in the department store? Assuming Omaha residents are likely fans of the Royals by proximity, but assuming there may be more to it. Also, needed to pause the scene, but Gene is also carrying a paperback book with him - The Moon's a Balloon which is an autobiography of actor, David Niven.

OldBoy

she's going to come in as a child of deaf adults? cool.

Decker

It was Kim's favorite team, and her sleep shirt.

majorjoe23

Omaha’s Eleven.

Dan

Decker

I love stuff like this.

John Galt

Omaha is also home to the Royals AAA affiliate.

rennervision

I'm just holding out hope for some closure on Huell.

Decker

I saw him at a Chris Rock concert in Vegas a few months ago. He looked good. Trimmer than before, towering tall, happy. That can be our closure.

I was digging into the timeline thing a bit. We know that Walt and Saul go into hiding together on Mach 15, 2010. Walt lasts less than six months. He leaves his compound in New Hampshire on September 4, 2010.
Gene shares his first Cinnabon with Frank on 10/17/2010, the day after The Huskers lost to unranked Texas at home. Looking at the subsequent scenes, I assumed his visits and plotting was like once a week over several months, but no, going by the timeline it was all over a period of 2 weeks (ending with the heist on Halloween night), which had to have seemed really weird to show up pretty much every single day with another cinnamon roll.
In any case, and I had totally forgotten about this, this leads up to the phone call that Saul told Francesca to expect on November 12 at 3pm. Maybe that will be in this next episode?

Decker

Looks like we aren’t done with Gene or with B&W Omaha yet. Seriously I have no idea where Schnauz, Gould and Gilligan will be taking us for these last three hours. And that’s what making it so thrilling after a run of fantastic but largely expected episodes leading up to this.

New Lurker

I might be in the minority on this one, but I am not a big fan of the black and white. I would enjoy the Gene timeline so much more if it were in color. When it was just 4 minute cold opens it made sense. It was a visual way to bring a stark distinction to the timelines. But I hated having to watch a whole episode in black and white. Especially in a series like this where the way they use color and compose the shots are almost as important as the stories themselves. Not expecting them to change course now. But I find myself being less excited about the finishing stretch because it's going to be all black and white from here on out (minus a couple flashbacks).

johnnysd

They will transition back to color when Kim shows up again.

Decker

I kept waiting for the Pleasantville moment.

Decker

JTH182

I thought for sure it was going to happen when there was a closeup of the shirt and tie hanging on the rack.

Jason Bovberg

I thought this episode was pretty awful. This Forbes article sums it up for me.

‘Better Call Saul’ Finally Gave Us A Genuinely Bad Episode

Decker

It was certainly a change of pace and I can see people being disappointed. But I'm sorry, it was not at all awful. And it was actually some of Odenkirk's best acting in the entire run.

clckworang

I wouldn't say the episode was genuinely bad, but this article touches on some of the issues I had with it. I didn't even realize until I came here that we were supposed to know who this Jeff character is already. I'm sure there was a moment when things were clarified better, but I was sort of lost. Having the original actor would have helped a lot.

jpcamb

In a season of episodes, I'd rank as 9's for the most part I give this one a 7.5 or so. It was a pretty inventive epiode and but recasting Jeff was a misfire. If I recall correctly they show a flashback of the cab driven last season at the start of the episode to try to tie things together but the actors didn't look even a bit alike or act the same as we all noted and that left some people confused, why turn him into a malleable piece of clay when he was so aggressive the fist time? Gene does go to elaborate lengths to find a way to not have to give up the life he built by framing Jeff for an interstate crime showing some genius that we all expect from the character.

As the writer of the Forbes article says, we see Saul, Gene, and Slippin Jimmy's personas all on display not to mention the brutal realization of how alone he truly is as "Gene." I think the episode had a lot of ambition but given the high expectations, the show did not quite deliver what we would have hoped for.

Geofferson

I don't quite agree with the overall message of the article but I do agree the 2.5 year span since we last saw the Jeff character was too long. I had forgotten about it as well. If they had a "previously on" that aired prior it may have helped (or caused even more confusion given the casting change).

I do like how the author concluded that we got all 4 versions of Saul in this episode: Saul, Gene and both Jimmy's. I hadn't quite thought of it that way.

Josh-da-man

They should have Fairuza-Balked the taxi driver in the previous episode when they knew they couldn't get the actor back.