The opening scene mirrors the one from episode 407, “Something Stupid.” Again they use a split screen to show Kim and Saul starting their day, but on this day, they’re not in the same room. Saul is walking in the desert with Mike. Kim is smoking and has clearly not slept. Kim’s side of things show water: she washes her face, takes a drink from a glass, and there’s a shot through the fish tank. On Saul’s side of the screen, the only liquids are his sweat and tears and his Davis & Main bottle full of urine. The last shot of the split screen shows Saul walking toward the camera and Kim walking away from the camera toward the bathroom.
Mike and Saul Finally Get Back on the Road
Saul gets a cell signal. Kim’s phone rings. Jimmy says “I’m okay.” and Kim finally breaks down sobbing.
In the background, Mike is also making a call. His call is the one that gets them a ride home.
The next scene is Mike and Saul at a truck stop. They’re both wearing shorts and ridiculous tourist t-shirts, and flip flops on their feet. Mike has a quite pronounced golfer’s tan, though I don’t think he got it from golfing.
Tyrus and Victor drive up in an SUV and takes them back to civilization. They say arrangements have been made for a couple of flatbeds to go out and clear out the scene of the gunfight. Somehow no one thinks to mention Jimmy’s Esteem in the ravine.
Mike tells Saul he can’t go to sleep in the car. “You gotta work on your story.”
Saul shows up at bail office with $7 million, still in the gray duffel bags. The clerk has never seen that much money before, but she has equipment to count it. The opposing counsel comes in to see it. She wants to know where Jorge de Guzman got that much money.
It turns out there’s extra, once all of the money has been counted. She returns it to Saul. It’s his $100,000 fee.
Lalo Plans His Road Trip
Lalo has already been released and Saul meets him outside, and tells him his story: there was car trouble, it broke down 6 miles from the pickup site. Saul was afraid to hitchhike with that much money, so he walked north. There was no cell service, so he had to walk a long time before he found a truck stop. No mention of the gun fight or of Mike.
Saul says the $7 million sent up a huge flare, and they’ll be looking into Lalo and his fake identity. Lalo says by the time they figure it, out he’ll be long gone, back in Mexico. But he says he and Saul aren’t done, they will do big things together. He reminds him he’s a friend of the cartel.
Nacho comes to pick Lalo up. Lalo tells Saul to give his regards to his wife. He says something about how Saul “married up.” Lalo is still impressed by the match. Saul is flabbergasted and unnerved that Lalo knows about Kim.
Saul Chooses Not to Tell the Whole Truth
Kim helps Jimmy get undressed and into an oatmeal bath, which she says will help with his sunburn. She thinks he needs to go to the ER but he says he’s okay. He mutters something about how he walked thru the desert alone for 36 hours. “All by myself.”
Then he wants Kim to tell him about her encounter with Lalo. He says she has to stay away from people like Lalo. “I’m in the game, you’re not in the game.” He tells her that the only thing that kept him going out in the desert was knowing that she was waiting for him. But she doesn’t really understand the threat because she doesn’t know about the ambush and the gunfight or how really dangerous Lalo is.
She asks if it was worth it. Saul says, “Go look in the bag,” which is out in the living room, outside of Saul’s line of sight from the bathtub.
Kim goes out to look, sees the money but also finds the travel mug with the bullet hole in it. There’s an excellent shot of her eye thru the hole in the cup. “That’s what it’s all about,” says Saul. Kim puts the cup back and doesn’t tell him what she saw.
Gus and Mike Disagree on Which Road to Take
Mike reports to Gus. He says his guess is the gunmen followed the Cousins up from Mexico. Tells Gus they had tattoos similar to some Columbian gang. But Gus says the men were hired.
Gus calls Juan Bolsa and tells him, “Our colleague is free and will be heading over the border.” Bolsa predicts that Gus’ run of bad luck will be over.
After Gus hangs up, he tells Mike, “I just spoke to the man responsible for the attack. Once Salamanca is south of the border, our actions must be unimpeachable.” It’s imperative that the Cartel not think Gus is doing anything under-handed.
Mike wants to cut Nacho loose, but Gus sees no reason to get rid of an asset. Gus thinks it will be better to use Nacho to control the opposition. Mike talks about the threat to Papa Varga, and says he doesn’t think fear is a great motivator. Gus gives his feelings on the subject of Nacho: “A dog who bites every owner he’s had can only be disciplined with a firm hand or put down.” Mike walks out.
Kim Gives Saul Another Chance to Tell the Truth
Kim has called in sick and her hair is not in her professional lawyer pony tail. She is content to spend the day on the couch watching TV with Jimmy, but Jimmy is still troubled. He’s showing clear signs of PTSD. Then his phone rings and he says he has to go help a client with a plea deal. Kim doesn’t believe it. She says she knows he’s lying and she knows that something terrible happened in the desert. “I’m here for you. You can tell me. No judgment.”
But the best Saul can do is to tell her he had to drink his own pee.
Kim Makes a Choice
Kim goes to work, and finds out Steph took care of whatever pressing matter was happening when Kim called in sick. Kim works on dictating letters, but is obviously distracted. Then she goes in to talk to Rich and tells him she quits, and is ready to walk out, arranging for the files for her pro bono cases to be sent to her and turning in the keys to her company car. Then she goes back to get the stopper from the Zafiro Añejo tequila bottle out of her desk drawer.
Lalo visits Hector Salamanca before he heads south. Hector is clearly upset and Lalo tries to reassure him. He tells Hector he still has Eladio’s ear, and there are lots of things they can still do against Fring. He points out that in 11 months, Tuco will get out of prison, and being the hothead that he is, he’s bound to stir up trouble. He kisses Hector and says, “Family is everything.” Hector’s eyes indicate there’s a lot he’d like to say if he could only speak. Noticeably absent from this scene is the ringing of Hector’s bell. He still has the bell, they even show it in a close-up shot, but he doesn’t ring it even once. I wonder what that means.
Lalo has Nacho drive him toward the border. One of Gus’ guys is following them.
It turns out that Saul really did have a client who needed help with his plea deal. But after the hearing, DDA Bill is gloating about how he won what he thought was an unwinnable case. Saul was not able to get this client justice, speedy or otherwise, and he’s not happy about it.
Saul is Conflicted About the Road He’s Chosen
Mike and Saul have another heart-to-heart in Mike’s car. Saul is still traumatized by all of the death and wonders when he will be able to forget. Mike tells him, “One day you’re going to wake up go about your business, and sooner or later you’re going to realize you haven’t thought about it. And that’s the moment you realize you can forget.” Saul still feels bad that people were killed, but Mike says, “It was them or it was us. They were in the game.” Though he admits that’s not true about Fred from Travel Wire. Mike says that it’s not the end of the story. Saul wants to know what Mike means, “Is something going to happen to Lalo?” Mike talks about how their choices determine the road they’re on.
Lalo Chooses a Different Road
Nacho takes Lalo to that same well on the dirt road where Saul met the Cousins. But Lalo’s mental wheels are still turning and he gets back in the car. They drive back and Lalo finds Jimmy’s Esteem in the ravine. Lalo is in great physical shape. He jumps down in the ravine to investigate and sees the bullet holes in the car. Lalo decides to go back to Albuquerque.
Kim comes home and tells Jimmy she quit her job at Schweikart & Cokely. Jimmy thinks this is the wrong choice, and he talks about how bad choices put you on bad roads which lead to bad places. He’s really adamant and she is just as insistent that she’s made the right choice.
While they’re having this discussion, Saul’s phone keeps ringing, and he keeps dismissing the calls. Then someone knocks on the door. Kim answers the door and Saul answers the phone. It’s Mike, and he tells Saul to keep the phone open and put it down so Mike can hear what’s going on.
It’s Lalo at the door. He comes in, boldly inspects their place, and taps on the fish tank. Then he sits on the couch. Jimmy wants Kim to leave but Lalo says she’s part of the legal team.
A tense scene unfolds where Lalo keeps asking what happened when Saul picked up the money. Saul keeps running through his story, but Lalo knows Saul’s story isn’t true and so does Kim. Saul tries to pull the same stunt he did earlier with Kim, slipping in the “drinking my own pee” detail like that was the only detail he had omitted, but Lalo still isn’t buying.
Then we see that Mike is outside on the roof of a building across the street, with his sniper rifle. We’re pretty sure he’s got the sights trained on Lalo, but at one point he points the rifle at Saul.
Finally Lalo tells Saul he saw his car. “Did you push it in a ditch?” He asks for an explanation of the bullet holes.
Kim Stands Up to Lalo
Kim steps forward, blocking Mike’s shot. She comes up with a story that someone used the car for target practice and pushed it into a ditch, and then tells Lalo he needs to get his house in order. She says Saul doesn’t lie to his clients, and points out, “He went through hell to save your ass.” This is similar to the way she turned the tables on Kevin from Mesa Verde, standing up to the person with the power as an act of self-defense. It leaves Lalo speechless, and he walks out, and we’re not really sure if Kim’s tactic worked, or made things worse.
Mike still has the gun trained on Lalo as he exits the building and walks to Nacho’s car, but Mike doesn’t take the shot. We’re left unsure what the plan was. Maybe it was just to protect Saul and Kim, and Mike would only have taken a shot if Lalo made a move. Or maybe Mike is not sure he wants to always follow Gus’ orders.
Lalo Brings Nacho Down Another Road
Lalo gets in Nacho’s car. He tells Nacho that he wants to go to Mexico. Nacho thinks he means to be dropped off at the well again, but Lalo says there’s been a change of plans. He tells Nacho to “Go, we got a long way ahead of us.” Clearly Lalo is hatching a plan, and that probably won’t be good for any of our characters.
Where do you think these roads will lead for our characters? Leave a comment below and let me know.