'Better Call Saul' Recap: 'Piñata'

Written by John Edward betancourt

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​When it rains, it pours. That’s a phrase that keeps rattling around in my mind today simply because, last night’s episode of Better Call Saul, ‘Piñata’, brought it to the forefront of my mind, and it accomplished such a feat by once again injecting one of life’s little complications into the story since let’s be honest, when bad things happen in our lives, we are tuned in and focused upon anything negative that comes our way and when the chips are down and we are doing our damndest to survive to see another day, those little or big problems feel like they pile upon us and make our struggle all the more difficult and well, that’s precisely what happened to Jimmy in this particular tale because he had one tough journey to deal with in this chapter. 
 
But before we dig too deeply into that, we need to spend a little bit of time to discuss the fact that there is more at work in the story than Jimmy’s pain when it comes to the genesis of Saul Goodman. Because it’s downright fascinating how this universe is coming together and another key component to Saul’s involvement in Walter White’s world came about by way of Mike and Gus’ respective storylines this week since we saw more work going into creating the Superlab and it’s just magical to see both of these men in their element doing their thing and man, that scene with Gus and Hector in the hospital was downright chilling as we were once more reminded of the fact that Gus Fring finds great joy in unleashing his wrath upon his enemies. 
 
If anything, all of this was an ominous reminder of where the story is headed and the dark clouds gathering on the horizon only seemed to intensify in this tale by way of Jimmy’s story because truly, the bad stuff is starting to pile up for him and it’s starting to push him to the point of no return and sadly, the first real moment of heartbreak for him in this tale, came by way of his relationship with Kim, which is in fact…starting to crumble. Because now they’re both keeping secrets from one another and this speaks to the fact that both of them are starting to grow apart and move in separate directions since Kim is ready to heal and give back to the world and Jimmy…well he claims he wants to move forward but he continues to use his pain as a badge of honor and that is slowly pushing Kim away. 

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​Which brings us to a pivotal moment in this episode, wherein Kim finally let Jimmy know what she’s been doing with her day and that she’s found a way to balance her clients and her desire to help people by joining Schweikart and Cokley and that matters because Jimmy was hell bent in this episode on planning to resurrect Wexler-McGill and make no mistake about it, while Kim’s intentions were in the right place, Jimmy saw this as a slap in the face and interpreted the move as abandonment through and through and while he put on the happy face and made it seem as though it was no big deal, it was eating at him in horrific fashion and that was only compounded further by the fact that Hamlin, Hamlin and McGill is in decline as well since Howard is struggling to keep the company running and all of these negative elements in Jimmy’s life are pushing him to project his own fears and issues onto others in an effort to express and extinguish the anguish and fear in his heart. 
 
Because it was quite frankly stunning and out of place to see Jimmy just tear into Howard the way that the did and I say project because some of the cold and angry things he said to Howard seemed indicative of Jimmy himself over anyone else and well, his need to lash out extended far beyond his old boss, since Jimmy also confronted the kids that mugged him in the last episode, all to exact a measure of revenge wherein he hung those kids upside down with a little help from his friends and scared the living crap out of them in order to ensure he can sell his burner phones without any interference and this, well this was scary. Because we’ve never seen Jimmy sink to this level of depravity and the anger present on his face shows how much negative emotion he’s bottled up inside and to go extreme measures such as this to exact a little ‘justice’ in the world, speaks volumes to how Saul Goodman will be formed. 
 
Because giving in to that kind of anger is a drug in its own right, and a powerful one at that and now that Jimmy has had a taste of it and knows that in some ways this will temporarily heal the pain in his heart, he’ll do it again and again until it consumes him. Which means, it’s likely all downhill from here for James McGill and this surprise behavior made this episode both heartbreaking and brilliant in its own right. Because this series continues to go to dark places that other television shows refuse to, and quite frankly, this downward spiral and continued deep dive into grief and loss is quickly cementing this season as the finest to date for this storied saga and while I’m afraid to see what other dark and twisted steps Jimmy is going to take in the coming weeks, I’m equally as afraid to look away, because this is a powerful tragedy playing out before us and I have to know what will finally motivate Jimmy McGill to abandon his namesake in order to become, Saul Goodman. Until next time. 

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