"Better Call Saul" Recap: "Fifi"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

I think it is safe to say that last night's episode of Better Call Saul is the episode that all of us have been waiting for this year. After all, season two has been a long con, in a good way, as every single character appears to have been positioning themselves for a grander purpose, waiting for the right moment to do their thing and last night...that moment finally came in explosive fashion.

This was a story filled to the brim with anger, revenge and posturing as we witnessed exactly what HH&M can do when they want something and we also learned exactly how far Jimmy McGill is willing to go when someone wrongs him in this life...and I loved every single second of it. Because everything that went down in "Fifi" has been a long time coming and considering the fury unleashed in this episode, nothing will ever quite be the same between any of the characters after the lines that were crossed in this one.  

A fine example of this came from Kim's resignation at HH&M. It truly seemed for a moment there that Howard was going to be classy about her exit and I was stunned when he actually opened up to her about his hopes and his dreams from back in the day when he was first starting out in law...and then it all went to hell with some stunning moves on Howard's part. I think we all expected him to call Kevin over at Mesa Verde to try and retain them...but to go to Chuck directly and let the cat out of the bag that Kim and Jimmy were going into practice together was a whole different level of manipulation. Howard has often come off as a doof who is oblivious to the world around him, but tonight demonstrated that was simply not the case. He watches everything that people say and do and he knows Jimmy is Chuck's biggest trigger.

Which made the scene with Chuck putting on a regular suit and heading into the office to swipe Mesa Verde back from Kim all the more heartbreaking simply because...Chuck finally crossed a line. Sure he has said his piece to Jimmy about what he truly thinks of his brother practicing law, but to do this...to torpedo their chance at success was truly a level of low I never thought I would see Chuck stoop to and quite frankly, it makes you think that in his own special way...he's really no better than Jimmy after all. But the centerpiece of the night was Jimmy's revenge against his brother. It was something else to watch him alter file after file from Mesa Verde in the hopes of screwing over HH&M to draw Mesa Verde back to Kim and man...it's clear at this point you should never, ever cross Jimmy in a manner like this and revenge or no...this could quite possibly ruin HH&M completely and open them up to a lawsuit from Mesa Verde as well. 

Of course, consequences from Jimmy's move will no doubt be on their way next week because this is and always will be a show about causality. As to how bad it will get, time will tell, but before we wrap up today's recap...we also can't forget to take a moment and talk about Mike's quest to get revenge on the Salamanca family for their actions in making him help Tuco hit the streets because it was truly the biggest mystery of the night. Fact of the matter is, we don't quite know what Mike has planned at this point. He's done reconnaissance work, we had that mysterious opening, and we were left with Mike putting together something that resembled a spike stick...so what's his game? Is he planning on going right after Hector? Or is he going after his operation in some form or fashion? Either way, it looks like we're not quite done with this show's thirst for revenge just yet. Until next time.

---