Lalo?
Who’s Lalo?
What?
What did I say?
I meant DeGuzman.
The season 6 premiere consisted of 2 episodes, the first being Wine and Roses and the second
was Carrot and Stick.
Watching these episodes back to back was a helluva way to kick off the final season,
and it was quality stuff from start to finish.
Will you look at that!
We even got the triumphant return of our favorite half-wit embezzlers, the Kettlemans.
The writing was extremely tight.
Tight, tight, tight!
Yeah!
Everything effectively picked up where it left off in Season 5, and for Kimmy and Jim,
things resumed with Kim’s scheming designs on poor Howard.
It didn’t take Kimmy much to persuade Jim that this was still happening, but Kim claims
to have toned the plan down so that Howard wouldn’t be totally ruined.
The first part of her plan involved Cliff, and an elaborate scheme unfolded that saw
Jimmy infiltrate a country club, and it involved a big song and dance, a clogged toilet, and
hiding in the nude in plain sight - all for the purpose of planting a bag of baby powder
on poor Howard.
The next part of their plan involved ruining Howard’s name, and Jimmy seemed ready to
hire an actor, until Kimmy corrected him noting it had to require someone with more history.
Enter the Kettlemans.
Betsy doesn’t seem to care much for Goodman, but Craig sure seems to like him.
Goodman expertly plays them, easily predicting how they’d react to the bait.
So poor Howard is being framed as someone nose-deep in the devil’s dandruff, and Kim
is the one calling all of the shots here.
McGill is no longer the one drawing up the cons, he’s effectively now just a part of
Kim’s team where he follows her lead as the orchestrator.
Even after the Kettlemans served their purpose, Goodman seemed convinced a simple little bribe
would suffice, but Betsy was all fired-up and she wasn’t having it.
The whole time, Kimmy is sittin’ there like Don Corleone until she has heard enough, and
then she threatens to expose their fraudulent tax operation, and Betsy immediately surrenders
to Kim’s cunning wrath.
Once again, Kimmy was the one making the big plays, not only as the head strategist, but
she also proved to be the muscle in this instance.
Jimmy apparently gave them the bribe anyway, and Kim seems mildly disappointed by this.
Her puppet is not yet as obedient as she’d prefer.
Even in her designs for Goodman’s new persona, Kim is the one giving out directions.
Whether it’s style decisions, the type of car he should be driving, or the location
of his new office - Kim seems more instrumental in pushing the transition from McGill to Goodman
into motion.
It is highly ironic, because for the longest time Kim seemed to be the only thing in the
world stopping McGill from going all in on Goodman, and now Jim is the one who seems
more reluctant as Kimmy encourages him to embrace his inner Goodman where her influence
is shaping the exact mold we know he later becomes in Breaking Bad.
Remember when we first see Goodman, he refuses the bribe from Walt, then he is terrified
blaming Ignacio under the belief Lalo is about to have him whacked, and then he ultimately
helps Walt and Pinkman deal with the arrest of Badger, which is a costly move, but it
saves them from the DEA and it saves Badger’s life.
After Goodman helps them resolve that issue, he returns to Walt saying he wants in.
He knows Walt must be cookin’ something special if the DEA was all up in it, and he
leverages Walt to get a taste.
At that time, we had no reason to believe this was motivated by anything other than
Goodman’s slimy ways as a criminal opportunist.
But now that we’re getting new clues that Goodman from Breaking Bad is a creation of
both Slippin’ Jimmy AND Slippin’ Kimmy, well, that kind of puts everything in a new
light.
Is it possible that Goodman only returned to Walt wanting a piece of the action because
he was ordered to do so by Slippin’ Kimmy?
Or should I say Godfather Kimmy?
Well maybe that’s a bit much, Kim hasn’t suggested having anyone whacked…not yet,
anyway.
But the interesting thing here is that it seems Kimmy gets Jim to obey her directions
even more easily than Walt usually got Pinkman to obey his control.
And then we had that vintage style flash-forward where Goodman’s house is being worked over
by a team.
With all of the evidence of Goodman’s privileged life, the many treasures from his criminal
endeavors, we’re left wondering, could Kimmy have still been calling the shots behind the
scenes?
That sequence ended on the symbol of their expensive tequila con when their alter-egos
Giselle and Viktor with a “k” first surface.
At that time and long since, this appeared to be something that would symbolize Jimmy’s
corrupt influence on Kim.
But now with all of the evidence of a turning tide, one now wonders whether this perhaps
instead really represents the beginning of the end for McGill where he ultimately winds
up being the victim of Kimmy’s corrupt ways.
We did not get to see any Gene in the premiere, which is a breach of established protocol
from the creators.
This leads me to believe that Gene’s story will be more directly intertwined with the
second half of the season, which I assume means a large portion of the first half will
be dedicated to the aftermath of the botched assassination attempt against Lalo.
That story is compelling and involves a lot of big players.
Nacho is on the run for his life, where Gus would prefer him dead, and the Salamancas
want him alive so they can implicate Gus.
Mike still insists that Nacho deserves respect and consideration, and that is still an area
where Mike and Gus are not on the same page.
That is something that will surely get remedied, and the fact that Mike is going out of his
way to at least try and keep Nacho’s father out of things, leads me to believe something
important is going to happen.
And I don’t mean the inevitable moment coming up when Mike is going to beat up Tyrus.
But something needs to happen where Gus becomes more aligned with Mike’s code of morals
when it comes to people who AREN’T in the game.
I’m beginning to think Mike might be the one who ultimately takes Nacho’s life, in
part, to help keep his old man out of harm’s way.
Or maybe Mike will convince Gus to let Nacho go free.
Then we have Lalo who is one of the more interesting characters.
Lalo took out a team of assassins, and has now gone out of his way to create the illusion
he is dead.
His family is his #1 priority, and yet we know he has a moral code of his own.
He killed that couple who knew he lived, but we have evidence that the well being of those
in his village is a matter of importance to Lalo.
It just doesn’t supercede his family as priority #1.
Hector knows Lalo lives, and Gus quickly deduces this when he sees the way Hector is tipping
his hand with that big smile.
Hector tells Lalo to get proof, and we can assume the way the well dressed brothers are
on the scene, they want Nacho alive.
In case you had forgotten, we are reminded that Lalo is a bad-ass when he kills the smugglers,
but he again shows a heart when he gives the money back to those seeking passage north.
In a lot of ways, Lalo is like Mike in the sense that both of them are quite capable
and excel in the art of inflicting violence, but they help balance out their darkness through
certain admirable acts.
This sort of theme likewise ties back in with Kimmy and Jim, and also Nacho himself to a
large extent.
If I had to guess where all of this is heading, I suspect something will happen that proves
Mike correct in the eyes of Gus, where he changes his ways to become more in line with
Mike, and I likewise believe that Mike will wind up saving Gus from succumbing to the
wrath of Lalo, where I believe Mike will put his own life in danger to rescue Fring.
And I also believe Mike is going to kick some ass when he and Tyrus throw down.
One other quick thought is I do believe Goodman slipped up when he referred to his client
as Lalo instead of De Guzman, and given he fled on his $7 million bond, I think that
slip-up might help these worlds again collide, where the whole aftermath of the botched assassination
attempt against Lalo gets mixed up with Kimmy’s scheme to taint poor Howard.
And that would likewise play back on Saul’s confusion when he mistook Walt and Jesse as
revenge from Lalo.
But whatever happens, I’m fired-up to find out, and I thought Season 6 got off to an
absolutely wonderful beginning.
Tight, tight, tight.
Thanks for watching everyone, I hope you enjoyed, and have a wonderful night.
Tight, tight, tigh- You’re done, you are done!