With the first two episodes of Better Call Saul‘s final season killing off Lalo Salamanca and potentially our beloved Kim Wexler, the third instalment (‘Nippy’) slows everything down a bit. Flashing forward, the entire episode takes place in post-Breaking Bad Omaha. Saul (now Gene Takavic) has successfully relocated with a new identity and is managing a Cinnabon store, which makes for a safe, mundane setting, away from the world of cartels and psychopathic meth dealers.
What follows is a comic caper that proves our hero hasn’t really changed at all. Gene soon crosses paths with Jeff the cab driver – last seen in season five premiere ‘Magic Man’ – who recognises him as Saul Goodman. To get the cabbie off his back, Gene brings him in on a scheme to rob the mall where he works and as a result has to embrace the man he thought he left behind in Breaking Bad. He’s back to being a con man, a liar, and master manipulator – but it’s a relatively low-stakes heist. All they’re trying to rob are some Armani suits and cashmere jumpers. It’s Ocean’s Eleven set in your local Debenhams.
When we’ve seen Jimmy-as-Gene previously, he’s been half-dead and depressed, a pitiful middle-aged man with more hair on his upper lip than his head. The heist brings him back to life. The Trojan Horse scheme which involves Jeff hiding in a crate and Gene distracting a security guard with cinnamon rolls and bloke-y American football smalltalk nearly goes sideways when the fidgety cab driver slips on a clean floor and knocks himself out. To prevent disaster, Gene fakes (or does he?) an existential crisis about his tragic, dead-end life. It’s all true though, which is why he’s so convincing.
Take what you need and run. #BetterCallSaul pic.twitter.com/5mtLlock7H
— Better Call Saul (@BetterCallSaul) July 25, 2022
With the heist successfully executed, Gene has one last trick to get Jeff off his back. With the cabbie having now committed a number of federal crimes, he threatens to turn Jeff into the cops should he ever try and reveal his identity and disturb his peace again.
‘Nippy’ ends on an intriguing note. While moseying around the department store he’d just cased, Gene’s eye catches a particularly gaudy shirt and necktie just like the ones he wore in his heyday as a criminal lawyer. He allows himself the indulgence of taking them off the rack and holding them up to his body but an indulgence is all he allows. He’s not Saul Goodman anymore – or even Jimmy McGill.
With three episodes left, Better Call Saul again raises more questions than answers. Will we ever go back to Albuquerque? Will we ever see Kim again? We know Walt and Jesse are set to turn up at some point, but how? Here’s hoping we get some answers soon.
Most WTF moment: Carol Burnett’s big cameo
Is that comedy legend Carol Burnett? Yes, that is comedy legend Carol Burnett. She plays Jeff’s disabled mother who strikes up a sparkling rapport with Gene. Burnett has said she is in more than one episode so this might not be the last we see of Gene.
This week’s biggest question: what’s going on with the timeline?
Better Call Saul has always had brief flashes backwards and forwards across the life of Jimmy McGill but nothing to the extent of these last three episodes, which have seen the birth of Saul and the most fully realised depiction of Gene Takavic yet. Will these final three episodes see the timeline move to Breaking Bad-era Saul? Probably. Will we go back to before Jimmy fully embraces Saul? Again, probably. Will we continue following the adventures of Gene Takavic? It seems so.
Closing statements
- “Albuquerque? Never been.” Another big lie.
- “My brother is gone, I’ve got nobody.” Gene’s performance for the security guard has more than a grain of truth in it.
- “One, Armani suits and run. Two, Air Jordan shoes for you.” Jimmy/Saul/Gene’s handy rhyme to help Jeff during the robbery.