You might not look at pie the same way.
Now that Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is working at Davis & Main, Better Call Saul dug into his work as a morally ambiguous lawyer and the various forces pushing and pulling him toward eventually becoming Saul Goodman.
Full spoilers for “Cobbler” continue below.
Jimmy’s living the good life in “Cobbler,” with a new company car, a shiny new office and a new lease on life. That confidence has reinvigorated him after his mid-life crisis in the premiere, and we’re seeing the beginning of the confident, successful character who we eventually meet in Breaking Bad. But Better Call Saul is still making subtle visual cues that this type of lifestyle won’t sustain; the cup Kim gave him doesn’t fit into his company car cup holder, showing that the various puzzle pieces of his life don’t successfully fit together.
We want to hear it.
After an episode off, Michael McKean is back as Jimmy’s older brother Chuck, and the hour off helped make his return be effectively felt. As great as McKean’s performance was in Season 1, Chuck’s story didn’t always work for me (hence why I thought it was a good thing that the Season 2 premiere focus in on Jimmy’s struggle so we could see how those Season 1 events affected him in isolation). Already the power struggle between Jimmy and Chuck is engaging in a new way, especially since we have new insight into Howard’s (Patrick Fabian) perspective on the younger McGill.
The episode opener was a perfect way to set the stage for how the Season 1 events that are setting Jimmy on a darker path are also doing the same to his older brother. We see the beginning of a new battle of wills taking place; after Chuck backslid into staying inside and not going into work, it’s hearing from Howard that Jimmy is working full time at Davis & Main that gets him into the conference room. Interestingly enough, it’s Chuck’s arrival that makes Jimmy dig deeper into doing unlawful things, and I’m expecting we see their interactions result in similar developments in their arcs going forward.
Patrick Fabian and Michael McKean on Better Call Saul
While there were some really interesting character moments for two of Better Call Saul’s leads, it would undersell “Cobbler” to not mention that this is one of the series’ funniest episodes. The cobbler in question came into play when Mike called upon Jimmy to do him a favor in getting Pryce out of the police’s suspicions. Jimmy’s brilliant idea was to turn Pryce into a sexual pie deviant, and for the most part the sell seemed to work. This was some of Odenkirk’s best comedic work on the show yet. If there are outtakes of him improvising that scene, I need it in my life.
As for Pryce, he’s gotta go by now, right? He’s a fun character to laugh at and an interesting way to draw Jimmy into the darkness, but Nacho is a much more interesting character and I’d rather explore the dynamic between him and Mike than linger too much on Pryce as a thorn in Mike’s side.
Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn on Better Call Saul
This was an interesting way to set up Jimmy as a willing representative of criminals; that last scene between him and Kim was key, as he said he wouldn’t tell her if he did a similar sort of illegal cover up again, not that he would stop doing it.
The return of Chuck perfectly fit into the story that Better Call Saul is telling, as his reentry into the story spurred Jimmy to walk further down the path of becoming Saul Goodman. “Cobbler” also made excellent use of Bob Odenkirk’s humor, delivering some of the funniest moments of the series.
