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Welcome to the TV Soup podcast, the home of drinkfive.com’s television review series. This episode continues our discussion on the Breaking Bad spin-off prequel series Better Call Saul starring Bob Odenkirk. The sixth episode of the season was an awesome look back to the life of Mike Ehrmantraut. We've all been waiting on this moment, hoping that we would get lots of backstory on one of our favorite Breaking Bad characters, and this episode certainly delivered.

Our plan is to review every episode of whatever series we are currently watching (unless they end up being too horrible for either of us to handle, in which case we have no problem panning the show and changing it up!) both on the podcast and also in more traditional, long-form articles. Please follow along with us as we begin our journey into Better Call Saul and thus into the mind of Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman.

Ah, back to the naming convention that we all got comfortable with. I looked ahead and - no spoilers - that pattern remains through the rest of the season. Maybe season 2 will be named after Beatles songs.

We start the episode, like many of them this season, in a flashback. This is taking place in the relatively recent past, 3-6 months earlier. This episode jumps back and forth between the present day (Mike being questioned with Saul by the Philly cops) and into the past, either in Mike's last days in Philly or his first days in Albuquerque. It's pretty obvious in the show which is which due to a matrix-like blue filter. I think they have used this filter in previous episodes' flashbacks (chuck bailing out jimmy maybe?), so it's probably no big revelation.

Tune into the TV Soup Podcast (Better Call Saul, "Five-O" Review)

This episode's story is told like an old cop drama. He's got a tough exterior, made a few mistakes, but is generally a good guy. It's the tale of Mike Ehrmantraut, which might not be terribly relevant to people who have only seen BCS, but for those of us who watched all of Breaking Bad, this was some back story that was a looong time coming.

Back to present day and Mike is in an interrogation room and won't say anything until his lawyer gets there, now, apparently, Jimmy McGill. Mike has a plan, as he always does, and tries to get Jimmy to help him steal the detective's notebook. Jimmy instantly rejects the idea - he's trying to be on the straight and narrow, but of course goes along with the plan when push comes to shove. During this interview, we're finally given some insight into things that actually happened in Philadelphia.

Mike gets the notebook and gets a good look at what the cops have on him (interesting side note - the AMC story sync has some great images of the notebook so you can see what they have) and realizes that his daughter-in-law called the Philly detectives after Fenske and Hoffman were killed. She thought there could be a connection, and presumably, told them that Mike was now in Albuquerque. Mike goes to confront Stacey about her calling the cops, and while he winds up admitting the phone call Matt had that she was worried about was actually with Mike, you don't get much else. Mike just stubbornly says "My boy wasn't dirty".

We move into a flashback as smooth as silk, and Mike is walking down the street back in Philly. He niftily breaks into a police car and proceeds into the bar and Mike appears to be really deep in his cups when we see Fenske and Hoffman for the first time. Mike's already put his plan into action (breaking into the car to plant a gun) but it really gets into motion when he walks up to them and tells them that he knows it was them (who killed Matty).

The plan comes together perfectly (as most of his plans in BB did), and it's great watching it for a second time, seeing how everything falls exactly into place. Getting picked up by the cops after the bar closed, giving them the ringer gun, waiting until they did decide to kill him.

Back in the present, Mike is back at Stacey's house and ready to pour his heart out. This is one of the best scenes that Jonathan Banks has had in both shows, and showcases his talent - he's not just grumpy and rough on the exterior. Mike explains everything that happened around Mikey's death, "breaking his boy" and finishes it with "you know what happened. the question is - can you live with it?"

This episode starts off very innocently, we’re outside and Jimmy and Chuck are enjoying their feet in the grass. Chuck is trying to get more used to being outside (he’s sitting in front of the transformer). It's a quick scene, a little small talk about the case, but a big contrast from later in the episode, down to it being bright and outside, and later is all dark and shadowy. Yes, this show loves to play with lighting.

Jimmy (I wrote Saul here initially - maybe being in court really reminds me of him as Saul) argues (successfully) against a restraining order that would have kept him from seeing his clients. This was never going to stand anyways, and he's given a big thrill by an early victory, but he doesn't realize that this is just the first drop of a tidal wave his opponents are ready to unleash at him. Schwiekart is pumping him up with some false bravado before he brings in the big guns.

(Tune in to the TV Soup Podcast - Better Call Saul S01E09 - "Pimento" Review)

Jimmy gets back to Chuck’s and is snapped into reality with a ton of paperwork that Schwiekart & Cokely had delivered while he was in court. Chuck breaks it down and has to tell Jimmy that he needs to refer the case over to HHM. This is exactly what Jimmy didn't want to do. Jimmy wants to "Erin Brockovich" the shit out of the case (as a reference, this is interesting, because she's not really a lawyer), but Chuck (of all people) has to force Jimmy to see reality. "Hail Satan. I submit to the dark side".

Chuck, in the middle of the night, sneaks out to use Jimmy's phone. Think about everything he had to "overcome" in order to pull that off. That means that this phone call is incredibly important AND he can't tell Jimmy about it. What the fuck, Chuck? At least he stabbed his brother in the back in the least dignified way possible - wearing a space blanket and oven mitts.

Mike (first to work, he also does his homework) is waiting in the parking garage. He meets a gigantic dude "is this the place where we wait" and the guy from Grand Theft Auto. Literally. There's a hilarious "whatcha packing" sequence. "pimento is a cheese, they call it the caviar of the south". Their "employer" pulls up and he's worse than Walter White at the very start. The theme of this scene seems to be people who are talking way too much. Also that Mike is a complete badass.

Chuck, dressed in a foil-lined suit, heads over to HHM with Jimmy in order to refer the case to them. We see at HHM that everyone is turning in their old ass cell phones (good job props department). They cut the power to the building and Chuck gets a huge welcome from the entire firm. In the boardroom, Howard makes Jimmy really happy with the financial side of the deal, but he cannot work there. Jimmy demands an explanation from Howard, who just stonewalls him. Chuck doesn't really fight for him, and in fact almost seems to be making faces at Howard which give him up, but Jimmy is really focused on Howard. He's always taken the fall for Chuck and it's really starting to eat at him.

Kim confronts Howard after the meeting and after berating him, Howard can't stand being the bad guy on this to Kim (maybe he likes her?) and finally spills the beans (behind closed doors). Howard's been the bad guy up till now and maybe he's not all that bad, because even as a high powered lawyer, he can't stand being quite that crappy.

Mike is finally in his element that we're so familiar with from Breaking Bad. He squeezes Nacho (first sighting since ep 2) for the last $20 of the money and impresses us all with the background work he had done on the deal before getting there. Mike is like the wizened old criminal, doling out sage advice and teaching budding criminals the ropes.

The dominoes are starting to fall now, as is typical in the penultimate episode of a good series. Kim goes to Jimmy's and tells him to take the deal. She doesn't tell him about Chuck (though it's assumed that she knows by now). Jimmy goes off on her, one of his only real friends. After she leaves, he starts putting the pieces together about Chuck (his dead phone is a big clue). He has the look of a guy who knows he's about to discover a bad truth as he picks up his office phone.

Cut to Chuck's house for the final scene. Bob Odenkirk's acting all year has been great, but the last two scenes of this episode are really spectacular. I hope he's considered for an Emmy for this role. The reveal that Chuck has been the guy who kept Jimmy down since passing the bar exam is one that most of us were putting together from the beginning of the episode. The pacing of the reveal was great though. It allowed for Jimmy's long rant about the brothers working together, if that's what you really want. Chuck has a bit of a diploma entitlement thing going on, where he has no respect for the way that Jimmy became a lawyer. He knows he's still slippin’ Jimmy, but now he's a chimp with a machine gun. Funny way to put that. Jimmy isn't that guy, but Saul definitely is. Jimmy may eventually become Saul, but Chuck might be the spark that gave him life.