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We pick up right where the last episode left off, with a neighborhood newspaper heist, pulled off by criminal mastermind Chuck McGill. We’re confronted with two cops, who are about as dumb as all the cops in Vince Gilligan’s world. I don’t know why cops in his shows can’t be smart, reasonable people, but clearly, these guys heard “No Tasers please”, their immediate reaction was to kick down the door and fire a taser at the first person they saw.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Gilligan’s world that he creates, but for some reason, police officers, and to a lesser extent, random people inside his world (i.e. Non-named characters) are just dumb. If kicking down Chuck’s door isn’t an example of no probable cause and use of excessive force, then I think we need to talk to some new lawyers.

Tune into the TV Soup Podcast (Better Call Saul, "Alpine Shepherd Boy" Review)

Stuff like this going on in a world that normally exhibits super realism can take me out of the show. Even goofy potential clients like the guy who wants to secede or Mr. Talking Toilet make more sense than the cops who kicked down Chuck’s door.

Jimmy finds himself a niche in “elder law”, which, while boring and tedious, is probably better than defending idiots who have intimate relations with a corpses dismembered head (seriously, what a way to start the series). So, Jimmy gets done with 2 wills and a future trust, which is a decent start after his first two stops turned out to be proper kooks.

This show plays around with shadows a lot, more than most shows in recent memory. There are lots of scenes in dark places where the lighting is only on very specific things. In the scene with the lady with all of the figurines (including Alpine Shepherd Boy) as well as the following scene in the salon, only the left side of Jimmy’s face is illuminated. This side is the side with the hair part in it and the higher forehead. This is Jimmy’s exposed, real side. The other half of his face is partially covered by his hair, and we tend to only see that side stressed when he’s doing something questionable. I’m certain that this will come up later on.

So, Chuck is finally in a hospital and as a viewer, I’m hoping for some answers about his allergy to electricity. Jimmy is frantic to remove/turn off all electronic devices in the room, but one thing we realize by the end of the scene is that, in that room, that’s all but impossible. There’s batteries in most medical devices that use power (for backup), there’s power in every room on every side of him, and of course, there’s power being used by the very bed he’s lying on.

While there are a few insights gleaned in to Chuck’s illness, more questions are raised. Shouldn’t he still be in lots of pain being out in the world? Won’t living in the suburbs cause most of these problems to continue? Why didn’t he notice when the bed was turned on?

We’ve finally got a doctor saying that this “illness” is fake and is being caused by something else in Chuck’s life. Of course, if you just tased someone who was allergic to electricity, I assume that would be plenty to put them in the hospital. It’s like mainlining peanut butter to someone with a peanut allergy. Perhaps the fact that this doesn’t kill Chuck is the biggest indication that this isn’t an actual physical illness (as Howard Hamlin is afraid of at the hospital).

Back at Chuck’s house, (how did they get home, bikes?), Jimmy sees the newspaper on the floor and immediately connects the dots. He thinks that whenever he does something wrong, it makes Chuck sick. Again, we see only part of Jimmy’s face illuminated. This time, it’s the right side of the face, even from a far angle, that is lit up.

Throughout this scene, we get parts of Chuck’s face (left side) illuminated when he’s making his argument, and Jimmy, when he is being somewhat truthful, has most of his face illuminated, but when he has something questionable to bring up, it’s back to just the right side of his face being lit up. By the end, Chuck is satisfied (didn’t even ask for an explanation) and sheds his space blanket and goes and makes coffee.

We’ve gotten this far, so where’s our montage? Well, Jimmy, knowing how to pander like the best of them, gets some fashion tips from Matlock and heads into the retirement home with some complimentary jello. We wind up with a montage of old people eating jello (snack time!). We don’t get a badass song this time around, but there is a surprise at the end of the cup. Need a Will? Call McGill! Jimmy, dressed like Matlock, is going around the rec room shaking hands like some kind of local politician. No shadows on his face this time – he appears to be trying to drum up some legit business helping the elderly.

Finally we get another encounter with Mike and this time, Jimmy has the right amount of stickers (finally!). Jimmy passes him a business card, you know, in case Mike knows any old people. We go through a night and a morning of Mike’s life, boring and quiet as it is. Mike eats at a diner which we saw previously in Breaking Bad (but this show’s future…this could get confusing). He’s then parked outside of a suburban house and waits for a young lady to drive by – my guess is that this is his daughter, but that’s mostly based on what I know from Breaking Bad.

Ultimately, we get one hell of a cliffhanger when Mike gets a visit from, presumably, a few guys he used to work with back in Philadelphia. This end of episode cliffhanger is perhaps the only thing that Gilligan does better than the shadow playing, and of course, the ability of this show to make every scene they shoot look like some kind of incredibly deliberate painting.

Halfway down the stretch, this show is really starting to heat up. We’re seeing the development of Jimmy from a struggling lawyer into a guy who is getting his act together. Chuck’s conflict with electricity (or Jimmy) has finished its first act, and Mike has finally found some conflict to his story that doesn’t involve parking validation stickers. I expect the final half of this season to go at a faster pace, and to also feature another little treat for Breaking Bad fans that they won’t expect.

Better Call Saul is back for another week of the misadventures of James McGill. Last week, it was a “Jimmy lite” episode, focusing on Mike’s backstory, but this week we’re back with Jimmy firmly in focus. Of course, we do wind up starting off with a little unfinished business from last week, the return of the notebook.

On their way to talk to the detectives, Jimmy claims that he and Mike “found” the notebook in the parking lot. Sure, guys. The real meat of this scene is the discussion that Mike has with the older cop. It’s made as clear as it can be (with some cryptic words) that Hoffman and Fenske deserved what they got. It’s also made clear to Mike that if his daughter-in-law doesn’t rat on him, the case is going to end right there.

Mike decides that he’s no longer going to require Jimmy’s services, as he’s fairly certain that his daughter-in-law will not tell on him, and his business with Philadelphia is finally behind him. Mike tells him to send him a bill, and of course, knowing the relationship these guys have in Breaking Bad, we know it won’t be a typical invoice for billable hours.

Tune into the TV Soup Podcast (Better Call Saul, "Bingo" Review)

Jimmy heads over for his daily delivery of ice and bacon to Chuck, and even though they were out of bacon that day, how awesome is Jimmy as a brother to bring him bacon on a daily basis. Jimmy wants to get Chuck back into the swing of just doing something and has his own plan, but seems pleasantly surprised that Chuck is taking his own initiative, spending a solid 120 seconds outside of his house (only 200 meters away from a 60 kilovolt transformer). Jimmy leaves a big stack of paperwork to “store” at Chuck’s house, purposely dropping the wrong form name in order to get Chuck’s legal juices flowing.

Kim and Jimmy go checking out a new office for the James M McGill law firm, and it's a pretty swank place. I have trouble believing that Jimmy can afford this after such a short time in elder law, though to his credit, he has been hitting the bingo circuit pretty hard. He offers a partnership to Kim (in hindsight, he may only be able to afford this place if she works with him and steals a few HHM clients), who turns it down in favor of continuing at HHM, where she's put in a lot of time. Jimmy is clearly disappointed, but stays supportive. Could Kim be one of the ex-wives he mentions in Breaking Bad?

Over at HHM, Kim is explaining the deal that she worked out for Craig Kettleman. Of course, his wife Betsy is having none of it, insisting on not using the word "deal" ("a deal is what they got O.J."), insisting that there is no money, and finally insisting on being found not guilty after a trial. Betsy is almost full on nuts at this point, completely detaching herself from reality with the thoughts of what she wants to do with the $1.6 million. It seems to me at this point, she would send Craig to jail for the full 30 years if it meant that she could keep the money.

The Kettlemans go crawling back to Jimmy, which would have made him thrilled a week or two prior to this, but now he's got his elder law gig rolling and doesn't really want to take the case. In fact, they interrupt Jimmy while being a bingo caller - proving nobody can pander quite like Jimmy. At Jimmy's conference room - aka the cafe - the bribe from the Kettlemans once again becomes a 'retainer' and Jimmy is roped into representing them for the time being.

There were two funny moments in the cafe - first, Craig can't get any coffee and doesn't say anything about it. He's definitely the weaker one in the relationship (probably pressured into robbing the money!), and they show it with their clothes. In this scene, Betsy is wearing a very bright red/pink, and Craig has a muted pink shirt. In the previous meeting, the same thing happened, but with Blue. The other moment is at the end of the meeting when Jimmy insists on talking like they all know the money exists, which nearly pops a blood vessel in Betsy's head.

This show continues to have a lot of fun with shadows. Jimmy and Kim are standing in the shadows while Kim waxes on about just how fucked the Kettlemans are. Earlier in the episode, faces had their now familiar half shadows, with the right half generally being "good" and the left being whatever was opposing that.

Jimmy, stressing out in his office over just what to do, comes up with a plan, but by the looks on his face, he's not thrilled with it. This cues an awesome and rather long montage. We see the whole plan play out, executed by Mike (Jimmy sent him his bill). Spanning what feels like forever, they are able to tell a whole story with no dialogue, while keeping everyone intrigued and revealing just one piece of the plan at a time. This montage is some of the finest work we've seen thus far in Better Call Saul. The ratings have remained relatively steady, which is a good sign that we can go beyond the second season, already under contract.

The shadow play continues after the money is stolen. Jimmy's left side is brightly illuminated, (the bad side), but now the right side of his face has just a little light cast on it (usually it's a clear 50/50). Jimmy is doing "the right thing" - insert finger quotes here. Mike is going to return the money, and Jimmy is going to be able to force the Kettlemans to return to HHM and accept the plea deal. This gets Kim back in the good graces of her boss, but Jimmy really isn't sure how to feel after all of this. He goes to the new office again, probably to say goodbye to it and lets his frustrations out on a door. He's definitely not going to be able to afford that place now.