Poor, Gene. Jimmy McGill’s final (?) form and current manager of a Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska started off season three of Better Call Saul in the most perfect way possible, by giving us a glimpse of someone we haven’t seen in a long time, Saul Goodman.
The black and white opening gave us another glimpse into Saul Goodman’s life after the events of Breaking Bad. “Sugar Town” by Nancy Sinatra was the perfect choice of music to accompany Gene’s daily routine working at Cinnabon, which culminates in Gene ratting out on a shoplifter who was trying to hide from the police. He then has a change of heart and yells to the shoplifter to “get a lawyer!”
These black and white openers act as an allegory for the series, revealing how much of Saul we are going to see for that particular season. The series premiere showed Gene watching Saul’s old television ads in the privacy of his own home. The second season premiere had Gene writing “Saul Was Here” on a wall near the mall trash bins. Seeing Gene give legal advice to that shoplifter, shows we are going to see more of a transition from Jimmy this season. It was also a complete shocker to see Gene pass out at the end of the opening. Did releasing that small amount of Saul cause his body to shut down? Is the beginning of the end for Jimmy/Saul/Gene?
After the trip to the future, we traveled back to the last scene of the season two finale where Chuck had recorded Jimmy confessing that he had tampered with HHM’s documents for Mesa Verde. This time we see the end of the confrontation from a different perspective and shows Chuck concealing the recording equipment before Jimmy comes back in the house to try to smooth things over with his brother. They share a sweet moment of reminiscing before Chuck has to be Chuck and remind Jimmy that nothing has changed and that he will pay for what he has done.
Jimmy leaves Chuck’s house and goes back to his office where Kim has been handling all the clients, as well as Mesa Verde. There practice has gotten off to a rocky start and there is tension between Jimmy and Kim that stems from Jimmy’s illegal activity that resulted in them landing Mesa Verde. There’s a scene later in the episode where Kim is working late trying to get everything ready for Mesa Verde, while Jimmy is repainting the waiting area of their office. He paints over the rainbow on the wall symbolizing the dark future ahead for Jimmy and Kim.
Elsewhere, we also catch up with Mike where he ended season two, about to take out the Hector Salamanca, but was stopped by the sound of his car horn and a mysterious note that said “Don’t.” We see Mike haul ass and leave the site. He then goes to an auto shop to inspect his car. He completely strips the car searching for answers, but comes up empty that is until he looks inside the fuel cap and uncovers a tracking device. He gets his hands on the same model device and the tracker to go with it and uses it to track down the person responsible for the note and foiled plot to killed Hector. Everything that Mike does is so cold and calculated. The former cop is a master of his craft, which is shown beautifully throughout the episode.
The only problem with Mike’s storyline is the audience already knows who is responsible, since it was confirmed that Gustavo ‘Gus’ Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) will make appear this season. Although the element of surprise is gone, that doesn’t take away the excitement of seeing Esposito as Gus again. With each season we are getting closer to seeing Jimmy become Saul, which also means we are getting closer to the events of Breaking Bad. The question is will it stop there?Â
Better Call Saul Season Three Premiere Rating: 8 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLbph0TwiU8
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