Better Call Saul 6 Episode 10 Review: The Parable Of Gene Takavic A Toxic Episode
Stars: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn
Director: Vince Gilligan
Streaming Platform: AMC and Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
In our review of Better Call Saul 6 Episode 9, we described a sensational episode for the quality of the writing and the excellent performances of all the actors arranged on the board by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. It was also an opportunity to greet Kim and to find we catapulted into the Breaking Bad timeline in the last act. What if the transition from Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul is now consolidated, it is with surprise that we welcomed the dive into another timeline so far described only in the teasers at the beginning of the season, namely that of Gene Takavic, the secret identity with which Saul moved to Nebraska following the events in which he took part together with Walter White.
Better Call Saul 6 Episode 10 Review: The Story
After being recognized as Saul Goodman by taxi driver Jeff, escape is not the solution that our Gene adopts to start again elsewhere as he had impulsively tried to do in the prologue of the fifth season, but this encounter matures in Jimmy a plan that brings back his primordial nature, that of a scammer, the same one shared with Kim; that same nature that has gone so far as to lead to extreme consequences, as we have seen with Howard. All this brings us to the heart of the plot of today’s episode which picks up exactly where we left off in the previous season.
Because this is the opportunity to relive in glorious black and white the Jimmy McGill who was, irresistibly attracted to the criminal actions orchestrated thanks to his undeniable nature as a cheater. The theft from department stores is placed in this sense as a return to old habits that will never change, to a nature that gushes bursting even in the most delicate and risky occasions, breaking the banks forcibly built to start from scratch and move away from a past that she has seen him several times walking on the fine line between life and death. On a formal level, all this translates into a staging that supports the enthusiasm of the preparation of the shot with renewed vitality, thanks to dynamic editing that leads to the use of the split screen.
Better Call Saul 6 Episode 10 Review and Analysis
As we inevitably approach the end of this extraordinary show, we find ourselves once again grappling with one of the pivotal themes of the Gilligan and Gould series, a pillar of the essence of Jimmy McGill himself; the impossibility of denying one’s nature, no matter how many masks one wears to escape the consequences. A theme that has always emerged under the radar in all the short moments that have so far shown us the new life of Gene Takavic, from the nostalgic replay of Saul Goodman’s commercials to the clear recording of “SG was here”.
An intention is never hidden by the authors who have always emphasized how close the new reality was to a character like Jimmy, castrated in the snowy expanses of Nebraska with the constant fear of being unmasked, with an ear always tuned to the frequencies of the police. Jeff’s intervention undermines this mechanism and becomes an opportunity to return to being oneself by exploiting that alias paid for at a high price, drawing lifeblood from the preparation of the coup, from building a relationship with the mall guards to planning everything up to ‘last second, taking advantage of the natural scam creativity that has distinguished Jimmy since the time of Cicero and the scams organized together with Marco.
A path that Jimmy knows well and of which he knows the consequences equally well, as already mentioned referring to Kim, but we could say the same about Marco. Yet, it is as if there was no limit to this essence, endemic, despite all the evil caused and suffered. But it is also an opportunity for self-analysis, like that improvised as a diversion with the security guard, but immediately reasoned and declined between the lines in the interpretation of Bob Odenkirk, confirming that when we are alone, we have nothing but ourselves and our nature, the only one we cannot deny.
One for Chuck, another for Kim, yet another for Lalo, for Mike, for the criminals. One, none, one hundred thousand. Jimmy, Saul, and Gene model themselves on people, he adapts to them and the places he is in. Thus, inevitably in cold, provincial and courteous Omaha, he can only be a mere employee with no prospects. Saul Goodman emptied himself again, eroded the previous mask and put on a new one, both in clothes and in appearance and manner. Yet, there is this gasp, this round in circles, the same moral “weakness” that he had shown, submissively, in one of the previous parts in black and white, when he had indicated to the police where a small delinquent had been hiding but then, with a surge of pride yelling: “Don’t say anything, do you understand? Call a lawyer!”.
Better Call Saul 6 Episode 10 Review: The Last Words
“Nippy” brings us to live the timeline of Gene Takavic after years spent sipping his life through the prologues of the various seasons. A sharp change of register after the equally unpredictable leap in writing that had slipped the narrative in the previous episode, leading us to live the Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad for a few minutes. The parable of Gene Takavic demonstrates the impossibility of Jimmy (and perhaps anyone else) to deny his nature despite the consequences inflicted and suffered. An interlude in black and white that mixes past and present to embellish the dramaturgy of one of the most charismatic and successful characters in television series.
