‘Better Call Saul’ Season 2, Episode 10: ‘Klick’

There are two wars going on in the second season of “Better Call Saul.” One is between Jimmy and Chuck, a sibling rivalry, but a rivalry that has gone to new extremes for both of them. Then there is Mike’s war with Hector Salamanca, a war between two smart adversaries of which both men are incredibly dangerous. At the end of this season’s finale, the wars are not over. In fact, they are just beginning. We don’t get any plot closures in “Klick,” but we do get some hints as to the direction all of these people are heading.

The episode’s cold open is a flashback, only we don’t know that right off the bat because of how the last episode ended, we are lead to believe Jimmy is visiting Chuck in the hospital. It is actually the two brothers visiting their mother on her death bed. Both are struggling with it, and Jimmy wants to step out, get some air and food while Chuck is adamant he stays with her. The way Chuck sticks with their mother is exactly how Jimmy is when Chuck is in the hospital later on. But here, with Jimmy out of the room, their mother offers her final words, in which she calls out for Jimmy.

The coldness and anger radiating from Chuck after this is obvious. He even refuses to tell Jimmy the last words. This season has really hammered in what a real jerk Chuck can truly be.

We then see Jimmy rushing into the copy store after Chuck passed out and knocked his head on a counter. Even in a daze, Chuck immediately realizes Jimmy was there right away — something that shouldn’t be if Jimmy was innocent of the document forgery. But that is the least of Chuck’s concerns as he is brought to the hospital.

At the hospital, we get a cool, upside down angle of Chuck in the ER, panicking because of all the electricity being used on and around him. It is a pretty disturbing scene, and you actually feel for the guy because you kind of feel the panic that Chuck is. And when they tell him they need to do a CAT scan, I think we just found out what Chuck’s personal hell truly is: Locked in a cylinder of electricity with no escape.

Then we have Mike out in the desert with Lawson (Walt’s gun guy in “Breaking Bad”), testing out a sniper rifle. Having tracked Nacho, Mike knows where to find Hector (I am not sure, but I think it is the same house Hector lived in on “Breaking Bad,” it sure looked like it). Mike is not taking any half measures with Hector apparently, and is looking to take him out.

And he certainly is in that mind frame. He hikes up a bunch of boulders in the middle of the desert, near Hector’s place, and props his sniper rifle, waiting to take his shot. He sees the whole crew there, and the poor truck driver whom he robbed — whom they murder. But he just can’t get a clean shot of Hector. This whole time I was like “is this how Hector becomes wheelchair bound? Maybe it wasn’t a stroke, maybe Mike shot him?” As I’m thinking this, we hear a car horn go off.

Mike steps down from his post, knowing it is his car honking away, causing trouble. Once he gets to his vehicle, he sees a branch is holding the horn down, and a note on his windshield that simply says “Don’t.” I am really hoping this was Gus Fring, because not only is he also at war with Hector, he is also very cautious of how to proceed with things. But we don’t know who left the note in this episode.

Then we have Jimmy at the hospital dealing with Chuck. He convinces the doctor to allow Chuck to be under his care, again, but only temporarily. Jimmy does not want to send his brother to a psychiatric ward — which Chuck probably needs. Chuck calls out Jimmy on being at the store that fast: If he wasn’t there bribing the guy, what other reason did Jimmy have for being there? He keeps pushing his — again, correct — assumption of what Jimmy did. But Ernesto steps in and lies, saying he called Jimmy before hand. This deflates Chuck even more.

And then they put Chuck through his hell with the CAT scan, which causes Chuck to put himself into a “state of self-induced catatonia.” He just lies there like a sad vegetable, staring into space. And when he comes to, he has Jimmy bring him home, where he begins plotting his next move in his war with Jimmy.

And that leads to Chuck’s big move. He “retires” from HH&M, causing Howard to call Jimmy to try and figure out what the hell is going on. Jimmy rushes over, only to find Chuck’s Space Blanket has grown to cover his entire living room. Chuck tells him the wood and insulation are useless against the radio spectrum.

And he goes on to tell Jimmy he’s retired because of the mistake he made with the Mesa Verde account. Through emotional manipulation, Chuck gets Jimmy to admit to the “switching the address” scam he pulled on him. But Jimmy warns him it is his word against Jimmy’s. Except Chuck has dug out an old tape recorder and has taped Jimmy’s confession.

Now, again since this is a prequel, just how damaging that tape is can’t be that bad. Jimmy is practicing law as Saul Goodman just a few years after this show takes place in the same city. But it does show just how far Chuck is willing to go with his brother. Maybe the fallout from the tape could be a reason we never see Chuck in “Breaking Bad.”

Anyway, it was another solid season and I am looking forward to what happens in season three.

Thoughts:

• If you take the first letter of each episode this season and rearrange them, it spells out FRINGS BACK. (Switch, Cobbler, Amarillo, Gloves Off, Rebecca, Bali Ha’i, Inflatable, Fifi, Nailed, Klick). Given that “Breaking Bad” used similar things with its episode titles in its second season, I’m guessing this is probably an Easter Egg as to who left the note on Mike’s car.
• Ernesto’s reason for lying to Chuck was that he didn’t like the way Chuck was talking about Jimmy, because Jimmy is his friend. I also loved how he mutters that he misses working in the mail room.
• Chuck using the Hippocratic Oath on the doctor, comparing treating him with a CAT scan is the same as giving penicillin to someone who is allergic to it. I agree with the doctor, it’s not the same thing.
• I wish we would have gotten more of Kim this episode. We had a lot of good Kim-centric episodes this season, and I was disappointed she just shows up at the hospital and has to get coffee to Jimmy’s elderly clients. She is one of my favorite characters on this show.
• I like his commercial’s catchphrase is similar to “Better call Saul,” it is “Gimme Jimmy!”
• Lawson apologizes to Mike when he cleans his prints off the gun he sold to Mike.
• I like seeing how much Jimmy really cares for Chuck, even thought they are at odds.
• “I don’t know what you are if you’re not a lawyer,” Jimmy tells Chuck. Jimmy also says it is “insane that you got every detail right” about his scam.