Our recap of Better Call Saul Season 2, episode 6 “Bali Ha’i” sees one character shine above all the rest.
Before we get into the recap of “Bali Ha’i”, let’s get up to speed on what we’re walking into by touching upon episode 5 first.
Davis & Mane have responded to Jimmy’s eccentricity of running a commercial on the firm’s behalf by demoting Kim and giving Jimmy a full time babysitter. This babysitter ruins all things fun about Jimmy, but he’s prone for an uproar resisting authority and the establishment.
But that wasn’t the big news of the episode. No. The hook was the return of Hector, and he wasn’t in a wheelchair yet!
Hector is family of Tuco, and he was a bad ass character in Breaking Bad. And he quasi-threatened Mike into not pressing charges on Tuco.
His last words as he walked out of the diner: “Think about it.”
Power moves only.
Welp, “Bali Ha’i” is about to start.
Spoiler alert: here comes the S2E6 recap.
The episode starts in Jimmy’s apartment during the middle of the night. Aw, poor Jimmy can’t sleep. And he finds a late night television commercial: Davis & Mane. But it’s not his!
Big Jim then takes to playing assorted sports with his decorative pine cone spheres. We see why he never made it to the league.
Once his late night infatuation with #sports subsides, he returns to his old office in the salon, pulls out the rickety bed and happily passes out.
After he wakes and takes some coffee from the salon and gets to his free luxury car, that pesky cup holder problem gives him further heartache.
The camera shifts to follow Kim, who got her office back, and endures an excruciatingly long and awkward walk with Howard all through the office that apparently is 15 blocks long. That’s what it felt like, at least.
A fast paced initial 13 minutes as Mike is the subject of the cinema now. He comes home and finds Hector sent a thug to chill out on his porch. Mike hardly bats an eye, because he’s the epitome of masculinity. Mike confidently and coolly tells the thug he politely declines Hector’s offer of dropping Tuco’s gun charge, and the goon leaves. Which means he must know about his family or some other threat.
Mike lays out a welcome mat. And because he’s smarter than everyone, it mustn’t just be a welcome mat. It must have fatal chemicals that are only released by a villain. Somehow, it knows. He’s programmed it. Or same deal but it’s an explosive. I don’t know. You can’t rule anything out at this point.
We return from commercial to the court room; remember this is a show that centers around lawyers, and, man, wouldn’t being a court judge suck? Big ups to them. I wouldn’t be able to handle it without getting mad. Speaking of anger, Kim is swinging with sharpened talons at the opposing lawyer’s throat, though she comes up short. And the head lawyer of the case compliments Kim and offers to take her to lunch, which she accepts. Because that’s much better than the impending vending machine.
The man goes on a long spiel about how he was in a similar situation in which his bosses threw him to the wolves with an unwinnable hearing in the court room, just like her firm did to her. And then he hits her with a tentative job offer!
Take that, Howard. The opposing council is Mr. Steal Yo Girl.
The camera returns to Mike, and of course, he was two steps ahead of everybody else in the world. That welcome mat? Had a hidden footprint layer underneath, and he sees that someone has stepped on it before he did.
So he does what any hero in a modern drama does: Takes out his gun and slowly enters the house. WHO’S GOIN’ DIE?!?!
Mike walks through his dark home without any noise whatsoever. None. He’s a damn mouse. Incredible, textbook stuff. He still hasn’t find anyone. I may or may not be hyperventilating and sweating.
He puts on the TV to cause a distraction because he knew where the men were. And it was a Billy Mays infomercial, of course.
The clowns take the bait. Come out of the closet. Mike refuses to pull the trigger, pistol whips ’em both.
“We were only supposed to scare you,” says the losers.
“Yeah? Well try harder,” says Mike, a winner.
POWER. MOVES. ONLY. BOI.
Kim gets on her Jimmy grind of refuting authority as she’s asked to do papers before just ditching and going for lunch. Then we come to Mike, showing his full depth, transitioning to a loving grandpa after being a savvy ex-cop. He’s with his granddaughter at a pool and off in the distance, it’s two more Breaking Bad characters! Two mute thugs, who points the finger gun at Mike and his granddaughter. Not cool, bros.
When we go back to Kim, she’s in a bar. A man buys her a drink, she uses a fake name for exploitation. SHE IS ON HER JIMMY GRIND, I CALLED IT!
Ugh. Do less, Better Call Saul Twitter account.
Kim calls Jimmy, who ditches Erin and responsibility to join up with Kim. Slippin’ Jimmy, Slippin’ Kimmy (okay, it grew on me).
When Jimmy joins Kim and her mystery man, Kim had told this poor sucker that they’re starting an internet dating site (It’s pre-Breaking Bad, remember?). This poor fella is done. See, internet dating isn’t where catfishing started. Manti Te’o would have been toast even before iPhones and whatnot.
Eight minutes left. Let’s see if Mike regulates with Hector and if Jimmy and Kim will be reprimanded for their responsibility aversion. Rad times.
Mike arrives to an establishment where Hector, Nacho and his thugs are waiting. Hector’s tone has gotten much more aggressive. He takes the $5,000 offer off the table; Hector says he’ll kill Mike’s family. Mike says he’ll get paid or they both die. Somehow, Hector goes from nothing to $50,000. Just like that.
Reminder: The room is Hector, Nacho, three thugs, and Mike. Just Mike. How does Mike negotiate from a position of power? That’s insane.
“Big balls,” Hector says in Spanish. You’re damn right.
Mike offers Nacho half of the $50,000 because Mike self-proclaims that he didn’t hang onto his end of the bargain. What a man. Even in the criminal world, he’s a morally upstanding human being.
Jimmy and Kim have their night of mischief and fun, and Kim is considering taking that job offer. Oh, remember that pesky cup holder? Jimmy straight up removes it. What a man. That’s how we end. No true cliffhanger this week.
When will we get to call him Saul? Because I can’t wait for that.