Better Call Saul Season 2 episode 8 recap: Mesa Verde blues

Our recap of Better Call Saul Season 2, episode 8, “Fifi,” where the Mesa Verde client just cannot make a decision.

Before going into Season 2 episode 8, let’s catch up on what happened in episode 7, “Inflatable,” that sets us up for “Fifi.”

Jimmy purposely got himself fired from Davis & Mane! He’s going to start his own place, same with Kim!

Yeah, there wasn’t much else to dress that up with. It was powerful enough on his own. Jimmy did things such as wearing funky suits that’d make Walt Clyde Frazier and Craig Sager proud, playing a tone deaf bag pipe to rival Cliff Mane’s soothing guitar playing and leaving poops unflushed in the office toilets to get fired. Mane knew that he only did this to keep his bonus, which he did. Mane acquiesced to this.

"That Lucas Leiva 'unlucky' vine comes in so useful for being a troll!"

Also: We last saw Mike staked out of the Restaurant of Crime curated by Tuco, Hector and Nacho, so I can’t wait to see what happens there.

Yeah, let’s do it.

Spoiler alert: onto “Fifi” we go.

“Fifi” starts at a Mexico-American border in the state of New Mexico, and hell yeah, I cosign this. Real happy about the possibilities here. Waiting to see Walter White and some drugs. Too much to ask? Possibly.

Yep, drugs, at least.

We return from commercial to find Kim and Jimmy conspiring about her resignation from HHM and she hands Howard the letter the next day. Howard thinks she’s going to the other firm then is, erm, amused to find out she’s going alone. Like, a condescending amused chuckle. Like, the dismissive sort of chuckle, the one that says, “Ha, I’m better than you.” Because that’s all Howard is, a condescending suit and blonde hair.

Howard turns a little more humane and tells her a sincere good luck, says he thought about doing the same himself.

“I always pushed you harder because I knew I could expect more from you,” Howard says as he walks Kim out of his office. “Good luck.”

Kim gathers herself and sprints in heels down the hallway. Which is really impressive. Immense 40-yard dash time, that. Especially considering the heels. That’ll elevate her draft stock.

She calls the client from the Mesa Verde case, to get a leg up on HHM. She’s coming to the dark side where Jimmy resides.

As we leave Kim panting, out of breath from her display of athletic excellence, we go to Mike who is still staked out at Hector and Tuco’s Restaurant of Crime, where that ice cream drugs package has landed.

For what it’s worth, if I had to pick a winner out of Mike vs. literally anybody in the world, it’s Mike. Hands down.

Commercial hits to build up the anticipation. Well played, Vince Gilligan.

Oh but while we’re at it, we agree, “Shadow Man.”

Kim is trying to poach the Mesa Verde case, trying to smooth talk her way into getting the case. And it seems to be working. Go’ern then, Kim!

Jimmy found an office that he and Kim could share, but it’s a dentist office, unfortunately. Kim doesn’t appear to be sold. Jimmy asks about Mesa Verde, and Kim smiles and kisses him. She got them! She used her Jimmy flair.

Okay, so Kim goes and kisses Jimmy. Jimmy returns with a high five after the kiss. I don’t even know what to say, I only know how to smile.

Kim, in her jubilant mood, agrees to the dentist office.

Howard ventures out to Chuck’s House of No Fun and No Electricity and No Hope, to offer a somber explanation to Chuck how they’re losing the Mesa Verde client. Howard says he’ll try “one more Hail Mary,” which is a sports reference, and he doesn’t seem much of a sportsman. But Chuckie … he might be coming out of retirement. He says he’s going to the meeting, grabbing a suit. His fictional ailment may be healed!

Chuckles assures Howard they won’t seem crazy, but he arrives at the office in his tin foil blanket. Yeah, nothing crazy about that. In a moment of willpower to break past a fictional barrier, he drops the crazy blanket and joins the meeting.

Status update: 30 seconds in, the lights are on and phones are out and he’s not crumbled like his tin foil blanket.

Chuck’s battle plan is to say that Kim is the “obvious” choice, the “right” choice. Howard wasn’t convinced, until Chuckie plays the boring card to his favor.

Status update: He’s gotten through 90 seconds, he’s still kicking. Not in the fetal position yet.

Status update: Uh oh, Kim. Chuckie is pushing the right buttons. It’s looking like Mesa Verde is teetering in the middle.

Status update: Number four! The bank’s owner says at first that they’re confident in Kim.

Status update: Number five!!! Last one, I promise. They cut away from the end of the meeting, but they allude to Mesa Verde returning to HHM. Come on, now, stop being indecisive. Pick a law firm and stick with it. Can’t trust people like this.

Jimmy somehow dupes servicemen into thinking he has a veteran to get a free background of a WWII plane. This feels like a bad karma move.

Ah! The plane is named Fifi, the namesake for the episode. Nice one.

After we leave the Fifi plane, Jimmy finds Kim, who tells Jimmy she lost Mesa Verde, unfortunately. The Mesa Verde loss gives Kim consternation about going into the business alone. Jimmy has got to talk her off the ledge.

Who better than Jimbo to carry out such a task? This is part of his character core, hell yeah. He gets Kim off the bench and into the game.

With 15 minutes left, we come back to Mike again, who is still on his stakeout grind but in a new location, checking up on Hector.

That Mike scene doesn’t last long before we’re back to Jimmy, who’s going to check on Chuck, who’s struggling.

We hit a commercial, but let me just say, the goon twins that Hector uses, well, the real life actors have been tweeting A LOT, so the smart money is on seeing them make an appearance before the episode ends.

Back to Jimmy at Chuckles’ house, where he takes the legal Mesa Verde documents and changes the address to render it the wrong one on the letters. Typical Jimmy business: heart is in the right place, actions get skewed to low level criminal stuff. After some time carrying that out, Jimbo returns to Chuck’s house to replace the files, unbeknownst to Chuck.

Jimmy goes at Chuck’s jugular about Mesa Verde; get him Jimmy! Chuck, of course, backs down. Because he’s Chuck, and he sucks. He’s like guerrilla warfare. Coward.

Finally the episode goes to Mike, though he’s not staking out anymore. He’s being the loving grandfather he is when he’s not being a complete badass, and it’s so cute.

This is two episodes in a row we seemed to be promised for some altercation with Mike and Hector’s goons! I feel betrayed.

The project Mike was working on with his granddaughter appears to be a typical Scooby-Doo-type Bad Guy Trap. Is it still cute? I don’t know.

That’s how it ends. Maybe we’ll see more of Hector and drugs next week.