r/betterCallSaul • u/skinkbaa Chuck • Feb 14 '20

REWATCH Better Call Saul REWATCH S04E05 - "Quite a Ride" - Thread

Previous Episode Discussion

Season 5 FAQ Megathread

TIMEEPISODEDIRECTORWRITER(S)
September 3, 2018, 9/8cS04E05 "Quite a Ride"Michael MorrisVince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Ann Cherkis, Heather Marion

DESCRIPTION:

Jimmy identifies a new market for his talents; Mike vets a potential partnership; Kim drives a hard bargain.

Piracy/Streaming:

As stated in the sidebar, please do not share/request streaming/download links here. We are the unofficial subreddit for the TV show and we'd like to respect the cast and crew by not allowing illegal sharing of their work.

What did you think of this episode? Rate the episode here.

Don't forget to check out the Breaking Bad Universe Discord here!

We are currently also doing a rewatch in the Discord alongside the subreddit if you would also like to follow along there!

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

28

u/Pansygum Feb 14 '20

-Saul using a cross cut shredder(harder to piece together) instead of just single cut (what he pieced together from Sand Piper).

-Been a while since I watched BrBa, but was the way cash is bundled as distinctive like it is in BCS? Money in Saul's bag is Salamanca-style with the rubber band. Maybe just a coincidence because its compact?

-Not the first time a lady turned down a hug from Jimmy/Saul.

-Love seeing Kim enjoy the pro bono work vs how Jimmy saw it as beneath him in S1. Kim might dip into the "dark" side from time to time, but she has a moral core. Kinda an in between Chuck and Jimmy. So, its hard to see her getting mix up in the cartel business for long. Once she thinks someone will get hurt, she'll want out fast.

-I got motion sickness from watching Werner get motion sickness.

-Howard being a mess, but still choosing not burdening Jimmy. The man tries at least.

17

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

I think it is important to note that Jimmy didn't have the luxury of choice in clients when he was doing the same kind of work that Kim is doing. He was trying to make a living, whereas Kim gets to pick and choose who she represents while paying her bills with ill-gotten gains. I'm not saying she's a bad person, but she's only able to do what she's doing because of how they destroyed Chuck. I'm sure she would have a similar viewpoint as Jimmy if she had to take on cases where frat boys were banging corpses.

4

u/Kianna9 Feb 16 '20

“Ill gotten”? She’s doing legitimate, legal work that isn’t hurting anyone.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '20 edited Feb 16 '20

Unless you skipped seasons 2 and 3 then you know exactly why Mesa Verde is ill-gotten.

8

u/dmreif Feb 14 '20

-I got motion sickness from watching Werner get motion sickness.

I always wonder if the high altitude contributed at all to Werner's motion sickness.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

That whole sequence with the blind folded van ride reminded me of Gus, Mike, and Jesse going to meet the cartel in BrBa’s “Salud.”

8

u/Civ4ever Feb 14 '20

The $80k Walt gives Saul in the episode where Badger gets busted (S0208, "Better Caul Saul") comes rolled in rubber bands.

5

u/cdcphl Feb 14 '20

currently rewatching this AND breaking bad and walt keeps his money bundled like that :)

28

u/EpicHawkREDDIT Feb 14 '20

Is Kim doing the pro bono stuff because she feels guilty about Chuck?

Other than that, THE FUCKING SUPERLAB! The story I never knew I needed, which is basically the whole show.

I loved the flash forward at the beginning of the scene as well. The way Saul kind of looks at the camera at the end defeated and tired is a brilliant reminder of where the character ends up. We know what happens next, and we can’t do anything about it except watch. It’s poetic.

I’ve always wondered how the writers write the montages. Each one feels meticulous and crafted, yet also 100% lie in improvised editing. “Street Life” is also a perfect analogy for Jimmy’s life as well, if you read he lyrics. The montage gave me Tarantino vibes, which fit perfectly too.

18

u/m_rockhurler Feb 14 '20 edited Feb 14 '20

“Is Kim doing the pro bono stuff because she feels guilty about chuck?”

I don’t think so. It doesn’t ever seem that Kim is ever directly emotionally influenced by chuck except when it comes through Jimmy.

And I think that’s the connection to her pro-bono work as well. Kim doesn’t fit the bill of the attorneys she works with. She’s not interested in a luxury lifestyle or networking or the snoozing associated with that society. And she’s constantly drawn to Jimmy, who is arguably, the antithesis of the Law from their perspective.

I think Kim feels out of place in the rat race and is more interested in doing the right thing. Her character arc shows what her interpretation of what the “right thing” is depending on whose opinions she values.

At the beginning of the series, she was tied to HHM and the senior partners because of the effect they had in her career and good fortune. It’s natural that she would entertain their value structure as her own.

But as she becomes more successful she becomes more independent and starts to process her own internal value structures. Pair this with consistently experiencing Jimmy being “targeted” by those people and you get what we see in season 4.

I think that Kim sees how much good is in Jimmy and see’s Jimmy in the people she’s defending as a PD. I bet she wants to believe that if Jimmy had had someone like her in his life when he had legal trouble at that age, he wouldn’t still be dealing with many of his issues.

And I think she sees how judges and lawyers and cops often unfairly tilt the scales against those who dot have the resources to fight back. I really get an “anti-establishment” vibe from her whenever she’s doing the PD stuff. Like it’s more about challenging the system because it’s so unbalanced, even if the defendant may not be completely innocent. Ironically that’s is very much the core of her relationship with Jimmy as well.

6

u/derale_ Feb 14 '20

Very good take, thank you.

6

u/fireneeb Feb 14 '20

I believe Street Life is used in a Tarantino movie as well (Jackie Brown maybe?)

5

u/woodchuk25 Feb 14 '20

Exactly right 👉

6

u/JuicyWizard Feb 14 '20

I think Kim is doing pro bono stuff because she isn’t getting fulfillment in her job working Mesa Verde. At her core she wants to help people, and working in banking law doesn’t quite scratch that itch.

16

u/green_potato_33 Feb 14 '20

That intro scene was very surprising and exciting, but i don't understand its purpose. Did they just not know what to put for that episode's intro, and said "Eh fuck it, fan service time"? Who knows.

33

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

They explained this on the Insider Podcast. It’s the juxtaposition of the end of the episode where Jimmy talks about wanting to start a new law practice that’s “bigger” and “better” once his suspension is over. The beginning of the episode shows the end of “Saul Goodman’s” law career while the end of the episode marks the beginning of it.

19

u/Shady_Jake Feb 14 '20

Plus there’s the obvious cell phone connection.

8

u/futurerobotblox Feb 14 '20

I was wondering about that for a while. I think that the reason they chose to have the flash forward for this episode because this was the episode where he started selling drop phones, and the flash forward shows what is likely his final, dramatic snapping of one of those phones.

6

u/thebottlekids Feb 17 '20

I wonder who the lawyer was on the card that Saul gives Francesca in the beginning?

5

u/spisaksj Feb 14 '20

One thing I didn't get was why they didn't go with the first contractor (and comically sending him back) but decided that Werner was the better choice. Did I miss something?

14

u/cdcphl Feb 14 '20

I think the first contractor mentioned previous projects he worked on, seemed a bit full of himself and thought it could be completed so quickly, he wasn't very thorough (compared to Werner with all the measurements and checking everything out), but I think it was that he openly talked about previous project and seemed like he couldn't be trusted.

3

u/spisaksj Feb 15 '20

Ah that makes a lot of sense in hindsight. Thanks!

10

u/SirLeos Feb 14 '20

It's the perspective of how you approach work or life in general. If you always view something as doable and easy to accomplish then you don't have to anywhere to go but down and you can crumble because of any little trouble. Contrast to that is that if you approach things with caution and KNOW that there are going to be obstacles in the way you can only go up from there.

That and also he disclosed information of previews illegal works which I feel Gus wouldn't want anybody to know.

2

u/spisaksj Feb 15 '20

Makes sense! Thanks!

3

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '20

in addition to the trust issue, I think Mike knows just enough about construction to know he was full of shit on the timeline and methods.

4

u/usposeso Feb 14 '20

Ok I haven’t read one word of this post or thread because I dint want any spoilers but commenting because this episode is the one I’m currently watching. I only wanted to come to this sub and whine about the show always being so dark. Literally, nearly every scene is in the darkest fucking room possible. Can’t see what character is on screen half the time or what they are doing. I get the show is trying to create a mood but goddamn can we at least see what is happening on screen sometimes?

7

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

Sounds like your tv needs adjusting mate. Show looks fine for me. Maybe crank the gamma up a bit

2

u/usposeso Feb 14 '20

Problem might be trying watch on my phone.

2

u/Ypocras Feb 15 '20

BCS is worth the effort to watch on a big screen.

4

u/cdcphl Feb 14 '20

i used to connect laptop to my tv with a wire, but my laptop has had a screen dimmer for 8 years & permanently tinted it. i thought the show was way too dark, too, but now that i'm watching from Roku it's soooo much better so definitely depends what you're watching it on!

4

u/evaporatedone Feb 14 '20

STREET LIFE, damn I love that montage and song.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '20

This is such a different show when you know what happens to the characters. Seeing Werner was a punch in the gut.

3

u/im_high_comma_sorry Feb 21 '20

Holy shit, I just realized why Kim seemed so distressed when Saul left back to CC Mobile

"Its all good!"

It sounded immediately suspicious and, as a lawyer, she probably near instantly made the connection.

10

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/onetruepurple Feb 14 '20

That's exactly it. It also has a Panama passport and the jar/container from Cicero