[rating=9.00] “Sunk Costs”
Our duel mini-series continued this week with Jimmy and Mike both plummeting down their respective paths as we get closer to the moment where we met Walter White. In a few short seasons (one short season? This season?) we’ll be overlapping into the series that introduced us to Jimmy and co in the first place. With Jimmy dealing in family matters, and Mike learning the true terrifying nature of one Gus Fring, things are just getting more and more tense. With the long standing slow burn representing everything we love about the show, could we even handle the intensity of what’s happening?
After Mike is found out and we gained the greatest moment of television in history, we’re getting down to the working relationship we’ve admired all along. Gus needs just a few moments on screen to make an impression, and as we know it’s more about what he doesn’t say than what he does. Mike wants nothing more than to be left alone, and Gus knows this. He also seems to know how Mike operates, and as they read one another in the desert, Mike silently decides this is the next step in his life.
Meanwhile, Jimmy faces the consequences of blowing up on Chuck. While Chuck has grown progressively worse, he’s still working on his continued vendetta against Jimmy. We know a little bit about their shaky past, but Chuck’s anger against his brother is still rooted in jealousy and a consistent want for Jimmy to need him. Jimmy will never win when it comes to his brother, and it will be the loss of the last bit of their family that will help lead Jimmy into the life of Saul.
Just as Jimmy is evolving (devolving?), Kim is also feeling the effects of the deceit her partner has impacted on her. It’s no wonder she’s eventually out of Jimmy’s life, she can’t help herself when it comes to him. She can say no, she can be done with the intimate relationship portion of their connection, but she will always be on Jimmy’s side. Even as he denies her as counsel, standing before the bench in a court where he once dominated, Kim stands in the wings, waiting to be there for the one person who believes in her endlessly.
These co-dependent relationships are toxic to a point where they could never be fixed. Jimmy and Chuck. Jimmy and Kim. Mike and Jimmy. And even Mike and Gus. There’s no wiggle room in this universe; if you can’t keep your shit together on your own then you don’t get to continue as an autonomous human.
While Jimmy and Kim hatch their plans to keep him from a fate worse than death, Mike takes a stand against Hector Salamanca while serving as Gus’ errand boy. The cold open shows us a sun worn pair of sneakers and a shot up stop sign reading “ALTO”. This is where the overlap is beginning to take place. Mike subtly screws over Hector’s business model, and leaves behind a quite legacy to hang in the distance as his world unravels slowly.
While we know Hector will eventually win this war, we’re getting one more line in what is delightfully continuing to be different intersecting series. So will we be able to handle all the tense lead up that will take us right to Walter White’s doorstep? Absolutely. But things are going to get weirder and more gut wrenching than we could ever hope for, before they’ll swing back down to anything close to mundane.
