‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 Episode 3 Summary: Viva Nacho

Season 3 Episode 6: “Rock and Hard Place”

There has never been a TV show in the history of television whose death scenes have been as flamboyant as Breaking Bad. Think of Gus’ last moments when half of his face flew off after his nemesis, Hector Salamanca, detonated a bomb under his wheelchair. Walter White’s slow and bloody debut as he emotionally engages with his meth-making equipment. Hank Schrader’s death in dessert at the hands of neo-Nazis was punctuated by a defiant f-bomb.

Finally, “Better Call Saul” added to that pantheon. True to the title of the episode, Nacho Varga’s farewell in “Rock and Hard Place” was depressing, tense, violent, sad, poignant and unforgettable. While fleeing in Mexico, he decides that the only way to save his father’s life is to return dutifully and “confess” to the Salamancas just before they kill him. Difficult task. But as with all of Nacho’s challenges, he has no choice. And once again, it’s over-delivering. The cloud of suspicion about Gus would have lingered if he had half-heartedly murmured the lie that the Peruvian drug lords had tied him to the Lalo affair.

Instead, Nacho exonerates Gus by suggesting that the “chicken man” lacked the courage and cunning to orchestrate Lalo’s murder. Furthermore, Gus continues, Gus saved Hector’s life by interfering with Nacho’s attempt to kill Hector by replacing his heart meds with sugar pills. (It’s a nice, forgiving touch because it comes true.)

Nacho only goes out of script when he threatens to kill Don Bolsa by cutting off his zippered hands just before committing suicide. Nacho wanted to show a modest agency in professional life dictated by a transformative group of murderous sociopaths. It was a pawn saying “I can kill you” to a king.

Nacho retrieved the zippered cutout arm from the window Gus broke in the previous episode, which was sitting in the trash in the chicken farm office. (The clue is an ever-changing view of Nacho’s face, as if the camera were shooting through the glass in the trash can.) The fragment is revealed in the episode’s reveal sequence as the camera navigates the desert landscape where Nacho’s leaden body once lay. , one of those baffles that only make sense when the end credits start rolling.

Rushing to his death, Nacho has a few final tortures to endure. These include hiding in an oil tanker under a puddle of oil and being beaten up by Mike to make him look suitably injured when it’s show time. If Nacho experiences any joy in this episode, it’s during a short phone call with his father. She was relieved to learn that the man was alive, or at least not a prisoner. And he begins to say goodbye.

Nacho has made some terrible life choices, but like Jesse Pinkman in “Breaking Bad,” he is overly punished for them. It’s hard to think of a single moment of his life that is visible to viewers, that seems satisfying. When he wasn’t chased, threatened, shot, or beaten, he was in terrible fear or despair.

So here’s a nod to Michael Mando, whose Nacho is a study of repressed suffering, an emotional character that has only been proven by superhuman efforts to control emotions. As a character, he can only express his anger in the last seconds of his life, and his anger is gushing out like lava. It would be great to see more of this star actor, but if you have to leave a show, it’s hard to imagine a more dramatic and impactful ending.

On the white collar side of our story, Jimmy and Kim steal Howard’s car as part of their ongoing campaign to accuse Howard of being a drug addict. Once again, Huell Babineaux (Lavell Crawford) is hired to select a pocket and help create a replica of Howard’s car keys. When Jimmy relays this plan to Kim – “I got it. The valet scam” – it has an aphrodisiac-like effect on him. He suddenly falls in love.

A little hint that he’s about to enter a mood that could be described as criminally rotten. This is particularly evident in Jimmy’s conversation with Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Ericsen (Julie Pearl), who tries to convince him that he needs to talk about his presumed deceased client, Lalo, and help prosecutors and police identify the part of the Mexican cartel that still stands. in Albuquerque.

Ericsen seems to believe that Kim is more prone to moral persuasion than Jimmy. Wrong. When Kim forwards this conversation to Jimmy, she plays everything straight.

When Jimmy asks for his advice, “Do you want to be a friend of the cartel or do you want to be a mouse?” says.

Interesting way of framing.

Note that although this show hasn’t been on the air for two years, the end of Season 5 and the opening of Season 6 are just days apart. Jimmy barely lost the sunburn he got while saving $7 million in the desert at the end of Season 5. And before this fool’s job, Kim begged Jimmy to reconsider the idea of ​​working for the drug lords south of the border.

So, what is the reason for Kim’s radical transformation in a few days? One possible answer is money. Maybe he saw Jimmy’s share of the bail money and changed his mind. Keep in mind, he believes the Ruined Howard plan will save Jimmy and him several million when it pushes a class action lawsuit to be resolved. He plans to use that money to open a law firm for the poor, which is a very noble idea. Maybe Kim will or has already made some weird kind of Faust bargain. As a result, he can turn a blind eye, cheat, and even abet criminals, as long as it’s to defend poor people in court.

Consider the current trajectory of Kim’s dreaded ward road and you can’t help but assume she’ll be in a meth game within a few episodes. Or he’ll be a cartel lawyer. Or something else that is very illegal.

rashes

• Shout out to Gordon Smith, who has done a fantastic job both writing and directing this episode. Special thanks to the person who found the footage of the garage where Mike and Nacho were chatting and having their last drink. It is ominous and perfect.

• Speaking of harsh touches: Nacho’s last meal plastic containers.

• Where is Lalo? And when will it show up and destroy Gus’ story by producing the “evidence” he talks about at the end of Episode 1?

• So much for the theory that Nacho survived in the “Breaking Bad” timeline because Saul talks about “Ignacio” in Season 2 of that show. Was it just a red herring, or did the authors have some other plan to fix this?

• Can someone help figure out how Gus Fring explained to the cartel how he captured Nacho? Considering he was a suspect in the plot to assassinate Lalo, she could reasonably say that he was just as eager to get the man as she was. But Gus doesn’t have agents in Mexico, at least not as far as the cartel knows. Even if Nacho comes out bruised, doesn’t this all look… suspicious?

• Please advise on this and any other details your Faithful Recapper has overlooked or overlooked. Or he couldn’t fit into the brutally limited number of words given to him.