Better Call Saul Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Switch

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In case we forgot, Saul Goodman's post-Walter White future is bleak and miserable. Better Call Saul Season 2 Episode 1 started with another flash forward to Saul's time as a Cinnabon manager.

He's lonely and alone, which aren't necessarily the same thing.

It was a perfect and stark contrast to the corner office he found himself in, likely symbolizing the (unhappy) pinnacle of his professional career.

Right after watching tonight's premiere, I found myself explaining Better Call Saul, Saul Goodman, and Jimmy McGill to my mother, a late-50s non-TV watcher with no prior knowledge of anything in the Breaking Bad universe.

"So he's a crook?"

"No..."

"So...he's a crooked lawyer?"

"Well...no? Not exactly."

"Well then what is he?"

"He's a man who happens to be a lawyer who just loves the rush of a good con."

"Oh."

To his credit he also sort of understands that the life of a con man is not the life he wants for himself forever and we have Kim to thank for that. It was great to hear him voice to her that the reason he became a lawyer in the first place was because it's what he thought would make Chuck happy.

I just wish he'd told her all the horrible things Chuck said to him when they refused to hire him at HHM.

His brother's a jerk and I don't even care who knows it. (Everybody deserves to know it.)

I love the budding romantic relationship between Jimmy and Kim and while there's no way it will last forever, or even that long, before he does something absolutely whacky to screw it up, it's interesting to watch him caught between his feelings for her and his desire to be a cheat. 

She makes him "want to be a better man" and has the ability to keep him honest, but honesty's not really in his nature. It was fun to watch him rope Kim into swindling the stockbroker into buying an entire bottle of $50-a-shot tequila, but she's the realist who knows that sort of thing isn't a way to build a life.

By the end of the episode, Jimmy decided to go to work for Davis & Main, the swanky Santa Fe law firm who took on the Sandpiper case when HHM needed to kick it out to the big(ger) guns.

We can surmise that his decision to go to work there has way more to do with Kim and wanting to please her than it does with Jimmy actually wanting to work there.

Hell, he might not even work there by the next episode since he couldn't not flip the switch clearly marked "Do Not Turn Off!"

It was probably a test to see if he'd fit in there, and since he's already bucked the system and broken the rules, they'll toss him out on his ears and he'll be back to sleeping on a fold-out couch in the back room of the nail salon in no time.

Sigh. Poor Jimmy. Two steps forward, ten steps back. Always.

At least we know Mike will be there to catch him, right? 

Gah. Every episode needs more Mike Ermantraut. 

Following the foibles of drug-supplier Wormand was the low point of the episode for me. It was sort of funny to hear him going on about his baseball cards being stolen and watching the cops react to the situation, but I just have a hard time being interested in a guy who's as stupid as he is.

Listen to Mike, people. Always listen to Mike.

What did you think of "Switch"? What's up with that switch on the wall in Jimmy's office? Are you rooting for Jimmy and Kim to stick together for a while? Let's chat in the comments below, and don't forget you can watch Better Call Saul online if you need to catch up!

Switch Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 (6 Votes)

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.

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Better Call Saul Season 2 Episode 1 Quotes

Yeah, well, I know what stopped me. And you know what? It's never stopping me again.

Jimmy

Kim: So this is what a midlife crisis looks like?
Jimmy: Not midlife crisis. Clarity. Midlife clarity.