Separated Worlds
Words by Llewellyn Horgan
“Something Stupid” is a thing of beauty indeed and definitely my favourite episode of the season so far. It hits off with something that Better Call Saul does very well: a nice, dependable montage. Kim and Jimmy are brushing their teeth thoroughly while a cover of the Sinatra classic “Something Stupid” begins to play. We are shown how the months pass as Kim and Jimmy grow apart – while Jimmy sells burner phones to criminals, Kim’s law career goes from strength to strength.
Their worlds are separated by a black line down the middle of the screen that doesn’t vanish between their meals or sleeping together. The montage is both an effective and moving illustration of how they steadily grow apart, but also does a good job of moving the plot along – Jimmy having been suspended from practicing law was getting old. This opening scene moves us forward months, leaving Jimmy with only one month left before his suspension is lifted, and Kim back to being able to put her hair up into a power ponytail – so everyone wins! I sort of wish that the writers had used this montage a few episodes ago, just to kick things into action. Still, with only a few episodes left to go, it seems like things are going to start moving pretty fast.
What follows is a more or less gripping 35 minutes. We begin to realize that, perhaps, Kim will not be killed or disappear from the show in a dramatic way ,but leave because of her and Jimmy’s different values. We witness their relationship deteriorate consistently. Jimmy embarrasses Kim’s boss at a work party, and neither even have the energy to argue about it. When people can’t be bothered to argue, that’s when a relationship is really in trouble. That’s my dating advice for you all. Remember it.
By the end of the episode, despite their cooled-off relationship, Kim seems ready to do something stupid in an effort to help Jimmy, perhaps to rekindle their relationship, or as a remnant of the feelings she had. It will not end well. But we’ll have to wait till next week to find out for sure just how badly it will go.
The other plots in this episode involve Gus in another great supervillain scene rife with dramatic irony. The crazy adventures of the construction of the meth lab also feature – both benefitting from the montage assisted time-jump, but neither are even half as engaging or as interesting as Jimmy’s plot, for the simple reason that it is the only plot where we don’t already know exactly what will happen. Also, it would be good to see how Nacho is going. Despite the weaker B- and C- plots, this episode remains a success, and seems to suggest a promising last few episodes for a season that has been hit and miss so far.