Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. Spoilers ABOUND!

“Something Stupid”

Without question, “Something Stupid” has one of the best montages arguably ever as its cold open and broaches one of the worst relationship troubles: growing separation.

The montage cleverly includes a time jump. About 9 months pass, and we watch as Jimmy and Kim begin the montage with brushing their teeth together in front of the bathroom mirror. Then, the image splits into two as they start brushing their teeth at different times. From here throughout the rest of the montage, a black line divides the screen in half, whether Jimmy and Kim are in the same room or not. They’re separated by the black line even when they’re side by side in the same image. They each cross the line only once. Otherwise, the line is a barrier between them, and they couldn’t be further apart, despite sitting or sleeping next to each other. The montage ends with Kim’s half of the screen fading to black, which is ominous as hell.

At this point, Jimmy and Kim are heading in different directions in almost every facet of their lives. Kim is busy with S&C, doing her criminal defense work, helping Mesa Verde open its many new branches, and overall, kicking ass. Jimmy, meanwhile, is printing business cards using the name Saul Goodman and incorporating an inkling of his eventual catchphrase. He and Huell Babineux (now can we get Bill Burr’s character back, too??) have a thriving business selling burner phones out of a white van. This is the definitive start to Saul’s career among Albuquerque’s criminal community. This is how the name and reputation get out.

One of the business cards ends up in the hands of an undercover cop, who approaches Jimmy and berates him for stroking the criminal underbelly to make a quick buck. Huell, with headphones on, sees Jimmy getting harassed and slaps the cop in the back of the head with a bag of sandwiches–yes, that’s the weapon of choice here, not an open hand. Jimmy tries to bribe the cop into dropping assault charges on Huell, except this particular cop has history with Huell. So that clearly complicates things.

Jimmy goes to the only lawyer he knows can handle such a delicate situation: Kim. In this exchange, Jimmy is outed and has to confess to selling burner phones on the side. Kim agrees to do what she can, but she’s obviously pissed about Jimmy’s dishonesty. Once he leaves the room, she literally gets her paralegal to shut the door in his face. Despite saying that she’s going to help, this ain’t over by a long shot. This couple has a lot of issues to hash out.

The knife only gets wedged deeper when Jimmy and Kim attend a work party at S&C. All seems to be going well, with Kim introducing Jimmy to her co-workers and other figures. Yet Jimmy inserts himself into a conversation about a work retreat and blows it out of proportion, going so far as to suggest a private jet. He’s selling it as only Saul can, intriguing and exciting the people around him, and Kim is obviously forced to endure it. She does nothing to push back, though, in this instance or when Jimmy admitted to the burner phone side business. However, as I said, this ain’t over. The next day, when Kim negotiates with a fellow lawyer regarding Huell’s charges, she’s slapped with the grim reality that Jimmy is a “scumbag disbarred lawyer who peddles drop phones to criminals,” and it hurts. You can see it all over her face in that moment.

Kim initially tells Jimmy that there’s nothing she can do, and Jimmy alludes to helping Huell in his own way. Instead of getting to Huell first, Kim seems to develop a plan of her own, going to the store and filling a cart with office supplies. She calls Jimmy and assures him that she has a better way. Everything between these two is about to come to a head, and I’m itching to see what ideas Kim has and if they’ll work. Plus, uh, Kim… if nothing else, please stick to the legal side of things.

Now the time jump from the cold open doesn’t just serve up some relationship drama. It brings us up to speed with Hector, who has awakened from his coma and trained to use that trusty index finger to answer yes-no questions. Gus sees this progress in Hector’s recovery and also notices that the Hector he knows is still in there. Hector’s mind is intact, so Gus dismisses the doctor and ends his physical therapy. This cements Hector as we know him in Breaking Bad and shows Gus at his most sadistic. As for Mike, the superlab construction is struggling, with mistakes being made and tensions running high. Mike is convinced that the workers need some R&R.

Okay, I was concerned about Nacho before, but now I’m freaked out. We haven’t seen him for 3 episodes, AND 9 months have passed in the show’s timeline! I’m actually glad that the showrunners aren’t treating his injuries lightly, yet at the same time, I have to wonder if he’s really alright.

‘Til next week, when I’ll be much more timely in my review!