Better Call Saul’s Latest Episode Was The Worst Of The Entire Series

It’s a shame that the first genuinely bad episode of Better Call Saul is also the one featuring a fun cameo from comedic legend Carol Burnett, but here we are.

The most recent episode of the AMC Breaking Bad prequel was a stinker, no buts about it. While Bob Odenkirk did a fine job as ‘Gene’ in the current black and white timeline, just about everything else about this episode failed to deliver.

There were three big reasons for this.

Recasting Jeff Was A Mistake

First, the recasting of cab driver Jeff was beyond jarring. I realize that there were booking issues that prevented Don Harvey from reprising his role as the character, but the re-casting choice of Pat Healy is simply bizarre. For one thing, they don’t look at all alike. Here’s Don’s Jeff:

Here’s Pat’s Jeff:

Actually, the names Pay Healy and Don Harvey are the only “similar” things about these two men.

Healy does a fine job in the episode, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that he does a fine job playing an entirely different character. Aside from him looking nothing at all like Don Harvey, Healy’s Jeff acts nothing like him either. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we are confronted with an entirely new and distinct character in this episode, to the point where I imagine many—if not most—viewers were actually very confused.

Here’s the scene back in Season 5 when Jeff recognizes “Gene” as Saul Goodman in the mall where he works at Cinnabon.

Notice how OG Jeff is a swaggering, cocksure and imposing man. He’s intimidating. He’s the kind of guy who could go either way. Maybe he’s just having a lark, or maybe he’ll turn you in for the reward money. Maybe he’ll just blackmail you or harass you. Who can say? He’s a threat and Don Harvey’s version of Jeff is threatening and imposing.

Pat Healy’s version of Jeff is essentially the opposite. He’s not imposing in the slightest. He seems irritated with Saul, but all his swagger is gone. By the time Saul finally forces him to say “We’re done” it barely feels like a win. Saul seems in control the entire time, playing Jeff like a fiddle. Beating the original Jeff at this game might have felt like a real win. Beating Healy’s Jeff felt empty.

When Jeff first called Saul out, our intrepid lawyer almost went on the lamb a second time, but decided instead to “take care of it myself.” That might have paid off without the recasting. Then again . . . .

The Distance Between Episodes Didn’t Help

Jeff recognizes Saul in the Season 5 premiere. That premiere aired back in February of 2020, well over two years ago. A global pandemic and various other events have distracted us in the meantime.

Almost two full seasons have transpired between Jeff’s first appearance and Gene’s plan to trick him into committing a crime so he wouldn’t turn him over to the authorities. It’s pretty easy to get murky on the details after that long. Maybe if Jeff had discovered Saul at the very end of Season 5, or if this episode had taken place earlier in Season 6.

Combine this 2.5 year real life jump and the bizarre recasting and you have an episode that tries to achieve some sort of triumph for Saul but fails to stick the landing, losing all momentum in the process.

The Entire Scam Was Kind Of Ridiculous

Okay, so Jimmy McGill has always cooked up ludicrous scams. But the ‘Nippy’ scam, which involved weeks of Cinnabon deliveries to a security guard (played by Parks & Rec alum Jim O’Heir) was just kind of . . . stupid?

First, there was the opening scam in which Gene tricks Jeff’s mom on her way home from the grocery store by sabotaging her little motorized shopping cart and making up a story about his dog Nippy from whence the name of the episode is derived. This is all an attempt to put Jeff on the spot apparently, so that he could lure him into ‘the game.’

But this plan makes too many assumptions. Saul assumes that Jeff will react the way he does when he finds him having drinks with his mom. And certainly this is how New Jeff might—timidly, mouth zipped up tight—but based on my observations of OG Jeff, I don’t think so. Saul assumes that this will present an opening to trick Jeff into participating in a scam with him rather than him calling the police and getting that easy reward money. Again, I’m not sure why Saul would make that assumption, or why Jeff would decide that robbing a department store—and then somehow fencing the items—is a better deal than easy reward money.

The burglary itself is too elaborate by half. It relies on too many moving pieces. Gene has to visit the security guards every night with cinnamon roles in hand. He has to learn all about football and the current game landscape. He has to go in and scout out all the expensive clothes. Then he has to train Jeff using a perfectly plotted out ‘course’ that mirrors the inside of the department store.

To actually execute this heist, they send a fake delivery to the store and then Saul uses his bottomless charm to convince the manager to leave it there overnight so that they can pick it up in the morning. It’s a Trojan Horse maneuver, with Jeff inside the crate. When it’s go-time, Jeff grabs all the merch he can stuff inside in a three-minute time window while Saul distracts the guard. Then Jeff camps out in the bathroom overnight and leaves in the morning. His buddy picks up the crate right on time and nobody’s the wiser.

There’s one flub when Jeff slips while running and is briefly dazed and half-unconscious on the floor. This forces Saul to improvise, distracting the guard with fake tears and a sob story about how his parents are dead. His brother is dead. Nobody loves him. If he died tomorrow, nobody would show up at his funeral. He has no friends, no family.

In fact, it’s this moment—and Saul’s realization that his “story” is actually a true story—that provide the episode with its one meaningful and profound moment. Saul’s distraction works, but leaves him emotionally drained, the full weight of his ruined life laid out before him. His ploy suddenly an accidental confession, his false tears masking true pain and longing and loss.

Alas, the rest of the episode felt weirdly stuffed into an otherwise coherent and compelling final season. It relied far too heavily on a character introduced nearly two seasons ago and then recast in the interim. Saul’s heist relied on far too many moving pieces and was carried off far too easily, and his ultimate victory over Jeff felt hollow and unsatisfying.

Here’s to hoping the final three episodes of this show are a whole lot better, because this may be the first episode of Better Call Saul’s entire run that I genuinely disliked.

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