Better Call Saul<\/a>,\u201d titled \u201cPinata.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nAs a prequel to \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d AMC\u2019s hit series \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d relishes in playing with time, jumping forward and back in the characters\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
So while Chuck (Michael McKean) died in the season finale, it was inevitable that we would see the character again. And in the teaser to Monday\u2019s episode, titled \u201cPinata,\u201d Chuck made his comeback \u2014 a flashback to the early days of Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim\u2019s (Rhea Seehorn) time at the law firm Hamlin Hamlin McGill, learning the ropes as young lawyers. And while the scene served to offer a sharp contrast between Jimmy and Kim\u2019s approach to the law (no surprise that Kim had done her homework!), Chuck\u2019s partner, Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), was on hand as a witness, setting up a sharp contrast of his own. We got to see the slick, confident Hamlin once again, a far cry from his teary breakdown in the men\u2019s room last week.<\/p>\n
Fabian says it\u2019s been a treat this season to watch the ever-increasing moments from \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d particularly last week\u2019s episode which opened with Saul\u2019s frantic escape. \u201cPeople went nuts! And I get excited to see the show because half the show is in a play that I\u2019m not even in,\u201d he says. \u201cI watch it, and I\u2019m like, what\u2019s going on in this dirty desert? Good lord!\u201d<\/p>\n
Here, Fabian talks to Variety about whether Howard can return to form, Kim\u2019s dance with the devil, and whether Chuck will make another comeback.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the teaser \u2014 another great one, where we got to see Michael McKean again. How did it feel to have him back on set?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t really until we came back for season four, when I was standing at the remnants of Chuck\u2019s house where it was just me, Rhea and Bob, that it really hit me that he wasn\u2019t going to be there. And that drove the first couple of episodes, especially that first one, with all of the finger pointing and taking the responsibility for Chuck\u2019s death. So how great was it to shift time and go back and see him? One of my favorite parts of that scene was Kim\u2019s repartee with him, trying to show how smart she is, him pretending to forget the case and her knowing it \u2014 all just so he could test her. I thought, oh, there\u2019s the love right there. That\u2019s why I\u2019m partners with Chuck and that\u2019s why I love Kim. So it was really fun to get back in there with everybody.<\/p>\n
So much that played out in that moment, too, with Jimmy trying to join the conversation and not really being able to.<\/strong><\/p>\nI almost feel bad for him, not because he\u2019s dumb but because the level of care was much less than the rest of us. Somebody doesn\u2019t belong in this picture, and we all know it\u2019s you. And since we already know the stumbling that\u2019s going to occur, it\u2019s sort of worse at that moment because you want to be able to fix it. We want to go back and fix things for people and you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
What do you think the point of the teaser overall was? What theme was it setting up for the episode?<\/strong><\/p>\nSomebody was talking about entropy or watching slow-grade disintegration and decay of people, and that\u2019s what it feels like. It feels like whatever you think we have a hold of right now, sliding down the inside of a bucket and there\u2019s nobody to stop it. And that\u2019s sort of the awfulness you often have to play. In this week\u2019s episode, how un-Hamlin like was I! Last week it was the humiliation of going out without a tie bar; this week I\u2019m using coarse language. I\u2019m going to be wearing tennis shoes next week. It\u2019s appalling! (Laughs.)<\/p>\n
Why has Howard unraveled so much so quickly?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think from the very beginning of the show, Howard\u2019s only been ultimately responsible to HHM, both financially and its reputation. And over the course of three seasons because of the brothers McGill, not because of Howard Hamlin\u2019s actions, that is all been torn asunder and ripped upside down \u2014 so much so that Howard had to spend $2 million of his own money out of his personal funds in order to get rid of Chuck. So financially the firm is no longer on good stead. Chuck is gone, so intellectually it is now shaky as well. Last week, Howard shows up in court \u2014 that\u2019s the first time you see him actually do any lawyering, that\u2019s for sure. And maybe how Howard doesn\u2019t really know how to lawyer. Maybe he\u2019s not that good of a lawyer. He\u2019s a shitty lawyer, but he\u2019s a great salesman. I\u2019m channeling Chuck from the grave, but it\u2019s the truth! Back in the very first episode, that great scene in my boardroom, Jimmy comes in, does the whole \u201cNetwork\u201d speech and rips the check up in front of me. Now here we are, four seasons later, I give him a check, and he\u2019s telling me that I\u2019m a shitty lawyer. Which is why the \u201cF you\u201d has a lot of power. As much as Kim unloading on me in episode 2 of this season was cathartic for fans, I think it\u2019s cathartic for Howard as well. Maybe it\u2019s a turning point of getting his way back up the bucket.<\/p>\n
Can HHM be saved?<\/strong><\/p>\nI believe HHM can be saved. Because I believe that Howard is a good lawyer. He hasn\u2019t had to work it in awhile, but I think he\u2019s much more than a salesman. Just because he knows how to be a salesman, knows how to do a deal and close the deal, doesn\u2019t negate the fact that he is smart. When Kim left HMM in season three and goes off to put her own shingle up, he has that speech where he was wistful about going out on his own and and his father guilted him into coming to HHM. That tells me that he had the chutzpah and the wherewithal to be a young Kim Wexler. Without a ponytail.<\/p>\n
Please finish reading this article at: Variety.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Debra Birnbaum<\/p>\n
Spoiler alert: Do not read until you\u2019ve watched episode 406 of \u201cBetter Call Saul,\u201d titled \u201cPinata.\u201d
\nAs a prequel to \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d AMC\u2019s hit series \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d relishes in playing with time, jumping forward and back in the characters\u2019 lives.
\nSo while Chuck (Michael McKean) died in the season finale, it was inevitable that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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