Review: Better Call Saul: Ep. 301 Mabel
Mabel, Better Call Saul’s Season 3 premiere opens with present day Saul, now under the name Gene, still reluctantly managing a Cinnabon franchise in a mall. With thinning hair and a dead end job in suburban Omaha, Saul’s new lot in life weighs heavy on the former slick talking wheeler and dealer. When a shoplifting teen crosses his path and gets arrested, shades of Saul erupt with some sage advice for the young man. Old habits die hard – habits that have plagued Saul/Jimmy for decades and have, for better or worse, affected every relationship he’s ever had.
Moving back to the past we revisit the final few minutes of last season’s finale. Jimmy has confessed and Chuck has it all on tape. Shortly after Jimmy bares his soul he begins to help Chuck take down some of the foil that line the walls of his home. Jimmy runs across a novel titled The Adventures of Mabel and the boys reminisce fondly about their past. The sentimentality is cut short however as Chuck sternly reminds Jimmy that he will never forget his confession and will make him pay. In Chuck’s eyes, the McGill brothers are officially at war.
Cut to Mike in the desert with the horn blaring. He takes the advice on the note that was left on his car and makes a beeline as far away from the Salamanca safe house as possible before stopping to give his car the once over. Unable to find anything he takes the car to a junkyard and tears the beater apart in a vain attempt to get some idea of who was tailing him. Ever the pro, Mike’s efforts eventually lead him to some answers.
Jimmy’s circle of lies begin to close in on him as he gets some blowback from the soldier who let him onto the military base to film one of his commercials. The art of the lie is Jimmy’s superpower but his kryptonite is his inferiority complex with regards to Chuck. That weakness unexpectedly rears its head during the argument with the soldier and catches the usually surefooted Jimmy off guard.
Jimmy’s whole shtick has been a reaction to not being accepted by his big brother. It permeates all of his relationships, including his partnership with Kim. As Mesa Verde’s Paige goes over the case notes with Kim, she nails Jimmy by telling him that guys like that never think it’s their fault when things go wrong. Audiences have the benefit of two seasons of Saul and all of Breaking Bad to know that Paige’s assessment is accurate. Kim’s no fool but she’s tied her fortunes to Jimmy professionally and emotionally. Deep in her heart, she knows Paige speaks the truth and in the back of her mind she knows there’ll come a day when he’ll let her down.
Mabel was a good reintroduction to the world of Better Call Saul. It set the table for this season’s storylines while advancing some of the conflict that began to heat up at the end of last season. With the highly anticipated return/introduction of a classic character in next week’s episode and Chuck’s evolving revenge plot this season may turn out to be one of the show’s best.
