Better Call Saul: Ep. 306 Off Brand
The bonds of family, whether blood related or not, weave through the narrative structure of Off Brand. Nacho struggles to juggle his dual commitments to Hector Salamanca and his father, Jimmy wrestles with the aftermath of his hearing with Chuck and Mike is pulled into the mundane affairs of his daughter-in-law. In each case, the principals are torn between duty and free will with varying degrees of success.
A 35 year old bottle of Mccallan is presented to Chuck to celebrate the outcome of the hearing against Jimmy. Howard gleefully delivers the news to a stone-faced Chuck and reveals that Jimmy has been suspended from practicing law for a year. Sometimes what you want isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and Chuck’s victory rings as hollow as Jimmy’s high wire escape from disbarment. Although Jimmy retains his law license, the emotional baggage of the hearing as well as the guilt heaped upon him by Rebecca has his spirits at a low ebb. There are no clear-cut victors in the war between the McGill brothers.
Dealing drugs comes with few long-term winners and Nacho finds himself at odds with the nature of the game. Whether it’s providing muscle for Hector or being at the end of a barrel of a gun during a drug deal the weight of his job begins to crush him especially when it starts to bleed into his civilian life. Continuing the pedestrian path is Mike who is recruited into building a playground for his daughter’s support group and Jimmy who begins a new line of work in a bid to keep his lawyer based ads from going to waste.
What results is another small step towards the persona and moniker of the titular character of the show and one of the major supporting characters of Breaking Bad. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and through Jimmy’s new ads viewers are witnessing the slow, but entertaining and amazingly crafted origin story of one of the more intriguing characters on TV.
Off Brand is a quiet, introspective episode that scrapes away some of the surface of the show’s characters to reveal a hint of what lies beneath. From Rebecca’s scathing assessment of Jimmy, to the specter of mental illness coming to the fore and Nacho’s conflicting duty to the Salamancas and his own blood, Off Brand subtly packs a lot into its narrative timeframe. It may not be considered a standout episode but once the lights go down on Better Call Saul this one will be remembered for how it added to the mythos of one of the best shows on television.
