Better Call Saul season 5 episode 9 review: Lalo drops in (literally)

The trauma of his trip to the desert rattles both Jimmy and Kim, Mike makes a pitch to Gus, and Lalo drops by for a tense standoff in Better Call Saul’s “Bad Choice Road.”

Looking back to the beginning of the season, it’s difficult to imagine how the Better Call Saul writers would be able to fulfill their promise of upping the stakes, heightening the tension, and bringing the show closer to Breaking Bad than ever before. However, now that we’ve reached the penultimate episode of the season, “Bad Choice Road,” we’re both stunned and delighted to report that yet again, the show has made good on its promise of making Better Call Saul the most intense it’s ever been.

Hot on the heels of last week’s high-production-value, Vince Gilligan-directed episode, “Bagman”, this week’s entry “Bad Choice Road” returns to a more familiar formula, but launches the season into the final hour — and it may be the bloodiest one yet. We pick up with Mike and Jimmy after their unscheduled bonding time in “Bagman” and see the results of their pee-drinking, shootout-escaping efforts: They’ve successfully returned with the $7 million in bail, and Lalo is able to walk free.

Both Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks carry the utter exhaustion of men who have been stranded in the desert incredibly well (which may be due to the behind-the-scenes struggles that went into producing “Bagman”), and as they sit, sunburnt and silent outside a truck stop in the middle of nowhere, we get the sense that, although they’ve just gone through hell and back, the trouble is only beginning.

Lalo is freed on bail — and as usual, he seems nonpulsed by his time in prison. He’s just eager to get back to Mexico, as he tells both Nacho and Saul. Not so happy-go-lucky is Kim, who has driven herself crazy (and paid a visit to a cartel leader) in the time it’s taken for Jimmy to come home. Just episodes ago Jimmy and Kim were on the brink of breaking up, but the opening split-screen montage (set to an instrumental version of “Somethin’ Stupid,” a throwback to the montage in season 4) reinforces just how constantly the two of them are on each other’s minds.

Jimmy makes it back to a terrified Kim, but not before he learns (from Lalo) that she paid a visit to the local jail in his absence. Funnily enough, Odenkirk takes somewhat of a backseat in this episode (we’ll get to that later), but it’s the little things that make his performance so great — and the look of sheer terror on his face upon finding out that Kim met Lalo feels like the Gene we know from the flash-forwards.

The events of “Bagman” take their toll on Jimmy and Kim in different ways. Jimmy is showing the more external, typical signs: He flinches at the juicing of an orange and fumbles an easy case in court. Kim, however, is the one who makes a much more drastic move after the terrifying ordeal: She quits her job at Schweikart and Cokely.

It’s a move that’s been a long time coming. The show has been planting teaser after teaser indicating that she wasn’t truly happy working for them, and after the fiasco with the Tucumcari branch, it’s frankly surprising that she didn’t bail sooner. We’re hoping this isn’t the last of S&C though, because Kim’s poss Rich is one of our favorite recurring characters.

On the other side of town, Mike reports back to Gus and finally pitches him another big shift that the show has been building towards for a while: Nacho leaving the cartel. Previously it seemed as if Mike was mulling over Nacho’s plea, but it looks like Jimmy wasn’t the only one who did some thinking out in the desert. In many ways, Nacho’s story mirrors the path Mike will eventually take with Jesse (and the one he walked with his son Matty), so it seems fitting that he would finally put some skin in the game and approach Gus about letting Nacho go.

Gus seems to mull it over but says no, even after Mike tells him ruling by fear may not be the way to go (a great line and a throwback to what Gus told him during Breaking Bad).

Surprisingly, Nacho himself has very little to do in this episode. Despite the fact that his exit from the cartel has been teased all season, he spends most of “Bad Choice Road” hauling Lalo all over New Mexico. Nonetheless, Michael Mando still makes the most of his screen time: There are some truly stellar shots where we can see the pain and regret in his eyes as he realizes that despite his best efforts, he isn’t out of the woods quite yet.

But the reason Nacho isn’t out of the game (and one of the MVPs of tonight’s episode) is Lalo, who makes yet another impressive jump (his knees must be killing him) while investigating Jimmy’s story about what happened in the desert. Unfortunately for Jimmy, he and Nacho discover the bullet-ridden Esteem, which results in Lalo paying Jimmy and Kim a visit — the most intense scene of the season, and perhaps in the entire show’s run.

From the second there’s a knock at the door, we know exactly what’s about to happen — but that doesn’t make it any less nerve-wracking. Lalo lets himself in with all the ease of a man dropping by to visit a pair of old friends, but when he settles comfortably on the couch with his gun in plain sight, we know he’s here on business.

What ensues is Better Call Saul‘s (and Lalo’s) version of an interrogation. Lalo has Jimmy repeat the story of what happened in the desert again … and again … and again. “Tell me again” will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the show’s most infamous lines. Tony Dalton’s delivery is pitch-perfect, going from friendly and curious to deathly serious.

If this were any other Salamanca, he would shoot first and have someone ask questions later, but we see now more than ever that Lalo is perfectly willing to play the long game. The most shocking part of the standoff, however, is when Kim gets in his face and virtually scolds him for bullying Jimmy. It’s like watching a chihuahua yip at a rottweiler: Kim’s bouncy blonde ponytail as she gives Lalo a dressing-down is a constant reminder of just how in over her head she is.

Kim, however, either doesn’t know or doesn’t care, and she gives Lalo a piece of her mind, all the while with Mike outside the apartment, poised to shoot Lalo down. Rhea Seehorn brings the house down here: Kim getting in Lalo’s face, pointing fingers and all, is an incredible hurricane of a performance, and one that will no doubt earn her an Emmy nod down the line. She and Tony Dalton have electric chemistry for a duo who have only shared two scenes together, but their characters are both so incredibly layered that, although there was quite a bit of dialogue, the most important parts of the scene were in the silence, not the noise.

At the beginning of the show, it would’ve seemed far-fetched for a little lawyer like Kim to successfully out-argue a Salamanca, but the moment both fits perfectly in the show and also leaves a distinct sense of dread.  We won’t lie, we were expecting this episode to end in blood — either Kim’s or Lalo’s — but after Kim yells at him, Lalo simply walks out silently.  While Lalo may have left peacefully, the look on his face (and the teaser for next week) tell us that he is far from through with Jimmy — and Kim has now placed herself squarely in his sights, yet again.

Somehow, we’ve already reached the show’s season finale, and it’s a testament to just how stellar Better Call Saul is that the two months flew by. “Bad Choice Road” saw Lalo finally cement himself among the TV villain greats, and it’s Rhea Seehorn’s performance that puts this episode in the Better Call Saul pantheon.

What did you think of  “Bad Choice Road”? Who are you worried about heading into the season finale?