Breaking Down ‘Saul’: Season 2, Episode 4, “Gloves Off”

“I’m Monty Hall! What’s behind Door #2?!”

This week’s episode of Better Call Saul starts off with a bang when Mike (Jonathan Banks) stumbles into his house with an envelope full of cash and an eye swollen shut. As he settles down onto his couch and ices his face, he pulls a very familiar boxing glove necklace out of his pocket.

At Davis & Main, Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) is grilled for his unapproved commercial and unrelenting attempts at “exuberance” to win over the partners, but Cliff reluctantly decides to give him a second chance. Jimmy hurriedly tries to contact Kim before the situation inevitably reaches her at HH&M, but he’s too late. Howard and Chuck scold her for her misjudgment of Jimmy, and she is taken off the case and sentenced to the mundanity of document review, where Jimmy finds her later. Kim, clearly at her wit’s end with Jimmy, reminds him of her previous warnings – she knew this would happen. Jimmy continues to apologize and tells her he’ll go to Howard to make it right, but Kim threatens to end things with Jimmy if he does. Jimmy heads to Chuck’s house in attempt to salvage what’s left of his relationship with Kim.

Meanwhile, Nacho (Michael Mando) meets with Mike and explains to him that he needs Tuco Salamanca out of the picture. Tuco becomes erratic and unpredictable when he’s using, and now that he’s on crystal meth, Nacho fears what will happen if Tuco finds out about Nacho’s side operation. Nacho asks Mike to kill Tuco for $50,000, and Mike considers it, but after some unsuccessful gun shopping and time to mull it over, he changes his mind.

Jimmy finds Chuck in a state of mania and takes care of him, covering him in another one of his space blankets and getting him a glass of water. Chuck is surprised to find Jimmy still there when he wakes up the next morning. Jimmy attempts to sway Chuck into giving Kim her job back – he even offers to quit the law if Chuck just saves Kim. He begs Chuck to extort him (“EXTORT ME, CHUCK!”) but it’s no use – Chuck refuses to get down in the dirt with Jimmy, and tells him he better get to work – because he’s already going to be twenty minutes late.

Our favorite drug kingpin Tuco Salamanca makes his return as the human lie detector while Mike proceeds with his alternative plan to get him out of the picture and anonymously calls 9-1-1 before heading into El Michoacano. Already aware of Tuco’s weakness for his ride, Mike recklessly drives into the parking lot and scuffs Tuco’s car. The fight is brewing before Mike even gets his tacos, and Tuco threatens him with his gun. Mike continues to play dumb and tells Tuco that the cash he has is from his social security check and it’s all he has left to last him until the end of the month, but Tuco doesn’t care. As the police approach, Tuco tells Nacho to bounce, and Tuco is soon caught redhanded with his gun on the ground and Mike’s wallet in his pocket – and he sinks one more punch into Mike’s face for good measure.

Later, Nacho pays Mike $25,000 and asks why he didn’t just kill him, because there’s no guarantee Tuco won’t come looking for him when he gets out of jail. Mike quietly takes the money and leaves Nacho to contemplate the day’s events in the empty warehouse.

So were there any Breaking Bad Easter eggs tucked away in “Gloves Off”? Let’s take a look.

What do we have? 

Nacho tells Mike about an incident in 1996 or ’97 when Tuco became erratic and paranoid while using “crank” and shot one of their suppliers, “Dawg” Paulson, and left a piece of Dawg’s skull in Nacho.

Seem familiar? 

 

Hank Schrader presents a profile on Tuco to his DEA team in Breaking Bad Season 2, Episode 2, “Grilled“, and references this incident: “…reputed to have whacked one “Dawg” Paulson”.

What do we have? 

Mike keeps Tuco’s necklace as a souvenir (gloves off, right?) after ensuring that he’ll spend a good five or so years in jail.

Seem familiar? 

This blinged-out boxing glove necklace is donned by Tuco when we first meet him in Breaking Bad Season 1, Episode 6, “Crazy Handful of Nothin’“. (We also learn here that Tuco’s time in jail was spent with Skinny Pete, which later leads to Jesse and Walt’s involvement with him).

What do we have? 

In a seedy hotel room, Mike examines several guns (and reveals his military veteran status) from a discrete salesman for killing Tuco.

Seem familiar?

That discrete gun salesman is Lawson, who provides his services to Walt in Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 2, “Thirty-Eight Snub“, and again in Season 5, Episode 1, “Live Free or Die“.

What do we have? 

Tuco deals with a nervous young man wearing a Tampico Furniture shirt and tries to read him for a long time before allowing him to leave: “See you, Domingo.”

Seem familiar? 

Domingo is who we come to know as “Krazy-8”, first encountered by Walt and Jesse in Breaking Bad Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot“. Tampico Furniture, the logo on his shirt and the name on his van, is owned by Domingo’s father, and is discussed when Walt keeps Krazy-8 locked in the basement in Breaking Bad Season 1, Episode 3, “And the Bag’s in the River“. (Walt also later discovers it is the brand of Walter Jr.’s crib). Tuco, by the way, is not so far off with his “human lie detector” intensity on Domingo – when we meet him, he’s become a DEA informant, and sells out Jesse and Emilio.

That’s a lot of familiar faces back this week – and now Tuco is exactly where he needs to be so that Krazy-8 can expand his business and become the dealer/informant we come to know on Breaking Bad.

Tune in next week, you exuberant extortionists!

 

[Catch up with the first season of Better Call Saul on Netflix, or watch Season Two on AMC.com, Amazon Video or iTunes]

Jade Budowski is an indecisive sometimes-writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.