Breaking Down ‘Saul’, Season 5, Episode 5: “Dedicado a Max”

“There’s always another play.”

Welcome back, folks! I never thought I’d see the day, but something wild happened in this episode of Better Call Saul (Season 5, Episode 5). Kim (Rhea Seehorn) may have actually Out-Jimmy’d Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk). That’s right. Slippin’ Kimmy was damn near unstoppable on her quest to save the home of Mr. Acker, the elderly man who gave her quite the talking to last time we saw her. Even Jimmy was taken aback by her doggedness. Jimmy! But we’ll get back to that.

This week’s installment of Better Call Saul picks up right where we left off – with a very confused, very beat-up Mike (Jonathan Banks) attempting to figure out where he is and how to get home. Despite his best efforts, Mike winds up back on a makeshift operating table under the care of one Barry Goodman, our old doctor friend from long ago. Barry has simply been instructed to keep Mike alive (perhaps against Mike’s wishes), and tells Mike there’s no use in trying to leave now – he wouldn’t survive the journey. And so he stays.

Now in the service of angry Mr. Acker, Saul Goodman is at the top of his game. He does not plan on letting Mesa Verde knock down this house to start development on their call center anytime soon, and he goes to extreme (and extremely annoying) lengths to ensure that construction is delayed. His first method? Simply removing the house numbers and taking advantage of the inability to properly identify the house’s address before tearing it down. The deputy’s hands are tied, and he has to make a call – and so Mr. Acker’s house stands another day. Jimmy and Kim’s dirty little secret (and talent for imitating the characters in this twisted tale) only brings the two of them closer, both literally and figuratively (helllllooo, weird roleplay sexy shower). With the help of another one of Better Call Saul‘s singularly great montages, we get a glimpse of all the ways Saul is willing to hustle to help Kim; he plants pottery outside the house to ensure that some experts will be called out to analyze it and make sure it isn’t of historical value, grinds up smoke detector batteries and covertly sprinkles them outside to spike radiation levels, and finally creates a “desert miracle” with the help of Jesus’ face on the side of Acker’s house, which causes a media storm.

By another miracle, Kevin and the Mesa Verde team don’t seem to suspect that Kim is in on this at all. After talking through everything (and even listening to Kim and Schweikart’s suggestion that they just move the site of the call center, because Acker is not going down without a fight), Kevin refuses to give in. He’s not running away from this fight, and the site isn’t moving “one goddamn inch”. The status quo-abiding Kim we’ve known in the past may have taken that answer, but she’s not satisfied. When Jimmy says it’s not worth it to keep going, she doesn’t buy it. She wants this to get nasty, personal, and dangerous, even against her better judgment. She’s not ready to give up yet. This side of Kim – the one so deeply shaken up by the realization that she’s no longer fighting for the little guy – is fascinating to behold, even if we can’t quite shake the feeling that this isn’t going to end well for her.

Jimmy, meanwhile, blows off a friendly call from Howard, who seems to have absolutely no idea that Jimmy is the one who bowling-balled his car. He seems tickled to make Howard wait for an answer about his job offer, and couldn’t care less about whatever is going on at HH&M. He brings back an old friend (“Mr. X”, who we haven’t seen since Season 1) to dig up some dirt on Kevin, but he comes up empty – much to Kim’s initial disappointment. She too believes Kevin is “dull like a Saturday night in Salt Lake City” until something in one of the photos from Kevin’s house catches her eye – and she shoots Jimmy a satisfied smile. She’s got something. Her victory is short-lived, however, when Schweikart reveals that he sees right through this whole series of Mesa Verde shenanigans and that he is giving her some other assignments for the time being. Kim’s come this far, though, and won’t take it. She makes a scene in front of the rest of the office until Schweikart concedes and allows her to keep Mesa Verde. (At least for now). We’d be lying if we said we weren’t terrified of what’s ahead for Kim, Slippin’ or otherwise.

Though he spends his days recovering, befriending his sweet hostess, and fixing a leaky window sill, Mike is still miserable, desperate to get out from under Gus’ thumb. When he’s finally able to get Gus on the phone, he can’t get a straight answer about why he’s there – and so he waits. He turns down a job offer from Jimmy, he contemplates the existence of the schoolchildren in this little town, he is mostly grumpy towards Barry, even if he did save his life. When Gus finally visits him, Mike is less than thrilled to chat. Gus tells Mike that he likes to keep his business as far from this place as possible, and Mike wonders if he likes being the little hero who supports these people – but Gus insists he prefers to keep it anonymous. It doesn’t make up for anything that he does, because he can’t change who he is.

Gus tells Mike the fountain in the square is a memorial, but doesn’t answer when Mike asks for who. Mike is at a crossroads; he can continue the way he is, drinking, brawling, estranged from his family, but the ending to that story is an obvious and boring one. Gus is in a war and he needs a soldier. Mike is unimpressed by this request and the idea of working for one drug dealer to take out others… but Gus is different. This is all different. He knows Mike understands. Mike can get behind revenge. The knowing look and exhale the two share as the episode comes to a close says all we need to know. Mike is in. And he’s not going anywhere.

There were a couple nice tie-ins from the Breaking Bad days in “Dedicado a Max”. Let’s take a look.

What do we have?

Mike gets cared for in Mexico by Barry Goodman.

Seem familiar? 

Barry is Gus’ head doctor, first seen in Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 11, “Crawl Space“, when he saves Gus from poisoning and Mike from gunshot wounds (a familiar situation indeed).

What do we have? 

The memorial fountain in the square is labeled “Dedicado a Max”.

Seem familiar?

The fountain is dedicated to Max Arciniega, Gus’s partner who was murdered by the Salamancas in Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 8, “Hermanos“.

That’s all for this week, folks! We’ll see you next time for round 6 of the season!

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. She is also a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Watch Better Call Saul Season 5 Episode 5 on AMC