Better Call Saul 6.12: Waterworks
Sep. 13th, 2025 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerEpisode 6.12 of Better Call Saul is entitled Waterworks. It's the second-to-last episode in the series. The final four episodes of BCS are structured as a flash-forward to Saul's life after the events of Breaking Bad. It's an interesting end cap to BB as BCS was a prequel to BB. Now, with these final four episodes it's a both a prequel and a sequel.
While the idea of a wraparound prequel/sequel is interesting, BCS's execution is lacking. The first two of these four episodes were so off-putting that I simply got up and walked away at the start of the third. The opening credits of ep. 6.12 started rolling and I decided I didn't care anymore. (Cue the Seven Deadly Words: Why do I care about these characters?) It's only now, 4 months later, that I decided to see how it ends.
Episode 6.12 isn't the end. That would be 6.13. But 6.12 helps get us there. And it takes too damn long doing it.
In Waterworks we see Kim's new life. She divorced Jimmy/Saul after their con against Howard inadvertently got him killed by a drug lord. She announced her intent to divorce in ep. 6.09. Here we see that it was official. And Jimmy was a jerk about it, treating her like crap at the time.A character who previous was partly sympathetic, even while also flawed, turn into an all-out jerk is a key reason for uttering those Seven Deadly Words.)
At the end of the flash-back scene where Kim gets Jimmy to sign the divorce papers, she meets Jesse Pinkman, portrayed by a visibly aged Aaron Paul. I saw flashback because even though this scene is in the timeline of the main BCS series, it's a jump back from these jump-forward episodes... and because Aaron Paul is now, like 18 years older than he would've been playing an age-appropriate Jesse Pinkman.
The scene is so bad. Paul is so visibly too old to be playing a much younger Pinkman. He even sounds like an old man rather than the early-20-something Pinkman. It's like that parody scene from 30 Rock where cynical producers try to cast Steve Buscemi as a teenager. The writers here would've done better to leave clearly middle-age Aaron Paul out.
Anyway... I was saying the episode was too long. In Kim's new life approximately 5 years later she's living in a small town in Florida with a guy named Glen (unclear if they're married or just BF/GF). It's a completely banal existence. She works at a sprinkler company named Waterworks doing marketing. Her colleagues and friends are all dull people. They spend the day gossiping about trivial stuff and worrying about whether Miracle Whip™ tastes as good in a tuna fish salad as real mayonnaise.
I felt genuinely sad for Kim, previously a talented and driven lawyer, living such a stultifying life. I know I would go crazy in such a situation. And while the episode could've made this point in a few minutes, they stretch it out 3x as long as it needs to be. They took it from "Wow, I feel sad for Kim," to, "Now you're just torturing us."
Ep. 6.12 also picks up on a scene that was left as a cliffhanger at the end of 6.11. Saul is robbing a cancer-stricken rich person whom he and his buddies/patsies in Omaha have targeted in their identity theft scam. Not content just to steal the innocent man's identity and financial data, though, Saul starts robbing his house. WHY? As I've noted before, Saul doesn't need the money. He is just being evil now.
This robbery scene also goes on too long. Not only does it become painful for us viewer, but Saul gets trapped by complications from being in the victim's house too long. These complications ultimately lead to Saul's assumed identity as Gene Takavic unraveling. He is recognized as Saul Goodman, fugitive wanted on charges of drug dealing and felony murder, and flees ahead of the police.
While the idea of a wraparound prequel/sequel is interesting, BCS's execution is lacking. The first two of these four episodes were so off-putting that I simply got up and walked away at the start of the third. The opening credits of ep. 6.12 started rolling and I decided I didn't care anymore. (Cue the Seven Deadly Words: Why do I care about these characters?) It's only now, 4 months later, that I decided to see how it ends.
Episode 6.12 isn't the end. That would be 6.13. But 6.12 helps get us there. And it takes too damn long doing it.
In Waterworks we see Kim's new life. She divorced Jimmy/Saul after their con against Howard inadvertently got him killed by a drug lord. She announced her intent to divorce in ep. 6.09. Here we see that it was official. And Jimmy was a jerk about it, treating her like crap at the time.A character who previous was partly sympathetic, even while also flawed, turn into an all-out jerk is a key reason for uttering those Seven Deadly Words.)
At the end of the flash-back scene where Kim gets Jimmy to sign the divorce papers, she meets Jesse Pinkman, portrayed by a visibly aged Aaron Paul. I saw flashback because even though this scene is in the timeline of the main BCS series, it's a jump back from these jump-forward episodes... and because Aaron Paul is now, like 18 years older than he would've been playing an age-appropriate Jesse Pinkman.
The scene is so bad. Paul is so visibly too old to be playing a much younger Pinkman. He even sounds like an old man rather than the early-20-something Pinkman. It's like that parody scene from 30 Rock where cynical producers try to cast Steve Buscemi as a teenager. The writers here would've done better to leave clearly middle-age Aaron Paul out.
Anyway... I was saying the episode was too long. In Kim's new life approximately 5 years later she's living in a small town in Florida with a guy named Glen (unclear if they're married or just BF/GF). It's a completely banal existence. She works at a sprinkler company named Waterworks doing marketing. Her colleagues and friends are all dull people. They spend the day gossiping about trivial stuff and worrying about whether Miracle Whip™ tastes as good in a tuna fish salad as real mayonnaise.
I felt genuinely sad for Kim, previously a talented and driven lawyer, living such a stultifying life. I know I would go crazy in such a situation. And while the episode could've made this point in a few minutes, they stretch it out 3x as long as it needs to be. They took it from "Wow, I feel sad for Kim," to, "Now you're just torturing us."
Ep. 6.12 also picks up on a scene that was left as a cliffhanger at the end of 6.11. Saul is robbing a cancer-stricken rich person whom he and his buddies/patsies in Omaha have targeted in their identity theft scam. Not content just to steal the innocent man's identity and financial data, though, Saul starts robbing his house. WHY? As I've noted before, Saul doesn't need the money. He is just being evil now.
This robbery scene also goes on too long. Not only does it become painful for us viewer, but Saul gets trapped by complications from being in the victim's house too long. These complications ultimately lead to Saul's assumed identity as Gene Takavic unraveling. He is recognized as Saul Goodman, fugitive wanted on charges of drug dealing and felony murder, and flees ahead of the police.
