"50% Off" is the second episode of the fifth season of Better Call Saul and the forty-second episode of the series altogether.
Summary[]
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Sticky and Ron, two tweakers who had previously attended Saul Goodman's promotional burner phone sale, go on a drug-induced crime spree throughout the city. In the morning they wake up after passing out behind the wheel of the car, which has crashed into the mailbox of a suburban house. The two remark that "It's Tuesday.., which means 50% off!" and they race off in their car. The camera pans out to reveal a garden gnome the two had stolen broken on the road.
Act I[]
Nacho is asleep with Jo in bed next to him. All of a sudden, some men led by Tyrus burst into his house, and before he can grab his gun or escape, they pin him down and bring him into a car. They head to a restaurant where Nacho's father is, where he watches as Gustavo Fring and Victor threaten him. Gus gets into the car and tells Nacho that Lalo Salamanca is a problem and that he will have to find a way to earn his trust and sabotage the operation from the inside.
In the morning while they're getting ready to work, Jimmy apologizes for taking up her half of the closet space with his suits and that he'll be storing them at the Day Spa and Nail. When Jimmy asks about Bobby, she tells him that he took the five months deal, which surprises him. As Kim is about to drive to work, Jimmy unexpectedly gets into the passenger seat and requests to show her something for just a few minutes. They drive to an open house, but Kim is apprehensive as she feels it's too early for him to buy a home, but she reassures him that she really likes it. While viewing one of the spacious rooms in the home, Kim abruptly informs Jimmy that she doesn't want him to scam her clients, which Jimmy agrees. He also confesses that he created a 50% off deal for legal services against her advice, but eventually charms her over by showing her the house's walk-in closet and the multi-shower head system, which Kim playfully uses to get Jimmy soaked. This gets them kicked out by the realtor with Kim placated about Jimmy's homeowning ambitions.
Act II[]
Lalo visits his uncle Hector Salamanca at Casa Tranquila and discusses Gus' mysterious new construction project. Lalo doesn't buy Gus' cover story about building a new chicken refrigeration facility, and expresses disapproval that Don Juan Bolsa and Don Eladio Vuente believe Gus. An elder care worker reminds Lalo to keep Hector hydrated and hands him a fruit flavored drink. Lalo dumps some of it and adds liquor from a hip flask into the drink and serves it to Hector. Lalo tastes the drink and adds more liquor to it.
Mike wakes up at his home after what looks like a night of heavy drinking. He receives a call from Stacey Ehrmantraut, who tells him that she needs him to watch Kaylee that very day since she has to work. Stacey also tells Mike that Kaylee needs to do her homework before she helps him build the backyard tree house. Mike and Kaylee review the multiplication table by relating multiples of seven to football scores. However the conversation inadvertently leads to Kaylee commenting on how her dad Matt was a Philadelphia Eagles fan, and quickly dovetails into an uncomfortable conversation about what he was like as a kid. She also assumes that Mike taught Matt how to be a good officer. Reaching a tipping point, Mike lashes at Kaylee about not placing the grips on the tree house stairs correctly and then tells her that she's done, causing Kaylee to run back into the house. That night when Stacey gets back home, Mike tells her that she was in her room all day and she hadn't eaten dinner yet and refuses to elaborate on what happened.
Act III[]
The same two tweakers from the teaser come back to the Fifth Street Apartment looking for more cocaine, this time ordering ten bags rather than their usual two. Mouse sends the ten bags down the rain gutter, but they appear to be stuck. All three yell back and forth, demanding they get their product since they already paid Arlo.
Across town, Lalo, Nacho, Carlos, Blingy, Domingo, and Javier are at Nacho's House playing poker. Lalo bluffs with 7+2 off-suit (the worst possible starting hand). Domingo has a pair of 8s with an 8 on the table, giving him three of a kind, but when Lalo bets big on the river, Domingo folds. Lalo shows his terrible hand and then, after looking at Domingo's cards, says he was crazy for folding and calls him "ocho loco" (Spanish for "crazy eight"), giving birth to his future criminal nickname. Domingo gets a call from one of the Fifth Street dealers saying there's a problem. He arrives at the scene and climbs onto a ladder in order to clear the blockage. Unfortunately for Domingo, a police car shows up, and the four other run off, leaving Domingo stranded at the top of the ladder. Police officers walk onto the scene and one asks him what he's doing, to which he replies that he was fixing the gutter. After tapping on it once more, Domingo inadvertently causes the cocaine packets to finally fall out of the chute.
Lalo, Mouse, Arlo, and Nacho sit in Lalo's car and watch from a safe distance as police prepare to raid the stash house. Lalo asks if they were able to save any of the product before the cops came but Mouse says it was left behind. Nacho, remembering Gus' request to gain Lalo's trust, boldly decides to take matters into his own hands by climbing onto the roof of an adjacent building, then jumping onto another where the gang has their product stored. The others watch tensely (with Lalo eating a snack) as a SWAT team lines up outside the door and prepares to breach it. Nacho climbs in through the roof and salvages several bags of product before jumping out through a window just as the reinforced door is breached. He surprises the trio by geting back to the car and showing the bags; Lalo commends his actions in salvaging the gang's supply.
Act IV[]
Jimmy uses his newfound energy to finesse and sweet-talk his way through the Bernalillo County Courthouse. He prepares for a monologue to give before ADA Suzanne Ericsen, but instead he encounters ADA Bill Oakley, who is unimpressed by the film crew's "candid camera"-like stunt the last time they met and refuses to budge on a sentencing deal for one of Jimmy's clients. In a long shot scene, he speaks to a clerk and some clients before running to Oakley again, who has just exited the courtroom and is flabbergasted that Jimmy's client had witnesses. Oakley then agrees to commute the sentence. Jimmy encounters Howard Hamlin, who congratulates him on getting his law license reinstated. Howard invites him to have lunch, only to be interrupted when Jimmy spots Ericsen leaving a courtroom and follows her down the hall. Ericsen refuses to discuss any of his 16 cases she is prosecuting until his appointment next week, telling him he's just trying to make as much money as possible by maximizing the turnover of clients, before stepping into an elevator.
Back at the El Michoacáno restaurant, Lalo asks Nacho how long he's known Domingo and whether he's been inside jail before. Nacho replies that he's been family friends for a long time, and Domingo has not been in jail but he will keep his mouth shut. As Lalo stares at him, Nacho asks if he wants him to take care of it. However, Lalo replies that he has something much better in mind for Domingo.
Another day at the courthouse, Jimmy follows Ericsen into an elevator, which promptly malfunctions as it begins ascending to the third floor. They both start reading over their case files while waiting, but Jimmy reads off his arguments to himself out loud, prompting Ericsen to tell him to stop. He does it again and she eventually gives in as they start discussing the plea deals in his cases. In total they're stuck in the elevator for 20 minutes, and he reminds Ericsen of the three remaining cases he has with her next week. As Ericsen walks down the hallway, Jimmy thanks the elevator repairman for engineering the accident, revealing that Jimmy had planned it all along. Jimmy pays the repairman with an envelope of money and guarantees that the repairman's brother (which Jimmy is representing) will have a clean record.
On the street outside court, Jimmy is talking to his clients on his wireless headset and eating a mint chip ice cream cone, when Nacho and Blingy pull up to him on the sidewalk. Jimmy greets Nacho, as the two have not seen each other for over two years, and Nacho orders him to get into the back of the car. Jimmy tries to enter, but Nacho gestures at the ice cream, which Jimmy unceremoniously drops on the sidewalk.
Trivia[]
- Norberto Barba's wife accidentally leaked a set photo from the episode on Twitter. It was later revealed to be from the final scene of the episode.
- According to the writer of the episode on the Better Call Saul Insider Podcast, the two druggies in the beginning montage are named Sticky and Ron in the script. In the credits however, they are only listed as “druggie”. Peter Gould confirmed this was an oversight on their part. The only hint to their names within the episode is when they rap and one of the druggies calls himself “Mr. Sticky”.
- As Mike reminisces about the memories of his past son with Kaylee, he mentions that Matt envisioned to become a deep sea explorer 'like Jacques Cousteau'. This highlight several similarities between Mike and Jacques Cousteau's personalities :
- Both had trouble communicating with their sons.
- Both sons engaged in the same carreer as their fathers.
- Both lost their sons tragically.
- In the episode, Jimmy asks Kim if she would like to watch a Scorsese film that will be airing later that night. After the episode aired on AMC, AMC aired Goodfellas, a film directed by Scorsese.
- The broken garden gnome seen in the teaser may be a callback to several references in the Breaking Bad universe:
- First, as seen in the episode itself, it lands in a similar angle as the ice cream cone at the end of the episode does, with the camera fading out.
- The gnome itself resembles (or is a duplicate of) Greenbrier the Gnome in Skinny Pete's backyard in El Camino, where the name Greenbrier was the working title for this film. In addition, this gnome became the crew's mascot after appearing in an early scene that was ultimately cut for time, in which it gets run over and destroyed by the titular El Camino.
- The fact that the gnome was missing part of his face could represent Jimmy losing a piece of himself upon his transition into Saul Goodman.
Production[]
Credits[]
Starring
Guest Starring
Co-Starring
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Uncredited
- Stephanie Hill as Customer
- Crystal Mayes as Escort / Club Girl
Featured Music[]
- "This Is Chai" by CHAI (during Ron and Sticky's drug-induced joyride throughout the city)
- "Harder" by Raphael Lake, Ben Fisher & Royal Baggs (Ron and Sticky start rapping while waiting for their drugs to get retrieved)
- "Mundo Perdido" by Petey Quezada (Lalo tells Nacho to make the call of whether to send the guys out, then invite him to join him for breakfast)
Memorable Quotes[]
- Sticky: "What day is it?"
- Ron: "Uh... Tuesday."
- Sticky: "Tuesday? You know what that means?"
- Both: "Fifty percent off!"
- ―Ron and Sticky wake up in their car after a drug-fueled binge across town.
- Krazy-8: "Call. [lays stack of chips]"
- Nacho: "Fairgrounds Flats is doing really good. Lots of traffic."
- Lalo: "[to Nacho] Hey, shut up while I'm in a hand. [long pause] You know what? [throws two stacks of chips to the center of the table] Two hundred."
- Krazy-8: "[looks at cards for a moment before laying down two] It's too deep for me. [Lalo quickly reveals a 7+2 suit. Krazy-8 stares at Lalo in disbelief]"
- Lalo: "[to Krazy-8] Ha! Did I get you? Let me see what you had. [flips over Krazy-8's cards to show a pair of 8s] You had a set? You had three 8's on the turn, and you don't risk. And then you fold at the river. That's too bad. Ocho Loco, this guy, huh? [Lalo and the other cartel members laugh as he brings the chips towards his side]"
- Lalo: "Alright, guys, give me your cards."
- Krazy-8: "[hears cell phone buzzing] Sorry. Yeah? ...Hold up. [hangs up phone] Problem on Fifth Street. Some skells, they didn't get their stuff."
- Nacho: "It's your crew. [Krazy-8 gets up and leaves the table]"
- Lalo: "Off you go, Ocho Loco."
- ―Lalo, Nacho, Krazy-8 and other members of the cartel play poker.
- Officer #1: "Is this your vehicle?"
- Krazy-8: "Uh... No, sir."
- Officer #1: "Wanna come down here?"
- Krazy-8: "No problem, officer."
- Officer #2: "Whatcha doing up there?"
- Krazy-8: "Just fixing a drain pipe. Some kind of block. [Krazy-8 taps on the pipe twice; several cocaine packets come flying out]"
- Officer #2: "Guess you fixed it."
- ―Krazy-8 gets caught by police while trying to dislodge drugs out of a drain pipe.
Videos[]
