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"Bagman" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of Better Call Saul and the forty-eighth episode of the series altogether.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

At a Cartel stash house in Mexico stocked with luxury cars and a vault, two men clean a car whose seats are covered in blood. The Cousins arrive at the stash house and silently fill two duffel bags with $7 million in cash, required for Lalo's bail in Albuquerque. After they depart, the manager of the stash house calls someone and informs them about the Cousins' visit.

Act I[]

Lalo, still being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, is amused after reading a newspaper report on the apparent arson of the Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant in Los Lunas. He gives Jimmy directions to the site of his rendezvous with the Cousins. Jimmy tries to get out of the assignment by suggesting that they can come directly to Albuquerque or that Nacho can pick it up. Lalo refuses, assuring Jimmy that he is "the guy for this". When he is still reluctant, Lalo says that he will find someone else. Jimmy is about to leave, but turns around at the door and demands $100,000 as a commission. Lalo agrees.

Kim returns to the apartment and is surprised to see Jimmy taking a bath in the evening. He tells her that he is preparing for an early morning trip the next day. After coming out of the bath, he tells Kim about his assignment in the desert. Kim expresses her strong disapproval, even offering to go with him to the meet. After some coaxing and cajoling, Jimmy is able to convince her to let him take the trip.

Act II[]

Having crossed the border into Mexico, a nervous Jimmy stands near a well designated as the meeting spot, practicing his prepared Spanish dialogue as well as straightening his tie and cleaning a spot off his shoe with some drinking water. After some time, the Cousins arrive. Jimmy tells them that he is the abogado (lawyer) sent by Lalo. The Cousins maintain their characteristic reticence and silently place the duffel bags in Jimmy's hands. Without saying a single word, they return to their car and leave. Jimmy puts the bags in the trunk of his Suzuki and checks the contents.

During his return journey to Albuquerque, an SUV starts to trail Jimmy. Soon he is surrounded by a convoy of vehicles and is forced to stop. Armed men exit the vehicles and force Jimmy to surrender. The leader of the gunmen snatches Jimmy's keys and checks the trunk for the bags. He orders his men to kill Jimmy, but just before one of the men can pull the trigger, he is shot dead by an unseen sniper. A gunfight ensues as Jimmy drops on the ground and crawls behind his car for cover. The gunmen get picked off one by one by the sniper, but one of them escapes. The sniper approaches from his hideout and is revealed to be Mike. Mike is forced to drive Jimmy's car after he finds out gunfire from the suriving gunman has hit the radiator in his truck and it is now leaking fluid.

Act III[]

As they are driving, Mike tries to console a traumatized Jimmy by saying that he should be happy that he's alive. Suddenly, the engine sputters to a halt. After further inspection, Mike concludes that the alternator was shot. The two men collect all the essentials from the car and wreck it by pushing it into a nearby ravine. They leave the road to avoid the surviving gunman, traveling through the open desert. Jimmy carries the heavy, money-filled duffel bags.

When they stop at a spot to rest, Jimmy suggests digging a hole to hide the bags for later retrieval. Mike disagrees, but Jimmy attempts to dig anyway with his license plate. Mike then spots the surviving gunman's SUV in the distance. He orders Jimmy to stop digging since the reflective license plate might attract his attention. After the SUV leaves, Mike states the gunman is doing a grid search for them, indicating he must have found Jimmy's wrecked car.

As the sun starts to set, Mike builds a campsite. Jimmy suggests continuing the journey through the night, which will be cooler than during the day, but Mike dismisses the idea as it'll get them injured from an unseen fall. Jimmy laments to Mike that Kim will be worried at his absence, saying she is probably thinking that his dead body is lying in a ditch, inadvertently revealing that she knows about Jimmy's criminal dealings. Mike is concerned that she might inform the police or spill the secret to friends, but Jimmy vouches for her. Mike then covers himself in a space blanket to keep himself warm. He offers Jimmy one, but he refuses.

Act IV[]

Kim visits Lalo in the MDC, demanding that he divulge the location of Jimmy's assignment. Lalo is irritated to hear that Kim knows about the trip, and is amused upon hearing that she's Jimmy's wife. He tells her that there is no point in her knowing about Jimmy's whereabouts since he has the survival skills of a cucaracha (cockroach), suggesting that she wait a day to see whether he is still alive. Lalo leaves the meeting abruptly, refusing to help Kim and ignoring her pleas.

Meanwhile, Jimmy and Mike continue their arduous walk. Mike advises Jimmy to use his Davis & Main travel mug to collect his own urine since his water supply is very low. Later, Mike refuses to give Jimmy more than a bottle cap full of water, again suggesting to drink the urine if he is very thirsty. Unable to bear the heavy load of the bags, Jimmy starts to drag them instead of carrying. After some time, one of the bags tears open and bills fall out. As Jimmy attempts to collect them, he steps on a cactus and injures his foot. He lies down and says he cannot take it anymore. Mike tells him that he should remember the reason why he is doing all of this in the first place. When Jimmy asks Mike what his motivation is, he says he has people who are not involved in the game but depend on him for survival—referring to Stacey and Kaylee.

Mike spots the surviving gunman driving on the horizon and orders Jimmy to stay down, but Jimmy is moved by Mike's pep talk. He wraps himself with Mike's space blanket so that the gunman will spot him, ordering Mike to prepare his sniper rifle. He carries the bags toward the nearby road as bait for Mike's target. The gunman spots Jimmy and drives toward him at full speed. Mike takes an initial shot but misses, then takes a second shot that successfully hits the gunman as he was about to run Jimmy over. The car flips over and crashes. Mike inspects the crash and finds the gunman's water jug has been destroyed in the crash. Thirsty and frustrated, Jimmy takes his D&M bottle and gulps a good amount of urine. Mike and Jimmy continue their trip down the road.

Trivia[]

  • The episode title refers to Kim Wexler's comment about Jimmy not being a bagman for the cartel, a job he takes on by retrieving Lalo Salamanca's bail money.
  • This episode is the second of two episodes so far in Better Call Saul to be directed by Vince Gilligan but isn't written by him. The other episode is "Wiedersehen".
  • This episode marks the final time Jimmy uses his 1998 Suzuki Esteem, which he had been using since the start of Better Call Saul.
  • This episode marks the first time Jimmy is directly and purposefully responsible for someone's death, luring out Tiburón so that Mike Ehrmantraut can kill him.
  • Lalo's explanation to pass Nacho with the "bagman" role is one of the indications that he doesn't fully trust him, despite feeding Nacho the information that is leaked to Fring.
  • Mike uses the M40A1 rifle he bought from Lawson in "Klick" to kill Tiburón.
  • Mike covering himself with a space blanket to protect from the cold and later Jimmy using it as bait nods to how Chuck McGill also used to wrap a space blanket around himself, but to protect from electromagnetic fields.
    • Despite the cold, Jimmy refuses to cover himself with the blanket, probably because of the symbol of Chuck's illness that it represents.
  • Mike is seen removing the Esteem's gas cap and placing it in his bag next to a tracking device monitor, suggesting that he found Jimmy by placing one of Gus' previously seen tracking devices on Jimmy's car.
  • The scene where Mike and Jimmy rest for the night near a rock formation was actually on a set stage.
  • Although Mike suggests it, drinking one's urine to combat dehydration under desperate circumstances is inadvisable, as the high concentration of minerals and sodium within the urine will actually dehydrate the body at a faster rate.
  • A tarantula can be spotted in this episode, likely referencing the one that Drew Sharp will pick up five years in the future in the Breaking Bad episode "Dead Freight".
  • In the teaser, Marco Salamanca drops a stack of money while he loads one of the duffel bags full of cash. A similar act of clumsiness would cost him his life in the Breaking Bad episode "One Minute", as he dropped a hollow point bullet during a gunfight with Hank Schrader that was eventually used by Hank to fatally shoot him in the head.
  • $7,100,000 in $100 bills would weigh 150 lbs, meaning each bag weighed 75 lbs.
  • The names of the gang members who try to rob Jimmy are revealed through the credits, and they are all named according to their roles throughout the episode:
    • Jefe, which means "Boss" in Spanish, was the leader of the gang.
    • Matador, which means "Killer" in Spanish, was the gang member who was going to execute Jimmy.
    • Tiburón, which means "Shark" in Spanish, survives the initial assault and spends the rest of the episode hunting Jimmy and Mike through the desert in his car; In this case, Tiburón is the quick shark hunting for the slow little fish, Jimmy and Mike.
  • During production of the scene where Jimmy and Mike wait under a tree, a dog wandered onto set and sat between Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks. After it came onto set a second time, Odenkirk was given permission by the Navajo Nation to take the dog. It was later discovered to be pregnant and gave birth to a litter of eight (with Rhea Seehorn acting as a midwife). The dog was eventually adopted and given the name "Lucky" by Patrick Fabian, who also took in one of the puppies.
  • The Mexican stash house where the Cousins collected bail money was shot at Flat 12 Gallery, a Dallas, Texas-based collector car dealer. Among the cars depicted in the garage is a one-off replica of the Bravado Banshee from Grand Theft Auto V, originally built as a promotional prize for a 2013 GameStop contest and acquired by Flat 12 Gallery later in December 2018.

Production[]

Credits[]

Co-Starring

  • Christopher M. Campos as Falling Mercenary
  • Orion Carrington as Correctional Officer
  • Giancarlo Beltran as Playful Scrubber
  • Tony Sedillo as Stash House Scrubber
  • Alvin Hysong as Stash House Boss

Uncredited

  • TBA

Featured Music[]

  • “Déjame Quererte” by César Castro y su Conjunto
  • "I Got The..." by Labi Siffre

Memorable Quotes[]

"Jimmy, you are an attorney, not a bagman. No amount of money is worth this."
―Kim to Jimmy

Kim: "I know who you are... who you actually are. We have something in common. You want to know where your money is. I want to find Saul Goodman. If you tell me where you sent him, I won't alert the authorities. I won't tell anyone. I will find him, and you'll get your money. Mr. Salamanca..."
Lalo: "Who the hell are you that he tells you my business?"
Kim: "He didn't betray your confidence. We're married, which means I have spousal privilege... anything he says to me stays with me. No one can make me discuss it. It's as bulletproof as lawyer-client privilege."
Lalo: "So you're his wife?"
Kim: "Yes."
Lalo: "Una guera. Bien por él. So, you're his wife, and you... love him. And he didn't come home last night, and you got scared enough to come down here and talk to me. What makes you think he didn't run off with my money, huh?"
Kim: "He did not run off with your money."
Lalo: "Yeah, maybe not. Not without you."
Kim: "Just tell me where you sent him. That's all I need."
Lalo: "I don't think so. Your man... he's, um, he's like the cucaracha... you know, a born survivor. If trouble found him, give it a day. If he's alive, he'll show."
Kim: "Mm. And if he's...?"
Lalo: "Well, then, day's not gonna make a difference, is it? Alright, well... nice to meet you, Mrs. Goodman."
Kim: "Wait, um... Mr. Salamanca..."
Lalo: "Done!"
―Kim talking with Lalo Salamanca about Jimmy.

"I have people waiting for me. They don't know what I do. They never will. They're protected. But I do what I do so they can have a better life. And if I live or if I die, it really doesn't make a difference to me as long as they have what they need. So when it is my time to go, I will go knowing I did everything I could for them."
―Mike to Jimmy


Videos[]

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