"Point and Shoot" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of Better Call Saul and the fifty-eighth episode of the series altogether. It is also the midseason premiere.
Summary[]
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On a distant beach, a single shoe is swept against the shore by the waves. The camera pans further inland over another shoe, then over a set of footprints, and then finally to Howard's abandoned Jaguar, the driver's side door left ajar. Inside, Howard's wallet and wedding ring have been left on the dashboard.
Act I[]
Inside Kim's apartment, moments after killing Howard, Lalo orders a terrified Jimmy and Kim to sit on the couch. Handing them a written address and a map, he states that he wants Jimmy to take Lalo's car to the address, use a revolver in the glove compartment to shoot the occupant when he answers the door, and take a photo of the body. Eager to prevent her from becoming Lalo's hostage, Jimmy suggests that Kim be sent to perform the task, over her horrified objections. Lalo agrees. Left with no choice, Kim leaves the apartment and drives away in Lalo's car.
With Kim gone, Lalo binds Jimmy to a chair and tells him of the assassination attempt at his compound. Because he was introduced to Jimmy through the man who betrayed him, Ignacio "Nacho" Varga, Lalo suspects that Jimmy was in on the plan. He leaves the apartment with Jimmy's car keys, telling Jimmy that he expects to be told "the whole story" when he gets back. In his absence, Jimmy struggles to escape his restraints and falls over on the floor next to Howard's body.
Meanwhile, Kim drives to the address, agonizing over what she is about to do. At a stoplight, a police car pulls up next to her; she rolls down the window and contemplates alerting the officers inside, but does not do so. Kim finally drives into a residential neighborhood and finds the house, Gus's residence. She reluctantly walks up to the front door and rings the bell. Just as she raises the revolver and is about to shoot the person answering the door, Mike appears from behind, disarms her, and forces her into the house.
Act II[]
Gus watches through surveillance monitors at the Ryman residence while Mike questions Kim. Mike is shocked to learn that Lalo is at her apartment and has taken Jimmy hostage, sending an order for Tyrus to get there immediately. Taking the underground passage to the Ryman residence, he tells Gus to stay there with two of Mike's men, then has two more come with him. Meanwhile, Lalo, hiding in Jimmy's car, watches Tyrus and his contingent leave the laundry. He climbs onto the roof, narrowly avoiding being spotted by security cameras, and begins tampering with a ventilation fan to sneak inside.
Back at the Ryman residence, Gus remains restless. Watching Kim through the monitors, he calls Victor, who is standing in the room with her, and asks to speak with her directly. Kim tells Gus that Lalo had originally wanted to send Jimmy to kill him, but that Jimmy had talked Lalo out of it by sending her instead. Gus realizes something is amiss by the fact that Lalo voluntarily changed his plan. He tells the two men guarding him to follow him somewhere.
Act III[]
Mike, Tyrus, and several of their men set up a perimeter around Kim's apartment complex. After establishing that the area is clear, they make their way inside the apartment and find Jimmy still tied to the chair. After being assured that Kim is safe, Jimmy tells Mike that Lalo left the apartment immediately after she did. Realizing where Lalo is going, Mike attempts to call Gus.
Meanwhile, Gus, accompanied by several bodyguards, enters the laundry. He sees the broken ventilation fan but reacts too late; Lalo appears and guns down the bodyguards. Holding Gus at gunpoint, he records a video for Don Eladio on his video camera. When Gus refuses to comply, Lalo shoots him in the chest, blocked by a bulletproof vest. Gus leads Lalo into the secret excavation beneath the laundry. There, speaking to the camera, Gus addresses Eladio himself, angrily denouncing the Cartel and vowing to kill off the Salamanca family. He suddenly disconnects a power cable, plunging the excavation into darkness. He retrieves the gun he had previously hidden and shoots back at the blindly-firing Lalo until he runs out of bullets. Illuminating the lights of an excavator, he discovers that Lalo has been shot in the throat; Lalo dies with a smile on his face. Gus collapses, realizing that he was hit in the abdomen, just below the vest, during the shootout.
Act IV[]
In the early hours of the morning, Lyle arrives at Los Pollos Hermanos to open the restaurant. He receives a call on his phone from Gus, who calmly tells him that he will be out of town for the week and that Lyle will be responsible for managing the restaurant in his absence. Unbeknownst to Lyle, Gus is being treated for his gunshot wound at the Ryman residence with Mike at his side. Once the two are left alone, Mike admonishes Gus for going to the laundry without informing him, saying that things could have gone down a lot differently.
At the apartment, Jimmy watches Mike's henchman, Arthur, emptying the refrigerator. Kim returns home with Mike; the couple tearfully embrace. Mike sits them down in the bedroom and tells them what is going to happen next: Howard's car will be driven several states away and abandoned next to the ocean, staged as a suicide; since the car was likely seen at the apartment before his disappearance, Jimmy and Kim are to tell the police that Howard showed up in a drug-addled stupor and left uneventfully. He stresses to them that they are to act casually for the rest of the day and pretend the events of the previous night did not happen. Jimmy sees Howard's body being stuffed in the old refrigerator while Mike's men wheel a new one into the apartment.
Later, in the excavation, Tyrus uses the excavator to dig a large hole while Lalo and Howard's bodies are being prepared for burial. Mike removes Howard's wallet, wedding ring and shoes, then looks on sympathetically as his body is dumped into the hole next to Lalo's. Mike climbs out of the excavation as Tyrus proceeds to fill in the double grave.
Trivia[]
Episode Poster
- This episode received an early screening as part of the Tribeca Film Festival on June 18, 2022.
- This is the episode that Bob Odenkirk was shooting when he had a heart attack in July 2021. The heart attack occurred between the scene where Lalo forced Jimmy and Kim to attempt to assassinate Gus. The scene in which Jimmy and Lalo are left alone in the apartment was shot weeks later.
- According to writer Gordon Smith, his first choice of episode title was "House Cat" before the "X and Y" title theme of most of the season was conceived.[1]
- The teaser was the final scene of the series to be shot. It is also the only scene in the series that was not filmed in New Mexico.
- The episode is the fourth to not use the traditional end credit theme composed by Dave Porter, opting to use another dramatic piece of music to accompany the somber tone of the ending, marking the death of another main character towards the end of the episode. The first three episodes to use this device were "Lantern", "Rock and Hard Place", and "Plan and Execution" following Chuck, Nacho, and Howard's respective demises.
- The title refers to Lalo's instructions to Jimmy while trying to force him to assassinate Gus.
- Ironically, Gus ends up killing Lalo in a similar fashion, as per the latter’s instructions to point and shoot until there are no bullets left.
- This is also how Jesse Pinkman would later murder Gale Boetticher, upon being forced by Walter White to do so in the Breaking Bad episode "Full Measure".
- Lalo's directions regarding how easy a revolver is to use mirror Gus' presumed reasons for choosing that particular gun to hide: all he had to do was grab it and point and shoot rather than cocking it and removing the safety.
- The title could also be a reference to how Lalo is holding a Point-and-Shoot video camera during his last moments.
- The scene of Kim slowly approaching Gus' Front Door to assassinate the latter is reminiscent to when Walt attempted the exact same thing on Gus in "Thirty-Eight Snub". In both instances, intense music is played in the background as each character inches closer towards the house.
- The scene of Kim raising the gun to shoot and kill the latter is also reminiscent of Jesse's reaction to kill Gale as well, although Kim wasn't as hesitant.
- Lalo Salamanca is the fourth main character to die in the series and the third in season 6.
- As of this episode, Mike is the only other main character, aside from Jimmy, to deal with all main characters from this series, whether alive or dead as in Howard's case.
- Lalo's death is also the last one seen onscreen in the series.
- Howard and Lalo are both buried together in a hidden hole by Mike’s men unceremoniously, similar to how Jack’s men unceremoniously buried Hank and Gomez in an unmarked grave together in "Ozymandias".
- To create the effect of the ditch that would be used as the grave for Lalo and Howard, Q Studios in Albuquerque allowed a six foot deep hole to be dug through the concrete floor of the sound stage that held the superlab set.
- Jimmy collapses sideways on the ground (whilst tied up in his chair) crying in shock and grief upon facing Howard’s corpse. He did this in a similar fashion to how Gus, Walt, and Jesse reacted to their respective losses of Max Arciniega, Hank Schrader, and Andrea Cantillo.
- While holding Jimmy hostage, Lalo reveals Nacho's role in Gus' assassination attempt on him in "Something Unforgivable" and points out that Nacho had introduced him to Jimmy and implies that he believes that Jimmy was involved. He promises to come back later for the whole story.
- This explains Jimmy's fear of Lalo sending hitmen after him in "Better Call Saul": he believes that Lalo is keeping his promise despite Mike assuring him that Lalo won't be coming back.
- When Jimmy protests his innocence, it is the same thing that he had told Walt and Jesse in "Better Call Saul" nearly word for word.
- Lalo refers to Nacho by his real name of Ignacio, confusing Jimmy at first as to who he's talking about.
- Gus's final exchange with Lalo echoes and parallels Nacho's final exchange with Gus in "Rock and Hard Place"; Nacho is killed after expressing hatred for the Salamancas, while Gus survives.
- Unlike all the intros from Season 5 and 6, The Tarantula Intro did not include a glitch that shows another footage of another episode's intro.
- Lalo's death is the last ever onscreen death of a Salamanca family member.
- Ironically, Lalo underestimating Gus and getting himself killed is also what killed Gus when he underestimated Walt.
Production[]
Credits[]
Starring
- Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill
- Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut
- Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler
- Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin
- Michael Mando as Nacho Varga (credit only)
- Tony Dalton as Lalo Salamanca
- Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo "Gus" Fring
Co-Starring
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Uncredited
- TBA
Featured Music[]
- Point and Shoot by Dave Porter (as Kim goes to Gus' house in order to kill him)
- Lament for Howard by Dave Porter (Final scene and credits)
Memorable Quotes[]
- "(in English) Ok. Drum roll please. Ta-da! (in Spanish) Don Eladio, I've heard some stories about this place. It took a bunch of German engineers ten months to build all of this. They used two hundred pounds of high explosive. Dug out 120,000 cubic meters of dirt and rock. And all... without disturbing the laundry up there. In the middle of a city with a million people! That's pretty badass, right? One moment, Don. Think of the laboratory you could put here, Don Eladio. How much meth you could make... that was his plan. Cut you out to become boss. And now here we are, in this big hole! Gustavo thought he was building an empire, but all he built himself was a tomb."
- ―Lalo records Eladio a virtual tour of the superlab.
- "Eladio... you greasy, bloated pimp. You talk of honor. But you have none. A pack of stray dogs fighting for scraps has more honor. Jackals. That's all you are! No vision. No patience. No thought. Stupid and impulsive! That is how I did all this. You couldn't see it, couldn't even conceive of it. And you Salamancas... you're the worst vermin of all. You say you believe in "blood for blood" but you only understand blood for money! You're whores! I understand blood for blood. Hector? Yeah, I kept him alive. Kept him broken. I will save him to the last. Before he dies, he will know I buried every one of you."
- ―Gus expresses his true feelings about Don Eladio and the Salamancas.
- Lalo: "Big talk. You done?"
- Gus: "No. Not yet."
- ―Lalo and Gus' final exchange.[src]
"Alright. Here's what's gonna happen: In a few days, Howard Hamlin's car will be found several states away by the water. The odometer will have rolled to the exact number of miles it took to get there. There will be cocaine in the upholstery. That was the story you were setting up for this guy, yeah? They'll call it a suicide, hoping the body will come washing up. It never will. At some point, you're gonna hear about it. Someone calls you, someone at the courthouse mentions it—the moment that happens—you call the cops. His car was here for hours last night. Good chance somebody noticed it. That means you are the last people to see him alive. Cops are gonna want to hear from you. You tell the cops you saw him—he came here, seemed like maybe he was chemically altered, didn't make a lick of sense. Then he left, that's all you know. You keep telling the lie you've been telling." ―Mike telling Jimmy and Kim what to do in the aftermath of Howard's death
Videos[]
- "Mazurka in the style of Chopin" by Leslie Howard