The Sergio Leone Connection And Other Easter Eggs, Callbacks, And Details From This Week’s ‘Better Call Saul’

This week’s episode of Better Call Saul, “Rebecca” focused on Kim, and we found out that Kim can take care of herself, that Chuck — by selling out his brother to Kim — is “rolling around in the dirt” with Jimmy, and that Mike’s situation with Tuco is not going to go away as easily as he had hoped. Brian has a full review of the episode, but here’s some callbacks, Easter Eggs, and other small details you may have missed.

Grosse Point Ann

That was Ann Cusack — sister of John and Joan Cusack — who played Chuck’s wife, Rebecca, in the teaser open. We, of course, have seen Rebecca’s name before, back in the Hoboken Squat Cobbler episode, when Chuck was playing a piece of music.

That piece of music Chuck was playing was meant to be played as a duet with a cello and a piano, and poor Chuck lost his cello accompaniment. His condition has cost him a lot. The music was also from a Molière play, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, which is about a man’s attempt to rise above this middle-class background and be accepted as an aristocrat. Fittingly, that’s what Jimmy is trying to do by becoming a corporate attorney, and in the case of both Jimmy and the protagonist of Molière’s play, they are bad fits for the bourgeoisie.

Breaking Bad Waitress

Brian over at Film Schlubs — the King of spotting Breaking Bad cameos — picked up even on the waitress having appeared on Breaking Bad.

Mesa Verde

The bank that Kim brought to HHM was Mesa Verde, which is also the bank that Walter White used in Breaking Bad. It’s also a bank involved in a robbery in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dynamite.

Vince Gilligan also hinted in the Insider podcast that we would again be seeing the two people from Mesa Verde Bank, Paige and Kevin.

“My Way”


In case you didn’t catch it, that song playing during Kim’s cold-call montage was the Gypsy King’s “A Mi Manera,” otherwise known as “My Way,” a Spanish cover of the Paul Anka song made famous by Frank Sinatra.

Loneliness and Power

These wide shots with “little people” in them are frequently used on Better Call Saul and suggest either loneliness or power, or both, according to the Insider podcast.

Dribs and Drabs


There’s a lot going on in the story that Chuck tells Kim about his and Jimmy’s dad. Now, we already know that Chuck feels some jealousy toward Jimmy. Jimmy had charmed his wife with lawyer jokes, after all, and Chuck understands that no matter what he accomplishes or how much of a man of substance he is, Jimmy will always be the more likable brother. It seems clear, too, that despite Chuck being named after his father, their Dad had a particular fondness for Jimmy.

In that context, viewers have to wonder how much of that story was true. He has a “personal vendetta” against Jimmy. He’s bringing up Jimmy when Kim only wants to know about her future and he’s basically using the opportunity to drive a wedge between Kim and Jimmy. Is he exacting some kind of revenge, after years of being out-charmed by his brother?

It’s hard to tell, exactly, what’s going on in Kim’s head, but it’s possible that she’s heard this story before, only from Jimmy’s perspective, and maybe she’s trying to figure what pieces of each version are true. Did Jimmy really steal the money? Maybe, but I saw one theory on Reddit suggesting maybe that $14,000 was used to help put Chuck through law school.

We’ll have to wait and see if that story comes back around again. Whatever the real story is, Kim is clearly suspicious of both the story and of Chuck’s motives. Like Jimmy, she’s from the mailroom, and though she has managed to successfully climb the social ladder, she’s still suspicious of the “bourgeoisie.”

Order Up


Of course, before Tio Salamanca enters a scene, there’s the ring of a bell. How very fitting.

$5,000

The $5,000 bribe that Tio offered Mike to take on Tuco’s gun charge is an interesting figure. This is not, obviously, an amount that a man who just received $25,000 for taking a beating would accept in exchange for confessing to owning the gun. Tio knows that. Nevertheless, Mike is clearly rattled.

What’s really going on here? Tio knows that Mike is an ex-cop, and while it’s unlikely that Tio knows that the bribe that Mike’s son accepted that got him killed was $5,000, the number probably sets off alarm bells in Mike’s brain. Mike is gonna think twice before making a decision, not just because he knows how much power Tio wields, but because he knows his son died over $5,000, and he doesn’t want to do the same.

(Side note: $5,000 is also the amount of money that Walter White received as a buyout for Gray Matter Technologies, which was later valued at more than $2 billion.”$5,000″ is not a good figure in the Breaking Bad universe.)

Hat Tip: Better Call Saul Insider podcast

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