I kept waiting for the explosion.
Since we know that Gus Fring used similar trucks to transport his product, I’m guessing the cartel does the same.
Unless I missed something, the point of that scene wasn’t to show product being smuggled into the US. That’s the subverted expectation! We find out the point of that scene is to show a badass repeat offender hired assassin arriving from across the border.
Speaking of which, someone refresh my memory: didn’t Saul introduce Walt to Gus Fring? In other words, is one of the possible plot points in Better Call Saul how he meets Giancarlo Esposito? Pleasepleaseplease say yes.
-Tom
Yes. Although I think a Fring/Mike connection would more than likely happen first. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what Mike’s involvement with Hector is leading up to.
An alternate theory to my original one re: the truck-driving assassin: maybe that guy’s in the country to kill Mike as part of “tying up loose ends” by Héctor after the deal to get Tuco off, and Mike, knowing the ways of bad guys, is taking the necessary precautions, one of which is making the spike strip.
What did I miss, how did you know the driver’s an assassin? Just because he has a hiding spot for a pistol?
It’s an fairly obvious assumption to make. At first the show makes you think that the setup is about someone smuggling something. By showing him fetching the gun and also making clear that he seems to stop by regularly, the script makes it a point at which the audience is supposed to go: “Oh, THIS is what it’s about.” If that guy was simply a small crook who smuggles drugs, there wouldn’t be much of a point in showing how he gets a gun.
The script doesn’t need to justify some random crook having a gun. This guy gets a gun for a specific reason, and he’s used to doing it.
You may be correct but I found it ambiguous at best.
As Tom said, it’s the show trusting the audience rather than spelling it out. I think it’s clear for the following reason:
First of all, him getting the gun and the popsicle sticks indicating that he’s done it multiple times before is the resolution of that thread. It’s the answer to the question the viewer has been wondering about up to that point. It’s an established narrative trick to drop the audience into a set piece for which it has no context and then, bit by bit, provide that context. In this case, we start off at a location we’ve never seen before with a character we’ve never seen before. And due to what we see, pretty much everyone will assume that it’s about smuggling drugs - but we still don’t know what exactly is going down. Initially there are some valid expectations, e.g. we’ll see how the cartel regularly smuggles goods and makes it to hide and mask them successfully. The other option would be that we’re going to see how the guy gets busted, and the loss of the goods then somehow triggers an event later on in the episode. But the latter doesn’t happen.
The guy makes it through the check, drives off and then stops the truck in the middle of nowhere. And obviously enough, most will assume that we’re now going to learn about the nature of goods or where they’re actually hidden. But the show then subverts expectations by showing you that it isn’t so much about what’s in the back of the truck, but rather the person who’s driving it. This isn’t some random smuggler who simply arms himself. Random crooks being armed isn’t something the show would need to explain.
I still think he’s a drug smuggler, and the gun scene existed for the sole purpose of displaying the Popsicle-stick collection in order to show an established routine. The gun is merely for protection during the last leg of the transport to Tio and his crew.
The scene where Mike is scoping out the garage when they pull two vehicles into adjacent bays, before pulling down the doors, tells me they’re just moving product from the truck to the car, as evidenced by the sound of the impact wrenches that go work dissembling the vehicle(s) (presumably just the truck) once they’re out of sight.
It could be the drugs are hidden in the tires themselves, or it could be that they’re hidden somewhere else in the truck. But, whatever the case, Mike has it in his head to make a spike strip and interfere with the delivery of… whatever. And my guess is that he’s going through this rigmarole to screw with a drug shipment, not some random hitman. Tio already showed his hand with the cousins, so I don’t see a reason (within the confines of the story) why he’d go through the trouble of calling in yet another assassin when he’s already got at least two in town.
The drugs are hidden in the delivery truck in such a way that the routine inspections of parcel at the border aren’t finding them.
Yep, kerzain’s post above mirrors my thoughts.
Yeah, me too. It does sound like a reasonable assumption, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it. What about the popsicle truck showing up at the Mexican resturant and dropping something off, then the visit by Tio Hector, and then later on, the truck goes to another location where they dig about in the trunk. I don’t know. Is that what hired assassins do?
Yeah, me too (now that I read it).
I’m a little disappointed the cousins showed up episode before last, but no one has gotten an axe to the head yet. It’s classic case of Chekhov’s assassins!
But, I do agree that it’s good TV. Maybe not the heights of BB just yet, but I’m holding out hope.
I took it to be a smuggler as well. If the driver was an assassin, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence for him being more notable or threatening than the Cousins. And couldn’t he find someone a little more local?
Damn Mexicans taking all the jobs! The Trump Wall will put a stop to that and US born and bred assassins will once again ply their trade from sea to shining sea!
Man, does anyone else miss their old college days when you had to rush to Kinkos to get that paper all copied out in a nice little format for the cranky professor? Never mind. I don’t miss it at all but that last episode brought back some memories.
So apparently someone figured out that
Too Much Free Time
the first letters of the episode names this season are an anagram of “Fring’s back”
That’s neat!
Chuck is my favorite character in the show, and the Jimmy/Chuck (and now Kim/Chuck) interactions the most interesting and compelling to me.
I fucking hate cliffhangers.
Yeah, but then again it was to be expected for the penultimate episode. Ah well… one week to go! I’m already bummed out by the thought of having to wait another ten or so months for season 3…
So many great moments and performances in the latest episode. Chuck getting conned, but instantly realizing what happened. Him getting pissed at Jimmy was a nice reversal of the ending of the first season, obviously. Kim covering for Jimmy after she realized what’s at stake for him. Jimmy pulling the story about Rupert Holmes out of his ass. Nacho’s and Mike’s encounter. The moment when Kim very pointedly notes what a sharp lawyer Chuck is and and thus makes Jimmy nervous - rightfully so.
(Also, yeah, that driver was just your average smuggler. I stand corrected!)