'Better Call Saul' Review: Jimmy Blows Things Up In 'Wiedersehen'

Welcome to our weekly review-recaps of Better Call Saul season 4. Each week, we'll delve deep into the Breaking Bad prequel series, with spoilers galore. This week we examine episode 9 of season 4, "Wiedersehen."

"I messed it all up." So says Jimmy near the end of "Wiedersehen", an episode in which he comes very close to destroying everything via his own stupidity. In some ways, it's a wake-up call. As the episode closes, Jimmy is humbled. But we also know this will be short-lived: one day, he'll be Saul Goodman, and that humility will be long gone.This penultimate episode is building towards Jimmy's bar reinstatement hearing, but first, Jimmy and Kim pull off a scam together. Last week ended with Kim wanting more of that sweet con artist lifestyle, and this week she gets it, and thensome, as she and Jimmy pull a fast one in order to help out Mesa Verde.The scheme works, and Jimmy is hungry for more. His plan: as soon as he gets his law license back, he'll start turning his burner phone customers into clients. And then he and Kim can work their con artist magic to get their cases thrown out.Despite her thirst for more, Kim nixes this idea. She wants to "use their powers for good", and Jimmy reluctantly agrees. Still, things seem good between Jimmy and Kim. And Jimmy is convinced he's about to become a lawyer again.Of course, it doesn't go according to plan. While the bar reinstatement hearing goes exceedingly well – Jimmy knows his stuff – he tanks it in the end. Two things ruin his chances. One: when a lawyer asks him what the law means to him, Jimmy struggles to think of an answer. He eventually comes up with a pretty good story about helping his clients, but that hesitation was noticeable. And two: he never brings up Chuck. Not once. The lawyers overseeing his case even give him an opening, and specifically ask if he had any personal influences in his law career. This would be the perfect spot for Jimmy to suck it up and lie and say Chuck inspired him. Instead, he deflects, and he ultimately loses his chance to get his license back. The reasoning: he didn't seem sincere enough.Understandably upset, Jimmy races off to meet with Kim, and proceeds to blow up at her. He bemoans the fact that Kim didn't want to share an office with him anymore, and adds that he thinks Kim thinks of him as a piece of shit.Furious, Kim points out that she's been on Jimmy's side from day one. She constantly cleans up his messes, and goes to bat for him, dropping everything to help him out. And he has the nerve to treat her like this now. "Kick me when I'm down!" Jimmy shouts."Jimmy, you're always down," Kim sadly replies, and my heart broke into a billion pieces. I know Jimmy and Kim are doomed, but gosh darn it, I want them to work out – even if Jimmy deserves to be kicked to the curb for his bullshit.He knows it, too, and starts packing his things at Kim's place to move out. But Kim is too good (or too naive) to let it go. She asks Jimmy if he still wants to be a lawyer, and he responds in the affirmative. "Well, we can start with that," Kim replies, and please, give Rhea Seehorn all the awards. The whopping amount of emotion she packs into that one line is staggering. I remain consistently in awe of her work on this show.

I don't know about you, but I don't care for this Lalo Salamanca fellow. And I'm sure Nacho doesn't either. Lalo has Nacho taxiing him all over town on errands, and Nacho spends the entire episode silently frowning.First they go visit Hector, who is in a nursing home, in the state we saw him in in Breaking Bad. It's here where Hector gets his famous bell, and I have to take issue with this. I'm worried that too much of this season is becoming Solo-ized. That is to say, the writers are giving us origins for things we didn't need to be explained. Did we really need an origin story for Hector's bell? Lalo tells a story about how the bell is from a hotel Hector burned down in his glory days, and all I could think was: is this necessary?After the visit to Hector, Lalo and Nacho go to Los Pollos Hermanos, where Lalo has a tense meeting with Gus. First, he thanks Gus for taking care of Hector's medical expenses. Then, he floats an idea: Gus should join with the Salamancas against Don Eladio. Gus isn't falling for it, though. He coldly replies that he's happy with the current arrangement, and Lalo cheerfully accepts this, only to have Nacho drive him off to inspect one of Gus' chicken farms.

Oh, Werner. You've done it now. Mike's storyline this week focused on him keeping a close eye on a steadily deteriorating Werner. Things start out with a hair-raising sequence in which wiring for a demolition blast needs to be checked. Werner goes in to check things alone, and the way director Vince Gilligan (you might have heard of him) frames things, it seems like Werner is about to be blown to smithereens.Werner is fine, though. At least, physically. After the blast goes off without a hitch, all the Germans celebrate – except Werner. Mike, ever astute, wonders just what is going on with the sad German. Werner comes clean: he really misses his wife, and wants to go home to Germany and visit her, only for a few days.Mike nixes this idea, but offers Werner some extra phone time with his fräulein. This isn't enough for old Werner, though. So instead he finds a way to blind certain security cameras at the large warehouse all the Germans are living, and escape. Mike is understandably annoyed, and it's safe to say the friendship between the two men is kaput.