Ever since the first time I watched Bagman, I've thought the episode was amazing. What's not to love about the silly lawyer man being thrown into a desert with the grumpy old fella from breaking bad? Sure, the episode is a lot of fun, and definitely has a big appeal when you first watch it, or if you take it at face value, but it's when you take a closer look that the genius of Bagman becomes clear.

The episode is a total deconstruction of Saul Goodman, stripping down the walls he has built up throughout the series so far. Most of the episode is based around Jimmy fetching seven million dollars for Lalo Salamanca's bail, but one of the most important scenes in the whole episode comes before that. Kim and Jimmy's dialogue in their singular scene together is so integral to what Jimmy's entire arc in the episode is. Kim is (naturally) concerned for Jimmy's safety and he tells her these things to reassure her (though I'm paraphrasing here): "I'm just a guy in his Suzuki Esteem, no Esteem in the history of Esteems has ever had more than $50 in it.", "I'll leave in the morning and be back home before you are." and insists on the safety of this trip. 

Obviously, things don't go to plan at all and Jimmy is stopped by some criminals in hunt of his $7m cash. Rewatching this scene took me back to the shock of watching it for the first time, and that moment that the other guy's blood spurts onto Jimmy is so sickening yet relieving. I really enjoyed how the scene of the group being shot with the sniper was shot (as in the camerawork), with the camera often filming from the same angle that the bullet eventually rips through from, which created a sense of anticipation as well as a clear level of calculation from the sniper, with only one person escaping. It's no surprise then, that the man behind the gun was Mike Ehrmantraut, someone who will prove majorly important to not just the plot but to Jimmy's emotional journey, too. Most importantly about this gunfight sequence, is that it's the first promise that is broken that Jimmy made to Kim. He is not as safe as he thought he was in the life he's leading, and the bullet through his car hammers home the interference that the intensity of his criminal life has on his regular lawyer life.

Next, after an unfortunate breakdown of Jimmy's car, he and Mike are forced to ditch it, symbolizing that that part of Jimmy's life is over, transitioning to being a "friend of the cartel". Before they leave the car, Jimmy takes the "World's 2nd Best Lawyer Again" mug that he got from Kim, still clinging onto the faith she has in him, only to find it has been shot straight through. 

Continuing in this saga of less than ideal events, Mike and Jimmy begin to wander through the desert but take a break. It was in this scene that I already began to understand what Jimmy's character was all about for the episode. He has the idea to leave the bags in a hole so they can get back home without being weighed down, then come back for them with a car. Mike shuts it down, telling him it's unreasonable and that they wouldn't find their way back, yet Jimmy scrambles to dig a hole using the number plate from his car, still hanging onto his old life, a life which was built on scheming to get out of situations and a life that has no function here. Jimmy is left here in this desert without the use of tricks as some sort of escape route, leaving him no form of denial and leaving seasons worth of running to catch up to him. 

There are a couple other objects used to symbolize the themes of denial that Jimmy faces, those being the space blanket - being an obvious reference to Chuck - and the Davis and Main bottle filled with Jimmy's pee. The piss sloshing around in the bottle is an ugly image, and keeping the Davis and Main logo in frame goes to show how little image means out in the desert, the reputable law firm means nothing just as Jimmy's reputation or charisma means nothing. His urine sits there waiting to be drunk, but takes ultimate acceptance to stomach. All episode, Jimmy is in denial about his situation and therefore does not want to stoop as low as he needs to to survive.

The space blanket is less disgusting, but probably hurts even more to look at. We, just like Jimmy, can look at it and only think of Chuck and the tragedy that befell him. This item haunts Jimmy, a reminder that is finally catching up to him to accept that he pushed his brother into the mental depths he went to. It is earlier in that scene that Jimmy's second promise to Kim is broken, it's gone nighttime and he's not home like he said he would be. His and Mike's conversation surrounding how worried she must be, surprising Mike that she knows what he's up to, was great and introduced the idea of "being in the game" that Jimmy denies about Kim so certainly.

The finale key scene leading into the last of the episode is of Jimmy once again attempting to plot his way out of this situation, which by the rules of Bagman of course fails and leaves Jimmy defeated. His heart to heart with Mike because of this will alter Jimmy forever, he is told that Mike does it because he knows what keeps him going, but Jimmy is defeated in this moment because he hasn't been thinking about that. He has been fighting so hard to just run away from his past and his mistakes that he hasn't moved on and had the time to know what he does it all for. Then, in the total breaking point of Jimmy McGill and the tumbling of the facades he puts up and the past he runs from, he dons the space blanket and faces the last criminal that was hunting them down. Surviving for Kim, and therefore taking a swig of his Davis and Main bottle, abandoning the notions of image in the interest of surviving. 

10/10

Specials

Season 1