I am sure you have had days when everything doesn't seem to go your way - your coffee spills, you miss your appointment, you forget an important document at home, and to top it all off a really annoying parking attendant won't let you slide on those pesky validation stamps.
Every week we can relate with Better Call Saul's main character, Jimmy McGill. The courthouse-parking attendant, Mike Ehrmantraut, seems to have some elicited joy in infuriating Jimmy. This week's episode though, takes a multi-faceted look into Mike's life and he definitely is not just some washed up old man.
Watch out for the spoilers below!
Episode 6 entitled "Five-O" takes on a different look and feel from the previous five episodes and we now get a sense that the show is really building up and the previous episodes were mere foreplay.
If you haven't recognized Mike yet, he's the reliable fixer in Breaking Bad, but in Monday's episode it doesn't seem like Mike had been able to completely fix his own past as we see him grappling with the realities of his son's death.
We learned that Mike's purpose for being in Albuquerque isn't exactly to simply slow down and connect with his granddaughter, but in truth it was because of a deep urge to exact vengeance upon the dirty cops who killed his straight up honest to goodness son, Matt who was also a cop like his father. Flashbacks of Mike's life shows us that though his son was a good and clean cop, Mike was the opposite of Matt and even tried to influence Matt into becoming just a little bit dirty. I suppose the scene where Mike smoothly tries to cover-up his gunshot wound in the ladies bathroom upon arriving at the Albuquerque train station was a good hint that there were more revelations to come throughout the show.
More flashbacks explain just what happened to Matt. As it turns out the whole Philadelphia station that father and son belonged to were quite used to skimming cash from legitimate drug busts. When Matt's partner offered him a handsome cut from some loot they acquired, Matt's instinct told him to file a bribery report instead. As any son would do, he asked his father for advice and that is when Mike revealed that he too was partaking of the ill-gotten profits and that it would be better if Matt just kept quiet and take the offer. The other cops on the force weren't too convinced that Matt could keep a secret and decided to kill him while making it look like a drug bust gone wrong.
Mike, realizing just what had happened to his son, tracked down the men responsible for Matt's murder and exacted his brand of justice. Mike tells the cops who killed his son, "You killed him, you killed Matty. You killed him for nothing. You killed him because you were scared of what he might do... You made it look like it was a junkie with a gun, but it was you. I know it was you and I'm gonna prove it."
How does Jimmy play into the story? He's the lawyer that Mike calls on when he gets questioned by some policemen following up on the murder of two cops in Philadelphia, yes those were the same dirty cops that Mike had offed in his flashback. Jimmy reluctantly helps Mike and we see a budding friendship take place.
With all this information, we somehow think we have a better understanding of how Mike functions, but the 360 degrees turn around emotional outburst from the normally stoic and expressionless Mike when he confesses to his daughter-in-law Stacy of what had transpired back in Philly and his line "I broke my boy" catches us off guard and definitely further cements Mike as one of TV's fascinating characters.
Jimmy encapsulates Mike's character better when he said, "Don't let Mr. Ehrmantraut's dancing eyes and bubbly bon vivant personality fool you: He's actually, believe it or not, somewhat taciturn."
Stay tuned to "Better Call Saul" as it airs every Monday at 10 p.m. on AMC to see just how Mike and Jimmy's friendship will develop and unfold.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
