Cobbler (Better Call Saul)


"Cobbler" is the second episode of the second season of the AMC television series Better Call Saul, the spinoff series of Breaking Bad. The episode aired on February 22, 2016 on AMC in the United States. Outside of the United States, the episode premiered on streaming service Netflix in several countries.

Plot

Opening

As Chuck plays French composer Gabriel Fauré's Sicilienne on the piano at his home, Howard arrives to deliver groceries. They discuss the Sandpiper case as well as Jimmy's employment at Davis & Main. Chuck is apprehensive about Jimmy joining D&M, and Howard says it was mostly through Kim's efforts that D&M hired him. After Howard leaves, Chuck returns to his piano, turns on the metronome, and stares at it silently.

Main story

Before a meeting between Hamlin Hamlin & McGill and D&M, Kim rearranges the seating so that she and Jimmy sit side by side. On a break, they share a cigarette and a kiss, and she gives him a travel mug that originally read "World's Best Lawyer" but which she has altered to read "World's 2nd Best Lawyer". They agree to meet later that night. At the nail salon Jimmy receives his new company car, a Mercedes-Benz, and is frustrated that his new mug does not fit in the cup holder like it did in his old car.
At the courthouse, Mike is surprised to see Daniel Wormald arrive in his Hummer. As Daniel tells Mike about the burglary at his house, Mike cautions him about talking to the police. Daniel is adamant about getting his baseball cards back and disregards Mike's advice. In order to prevent Daniel from implicating him in Daniel's drug deals, Mike offers to find the cards. He tracks down Nacho at his father's upholstery shop and asks for the cards. Nacho brushes him off, so Mike threatens to inform Tuco about Nacho's secret drug deals. Nacho agrees to bargain, and they make a deal for Daniel to trade his Hummer to Nacho in return for the baseball cards and $10,000.
Chuck sits in during a meeting between HHM and D&M. Jimmy is hesitant to continue but with silent encouragement from Kim he discusses the Sandpiper clients. Mike phones Jimmy and asks him to represent Daniel, whom the police want to interview. Daniel tells the detectives that he has retrieved his baseball cards so there's no need for further investigation, but the detectives are skeptical. Jimmy talks to them privately and fabricates a story about a failed gay love affair and the stealing of the baseball cards as revenge. To provide an explanation for Daniel's hiding place, Jimmy claims it contained videos of Daniel sitting on various types of pies and crying, a fictitious fetish supposedly called "Hoboken squat cobbler" which he describes in great detail. The detectives eventually believe him and let Daniel go.
That night, Jimmy tells Kim about Daniel's case, including fabricating a video to "prove" the reason Daniel had a hiding place behind his couch. Kim is appalled that Jimmy has resorted to such an underhanded and unlawful scheme, which could jeopardize his career. Jimmy counters by asking why she was willing to play along with conning Ken. She retorts that it had nothing to do with work. She asks him why he was willing to falsify evidence to exonerate a client, and when Jimmy cannot provide a satisfactory answer Kim says, "I can't hear about this sort of thing ever again" to which Jimmy responds, "You won't".

Production

was said to have inspired the name of the episode and the fetish portrayed in the police interrogation room scene. Peter Gould said "There weren't as many names. In fact, I don't know that we named it at all. I think just said, 'He sits in pies.' He pitched the idea: 'Sex acts all have a name. Shouldn't there be a name for this thing?'"
"On this show, he mostly is a performer, but every once in a while, you see that he really is one of the great comic minds of our time. That was an example of Bob giving us a direction that we ran with, and then he ran with it in performance. And I just love it. I have to say, that was an interesting evolution of that scene. I'm really proud of it."

Reception

Ratings

Upon airing, the episode received 2.23 million American viewers, and an 18-49 rating of 1.0.
Including DVR playback, the episode was watched by 4.373 million viewers and attained an 18-49 rating of 2.0.

Critical reception

The episode received critical acclaim from critics, with much of the praise going to Bob Odenkirk's performance, Jimmy McGill's character development and the police interrogation room scene. It holds a 100% positive rating with an average score of 8.47 out of 10 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The critics' consensus reads: "With sharp dialogue and a seamlessly developing plot, "Cobbler" steers its central character ever closer to the horribly compelling tumble from greatness Better Call Saul is building toward." Terri Schwartz of IGN gave the episode an 8.8 rating, noting that the episode "made excellent use of Bob Odenkirk's humor, delivering some of the funniest moments of the series". The Telegraph noted how "amid the chuckles were intimations of darker days ahead".
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A- rating, comparing the police scene to the bar scene from the previous episode, saying
It’s the criminal defense equivalent of the Viktor-with-a-K con from the premiere, a web of pure fabrication that plays right into the police’s jaded worldview: People are sick; anything’s possible; it’s almost too crazy not to be real. But to seal the deal, Jimmy buys some baked goods and films Daniel sitting on them. It’s not clear he needed to do this to convince the police. Rather, as he’s gleefully recounting the scam to Kim, it seems that he takes some pleasure in humiliating the idiotic dipshit. In doing so, though, he crosses a line—he fabricates evidence. Kim’s horrified, but for Jimmy, it’s a way of being both Slippin’ Jimmy and James M. McGill, Esq. He’s keeping it isolated from Davis & Main, he assures her; strictly pro bono work. He’s trying to have the cocobolo desk and flip the forbidden switch at the same time.

Nicholas Parco of The New York Daily News said of the police scene and the episode as a whole that "Sure, McGill is nowhere near the Goodman that Breaking Bad fans fell in love with, but in the final scene of the aptly titled “Cobbler,” the evolution shines through more than ever. Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called the scene "the funniest Breaking Bad universe moment since Jesse thought Walt was going to build a robot, and the show sending a reassuring message that it will do just fine whenever the switch in Jimmy's office flips permanently to the Saul position." David Segal of The New York Times called the scene "my favorite scene of this very young season. I particularly loved the notion that as convincing as Jimmy was, the cops apparently ended the interview less than fully persuaded that a lover’s spat, and the aforementioned fetish, explained the home robbery of Daniel Wormald, the world’s most irritating naïf."
Jonathan Banks's role as Mike was received positively by critics as well. Sean T. Collins of The New York Observer said "Mike’s material is strong even by his own standards. His dynamic with Daniel Wormald is exasperatingly entertaining enough to come with the Curb Your Enthusiasm soundtrack. And it’s worth pointing out that in deciding to help reclaim the cards only after Dan reveals some of them belonged to his dad, we catch a glimpse of the tragic father-and-son backstory we learned about Mike in Season One’s strongest episode."