In the “Better Call Saul” recap, Gene Takavic makes his return but it’s not long before Slippin’ Jimmy makes an appearance…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Following last week’s emotionally heartbreaking episode of “Better Call Saul” that saw Kim Wexler break up with Jimmy McGill after realizing that they are poison to other people whenever they’re together, the latest installment flashes forward several years to return to the Cinnabon establishment in The Cottonwood Mall in Omaha, Nebraska.
That’s where Gene Takavic — the man once known as Albuquerque’s most notorious attorney-at-law Saul Goodman — now resides and calls his home.
Following the events of “Breaking Bad” when Walter White’s meth empire came crumbling down, Saul Goodman made his escape thanks to the eraser who set up him with a new identity in Nebraska, which is now where he calls home.
Of course in the several instances we’ve seen Gene in the past, he’s a sad, lump of a man who still looks back with equal parts fondness and regret when thinking about his past life as a slick talking lawyer who inside two years helped a former science teacher make hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now Gene spends his day slathering frosting on cinnamon rolls in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska — but he’s not dead and he’s not in jail and that’s more than most of his former co-conspirators can say these days (although Jesse Pinkman eventually made his escape to a free life as witnessed in the events of the “El Camino” movie).
It wasn’t long ago that Gene suffered some sort of health ailment that landed him in the hospital but far more concerning than his own body possibly giving up on him, a ride home from a local cabbie completely altered his life forever. The cabbie in question — Jeff (who is played by a new actor during “Better Call Saul” season 6) — previously ran with a bad crowd when he lived in Albuquerque and it doesn’t take him long to recognize the man sitting in the back seat of his taxi is none other than Saul Goodman.
Needless to say, that causes all sorts of issues for Gene because he’s been trying to stay quiet and more importantly stay out of sight from law enforcement as he attempts to escape the bevy of inevitable charges still waiting for him in New Mexico.
After originally calling the Disappearer — better known as Ed Galbraith (played by the late, great Robert Forster) — to potentially help him secure another new identity far away from Omaha, the man who started this show as Jimmy McGill decides he needs to deal with this problem himself.
So that’s exactly what he does in the latest episode and that means Gene has to dust off his best Slippin’ Jimmy schemes and shine up those Saul Goodman skills as he seeks to maintain his freedom by orchestrating a completely different kind of heist that will hopefully keep him safe and out of prison for a little while longer.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “Better Call Saul” titled “Nippy”…
Mutually Assured Destruction
The year in 2010 and Gene Takavic is still working away at The Cottonwood Mall where he acts as a manager at the local Cinnabon. His mundane lifestyle has already been interrupted by a health emergency but now Gene has an even bigger problem after a local cab driver recognized him as Saul Goodman — a former New Mexico attorney who occupies a spot on the state’s most wanted list after he escaped capture when the infamous Heisenberg was discovered.
Rather than run from his problems, Gene decides to face them head on — or at least face them in the best way he knows how and that means pulling a job that will require all of his past skills.
First things first — we meet Marion — a headstrong elderly lady played by comedy legend Carol Burnett — who is such a stickler that she points out to the deli worker that he put a quarter pound too much pastrami in her bag the last time she was visiting the grocery store. She’s even got a handy, dandy grabber that allows her to pick up items off the shelves that may be too high as she sits in her motorized scooter to get around town.
Unfortunately, Marion faces an obstacle too steep when her scooter gets stuck in a patch of snow that she swears wasn’t there when she left for the store. At the same time Marion’s wheel is wedged in a pile of snow, a man is nearby posting up flyers looking for the return of his missing dog Nippy.
The man is none other than Gene Takavic and Nippy the dog doesn’t exist.
But he’s unassuming enough that Marion lets her guard down just enough to sympathize with a poor man who’s lost his dog. She’s also willing to let Gene get her unstuck from the snow, which then allows him time to actually cut the wire to her scooter.
When Marion realizes she’s not going anywhere, Gene offers her a helping hand by pushing her all the way back home.
As they share drinks and laugh over stories, the front door to Marion’s house opens and her son Jeff returns from a hard day’s work driving a cab all over Omaha.
Yes, Marion is Jeff’s mother — the man who recognized Gene as Saul Goodman and all but threatened to reveal that news to the world.
Seeing Gene sitting there with his mother stuns Jeff to the point of silence and it’s not until later that night when he finally gets some answers.
You see, Gene wasn’t there to threaten Marion but he reminds Jeff that he may have recognized most wanted fugitive Saul Goodman but that same man is now sitting in his kitchen. It’s the old you may know who we are but we definitely know who you are routine — and now Jeff knows that Saul Goodman is a formidable opponent.
Gene then explains to Jeff that he wasn’t there to make idol threats but rather he knows why the cab driver hasn’t already called the cops to reveal his true identity. Gene knows that Jeff wants to get in “the game” — the one that happens outside the law and ends with copious amounts of cash as a reward.
As a trade, Gene offers to help Jeff get into the game and in return his true identity will remain a secret as long as he wants to sling cinnamon rolls at a mall.
This is where Gene Takavic essentially disappears and Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill returns because to get Jeff to back off, he needs to orchestrate a scheme that will get the cab driver paid but more importantly keep him from saying anything to law enforcement.
Thus begins the great Cottonwood Mall caper.
The plot involves robbing a high-end department store but to make a whole bunch of items disappear without it being obvious, Gene needs to make sure his “team” doesn’t get discovered during the heist while stealing just enough that it won’t alert the staff until the next inventory takes place.
The first step revolves around Gene befriending the mall security team — including one guard who called 911 after he fainted at Cinnabon while falling back into his Saul Goodman days by warning the man that he’ll need to call a lawyer. Gene makes nice by bringing along a pair of Cinnabons for the weary late night security team, who are all too inviting to welcome a new guest that also happens to be bringing them a sugary treat.
Over the course of days and weeks, Gene stops by to see his new favorite security guard team — Frank and Nick — who are more and more cordial with him whenever he arrives. What the security team doesn’t know is that with each passing visit, Gene is clocking how much time it takes for Frank to scarf down one of those delicious cinnamon coated buns while Nick is doing rounds outside the mall.
Meanwhile, Gene carefully inspects the inventory at the high-end department store while also taking measurements between each department. He then has Jeff and a friend help him set up a mock store based on those dimensions as he starts to put together the pieces to this heist.
Jeff will be inside the store and he’ll have three minutes to run from department to department, stealing just enough to make some cash but not more than what the store will immediately miss. At first, Jeff seems skeptical about this plan but when Gene feigns like he’s ready to move on without him, the cab driver gets back on board.
The next step involves a shipment arriving at the mall late one night but when the manager balks at taking a giant box with items she knows her store doesn’t sell, she insists on calling the supervisor. The call placed goes directly to Gene’s phone — an old favorite from back in the Jimmy McGill days — and he eventually convinces her to leave the package there for one night and he’ll make sure to get one of his guys out there the next day to remove it.
Gene then enacts the next step when he shows up at the security room like he does every night with a bag of Cinnabon for the guards, who love chatting him up about Nebraska football. As Frank pounds down his latest free cinnamon roll, Gene watches the monitors as he witnesses Jeff climb out of the box left on the loading dock before he begins ransacking the store.
Jeff is careful to follow Gene’s specific instructions — steal a few things but not enough that it’s noticeable right away. Because the security tapes reset every 72 hours, they just need to avoid the store raising suspicions until after the next inventory.
Everything is going smoothly until it’s not.
The store manager recently noticed a spot on the floor that needed buffed out and the freshly cleaned surface is slippery — enough that Jeff goes flying in the air and falls back down on the ground where his head hits first. Jeff lays there unconscious as Gene does his best to stall for time before Frank the security guard finishes his Cinnabon and looks back at those monitors.
When all else fails, Gene breaks down in front of his new friend as he laments about how he has no wife, no children and if he died tomorrow, nobody in the world would even notice much less actually care. The uncomfortable display of emotion renders Frank almost speechless while Gene’s confessions hits a little too close to home because while he was technically just stalling for time, this was also a long awaited outburst about how much Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman lost.
Kim is gone. Saul Goodman’s law practice is dead. Jimmy’s only remaining family is long since passed away and he’s left alone in Omaha, Nebraska.
“My brother’s dead. I got no wife, no kids, no friends, if I die tonight, no one would care…. I’d be a ghost. Less than a ghost, I’d be a shadow. I’d just be nothing. I mean, what’s the point?”
~ Gene Takavic
The emotional turmoil freezes Frank in his tracks long enough for Jeff to finally wake up again, finish robbing the store and then make it back to put all of the items back in the crate that will be picked up the next morning just as promised. As for Jeff, he hides in the bathroom overnight until he casually walks out of the store the next morning with no one the wiser that he just robbed them blind.
Back at Marion’s house — or more specifically the garage — Jeff and his buddy celebrate the heist while discussing just how much they’ll get for selling the swag. Gene then offers them a warning about using this caper against him or trying to come back for more after they’ve managed to blow, smoke or snort the cash they make from this heist.
Thanks to his days as a lawyer, Gene lays out to his new co-conspirators how they just committed a number of felonies that will come along with a 10-year minimum prison sentence if convicted. Gene promises if he goes down, these two are going down with him and that’s the insurance he’s using to keep Jeff quiet from revealing his true identity as Saul Goodman.
Gene then leaves the garage with Marion after she pays her son a visit to see what he’s doing in the garage.
The next day, Gene has a whole new pep in his step. He’s smiling at work and so content with the caper he just pulled that he fails to even notice when it’s time to take his lunch. When he does leave the Cinnabon, Gene returns to the store he just helped to rob and he takes a good long look at a suit and shirt combination along with a snazzy tie that reminds him of something Saul Goodman would wear.
It’s a fleeting moment of levity as Gene quietly puts the items back on the rack and walks away because he knows that life is gone forever.
Is this the end of Gene Takavic and his story in Nebraska? There are only three episodes remaining until “Better Call Saul” is completed and it’s tough to tell where the story will go in these final hours.
In many ways, Kim leaving Jimmy and the immediate transformation into Saul Goodman afterwards was truly a conclusion that could have easily just ended the show. Kim’s decision explains why Jimmy just left his morals at the door to become Saul Goodman and why every relationship he shares moving forward is based purely on sexual gratification rather than anything to do with love.
Now with Gene pulling off one last scheme to secure his freedom in Omaha, it’s entirely possible that story has also wrapped up — but obviously the writers and producers aren’t saying if that’s the last time we’ll visit Nebraska before the series wraps. We do know Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul still need to appear this season in one form or fashion so that’s still to come.
But for now, Gene Takavic is still going strong even if he can’t truly embrace the man he was before.
“Better Call Saul” returns for a new episode next Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
