Five-O (Better Call Saul)

"Five-O" is the sixth episode of the first season of the AMC television series Better Call Saul, the spinoff series of Breaking Bad. The episode aired on March 9, 2015.

Plot

The episode begins in a flashback showing Mike Ehrmantraut arriving at a train station in Albuquerque. After rebandaging a wound in his shoulder, he meets his daughter-in-law Stacey and her daughter Kaylee. The adults briefly discuss his son Matty's death. Stacey expresses concern that Matty might have been involved in something illegal, based on his behavior during their final encounter. However, Mike brushes off her concerns. After the meeting, he goes to a veterinarian to have his shoulder wound treated.

In the present, Philadelphia police detectives Sanders and Abbasi attempt to question Mike, who requests a lawyer and gives them Jimmy's card. Mike asks Jimmy to spill his coffee, as if accidentally, on the detectives so he can steal their notebook, but Jimmy balks at the idea. The detectives explain that Mike's son was a rookie police officer who was ambushed and killed when responding to a call. The detectives suspect Mike of killing Matty's partners, Hoffman and Fenske. Jimmy ends the interrogation, and indeed assists Mike's stealing of the notebook by spilling coffee.

At home, Mike discovers from the notebook that Stacey summoned the detectives to Albuquerque. She tells Mike that she discovered several thousand dollars hidden in one of her suitcases and decided to report it, hoping that it would help lead to the capture of Matty's killer. She believes Matty might have been dirty, which angers Mike.

Another flashback reveals a drunken Mike confronting Hoffman and Fenske at a bar and accusing them of killing Matty. As Mike later staggers home, they drive up in their patrol car, offer him a safe ride home, and refuse to take his apparently drunken reluctance for a "no" answer. They take away his handgun (without anyone discussing that). Mike eventually reveals that his drunken stupor was faked, first to the audience -- by retrieving a gun he must have previously stashed between the backseat cushions -- then, when the two take him to a parking lot where it seems clear they will execute him -- by confronting them. The one closer to him, who has a handgun for shooting him already drawn, is the first target for his own now drawn weapon, and he then turns to face the other -- who draws and attempts to shoot him from what, it becomes immediately clear, is an unloaded chamber. Mike fires another round, and has disabled them both; he has also been shot in one shoulder.

Mike returns to Stacey's house and admits to her that everybody in Matty's precinct was corrupt, including Mike himself. When Hoffman started accepting bribes from a gang, he offered to cut Matty in. Matty approached Mike for advice, and Mike warned him that he would put his life in danger by whistleblowing and that he would be better off accepting the money. Matty ultimately accepted the bribes, but Hoffman and Fenske murdered him anyway for fear that he would rat them out. Mike is tormented over the fact that he corrupted Matty for nothing. Stacey asks who killed Hoffman and Fenske, and Mike suggests she should already know the answer.

Production

The script was the first-ever television script written by Gordon Smith, who was previously a writer's assistant on Breaking Bad.^[1][2] It was directed by Adam Bernstein, who directed several episodes of Breaking Bad.^[3]

Reception

Upon airing, the episode received 2.57 million American viewers, and an 18-49 rating of 1.3.^[4]

The episode received universal acclaim, with unanimous praise for Jonathan Banks' performance, which some critics considered award-worthy. On Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 reviews, it received a 100% approval rating with an average score of 8.8 out of 10. The site's consensus reads, "In a departure from the existing Better Call Saul narrative, 'Five-O' provides essential backstory for Mike's character, delivered in a gripping, award-worthy performance by Jonathan Banks."^[5]

Roth Cornet of IGN gave it a score of 9.7 out of 10, praising the performance of Jonathan Banks, the episode's pacing and interwoven storylines, as well as the final scene of the episode. She concluded, "Better Call Saul continues to deliver some of the best of what television has to offer as both those familiar with Breaking Bad and new viewers alike were given a shattering look at Mike's tragic past."^[6] Tim Surette of TV.com also highly praised the performance of Banks, and wrote it is worthy of an Emmy, and called it "one of the best episodes to date of 2015's best new show to date".^[7]

References

External links

• "Five-O" at AMC
• "Five-O" at the Internet Movie Database