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‘Better Call Saul’ Season 2 Hits Netflix

By Jim Hagerty
Published on: 09:27 PST, Mar 27, 2017

Season 2 of Better Call Saul is now available on Netflix. The streaming giant made the 10 episodes available Monday, March 27.

A prequel spin-off of AMC’s Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul is an inside look at how Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) came to represent Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in the former series. In the latter’s first season, Goodman began as Gene, a manager of a Nebraska Cinnabon, where he seemingly ended up after Breaking Bad wrapped.

The series then goes back in time, to 2002, when Jimmy McGill was a bottom-feeding Albuquerque public defender working out of the storage room in a Vietnamese nail salon.

His biggest case as Better Call Saul happens when McGill defends a local government official accused of embezzling $1.6 million, funds he illegally discovers hidden in the man’s home. The case is woven into the entire season, culminating with a dramatic plea agreement.

Chuck McGill, Jimmy’s older brother, is introduced in the first season as the reclusive, anxiety ridden lawyer claiming he suffers from “electromagnetic hypersensitivity.” A few schemes later, Jimmy McGill finds himself ensconced in a nursing home scam case he tackles alongside Chuck, played by Michael McKean.

Chuck becomes stable enough in Season 1 to face the world outside his dark, utility-less home, but relapses into his electromagnetic ailment that disrupts Jimmy’s leverage to cash in on the nursing home case and others.

Odenkirk is still Jimmy McGill in Season 2, as Better Call Saul sees the lawyer become more associated with Gus Fring henchman Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks). His relationship with Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill attorney Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) also grows in the second season. Jimmy woos Wexler away from HHM into a private practice after she willingly participates in some of his cons.

Season 2 of Better Call Saul is also known for revealing bits and pieces of Chuck and Jimmy’s past. First, Chuck discloses to Kim that Jimmy stole money from their father’s business.

The story also flashes back to a hospital, where Jimmy and Chuck tend their sick mother. Jimmy leaves to buy sandwiches, while Chuck is left to their sleeping parent. She wakes and asks for Jimmy then dies. When Jimmy returns, he finds his mother’s room empty and a saddened Chuck in the waiting room. Chuck never tells Jimmy their mother asked for him.

Season 2 culminates with the famous “copy center” showdown, Jimmy’s attempt to hide that he tampered with documents to cause a major HHM client to stay with Kim Wexler. Jimmy illegally obtaines copies of the the client’s file and changes an address for a proposed bank branch, causing the New Mexico Banking Board to deny the client’s application.

The discrepancy causes Chuck to fly into an obsessive panic. Chuck later acts on a hunch, leading him to a local copy shop, assuming it was where Jimmy created the false documents presented to the banking board.

After an contentious exchange with the copy clerk, Chuck relapses into a psychosomatic episode and hits his head on a counter, rendering himself unconscious while Jimmy watches from across the street. The incident spins Chuck back into psychological dysfunction, yet he maintains his brother tampered with the files.

Jimmy later gives an off-the-cuff confession, telling Chuck he changed the address and bribed the clerk to participate in the coverup. The season ends after Chuck reveals that a hidden tape recorder captured Jimmy’s confession.

Created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, Better Call Saul premiered February 8, 2015, on AMC. The series is set in 2002, six years before Jimmy appeared as Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad.

Season 1 of Better Call Saul debuted on Netflix February 16, 2016, the day after Season 2 premiered on AMC. The series was an immediate hit, garnering 14 Emmy nominations.

[Featured Image by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images]

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