Nippy (Better Call Saul)

In Omaha, Nebraska, in 2010, the motorized chair of an elderly woman named Marion gets stuck in the snow. Jimmy McGill, under the guise of Gene Takavic, stealthily snips the chair's power cables and offers to push her home. He befriends her with stories of Nippy, his supposedly missing dog. Marion is the mother of Jeff, the Omaha cab driver who identified Gene as Saul Goodman from his time previously living in Albuquerque. Jeff arrives home, recognizes Gene and questions his motives. Gene offers Jeff a chance to enter "the game" by burgling a department store in the shopping mall where Gene works as a manager of Cinnabon in exchange for Jeff's silence about Gene's true identity. Gene returns home, puts on the pinky ring he inherited from Marco Pasternak, and begins to prepare. Over several days, Gene befriends mall security guard Frank by bringing him Cinnabon rolls and talking about Nebraska Cornhuskers football, tracking how long it takes for Frank to eat while sitting with his back to the security camera monitors. He then recreates the layout of the department store in a field and choreographs an efficient route and list of items for Jeff to maximize his takings. On the night of the burglary, he has Jeff's friend, Buddy, leave a box at the department store's loading dock under the guise of a mistaken delivery. Jeff is inside, and the box serves as a hiding place for the stolen merchandise. During the burglary Jeff slips and falls, knocking himself unconscious and disrupting the timing of the scheme. Gene feigns a depressive episode to divert Frank's attention. Jeff soon comes to, finishes placing stolen items in the box, hides in the bathroom, and leaves after the store opens in the morning. As they revel in their success, Gene warns that if Jeff reveals Gene's true identity, Gene will report the burglary as a form of "mutual assured destruction", and makes Jeff promise never to cross paths with him again. When Gene returns to the mall, he admires a flamboyant Saul Goodman-type shirt in the department store but leaves without purchasing it. == Production ==

"Nippy" is the third episode directed by Michelle MacLaren in the Better Call Saul series, following "Mijo" in the first season and "Breathe" in the fourth season. It was written by executive producer Alison Tatlock. Tatlock noted that designing an episode exclusively within Gene's timeline "just felt pleasing" for the creative team, and that it was intended to be a "surprising" and "perhaps maddening" decision to satisfy the audience. Tatlock explained that while the decision did not allow for linear coherence in the storytelling, it felt "organic" and that it was the right choice. The cab driver Jeff, previously portrayed by Don Harvey, was recast to Pat Healy due to a work conflict by Harvey. Healy originally auditioned for the role of Jeff during the production of the fourth season in March 2018, but was not hired. He was notified of Harvey's departure after he finished shooting his scenes for Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. Healy emphasized that the recast was not due to scheduling changes after Odenkirk's heart attack during "Point and Shoot", as he was cast before this incident. Harvey later expressed disappointment in not being able to reprise the role due to scheduling conflicts, but praised Healy for making the character his own. In the weeks prior to the airing of the episode, AMC released several teasers informing viewers of Jeff's recast. The promotional material featured clips of Healy in the role along with lines of Jeff's character from previous seasons that Healy re-recorded in a sound booth in Los Angeles. Carol Burnett guest starred as Jeff's mother Marion. Series creator Vince Gilligan later stated that Burnett's arrival on the set raised the morale of the cast and crew, who had all grown exhausted from the season's extended production. Though the story takes place in Omaha, Nebraska, the mall scenes were shot at the Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The department store where the heist takes place was an empty space in the mall. The production designer and art department built the interior and every item in the store was created, purchased, or brought in. Gould also discussed his love of black-and-white films with the directors, focusing on how lighting affected the emotions. To reflect the differences of the two personas, cinematographer Paul Donachie deliberately created more shadows during Odenkirk's scenes as Saul Goodman and less shadows while he was portraying Gene Takavic. and marked a change in the title credits. Traditionally, the title credits of each season's tenth episode featured Saul Goodman's "World's Greatest Lawyer" mug falling off his desk and shattering on the floor. However, in this episode, the title image prematurely stops and is replaced by a blue screen, recreating the style of a home video recording on a VCR. The score includes the music piece "Jim on the Move" by Lalo Schifrin, from the 1966 television series Mission: Impossible. Chris McCaleb and Joey Liew edited the episode. == Reception ==

Critical response is the only Better Call Saul regular to appear in "Nippy". Critics praised Tatlock's writing MacLaren's direction, while highlighting Odenkirk's performance during the scene in which he feigns a breakdown. Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone described the episode as an unpredictable epilogue to Better Call Saul that "brings emotional color, thrills, and fun" and felt that it was narratively isolated from the core story of the series. Scott Tobias of Vulture called it a "brilliant and wholly unexpected stand-alone episode" and gave it a 5 out of 5-star rating, enjoying the "homage" to All That Jazz (1979) and praising Burnett and Healy's performances. Vanity Fairs Mike Hogan labeled it a bottle episode that he believed would set the stage for the rest of the season. Steve Greene of IndieWire thought "Nippy" served as a "bitter hello to the future and the past" simultaneously, explaining that the episode revolved around Jimmy's existential crisis. Meanwhile, Nick Harley's four out of five star rating and review for Den of Geek focused on the portrayal of Jimmy's internal conflict and how he struggles to inhibit his "Slippin' Jimmy" personality, citing Jimmy's commitment to performing the heist and his fascination to a colorful shirt during the heist, which he interpreted as being his innate desire to become Saul Goodman. He felt it was "a tribute to what Better Call Saul was at its best: a modestly scaled, yet rollicking look at a huckster in his element, fighting through feelings" but also opined that others could view the episode as being "polarizing". In an A rating, The A.V. Club's Kimbery Potts enjoyed MacLaren's direction of the heist, saying she "creates a cheeky caper vibe complete with split screens and Lalo Schifrin's "Jim On The Move" music from Mission: Impossible." She felt the pacing was deliberately abrupt to allow viewers to digest the prior violence and felt that Jeff had irrevocably "sparked the unleashing of the Saul Goodman-ness". Ratings An estimated 1.20 million viewers watched "Nippy" during its first broadcast on AMC on July 25, 2022. == Notes ==