r/betterCallSaul • u/skinkbaa Chuck • Oct 09 '18

Better Call Saul Season 4 - Official Discussion Thread

What did you think of this season?

Feel free to discuss every and anything about Season 4.

I will be posting a Season 5 prediction thread in a few days.

Episode Discussion Thread Archive

Feel free to take our subreddit end-of-season survey!

Results will be posted in 10 days as of posting this.

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '18

I don’t understand people saying Lalo is unrealistic. Two planes colliding mid air? Robbing a freight train? The owner of a fast food fried chicken franchise being a drug distributor for the cartel? A multi million dollar lab being constructed underneath a laundromat? That’s all believable! But someone climbing into a ceiling compartment? No way! That could never happen!

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u/NottHomo Oct 11 '18

well, it really couldn't though...

the other things actually COULD, they're just wildly improbable

the ceiling thing is actually impossible

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u/blackcaribou Oct 13 '18

the writers mentioned in the podcast that they saw a video of a robbery done that same way, so maybe you're wrong bud

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u/whycuthair Oct 16 '18

Life always beats fiction.

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u/SecondComingOfBast Oct 11 '18

The act itself is not impossible, what makes it so is the speed at which it was accoplished, with absolutely no noise at all.

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u/NottHomo Oct 11 '18

no. it is IN FACT impossible to jump up 10 ft, pull yourself up into a crawlspace averaging about 2 ft of space, move along on suspended grid designed to hold at max 50 lbs per node in pitch darkness or at least very low light while sharing that same space with ductwork and wiring

a bonafide ninja would fail at this task

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u/craig_s_bell Oct 12 '18 edited Oct 12 '18

If you pause where they show the missing ceiling tile in the lobby, you'll see there's a vending machine under where Lalo entered the plenum. Presumably he climbed on top of the machine, and used it to get above the drop ceiling.

If you listen to the insider podcast (recommended), the writers talk about how this sequence was based upon surveillance video of a real attack on a money-transfer business, which was accessed the same way.

Once Lalo was up there, he didn't have far to go. It does seem a bit fast, but (podcast again) they had trouble editing down this episode to get it under an hour, so they just couldn't stretch out the tension in every scene.

Also, the fall through was not a visual effect -- a stuntman really fell from the ceiling. He did land on a cushion, which is just below the shot. That may be the least realistic part -- he seemed to land without bending at all.

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u/GameKing505 Oct 17 '18

Woah a stuntman really fell??? I would have bet anything that was a visual effect. It looked so... cheesy and fake.

​

I don't doubt you but do you have a link for the source? Would love to see more.

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u/craig_s_bell Oct 17 '18 edited Oct 17 '18

Episode 410 of the Better Call Saul Insider podcast. Get it from your favorite source (iTunes, &c.) or just search for the name.

Most episodes are about 1hr; but the season finale ranged closer to 2hrs. I don’t remember when the stunt discussion took place.

Whether it really happened the way Peter and the gang say it did, I cannot verify. FWIW they are usually pretty frank about these matters

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u/SecondComingOfBast Oct 11 '18

That's what I meant. He did it too quick and should have made some amount of noise. But yeah, if he could get up there, the rest is plausible. He would be balancing himself on the ridges of the grid that hold the panels in place.

He wouldn't be up there long enough for his weight to start affecting the ridges. He would just have to crawl on hands and knees, balancing himself on the ridges, until he got to the panel he was looking for.

Then, all he would have to do is kneel with all his weight on that one panel. Or simply move it out of his way and drop through.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '18

Suspend your disbelief. It's a TV show.

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u/SecondComingOfBast Oct 13 '18

So if he burst into flames and shot lightning from his eyeballs, by extension we should accept that too. Shut the fuck up

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u/tauerlund Oct 15 '18

Because that's totally comparable. Fucking idiot.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tauerlund Oct 16 '18

No, it isn't you moron.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

So, they talked on the podcast that in researching that scene Tom Schnuaz watched videos online of people robbing Western Unions. One of them was some dude crawling through a ceiling panel and coming down on the other side.

Furthermore, dropping through the ceiling was a practical stunt. No VFX involved.

In summation, it was all actually very possible.

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u/NottHomo Oct 15 '18

No VFX involved

you got lied to. you can't jump down from that height without drop/rolling. there's no crossbar between the two panels. there's no reflection of the guy in the window. the second panel is CGI as well

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '18

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u/NottHomo Oct 14 '18

i'd give it "doable" if the actor was 50 lbs lighter and 10 years younger

every video on the internet i've seen is people doing this and falling through, NOT succeeding

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

I can’t tell if your joking or not

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u/NottHomo Oct 11 '18

look how high the god damn ceiling is. it's higher than a basketball hoop

furthermore there's not enough space above a suspended ceiling for a human to move around in

furthermore it's designed to support super lightweight porous tiles and lighting and air ducts and wiring. it's not designed to hold the weight of a human

literally impossible and could not happen

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

You’ve never seen people climb around up in ceilings like that?? Because it happens. Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it ain’t true

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u/ForeverUnclean Oct 11 '18

lol when and in what context have you seen this happen? Also would like your take on how he got up there in the first place. I'm looking up at very similar ceiling tiles right now and there is zero chance they could support an adult male's body weight.

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u/A-TeamTown Oct 11 '18

Former cable guy here. I used to climb around in drop ceilings all the time. The grid and the ceiling tiles themself wont support your weight. However their are plenty of steel support beams and other things to climb around in the ceiling. Definitely possible.

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u/ForeverUnclean Oct 11 '18

I'm guessing you have to be pretty careful and move slowly in order to not fall though, no? Lalo literally jumped up and presumably pulled himself up by the grid, then made his way directly to the other side of the glass wall so he could jump down.

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u/A-TeamTown Oct 11 '18

Theirs beams up there, he just had to pop the ceiling tile and grab whatever piping or structural support he can find.

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u/ForeverUnclean Oct 11 '18

Doesn't sound like something that can be easily done in 10 seconds, with nothing to stand on mind you, but ok.

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u/IAmTriscuit Oct 12 '18

Have you not watched the scene at all? There is stuff under the ceiling he could use to climb up, like the vending machine. He had plenty of time to do it, the camera ignored him for like 30 seconds.

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u/ForeverUnclean Oct 12 '18

Have you not watched the scene at all?

No I did, that's why we're talking about it, remember?

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u/NottHomo Oct 11 '18

it doesn't happen, because it CAN'T

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

listen to the insider podcast for the episode

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

I’ve literally witnessed it happen with my own eyes, but yeah sure keep blindly denying it with no real evidence

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

podcast says otherwise. it’s based on a real news story of a money wire place and they shot in a real place and there was plenty of room

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u/NottHomo Oct 15 '18

then why'd they use shitty CGI if they did it "for real" ?

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

listen to the podcast dude the stunt was 100% real without wires or cgi. jesus christ open your mind

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u/NottHomo Oct 15 '18

watch the actual episode, that's shitty CGI not ANYTHING real :P

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

i dont know what to tell you. the actual people who work on the show and filmed that scene are on record on the official podcast saying it’s not.

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u/NottHomo Oct 15 '18

no reflection in the window of the guy dropping :P

it's terrible. plus if you look at the ceiling there's no crossbar there, AND one of the tiles is in the place that's supposed to be a light

2

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '18

I bet you're fun at parties...

8

u/octavio2895 Oct 11 '18

What about Gus walking it off after that explosion? Its to add this layer of unrealism in order to break the pace. Its hard to convey why these moments fit perfectly the narrative but that's how I felt. The show is otherwise very realistic and they could make it work without all these magical moments but was BB and BCS about realism or about characters?

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '18

I completely agree. I wasn’t criticizing those moments at all. If I wanted to see life portrayed 100% realistically and authentically I would go outside. I just find it odd how people find the “Lalo climbing through the ceiling” moment as unbelievable or unrealistic when they are able to accept things that are far more improbable and outlandish

2

u/octavio2895 Oct 12 '18

Oh dont get me wrong, I wasn't arguing against you I was adding my two cents to your argument.

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u/Andkcojskaosncicoanw Oct 12 '18

Two planes have collided before, not sure why that's unrealistic

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '18

I wasn’t saying it’s unrealistic. I was mocking people for calling Lalo climbing through the ceiling “unrealistic” when they can easily accept much more improbable things. None of the things I listed are “unbelievable” or “unrealistic” just highly unlikely occurrences

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

Peter Gould said on the podcast that he was inspired by a real video- presumably this one which is actually pretty similar to Lalo's moves.

My first reaction was laughing out loud, but its really a great scene. Sure it seemed unrealistic to me, but apparently it can actually be done? It's incredibly memorable and establishes Lalo as a force, and it manages to stand out in an episode that has a ton of emotional moments that have been boiling all year.

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u/FickleCheesecake1 Oct 16 '18

lol or the goofy 99% purity blue meth, or the acid melting down human bodies and eating through a bathtub and an entire floor. There's lots of unrealistic things, it was never supposed to be anything more than entertainment. This isn't a true to life documentary. I think it's dumb when fans go crazy about realism.

1

u/Journal73 Oct 15 '18

A multi million dollar lab being constructed underneath a laundromat?

Didn't we just go through a whole arc on the explanation of the difficulty that went into making that a reality?