Black and Blue

Don't get me wrong, I think Lalo is a wonderful and thrilling villain. Having watched the entire BB 'verse, initially he gives me the awe feel that Gus first struck.

I guess Lalo may eventually suffer "villain decay" as the Tropes people say, just like Gus, but Lalo feels very much like a real person you could meet.

Anyway, I do think they have veered a few times into making Lalo a character with 007 level skills.

That strains credulity, but more importantly, Lalo doesn't need it. Note that almost no character sees his most extreme abilities.

What makes him so effective is Dalton's performance. He swings from charming life of the party to terrifying at his whim.

Cinematography is unique as always,soundtrack is good but the episode is not a 10/10 at all as people here voting on autopliot,the buildup is good but a bit obvious and easy to predict in my opinion,hope i'm wrong,the execution will be phenomenal no doubt about that.

Another fine episode, still slow burning as always with this show but thoroughly engrossing at the same time. The rest of the episode is fine, the encounter with Howard a little surreal, but it's those closing moments with Lalo that make this so special.

Not a very strong episode but needed, it's these smaller episodes that build up for the bigger conclusive arcs. Like quiet mist before a total storm.

I have to say the pacing in this episode was far stretched but certain points were still shown greatly. Decent but average for this weeks.

8.5/10.

8.5/10 Howard was not out of character to do what he did I don't understand why I see reviews of people saying this. If anything if he did something beyond the scope of boundaries then it makes sense... Saul literally hauled 2 bowling balls at his car and damaged it badly, embarrassed him with those hookers and when he confronted Jimmy the right way he lashed out on him like a maniac, Howard decided to just carry on and now Jimmy is going the extra mile even more. Howard being who he is thinks it's Saul behind all of this but little does he know it's Kim. This episode highlights all what has happened up until this point and focuses on that. Gus has every reason to be as cautious as he has been for Lalo. It all makes sense, it creates this tension in the show. My only question is what was the point of that intro in the show if it just later becomes a prop in the last 3 minutes of the episode that goes nowhere... does the character use that prop (item) ?? Is that a clue?? Last scene I saw the character with this item that I won't be spoiling they simply put it back on the shelf, I'm not sure if they took it with them... the intro to this episode was kind of like okay... but when it leads up to the moment of why that was the introduction it's somewhat flat in that scope, so I can see why people will rank it a little lower, there's necessarily no payoff on this episode it's all buildup into what's to come... which is fine I guess, it creates the tension and builds it more, breaking bad has had these moments too, just not in the LAST season of the show lol this season needs to start picking up like NOW if it wants to be anywhere near the legendary season 5 of BrBa, now we did have the first 3 episodes of the seasons which were just legendary moments in TV show history, but I'm wanting a bit more, we needed these last 2 episodes for the buildup of what's to come. Hoping Axe & Grind delivers!

Black & somewhat Blue 8.5/10

*gave it the edge to a 9 for IMDB*