Better Call Saul Episode 1.06 Five-O

In a flashback, a train flies through the Southwest scrubland. When it pulls in to the station in Albuquerque, a passenger steps onto the platform: It’s Mike, travel-worn and carrying a lone duffel bag. He waits inside the station until his daughter-in-law, Stacey, arrives to pick him up. As she pulls the car around, he heads toward the station’s restrooms and, strangely, enters the empty women’s room. He buys a maxi-pad from the coin-operated vending machine on the wall, then ducks into the men’s room. Unbuttoning his shirt, he reveals a fresh bullet wound underneath a blood-soaked bandage on his shoulder. Grimacing, he applies the pad to the wound, then buttons back up and heads out of the station.

Back at Stacey’s house, Mike pushes his young granddaughter Kaylee on a swing set. He takes a break to make small talk with Stacey, who seems to be keeping him at a distance. When she asks how long he’s planning to be in town, Mike tells her that’s he going to stay indefinitely, to help out her and Kaylee. Stacey doesn’t seem thrilled by this news. Finally, she brings up what’s bothering her: She overheard Matt -- her husband, Mike’s son -- having a heated late-night phone conversation just a few days before he was killed. When she asks Mike if he was on the other end of the line, he denies having any memory of such a call, and advises her not to dwell on it.

Catching a cab outside Stacey’s house, Mike finds a veterinarian who will stitch up his wound without asking too many questions. When the morally-ambiguous vet offers to refer Mike for some “work,” Mike declines and says he’s not looking for that type of work.

Back in the present, Mike sits opposite Philadelphia detectives Sanders and Abbasi in an interrogation room at the Albuquerque police station. Though he’s not under arrest, Mike demands a lawyer: James M. McGill, Esq.

At his new client’s request, Jimmy arrives at the station with a cup of coffee, which Mike instructs him to spill on Detective Abbasi after Mike answers his questions. Realizing that the stunt is a diversion that will allow Mike to steal the detective’s notepad, Jimmy refuses -- even after Mike reminds him that Jimmy owes him a favor for his help with finding the Kettlemans.

When the detectives begin questioning Mike, Jimmy insists they start from the beginning and explain the events that brought them to New Mexico. Exasperated, Abbasi obliges: Mike was a cop in Philly for nearly 30 years, and his son Matt, a rookie cop, was killed in the line of duty nine months ago. Matt, along with his partner, Hoffman, and his sergeant, Fensky, were ambushed while responding to a shots-fired call in a bad neighborhood. Hoffman and Fensky escaped the attack, but were killed six months later, shot to death in a similar ambush.

Operating under the theory that Hoffman and Fensky were involved in some unethical business that might have led to them, and Matt, getting killed, the detectives hope Mike can shed some light on what might have gone down. Mike admits to seeing Hoffman and Fensky in a cop bar on the night they were killed, but offers nothing more. He also says he wishes he could help the detectives, but he was drinking pretty heavily in those days, and doesn’t remember anything else. Jimmy listens to Mike’s story quietly, gaining compassion for the man who so tragically lost his son.

As the group prepares to leave the interrogation room, Jimmy makes up his mind: He pretends to lose his balance, and spills coffee all over Detective Abbasi. Considerate Mike immediately whips out a handkerchief and dabs at the irritated detective’s jacket, successfully lifting his notepad.