The First Scene of the Premiere. (Future Saul)

I look forward to the Future Saul scenes more than just about anything. We only get one per year, just a few minutes. It's like a shooting star. All that waiting, but if you look in the right spot, when it comes around, then you get to see something truly special, if only just for a precious few moments.

This one, Part 3, did not disappoint. It actually surprised me quite a bit, in two ways.

First, I was kind of expecting Saul to see himself in that young shoplifter, and then to do the kid a solid, by pointing the cop off in the wrong direction. Instead, he fingers the kid, like a snitch. Perhaps he did see himself in the kid after all - and this was an act of extreme self-loathing. Broken-down Saul -- or 'Gene', as he is now, on his 3rd name -- is worn down to just a nub, a bitter shell of who he once was, many iterations ago, and the only emotions he can seem to act out in these days are cowardice & spite, towards his younger self.

But then, something quells in him, the strong person he once was, the fighter he once was, still somewhere deep down inside there -- and it bursts out. And as all buried things do under intense suppression, it doesn't emerge in a proud roar, but with a sudden, awkward eruption, as he blurts out to the kid that he should tell the system to go fuck itself, rather than just be a little cog run through it. Again, talking more to himself, the kid being merely a reflection of the inner fire he once had.

Only problem is, now, he can't get it out of his head. He goes back to work, but the mundane banality of the Cinnabon is amplified now, untenable. This isn't who he is. The repeated caking of frosting spirals on little buns, are now like little omens to him -- taunting him, reminding him of the endless downward spiral loop he has permanently thrown himself into, with no real identity, day after day, to toil here forever in this circle of hell, appropriately set in a mall food court.

And in that moment... he snaps. The strain of the reality of his real self, matched against the fakeness of the life he's pretending to lead now, is just too much to bear - and the realization finally overwhelms him. His cup runneth over... and he collapses.

Which means ... Gene / Saul / Jimmy, is about to face his worst nightmare: The Light.

The 1st season opener was about the sheer sadness of his new identity, simply depicting his new, banal, miserable existence. The 2nd season opener, was about the fear of the past catching up with him; remember, when he accidentally locks himself in the trash room, he is too afraid to go out the emergency door, for fear of setting off the alarm - because that would lead to police, questions, showing of IDs, his face possibly popping up on a computer somewhere - so he would rather risk sitting in that trash room all night, like a scared rat. And now, here in this 3rd season opener, we see the fake life he has set up for himself to hide inside, finally come crashing down all at once. Literally, & figuratively. Collapsing at work? That means 911, that means ambulances, that means police... That means the one thing a person in hiding can't have happen: Being noticed.

Or, at least, that's the implication I took from it...

Like I said, I look forward to these Future Saul vignettes quite a lot; about as much as I look forward to the entire rest of the season, in fact. But this time, the show did the one thing I didn't even consider... Motherfuckers left us with a cliffhanger, one which won't be resolved for a whole 'nother year, in the very first scene of the first episode of the goddamn season. Now that's genius.


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