7 Reasons Why ‘Tell Me Again’ Is Better Call Saul’s Best Scene

Throughout its six-year run, Better Call Saul had dozens of standout scenes while explaining Jimmy McGill’s backstory, but there may not have been any scene that was as good as the “Tell Me Again” moment. After Lalo finds a hole in Jimmy’s story, quite literally, he visits Jimmy and Kim at their apartment to terrorize them for information. Beforehand, Jimmy was asked to keep the attempted ambush on him a secret for reasons not even he knew. When Lalo insinuates that he knows Jimmy is hiding something, Salamanca’s true intentions make for one terrifying setting.

Lalo’s calm but intimidating demeanor when repeating one of his best quotes makes Better Call Saul season 5, episode, “Bad Choice Road” one of the most stressful in the Breaking Bad universe. Even though Jimmy has Mike Ehrmantraut as a safety net in case Lalo threatens his life, Lalo’s intimidation as he keeps asking Jimmy to repeat the story makes the usually smooth-talking lawyer stumble on his words. Before Jimmy breaks, Kim manages to get Lalo off her beau’s back by turning the tables with the confrontation. Her efforts convince Lalo to back off, in a moment that directly sets up Better Call Saul‘s ending season.

7 It’s The Only Time Jimmy Is Off His Game

Jimmy couldn’t joke his way out of that one

Better Call Saul makes it clear that before he became Saul Goodman, Jimmy was an exceptional con artist. Because of his excellent interpersonal skills and how effortlessly he can lie and/or manipulate, Jimmy could convince a room full of scientists that the world is flat. But when Lalo catches him off-guard, Jimmy is still recovering from the extensive physical and emotional trauma he suffered in “Bagman,” forcing him to improvise at minimum capacity. Because he can’t think on his feet in the state he’s in, he justifiably fears Lalo finding out the truth and what he’ll do when he does.

6 Jimmy Doesn’t Know Why He Has To Lie

Jimmy had yet to learn was Lalo was capable of

Before “Bad Choice Road” aired, Jimmy clearly feared Lalo because he knew his client was a murderer who was part of a drug cartel. While lying is like breathing to Jimmy, he usually knows the reason why he has to deceive. Because he doesn’t when Lalo interrogates him, he not only is anxious, but he is confused about why he has to lie to Lalo’s face knowing what Lalo is capable of when he didn’t wrong Lalo in any way, only adding to his strain. Jimmy was now in the middle of a cartel war involving Gus Fring and Lalo Salamanca.

5 It Confirms Kim Seeing Lalo Beforehand Was A Bad Idea

Kim Wexler was now in the game

With Jimmy missing, Kim was worried enough that she risked Lalo knowing who she was to try to find her husband. Kim’s reasoning is sound, but her actions gave Lalo collateral if anything potentially went wrong with Jimmy. Lalo subtly forces her to stay as he references Kim telling him beforehand that she was part of the legal team. Doing so puts Kim in “the game,” as the show called it, which is something Jimmy never wanted for her. Jimmy may have been afraid for his life before knowing Lalo, but knowing Kim is in danger, too, would only add to his anxiety when Lalo confronted them.

4 It Started Jimmy’s Extreme Fear Of Lalo

Better Call Saul was never the same after it

Jimmy already knew how dangerous Lalo was before their confrontation, but Lalo had never insinuated that he would consider murdering his own lawyer. However, after interrogating Jimmy and Kim – one of the worst things Lalo did in Better Call Saul – Jimmy is so scared for his life that he confronts Mike, who he knows can kill people, about the prospect of Lalo’s return. While Jimmy became more terrified when Lalo relayed his belief that Jimmy and Nacho conspired to kill him and his family, it all started when Lalo came to his apartment with a gun. The scene openly showed Lalo’s distrust of his own attorney.

3 Kim Proved She’s Just As Good In ‘The Game’ As Jimmy (If Not Better)

Kim is the one who saved the day

As Kim continues to indulge in life as a con artist on the side, she grows more confident in herself. In perhaps the one twist viewers didn’t see coming, it is, in fact, Kim who saves Jimmy from Lalo’s interrogation using her abilities to con people. Doing so could have signed her death warrant – and Rhea Seehorn thought that Kim was going to die – but she’s convincing enough that Lalo buys her hypothetical side of things. While Saul Goodman may be a “criminal lawyer,” Kim shows that she is just as capable in that regard as he is, which is one of the ways in which Kim proves how much she changed throughout the course of Better Call Saul.

2 Lalo Shows How Frightening He Can Be

Tony Dalton gives an incredible performance

Lalo’s charm is what makes him arguably the best villain in the Breaking Bad universe. His ability to make people feel welcome only to do a complete 180 in a split second makes him a terrifying antagonist. That was on full display when he initially convinced Jimmy and Kim that he was only sitting down to talk. Lalo was actually there to threaten their lives if Jimmy didn’t tell him what really happened when he picked up the bail money. Finding the balance between charming and scary makes Lalo extremely unpredictable in the scariest of ways as a character, which is also why the “Tell Me Again” scene is Tony Dalton’s favorite Better Call Saul scene.

1 It Could Have Determined Kim’s And Lalo’s Fate

Many Better Call Saul theories were created after that scene

Being a prequel series, one of Better Call Saul‘s biggest appeals was finding out what exactly happened to its main characters since they don’t appear in Breaking Bad. Seeing a threatening Lalo show up with the intention of extracting information out of his attorney by any means necessary made it seem as though this scene was why neither he nor Kim appeared in Breaking Bad. In many ways, it seemed like Kim was either going to join the game and leave Jimmy at some point or that she would be killed by Lalo eventually.

Lalo and Jimmy’s game of chicken only becomes all the more uneasy as Lalo continuously ups the pressure to tell him the truth. With Kim as possible collateral and with Mike outside waiting with a sniper rifle, this scene gave every indication that it was the climactic scene Better Call Saul had been building up to all this time. Surprisingly, though, Kim’s fate had nothing to do with Lalo, although Lalo’s death was somewhat tied to Kim‘s story.

Surprisingly enough, Vince Gilligan originally did not want Lalo in Better Call Saul, believing not all questions in the Breaking Bad universe had to be answered. However, it didn’t take too long for Lalo to show exactly why he was necessary to the plot. Lalo did much worse things before and after, but seeing him be the one character who could intimidate the two leads in a story made for Better Call Saul‘s peak scene.