Mike despised Walt but he also didn't particularly like or respect Saul. Also why would he admit that to an untrustworthy, reckless weasel? Just disclosing that he knew Lalo was dead would basically be admitting to having been involved in it somehow.
Mike told Jimmy that Lalo was going to be assassinated in the S5 finale. Jimmy was determined to get an answer, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as to why Mike would have kept it from Jimmy after Lalo had actually died.
Kim was a street thug in her earlier years, probably why she sympathized with the criminals. Also, it's not like the show portrays all the people Kim was helping as some poor soul who dindu nothing wrong; we had a small plotline with that guy who had to be threatened (in a way) by Saul to accept the plea deal that Kim cooked up. Also, it pretty obvious that money was not the only thing Kim was after, as she declined to work Schweikart initially. She had enough money by the end and just wanted to do what made her happy.
I'm doing a rewatch of Breaking Bad and it's insane how many problems Mike and Gus caused for themselves by refusing to give Walt or Jesse a straight answer. In season 4, when Hank is getting wise to Gus, Walt keeps warning Gus and trying to sabotage Hank's efforts, but is given no indication for whether or not they're taking these warnings seriously. Later on, Jesse takes Walt's side after Brock gets sick because Walt and Jesse still believe Gus ordered the kid who shot Combo to be killed, and at no point does Gus tell Jesse "The dealers acted on their own, I'm sorry about the boy but I had nothing to do with it" even if it was a lie. Hell, Mike would have solved a lot of issues in the bar if he'd just told Walt "Stop being paranoid, just do the job and Gus will have no reason to get rid of you" rather than beating Walt up and letting him stew in fear.
You have to remember that Gus fucking hated having to bring in Jesse because he was a drug addict and he already had a much better assistant for Walter (who he was almost certainly going to inevitably replace Walt with at some point later on due to his competence, loyalty and lack of strings). He actively wanted Jesse to fuck off and made very little effort to keep him in his good graces.
Better Call Saul is character driven. When the character writing is great, like the first three seasons, the show thrives. When the characters are acting stupid to advance the plot, like the last three seasons, the show suffers. Breaking Bad is purely plot driven. When you've seen the show once you've seen everything it had to offer and there's no reason to watch it again. It's not like The Sopranos or The Shield where the characters have depth. Or having a complicated world like The Wire where you need to focus on smaller details. It's just a show for mindless escapism without much substance.
They've admitted in DVD commentaries that they do just wing it. Like Gus having children's toys in his house and saying his family is out, then a season later we discover that his entire drive is to destroy the cartel for killing off his boyfriend, while the wife and kids are never mentioned again after that first episode. Hector was meant to be a bigger threat but then they decided to have Gus appear in more than one episode and make him the new antagonist. Hell, Hank found the Walt Whitman book in the bathroom because they realized they'd written themselves into a corner.
Remember that a lot of went down in BB was Mike underestimating Walt because of his fundamental contempt for Walt. Remember when he thought zip ties were going to keep Walt on a radiator? Remember when he delivered a speech to Walt about what a fucking idiot he was (right before Walt shot him to death)?
That was just bad writing. This happens in tons of shows where the villain ties the good guy up with flimsy ropes or cheap tape and the hero escapes easily. This constantly happened in series like Sons of Anarchy or Dexter. Where the main characters would break their chains and kill their captors in the most predictable ways. James Bond or other spy movies use this very often.
If anything he overestimated Walt in that case. It didn't even cross his mind that he'd kill him just because he couldn't think of a good comeback.
Say what you will about plastic cuffs, but the reason why Walt didn't get shoved in a plastic drum was because he manipulated the situation so that he and Jesse couldn't be replaced. Werner had an entire crew behind him, and it's not like he was the only guy who could do that job. Walt's meth was Walt's meth And Jesse's, and a job like his goes on as long as it can.
Contempt is one thing, but Mike took it to a stupid level. Sure, Walt threatened a man Mike's loyal to, but punching him without context did nothing to help Gus or the operation. And that's his job, keep the operation under wraps the best he can. Antagonizing Walt to do something even dumber just makes his job harder.
That's always been my read on it. If he'd actually gone there with the intent of killing Mike, Mike would have picked up on it. That Walt would just suddenly degenerate into a tard rage didn't even occur to him.
I feel like throughout the thread people have been slowly going down the slope of "X was good, X was okay but it had some issues, X was never good and it sucked actually"
