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The opening sequence of the latest episode of Better Call Saul S4.E7 "Something Stupid" was really interesting. The whole opening shows a split screen montage with a song playing. The split screen starts by showing two identical scenes of Kim and Jimmy brushing their teeth. As the song progresses we see Kim on the left and Jimmy on the right going about their individual days and over time Kim and Jimmy are drifting apart. Even in a few scenes, it shows Kim and Jimmy together, but the split screen black bar is still present, symbolizing that they have a growing space between them. It's a really creative and clever scene.

At one point there is a shot of Kim sitting at a table with her new law partners after she has had her cast taken off. We see her talking above the table, then the camera pans down under the table and we see her doing physical therapy by squeezing a ball under the table. The scene really struck me for some reason as having some sort of deeper significance, but I'm not able to think what the symbolism might be here or how it fits into the message of the whole montage sequence. What is this section of the scene saying or am I reading too much into it and this was just a cool camera shot?

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  • Although I think the other answer is best for now, one may speculate that this shot was not just about general physical therapy, but perhaps symbolic of Kim's internal strength. We have to remember that the reason that there is distance between them is because Kim freaked out when she realized that Jimmy still was hoping to work together in the future and for whatever reason, this caused her to bolt in another direction. Another possibility is that it was also symbolic of tension, whether it's because she feels guilty or needs to be in control, or foreshadowing later scenes in the epi/series.
    – Darth Locke
    Sep 23, 2018 at 0:11
  • The other thing one may be able to take away from it is the color green, which is a neutral color and squeezing the ball is then also symbolic to still holding on to Jimmy, despite the detachment, there is still some 'mutual" arrangement, which might be why she was willing to help, despite I think she was struggling to do so.
    – Darth Locke
    Sep 23, 2018 at 0:13

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She broke her arm, it was in a cast for months, and thus she likely has lost a significant amount of muscle tone in that arm. The ball-squeezing technique is a way to rebuild your muscles and regain the full functionality of your arm and hand after a long period of inactivity.

That the color of her ball corresponds with the color of one of Saul's ghastly tracksuits was of course deliberate and part of it being a "cool shot".

In his recap/review for Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall has a slightly more poetic view of this bit:

They are friends, and roommates, and presumably still lovers, but they are going in different directions — even when they appear to match, like when the stress ball she uses to strengthen her hand is the same color as the track suit Jimmy is wearing that day.

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  • Thanks for the answer. I do understand the why behind her squeezing the ball to rebuild muscle. I was asking more about whether there was any deeper significance. The quote about the color matching Jimmy's jogging suit is interesting and likely explains why I sensed there was something more to the shot than just the obvious.
    – sanpaco
    Sep 20, 2018 at 17:17

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