History Recap / BetterCallSaulS1E1Uno

!Pilot

* CurbStompBattle: Jimmy delays his first defense case in the episode to practice his lines in the bathroom, working on an entire speech about how people make mistakes in their youth. However, because his clients were dumb enough to record themselves not only illegally sawing off a corpse's head, but [[BreadEggsMilkSquick sticking their dicks in it]]. The prosecutor [[SubvertedTrope doesn't even say a word]] [[PreAssKickingOneLiner between Jimmy's defense and popping the tape into the player]].

* PopculturalOsmosisFailure: At Hamlin, Hamlin & [=McGill=], Jimmy reenacts a scene from ''Film/{{Network}}'', but Howard doesn't get the reference.

* WhamShot: The car that the twins mistakenly targeted instead of Mrs. Kettleman's car is one belonging to an older Hispanic woman. When Jimmy shows up at her house shortly after and knocks on the door, he's greeted with a gun to the face... by Tuco Salamanca.

Jimmy confronts Howard Hamlin of Hamlin, Hamlin & [=McGill=] (HHM), the firm where his brother Chuck is a partner, though not an active one at the moment. Howard has been attempting to buy Chuck out, but Jimmy demands HHM pay Chuck for his partnership's full value of $17 million. But Howard refuses to concede on this, because the way he sees it Chuck is still on an "extended sabbatical." Howard asks Jimmy to pass some documents along to Chuck, but he refuses, saying that he doesn't work for the firm any more. Jimmy then notices the Kettlemans stopping in to hire HHM over him. Greatly frustrated by the meeting and the loss of lucrative clients, Jimmy maintains his composure, until he the car park stairwell where he takes his anger out on a trash bin. A woman from the meeting taking a cigarette break there is unfazed by this, or by Jimmy taking the cigarette from her lips, taking a drag and replacing it, showing how familiar they are. Thus enters Kim Wexler. Jimmy begins to ask Kim for her help, but she cuts him off and states she can do nothing, before walks inside again.

* BaitAndSwitch: Okay so prequel about Saul Goodman. He's going to dress flashy and pull underhanded tricks to get his clients off right? Not yet, as Jimmy is introduced in a bathroom, wearing a cheap, brown suit and practicing his (at worst, heavily playing to sentiment) speech so he looks like he has the confidence he needs to pull it off.

** The also skaters deserve a spot here. First, trying to extort money from someone with an old car that's in really bad shape is not the best target for their scam, as Jimmy points out. And while mixing up which car they're targeting with another, similar one is understandable, one look at Tuca's grandmother should have told them that her name is probably not Betsy Kettleman, and she isn't the person Jimmy is trying to get as a client.

The twins execute the plan perfectly, but accidentally target the wrong car, which drives off without stopping to check on its victim. The three of them chase the car home, where an elderly Hispanic woman steps out. Despite now knowing that the woman is not Betsy, Lars and Cal believe that they can still pressure some money out of her, and follow her into her house. Jimmy arrives soon afterwards; he knocks on the door, claiming to be an officer of the court. But when the door opens, Jimmy is met with a gun in the face. He is beckoned into the house, and Tuco Salamanca checks for witnesses and closes the door behind them.

->''"Do you feel doomed? Have opponents of freedom wrongly intimidated you? Maybe they told you you’re in serious trouble, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m Saul Goodman and I’m here to tell you that they’re wrong. It’s never too late for justice. Better call—"''

In May 2002, Jimmy [=McGill=] (Saul's real name) is a struggling public defender in Albuquerque, New Mexico, representing three teenaged boys accused of breaking into a funeral home and performing a sex crime on a severed human head. Jimmy tries to use the old "boys will boys" defense, to which the prosecutor merely responds by playing a home video the teens themselves recorded of their crime. The video visibly nauseates the judge and several members of the jury.