History Recap / BetterCallSaulS1E4Hero

Jimmy uses his windfall to purchase new clothing and a UsefulNotes/{{billboard}} that deliberately imitates one of HHM's. Howard obtains a cease and desist order, forcing Jimmy to take the billboard down. As a worker begins taking it down, Jimmy hires a film crew from the University of New Mexico to generate sympathetic media coverage. Suddenly, the worker falls and dangles from the billboard, prompting Jimmy to spring into action. When he pulls the man up, a crowd gathering to watch, they high-five; Jimmy staged the whole thing, the worker being one of Jimmy's former clients. To Howard's disgust (and Kim's quiet glee), Jimmy's publicity stunt generates positive news coverage for Jimmy and brings him new clients.

[[caption-width-right:350:A selfless small business owner rises to the occasion.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Jimmy accepts the bribe from Joan.

Jimmy uses his windfall to purchase new clothing and a billboard that deliberately imitates one of HHM's. Howard obtains a cease and desist order, forcing Jimmy to take the billboard down. As a worker begins taking it down, Jimmy hires a film crew from the University of New Mexico to generate sympathetic media coverage. Suddenly, the worker falls and dangles from the billboard, prompting Jimmy to spring into action. When he pulls the man up, a crowd gathering to watch, they high-five; Jimmy staged the whole thing, the worker being one of Jimmy's former clients. To Howard's disgust (and Kim's quiet glee), Jimmy's publicity stunt generates positive news coverage for Jimmy and brings him new clients.

* ArmorPiercingResponse: Joan flat out tells Jimmy that she won't hire him because he looks like the kind of lawyer guilty people hire. He grimaces in response.

* IdiotBall: Nacho parks up in a van in a mainly white neighborhood, where people can (and do) notice him, ''with bloodstains in the back that are visible from the outside''.

** We get a nod to Jimmy's future persona during the ColdOpen flashback, with Jimmy using "Saul" as a pseudonym during a grift and complimenting it with the play on words, "Saul good, man!".

* ComicallySmallBribe: After Jimmy takes Chuck's newspaper, Chuck pragmatically resorts to stealing a neighbor's and leaving a $5 bill with a rock attached to keep the wind from blowing it. The next episode shows that the neighbor (an elderly woman) was obviously ''not'' pleased with a measly $5 and proceeded to call the police.

In a flashback, Jimmy stumbles out of a bar with a drunk tourist named Stevie. In an ellay, they come across a wallet with $1,000 in it, and realize it belongs to an unconscious man nearby, who is also wearing what Jimmy recognizes as a Rolex. Stevie suggests he take the Rolex and Jimmy the cash, but Jimmy retorts that the watch must be worth at least $3,000. Stevie, knowing a real Rolex is worth much more, agrees to give Jimmy the $1,000, plus another $580 of his own. After Stevie leaves, the man wearing the watch gets up, revealing himself to be Jimmy's accomplice; the watch was one of many worthless fakes.

In a flashback, Jimmy and Marco use a fake Rolex watch to con a bar patron.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Before Jimmy gets ready to register the Kettlemans' bribe into his budget, he eagerly says to himself, "And upon this rock, I will build my Church...", looking to bolster his firm.

In 2002, the Kettlemans plead with Jimmy after he [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E3Nacho discovers their money]]. They offer a $30,000 "retainer", but Jimmy counters with hiring him as their lawyer. The Kettlemans turn him down: "You're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire." Jimmy decides to take the bribe. Jimmy gets Nacho released from jail, but Nacho deduces that Jimmy tipped off the Kettlemans and warns him about "consequences", to which Jimmy replies that he warned them out of concern for the safety of their children, and furthermore, that Nacho got arrested because he let himself be identified by a neighbor.

* TheConWithinACon: Marco is introduced as helping Jimmy with this, acting as the fake mark Jimmy convinces a bar patron to steal from.

* CallForward: Like in Saul's [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E8BetterCallSaul debut episode]], Jimmy is offered a large bribe to protect a criminal's interests. Except here, he decides to accept the money, showing that he hasn't realized [[PragmaticVillainy the dangers of accepting cash from strangers]], a lesson he'll learn [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E7Bingo soon enough]].

-->'''Jimmy''': You didn't need any help getting caught, okay? The neighbour ID'd you, you were sloppy. Any trouble you might have, that's on you. Not to mention the blood in your van - here's a thought: Ajax, Formula 409. You have no idea the tap-dance I had to give those cops to get you out of here.

* WhamLine: Once pulled up to safety, the billboard worker tells Jimmy "Took ya long enough", confirming the accident is staged.

* WhiteCollarCrime: Jimmy cooks the books to justify why he suddenly has $30,000 in his budget, writing different amounts off as serving different expenses. It leaves $1000 unaccounted for, which he invests elsewhere.

* ComicallySmallBribe:
** The Kettlemans offer a small cash bribe to Jimmy in exchange for keeping quiet about their scheme. Jimmy gives in, but he later regrets it because he didn't get enough to pay off his debt.
** After Jimmy takes Chuck's newspaper, Chuck pragmatically resorts to stealing a neighbor's and leaving a $5 bill with a rock attached to keep the wind from blowing it. The next episode shows that the neighbor (an elderly woman) was obviously ''not'' pleased with a measly $5 and proceeded to call the police.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Jimmy asked the Kettlemans what did they plan to do after staging their kidnapping and running away with the $1.6 million. They stammer they were working on that part.
* EngineeredHeroism: When the the worker removing the advertisement slips and falls, held on only by his harness. Jimmy pulls the worker to safety while the public watches and records. It is revealed that the accident was staged by Jimmy as a PublicityStunt.

* WhamShot: Early in the episode (after it hasn't been made clear if he took the Kettlemans' bribe) we see Jimmy at his desk in his office. He then reaches for something out of view... and it's said bribe.

* WhamLine: "Took ya long enough.", confirming the duplicity of the billboard worker's accident.

* WhamLine: "Took ya long enough.", confirming the duplicity of the billboard worker's accident.

In 2002, Jimmy offers his services to the Kettlemans; they counter with a $30,000 "retainer", which he accepts. Jimmy gets Nacho released from jail, but Nacho deduces that Jimmy tipped off the Kettlemans and warns him about "consequences", to which Jimmy replies that he warned them out of concern for the safety of their children.

Jimmy uses his windfall to purchase new clothing and a billboard that imitates HHM's logo. Howard obtains a cease and desist order, forcing Jimmy to take the billboard down. Jimmy tries to generate sympathetic media coverage, and stages the phony rescue of a billboard worker who pretends to have fallen. To Howard's disgust, Jimmy's publicity stunt generates positive news coverage for Jimmy and brings him new clients.

Jimmy makes his daily trip to Chuck's to drop off groceries and bring in his newspapers, but removes the local paper from Chuck's stack. Chuck realizes his paper is missing, braves his electromagnetic hypersensitivity symptoms to run outside and steal his neighbor's, and sees the story about Jimmy's billboard and his supposed rescue of the worker who fell.