History Recap / BetterCallSaulS1E9Pimento

'''Season 1, Episode 2:'''

* {{Determinator}}: A tragic, negative example. Jimmy points out how dead-set Chuck is about sabotaging him and his legal career by pointing out how ''painful'' it must have been for him to voluntarily use his phone to make the call to Howard, as despite his 'training' and demonstrated lack of reaction when his mind's distracted, when he's aware of his surroundings, Chuck's EMS delusions still cause him considerable pain, that he nonetheless weathered just to undermine Jimmy's efforts behind his back. He sounds positively ''horrified'' and confused that Chuck went through that much effort voluntarily just to backstab him and render his hard work all for naught, and for a reason he can't fantom.

-->'''Jimmy:''' Phone must have felt like a blowtorch in your ear, all that electricity, all those radio waves ''right'' up against the side of your head, ''my'' '''god!!?'''.

** Averted in the scene where Mike kicks Sobchak's ass. In RealLife, it is generally ''extremely'' ill advised to try and grab someone's gun when it's right in your face, no matter how skilled you are. If Mike wasn't a TV character with PlotArmor, he would have gotten a bullet in the brain.

* BatmanGambit: Mike employs one to grab all three fees for Daniel's job for himself. He guesses correctly that he can antagonize Sobchak into a confrontation he can't win. He also correctly guesses the other hired criminal, Mountain Man, will [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere hightail it out of the garage]] after being intimidated by the display. He did his research on Nacho beforehand, and therefore learned that Nacho is doing side jobs behind Tuco's back. He therefore knew that a gun wouldn't even be needed for Daniel's job, as Nacho wants the transaction to go as smoothly as possible without any word of it reaching Turco.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: After he humiliates the bodyguard by effortlessly kicking his ass, Mike tosses all of his guns into a nearby trash can.

** After pistol-whipping the bodyguard in the trachea and leaving him prone and helpless on the ground, Mike proceeds to casually and snidely disarm him, highlighting how a single man going around strapped to the teeth doesn't necessarily give him an advantage over a stronger or smarter opponent, and can in fact be a liability against him -- either if he's down, or if those guns are impractical and chosen for "style".
--->'''Mike:''' Okay... let's see what you got.\\
''[He takes the Wilson Combat away from him]''\\
'''Mike:''' Yeah, yeah, yeah... guy like you, I'll bet you have an ankle holster, wouldn't ya?\\
''[He fishes around in the guy's boot, pulling out a little Ruger]''\\
'''Mike:''' That's cute. What else?\\
''[He kicks the guy to roll him over and pulls a Desert Eagle from his back holster]''\\
'''Mike:''' ''[Sarcastically]'' Wow! Now that's impressive! So many guns, I don't know which ones to use...

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Trevor is so cocky and self-assured that he believes he'll handle Mike without any trouble. Anybody who's watched Mike in action during Series/BreakingBad will know Trevor is about to get his ass handed back to him in style.

* GivenNameReveal: Nacho's first name is revealed to be "Ignacio" in this episode. What makes this a particularly notable reveal is that this ties Nacho in with Jimmy's future as Saul Goodman, recalling that in [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E8BetterCallSaul his first appearance]] in ''Breaking Bad'', he was bound up and taken to the desert and immediately started screaming "No, no! It wasn't me, it was Ignacio!"

* LuckyTranslation: While the name "Pimento" comes from Mike's sandwich, "Pimento" also means "dark place" in Finnish, where the most common usage of the word is "Pitää pimennossa", which in turn translates into "to keep (someone) in the dark", which is exactly what Chuck has been doing.

* TryingNotToCry: Kim is visibly tearing up as she begs Jimmy to take Howard's deal, clearly feeling sorry for her friend.

* ActorAllusion: Creator/StevenOgg makes a cameo as the cocky, loud-mouthed thug in the parking lot scene. His mannerism closely recalls another well-known character portrayed by Ogg: Trevor, probably the most psychotic and trigger-happy protagonist of the whole VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto franchise so far. The message to the audience is crystal clear: despite his age, Mike is so badass that can outclass, disarm and knock out even Trevor. With a single swift motion. While being held at gunpoint!

* AwfulTruth: Chuck has been sabotaging Jimmy's attempts to become a bonafide lawyer behind the scenes while pretending to respect and support him as a fellow lawyer. Kim is so shell-shocked from finding this out that when she goes to meet Jimmy, she can only tell him shakily while fighting tears to take the deal, for his own good.

* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Chuck would rather risk his own law firm missing out on a slam dunk multi-million dollar case than hire Jimmy to work at the firm, because he's ''that'' convinced that Jimmy doesn't deserve to be a lawyer.

* DoingResearch: Mike looks into Nacho's situation closely before the deal with Daniel that he's been hired to assist with. Discovering that Nacho is doing the deal without the knowledge of his boss (Tuco), Mike knows that Nacho can not afford for the meeting to go badly. A shootout, or any kind of violence at all, would potentially get Tuco's attention and alert him to the fact that someone is working on his turf, which could very easily lead back to Nacho, and would almost certainly end with Tuco killing him. Therefore, Mike feels comfortable not bringing a gun to the meet, being the lone bodyguard on Daniel's side, and even threatening to blow up the deal over twenty dollars, as he knows Nacho needs the exchange to happen as cleanly and smoothly as possible.