Marco
In a flashback, Jimmy says goodbye to Marco, his partner in running cons, explaining that as part of Chuck's work to get him out of jail, he's agreed to take a legitimate job in Albuquerque. Although Marco argues that it's a waste of Jimmy's talents, his mind is made up.
In the present, Jimmy goes to HHM to hand over the paperwork for the Sandpiper case, as well as Chuck's accommodations, since he'll no longer be handling them. Both Howard and Kim are impressed by Jimmy's dedication to his brother and his calm, matter-of-fact demeanor. He has a breakdown over Chuck while calling bingo at Sandpiper Crossing, explaining the full story of the "Chicago Sunroof". Back in Cicero, a very drunk Jimmy defecated through the sunroof of a man, Chet, who had wronged him. Unfortunately, Jimmy didn't notice that Chet's kids were in the backseat, trumping up the charges for what otherwise would have been a misdemeanor. Jimmy would have faced jail time and ended up on the sex offender registry if Chuck hadn't stepped in, and now he feels he's been "paying for it ever since."
Jimmy abruptly leaves and returns to his home town of Cicero, where he meets Marco at the same bar Jimmy left before. Jimmy awkwardly mentions that he visited Cicero for his mother's funeral without meeting Marco, to his disappointment. Jimmy's agreement to do an involved con with Marco involving a "rare" half-dollar coin leads to a extravagant week of scams.
At Marco's apartment, Jimmy finally reveals he's a lawyer, and he has responsibilities to his clients in Albuquerque. Although impressed by the idea of "Slippin' Jimmy" becoming a lawyer, Marco insists they do the Rolex scam one more time before he goes. Everything goes smoothly until Jimmy pokes Marco, who doesn't stir. Jimmy calls an ambulance while their mark runs off with Marco's money. Marco suddenly stirs awake, peacefully telling Jimmy before he dies that "this was the greatest week of my life."
Kim calls Jimmy at Marco's funeral to say the Sandpiper case is so big HHM intends to work with Davis & Main of Santa Fe. D&M's partners know Jimmy has a good rapport with the elderly clients, so they want to hire him. Jimmy returns to Albuquerque to meet with them, but decides to pay Chuck a visit first. He stays in his car and sees that Ernesto, who Jimmy worked with in the mail room, has replaced him as Chuck's caregiver. Jimmy - and Chuck, seeing Jimmy's car out the window - hesitates, but decides not to make amends just yet. Outside the courthouse, Jimmy stops rehearsing his speech to Davis & Main and drives up to the parking booth. He asks Mike why they didn't keep the Kettlemans' money. Mike recalls Jimmy wanted to do the "right thing", and Mike merely did the job for which Jimmy hired him. Jimmy replies that whatever stopped him from taking the money will never stop him again, and drives off humming "Smoke on the Water", the song Marco was humming just before he died.
Tropes:
- 419 Scam: To start off the montage of cons, Jimmy does a non-digital, verbal variation of the infamous Nigerian Prince scheme.
- Almost Dead Guy: Marco comes to in order to deliver some final lines to Jimmy before passing on.
- Book Ends: As Jimmy leaves the HHM building we are treated to a shot of the demolished garbage bin at the elevator exit which Jimmy had his way with in the pilot.
- Binge Montage: Jimmy and Marco spend a week pulling scams in Cicero.
- Brick Joke: In the Cold Open, Marco mentions wanting to try a "tar-money" scheme Jimmy was working on to convince him to stay. During the con montage, we see Jimmy pull it off, pitching a special formula to uncover special bills coated in tar.
- Call-Back:
- A woman telling Jimmy "You are not Kevin Costner!" in referenece to his claim back in Breaking Bad episode "Abiquiu"
- The episode ends with Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," to the tune of which Marco fake-drunkenly sang with "butthole" the last time they pulled the Rolex con.
- The "Abbasi regime" is a refence to the PPD Detective who interviewed Mike in "Five-O".
- Call-Forward:
- During the Bingo scene, Jimmy briefly talks about Belize, a place he will later discuss with Walter White in a very different context.
- When Jimmy needs to tell Marco that he needs to go back to being a lawyer in Albuquerque, Marco's astonished that Slippin' Jimmy's become a lawyer and imagines him driving a white Cadillac and making tons of money at this point. Jimmy says it's clearly not the case, blissfully unaware of where he'll end up.
- Celebrity Resemblance: The girls mistake Jimmy for Kevin Costner.
- The Con: The episode is filled with these, including a Time-Compression Montage of the various grifts Jimmy and Marco pull.
- Jimmy can be heard proposing different Get Rich Quick Schemes that presumably swindle his targets for worthless "investments".
- Jimmy and Marco go back to performing "corroborative" cons over the course of a week, taking turns as the fake mark. Marco proposes they try the Rolex trick for one last night of fun, but it doesn't go over very well this time.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Waking up from their week of fun, Jimmy checks his phone and goes through voicemail messages of his elderly clients he promised to help. Remembering his responsibilities as a lawyer and still keeping Chuck in mind, he tells Marco he has to go back to Albuquerque. Seemingly, however, it's also Defied at the last moment, when he turns his back on a chance to work on Sandpiper with Davis & Main.
- Consummate Professional: Mike's stated reason for not helping himself to any of the Kettlemans' embezzled money back in "Bingo" is simply that he was hired to do a job, therefore he only did exactly what he was told to do. Nothing more. Nothing less.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Jimmy meets Marco for the first time in years and first sees him sleeping facedown at the bar. It's implied to have resulted from both Jimmy's leaving and his Incurable Cough of Death.
- Final Speech: As he lays dying, Marco apologizes to Jimmy for "screwing up" their last con together, before parting by saying how it was the best week of his life.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Implied to be Exploited for some of Jimmy's cons during the montage, where he describes being "all about investments" to get his marks interested in his phony ideas. Near the end, both Jimmy and Marco are heard promising different people that they'll get a big return for whatever Zany Scheme they want to keep secret.
- The Ghost: Two; Jimmy's (presumably first) ex-wife, who cheated on him with a guy named "Chet" (before she became Jimmy's ex). Chet's connections and what Jimmy did to him played a rather pivotal role in how Jimmy ended up in New Mexico.
- Gilligan Cut: Jimmy refuses repeatedly to play another "Rolex" scam with Marco. Cut to another scene at the alley.
- Identity Breakdown: Jimmy studied to become a lawyer in the hopes that it would make Chuck proud. After the Awful Truth comes out that Chuck was always vehemently against it, Jimmy effectively undergoes this throughout the episode, wondering if he should still be a lawyer or embrace being "Slippin' Jimmy" since he feels as though he can only be one or the other.
- If I Were a Rich Man: Marco's amazed at hearing Jimmy say he's actually a lawyer and not just ripping people off, saying he ought to be "king of the desert, driving around town in a white caddy, making bank". Jimmy tells him he's just making a living.Marco: All due respect, [if] you're a lawyer and you're not making bank, you're doing it wrong.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Marco lets off some coughs at the bar. Sure enough, he is dead by the end of this episode.
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Chet, who Jimmy's ex-wife cheated with, was apparently "Cicero"-level connected, able to trump up Jimmy's charges to indecent exposure from the Chicago Sunroof.
- Mic Drop: Jimmy does it before storming out of the bingo hall.
- MockGuffin: Jimmy and Marco have no shortage of these, including a(n apparently) misprinted half-dollar, frozen assets that don't exist, the classic Violin Scam, and a special chemical they promise will clean certain dollar bills covered in grime.
- Obfuscating Disability: One of Jimmy's grifts is pretending to be blind and needing to have the mark read "winning" lottery tickets to him.
- ...Or So I Heard: Jimmy prefaces what he "may have" done to Chet's car.
- Please Wake Up: Line said by Jimmy to Marco after the latter has passed away.
- Phoney Call: When Marco pretends to be calling the shill during their "precious dime" scam, we hear the telephone time service on the other end.
- Rage Breaking Point: After handing the Sandpiper case over to Howard, Kim asks if Jimmy's feeling alright. He assures her through the elevator ride and his walk to his car that he's fine, trying to brush off how bad he feels knowing how much Chuck actually resents him. He tries to keep his mind off it during the bingo session but gets constantly annoyed with a string of "B's". Remembering how betrayed he feels by his brother, Jimmy divulges the residents into a long-winded rant about how he ended up in Albuquerque thanks to said brother's involvement in the ordeal, culminating into him Suddenly Shouting by the end.
- The Reveal: We find out just what a "Chicago Sunroof" is in this episode and why it almost landed Jimmy in trouble for it: defecating through a sunroof, which he did to a guy named "Chet". Unfortunately for Jimmy, Chet's children were in the backseat, and with his connections reaching the DA's office, Jimmy was looking at charges for indecent exposure and sex offender registration. It's only thanks to Chuck's legal knowhow and promising to do better to him that Jimmy ended up trying to turn a new leaf.
- Run for the Border: Jimmy tells Marco in the Cold Open that he's planning on heading to New Mexico after getting out of his situation. Marco asks if he's skipping bail, and Jimmy reiterates, "New Mexico".
- Snake Oil Salesman: A variation is done by Jimmy and Marco, who claim to have a certain chemical substance that acts as the key to cleaning, and thus obtaining, tons of dollar bills procured from mysterious origins. We don't see the payoff, but it's implied that the box of bills they show isn't full of actual bills.
- Start of Darkness: Marco's death is a major turning point for Jimmy. The episode ends with him asking Mike why they didn't just keep the Kettlemans' stolen money for themselves. When Mike reminds him that he had done "the right thing," Jimmy declares that he's never going to let that stop him again.
- Suddenly Shouting: Jimmy breaks down during the bingo session he's hosting, culminating into his yelling at the end of his rant.Jimmy: One, little, Chicago Sunroof, and suddenly I'm Charles Manson?! And that's where it all went off the rails! I've been paying for it ever since. THAT'S WHY I'M HERE!
- Tragic Keepsake: As this episode reveals, the phony Rolex watch and pinkie ring Saul often sports both originally belonged to Marco, and he decided to keep them after the death of his best friend.
- Violin Scam:
- Jimmy and Marco's first con when Jimmy returns to Cicero involves playing up the value and importance of a misprinted half-dollar coin, by emphasizing its misprint and fabricating its history. An overhearing party decides to buy it after Marco feigns interest.
- They actually execute the Trope Namer itself, complete with Marco using a violin as collateral, Jimmy approaching to buy it, and Marco giving a fake story of how the cheap instrument is a family heirloom of his.
