After waking up at the rural compound in Mexico, Mike wanders into the kitchen and asks the cook, Senora Cortazar, where he is, learning that the phone can't make long-distance calls. Mike leaves the property and walks some distance down a dirt road. He finds and sits next to a road marker, where he notices that the battery of his phone is dead. Gus' doctor, Barry Goodman, drives up to Mike in a microcar and approaches him, stating that Gus has tasked Barry with keeping Mike alive. Mike begrudgingly allows Barry to takes him back to the compound.
In Tucumcari, a demolition crew is making preparations to empty and bulldoze Everett Acker's house when Jimmy, acting in his capacity as Acker's attorney, approaches them. Jimmy and Acker persuade a sheriff's deputy that the address on the eviction order in incorrect, forcing the demolition to be delayed by a day. Later, at the Albuquerque Country Club, Kevin meets with Kim and Paige and complains about Jimmy's stalling tactic. Kim tries to withdraw from the case, citing the conflict of interest of having Jimmy, her boyfriend, being Acker's counsel. Kevin suspects that Acker hired Jimmy precisely to have her removed from the case, and insists that Kim remain involved with the case and press ahead with building the Tucumcari call center.
Meanwhile, at the compound, Mike's wound from his stabbing is being stitched by Dr. Goodman, who tells him that he is free to leave and take a bus back to the U.S. from a nearby town, but warns that he won't survive the journey unless he is fully recovered. Mike remains curious why Gus went through so much trouble to get him treated. Exploring the rustic compound, he encounters a crowd of schoolchildren running past a brand new fountain in a public square. On the fountain is a plaque dedicating the fountain to "Max".
At Kim's apartment, Jimmy is cooking curry in the kitchen when Howard phones him, asking if he has considered his offer of a job at HHM. Jimmy falsely tells Howard that he is mulling it over, and hangs up on Howard before he can give him more details about the job. After doing so, Jimmy strikes and breaks a ceramic object in a duffel bag with a hammer. Kim comes home and informs Jimmy that Kevin has refused to remove her from the Acker case. Jimmy asks Kim to recount her discussion with Kevin in detail, urging her to make a mocking imitation of his sitting posture and drawling accent. Roleplaying the impromptu skit causes Jimmy and Kim to decide to take a shower together.
At the compound, Mike tries and fails to contact Gus on the landline telephone. Since the battery for his own mobile phone is still dead, Mike attempts to improvise a means of charging it using various scraps of electrical equipment he finds lying around his quarters. While Mike is in the process of tinkering, Senora Cortazar hands him an actual charger. Mike is able to activate his phone and makes a call to Gus, questioning him about why he has been taken to the compound. Gus tells him that now is not a good time to answer him and ends the call.
Meanwhile, in Tucumcari, Jimmy has planted the pottery he shattered the previous night on Acker's property and claims that his house sits on a purported Native American archeological site, necessitating yet another delay in Acker's eviction. This becomes the first of many obstacles Jimmy throws in the way of the demolition crew, raising frivolous disputes over obscure state law, staging a radioactive contamination of the land around Acker's house, and faking a miraculous image of Jesus on Acker's fence, causing delay after delay. Frustrated by Jimmy's antics, Kevin and Paige meet with Kim and Rich at Schweikart & Cokely. Kim explains that Jimmy is trying to force Mesa Verde back to the negotiating table, while Rich suggests that they follow Kim's plan of building the call center at an alternative site, thereby taking away Jimmy's leverage. Despite the prospect of Mesa Verde facing a years-long court battle if he continues to fight Acker, Kevin stubbornly refuses to back down and angrily insists on his eviction.
That night, Kim and Jimmy are laying in bed and discuss the Acker case. Despite Jimmy's assurances that she did the best she could do for Acker, Kim has resigned herself to his impending eviction. Despite telling Kim that the pragmatic thing to do is to take the loss and move on, Jimmy entices her with the idea that there is still "another play" to help Acker: "going after" Kevin and forcing him a compromise. Jimmy makes a phone call to Mike, who is still convalescing at the compound in Mexico, and offers him a paying job performing "oppo research"; Mike flatly refuses. After ending the call, Mike helps Senora Cortazar prevent water from leaking through a window during a rainstorm. The following morning, Mike performs repair work on the faulty windowsill.
At the nail salon, Jimmy and Kim meet with Sobchak (the man Mike had an altercation with late in season 1), who has done a thorough search of Kevin's background. In Jimmy's back office, Sobchak admits that he surreptitiously broke into and searched Kevin's house, but states that he could not find anything damaging about him. Jimmy is wary of Kim hearing about Sobchak's illegal activities, but Kim insists on hearing the full details. Sobchak hands them several photographs he took of the interior of Kevin's home office. When Sobchak suggests that Kevin be abducted and taken out to the desert to be threatened, Jimmy ends the meeting and dismisses him. Jimmy apologizes for Sobchak's outburst, but Kim, having noticed something in the photographs from Kevin's house, gives him a knowing smile as she comes up with a new plan.
The next day, at Schweikart & Cokely, Kim is looking at images of Mesa Verde's cowboy logo when Rich enters her office. Rich suggests to Kim that she temporarily disengage from her work on Mesa Verde. When pressed by Kim, Rich implies that he has seen through her actions and has deduced that she and Jimmy have been working against Mesa Verde on the Acker case. Incensed, Kim follows Rich into the hallway outside and, in front of other staff members, angrily confronts him and denies that she is throwing the Tucumcari situation against her own client. She returns to her office and sulks.
At the compound, Mike has is about to finish repairing the window when he overhears Gus conversing with Senora Cortazar in Spanish in the next room. He walks outside to find Gus standing at the fountain in the public square. Gus tells Mike that he doesn't want Senora Cortazar to know about their association, preferring to keep his criminal dealings as far away from the compound as possible, as well as keep secret the fact that he is the village's anonymous benefactor. When Mike further queries what Gus wants with him, Gus replies that Mike faces a choice: that he either continue his self-destructive behavior or return to Gus' employ as a soldier in his war against the Salamancas. Mike balks at the idea of being Gus' "button man", but Gus finally tells him why he is so interested in Mike's wellbeing: because Mike understands Gus' need for revenge.
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch: Kevin Wachtell again takes his time to react to something Kim tells him, and again appears about to chew her out - only to lay the blame squarely at the homeowner's door instead of Kim's.
- The Bus Came Back: "Mr X." shows again. This time around, he's far more professional.
- The Cameo: The construction foreman is played by John DiMaggio.
- Cliffhanger: What did Kim see in the photos?
- Continuity Nod:
- Mr. X was previously hired by Daniel Wormald as a bodyguard, whom ribbed Mike about his lack of a gun before Mike put him in check. Just like before, he gets hired via a call put out to Dr. Caldera.
- Mike asks Gus what kind of place the housing units are meant to be, and Gus answers that it's a sort of memorial. A plaque reading "Dedicado a Max"note is seen on the fountain in the center square, indicating it's a memorial for Gus' former partner Max Arciniega.
- Shortly after showing "Dedicado a Max" inscribed on the fountain, the scene cuts to water turning red (due to Jimmy making tea), which is eerily similar to when Max's blood was spilling into and mixing with Don Eladio's pool water upon being murdered by Hector in front of Gus.
- Jimmy goes back to his Cajun accentnote briefly when goading Kim into doing an impression of Kevin.
- David Versus Goliath: In one corner, Mesa Verde Bank And Trust, a financial institution nearly fifty years old with over a dozen branches, a whole team full of legal counsel, and the backing of holding the legal right in what they're doing. And in the other, Everett Acker, an elderly war veteran who refuses to move simply because he doesn't want to, supported by a single lawyer who just recently returned from suspension, with no big law firm (or any real resources at all) behind him. Despite the massive advantage in their position, Mesa Verde is repeatedly delayed from being permitted to evict Everett Acker and demolish his house, as Jimmy pulls out every trick in the book to stall them. David would actually finish the job in triumph in the following episode, when not only does Jimmy manage to force Mesa Verde to let Acker remain in his house, but also pay him $75,000 just for the extended hassle of the dispute.
- Everyone Has Standards: As sleazy and corrupt a lawyer Jimmy is at this point, he immediately balks at Mr. X's idea of kidnapping Kevin, throwing a bag over his head and interrogating him in the desert. Doubles as Foreshadowing, as that’s exactly what happens to Saul later down the line.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Kevin Wachtell never for a second suspects that Kim is the one betraying him by working with Acker and Jimmy, nor does he connect the dots that Kim first tries to change his mind about the lot and her boyfriend defend Acker the very next day when he refuses, something which Rick points out almost immediately. It's an early telling of his Bitch in Sheep's Clothing tendencies that he absolutely ignores the fact that Acker is just an old man who refuses to abandon the house he build and lived on his whole life on the whims of a millonaire and the possiblity that Kim may have a moral objection with kicking a elderly man on the streets.
- Genre Savvy: While it's dubious how much Kevin and Paige suspect Kim as being the saboteur behind the escalating problem with Everett Acker, Rich Schweikert as a smart and experienced lawyer sees right through her and Jimmy's play. Thus, he gracefully tries to reassign her away from Mesa Verde temporarily, both hoping to avoid a more direct confrontation and also trying to protect both Kim and the firm from potential embarrassment.
- Internal Homage: The sequence of Jimmy cooking curry is shot similarly to the meth-cooking scenes in Breaking Bad.
- Jitter Cam: The steadicam switches to a handheld camera midway through Schweikart pulling Kim off her Mesa Verde work.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Jimmy and Kim usually have this dynamic anyway, but used for fun when they roleplay as Jimmy as Kim, and Kim as Kevin, and they both get turned on by Kim bossing "herself" around.
- Miles Gloriosus: So remember that cocky gun nut from "Pimento", who Mike handled so easily? Jimmy ends up hiring him to do work on Kevin (because Mike was unavailable) and it appears he did no job whatsoever, just claiming bunch of things, to the point where both Jimmy and Kim start to question if he even did any sort of research. Subverted, as Mr X. proves to be highly professional and gathers a lot of intel, but only pulled it out when called out on "lying", simply to prove that nope, Kevin really is squeaky clean and there was no point showing photos and information he gathered, as there isn't anything interesting in them...that is, until Kim still finds something special within the collected data.
- Only Sane Man: A situation is really spiraling out of control when Jimmy is the voice of reason. Mr. Acker is a stubborn old man who only wants to extend the dispute as long as possible. Kevin takes the entire situation as a personal attack on him and is willing to lose a lot of money fighting Acker. Kim is obsessed with proving that she is not a corporate drone and is willing to keep pouring gasoline on the fire. Jimmy is savvy enough to see that there is no upside to the situation and tries to prevent Kim from destroying her career and life.
- The Reveal: It was Gus who arranged for Mike to be spirited away after he got stabbed by the street gang.
- Revenge: Gus saved Mike and had him patched up at his remote village hospital (one so well-equipped it has an MRI scanner) because he believes Mike shared his desire for revenge – specifically against the Salamancas. Something they would both get to indulge in a few years down the line.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kevin is right to smell a rat with the Mr. Acker fiasco, he's just looking at the con from the wrong angle.
- Running Gag: The poor Sheriff sure has to make a lot of calls, what with all the various things going wrong with the site.
- Shout-Out: Mr. X, played by Steven Ogg, suggests a more, umm, extreme approach to Jimmy and Kim's problem with Kevin: Kidnapping him and taking him out to the desert with the help of two other guys. What does that remind you of?
- It's also a bit of a Call-Forward to Saul being kidnapped by Walter and Jesse in his first appearance in Breaking Bad.
- Spotting the Thread: Schweikart figures out that Kim is causing problems with the Tucumcari call center.Schweikart: Alright. First, I had to twist your arm to get you down to Tucumcari for the eviction. Then, you put the full court press on Kevin to change sites. That doesn't work, and abracadabra, your boyfriend's opposing counsel.
Kim: I told you, I explained the situation to Kevin and Paige.
Schweikart: Yeah, I know you did. And I'm sorry to say... I'm just not buying it. - Sure, Let's Go with That: When Jimmy tries to ask Mike to investigate Kevin, he asks whether the bad call quality is because Mike's in a tunnel. Mike concurs (it's because he's in a town south of the border).
- Title Drop: "Dedicado a Max" is seen on a plaque adorning the fountain at the center of the village.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Gus pretty much owns the village where his secret clinic is run. Only the town doctor knows this; the rest of the village obliviously thinks Gus is just the doctor's friend.
- We Have the Keys: Mike grabs a bunch of tools and electrical equipment in order to build a makeshift power supply for his dead cell phone. Mrs. Cortazar then hands him a phone charger.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Kevin Wachtell believes he is up against a stubborn old man who has hired a shyster lawyer to run interference against his plans. The stubborn old man has indeed hired a lawyer, but only with the prompting of Kim.
"Because I believe that you understand."
"Understand what?"
"Revenge…"
