Recap / Better Call Saul S6 E12: "Waterworks"

Viktor, preparing to cross the line.

Jesse Pinkman: Anyways, this guy. Any good?
Kim Wexler: ... When I knew him, he was.

In 2004, Saul sits alone in his office, bouncing a rubber ball off the wall behind his desk. Francesca calls him through his earpiece, complaining that he hasn't seen any clients for the past hour while his waiting room is packed. Saul sits at his desk and takes something out of a large envelope: divorce papers from Kim. Eventually, he calls Francesca back and says, "What are you waiting for? Send her in."

In 2010, Kim, now sporting dyed brown hair and speaking in a different accent, hosts a cookout/potluck at her home in Titusville, Florida, with her boyfriend Glenn. The following day, she drives to her job at Palm Coast Sprinkler, where she composes sales flyers. After spending most of the day going through her normal work routine, she receives a call from a man calling himself "Viktor St. Clair", recognizing quickly that it's actually Jimmy/Gene wanting to reconnect after six years. Kim tells Jimmy to turn himself in; he reacts angrily and challenges her to do likewise since anyone that could potentially harm them (namely Gus and Lalo) is dead now. She doesn't respond, simply telling Jimmy she's glad he is alive and hanging up. She then joins her co-workers in singing "Happy Birthday" to a secretary, but her mind is elsewhere.

Taking Jimmy's advice to heart, Kim decides to fly to Albuquerque and visit the courthouse, observing places she remembers from her former life. She then stops by the Hamlin residence, where Cheryl greets her. Kim gives her a written confession detailing Howard's frameup, his murder by Lalo, and the staging of his "suicide" by Mike and other men working for Gus Fring. Kim tries to assure an emotional Cheryl that Howard "didn't suffer", but Cheryl angrily retorts that Kim and Jimmy's lies destroyed his reputation. Kim reveals she has already given a copy of the affidavit to the district attorney, but it is unlikely that she will be prosecuted or that Howard's body will be found. Cheryl asks Kim why she has decided to come clean after all these years, but Kim does not respond. On her way back to Florida, the dam breaks, and nearly a decade's worth of remorse and self-loathing come spilling out as Kim breaks down sobbing uncontrollably on an airport shuttle bus.

In Omaha, after breaking into the house, Gene finds the cancer-stricken mark lying asleep on his living room floor. He proceeds to take photos of the mark's bank documents and steal expensive watches from his mezzanine rec room. Looking over the railing, Gene sees an empty spot where the mark had been. The mark emerges from the bathroom and sits on the stairs, trapping Gene. Gene decides to knock him out with a cremation urn when the man once again passes out. Meanwhile, Jeff pulls up in front of the house to pick up Gene. However, while waiting, a police cruiser pulls up behind his cab while the cops inside have a meal break. Jeff tries to speed away but crashes into a nearby parked vehicle. The cops confront Jeff as he stumbles out of the cab. Gene escapes the house unnoticed.

Back in 2004, Saul treats Kim dismissively as they sign the divorce papers. She is disturbed at how callous her ex-husband has become, and by the hardened criminals that he is now taking on as clients; one such client, Emilio Koyama, is his next appointment. Outside, it is raining heavily. Kim shares a cigarette with Emilio's partner-in-crime, Jesse Pinkman, who recognizes her from when she successfully defended a friend named Combo. He asks if Saul lives up to his bombastic advertising, eventually reiterating his question as, "Is he good?" After some contemplation, Kim replies, "When I knew him, he was."

In the present day, Gene makes his way back to his residence. In the early hours of the morning, he receives a call from Jeff in jail via a burner phone. Jeff explains that he has been arrested for robbing the mark's house. Tapping into his skills as Saul, Gene tells him that because he wasn't found in possession of stolen items, he can't be linked to the crime. Gene then calls Marion to help get her son out of jail. When he explains that bond requirements are looser in Omaha than in Albuquerque, despite having previously claimed to have never been to Albuquerque, she becomes suspicious and begins searching on the Internet, uncovering "Gene's" true identity.

When Gene arrives at Jeff's house, he finds Marion in the kitchen. Hearing noise through her headphones, he seizes the computer and discovers that Marion, having surmised his identity, has been watching old Saul Goodman commercials on YouTube. Marion tries to call the police, but Gene rips the phone cord out of the wall and fashions it into a garrote, warning her against pressing her Life Alert button. Marion says, "I trusted you," which throws him off long enough for her to press the button and tell the operator that the fugitive Saul Goodman is in her kitchen. Finally exposed, Gene flees the house.

Tropes:

• Ambiguous Situation: Kim returns to Albuquerque and gives an affidavit detailing her role in Howard's murder. However, she's shown returning to Florida shortly after, and it's not made clear if she'll be facing any legal consequences (she notes to Cheryl that there's no physical evidence tying her to the murder). When she breaks down on the bus home, it could be because she's torpedoed her current life or that the punishment she's seeking has eluded her. invokedWord Of Rhea was that it was... everything — what she did, what she's become, the fact that she hasn't been caught, her guilt over Jimmy, and every emotion she's tried to suppress in her life.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • One of Kim's coworkers at Palm Coast Sprinklers in 2010 is seen playing solitaire on Microsoft Edge. Edge as a browser wasn't released to public operating systems until 2015, and the Chromium-based version shown wasn't released until 2020.
  • Marion blurts out that she searched on "AskJeeves" for information about Albuquerque conmen. The "AskJeeves.com" search engine dropped "Jeeves" and became "Ask.com" in 2006. This can be explained away as being because of Marion's old age and relative inexperience with the Internet, however.
• And Starring: Aaron Paul gets a "Special Appearance" credit.
• And Then What?:
  • Jimmy's call to Kim was a move out of desperation, and when she finally picks up the phone and starts responding, she's stuck questioning why he's decided to call while he's a wanted fugitive on the run.
  • Kim finally admits everything about what she did regarding Howard's death to both Cheryl and the Bernalillo County DA. Cheryl asks her if she knows what will happen next, and if she'll face any sort of punishment at all. Kim replies she has no idea and isn't sure if the District Attorney will pursue anything further. The last thing Cheryl asks sends Kim off.
    Cheryl: Why are you doing this?
  • Viktor's current cons have no end in sight and he has no clear goal in mind beyond eventually getting caught. His plan for Jeff to get proper legal protection isn't well-fleshed out, since he's banking on facing the consequences in some form.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Kim has trouble finding the right response to the sudden phone call "Viktor" sends her way, but when Jimmy pleads with her to say something:
    Kim: You should turn yourself in.
    Jimmy: [Chuckling] Do what?
    Kim: You heard me.
  • Gene's wild rant against Kim after everything they'd been through is met with a sudden and brief goodbye. As seen in the previous episode, he's sent over the edge as their conversation ends with this:
    Kim: I'm glad you're alive. [places phone down]
  • As Viktor, having been exposed as wanted criminal Saul Goodman, threatens Marion not to press her Life Alert, Marion simply responds with this, causing a guilt-stricken Jimmy to relent:
    Marion: I trusted you...
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Jimmy's rant against Kim includes him asking why they're even having their conversation and questioning why she hasn't turned herself in, if she's so adamant about coming forward about their criminality. Kim is stunned in silence, but quickly hangs up and is spurred into coming clean regarding her past with Albuquerque.
  • At the very end of their conversation, Cheryl asks Kim why she's finally confessing to what happened with Howard. Kim has no response, and the next scene is her return to Florida.
• At Least I Admit It: This is Gene's response to Kim's suggestion that he turn himself in. He knows both of them have something to hide, yet says she's the only one of them that bothers showing any guilt about it.^note Unlike him, who's shoved his guilt down This pushes her to reveal the truth about Howard's fate to Cheryl once and for all.
• The Atoner: Kim stuck with her decision to revoke her license as a lawyer, subjecting herself to a mundane life that is a far cry from her experiences in New Mexico. When Jimmy throws her guilt back at her, Kim's response is to travel back to Albuquerque and write a detailed confession to Cheryl, which gets submitted to the DA. She doesn't blink when she's threatened with potentially facing consequences like a civil suit, but there’s no catharsis, and she breaks down sobbing on the bus home.
• Bait-and-Switch: When a police car forebodingly pulls up and parks directly behind Jeff, he begins to panic, the mood rapidly becomes very tense, as he becomes increasingly certain that he's about to be caught. Then we cut to the cop complaining to his partner about a fish taco he's just been served. They fall into a spirited discussion about the taco, and seem completely oblivious to Jeff, until he speeds off in panic.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • At the start of the season, Kim found comfort (and attraction) in being PR manager for Saul Goodman. But seeing him now, her face is full of disgusted pity and regret, thinking she’s ruined Jimmy just like he really feels about her. She's also doing PR work, but it's for a small sprinkler company in Florida, far removed from the excitement of running scams in Albuquerque.
  • After Kim suggests that Gene turn himself in, he angrily reminds her that she played her part in their various schemes over the years, and sarcastically suggests that she turn herself in. Kim proceeds to do exactly that — or at least confesses her role in what happened to Howard, even if circumstances mean she's unlikely to ever face any actual criminal proceedings.
• Beneath the Mask:
  • Before he lets Kim in and pretends to not give a shit, Jimmy in full Saul mode thumps a ball against the wall, moves in line of the pillar as it falls, checks his appearance and cries a little.
  • Vince Gilligan said that after being buried for so long and suffering so much Sanity Slippage, Jimmy came back up for a My God, What Have I Done? moment after nearly killing Marion.
• Blunt "Yes": Cheryl tells Kim after her confession that she could be sued in civil court, and Kim's response is a simple "Yeah". Cheryl then asks why she's even coming forward with everything, which Kim doesn't have an answer for.
• Book Ends:
  • Jimmy's first major break as a lawyer comes when he helps an elderly woman with her will and stumbles upon the Sandpiper case, and his actions throughout demonstrate a genuine regard for helping and defending the elderly. One of his final acts of the series is to terrorise and threaten to strangle an elderly woman, showing just how low he's sunk as a person.
  • The very first episode of Better Call Saul had Gene watch old Saul Goodman ads in reminiscence. This episode, the penultimate episode of the whole series, has Gene/Viktor watch more of these ads, but only because an elderly woman discovered his true identity.
  • The very first commercial from Saul Goodman that introduced him ends up being the same commercial Marion observes to realize Gene's true identity, in the penultimate episode of his show.
  • A man with cancer entered Jimmy's office, which introduced him and eventually lead to the end of his entire career. Entering the house of another man with cancer now ends Jimmy and what little remains of his so-called life.
• Brick Joke: In "Nippy", Gene made a quip about Jeff not having to call him Dad "yet" after befriending his mother. This ends up happening when Jeff calls him from the police station.
• The Bus Came Back: Both Jesse and Emilio appear in this episode to explain (at least partially) how Jesse came to know Saul Goodman, if only by reputation. In Emilio's case, his last appearance (in a speaking role or otherwise) was fourteen years ago.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Having fully disassociated into "Saul Goodman", Jimmy puts on an air of complete nonchalance while Kim finalizes the divorce papers, waving her off with a breezy "Have a nice life, Kim!" and macking on Francesca before she's even out of the building. Much like Chuck saying Jimmy never mattered much to him, it's an act.
• Call-Back:
  • Like Gene making the Cinnabon in the pilot, with the camera panning up to his hangdog face, Kim is shown to be cutting a potato before her face is revealed.
  • The identity Jimmy uses when calling Kim's current job is "Viktor St. Claire", not only the alias he used when they conned people together but also reflecting his role as "Giselle St. Claire's" brother, knowing Kim would recognize who was really calling her.
  • Kim obsesses over the wording of her brochures for Palm Coast Sprinklers just as much as when she obsessed over the wording of her legal briefs, and when she was writing her formal resignation to HHM.
  • Kim leaves Cheryl after confessing her crimes and encourages her to pursue some sort of action against her, having sent her confession to authorities as well. Just like when she stole her earrings, she's desperate to face punishment over something she'd done, and no matter what she tries, will forever be tortured by the idea that she "got away with it".
  • Kim loudly and brokenly crying on the bus is played similar to Jimmy’s breakdown in his car, both characters consumed by grief after spending so long trying to repress everything.
  • Continuing the parallels between the cancer-struck scam victim from the previous episode and Walter White: while breaking into the victim's house, Viktor comes across the victim's bank account. The amount of money the victim has is roughly the same amount of money Walter needs to provide for his family's future: $737,000.
  • Like what Chuck did to his brother, and how he spent all of Season 4 in regards to Chuck's death, Saul pretends he doesn't feel anything when Kim comes in with divorce papers, and pushes her away with a "have a nice life, Kim", leaving her fighting back tears.
  • Jimmy tries to distract himself by bouncing a ball against the walls of his office, just as he did when he wanted to stay proactive in his job at CC Mobile. In this case, it's to get his mind off of his impending divorce proceedings with Kim.
  • While waiting for Jeff to call him from jail, Gene sits by the phone and twirls his fingers at it trying to summon a call, as he was often seen doing throughout the first season and when he wanted to summon a customer for burner phones at CC Mobile.
  • Many while Kim is visiting the courthouse: she passes by Mike's empty parking attendant's booth and looks at how it's become automated, she stares at the mesh tables where she and Jimmy sat after their court-arranged marriage and spots a public defender in a ponytail sternly advising her client, the way she acted when doing pro-bono PD overflow.
  • As Gene's discussion with Marion tugs at her suspicions further, she asks if Buddy is facing any trouble, having seen him being yelled at by Viktor in the previous episode.
  • When Gene watches the Saul Goodman ads through Marion's laptop, their reflections on Gene's glasses are colorized.
  • The beginning of the end for Gene/Viktor, of all things, being the old Saul Goodman commercial is reminiscent of how the copy of ''Leaves of Grass'' signed by Gale was the beginning of the end for Walter.
    • Viktor's plans being changed in the final scene of the penultimate episode by something he sees on a screen is another parallel with Walter White.
    • The episode's plot points are reminiscent of the other penultimate final season episode as well. Both Walt and Gene are/have been relocated to remain in hiding; when an attempt to reconnect with an estranged loved one fails, they try to have themselves be caught, only to flee at the last minute.
  • Marion calls the police on Vikor/Gene with her Life Alert, which isn’t the only time a major character in this universe was put in jeopardy by a senior citizen pushing a button.
• Call-Forward:
  • One of Saul's new clients is Emilio Koyama, Jesse's first partner-in-cooking. Jesse first told Walt before meeting Saul about how Saul was able to get Emilio out on bail twice to convince him that Goodman is the real deal.
    • Additionally, Jesse recognizes Kim for being able to get Combo out of trouble, for stealing a Baby Jesus figure from a Nativity Scene. It's an incident Hank will bring up again when discussing Combo after his death. This feat gets Jesse to ask for her own opinion on Saul, and her belief in Jimmy('s abilities) will cement Jesse's trust in the "criminal lawyer" thanks to him supposedly getting Emilio off just as easily.
  • The scene of Kim exiting the airport in Albuquerque is shot the same way as Walt being picked up by Jesse.
  • After signing the divorce papers with Kim, Saul blatantly objectifies Francesca by calling her "sweet cheeks" as he asks her to send in more clients, much like he will do in his debut episode shortly before being kidnapped by Walt and Jesse.
• Cassandra Truth: Downplayed. People who know Kim and Jimmy, believe Kim's confession about what really happened to Howard. However, legally her confession cannot be fully believed because there is no corroboration for it. All the physical evidence is long gone or buried where no one will find it and Jimmy appears to be the only witness to the events that is still alive. She accuses a number of people of very serious crimes but every one who could be prosecuted for them is already dead. To an outsider, Kim's motivation for the confession can appear suspect. In addition, few people still care about Howard Hamlin and whether he really did commit suicide.
• Cerebus Call-Back:
  • Saul's iconic Constitution commercial reappears...as what leads to Marion deducing his identity and calling the cops on him.
  • Like in “Abiquiu”, there’s a close-up of the diploma from “University from American Samoa”, but unlike that episode where it was to show Saul as a fraud, here it's a reminder of all the Chuck-related heartbreak involved.
• Chekhov's Gag: The laptop Jeff bought for his mom, which Gene taught her how to use to look up funny cat videos? She decides to use a search engine to help connect the dots between "Gene" and a conman she knew from Albuquerque.
• Connected All Along: Turns out Kim and Jesse had met the night Kim finished signing the divorce papers at Saul's office. Emilio had gone to Saul for legal help and Jesse, skeptical of Saul's expertise, was waiting for him outside the office. In fact, Jesse reveals that he and Kim might have met even earlier than that, as Kim successfully defended Combo after he stole a Baby Jesus statue from a Nativity scene. Kim assures him Saul is a talented lawyer despite what his bombastic advertisements might suggest.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: Deconstructed, as Kim has wanted punishment her whole life, and the Insider Podcast confirmed that she's over-correcting and self-destructing in her own way. While she's at least facing reality unlike Gene/Viktor, there's nothing really that can be done (she's also still protecting Gene), her compartmentalising makes her slip out that Howard didn't suffer, and she breaks down completely on the bus home.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Saul Goodman commercial Viktor finds Marion watching on her laptop is the same one that was playing on Jesse's television when Saul made his first appearance.
  • In their phonecall, Gene tells Kim how Gus, Mike and Lalo are all gone (though still expresses some skepticism for Lalo's case), and that nothing is stopping her from revealing anything they've done at this point, since he'll never do it himself.
  • The scene in Saul’s office shows the after-effects of Kim trying to break the pedestal Jimmy has in her in “Fun and Games”, as he transparently tries to act like he doesn’t care that she’s leaving, pushing her away, and she can’t help but be quietly horrified (and blaming herself) at what he’s become.
  • Jesse spends his time waiting outside the law offices of Saul Goodman and associates, waiting for Emilio to finish hiring him. As Jesse previously stated in Saul's introductory episode, Saul is the kind of lawyer he would hire but hasn't yet, only knowing him from the times Emilio ran into trouble. He hadn't even stepped into his building in either cases.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After finding the passwords he needed from the cancer-stricken man, Viktor walks up to the door and is ready to leave the scene. However, the urge to self destruct (and greed) gets the better of him and he decides to take another look for things to steal. Had he just walked out at that moment instead, he could've gotten into Jeff's cab and they'd be gone before the cop car even pulled up and the shattered door glass would be the only evidence of someone breaking in. So neither of them would likely have been caught and arrested, and Marion wouldn't have been provoked to discover Gene's true identity and call the police.
• Crapsaccharine World: Kim's lot in Florida is rather normal and quiet, a more benevolent situation than what most of the main cast earned in the universe of Breaking Bad. It's also just as boring and dreary as Gene's time in Omaha, still being in black and white and depriving Kim of the meaningful experiences she wanted in life.
• Deliberately Monochrome: As with the previous episodes, scenes depicting Gene/Viktor and the current era are all in black and white, including Kim's current situation. Any scenes during Saul's era are in color.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Kim leads a dull life several states away from her city of practice as a self-imposed punishment for everything she's done. When faced with a call from Jimmy like a ghost come back to haunt her, she decides to make one last attempt to face legally-backed consequences in Albuquerque. Sadly, she and Howard's widow realize there's nothing guaranteeing she'll face any comeuppance. Kim breaks down crying on the bus ride home.
  • Viktor had already reached his lowest point following Gene's last call to Kim, but he grows much worse when he threatens Marion as she discovers his real identity. Once he snaps out of his threatening posture and loosens his grip on her Life Alert, his smug expression fades into one of remorse. As Marion calls the cops for help, Gene looks around the room in a mixture of shock and shame before he bails.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Viktor descends on a smaller woman, placating smile on his face and trying to use his charm to intimidate her. It comes very close to looking like an assault.
  • The scams as Jimmy's form of drinking/addiction/Self-Harm continues, with Viktor preparing to kill two people, getting intentionally sloppy, and going off the deep end in Sanity Slippage. Odenkirk explicitly compared it to Cage's downward spiral in Leaving Las Vegas.
    Vince: It looks to me like there's a certain level of self-abuse going on here. Not in the classic teenage sense, but it's like he's trying to do harm to himself here.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: After Marion shows him a "Better Call Saul" commercial on her laptop, Viktor in a last resort rips out her telephone wire preparing to use it to strangle her unless she agrees to keep his false identity a secret. He's ultimately unable to go through with it though, and shrinks back into Jimmy/Gene as Marion calls her LifeAlert to bring the police on his trail.
• Door-Closes Ending: How the episode ends, with Gene running out of the back door, after Marion just notified the police that he was here.
• Double-Meaning Title: The episode title refers to both Kim's current place of business being Palm Coast Sprinklers, and the tears she sheds in a flurry of emotions after she finally tells the truth about what happened to Howard. The title can also reflect the tragic state of the cast, how Kim and Jimmy try to stop themselves from crying, and the downpour of rain during Kim and Jesse's scene.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Kim has spent the last six or so years completely unaware of what Jimmy has been up to as "Saul" (at least until he became a wanted fugitive), which means any personal tributes he may have of her most likely went unnoticed.^note One of Saul's shell companies being "Ice Station Zebra Associates", his "World's Greatest Lawyer" cup, etc.
  • Kim has to listen to several of her coworkers gossip derisively and very ineptly about drugs, namely the ones they hear about on the street (crack and ecstasy) and the things people supposedly do on them. Wanting to stay on the down low means Kim can't divulge the fact that she happens to be a former attorney who's actually represented numerous drug addicts and could say a lot more about it than simple suburban rumors.
  • Kim shares dialogue with Jesse Pinkman, unknowingly affirming her belief in Saul's legal acumen with the future partner of Heisenberg. On the other side of this, Jesse is completely unaware that he's asking about Saul's abilities as a lawyer to his now-ex-wife, Kim Wexler. While Jesse appreciates her help in getting Combo free, her hopes that he'll stay on the straight and narrow fall on deaf ears, and she'll never know of Combo's eventual death.
  • Any witnesses to Howard's true fate besides Kim and Jimmy are gone, and when Kim tries to get closure with his wife, she acknowledges how she doesn't have anything to prove her story. Taking place after the destruction of the superlab and the death of Walter White, the chances of recovering Howard and Lalo's bodies has become nonexistent.
  • Befitting a Destructive Romance who had to break up, both Kim and Jimmy believe they've completely ruined the other one and he's made himself a memorial to her, while what she did to him with Lalo is just one of the reasons why she's broken herself as penance. All this makes her "apart, we're okay" from "Fun and Games" bitterly ironic, and his assertion that they're both too smart to do anything stupid Blatant Lies.
• Easter Egg:
  • While Jimmy is taking picture of his mark's records, the amount of money in his account can be briefly seen. It turns out he has $737,612.62—the same amount Walt calculated he'd need during Season 2 of Breaking Bad.
    • The rest of that sum is also a reference to the episode itself. "612" refers to this being the 12th episode of the 6th season and "62" for being the 62nd episode in the series.
  • During the intro, an image of Kim at the airport flashes on screen for a split second.
  • In an extra bit of cruelty to Kim, the MW on the Miracle Whip is joined like the WM logo back when they had their office.
• Empty Shell: Kim's life in Florida isn't particularly torturous, but she'll have to live with herself, knowing what she did and that she will never get any comeuppance for it even though she's been seeking it for much of her life. As a form of self-punishment, she refuses to pursue any career higher than what she currently has, and refuses to hold any opinions on even the most trivial of things like the weather. There’s no trace of the woman who thought she was owed better than her old town.
  Vince Gilligan (on the Insider Podcast): You gotta have an opinion if you're gonna be a lawyer, you gotta have a point of view, if you're gonna be a lawyer—and if you’re gonna be a living human being, and she’s denied herself all of that.
• Entitled to Have You: Jimmy phoning Kim just to hear her say something, anything to him, has shades of this. Following so many years apart from each other, he tries to goad her into spending some more time with him by appealing to the side of her that liked his conman ways, bragging about the feds failing to track him down. His tone shifts, insulting her when she says he should turn himself over to authorities. His ensuing rant ends with him claiming they're both "too smart" to throw their lives away for nothing, not realizing this will be the catalyst for her eventual affidavit. Overall, he's genuinely confused as to why Kim wants to repress her feelings when she reached out to Francesca first, out of concern for their well-being.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Marion takes mental note of Gene's sudden familiarity with the law and how the process for bond and jail time works between different cities, especially Albuquerque — a place he's claimed to have never set foot in. This is shortly after she recalls a previous experience she had with the legal system there involving Jeff's escapades and how it caused her to max out her credit cards. After Gene's advice, she decides to ask if Buddy is in any trouble, remembering what she'd seen outside her window in the last episode, and she proceeds to look something up on the computer...
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: Gene makes it known to Kim that Mike, Gustavo, Lalo and everybody else involved with their criminal lives are long dead by the time he's calling her. Additionally, by this point, much of the main cast from both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are either dead or in hiding, leaving Jimmy and Kim as the only main characters left.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Now in full Saul mode, Jimmy forces Kim to wait an hour before he allows her to enter his office to sign the divorce papers and treats her dismissively throughout their final meeting in person. He isn't really any better as Gene six years later, taking her plea to turn himself in as an insult and throwing her guilt back in her face. She sees it for the pathetic façade of pain underneath both times.
  • Breaking into the house of a guy he knows has cancer and robbing him was already nasty enough, but Viktor decides to stay inside for a little while longer to have a look around the upper level, snatch a few watches and help himself to some alcohol. All of which was completely unnecessary, as he'd already taken the passwords and personal info while Jeff was still waiting outside.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Kim, after being blond for the entire prequel timeline of the series, dyed her hair dark brown when she moved to Florida. This was probably in order to maintain a low profile for herself even though she is more or less under the same identity, and thematically represents that her formerly sunny life is now dark and morose.
• Failed a Spot Check: As it turns out, Howard and Lalo's corpses still haven't been found after all these years. While Walt destroyed the underground lab and had it discovered by law enforcement not long after, nobody will ever think to break the concrete floor open and see the long-decayed bodies.
• False Reassurance: Jesse's wondering if Saul is really supposed to be any good as a lawyer. Instead of clarifying who she is and how she really knows Jimmy, Kim replies that he "was" during the time she had spent with him.
• Fate Worse than Death: Kim is revealed to be working at a place specializing in irrigation systems with a boring life at home. While a better fate than what most of the cast got, it's a far cry from the exciting cons she had when she was with Jimmy and deprived of the things she loved as a lawyer. In her current situation, she deprives herself of forming any personality of her own, letting her decisions and opinions be decided by everyone else around her. She's given one last reminder of her past in the form of a desperate and mocking plea from her ex-husband, yet no matter how much she wants to atone for everything, she can't find a way to undo any of the damage she did to Howard's reputation. The last we see of her in this episode is her realization that she'll have to live with her guilt for the rest of her life and never face any sort of punishment for it.
• Faux Affably Evil: After seeing Marion piece together who he really is, Viktor reminds her about Jeff still being in trouble as he tears the phone's wiring away from her and off the wall. He calmly tells Marion to just trust him, since Jeff and Buddy came to "understand" him, all while wrapping the telephone cord into a garrote. Viktor drops all pretenses when she readies her Life Alert, and he pulls her by the neck with it.
  Viktor: Now, listen: I'm still the good friend you thought I was, okay—Jeff understands me, Buddy understands me... And you will, too. It's just, you have to, uh, you know, keep things on an even keel, alright?
• Flashback Echo: The Cold Open features Saul preparing to finalize his divorce with Kim as he holds back his tears, leading to much of the episode elaborating on her fate. After all the scenes showing Kim's current whereabouts, her pushing Jimmy away, "Gene's" self-destructive break-in and her attempt to gain some form of closure for herself, we're shown the rest of the day she signed the paperwork.
• Foil: Both Jimmy and Kim have destroyed themselves, Kim so living in terror of harming anyone again that she can’t even have opinions on ice cream, and sobbing with agony when admitting to Cheryl can bring her no punishment, and Jimmy has so lied to himself that he’s managed to forget about everything, shoving his guilt and trauma down, that he’s become the antithesis of his former self, almost willing to kill someone.
• Foregone Conclusion: We know from the preceding episode that the call between Jimmy and Kim did not go well and directly precipitated Jimmy's current and final downward spiral. The dramatic tension lies in how and what was or wasn't said by the characters that led to this final schism.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Right after Kim hangs up on Jimmy, her co-worker enters the office to remind her, "It's time to sing!". The scenes following this are of Kim preparing a written confession about Howard's death and the circumstances, submitted to his wife and the offices of Bernadillo County. In other words, she "sings like a canary".
  • As Kim makes her way to Albuquerque, at the airport, a shot focuses on her standing near signs that say "Alaska" and "Frontier", hinting at Jesse's upcoming appearance and association with Kim later into the episode.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The worn-out intro briefly cuts to two shots from later in the episode: a view of Jeff’s cab from the ground and Kim standing alone just before going to the Albuquerque courthouse.
• Gift-Giving Gaffe: The employee having her birthday celebrated at Palm Coast Sprinklers mentions she ended up getting surprised by an exercise bike in the living room, courtesy of her partner.
• Good Samaritan: Downplayed, but when Kim breaks down sobbing on the bus, the woman seated next to her puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. Jimmy did that any time she was struggling, and so it makes her cry even harder.
• Heroic BSoD: Gene's phone call to Kim shakes her to her very core, and she initially has no idea how to respond to it. After haphazardly hanging up, she journeys back to Albuquerque to tell Cheryl and the DA the truth about Howard's death and disappearance, has one last conversation with Cheryl about what can be done, then realizes alongside her that they can't do anything more. On her way back to Florida, Kim breaks down on a bus ride.
• History Repeats: Just when Walter White thought he'd won and was out, the discovery of an innocuous clue instead set off the beginning of the end for Heisenberg. Now, two years later in-universe, Saul's is found out in a similar way.
• IKEA Erotica: Enforced. Kim's sex scene with her boyfriend in Florida is dispassionate and blandly shot, with his thrusts accompanied by him saying "Yep!". It helps to depict the mundane nature of Kim's current situation.
• Improbable Weapon User: Cornered, Viktor prepares to either kill or knock out Lingk with an urn containing the ashes of his dead dog. Later, he threatens to strangle Marion with a telephone cord.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Kim finally breaks down for what seems to be the first time in her life when she's on the shuttlebus.
  Rhea: She’s crying about everything, not just Howard, but the tragedy of Kim Wexler, the tragedy of Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman, the tragedy of Gene, how they ended up here, their whole relationship.
• Insecure Love Interest: Jimmy/Saul/Gene/Viktor really show the ugly side of this trope, with Gene going off the deep end as Viktor into Death Seeker mode when she can't be talking to him (she loves him just as much, but she's at least aware of the reality that he's a wanted criminal), and Saul clamping down on his humanity and pain by totally ignoring her when she needs a goodbye, assuming she never cared about him at all and wanting to make her think the same. She sees right through it.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Jesse doesn't know Kim isn't just a lawyer with experience in criminal defense, but also Saul's ex-wife. This allows Kim to hear an outsider's perspective of what people think of Jimmy now — a silly local Ambulance Chaser best known for his commercials and clientele far more dangerous than any defendant she's ever handled. She runs off, but not before admitting that Jimmy was a great lawyer during the time she knew him.
  • Kim tries to reassure Cheryl about Howard's murder by telling her he didn't suffer. But this only makes her more distraught, because as she points out to Kim, he did suffer greatly from the humiliation she and Jimmy wrought upon him and to this day, everyone only remembers Howard from the picture they painted of him so his reputation continues to suffer in death.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Gene's call to Kim not only confirms his survival to Kim after their 6 years of separation, but also the deaths of Gus and Mike through his rant.
  • In an attempt to assuage her guilty conscience, Kim goes to Cheryl Hamlin and presents her with a manuscript detailing the exact circumstances behind Howard's death, as well as their season-long con to destroy Howard's reputation. She wants to make this more well-known with its submission to the county's offices.
  • Marion searches for "conman" and "Albuquerque" on her laptop after being suspicious of Gene and is horrified to discover Saul Goodman's old TV commercials uploaded on the Internet.
  • It’s not lingered on, but Kim’s confession reveals she figured out Gus Fring was the man she was supposed to assassinate all those years ago. Presumably once Gus was publicly known to be a drug lord, she saw his face on the news and put two and two together.
• Ironic Echo: In the pilot, Gene was watching his old Saul commercials, remembering them as Glory Days with colour reflected in his glasses. Now they come back to haunt Viktor, and his face is pure Oh, Crap!.
• Irony:
  • Despite being known as one of the greatest lawyers on the show, even earning Howard's own appraisal with Cheryl's admission, Kim is unable to secure a strong legal case for Howard's death or her role in it as it is simply too late.
  • After dedicating much of his earlier career trying to specialize in Elder Law, what's the thing that winds up potentially busting Slippin' Jimmy once and for all? A Life Alert Button.
    Jimmy: (arguing for Sandpiper's residents and their access to legal help) We're talking about elderly and infirm people here. The most common phrase in this place? "I've fallen and I can't get up!"
  • The in-depth knowledge of the law that helped Jimmy/Saul and his associates in outsmarting or understanding the authorities so many times over the years is the very thing that does Gene/Viktor in here, as his suspiciously specific statement about the differences between bonds in Omaha and Albuquerque is one of the things that clues Marion in to the fact that he's been lying to her about his past, especially since Gene previously claimed that he'd never been to Albuquerque.
  • Kim notices that the parking booth at the Albuquerque courthouse is empty, the attendant replaced by an automatic ticket-taker machine. Even if Mike had stayed out of the game, he would have been unemployed a few years later anyway.
  • invokedBob Odenkirk has explained Jimmy's attempt at celebrity status through Saul Goodman, plastering his face and advertisements everywhere as a way to reach out to Kim. These efforts to be heard ultimately bring about his downfall thanks to the internet archiving one of them for Marion to find, during a time where being recognized is the last thing he wants.
• It Never Gets Any Easier: Despite Mike's advice and Jimmy's insistence, Kim still feels the guilt of what she did to Howard eating away at her after all these years, and travels to Cheryl with a written confession to gain some sort of closure.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Jimmy is entirely correct in telling Kim that if he should turn himself in for his crimes, so should she for what she and him did to Howard.
• Karma Houdini:
  • After everything she did with Jimmy, from their smaller scams to their gaslighting of Chuck and especially Howard, Kim is likely facing no legal consequences for her actions, much to her dismay. She makes an entire written affidavit out of grief and regret, but there's not enough to make a strong case to guarantee anything.
  • Invoked by Jimmy, proudly declaring how the authorities never got him and that he's still on the run, in a vain attempt to goad Kim into saying something to him after their time away from each other. With him still in hiding, it also marks one less potential witness to get Kim's punishment and true justice for Howard.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • Subverted. Kim tries to pay for her crimes with an affidavit submitted to both the city's authorities and Cheryl. Both Cheryl and Kim hit a wall when it comes to actually trying to make it stick, however.
  • Following all the years of Slippin' Jimmy's schemes, Saul Goodman's time as Heisenberg's advisor, and his hiding as Gene with a return to conning through his new "Viktor" persona, Jimmy finally comes close to facing consequences when Marion recognizes his true identity and calls the police on him.
• Kick the Dog: With literal dogs almost involved.
  • Viktor peruses his target's home, happens upon an urn containing the ashes of the man's dog, and fiddles with it out of intrigue. Later, he decides to use it as a blunt weapon to knock the mark unconscious, which is thankfully avoided when he falls asleep again.
  • As Gene/Viktor and Marion slowly discard the ruse the former was putting up to gain her trust, Marion reflects on how much she trusted him ever since their first conversation about "Nippy". As he's approaching her, Viktor tears the laptop's connection to the wall and prepares a garrote with the telephone wire, yet fortunately decides not to strangle her.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Kim's boyfriend in Florida seems like a perfectly nice guy, but comes off as a bit of a dullard, and he and Kim seem clearly mismatched. This underscores how unappealing her new life is.
• The Kindness of Strangers: An off-screen bystander witnessing Kim's emotional breakdown reaches out to comfort her with a hand on the shoulder.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: One of Kim's coworkers in Florida mentions a "sister's best friend's son" with an ecstasy problem.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Viktor not only goes through with robbing the guy with cancer, but spends more time inside to mess around in the hopes that he'll be caught. Thanks to Viktor going off the rails of their usual burglary job, Jeff messes up and starts a whole chain of events leading to Marion realizing Gene is Saul and contacting the police.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: One for the viewers who have not yet seen Breaking Bad before Better Call Saul, up to Season 5A: During his phone conversation with Kim, Gene mentions that both Gus and Mike are dead.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Marion manages to discover who Gene Takovic really is by watching one of Saul Goodman's old commercials that had been uploaded onto YouTube. Said commercial is viewable on YouTube both in and out-of-universe, meaning many people who are curious about Saul Goodman would've seen it online in the real world as well.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: Kim is slowly poisoning herself with a life opposite of what she aimed for, her old childhood belief that she needs to be punished pushed to the forefront, and Saul/Gene has fully embraced Chuck’s telling him what to do, shoving down his guilt and never apologizing.
• Motif: Continues the Frankenstein themes of the last episode, as Kim sees Saul Goodman, something she helped create, and is quietly horrified, blaming herself and thinking she's ruined her husband, much like how he feels with her, giving up on life.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Marion telling Gene/Viktor that she trusted him seems to finally trigger a realization in him of just how low he's sunk as a person; while he was threatening to murder her mere seconds before, he simply allows her to use her Life Alert to summon help afterwards, and just runs out of the house when she does.
• Never Found the Body:
  • Kim reflects on Howard's death and disappearance with Cheryl, and while she admits what really happened to the man, she still doesn't know the body's location to this day. She then mentions that if her confession is taken into consideration, the authorities will launch a search and still won't come up with anything.
  • When Jimmy is claiming that Fring, Mike and Lalo are all dead, he decides to add "apparently" after Lalo's case, showing a slight amount of paranoia thanks to never having seen his actual death and burial.
• Never My Fault: Even after flying to Albuquerque to confess to her crime six years later and potentially getting arrested, Kim still doesn't realize how much her sabotage of Howard ruined him. She describes smearing him as a self-destructing drug addict in her confession as "impeaching his character" and assures Cheryl that Howard didn't suffer when he was killed, only for Cheryl to angrily tell her that he, in fact, did suffer because the only way people remember him is a junkie who wrecked a huge case for HHM and committed suicide over his failure.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • In his phone call with Kim, Gene reacts poorly to her suggestion that he should turn himself in, and sneers that she hasn't done the same for all of her misdeeds. While Gene meant it as a taunt, it is in fact the impetus for Kim to do just that.
  • In the previous episode, Jeff used the money that he got from the mall heist (which Gene orchestrated) to buy a computer for Marion. And in that same episode, Gene showed her how to use search engines in order to look up cat videos. This ends up leading her to look up videos of Saul Goodman on the Internet, which made her realize that the man shown in those videos looks undeniably similar to Gene.
  • Jeff lets the pressure get to him and frantically bails the scene, only to crash into a nearby car, all in front of an idle police car. In turn, this makes Gene want the best legal representation he can make possible and leads to his oddly-specific legal advice to Marion—something she suspects she might have heard from somewhere before.
  • Saul being a local celebrity with infamous commercials allowed for Marion to find one of them uploaded onto the internet.
• Obviously Not Fine: Saul and Gene do a terrible job of pretending they have no feelings or guilt, Gene trying to goad Kim into yelling at him and Saul doing a transparent 180 of his last meeting with Kim begging her to stay.
• Oh, Crap!: When Viktor realizes Marion has been watching his Saul Goodman commercials, the camera cuts to a close-up shot of Gene's shocked eyes, letting us know how screwed he is from having his cover blown.
  • There's also Kim's reaction when she's told that there's a "Viktor St. Claire" waiting on the line for her. Her immediate reaction is to close her office's blinds and lock the door, and before she even picks up the phone she is seen tensely bracing herself.
• Once More, with Clarity: The phone call Gene made to Kim in the previous episode is depicted again in this episode, with us now being able to hear the conversation fully. It's revealed that Gene called just to check in on her, but Kim only morosely told him that he should turn himself in. Gene then goes ballistic and declares she should turn herself in instead, to which she only replies "I'm glad you're alive" before hanging up.
• One Degree of Separation: Kim ended up meeting Jesse outside of Saul's place, on the same day Emilio wanted Saul to represent him. While Jimmy will never know two of the most impactful people in his life actually met, Jesse also recognizes her from the time she defended Combo in court as a juvenile.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Jesse asks Kim if Saul is any good, meaning his lawyer skills, and Kim tells him “when I knew him, he was”, meaning the good (or at least better) man she knew before.
• The Paranoiac: Before Kim answers "Viktor's" call, she sets up the blinds in her office and closes the door, waits a few moments, and after some hesitation, finally picks up. Not knowing exactly what he's been up to for the past six years, she's asking why Jimmy decided to call and affirms that he shouldn't be reaching out to her, considering the manhunt for him.
• Passing the Torch: Kim and Jesse's scene, symbolised by her passing him one of her cigarettes to the still happy-go-lucky petty criminal untroubled by his future connections to Heisenberg, as Kim walks away into the rain away from Saul's office and the criminal lifestyle it's immersed in, leaving Jesse behind, outside the doorway, waiting to enter it himself, From one partner with a broken life to another soon-to-be.
• Perspective Flip: We see Gene's call to Kim in full this time, from her end.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kim suggests Jimmy turn himself in. Jimmy responds with a scathing rant against her, pointing out her hypocrisy when considering the stunts they pulled while together, claims she has no idea what he's done, and angrily tells her to go confess for herself since she's the only one of the pair that bother admitting guilt about anything. It does him no favors with her and even motivates her confession, and both of them know it's an action of desperation.
• Reveal Shot: Kim exits Saul's office after signing the divorce papers with him. She stands out in the rain to smoke, and as she does, the camera slowly pans to reveal none other than Jesse Pinkman standing by the side of the building.
• Rhetorical Request Blunder: Gene snidely comments that, if Kim feels so guilty, she should turn herself in. This pushes her over the edge to do exactly that.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • After their talk, Kim is depicted as running forward into darkness, pelted by rain in an attempt to get to her car, while Jesse stays dry in the light, albeit one provided (for now) by a criminal enterprise.
  • At the barbecue, the men are in one corner, while the women are off somewhere else. Kim and Jimmy had fun in their Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy dynamic, and now Kim has been relegated to quasi-housewife.
  Insider Podcast: If you saw Kim and Jimmy at a party, they'd be joined at the hip.
  • Cancer-stricken Walter White entering Saul Goodman's office and life, introduced Saul into the Breaking Bad franchise, eventually leading to his professional downfall. Now breaking into the home of another man with cancer brings him down to a complete and total end at the likely conclusion of the entire franchise.
• Saying Too Much: Once more, Jimmy's inability not to show off his knowledge gets him in trouble as Marion naturally wonders how some random guy in Omaha can know so much about how bail bonds in New Mexico work.
• Seinfeldian Conversation:
  • Kim's boyfriend and neighbors at Florida engage in these conversations frequently. She does much of the same at her new job during lunch.
  • The cops parked near Jeff's location pulled over to eat their late-night dinner. One of them complains about the quality of his fish taco, to which his partner snarks that he shouldn't be ordering it when Omaha's so far away from the ocean.
  • Jesse starts his conversation with Kim by talking about the surprising downpour for a city based in a desert environment. From his perspective, his rambling on about Saul and his commercials is this, which carry more weight for Kim and the audience.
• Shame If Something Happened: To intimidate Marion into keeping quiet, Viktor begins by reminding her about Jeff being in custody and how both Jeff and that Gene will need her help with getting him out.
• A Simple Plan: Rather than sticking to the simple burglary job as they usually plan it, Viktor decides to stay in the house for an even longer amount of time, pilfering a few watches for an extra score and taking a sip of alcohol. Ignoring Jeff's suggestion that the barbiturates will wear off soon, Viktor finds himself in a brief game of cat-and-mouse with the guy briefly waking up. Against all odds, Viktor gets out safely… while Jeff gets far too spooked by the cop car behind him and crashes into another parked vehicle. Even worse, the extra things Viktor pulled during this run end up pinned on Jeff. Word of Vince and Bob is that he’s trying to self destruct and get caught.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: None of the workers at Kim's office indicate that they are unhappy, but regardless, most reviewers describe the Palm Coast Sprinklers scenes as some of the most depressingly boring depictions of office life they've ever seen.
• Splash of Color: The reflection of Saul's old commercials on Gene's glasses are the first instance of color shown in the Omaha scenes since the pilot.
• Spotting the Thread: While on the phone with Marion trying to convince her to help with bailing Jeff out of jail, she talks about having to repay his bond in Albuquerque. Despite previously saying he'd never been to the city before, Gene tries to reassure her by explaining how there's no bondsmen in Omaha unlike Albuquerque, so she can pay the money directly. This seems to be the "Eureka!" Moment that clues her in that Gene knows more about how to get out of cons and about Albuquerque than he let on, and encourages her to use her laptop to dig up Gene's true identity.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Jimmy cranks up his Saul-ish mannerisms to hide the pain he's feeling from seeing Kim leave his life. He's fighting back tears before he has her sent to his office, then brushes her off once the signing's done. Kim sees right through it.
  • Kim spends her time in Florida and Palm Coast Sprinklers with little emotion and false enthusiasm, not letting anybody know how guilty and shameful she's felt about her past in New Mexico.
• Stupid Crooks:
  • Emilio Koyama returns, thinking Saul is the perfect guy to represent him after having seen his sketchy commercials. He's not wrong for trusting Saul, but Jesse wonders aloud if that should really the basis for his trust. On top of this, Emilio enters the office with no regard for the paperwork he was supposed to bring.
  • Jesse mentions the time Combo stole a Baby Jesus from a Nativity Scene, which Kim defended. Jesse points out the lack of any benefit it would give him to commit such a crime.
  • Gene, big time. Even after breaking into the mark's house, he'd've got away with it if he'd just left when Jeff showed up. The Insider Podcast confirmed that the famed Slippin' Jimmy was breaking all his own rules in that house because he wanted to get caught. Mistakes like touching everything when he's a wanted criminal and not getting out of there when he should've, not to mention being ready to kill someone.
  • While waiting for Gene to get out, Jeff sees a police car park over to the side, just behind him. With no suspicions on him whatsoever and with the cops more focused on their late-night dinner, Jeff fails to steel his nerves and drives off in a panic. The crash and all of Gene's deliberate self-sabotage at the house implicate him.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Marion, do you think that's me? Because it's not."
• Talk About the Weather: Jesse decides to chat with Kim about the unusually heavy rainfall occurring right outside Saul's office (especially by New Mexico standards), before moving onto the next topic.
• Technology Marches On: invoked In-Universe. Kim rolls up to her old courthouse where she and Jimmy used to run cases, and Mike was the parking lot attendant. However, now the toll booth is completely automated. The booth is still there but a machine is set up beside it to open and close the gates and take people's tickets.
• That Man Is Dead: A double for Kim. For herself, while she's still using her real name, all of her fire is gone and she’s an Extreme Doormat with a somewhat dull and unimaginative boyfriend. And in a flashback to the divorce papers, Saul Goodman refuses to show any of his old self, and while she knows it’s an act, she blames herself for why he’s acting like this and tells Jesse that [Saul] was “good” when she knew him. Notably, she still protects him to Cheryl, but has no love for Saul or Gene at all.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Gene's partnership with Jeff finally lands the latter in trouble. Marion soon comes to ask what Gene got Jeff involved with, to which Gene replies how Jeff simply got was he was asking for as a consequence, affirming himself as "the good friend" she initially trusted.
• Trying Not to Cry: When Jimmy finally decides to get their divorce over with, he slightly chokes up when ordering Francesca to send Kim in, with his eyes visibly watering. Kim herself also struggles to hold her tears back when she's leaving Saul's offices.
• Undying Loyalty: She can't be with him anymore, and she hates "Saul" and "Gene", but Kim shows she still loves Jimmy deeply by telling Cheryl she doesn't know if he's alive, and her plea to turn himself in is more out of she knows he's leading a pathetic existence and he's on FBI's Most Wanted, than out of crimes he's done.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As he was waiting for Emilio to get Saul's help, Jesse still remained skeptical of Saul's abilities and asked Kim if she knew if he was really any good at his job. Kim takes a deep drag of her cigarette, quickly says that he is, and leaves. This isn't as bad as Saul walking up to J.P. Wynne, but it's implied Kim did enough to help push Jesse into trusting Saul, which in turn leads to their meeting in the desert all those episodes later.
• Villainous BSoD:
  • After threatening to strangle Marion with a telephone cord and snatching the Life Alert out of her hands, Viktor finally snaps out of his threatening demeanor when Marion sadly tells him how she trusted him. He relaxes his grip, letting her get it back so she can call the police, and his first instinct is to run.
  • As it sinks in that even her full confession might not accomplish anything, Kim breaks down in tears on the bus home.
• Wham Episode: Kim writes out an entire confession to her and Jimmy's con against Howard and the circumstances of his murder and delivers them to both his widow Cheryl and the county offices, the actual legal consequences of this to be determined by the District Attorney. Meanwhile, Gene's true identity is found out by Marion and he flees her house after she uses her Life Alert to have the police called on him.
• Wham Line:
  • Kim giving in to Gene's bratty need for her to show "she has a pulse": "I think you should turn yourself in."
  • Gene hears a familiar voice playing on Marion's laptop, and flips it open to discover...
    Video: Hi, I'm Saul Goodman! Did you know that you have rights?
• Wham Shot:
  • In the Cold Open, we see Saul in his current office, keeping every client he has on hold. Then he finally decides to start inviting people in, but only after putting a certain set of documents down: the petition for the dissolution of his marriage with Kim.
  • The first set of scenes are dedicated to Kim, introducing her without her signature ponytail and blond hair for the first time in the entire series.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In-Universe cases.
  • Whilst Kim is able to confirm Howard's death and her accidental role in placing him in the wrong place at the wrong time to Cheryl, neither of them are aware of what happened to his body afterwards, and with Mike and Gus' deaths by the present and the destruction of the superlab, the odds of his body ever being recovered are non-existent.
  • The same could be said for Lalo, as everyone who knew his true fate and the location of his real body are gone. Gene is still stuck worrying about Lalo somehow tracking him down and making him answer for what happened all those years ago, but Kim remains confident enough to go through with her confession anyway.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • With nobody from their criminal escapades left alive and having the office to herself, Kim makes a plea for Jimmy to give himself up, less concerned about his crimes and more that he must be living a pitiful existence. For Jimmy, his first instinct is to lash out and then beg for her to stay on the line. For Kim, the conversation ultimately pushes her to pursue some sort of punishment if possible. It is a completely unnecessary measure to make, yet she makes her attempt anyway.
  • After Marion threatens to call the police on Gene, Viktor rips the phone cord out of the wall and tries to threaten her into not using her Life Alert to contact the police. Right as he's about to rip it off her neck, she sadly remarks that she trusted him, which gives him enough pause to let go. And when she does contact the police, all he does is run out of the house.
• You Are Fat: Tammy, one of Kim's colleagues at Palm Coast Sprinklers, was gifted an exercise bike for her birthday by her partner. She doesn't take too kindly to the sentiment.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Rather Inverted. Kim recognizes an incoming call from someone calling themselves "Viktor St. Clair" and is cautious since Jimmy's a wanted criminal at this point.
• You Remind Me of X: Not said out loud, but Kim spots a young lawyer with a ponytail preparing a client for a court appearance, clearly reminiscing about her days as a lawyer.

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"There's a criminal standing in my kitchen threatening me! He's a wanted man, and his name is Saul Goodman!"

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