Two unlikely worlds collide.
"Well, you know what they say, the wicked flee when no man pursueth."
— Jimmy McGill
Shut out by the legal establishment, Jimmy decides to further develop (and become) "Saul Goodman". Kim's new lease on life gets dragged down by furtive business. Gus and Mike leave no stone unturned with the Lalo situation.
Tropes:
- All of the Other Reindeer: Saul begins to experience this in the courtroom, having to go through extra steps in the screening process by the security staff and having all of his colleagues shun him (to the point that no one will even sit at the same table as him). As Bill Oakley reveals to him, everyone knows now about his scamming Lalo's trial to help a cartel gunman get away and are disgusted with him for it.
- As the Good Book Says...: The page quote, said to Kim.
- Bait-and-Switch: Howard mentioning to his therapist that he has had a dream is followed by a cut to a blurry shot of himself, viewed from the back, walking down an empty street holding a traffic cone in one hand and his car key in the other, making it resemble a dream sequence. When the camera cuts to his face it's shown that it's Jimmy disguised as him and that the scene is happening in the real world and just outside the building.
- Breather Episode: A needed one after the intensity of "Rock And Hard Place." Most of the episode is humorous and features Saul and Kim tricking Clifford into thinking Howard is frequenting hookers, and there are also cameos from future Breaking Bad morons Wendy and Spooge.
- Call-Back:
- Jimmy once again dresses himself up to look exactly like Howard for the sake of a con.
- Kim meeting with clients all day long in the El Camino restaurant is similar to Nacho and the Salamancas meeting with their dealers all day at the El Michoacano restaurant. The restaurants even both have Spanish names.
- Call-Forward:
- Jimmy insisting that his strip mall office will be temporary resembles Walt telling Skyler that they have "nowhere to go but up" from 308 Negra Arroyo Lane.
- Spooge coming to Saul's office as a client rings true to Saul mentioning in his first appearance that he knows Spooge's lady killed him because he used to represent Spooge.
- The roadside diner where Kim meets a client is called El Camino.
- The Cameo: Two familiar faces from Breaking Bad appear:
- Wendy, the prostitute who was often associated with Jesse in the early seasons of Breaking Bad, shows up as part of Jimmy and Kim's plan to implicate Howard.
- One of Saul's new clients goes by the name "Spooge". He looks a lot cleaner here than he will in four years' time.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mike meets up with Kim, who realizes he was the man in the desert that Jimmy claimed saved his life. As he's leaving, she further realizes she knows him because he used to be the parking lot attendant at the courthouse.
- Howard's shrink appears in the flesh in this episode.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Saul is met with hostility by everyone at the courthouse because of what he did to get Lalo out of jail. The only reason he hasn't been charged officially is because the DA doesn't have enough evidence to justify a full-blown investigation into Saul's involvement with the cartel (yet), but given how much these people know Saul personally, it's safe to say that they don't need any proof to confirm their belief.Bill Oakley: There's proving and then there's knowing.
- Crazy-Prepared: Gus has actually built a tunnel underneath his mansion to a neighbouring house in case he should ever need to leave it other than by the front door. The sheer cost and the effort needed to tunnel inconspicuously must have been enormous. Not to mention that he is wearing concealed body armor under his shirts and equipped with an ankle holster.
- Cue the Falling Object: Seconds after Howard drives away from the counselor's office, the parking sign Jimmy hurriedly uprooted keels over.
- Dramatic Irony: Jimmy believes that the area he's going to rent out for a law office is going to be temporary until something bigger comes along. Those familiar with Breaking Bad will know that he only will leave this area when he has to leave New Mexico.
- Evil Feels Good: Despite that it costed him any semblance of respect within the legal community, Saul seems to enjoy his newly acquired reputation of Amoral Attorney, as it made him popular among many low-end criminals who want to be represented by none other than the lawyer who let Lalo Salamanca free.
- Failed a Spot Check: Howard walks back to his car and exits the counselor's office completely missing that not only is it parked a space further away, it's on top of the yellow no-parking lines when he certainly wouldn't have parked there before.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look closely when Kim is gazing out the window of the El Camino restaurant to see if the men are still following her, you can distinctly see Mike sitting at the counter in front of her a few moments before he talks to Kim.
- He's Back!: A subtle one, but Jimmy is noticeably more at ease and closer to his normal enthusiastic, voluble self than he has been since almost dying in the desert a while back.
- Hidden Depths: Saul has made himself so unpopular at the courthouse that even Bill Oakley, who is usually treated as a comic relief, doesn't bother engaging in his usual Snark-to-Snark Combat with Saul. He immediately walks off in disgust without saying a word and when pressed further, calls Saul immoral.
- Hypocritical Humor: Jimmy is frustrated upon seeing someone moved his placed traffic cone, which he himself moved in order to save and later re-park in Howard’s spot, and he questions who would do such a thing. Later lampshaded during a conversation with Kim.
- Internal Reveal: Mike lets Kim in on his and Gus's suspicion that Lalo is actually alive. It appears she's deciding to withhold that info from Jimmy for the time being.
- Irony: Jimmy once got somebody frozen out in their community and now gets the same treatment himself at work. Unlike Irene, he deserves it but doesn't seem terribly fazed by it as he's used to such treatment as a former convict.
- Jerkass: The unkown driver who'd moved the parking cone (who does that?!). Wouldn't be too bad by itself, but another shot shows that almost the entire parking lot was empty, so he did it purely to park closer to the entrance.
- Missed Him by That Much: Because of how long it took to move the parking sign in order to disguise the fact that he had to move the car one spot over, Jimmy has to run and hide right as Hamlin is approaching his car. And it's only because of the fact that he was looking down that Hamlin missed Jimmy entirely.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Nearly everyone Jimmy knows in the courthouse, who were previously dismissive of him at worst, now outright ignores him in disgust. Special mention goes to Bill Oakley, who previously was a sardonic Deadpan Snarker when Jimmy screwed up certain things, gives him the cold shoulder, and outright tells Jimmy that what he thinks he did was reprehensible.
- The Paranoiac: Compared to his usual stoic self, Gus is now clearly, visibly on edge; he has been in hiding for at least two weeks and only travels through secret tunnel networks filled with security and people he trusts. Although the audience knows he has good reason to be paranoid, Mike displays some skepticism over his paranoia, to which Gus angrily asserts Lalo is alive. That said, from his exhausted sigh as he re-secures his ankle holster, not to mention how clearly tempted he was to just forgo the gun entirely, it's clear the pressure of living like this is starting to wear on Gus as well.
- The Perfectionist: Gus isn't satisfied with the one of the men Mike had installed at the local Los Pollos Hermanos, because according to Gus, he isn't "up to the Pollos standards". Mike admits the "short-order cook" experience on his resume amounts to two to four years working at McDonald's... while in college.
- Properly Paranoid: Gus has a lot of men and a lot of surveillance installed around both his neighborhood and in his restaurants to trace any possible moves Lalo makes. Mike brings up the obvious fact, which is that as far as the whole world knows Lalo is dead, but Gus remains absolutely certain that he's alive (and the audience knows he's completely correct).
- The Reveal: The men that tailed Kim's car two episodes ago, and were tailing her here? They are actually Mike's guys, keeping an eye on her in light of (as Kim learns from Mike directly) Lalo still being alive.
- Spanner in the Works: Another patient at the counselor's office where Howard is threatens to become this for Jimmy when he removes the cone and parks in the spot where Howard's car was at. Luckily, Jimmy is just barely able to move Howard's car in a different spot and reposition the "Patients Only" sign in front of Howard's car so Howard doesn't suspect a thing when he walks out.
- Start My Own: As a result of Saul's connections with the cartel, he finds that he's basically no longer welcome at the courthouse. What's more, he's ultimately forced to leave the nail salon due to developing a massive portfolio of criminal clients because of said connections. In response, Jimmy decides to rent out the building that became his law office in Breaking Bad.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The DA's office eventually put together that Saul's client "Jorge de Guzman" was actually a notorious drug kingpin and that everything from his identity to the family planted in the courtroom was staged by him and Saul. Once word gets around to the rest of the legal community, Saul finds that he's significantly ostracized by everyone. As it turns out, knowingly representing a member of the cartel and basically scamming the entire court to help him get away with murder and arson is a surefire way to quickly lose respect with everyone in your circuit.
- He's also being treated with special prejudice by the security staff responsible for screening everyone going in, because the fact that he's now representing clients as dangerous as Eduardo Salamanca legitimately renders him a much greater potential security threat than the other lawyers coming in and out.
- Kim pitches an idea about Clifford backing a team of lawyers for pro bono work simply to stall him while Jimmy sets up the next part of their con. Clifford, already a very noble man and mentioning his own son with substance abuse and legal issues, finds it a worthy pursuit and approves it to Kim's surprise.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Already ostracized by the legal community due to his shenanigans with Chuck, Cliff and Howard, Jimmy is now given the cold shoulder by the lawyers and workers of the state due to his direct involvement in the Cartel's criminal activities. Every petty criminal from New Mexico however, is jumping at the chance to be represented by Saul Goodman, the guy who released a head of said Cartel, apparently becoming what Chuck warned he would become. Yet Jimmy is.... not really all that bothered by it, enthusiastically throwing his lot working for the criminal underworld and making a shit ton of money on the way.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Kim is befuddled when she realizes how she recognizes Mike: that he was the former parking attendant at the courthouse. The notion that even the people you see around your job day in and day out could secretly be part of the criminal underground certainly seems to leave Kim rattled.
- Trailers Always Lie:
- Howard's line "I'm just getting warmed up" was framed in a trailer as him making preparations to take Jimmy to court. In the show, it's something as mundane as a quip to his shrink as they begin a therapy session with a detour about work.
- A shot of Kim looking over her shoulder that was used in trailers to indicate paranoia or her being watched turns out to be her checking if the engineered scene with Wendy will be visible from her and Cliff's table. This is downplayed as Kim still feels, and is, followed throughout the episode.
- Vengeful Vending Machine: Bill Oakley at the courthouse is trying to get a snack from a vending machine, but is frustrated when the spiral for the snack does not retract enough to release the food. Saul comes by and shakes the machine to get it to release the food. However, Oakley is so irritated at Jimmy for what he did involving Lalo that he does not even thank him for helping him out with the snack.
- Wham Episode: After five seasons of being peripherally aware of each other, this episode sees Kim and Mike finally meet each other directly note , which represents not only that the law world and the cartel world around Jimmy are at last irrevocably colliding with each other, but that Kim is now so far deep in the game that Mike has to address and have his men watching over her directly, leading to disastrous consequences in the future.
- Women Are Wiser: Mike tells Kim instead of Jimmy that Lalo is alive and that his team is watching them because he believes that Kim is "made of sterner stuff".
- Wrote a Good Fake Story: Kim arranges for lunch with Clifford Main at an outdoor café, planning to trick him into seeing "Howard" have an altercation with a hooker. While stalling for time, Kim makes up a pitch about heading an independent legal team for Pro Bono cases with Clifford's backing. Surprisingly, Clifford thinks it's an excellent idea, and Kim realizes it's something she genuinely wants to pursue.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Along with being held up by security when first arriving at the courtroom, Jimmy is taken aback when the head security inspector addresses him as "sir" instead of by his name. And this isn't even a case of Don't Call Me "Sir", as Jimmy is being called this as though he is just a passerby instead of a dignified lawyer.
