History Recap / BetterCallSaulS4E8Coushatta

* BringIt: When Kai is thrown out of the strip club, he briefly fumes at Mike for sending him back to the compound. Mike just responds "Go on, try me".

* WomenAreWiser: Jimmy is in denial that Kim is still mad at him. Mrs. Nguyen flat out tells him Kim is mad at him. She then advises Kim to take her out on a romantic dinner and apologize profusely. Jimmy at that point admits the relationship may be beyond that fix.

* WomenAreWiser: Jimmy is in denial that Kim is still mad at him. Mrs. Nguyen flat out tells him Kim is mad at him. She then advises him to take her out on a romantic dinner and apologize profusely. Jimmy at that point admits the relationship may be beyond that fix.

* WomenAreWiser: Jimmy is in denial that Kim is still mad at him. Mrs. Nguyen flat out tells him Kim is mad at him.

* PetTheDog: Mrs. Nguyen, who has been a ceaseless nagging harridan to Jimmy during her every appearance, is genuinely kind to Jimmy as his relationship to Kim is falling apart.

* UnseenNoMore: In his first appearance in ''Series/BreakingBad'', Saul assumes that Walt and Jesse are hitmen sent by someone named "Don Lalo." The mysterious Don Lalo finally makes his first appearance tonight.

* DramaticIrony: Judge Munsinger accuses Kim of asking the citizens of Coushatta, Louisiana to send letters of support for Huell, a scheme that was very much her idea. [[ExactWords To which Kim says she hasn't with a straight face, since technically she's never talked to anyone from Coushatta and no one in Coushatta is actually sending letters.]]

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Inverted; the thrill and efficacy of their con rekindles Jimmy and Kim's sexual intimacy. By the end of the episode, Kim has been [[FaceHeelTurn fully seduced and wants to pull it off again.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Are you prosecuting Santa Claus?!"'']]

* ThisIsReality: When Werner tries to downplay the liability his drunken slip-up at the bar might have proven him to be, he insists that the patrons will have forgotten about him by now. Mike counters that on the contrary, that's not really the case.
-->'''Werner:''' This? Don't be concerned. I said nothing. Men at the bar, talking to make talking. And look, no details, no scale at all. Could be a skyscraper, could be a box for shoes. I said nothing about the construction that would not be true for 1,000 of others. By now they've forgotten me entirely.\\
'''Mike:''' "They forgot." The German national in the middle of Albuquerque... talking about pouring hundreds of tons of concrete at a secret underground location?\\
'''Werner:''' Yeah you're right. I'm sorry, Michael. I had too much beer. [[InVinoVeritas And I may said more than I should have.]]\\
'''Mike:''' Listen to me, carefully. The man we're working for is very serious. Think about the precautions we take to keep everything that goes on here quiet. Think about how much money you're making. Think about what happens if something goes wrong. [[ShameIfSomethingHappened Do you understand what I am saying to you?]]

* AbsenteeActor: No Howard in this episode.

* CastingGag: Nacho has fake Canadian IDs ready for him and his father should he need to use them. His actor, Michael Mandos, is Canadian.

Mike and Werner take their workers to a local strip club, where they are entertained by the dancers, particularly Kai. Observing Werner sitting alone, Mike takes him to a more traditional bar next door for a drink. Werner tells Mike that his father was also an engineer, who devoted ten years of his life to building the Sydney Opera House. When a third patron asks for hefeweizen, Werner politely corrects his pronunciation and pays for the patron's drink. Werner states that he misses his wife and asks Mike what his father was like, leading the two men to reflect on their families and making a toast to home. Nick shows up to summon Mike, leaving Werner behind at the bar.

At their apartment, Kim is reviewing Huell's assault case when Jimmy tells her that he is going to the Day Spa and Nail to "set things up." There, Mrs. Nguyen finds Jimmy in his backroom office writing on stickers that he puts on the backs of drop phones on his desk. Assuming that Kim is Jimmy's wife and that she's thrown him out, Mrs. Nguyen pours him a glass of alcohol and urges him to take her out to a nice restaurant to make up with her. Jimmy dejectedly replies that he thinks they might be "past that." Mrs. Nguyen lets Jimmy keep the bottle as she leaves.

* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: This seems to be the reason for Werner's depressed state and why he starts talking about his work while drunk in a bar. His father was one of the engineers who worked on the Sydney Opera House and the building is a proud monument to his skill as an engineer. Werner, meanwhile, is working on an near-impossible engineering project, but the nature of the work means that he can never tell anyone about it and few people will know about it. He will leave no legacy that the public can look at and admire.

'''Mike:''' "They forgot." The German national in the middle of Albuquerque... talking about pouring hundreds of tons of concrete at a secret underground location? \\

At El Michoacano, Nacho performs Hector's former role of observing cash collections. Krazy-8 counts money from a bling-wearing drug dealer, who has come up short. Krazy-8 initially allows the dealer to leave, but Nacho summons the dealer over to his table. Nacho tears out one of the dealer's earrings and warns him that, "What you owe, you owe with interest." After the dealer leaves, Krazy-8 turns around to affirm Nacho's action, but Nacho asks why he didn't do it himself. Krazy-8 acknowledges Nacho's hint, and right away another dealer enters the diner, while Nacho watches calmly.

After dark, Nacho drives a muscle car to an upscale house, where two young women are inside watching TV. Without a word, Nacho gives them small bags of crack and retreats to his bedroom. There, he stashes his drug money in a safe in his closet. As he does so, Nacho looks at fake Manitoba ID cards for himself and his father, showing that he has an exit strategy.

Mike and Werner take their workers to a local strip club, where they are entertained by the dancers, particularly Kai. Observing Werner sitting alone, Mike takes him to a more traditional bar for a drink. Werner tells Mike that his father was also an engineer, who devoted ten years of his life to building the Sydney Opera House. When a third patron asks for hefeweizen, Werner politely corrects his pronunciation and pays for the patron's drink. Werner states that he misses his wife and asks Mike what his father was like, leading the two men to reflect on their families and making a toast to home. Nick shows up to summon Mike, leaving Werner behind at the bar.

BCS 408 07.png

The next day, Kim arrives at the courthouse with a team of lawyers to meet with ADA Ericsen. Kim seeks to have Huell's charge reduced to simple battery and have his sentence reduced to several months' probation with time served. When Ericsen refuses, Kim's associates files several motions to collect evidence corroborating Huell's version of events, signaling that they are willing to begin civil rights litigation on Huell's behalf. Speaking in private with Kim, Ericsen states that she is unimpressed with Kim's "shock and awe" tactics and they won't sway her.

At the warehouse, as Werner and his crew are about to board the truck for the drive to the lab, Mike confronts Werner with a diagram he drew for the bar patron on the back of a coaster. Werner initially claims that he did not blab about the excavation, but, under Mike's watchful glare, concedes that he did have too much to drink. He tries to dismiss the possible concern that the people he was talking to will remember, but Mike counters that a lone German in Albuquerque talking about an illegal dig site leaves a long impression. Mike warns Werner to consider how Gus has gone to great lengths to keep the excavation secret, and won't be forgiving to his precautions being ignored. Realizing what he is saying, Werner apologizes and gives his word that nothing like this will ever happen again.

Meanwhile, Kim and Ericsen are summoned to Judge Munsinger's chambers, where the letters from Jimmy's bus trip have flooded the judge's desk, demanding Huell's release. Kim denies playing any role in the letter-writing campaign. Munsinger, exasperated by the volume of the letters and the prospect of a threatened contingent of "yahoos" from Coushatta coming to pack his court, demands that the two women resolve the case without causing a circus.

Underneath the laundry, Mike gives Gus a progress report on the excavation, briefing him on the delays caused by Casper's accident with the skid-steer. He also informs Gus that the crew have uncovered one particularly large rock that's obstructing their planned elevator shaft, and its size is enough that they will have no choice but to blast it, which will inevitably mean more time. Gus changes the subject to Werner, having already been informed by Mike about the incident at the bar. Mike assures Gus that he will keep Werner under closer scrutiny, but Gus eyes him skeptically.

-->'''Werner:''' This? Don't be concerned. I said nothing. Men at the bar, talking to make talking. And look, no details, no scale at all. Could be a skyscraper, could be a box for shoes. I said nothing about the construction that would not be true for 1,000 of others. By now they've forgotten me entirely.
-->'''Mike:''' "They forgot." The German national in the middle of Albuquerque... talking about pouring hundreds of tons of concrete at a secret underground location?
-->'''Werner:''' Yeah you're right. I'm sorry Michael. I had too much beer. [[InVinoVeritas And I may said more than I should have.]]
-->'''Mike:''' Listen to me, carefully. The man we're working for is very serious. Think about the precautions we take to keep everything that goes on here quiet. Think about how much money you're making. Think about what happens if something goes wrong. [[ShameIfSomethingHappened Do you understand what I am saying to you?]]

* RealityEnsues: When Werner tries to downplay the liability his drunken slip-up at the bar might have proven him to be, he insists that the patrons will have forgotten about him by now. Mike counters that on the contrary, that's not really the case.

* CallForward: Jimmy will later implement the donation feature of his phony web page here to help Walt launder his drug money.

Jimmy goes to great lengths to right a wrong, as Kim pulls out all the stops for Huell's case; Mike lets his team blow off steam; Nacho receives a visitor.

* CallForward:
** Jimmy will later implement the donation feature of his phony web page here to help Walt launder his drug money.
** In his first appearance in ''Series/BreakingBad'', Saul assumes that Walt and Jesse are hitmen sent by someone named "Don Lalo." The mysterious Don Lalo finally makes his first appearance tonight.

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: For each fake phone call, Jimmy has his crew play appropriate ambience sound on [=CDs=]. When it comes to answering as the "church", he has a CD of organ music put on right before he picks up.