History Recap / BetterCallSaulS6E7PlanAndExecution

** The drug [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E6AxeAndGrind Jimmy and Kim purchased from Dr. Caldera]] was smeared onto the photos for Howard to come into contact with when he handled them, which made him sweat profusely and caused his eyes to visibly dilate while he's in the middle of ranting, furthering the appearance that he's on a substance.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: When tearing into the two, Howard makes it clear that he now views Kim as ''worse'' than Jimmy; Jimmy in his eyes was "born" as who he is and just acts according to his nature, but Kim could have been so much more but actively decided to abandon her ethics and her promise out of little more than spite.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Amazingly, Gus gets this. He stubbornly insists on finishing his PR meetups, believing even Lalo isn't reckless enough to attack him in broad daylight in front of innocents and compromise himself and the entire cartel by extension. Mike, however, firmly warns Gus he is indeed that crazy and that he has to go home right away.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: By this point Jimmy and Kim are both firmly {{Villain Protagonist}}s who have no problem with gleefully destroying Howard's life (though it’s hinted by their reactions to Howard's speech that they are maybe beginning to regret taking things quite so far at least a little bit). Despite this they still plead for Howard to leave and save his life when Lalo shows up and are horrified when Lalo blows his brains out.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: By this point Jimmy and Kim are both firmly {{Villain Protagonist}}s who have no problem with gleefully destroying Howard's life (though it is hinted by their reactions to Howard's speech that they are maybe beginning to regret taking things quite so far at least a little bit). Despite this they still plead for Howard to leave and save his life when Lalo shows up and are horrified when Lalo blows his brains out.

** Lalo looks absolutely shocked and panicked when he realizes his call has been bugged, perhaps even more so thab when his house was being shot up.

* OhCrap: Jimmy has the face of someone staring down the killer in a horror movie when the man he thought dead turns up alive and well in his living room. Kim knew Lalo was alive and is still just as horrified to see him standing there, especially with Howard still there and not realizing the danger he's in.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/better_call_saul_howard.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Howie's having a bad day.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: By this point Jimmy and Kim are both firmly {{Villain Protagonist}}s who have no problem with gleefully destroying Howard's life (though it is hinted by their reactions to Howard's speech that they are maybe beginning to regret taking things quite so far). Despite this they still plead for Howard to leave and save his life when Lalo shows up and are horrified when Lalo blows his brains out.

* PsychopathicManchild: Howard directly tells Saul and Kim that, for all their delusions of moral superiority, they're nothing more than childish sociopaths lashing out at him for minor slip-ups that in no way justify what they've done to him.

** Jimmy and Kim's plot against Howard initially seems like a relatively small scale act of maliciousness but blossoms into unexpectedly horrifying results when, during his confrontation with them, Lalo enters and kills Howard. This thematically echoes a subplot in ''Breaking Bad'' where [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E12Phoenix Walter White commits a more fatal but nevertheless also seemingly small-scale act of callousness]] which [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E13ABQ leads to unexpectedly disastrous consequences]].

* TooDumbToLive: While it's debatable whether it would have saved him, even after Jimmy and Kim's obvious and absolute terror at the sight of Lalo, and their gestures to Howard that he is in grave danger from Lalo's presence and needs to leave, he firmly stands his ground and brazenly questions who the man is to his face while continuing his tirade against the former two.

** Zig-zagged: Howard tells Jimmy and Kim directly to their faces that he's going to spend the rest of his life working to expose them for what they had done to him, a threat that comes off as hollow given how Jimmy's still practicing law in ''Breaking Bad''... only for it to turn out that Howard only had a couple more minutes ''at best'' left to live at all once Lalo enters the room.

After a slight setback, Jimmy and Kim sit back and watch their plan unfold. Howard tries to comprehend the scope of the conspiracy against him. Lalo returns to Albuquerque with a bang, as Mike and Gus prepare for war.

* InternalReveal: Jimmy finds out in one of the ''worst'' possible ways that reports of Lalo's death were greatly exaggerated.

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[[caption-width-right:322:Howard seals the fate of his career.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Downplayed; nothing is of this nature is outright said, but some of the looks that Jimmy and Kim have when Howard is laying into them at the end over their scheme strongly imply that that they're beginning to regret taking things so far. Jimmy looks particularly uncomfortable when Howard retorts by bringing up his failing marriage after Jimmy tries suggest that Howard will land on his feet after everything; Kim looks somewhat taken aback when Howard accuses her of being worse than Jimmy because she made the choice to throw away her ethics and integrity, where shady dealing is just part of Jimmy's personality by this point; and when he lashes out and accuses them of being "sociopaths" like Leopold and Loeb who demolished his life less for the money and more because they found it fun, both react in a stung way which suggests that his words have hit a nerve that's closer than they might have realised. And, of course, both look utterly horrified when Lalo shows up and "deals" with Howard, whom he views as just a random witness.

* SolemnEndingTheme: One of the few episodes, along with "Lanter" and "Rock and Hard Place" (both of which also have a major character dying), that doesn't end with the same upbeat tune all other episodes play during the closing credits. Instead, it plays the more intense [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY4Rq97rm1M Lalo's leitmotif]], which is fitting enough.

* SolemnEndingTheme: One of the few episodes, along with ''Lantern'' and ''Rock and Hard Place'' (both of which also have a major character dying), that doesn't end with the same upbeat tune all other episodes play during the closing credits. Instead, it plays the more intense [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY4Rq97rm1M Lalo's leitmotif]], which is fitting enough.

** The situation also mirrors [[Recap/BreakingBadS3E8ISeeYou the death of Juan Bolsa]]: being deceived by someone he considered an ally, promising to land on his feet and then come for retribution... only to be gunned down seconds later.

* WhatTheHellHero: After everything is said and done, Howard shows up to Jimmy and Kim's place with a bottle of scotch in order to [[SarcasmMode "congratulate"]] them for winning against him, before openly demanding to know why they put in so much time and effort into ruining his life. He doesn't gwt a straight answer from them, drawing his own conclusions that, they did it simply because it was fun and that deep down they are soulless sociopaths.

* WhatTheHellHero: After everything is said and done, Howard shows up to Jimmy and Kim's place with a bottle of scotch in order to [[SarcasmMode "congratulate"]] them for winning against him, before openly demanding to know why they put in so much time and effort into ruining his life.