History Series / BetterCallSaul

Jimmy finds a kindred spirit in his ambitions with his girlfriend [[Characters/BetterCallSaulKimWexler Kim Wexler]] (Creator/RheaSeehorn), a junior attorney at Chuck's law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & [=McGill=], whose ironclad moral code and fondness for Jimmy's antics often complicate her career. His search for clients that will boost his solo practice, and his attempts to join HHM, are foiled by Chuck's successful and smarmy law partner [[Characters/BetterCallSaulHowardHamlin Howard Hamlin]] (Creator/PatrickFabian).

Meanwhile, recent events have forced [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]] (Creator/JonathanBanks) into an early retirement from the Philadephia PD, moving to Albuquerque to pursue a quiet life as a doting grandfather. His concerns over providing for his family -- as well as trauma after a recent loss -- begin to push Mike towards less lawful pursuits, where his professionalism and specialized skillset make him a highly-demanded commodity.

Both Jimmy and Mike become acquainted with ambitious criminal [[Characters/BetterCallSaulNachoVarga Ignacio "Nacho" Varga]] (Creator/MichaelMando), and, through their dealings with him, get involved with the Albuquerque underworld and their power players, including [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]] (Creator/GiancarloEsposito), an unassuming drug distributor and fast food franchise owner building both his empires, and [[Characters/BetterCallSaulLaloSalamanca Lalo Salamanca]] (Tony Dalton), a deadly yet affable cartel operative looking to counteract Gus at every turn.

[[FunWithAcronyms From]] [[CrusadingLawyer "Justice Matters Most"]] [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain to]] [[AmoralAttorney "Just Make Money"]].]]

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* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Lalo manages to take a man's leg clean off with a single axe swing.
* AcceptableBreaksFromReality:
** Gus and Hector are both native Spanish speakers, and logically should be holding most of their conversations in Spanish, especially when talking with the people they're in business with for The Cartel (Nacho, Eladio, Bolsa, Lalo, etc). However, Giancarlo Esposito and Mark Margolis can't speak Spanish and get their Spanish lines phonetically, making their delivery extremely stilted. So, whenever there's a scene where Gus or Hector should logically be speaking Spanish, the writers can either have them speak Spanish, where it will be obvious to any fluent speaker that they can't really speak what is supposed to be their native language, or have them speaking English inexplicably. The show does both, depending on the situation, but both actors are otherwise excellent at playing their roles, so most will let it slide (by contrast, Tony Dalton and Michael Mando both speak fluent Spanish, so Lalo and Nacho speak the language far more often; Lalo in particular exclusively speaks Spanish when talking to Hector).
** Every single character who also appeared in ''Breaking Bad'' (Jimmy, Mike, Tuco, Huell, Gus, Hector, Eladio, Bolsa, etc) is supposed to be anywhere from 5-8 years younger than they were when they appeared in ''Breaking Bad''. In real life, the actors are all several years older. The show puts very little effort into hiding this discrepancy; at best some of the characters look about the same age and are old enough for it to be handwaved as them no longer visibly aging. Hector is the only one who really pulls it off, just because he spent all of ''Breaking Bad'' as a mute invalid. A couple of flashbacks even show Jimmy right around the time he started working in the mailroom in the early 90s, meaning he's supposed to be a good 20 years younger than he is in Omaha, and all the show does to try to sell this is give him a cheap wig. It's clear the showrunners aren't even trying to fool anyone, which is reasonable given that de-aging CGI would be expensive and would also invoke a distracting uncanny valley effect, and that makeup would likely not be effective either. The only other solution would be to recast the actors, which would be pretty much guaranteed to irritate the fanbase, so just looking the other way is the best solution.
** [[spoiler:ADX Montrose is based on one of the most human-rights-violating prisons in reality, ADX Florence. Prisoners there are kept in solitary confinement for twenty three hours, and patients with mental illness (which Jimmy would be classed as, with his PTSD and dissociation tendencies) have a high rate of suicide. But Jimmy needs to have some sort of peace, with regular visits from Kim and the hope of getting out early, so prisoners can move around, have recreational activities and Kim is able to sneak in as his lawyer.]]
* ActOfTrueLove:
** In "Point and Shoot" [[spoiler:Lalo orders Jimmy to visit Gus's house and shoot him dead, and to return with photographic evidence within one hour or he will kill Kim. Jimmy convinces him to send Kim instead, and gestures to her to get out of the apartment and to safety, and to let him take the risk of being shot by Lalo instead.]]
** Later in the same episode, [[spoiler:Kim stops at traffic lights next to a police vehicle. She considers reporting Lalo to the police, knowing this will ensure her safety, but may result in Jimmy's death. She decides to keep schtum and carry on with the order to shoot Gus, showing that she is prepared to kill to save Jimmy.]]
** After feeling like she ruined everything with the Lalo Lie, and confessing her sins to Cheryl, the only non-truth Kim tells is that her ex might not be alive; she still doesn’t give Jimmy up, having to believe he’s still under there somewhere underneath the Saul and Gene of it all. [[spoiler: When she thinks ''he’s'' given her up, she’s furious, but as the man she loves comes back, confessing his real feelings and damage over Chuck, she’s very proud of him.]]
** In the series finale "Saul Gone", [[spoiler:Jimmy has managed to work his way down from a sentence of life imprisonment for his crimes to less than 8 years in prison. However, when he finds out that Kim is in legal trouble for her part in the death of Howard, he sabotages his deal in order to put responsibility for it on himself. This puts her in the clear, and leaves him likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars]].
* ActorAllusion:
** A subtle one. Mike describes the corruption in his former precinct of the Philadelphia police department, in which everyone had to take a taste to avoid being suspected of informing, as being 'like killing Caesar, where everyone is guilty.' The character he is addressing this to is played by Creator/KerryCondon, best known for playing [[Series/{{Rome}} Octavia of the Julii]].
** Another subtle one. After Hector asks Mike to alter his testimony against Tuco, saying "You're an ex-cop. They go easy on you.", Mike replies "So you're a psychic?" Mark Margolis played the role of the [[Series/{{Gotham}} fortune teller Paul Cicero]].
** This isn't [[Film/{{Nebraska}} the first time]] Bob Odenkirk's been in a DeliberatelyMonochrome version of Nebraska.
** This also isn't the first show that has featured both Bob Odenkirk and a plug for [[Series/TheLarrySandersShow The Garden Weasel]].
** Jonathan Banks plays a character who works as a parking lot attendant, [[WesternAnimation/MikeTysonMysteries but this time he isn't dressed as a wizard]].
** The scene in "Five-O" where Mike buys a maxi-pad to bandage a bullet wound [[https://youtu.be/FTEOpEGvcKA isn't the first time Jonathan Banks played a character buying feminine hygiene products]].
** Steven Ogg as a loudmouth, jackass career criminal with an inclination to be unhinged? Sounds like Trevor from ''GTA 5''.
** In "Plan and Execution", the initial exchange between [[spoiler:Howard and Lalo]] ("Who are you?" "Me? Nobody") is an almost word-for-word quote of the opening lines of ''Film/{{Nobody}}'', which stars Bob Odenkirk.
* AesopAmnesia: At the end of season 1, Jimmy tells Mike that he'll never let doing the "right thing" stop him again. At the end of season 3, he finds himself in a similar position with his scheme to turn the residents of Sandpiper on Irene, and ultimately sacrifices both his million dollar payday and his reputation in elder law to set things right.
* AffablyEvil: Lalo is a merciless cartel gangster, but he's also very chipper and polite. When he arrives to take control of the Salamanca gang's collections away from Nacho, he does so by cheerfully introducing himself and serving him a home-made dinner, then smoothly sitting down in the lead position without any discussion of the matter.
* AlasPoorVillain: Sure, [[spoiler:Chuck]] repeatedly proved he was an asshole through and through, but [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E10Lantern the penultimate scene depicting his mental breakdown]] sort of causes you to pity him when he meets his demise.
* TheAllegedCar: Jimmy's Suzuki Esteem leaves much to be desired, what with it sometimes having problems starting and the mismatched paint job on his right rear door (implying that the car probably got into an accident and the door had to be replaced, and Jimmy couldn't afford to have the door repainted). It's such a pile that he asks the skaters who try to scam him what kind of payment they were expecting from someone with a car like his.
--> "The only way that entire car is worth $500 bucks is if there's a $300 hooker sittin' in it!"
* AllForNothing: Many plans, gambits, and motivations end up dismantled or leading to nowhere, usually as a result of the characters never anticipating whatever happens next. HardWorkHardlyWorks, the philosophy that Jimmy and Kim eventually believe, may sometimes play a role in this. When looking at nearly every character's fate in ''Breaking Bad'', this entire series is an examination of the trope, as even the few characters who [[SavedByCanon are destined to survive this series]] are [[DoomedByCanon doomed to die in the original]], with Jimmy himself already set to be left managing the Omaha Cinnabon.
** Jimmy spends the entire show trying to go straight, scraping by as an honest defense attorney and trying to work his way up through legal means. As we know from the beginning, each and every one of these attempts is going to fail until he's left as the ''criminal'' lawyer Saul Goodman, dooming him to his fate in Omaha once Walter White enters his office. [[spoiler:He ultimately ends the series spending the rest of his life in prison, with the only consolations being that the prisoners like him and he spared Kim from a similar fate, reconciling with her too]].
** Kim comes to see Mesa Verde and HHM as a SoulCrushingDeskJob, and really enjoys doing pro-bono work, actually helping the little guy. When she gets a legit job offer to do just that in Santa Fe, she sabotages the opportunity because she wants to destroy Howard Hamlin even more. The results from that and the guilt she feels moves her to Florida as an ExtremeDoormat for years, and while [[spoiler: she makes steps to move back into legal aid (and gets back with Jimmy), she’s got a civil suit from Cheryl hanging over her head]].
** Chuck's attempt to ruin Jimmy's career ultimately costs him everyone and everything he values. [[spoiler:His illness is publicly proven to be a mental one, he's forced out of HHM once he becomes a liability to them, and he eventually retreats into a delusion so strong that he burns his house down with himself inside. Within a year, a new HHM hire doesn't even recognize his picture. Even worse, Chuck's actions play a large role in turning Jimmy into Saul, and because of Jimmy's transformation, Howard crosses paths with Lalo Salamanca and is killed, crippling the law firm he spent years building from the ground up]].
** Howard Hamlin endures, in short order, [[spoiler:personal bankruptcy, his law partner and dear friend committing suicide, his marriage deteriorating, Jimmy and Kim sabotaging him at every turn for the crime of offering him a job, and ultimately a scam from them so severe that it completely ruins his professional life. Despite vowing to come back from this, Howard gets killed by Lalo for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, rendering all of his struggles through the series null and void in less than a minute and leaving him remembered by his colleagues as a suicidal drug addict. Not only that, but the final gambit against Gus that Howard's death kicks off ultimately ends with Lalo dying as well, so even from a purely utilitarian perspective, Howard's death was as pointless as it could possibly be]].
** Lalo's main arc throughout the show is his attempt to prove that Gus Fring is working under the Cartel's nose and uncover proof of the superlab he's building. It's still several years before Walter White will work for Gus and eventually burn the lab down, all while the Cartel never learns about it, so Lalo's quest is obviously doomed from the beginning. [[spoiler:In the end, he dies in Gus's superlab, having failed to inform the Cartel about it and with Gus's standing in the organization stronger than ever]].
** [[spoiler:Nacho Varga's attempts to escape the criminal underworld all fail one way or the other, with the only option for him eventually being to commit suicide in the desert rather than be killed by the Salamancas. The only consolation is that Mike promises to look after his father, and he gets to at least spit in Hector's face one last time]].
** Gus spends years getting the superlab up and running, pouring countless amounts of money, manpower, and even [[spoiler:several corpses]] into making sure it's operational, all for the sake of tearing down the Cartel and Hector Salamanca. In the end, he succeeds in all of his goals in this show, but he's still doomed to his eventual death at Walt and Hector's hands years later, while the lab he builds will be burned down once he's gone.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Kim gets a thrill out of participating in Jimmy's cons, which is one of the reasons she sticks with him.
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream: Very, ''very'' much a cynical portrayal, given the show's recurring theme of HardWorkHardlyWorks. Specifically it presents The American Dream as something which may once have been attainable but which is now dead. The show's wealthy and successful lawyers are all of an older generation and began practicing law at a time when that profession practically guaranteed a decent income and a comfortable life. For the generation of Jimmy, Kim and DA Bill Oakley, who all studied for the Bar much later, things are turning out to be much more of a struggle. The only exception is Howard Hamlin, whose success came from being born into wealth and privilege rather than hard work. Celebrity fan UsefulNotes/BarackObama even described the show as an [[https://ew.com/books/barack-obama-a-promised-land-interview/ "examination of the dark side of The American Dream"]].
* AmbiguouslyGay: Gus Fring's ambiguous sexual orientation continues from ''Breaking Bad'', though one scene in the final season finally seems to address it and heavily implies that he's gay while still not overtly confirming it. He seems to make a pass at a sommelier, who either [[IncompatibleOrientation does not pick up on it or politely rejects him]], prompting Gus to aburptly leaves in low spirits. [[WordOfGod Peter Gould]] has since explicitly confirmed that Gus and Max were romantically involved, confirming that Gus is gay.
* AmicableExes: Kim and Jimmy in season 1. While it is never stated explicity, it is [[ImpliedLoveInterest very strongly implied]] that they were previously in a relationship and still have strong feelings for one another:
** In "Uno" Jimmy takes a cigarette from Kim's lips and takes a couple of drags on it before replacing it. They are clearly both comfortable with this level of intimacy, and without words this scene establishes Kim and Jimmy as more than JustFriends.
** They share numerous tender moments throught the season, such as Jimmy giving Kim a pedicure in "Alpine Shepherd Boy". He has no idea how to paint nails and makes a mess of it but Kim really doesn't mind.
** They are also unusually protective of one another. This is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Howard in "Pimento", when Kim complains about HHM's refusal to hire Jimmy as an attorney:
--->'''Howard Hamlin:''' "The partners have made a decision and the why is not your concern."
--->'''Kim Wexler:''' "I think it is my concern."
--->'''Howard Hamlin:''' "And why is that?"
--->'''Kim Wexler:''' "Because he's my friend. And the way I see it, you're not treating him fairly."
--->'''Howard Hamlin:''' "Did your ''[[DeadpanSnarker friend]]'' send you in here to say that?"
** In "RICO", a flashback shows Jimmy opening his bar exam results with Kim. When they learn he has passed, Kim is overjoyed and kisses him. This appears to confirm that they were indeed an item during their time working in the mailroom.
* AmoralAttorney:
** A defining trope, as the show is about Jimmy's slide into becoming the crooked attorney known as Saul Goodman. The show reveals that it comes from a combination of bitterness for not getting the respect he believes he deserves and a recurring habit of cutting ethical corners.
** Kim proves she's no saint when she is willing to expend a couple of junior associates' time and orchestrate a massive threat of a fictitious media circus to get the assistant district attorney to agree to a better plea bargain for Huell.
* AnimalMetaphor: In "Chicanery", Jimmy buys a goldfish to use as a cover for his visits to Dr Caldera. In later episodes the goldfish often appears in the foreground of shots, usually when Jimmy is planning criminal activity, and it serves to indicate that Jimmy is up to no good.
* AnimalMotifs: Lalo compares Jimmy to a cockroach, calling him "La Cucaracha". He means this as a compliment, expressing his confidence in Jimmy's survival instincts. Later, in "Plan and Execution", the sight of a cockroach scuttling past inspires him to pay a visit to Jimmy.
* AnonymousPublicPhoneCall:
** Jimmy makes a call to the Kettlemans in [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E3Nacho "Nacho"]] to warn them of Nacho's designs on their (stolen) money. Unfortunately, it leads to the Kettlemans high-tailing it to the New Mexico hills with their kids. And the money.
** Part of Mike's gambit to have Tuco arrested is to call the police on a payphone, anonymously report about an "old man" being attacked by some gangster, then approach and provoke Tuco into attacking him. He times it just right so that the police are on their way just before Tuco takes the first swings.
** After Mike learns that a GoodSamaritan was killed by Hector due to his actions and gets the intel he needs, he scours the desert to find the body. Once he does, he calls the police on a payphone to report it, claiming that he found it while he was illegally hunting for arrowheads in the area.
* AntiVillain: Chuck [=McGill=] is a law-abiding lawyer who thinks it's dangerous for his con-man brother Jimmy (also a lawyer) to have a law degree. History says he's right, as Jimmy goes on to become the sleazebag Saul Goodman. However, Chuck's continual efforts to undermine Jimmy (who genuinely cares for him) throughout the series make him just as petty and vindictive as the murderers and drug dealers the show has, and they're a big part of the reason Jimmy is put on the path to becoming Saul in the first place.
* AnyLastWords: [[spoiler:Lalo to Gus in "Point and Shoot". Cue TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.]]
* AnyoneCanDie: While there are a lot of deaths in this show, major character deaths are a lot fewer.
** In season 1, Troy Hoffman, Carl Fenske, and Marco Pasternak.
** In season 2, the good samaritan and Ximenez Lacerda.
** In season 3, [[spoiler:Chuck [=McGill=]]].
** In season 4, Arturo Colon, [[spoiler:Fred Whalen at Travel Wire]], and [[spoiler:Werner Ziegler]].
** In season 5, [[spoiler:everyone at Lalo's compound, bar Lalo]].
** In season 6, [[spoiler:Nacho Varga]], [[spoiler:Howard Hamlin]] and [[spoiler:Lalo Salamanca]].
** A {{Flashback}} at the start of the season 2 finale shows the death of Chuck and Jimmy's mother. While she is already known to have passed, this is part of a theme: so far [[spoiler:every season finale has begun with a flashback and featured at least one character death]].
* ArcSymbol:
** Lanterns in Season 3. The whole season has left subtle clues {{foreshadowing}} [[spoiler:Chuck's suicide]], often by making the gas lantern take center stage:
** "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E2Witness Witness]]": The lantern is prominently seen as Chuck and his private investigator wait inside the house for Jimmy to steal the confession tape, and Jimmy threatens to burn the house down when grilling Chuck on the location of a possible second tape.
** "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E4Sabrosito Sabrosito]]": Mike is hired by Jimmy and Kim to take photos of Chuck's house to present to Rebecca. One of these photos is of the lantern sitting atop a bunch of newspapers, which Jimmy takes special note of when they meet at the diner to make the exchange.
** "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E5Chicanery Chicanery]]": Jimmy presents the photo during his bar hearing.
** "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E10Lantern Lantern]]": The childhood flashback at the beginning of the episode, where the camera zooms in on a lantern as Chuck reads to Jimmy. And all the lantern symbolism comes to fruition at the end of the episode when [[spoiler:Chuck, broken and defeated, deliberately kicks over the lantern, burning down his house and killing himself]].
** Starting from "Chicanery", exit signs are a symbol of Chuck and how Jimmy/Gene's mental health is deteriorating like his brother's. In the finale, the camera focuses on the exit sign buzzing as Jimmy explains how Chuck was "brilliant but limited" in terms of emotions and being able to show his love.
* ArcWords:
** "Dot your 'i's and cross your 't's." An expression meaning to spare no detail and make no mistakes.
** "Wolves and Sheep" An expression heard throughout the show to establish a pecking order of people, a phrase that Jimmy took with him from childhood to adulthood.
** ThatManIsDead. Jimmy tries to tell Chuck “slippin’ Jimmy is back in Cicero, dead and buried”, Jimmy’s whole plotline is the slow death of his soul to become Saul Goodman, he tells Kim (but gets pulled back) “Jimmy” is Chuck’s loser brother and “that name is burned”, over in Series/BreakingBad Saul tells Walt “the fun is over” and he’s nobody now, and in “Breaking Bad” the episode, it transitions from the open grave to Gene in bed, showing both death of Gene into Viktor, and how many times Jimmy has buried himself.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: At the start of "Hero", Jimmy again tries to get the Kettlemans as clients, but is heartbroken when they tell him he's the kind of lawyer that guilty people hire.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Saul attempts to make small talk with Walter about TimeTravel as they both await their new identities, Saul refuses to divulge anything about his past and names a failed StagedPedestrianAccident as his [[BlatantLies greatest regret]]. Walter disgustedly asks: "So, you were always like this?" Saul's hopeful smile fades completely.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Although set and filmed in Albuquerque, this is prone to happen:
** Jimmy's search for the Kettleman family in "Nacho" begins with him hiking into the Sandia Mountains on the east side of Albuquerque, and he finds them on the Rio Grande floodplain in the west[[note]]Trivia: the area where Jimmy finds the Kettlemans was actually filmed not too far from where Mike's death in ''Breaking Bad'' was filmed.[[/note]]. This would've required walking several thousand vertical feet down and across several miles of city neighborhoods and commercial districts.
** What is depicted as the courthouse parking lot where Mike's "troll"-booth under the bridge is located at, is not actually for a courthouse. That's actually the Albuquerque Convention Center.
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Mike Ehrmantraut tends to avoid this trope, but there have been a couple notable instances where he stored loaded rifles in his moving car pointing directly at the drivers' seat. Most of the time, however, he has the sense to point them to the side -- which is about as safely as one could transport an illegal firearm.
* ArtisticTitle: The first five seasons feature ten unique title sequences — there is one per episode, and they are used in the same order for each season. Rather than featuring the characters, settings, and events of ''Better Call Saul'', they are all snapshots of Saul Goodman's working life as it was in ''Breaking Bad''. With their [[StylisticSuck deliberate bad quality]], tacky graphic effects and garish oversaturated colours they are also reminiscent of Saul Goodman's late night TV commercials from ''Breaking Bad''.
** As of the sixth and final season, the titles are now in black-and-white and far more corrupted and distorted. Also, for the last few episodes, those titles are cut short over the sounds of a cassette player and plain white text over a blue background is shown instead.
* AscendedExtra:
** This show focuses on Jimmy, Mike, and later Gus, all of whom were members of the main cast in ''Breaking Bad'' that were not introduced in Season 1 of that show.
** Stacey Ehrmantraut, Kaylee's mother and Mike's daughter-in-law, has a significantly more prominent role in this show after only appearing once in ''Breaking Bad'', where she was only seen from a distance and played by an unknown actress.
** Ignacio "Nacho" Varga starts out as one of Tuco's henchmen, after having nothing more than [[TheGhost a brief mention in a throw-away line from Saul]] in his titular ''Breaking Bad'' episode. After a handful of appearances in Season 1, he then got more and more screen time and development in Season 2. By Season 3, he fully becomes a part of the main cast and develops his own subplot as he tries to get out from under Hector's thumb, only to then get caught in the middle of Gus' war with the Salamancas.
** In Season 2, Kim becomes a more definitive tritagonist, with subplots revolving around her in addition to the ones revolving around Jimmy and Mike.
** Krazy-8 only lasted about three episodes into ''Breaking Bad''. As a Salamanca associate, he's had a much larger presence here in ''Better Call Saul'', especially in season 5, where we see how he becomes a snitch for the DEA.
** Gus' first two onscreen appearances are as one-scene wonders, but in "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E4Sabrosito Sabrosito]]" he is officially established as a member of the main cast.
** Lalo is introduced at the end of "Coushatta," after merely being another name Saul gives from the same dialogue that mentioned Nacho. While he only appears for a few scenes in the last two episodes of Season 4, it sets him up to be the main antagonist for Gus and Mike in Season 5, later [[spoiler:dragging Jimmy and Kim into the game as well]].
** The Salamanca gang become a larger threat and presence than they were in ''Breaking Bad''. Hector is Mike's antagonist for season 2, and Gus' and Nacho's antagonist for season 3. There's a brief lull in their activities in season 4 after Gus forces the Cousins to return south for massacring the Espinozas, until late in the season when Lalo comes along, and in season 5, becomes the first time a Salamanca got main credits billing.
* AssassinOutclassin: [[spoiler:In season 5, Lalo kills all of the assassins sent by Fring to kill him using his wits and a secret escape tunnel.]]
* AssholeVictim:
** Ken Wins, an abrasive and arrogant financial worker. In "Switch", Kim and Jimmy overhear him talking loudly on his phone and being excessively crass and vulgar, so they trick him into paying for an entire bottle of expensive tequila. Poor, poor thing.
** Dale, the engineer conned by Kim and Jimmy in "Bali Ha'i". Immediately before he enters the bar and offers to buy Kim a drink, a shot from Kim's POV shows him kissing his wife goodbye. This tells us that Dale is a sleazebag who deserves what's coming to him.
** In "Coushatta," Kim's reasons for pulling the whole sham show of support for Huell to force ADA Ericsen to agree to a lenient plea deal seems motivated by Ericsen's willingness to give Huell a disproportionate sentence for his crime.
* AuthorAppeal: Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have expressed a… fondness for morally ambiguous, dominant women, and Kim/Jimmy have a happy fem-dom vibe with Kim being very complicated, and Betsy dominates HenpeckedHusband Craig while being the brains of their criminality.
* AwfulTruth: The primary twist of Season One is that [[spoiler:Chuck is the one]] who has been actively sabotaging Jimmy's attempt to become a lawyer.
* AwfulWeddedLife:
** Season 6 introduces Howard's wife Cheryl. During a session with his therapist in "Hit and Run", it becomes apparent that they have been having problems with their marriage for some time. In "Axe and Grind" it is revealed that not only are they [[ExiledToTheCouch no longer sharing a bedroom]], Howard is now sleeping in a guest room in an entirely separate wing of the house. When we see them interact the conversation confirms that they are DeadSparks as they discuss whether it is appropriate for them to continue turning up to social functions as a couple. When Howard hands her [[ApologyGift a coffee featuring some latte art he has carefully designed to look like a peace sign]], Cheryl unceremonously dumps it into her travel mug.
** Chuck [=McGill=] and wife Rebecca Bois also seemed to have been pretty distant before their divorce. Rebecca doesn't laugh at Chuck's jokes (despite laughing at [[TheCharmer Jimmy's]]) and when they attempt a reconciliation, Chuck still doesn't feel able to confide in her about his electromagnetic hypersensitivity. It's never actually fully stated how the divorce came around, other than Chuck used Jimmy as an excuse to sabotage, at RageBreakingPoint Jimmy relates to her leaving, and while amiable exes, they barely spoke to each other before she finds out about his illness.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther:
** [[spoiler:We don't see Kim and Jimmy actually say "I love you" to one another until the 59th episode, but we know. In the previous episode we see that Kim was prepared to kill for Jimmy, and Jimmy was prepared to die for Kim.]]
** Even all the baggage and animosity that Jimmy and Mike have with each other throughout the series—and ''Breaking Bad''—the two are shown to have an understanding and respect for each other in spite of all those things.
* BackForTheFinale: Bill Oakley, Suzanne Ericsen, [[spoiler:Mike Ehrmantraut, Marie Schrader, Walter White and [=Chuck McGill=]]].
* BackAlleyDoctor: Dr. Caldera is a veterinarian who also provides medical care for those who need treatment with no questions asked. He also serves as a middleman for those seeking less-than-legal employment.
* BackfireOnTheWitnessStand: Played with in "Chicanery," with Jimmy's bar hearing. Howard advises Chuck not to testify at the hearing, as they have enough evidence to get Jimmy's license revoked without it. Chuck insists on going anyway, both for his ControlFreak tendencies and desire to end Jimmy's law career personally. It backfires in a breathtaking fashion when Jimmy tricks Chuck into an explosive MotiveRant on the stand that damages Chuck's credibility and ends up getting Jimmy briefly suspended instead of fully revoked.
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals:
** Gus Fring tells a comatose Hector a story about how, growing up poor, he snared a coati that was eating the fruit from a tree he cultivated, and despite it having a broken leg that would have made killing it more merciful, kept it alive — just as he has decided to keep Hector alive and suffering rather than killing him.
** In "Bad Choice Road" Lalo torments Kim and Jimmy's poor goldfish by tapping on the side of her tank. When Jimmy pleads with him "You shouldn't do that, it upsets the fish" he defiantly does it again.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** The season 1-5 premieres all begin with a DeliberatelyMonochrome ColdOpen showing Jimmy's life in exile as "Gene Takavic". The season 6 premiere appears to begin in the same fashion, with a sequence of monochrome neckties falling away from the camera. They are then joined by some more ties with a small splash of colour, then a series of increasingly colourful ties before it becomes apparent that we are not in Omaha, but in Saul's abandoned — and [[FashionVictimVillain very colourful]] — home in Albuquerque.
** After her "Fifi" lunch with Mesa Verde, Kim acts jumpy and distracted, and Jimmy assumes that it went badly. Then she grins and gives him a victory smooch and {{squee}}s that it went great.
** In season 6, [[spoiler:Nacho is in deep trouble with the Salamancas and Howard is the target of a scheme by Jimmy and Kim to ruin his career. You'd expect Nacho to risk being killed by a Salamanca and Howard, like Chuck, to potentially be DrivenToSuicide after his life is ruined. But no, it's Nacho who commits suicide and Howard who gets killed by Lalo Salamanca.]]
** Kim and Jimmy marry in "JMM", both because they love each other, but also so he can tell her what he's getting up to without her having to testify against him. Everyone, including Jimmy, assumes he'll eventually fuck it up, but [[spoiler: it turns out to be ''Kim'' keeping the secret from Jimmy that Lalo was alive, not even because she was protecting him but because she was having too much fun, something she sees as ruining everything]].
* BaldnessAngst: Jimmy suffers from a ''major'' case of this, and it doesn't help that he seems to be prone to OminousHairLoss as a reaction to stressful events. Jimmy is often seen fretting over his thinning hair and tries to disguise it with an extra wide side parting. By the time he is inhabiting the Saul Goodman persona he is sporting a full-on combover and using a vast quantity of hair loss treatments. He finally accepts his baldness once he is living as "Gene Takavic" and is forced to change his appearance, and he is eventually able to joke about it:
--->"Guess how many pills I used to take to keep the hair on my head. [[SarcasmMode Worked like a charm]]."
* BathroomSearchExcuse: A favoured tactic of Jimmy's, usually in combination with TooMuchInformation:
** In "RICO", he is refused entry to Sandpiper Crossing and lies about having Irritable Bowel Syndrome so they will let him use the bathroom — where he uses the toilet paper to write a demand letter.
** In "Wine and Roses", [[spoiler:he pretends to have diverticulitis and asks to use the toilets — which happen to be in the locker room, where he plants a bag of suspicious-looking white powder in Howard's locker]].
* BatmanGambit:
** The billboard stunt in season 1 episode 4. Jimmy buys a billboard ad that plagiarizes the HHM branding. The court issues a cease-and-desist order to make him take it down. Jimmy then tries and fails to convince the local news stations to document the billboard taken down, so he hires a freelancing TV team. The worker who takes down the ad (actually a hired stooge) "accidentally" falls and then Jimmy plays hero in front of the camera. The HHM staff see through the façade instantly but know that [[StreisandEffect taking any further action against Jimmy would gain him more publicity]].
** Mike pretends to get drunk and makes a vague accusation to the two cops who killed his son, then stumbles his way home. He is counting on the fact that the two cops would pick him up in their squad car (which he had broken into earlier and hid a spare gun) and take him to a secluded spot where they can kill him (or rather, where ''he'' can kill ''them'').
** Mike's gambit to throw Tuco in jail, which involves acting like a doddering old fool and not showing any fear after "accidentally" swiping Tuco's car in a parking lot
** At the close of season two, Chuck seemingly retires and pretends to fall even deeper into his electromagnetic sensitivity delusion, hoping Jimmy's desire to look out for him and care for him will lead him to give a taped confession. It works.
** The follow-up at the start of season 3 [[spoiler:features Chuck using the taped confession to manipulate both Ernesto and his brother (almost) flawlessly. He knows the confession isn't likely to go anywhere in court, and knows he can't use it to get Mesa Verde back, but he also knows his brother would seek to get the tape if he knew it existed. All he needs is for Ernesto to "accidentally" hear the tape, tell his friend Jimmy what he heard, and wait for Jimmy to break in with witnesses to see it. The "almost" part stems from his failure to recognize that Jimmy had no interest in "sneaking in under cover of night" to get the tape. Jimmy is so angry he just kicks the door down and confronts Chuck directly]].
** Jimmy gets to turn the tables just a few episodes later when [[spoiler:Chuck testifies during Jimmy's hearing before the bar association. Jimmy presses Chuck's [[BerserkButton buttons]] -- namely his ex-wife Rebecca and his {{Pride}} over the issue of his mental illness -- until Chuck loses it and launches into an unhinged MotiveRant that inadvertently lends credence to Jimmy's claims that his brother has it out for him. So Jimmy ends up getting hit with a one year suspension of his law license rather than the disbarment that Chuck had been seeking, while Chuck's illness is undeniably proven to be a mental disorder and his legal credibility is rendered stone dead]].
** Jimmy bests a trio of muggers by fleeing from them and running into a dead-end alley, counting on the fact that they will chase him into the alley. He's positioned two armed confederates to confront the muggers from behind once they arrive.
** After Hector's smuggling method is ruined by Mike and Gus, Hector forces Gus to smuggle his crew's drugs as well. Gus planned this all along, and the success of his Los Pollos Hermanos smuggling methods leads the cartel to forbid all other methods of shipping drugs into the United States, severely weakening Hector's role in the cartel.
** Jimmy and Kim's plan to gaslight Howard requires a lot of people to do as expected, including BriarPatching the Kettlemans.
** Jimmy's plan to rob the department store requires the security guards to stick to the exact same schedule that Jimmy had determined in the week leading up to the robbery.
** Jimmy gets [[spoiler:Kim to appear in court]] by lying about her involvement in a murder, counting on her to show up in court so he could confess in front of her and show her he can be good.
* BatterUp: Jimmy has two of his goons intimidate a trio of muggers by knocking down pinatas with baseball bats and threatening to do the same to the muggers.
* BavarianFireDrill:
** When shooting his "Gimme Jimmy" commercial throughout a few late season 2 episodes, Jimmy is shown using this trope to engage in guerilla-style filming. This includes passing off an elderly masturbator as a phony UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vet to scam their way onto an air force base and get footage of the guy standing in front of the "Fifi" B-29 Bomber, or shooting on a school playground and claiming to be filming a documentary about Rupert Holmes of "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" fame.
** In his role as a security consultant for Madrigal Electromotive, Mike steals another worker's badge, walks right into the building, has multiple conversations with other employees, and takes advantage of every security weakness he can find. Once he's done, [[DeconstructedTrope he takes the supervisors to task over everything that he was able to get away with]]:
---> "I waltz through security with someone else's ID. Nobody gives me a second look. When the rightful owner shows up, there's no facility-wide badge check. I find access doors left unlocked or propped open, passwords written on Post-it notes. Warehouse workers are using pen and paper instead of electronic inventory devices, which leaves you wide open to pilfering. You got duplicate routing numbers on cargo, surveillance-camera blind spots on the north and the east side of the floor, inventory documents that are going into the trash instead of being shredded, not to mention loading equipment being driven at unsafe speeds and crews disregarding safety protocols."
** Mike also pretends to be an Albuquerque police detective to smuggle a particular piece of evidence into the station tying a rival gangster to a murder. He badgers an intern to get the documents to the right desk, but never actually identifies himself. It helps that he used to be an actual cop in another state before he moved to New Mexico.
* BeautyInversion: [[spoiler:After leaving Jimmy for a new life in Florida Kim begins wearing her hair in a darker colour that doesn't suit her, and an unflattering style which hides her face. She also ditches the smart suits, stilleto heels and perfect grooming for dowdy casual clothes, clumpy shoes and minimal make-up. She appears to be making a concerted effort to hide her beauty and avoid attracting attention]].
* BeingGoodSucks:
** This hits Jimmy hard at the end of "Bingo," when he has to give up the money he invested in a new office in order to force the Kettlemans into taking the plea deal and save Kim from The Corn Field.
** Jimmy gets hit again in "Lantern" when [[spoiler:he has to admit to his fraud and sacrifice his payday from the Sandpiper settlement to let Irene reconcile with her friends]].
* BeneathTheMask: Jimmy [=McGill=] is a struggling professional trying desperately to make ends meet and find his place in the world. It is very clear that he is under massive amounts of stress and battles daily to keep his cool in the face of financial hardship, daily struggles, and an uncertain future. A far cry away from the confident 'Saul Goodman' persona that in ''Breaking Bad'' will define him as a litigator. This part of Jimmy's character is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[https://external-preview.redd.it/10djBaJ_orroQzfejRBETL_Jn9UGoLpFcJ9lclugd1A.jpg?auto=webp&s=ba685fee388293d5cff9974af66ea5ec36a2af59 the key art for season 4]].
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Nacho Varga shoots himself rather than let the Cartel do it. This is partly to avoid being tortured to death, but also to [[SpitefulSuicide deny them the satisfaction]] of killing him, hence Hector Salamanca's frustration as he futilely pumps bullets into Nacho's dead body.]]
* BigBad:
** Season 1: [[BigBadFriend Chuck [=McGill=]]] has secretly been the one sabotaging Jimmy's career, resentfully believing him unworthy of being a lawyer due to his conman past.
** Season 2: Chuck continues to oppose Jimmy's law career, going so far as to undermine Kim's relationship with Mesa Verde just because of her partnership with his brother. Hector Salamanca acts as the main villain of Mike and Nacho's subplot, threatening the former's family after he helps the latter get Tuco arrested and subsequently pushing Mike to plan an assassination on the gangster.
** Season 3: Chuck embraces more immoral tactics in his obsessive efforts to get Jimmy disbarred, and when his plans ultimately only expose his own mental illness he tries to bring HHM down with him. [[BigBadEnsemble Hector]] continues to act as the central antagonist of the cartel subplot as he tries to recruit Nacho's father for a new drug front, while Gus and Mike manipulate him into giving up more control over the smuggling business.
** Season 4: Lalo Salamanca is introduced near the end of the season as the new head of the Salamanca family after Hector's stroke and begins investigating Gus, who has blackmailed Nacho into becoming his mole in the Salamanca's organization and begun construction of his secret meth superlab.
** Season 5: Lalo continues to interfere with Gus' operations, using Jimmy to get Gus' street dealers arrested and later roping him into a dangerous job to retrieve bail money when he's eventually arrested himself.
** Season 6A: Lalo fakes his death and goes on a one-man crusade against Gus after an assassination attempt, wrapping Jimmy and Kim into his efforts to expose the superlab to the Cartel [[spoiler:and murdering Howard in the process.]]
** Season 6B: [[spoiler:Jimmy himself falls back into his conman ways after his grief from losing everything and everyone finally catches up to him while in hiding in Omaha, leaving behind any virtues he may have once held as his reckless exploits lead to him finally being arrested.]]
* BigFancyHouse:
** Saul give Kim a tour of one, in an effort to rebuild her confidence in their relationship after he begins practicing under the name Saul Goodman.
** The opening of season 6 [[spoiler:is set just after Saul flees to Omaha, and gives us a tour of Saul's house as his possessions are being cleared out. It is expensively and opulently furnished, but boy, [[FashionVictimVillain it ain't classy]]]].
** Howard Hamlin's house is so big and fancy it has two separate wings. [[AwfulWeddedLife Where he and wife Cheryl]] are living [[ExiledToTheCouch two separate lives]].
* BingeMontage:
** Played with in "Marco". It's a classic binge sequence, but instead of drinking or drugs, Jimmy and Marco are pulling various scams.
** In "50% Off", two junkies learn of Saul's promotional offer and take it as a free ride to go on a meth-addled, multi-day crime spree through the Land of Enchantment.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Season 3 as a whole marks a transition point since it's the first season with Gus and also the last season with Chuck as a main character.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Towards the end of the first season, it is revealed that Chuck has been pretending to be a supportive big brother to Jimmy while secretly harboring disgust for him and undermining his attempts to build a legal practice.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jimmy confesses to his crimes, which costs him his generous seven year sentence and means he will spend the rest of his life in prison—unless good behavior allows him release after an indefinite amount of time. However, in doing so he gets Kim off the hook for her role in Howard's murder, and finally accepts responsibility for both his role in the murders tied to Walter White and his brother's suicide, leaving him with a clear conscience and no longer paranoid and on the run. "Saul Goodman" is regarded as a local legend behind bars (so we know Jimmy will be okay), Jimmy and Kim reconcile over a cigarette after years apart, and Kim seems to have a new lease on life.]]
* BlackComedy:
** Jimmy's three clients in the public defender case in the beginning broke into a morgue and had sex with a severed head.
** Jimmy's back and forth with Tuco on deciding a punishment for the skateboarders who insulted his grandma.
** To give an alibi for the secret hiding space Daniel has in his house, Jimmy shoos him out of the interrogation room, then spins a bogus story to the cops about Daniel keeping a private stash of videos of himself sitting in a pie while crying.
** There's something to say about Mike's bonding, "make-work" project with Kaylee, where she unknowingly helps him build a spike strip to ambush one of Hector's trucks.
** Jimmy goes into Los Pollos Hermanos and proves to be the most incompetent spy ever, easily tipping off Gus to Mike's presence.
** Jimmy and Kim's lengthy scam to con ADA Ericsen into a no-prison time plea bargain for Huell, which involves faking letters of support from Huell's hometown and making up stories of Huell saving fictitious churchgoers from a fictitious fire at a fictitious church that doesn't exist.
** Part of Saul's attempt to force Kevin Wachtell and Mesa Verde into a settlement is filming a series of ads where fake customers of Mesa Verde allege that the bank has ripped them off, given them black mold infections, and funded international terrorism.
* {{Blackmail}}:
** Gustavo forces Nacho to be his mole inside the Salamanca family after saying he knows Nacho was responsible for Hector Salamanca's stroke.
** Jimmy tries to extort a settlement out of Kevin Wachtell by pointing out that, among other things, Mesa Verde doesn't actually own the rights to the photo their logo is based on. He threatens to put an injunction on all uses of the Mesa Verde logo and sue them for 54 years of unpaid royalties to the photographer, threatening to tie the bank up in years of costly litigation. Kevin begrudgingly accepts Jimmy's offer afterwards.
** In "Carrot and Stick," the Kettlemans realize that Jimmy's played them, so they try to pressure Jimmy into helping them out. As a result, Kim threatens to report their tax preparer fraud to the IRS and get them both sent to prison until they promise to drop the issue ''and'' reimburse all the people they ripped off.
** After Jeff the cab driver recognizes Gene as Saul Goodman, Gene offers to get him in on "the game" and make some money from a mall heist. Gene gives Jeff and his friend Buddy very precise instructions, such as renting a truck from over state lines and specifying which merchandise to steal. Gene reveals afterwards that the whole thing was BetrayalInsurance--now that they're all implicated in multiple interstate crimes, Jeff and Buddy face decades in federal prison if they reveal Gene's identity.
* BlatantLies:
** It’s obvious from both his breakdown right after and just watching their interactions that Chuck chose the worst thing to try and push Jimmy away in “you’ve never meant that much to me”. But Jimmy takes it to heart anyway.
** Lalo sets up a meeting between Saul and his cousins, promising that "they're good boys" and Saul will like them.
* BlindfoldedTrip:
** Because no one can know about his secret basement under the laundromat, Gus doesn't recruit local labor. Instead, he works through Lydia to pick up outside contractors from Madrigal who do off-the-books illegal digging projects. And just to be on the safe side, Gus has even more measures placed to ensure that anyone who fails the job interview knows minimal details about the project. To elaborate, the candidate flies into UsefulNotes/{{Denver}}, Colorado, where they are directed to a car in the parking lot with a prepaid parking ticket, keys hidden in the wheel well, and a burner phone in the cupholder. The candidate is then guided by Mike over the phone to drive to a dropoff point on the side of a windy road in the Rocky Mountains near Idaho Springs. Once there, the candidate is to don a black hood from the trunk. After which, Mike and a driver show up, bundle the candidate into a van, and drive him hundreds of miles to the lab. They then do an analysis of the site and determine both the time and labor required, while Gus is discreetly observing him from the shadows. The candidate never sees Gus, instead only seeing Mike. If Gus rejects the candidate, he calls Mike to tell him as much, then the rejectee is re-bagged, put back in the van, and dumped back on the Colorado road where he left the car with a return plane ticket in their pocket.
** Werner's crew are sorta subjected to this. No one can know of their existence, so Gus has bought a giant warehouse on the outskirts of Albuquerque in which there are two two-bedroom houses (a single bedroom for Werner, and three doubles shared among his six subordinates). Every evening, Mike and another driver pick them up in a laundry truck that's backed up to a loading dock, and they are driven in the truck to the laundromat, where they then do their work. Then repeat the process in the reverse to go back to their living quarters.
** The episode “Breaking Bad” shows that series’ “Better Call Saul” from Saul’s perspective, so it opens on him in the back of the RV, tied up with tape and the hood over his head, smash-cutting to the credits after he’s forced to kneel in front of an open grave, the hood is taken off, and he’s screaming that [[OnceMoreWithClarity it wasn’t him, it was Ignacio]].
* BodyDouble: Gus and Lalo both have one. Lalo even went to the trouble to give his [[CrazyPrepared matching teeth]].
* BookEnds:
** In the first season, Jimmy's first and last scenes in the HHM parking garage feature the same dented trash can.
** In Jimmy's first scene in the first season (after the ColdOpen), he's in the bathroom practicing his speech for the jury. In his last scene of the first season, he's practicing introducing himself to a partner from Davis & Main.
** Season 3 begins with Mike obsessively taking apart his car trying to find the hidden tracker, and ends with Chuck obsessively taking apart his house trying to find the hidden source of electrical current. It also begins with Chuck telling Jimmy that he was the one who read ''The Adventures of Mabel'' to him as a kid, and ends with a flashback showing Chuck doing just that.
** [[spoiler:Jimmy's first and last courtroom speeches are preceded by him whispering "it's showtime" to himself]].
** [[spoiler:Both the first and final episodes feature a scene of Jimmy and Kim passing a cigarette back and forth.]]
** Jimmy started out wistfully explaining to the twins that "Slippin' Jimmy" was loved by everyone. [[spoiler: In prison, he genuinely is, even if they do all refer to him as Saul]].
** Jimmy wanted to be a lawyer and follow in Kim's footsteps because he wanted her and Chuck's love, and was scared she would think he was worthless like Chuck thought. In the finale, learning she confessed about Howard with no self justification and could be in trouble, he follows again to prove that she was right about him not being a write off, confessing to real feelings and bad he's done, along with [[spoiler: getting his identity back]].
* BoomHeadshot:
** [[spoiler:Nacho kills himself by shooting himself in the head while giving a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the Salamancas.]]
** [[spoiler:Lalo kills Howard with a gunshot to the head at point-blank range.]]
* BoredomMontage: "Waterworks" shows us [[spoiler:Kim's new life after leaving Jimmy and relocating to Florida. We see her at her job [[SoulCrushingDeskJob writing product descriptions for catalogues of sprinkler parts]], having mundane conversations with colleagues and neighbours in the Florida suburbs, and going home to her new partner Glenn, where they have banal discussions of potato salad ingredients and mechanical sex where he calls out "yep"]].
* TheBoxingEpisode: Howard and Jimmy spar in "Black and Blue". Jimmy loses.
* BriarPatching:
** While attempting to negotiate a refund for his malpractice insurance in "Expenses", Jimmy learns HHM use the same provider. He then makes an accidentally-on-purpose reveal about Chuck concealing his mental illness from them. When the clerk begins writing a note he begs her to stop writing and forget everything he just said, which has the effect of making her take his words even more seriously, [[ManipulativeBastard just as he intended]].
** In season 6, [[spoiler:Jimmy approaches the Kettlemans with a proposal to sue Howard Hamlin for representing them while in the grip of a serious cocaine addiction. They accept his proposal but tell him they're going to take it to a more respectable lawyer. Jimmy pleads with them not to... ensuring that this vicious and entirely false rumour gets spread among all of Howard's peers]].
* BrickJoke: In [[Recap/BreakingBadS5E15GraniteState "Granite State"]], as he was preparing to go into hiding, Saul cracked the best he could hope for under his new identity would be managing a Cinnabon in Omaha. That's precisely what he's wound up doing.
* BrokenPedestal:
** Mike raised his son, Matty, as a scrupulously honest cop in Philadelphia. When Matty's corrupt partner tried to bring him into something shady, Matty originally refused, and only went along with it when Mike reveals that he himself had been corrupt when he was on the force.
** Jimmy idolizes Chuck both as a towering figure of the law and as the big brother who rescued him from prison and helped him turn his life around. The revelation that Chuck never respected him in turn, and was actually the one to block and sabotage all of Jimmy's attempts to join HHM and build his own law practice, is enough to get Jimmy to [[IHaveNoSon walk out on Chuck]] and give up all illusions to himself that he will ever be a "proper" lawyer.
** Howard looks up to Chuck as his old friend and mentor, and repeatedly urges him to abandon his vendetta against Jimmy. [[spoiler:Howard then gets a taste of just how vindictive Chuck can be when Howard encourages Chuck to retire and he responds by moving to sue his own law firm into insolvency. Howard puts himself into debt to buy Chuck out and essentially fire him.]]
** Jimmy is an InsecureLoveInterest to Kim, convinced that she's the more honest and morally pure of the two and that he's bad for her. In "Fun and Games" [[spoiler:Jimmy tries to convince Kim that Howard's death was entirely Lalo's fault, before Kim confesses that she knew Lalo was alive, and didn't tell Jimmy because she suspected he would whisk her away and try to keep her safe while she was having too much fun scamming Howard. You can see the exact moment his heart breaks.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Jimmy's whole character. He will fall under some hard times and fall in with some bad people, but between this show and ''Series/BreakingBad'', he's shown to be a very effective attorney.
-->'''Jimmy''': I just talked you down from a death sentence to six months probation. I'm the best lawyer ever...
* BurnerPhones: With his law license suspended in Season 4, Jimmy takes a job at a mobile phone store, then realizes he can make a lot of money selling cheap prepaid cell phones to criminals and drug users for a markup. This sends him further and further into the criminal underworld, making dozens of criminal connections.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: The dramatic irony in "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E11BreakingBad Breaking Bad]]" is that Jesse and Walt never think twice about kidnapping a guy and threatening him with a desert grave, but it's the lynchpin for Jimmy/Saul, both before in experiences that make him dread the desert and become a NervousWreck over Lalo, and after in awakened trauma that makes him want a gloried distraction in the form of a meth maker.
* ButtMonkey: Ken Wins, who will have his car blown up in ''Breaking Bad'' and gets conned by Jimmy and Kim into paying for a very expensive bottle of tequila.
* CabinFever: A genuine concern for the German construction crew building Gus' meth lab, who live for months on site and are not permitted to go outside for fear they will [[HeKnowsTooMuch learn where they are]]. Werner gets hit hard by this, to the point that he escapes the compound to go see his wife, and forcing Gus to order his death after he is tricked into divulging details of the construction to Lalo.
* CacophonyCoverUp:
** In "Sabrosito" Kim and Jimmy arrange for Mike to repair Chuck's door in place of the joiner he hired so that he can obtain photographic evidence of Chuck's mental illness. Mike uses the noise of an electric drill to mask the sound of his camera's flash.
** In "Wiedersehen," Tyrus drives a semi truck over some metal plates at the exact same moment Werner's crew is blasting rock underground.
* CaffeineFailure: in "Fall", a bottle of No-Doz is seen in Kim's car shortly before she falls asleep at the wheel and drives into a boulder.
* CainAndAbel:
** Jimmy and Chuck's relationship and rivalry is an underlying theme for the first three seasons. There are scenes alternating genuine concern for each other with scenes where one tries to sabotage the other. [[GrayAndGreyMorality It's up to you to figure out which brother is which]]. This trope is arguably {{deconstructed}} over the course of the series, as no matter which brother is which they both end up sinking to deplorable lengths to try to break the other and it does nothing but further destroy both men.
** While they’re not brothers, Gould has talked about how much Chuck ''really'' fucked Howard and Jimmy up, having them both as almost surrogate sons but pitting them against each other. Jimmy transfers all his brother issues onto Howard, and any offer of actual sympathy from the man gets him angrier, and it all leads up to [[spoiler:Hamlin’s death]] (which is also down to Kim’s childhood trauma, seeing Howard as a stand-in for all the people who treated her family like crap).
* CallBack:
** The dented trash can that Jimmy kicked in "Uno" is shown in "Marco."
** Jimmy makes a reference to wanting a cocobolo desk to Kim when considering buying a fancy new office in Season 1. Come Season 2, he asks if he can have his desk at Davis & Maine replaced with a cocobolo desk.
** When Jimmy is trying to prove to Tuco that he really is a lawyer and not a federal agent, he tells Tuco to ask him anything about law, then after a second adds, "Just not contract law." In season 2, Jimmy nearly voids his contract with Davis and Main by resigning after less than a year, which would have caused them to take back the substantial bonus he was paid when he signed with them. He's only saved by his aide, Omar, pointing this out. Later, when Jimmy finally forces Cliff Main to fire him without cause, which would allow Jimmy to keep his bonus, Cliff angrily tells Jimmy that he's aware of what Jimmy was trying to do and snarks that Jimmy must have brushed up on his contract law.
** In "Carrot and Stick" Jimmy mutters to himself "Wolves and sheep..." and when Kim replies "Huh" he dismisses this with "Nothing". This is a call-back to "Inflatable", where we see a grifter advise a young Jimmy that "There are wolves and sheep in this world, kid", except this time Jimmy seems to consider himself a sheep and Kim a wolf.
** In the final season, Gus is called to Don Eladio's house and meets him in his backyard, where he manages to hide his impending treachery from his secret nemesis. After Eladio leaves, Gus stands by the pool and stares into it in the exact spot where his former partner and likely lover Max Arciniega was murdered on Eladio's orders, the inciting incident to Gus's planned revenge.
* CallForward: A given, since this is a prequel series. In fact, it has so many call forwards that [[CallForward/BetterCallSaul it has its own page.]]
* CallingShotGun: Saul calls shotgun after Walt and Jesse fail to intimidate him in the desert, forcing Jesse to sit on the floor of the R.V.
* CassandraTruth:
** Chuck, in "Nailed," outlines with (unknowingly) 100% accuracy how Jimmy doctored the Mesa Verde files, ostensibly trying to turn Kim against Jimmy. Kim knows that Chuck's right about the forgery, but he has produced no hard evidence to back it up other than his personal knowledge of things Jimmy did in the past, so to a normal person who doesn't know Jimmy, it just looks like Chuck is putting the blame for his mistakes on Jimmy.
*** This comes to bite Chuck during his breakdown under cross-examination in "Chicanery," when [[spoiler:he again attacks Jimmy in court over the Mesa Verde files, as well as the billboard incident, the Chicago Sunroof, and his theft from their dad's store. Except this is an angry MotiveRant taking place right after Jimmy has proven Chuck's EHS is a delusion, so all of Chuck's claims make him come across as an unhinged paranoiac who thinks his brother is out to get him, which lends credence to Jimmy's (false) version of events and destroys Chuck's credibility as a witness and standing in the community as a lawyer.]]
* CasualKink: Jimmy and Kim's greatest hits include being way too horny playing siblings, her getting off on creating Saul Goodman, needing a ShowerOfLove after he roleplays as her and she roleplays as her boss, undoing all their work dressing each other by being turned on by their scam, and his slight pouting when he’s not allowed to feed her [[spoiler: or keep cuffs on when she visits his prison]], though they still have plenty of tension when she’s lighting his cigarette.
* CelebrityParadox: Since ''Breaking Bad'' and ''Better Call Saul'' are part of the same timeline, some paradoxes are the result of references to works here that feature someone who only shows up in ''Breaking Bad''.
** In "Amarillo," when screening a preview run of his (unauthorized) Davis & Main commercial for Kim, Jimmy sets up the scene by claiming that they're watching ''Series/MurderSheWrote'', a show that has seen guest stars like Creator/BryanCranston (Walter White), Michael [=McKean=] (Chuck [=McGill=]), Creator/PatrickFabian (Howard Hamlin), Creator/RaymondCruz (Tuco Salamanca), Creator/DennisBoutsikaris (Rick Schweikert), and Miriam Colon (Tuco's abuelita).
** In "Rebecca," when seeing Mike's injuries at the booth, Jimmy comments, "[[DontAsk I get it. First rule of]] Film/FightClub?" A bit part in ''Fight Club'' was played by Michael Shamus Wiles (Hank Schrader's boss ASAC George Merkert).
** In "Lantern," Kim and Francesca visit a Blockbuster to rent [=DVDs=] while Kim is [[spoiler:recovering from her car accident]]. Among the movies visible on the racks are ''Film/BeverlyHillsNinja'' and ''Film/AKnightsTale''. ''Ninja'' stars the late Chris Farley, Bob Odenkirk's collaborator at Creator/SecondCity and ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', while ''Tale'' co-stars Laura Fraser, who plays Lydia.
* CentralTheme:
** LossOfIdentity. It deconstructs the concept of "Saul Goodman" as exploring the DrivingQuestion of "why did Saul Goodman wants to be Saul Goodman" (the answer being massive self loathing), Chuck defined himself on his job and spiralled when he couldn't do it anymore, and Kim had a slow implosion of who she was or wanted to be, ending up leaving as an [[spoiler: EmptyShell]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA5g0qvAfK0 Regrets]], and what could have been. Every character makes a (mostly terrible) choice that sets them on the road to either doom or ''Series/BreakingBad'', and not being able to actually cope with regret is what make both Kim and Jimmy self-destruct the way they do, and gaining that ability is what makes them better people and reconciled in the ending.
* CerebusRetcon:
** In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Skyler skeptically looking over Saul's degree from the University of American Samoa is PlayedForLaughs. Here, Chuck viciously throws it in Jimmy's face because it's implied to be a shady diploma mill, and he doesn't even remotely consider Jimmy to be a peer in law.
** Saul's freak-out during Jesse and Walt's plan to scare him in Saul's introductory episode, "Better Call Saul", once you take the events of "Point and Shoot" into account (and everything leading up to it) as after getting Howard killed and trying to get Kim out, Lalo takes him hostage, assumes he conspired with Nacho with the assault on his compound, ties him up and gags him, and tells him to wait until he gets back. [[spoiler: Lalo dies]] in that episode, but the writers confirmed that a part of Jimmy/Saul/Gene is always going to be helplessly waiting for him.
--->'''Saul:''' Oh, ''thank God''! Oh, Christ! Oh, I thought... ''[hyperventilating]'' What can I do for you, gentlemen?
** Speaking of that episode, we have a line that takes on a whole other meaning thanks to this show:
--->'''Saul:''' [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Conscience gets expensive, doesn't it?]]
** In ''Breaking Bad'', the Cousins' botched attempt on Hank ends with Marco dead and Leonel with his legs amputated. Mike is sent by Gus to the hospital to finish off Leonel. The revelation that the Cousins were used to threaten Mike's granddaughter makes Mike's killing of Leonel a lot more personal than ''Breaking Bad'' would suggest.
** Walt and Jesse's triumphant destruction of the underground lab in ''Series/BreakingBad'' is a bit painful to watch now that the audience knows how many people struggled and died to get the operation running. [[spoiler:Not to mention the body of poor Howard Hamlin buried just a few feet below them...]]
** "Saul Goodman" himself, specifically his role as PluckyComicRelief. In his intro episode, Saul openly tells Walt this isn’t his real name, and plays it for laughs that he’s just a front. [[https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/better-call-saul-kim-jesse-vince-gilligan-1235336611/ The point of the show]] was to make the audience ''dread'' the day Jimmy becomes Saul, and the persona is gradually revealed to be a way for Jimmy to cover up his PTSD, self-loathing and grief.
* CerebusSyndrome: Like ''Breaking Bad'', ''Better Call Saul'' has a first season that heavily uses BlackComedy. But the tone of the show becomes darker as season 2 progresses. After Gus is introduced, episodes have about the same feel as the later seasons of ''Breaking Bad''. According to [[https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-call-saul-season-3-in-review/id455020248?i=1000399956564 the writers]], season three was also the time they realized that in order for Saul Goodman to be a full-on persona, they needed to kill Jimmy. [[TraumaCongaLine Very slowly]].
* ChekhovsGun:
** In the [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E1Uno very first episode]], it is shown that, after having left UsefulNotes/{{Albuquerque}} at the end of Series/BreakingBad, Jimmy has kept a copy of his Saul Goodman's commercials in an old shoebox that he hides in his Omaha home. The camera briefly shows that the box contains other items, including a band-aid box and some photos. The shoebox or its known content makes an appeareance at least once in each season of the show. Creator/BobOdenkirk and the writers of the show [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that they are significant for the story.
** In the [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E1Uno same episode]], Chuck refuses to cash out his share of his law firm [[spoiler:because doing so would end up having it liquidated. [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS3E9Fall Much later]], Chuck weaponizes that very weakness of the firm against Howard]].
** A literal gun is [[spoiler:planted in the underground lab in "Black and Blue"]] and fired in [[spoiler:"Point and Shoot"]].
** In [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E11BreakingBad the third-to-last episode of the series]] Gene teaches Marion how to search the internet for videos with the laptop that her son has gave her as a present. In the [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E12Waterworks next episode]] [[spoiler: she finds Saul Goodman's old commercials, discovering his true identity and reporting him to the police]].
* ChekhovsGunman:
** In the season 4 finale, when Lalo is busy combing the Travel Wire footage to find out where Mike is going to look for Werner, a customer walks up to the front door, where the sign is flipped to "CLOSED". Lalo points to the sign repeatedly to shoo the customer away. Half a season later, in "Wexler v. Goodman," Mike tracks down the customer, Lili Simmons, and jogs her memory about what she saw as part of a gambit to get Lalo arrested.
* ChemicallyInducedInsanity: In "Plan and Execution" [[spoiler:Kim and Jimmy spike Howard with a stimulant drug which temporarily causes his body temperature to rise and his pupils to dilate. His HHM colleagues become convinced he is under the influence of cocaine, and with the ensuing embarrassment they are forced to accept Schweikart and Cokely's less-than-optimal settlement]].
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Chuck has a psychosomatic allergy to electromagnetic fields, so he doesn't use any electricity in his house, and the only illumination comes from gas lamps and the sun through the windows. This results in every scene in Chuck's house having very Chiaroscuro shadowy lighting.
* ChronicVillainy: Maybe better called 'chronic con artistry', but even when Jimmy is trying to keep on the straight and narrow, he simply can't stop himself from breaking the rules and using ethically questionable behavior to advance his goals as an attorney. This holds true even when doing so threatens to destroy everything he's worked for, and even when he stands to gain little to nothing for his trouble.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Nacho's girlfriend Nikki makes one appearance in Season 4 and is subsequently replaced by the compulsive and childlike Jo in Season 5.
* {{Cliffhanger}}:
** "Uno" ends with Jimmy being dragged into Tuco's grandmother's house at gunpoint by the man himself.
** "Nacho" ends with Jimmy discovering the Kettleman's tent and, when trying to get them to come with him back to their house, a tug-of-war over a bag reveals the embezzled money.
** "Alpine Shepherd Boy" ends with ''Mike'''s past catching up with him alongside a large number of cops.
** "Nailed" ends with Chuck passing out and hitting his head on a counter.
** "Klick" ends with Chuck revealing that he recorded Jimmy's entire forgery confession.
** "Witness" ends with Jimmy falling for Chuck's BatmanGambit and putting himself on the hook for breaking into Chuck's house.
** "Chicanery" ends with Chuck being provoked by Jimmy on cross-examination into blowing up on the stand with a MotiveRant that effectively discredits his testimony.
** "Fall" ends with an overworked Kim [[spoiler:falling asleep at the wheel and crashing her car.]]
** "Lantern" ends with [[spoiler:Nacho's plot against Hector seemingly succeeding and Chuck committing suicide]].
** "Breathe" ends with [[spoiler:Gus abruptly killing Arturo, then blackmailing Nacho into working for him by revealing he's figured out Nacho's role in Hector's stroke.]]
** "Plan and Execution" ends with [[spoiler:Lalo killing Howard in Jimmy and Kim's apartment, planning to interrogate the two.]]
* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Both Kim and Jimmy are prone to lighting up when stressed. This is despite the fact that the Saul of ''Breaking Bad'' is never seen smoking at all.
* CliffhangerCopout: Jimmy decides to be Saul Goodman in two finales before it's essentially walked back. The choices do affect him, and the process is ultimately portrayed as a slow death of himself, but he still manages to hold onto his humanity and name until the [[spoiler: final straw comes in thinking he’s ruined Kim]], where he gives up completely.
* ClosedCircle: The construction crew building Gus Fring's underground meth lab is not allowed to leave the site and their indoor accommodations, lest they [[HeKnowsTooMuch learn where they are and one day tip someone off]].
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
** The Kettlemans. Betsy in particular. Jimmy even uses this trope to describe her.
---> '''Jimmy:''' All right, can we all just parachute down from Cloudcuckooland?!
** Jimmy's clients after he performs the billboard stunt. First, he gets a guy who wants to secede from the country, who tries to pay Jimmy in his own money. Then he gets the guy with "Tony the Toilet Buddy."
** Daniel Wormald, to a lesser extent. He's an IT guy at a pharmaceutical company, who also is a baseball card collector and a drug dealer.
* ColorMotif: In general characters on the side of the law tend to wear cool colours while lawbreakers wear warm colours. Kim, Chuck and Howard are most commonly seen in blue, while Nacho, Lalo, Gus and Hector tend to go for shades of red and yellow. As a character who flits between both sides of the law, Jimmy's choices of outfit reflect his shifts in morality. In the first season he is most often seen in neutral shades of brown, while working at Davis and Main he tends to wear more conservative suits in shades of blue, and he wears warmer colours while pulling scams. As time passes and he develops the Saul Goodman persona his outfits become more colourful, he is often seen wearing clashing mixtures of warm and cool colours. The show's color palette is summed up in one handy image [[https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,h_1150,w_2044,x_156,y_0/f_auto,q_auto,w_1100/v1582478973/shape/mentalfloss/546287-james_minchinamc.jpg here]].
** The combined palette of red and yellow is very common across people associated with the drug trade, such as the paint jobs on Daniel Wormald's [[HummerDinger Hot Wheels on steroids]] and Jimmy's [[TheAllegedCar Suzuki Esteem]], or the logo of Los Pollos Hermanos. It continues on a trend from ''Breaking Bad'' where yellow was primarily associated with meth (Walt and Jesse's lab coats, Gus' clothes, etc), and also associated with caution.
** Green is used to show Jimmy in con mode, when the Saul persona is running things at full speed, whether Jimmy is using the name or not.
** As she gets worse, Kim goes from blue as her main colour to shades of red. Season 6A also has her in more clashing outfits because she's openly enabling Jimmy BecomingTheMask.
* ColorWash: As with ''Series/BreakingBad'', a yellow filter is used for scenes set in Mexico.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Jimmy, when trying to push Tuco away from inflicting DisproportionateRetribution on the two skaters, quotes the Code of Hammurabi, specifically the "Eye for an Eye" line. Tuco, being [[AxCrazy Tuco]], misinterprets this as Jimmy saying he should [[EyeScream cut out their eyes]].
* CompetencePorn: Mike Ehrmantraut is very good at what he does, in stark contrast to most of the [[HairTriggerTemper other]] criminals in the series.
* ConfessInConfidence: Kim takes a dollar from Jimmy so that they have confidentiality when she learns about Chuck's tape, a trick Jimmy will later use with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
* ConspicuousConsumption: In a FlashForward we see Saul Goodman's lavish mansion, which includes an actual golden toilet.
* ConsummateLiar: This being a show about [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets lawyers]], there are plenty. Pretty much all of the lawyer characters qualify, but especially Jimmy, who is a prodigiously-skilled bullshitter even by the standards of lawyers and conmen.
* ContentWarning: "Rock and a Hard Place" opens with a warning that the episode contains a suicide. [[spoiler:This also serves as an InterfaceSpoiler, as the only character this could've possibly applied to at that point in the timeline was Nacho]].
* ContinuityNod:
** Saul admitted to Walter (disguised as Badger's uncle) that he was "a fellow potato eater" with the last name of [=McGill=], with "Saul Goodman" as a professional name. The first season hammers it in how this story is all about ''Jimmy'' [=McGill=], with "Saul" as an alias being a twinkle in "Slippin' Jimmy's" eye.
** In a flashback in "RICO", Jimmy proudly presents his results from the Bar, thanks to his online education from the University of American Samoa, whose diploma had been skeptically gleamed at by Skyler.
* ContrivedClumsiness: A favoured tactic of Mike:
** In "Five-O" Jimmy deliberately spills coffee on a police officer to distract him as Mike [[PercussivePickpocket steals his notebook]].
** In "Gloves Off" Mike deliberately drives into and damages Tuco's parked car in order to goad its owner into assaulting him in front of police. [[HairTriggerTemper It works]].
* ContrivedCoincidence: Grandma Salamanca owns a very similar-looking car to Mrs. Kettleman, and happens to be driving along the same stretch of road at just the moment the two skaters are planning to scam Mrs. Kettleman with a StagedPedestrianAccident.
* CoolCar: Several examples, including Nacho's 1973 AMC Javelin AMX, Lalo's 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Howard's vintage Jaguar [=XJ8=] (in classic British racing green, naturally). They often appear in stark contrast with Jimmy's battered [[TheAllegedCar Suzuki Esteem]].
** Among the lawyer characters [[GermanicEfficiency German cars]] are used to denote high social and professional status. DA Bill Oakley is impressed at Davis & Main issuing Jimmy with a German-made company car (a 2003 Mercedes-Benz C 240) and in season 5 Everett Acker resents Mesa Verde's lawyers offering him a paltry settlement after having the nerve to show up at his home in their expensive German imports:
--->'''Everett Acker (to Kim):''' "You're just like all the rest of 'em, comin' out here in your fancy suit, bringin' your minions with you, drivin' them black, shiny German cars."
** And then, naturally, during her Schweikart & Cockley days, Kim was driving Audi A8.
* CorrespondenceCourse: Just as was implied in ''Series/BreakingBad'', this show confirms that Saul's law degree was from a correspondence course. Chuck dismisses him as "not a real lawyer" for this reason.
* TheCorrupter: Kim and Jimmy at their worst is like a snake eating itself, continually egging each other on. During their [[spoiler: temporary]] break-up, he's convinced he ruined her life, and she thinks that the Lalo Lie broke him into becoming Saul.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Gus Fring runs a drug smuggling operation using Los Pollos Hermanos as a front, with Lydia Rodarte-Quayle and Madrigal Electromotive providing additional backing for resources. Although Gus is a rare BenevolentBoss version to his employees.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: What drives Mike to stop taking half-measures is being told by Nacho that Hector's crew killed a witness who stumbled upon his truck heist, leading Mike to realize that he should have killed the driver. So after Gus subtly suggests that he hit another one of Hector's trucks, Mike carries out a plan that not only cripples Hector's operation, but also avoids innocent bloodshed.
* CrazyPrepared:
** Mike in most situations which call for it. This often puts him in contrast with Jimmy, Pryce and others who are forced to rely on his grit and experience.
** The underground lab isn't Gus's first time working on secret projects beneath the streets of ABQ: his ''house'' has an escape tunnel.
** Lalo Salamanca has a body double who unknowingly had dental work to match his own, in case he ever needs to fake his death.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: [[spoiler:Chuck]] works to undermine Jimmy's law career because he believes that his lack of moral fiber will make him a danger to society as a lawyer, but this betrayal only deepens Jimmy's desire to succeed at any cost and may have prevented any possibility of him finding the right track.
* CriminalProcedural: Jimmy's stories are of the ConMan variety while Mike's evolve from Outsider to Organized Crime as the series progresses, much like ''Series/BreakingBad''.
* CrocodileTears: Jimmy has an emotional breakdown when he learns his malpractice insurance rates will be increasing as the result of his license being suspended. It's actually an act so he can "accidentally" reveal Chuck's illness to the insurance company to get revenge on his brother.
* CrookedContractor: Mike poses as a door repairman so he can collect photos of Chuck's unsafe living conditions. However, he assures Jimmy he also did a perfectly adequate job repairing the door.
* CrossReferencedTitles: The progressively darker "Something Beautiful", "Something Stupid" and "Something Unforgivable" across the fourth and fifth seasons; all can be taken as [[DoubleMeaningTitle Double Meaning Titles]], but in all cases one of the meanings references the status of Jimmy and Kim's relationship.
* CrossingTheDesert: [[spoiler:Mike and Saul in "Bagman".]]
* CurbStompBattle: In "Pimento", Mike easily disarms a potential bodyguard and knocks him out with a hit to the throat, looting him of all his guns afterwards and [[KickTheDog throwing them into a trash can.]]
* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:After Nacho's death, Mike attempts to comfort his father by promising to get justice against the Salamancas. Manuel notes that gangsters will always seek revenge against each other, and instead moves on and accepts that his son is gone]]. Probably a wise move, since Fring's operation and the Salamancas are both DoomedByCanon for this exact reason.
-->'''Manuel''': What you talk about is not justice. What you talk of is revenge. It never ends.
* DamnedByFaintPraise:
** In the flashback for "Rico", Jimmy already looks rather crestfallen when Chuck is evasive about being proud of him, and whether or not he'll get hired, but takes what he can get and hopes anyway.
** In "Fifi", Chuck meets with Mesa Verde to supposedly vouch for Kim and damns Kim with faint praise, ultimately convincing Kevin to return to HHM.
* ADayInTheLimelight:
** "Five-O" is exclusively about Mike and why he left Philadelphia for Albuquerque. Jimmy only appears in one long scene.
** "Bali H'ai" gives a lot more focus to Mike and Kim.
** "Chicanery" is devoted to the tension between Jimmy and Chuck with the hearing on whether Jimmy is allowed to practice law, culminating in Chuck's hate sink, motive rant testimony. Neither Mike or Nacho make an appearance, the former's lack of presence is noticeable, as Mike was in every prior episode.
** The first half of "Sabrosito" focuses exclusively on Gus and Hector. Jimmy doesn't appear until more than halfway through the episode, and it ties in with the threads of the first half thanks to his time in the episode starting with him and Kim hiring Mike to go into Chuck's house posing as a repairman to take photos.
** "Winner" sees Mike's half of the story revolve around his manhunt for Werner.
** The first half of "Waterworks" centres around Kim's (very miserable) existence in Florida and what she's been doing with herself in the Breaking Bad/Gene-era timeline.
* DeadManHonking: Happens non-fatally in "Nailed". Mike lays down an improvised spike strip made from a garden hose to ambush one of Hector Salamanca's couriers. When the courier's truck hits the strip, he loses control and swerves off the road into a ditch, with the suddenness of the stop causing him to hit his head on the steering wheel and sound the horn.
* DeathGlare: Starting out the meeting out in "Amarillo", Jimmy stares daggers at Chuck until Howard has to bring him back to reality.
* DeathSeeker:
** In "The Guy For This" Mike, still traumatised by [[spoiler:having to kill his friend Werner Ziegler]], gets drunk at a bar and taunts a gang of would-be muggers before painfully injuring one of them. In "Namaste" he gets drunk again and walks along the same stretch of road despite knowing the gang may be lying in wait to exact revenge. This time when they do appear he offers little resistance as they start to beat him up, and he loses consciousness before waking at an unfamiliar location with his injuries neatly bandaged. Mike later learns that [[spoiler:Gus was having him tailed and intervened to save him from his self-destructive behaviour]].
** In "Bagman" Jimmy asks Mike some ominous questions about what is spurring him on to survive. As Mike talks about wanting to provide for his family, Jimmy becomes more and more hopeless and at one point lies down, seemingly to await the sweet release of death.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
** Of the typical AmoralAttorney or HitmanWithAHeart. The show establishes that for a person like Jimmy or Mike, the process of becoming a sleazy ambulance chaser or a professional hitman is long and full of painful leaps and sacrifices that ultimately leave them as shells of their former selves.
** It also deconstructs CainAndAbel. Jimmy [=McGill=] (the future [[AmoralAttorney "Saul Goodman"]]) and his older brother Chuck [=McGill=] are two brothers who alternate between showing genuine concern for each other and attempting to sabotage each other. Because Jimmy is the protagonist, initially it seems like Chuck is supposed to be the "bad brother" and TheResenter, but over the course of the series it becomes clear that both [=McGills=] are quite prone to petty jealousy, underhanded schemes, and their criticisms of each other are not unfounded. [[spoiler:In the end, it's Chuck who dies in a house fire that he himself started, with the implication that his last fight with his brother caused a relapse of Chuck's mental illness.]] And while they're not brothers, Gould name-dropped the trope for Jimmy and Howard, Chuck's "surrogate sons". Jimmy is unabashedly the "Cain" this time, [[spoiler: and Howard is indirectly killed because of him and Kim]], but mostly because he never realised Chuck treated Howard as badly as he did him.
* DeconstructedTrope: ThenLetMeBeEvil. It's depicted as pathetic (if understandable) on Jimmy's part to play the role his brother assumed/wanted him to, he constantly sabotages the good opportunities in his life because he feels like there's no point in trying, and he wants so bad for everything to be easy, putting the pressure on Chuck and Kim to just tell him how to act. Kim does the same, destroying her life and everyone else's because she’s sick of being seen as BeneathNotice, and they lead pathetic existences in [[spoiler: Nebraska and Florida for a while before they both finally decide to make actual amends]].
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Episodes set after the conclusion of ''Series/BreakingBad'' are in black and white to help keep the audience clear on the timeline and to convey the unhappy state of Jimmy's [[spoiler: and later Kim's]] life.
* DeliciousDistraction: Jimmy (as Gene) delivers Cinnabon to the security guards to keep them from looking at the mall security cameras during his [[TheCaper caper]] for a precious few minutes.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Chuck can handle his divorce from Rebecca and his falling out with Jimmy. For a while he even gets a handle on his electromagnetic hypersensitivity, making small but positive steps to overcome it. Losing his livelihood however pushes him over the edge. His enforced retirement from HHM causes him to relapse and lose all hope of curing his condition, [[DrivenToSuicide driving him to suicide]]]]
* DestroyTheSecurityCamera: When Werner escapes the warehouse he and his workers are required to stay in, Mike finds a laser pointer on the ground outside and deduces Werner used it to fry several security cameras to cover his tracks.
* DestructiveRomance: Unlike Walter and Skyler, who were strained at the best of times, Kim and Jimmy are desperately in love with each other, they have great fun running scams and she encourages Saul, and she's willing to kill for him and he's willing to die for her, but they're poison to everyone around them. She [[spoiler: ends it, leaving her a broken self loathing shell of a woman, and he becomes Saul Goodman]]. In their last scenes of “Saul Gone”, they [[spoiler: rekindle their relationship]], but not the part where they get turned on by scams (he gives her the finger guns as a sign that they’ll be okay instead of how they’ve been before, and she keeps them by her side in muted agreement), they’re just both at peace and happy to exist by each other.
* DeusAngstMachina: Thomas Schnauz discussed on a writer's panel that they kept piling on terrible things that would break Jimmy’s brain and make him Saul, but always felt like it was not quite enough, and they pushed and pushed until the break-up (or more accurately, Kim revealing she’d known about Lalo) was the last straw.
* DevilInPlainSight:
** How Chuck sees Jimmy. Naturally his attempts to expose him fall on deaf ears, most notably in "Chicanery" when his courtroom rant about Jimmy just makes him look crazy.
** Howard initially gives Jimmy the benefit of the doubt but comes to see him this way after the events of season 5. He also struggles to expose Jimmy's true nature to Kim:
--->'''Kim Wexler''': Howard, I know Jimmy, and you're wrong.\\
'''Howard Hamlin''': You know who ''really'' knew Jimmy? [[{{Beat}} *beat*]] ''Chuck''.
* DigitalDeaging: This being a prequel, it is used extensively to make several characters look younger than they did in ''Breaking Bad''. For the most part it is subtle, but it is much more noticeable in the show's flashbacks -- to Jimmy's time in Cicero, the time Kim and Jimmy worked in the HHM mailroom, etc.
* DirtyCop: Mike reveals that everyone in his old precinct was a dirty cop. Including himself, since he knew not going along with what everyone else is doing meant you'd be killed just in case you were thinking of squealing on everyone. He managed to convince his son to go along with things too, [[BrokenPedestal breaking a pedestal in the process]]. Unfortunately his son hesitated just a little bit too much before accepting some dirty money and was "[[UnfriendlyFire shot by a junkie]]" during a drug bust.
* DirtyOldMan:
** For his commercial shoot with Fifi the B-29 bomber, Jimmy recruits "Fudge" Talbot, an elderly client who he defended for public masturbation, [[PhonyVeteran and passes him off as a]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vet, allowing him and his camera crew to get around the fact they don't have a shooting permit.
** Hector deliberately flicks a water cup in "Something Stupid" so that he can leer at the nurse when she bends over to pick up the cup. Thanks to video cameras recording him at all hours, Gus sees this as evidence that Hector is cognizant enough to be taken off Dr. Bruckner's care.
* DisposingOfABody: [[spoiler:Mike and his crew sneak Howard out of Kim's apartment inside a fridge, then bury him beneath the foundations of the underground lab along with Lalo.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: Tuco has several ideas for punishing the skateboarders who insulted his grandmother, most of which involve torture, murder, or chopping limbs off. Jimmy has to talk him into just breaking one of their legs each.
* DissonantSerenity: Lalo is capable of performing brutal acts of murder with a genuine smile on his face and a spring in his step, uncaring of the carnage he leaves behind. This is most noticeable with his murder of [[spoiler:Howard Hamlin]], whom he nonchalantly shoots in the head without even looking before gently shushing the witnesses like a parent scolding a toddler, smiling again, and merely saying "Let's talk".
* DistantPrologue: The first episodes of each season start with a flashforward to after the end of ''Breaking Bad'', with Jimmy in his new identity as lowly Cinnabon manager "Gene," living a pretty dull and miserable life.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Kim Wexler only wears them when necessary, like at work. Jimmy also likes to go barefoot in their apartment.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In "Inflatable", Jimmy's offer of being business partners and Kim's offer of sharing a space as solo practitioners are played as both of them anxiously proposing, neither of them certain what the other will say.
-->'''Jimmy''': I don’t know what to say.
-->'''Kim''': Say yes.
* DontTellMama:
** Tuco keeps his criminal activities secret from his grandmother (sending her upstairs before he beats the skateboarders unconscious, or hiding his gun behind his back when she comes down while he's interrogating Jimmy). However, she continually reminds Tuco to use club soda to clean the blood stain on her rug that Tuco claims is salsa. Anyone who knows a thing about club soda will tell you that it does nothing for salsa stains, but it's very effective at removing ''blood stains''. This means either she is aware of his criminal activities but pretends not to be, or her carpet gets "salsa" stains so often she really does think that's how you clean them up.
** Nacho's father is aware that Nacho ''used'' to run with the Salamanca's, but he seems to think that Nacho has left that life behind. Nacho in turn goes to some lengths to keep his continued criminal activities a secret from his father, and even works a day job in his autobody shop. His father is crushed when he learns that Nacho is involved with the Salamanca's again.
* DoomedByCanon:
** Probably easier to list characters who don't fall into this trope. Jimmy, Mike, Gus, Hector, Domingo, Tuco, The Cousins, No-doze, Gonzo, Hank, Gomez, Victor, Tyrus, Lydia, Schuler - all doomed to death or a ruined life, even though they'll survive this series.
** No matter how much Jimmy tries to do the right thing and be a decent man, we know that by ''Series/BreakingBad'' he'll be a thoroughly AmoralAttorney who will jump at the chance to work with drug dealers. In fact, the tension of the show lies in trying to find out when, how, and why Jimmy loses his way.
** Jimmy's brother Chuck, Chuck's law partner Howard, and Jimmy's girlfriend/partner Kim aren't around by the time Walt meets Saul, suggesting something bad happens to all of them. [[spoiler:Chuck commits suicide at the end of Season 3, while Howard is killed by Lalo in "Plan and Execution". Kim is still alive and reconnected with Jimmy, though she has a civil suit hanging over her head]].
** Nacho Varga, despite being a major player in the Salamanca-Fring battle, is nowhere to be seen in ''Breaking Bad'' outside of a vague reference from Saul's first appearance. [[spoiler:It's thus no surprise when he dies in "Rock and Hard Place", especially when [[SavedByCanon everyone else left in the conflict is guaranteed to survive]].]]
** Anybody named Salamanca is clearly doomed to be dead before ''Breaking Bad'' season 4, since Gus says to Hector in [=BrBa=] 4x11 that the Salamanca blood line will die with him. Ultimately, the only person from this series that this statement dooms is Lalo, as he's the only new Salamanca that doesn't appear in the original show. [[spoiler:While season five pulls a fake out when he ''fakes'' his death at the hands of Gus's assassins, he ultimately resurfaces in season six, meaning that as soon as Gus and Mike learn he's alive again, he's been doomed once more; once he enters the Superlab in "Point and Shoot", his fate is set in stone]].
* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Plan and Execution" [[spoiler:refers to Saul and Kim's plan to discredit Howard being executed. It also refers to Howard himself being executed by Lalo at the end of the episode.]]
* DownerBeginning: The show begins with a black-and-white flash forward that shows what's become of Jimmy (now Gene) after ''Breaking Bad''. Each season picks up on the storyline as Gene begins to suspect that his past is catching up to him.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Jimmy lays out his plans to tailor his renewed legal practice to the lowlifes he used to sell burner phones to, and even plans to offer 50% off for non-violent offenses. When Kim questions what this sort of practice will say about him as a person, Jimmy assumes she is implying the 50% off deal makes him look desperate and sees no issues with the rest of the plan as a whole.

** In “Fun and Games”, when Mike is trying to console [[spoiler: Nacho’s father Manuel by telling him that there will be justice for Salamancas soon, Manuel repeats the word “justice”.]] At first, Mike thinks he doesn’t know what the word means in English and unsuccessfully attempts to translate it to Spanish, but in actuality [[spoiler:Manuel]] was just repeating Mike’s phrasing in a scornful manner to show disapproval. [[spoiler:Manuel]] then openly points out that what Mike calls “justice” is actually “revenge”, and that Mike is no better than Salamancas for resorting to the same PayEvilUntoEvil reasoning.
--->'''Mike:''' "There’ll be justice."\\
[[spoiler:'''Manuel:''']] "Justice?"\\
'''Mike:''' "I’m sorry, my Spanish. Ju… ju-ditzia… justice."\\
[[spoiler:'''Manuel:''']] (exasperated sigh) "What you talk about is no justice. What you talk of is revenge."
* DramaticIrony:
** In a far cry from ''criminal'' lawyer Saul Goodman, Jimmy actually gets upset when people assume he’s the kind of lawyer guilty people hire, still sore about being told that even in season four.
** After Marco's death, his mom gives Jimmy his pinkie ring, the one Jimmy will be wearing for the rest of the series and ''Series/BreakingBad''. Jimmy isn't sure about it, saying he's not a big ring guy.
** Rebecca is completely LockedOutOfTheLoop, and aside from not knowing the emotional abuse her ex has given his brother, claims Chuck has a mental illness excuse while Jimmy has none. Jimmy, as the audience knows, is the guy going through a long IdentityBreakdown.
** Jimmy wants so badly to be his own man, but even beyond the fractured identity and the self loathing and the Saul/Gene of it all, Gordon Smith confirmed in the “Fall” commentary that Jimmy’ll steal things from everywhere and everyone, and repurpose them for his own use.
** A part of Jimmy thinks Chuck’s death was a SpitefulSuicide, to tell Jimmy the "truth" that he never mattered to him and then kill himself so Jimmy has to live with that forever. The audience knows that cruelty actually sparked MyGodWhatHaveIDone and the final relapse.
** In "Winner", Jimmy makes an impassioned projecting (if slightly NeverMyFault) speech to Christy about going far higher than anyone, and that she'll keep winning while they hate her. As we see in the sequel show, he's operating out of a low level strip mall, debasing himself on a consistent basis trying to pretend he has no morals, and will be alone and pathetic for a long time. He might be seeing this future anyway, as not soon after he breaks down crying in his car because his brother abandoned him and there's no point in having any hope.
** In "Winner", thinking he’s won and can just bury any feeling in "Saul Goodman", Jimmy brags to Kim that it was all about Chuck. He's right, just not in the way he thinks he is, as Chuck (and Kim) have and will stay in his head rent-free. When he's completely LostInCharacter as Saul, Chuck was the push and losing Kim was like falling off a cliff, giving up on his identity.
** When Jimmy has PTSD from his desert experiences, he asks Mike when this will be over for him, and tells Kim he never wants to talk about it again. With the knowledge of Series/BreakingBad, the audience knows he’ll never be over it, just burying it down.
** "Saul Gone" has a flashback pre-series (most likely at while before "Uno") where Jimmy isn't worried about money compared to complaining in the pilot he was going under for a third time, Chuck doesn't understand why his brother is taking care of him in contrast to expecting it, and ''Chuck'' is the one to try and reach out, while Jimmy assumes he's just going to be lectured and so rebuffs.
** The other flashback with Walt and Saul in "Saul Gone" is a PerspectiveFlip to "Granite State", and so the audience knows that Walt's "so you were always like this" ArmorPiercingResponse is wrong, as he has no clue Saul is lying about regrets and doesn't know his history or how much he's changed. The Saul mask breaks, and Jimmy's face falls from hopeful to looking like he's going to cry.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** [[spoiler: Chuck, in the Season 3 finale, lights his house on fire while still inside.]]
** [[spoiler:Nacho chooses this over a staged death, deciding to defiantly die by his own terms.]]
* DrivingQuestion: "What problem does becoming Saul Goodman solve?" Apparently, trauma, self loathing and [[spoiler: heartbreak]].
* DyingCurse: Just before taking his own life, [[spoiler:Nacho vents his hatred towards the Salamancas in a long speech where he reveals his role in "killing" Lalo and crippling Hector, making it clear he hopes they all suffer terrible ends before he kills himself to both escape any torture and die on his own terms. His words hold heavy symbolic weight; in three years, everyone present at that confrontation will die incredibly violent deaths in comparison to Nacho's peaceful fate, while Mike, who's watching from a distance and didn't want Nacho to die, will also die but in a far more peaceful manner]].
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The roles of Chuck and Howard were still being fleshed out during the first season. As they were new characters to the series and not brought over from ''Breaking Bad'', the writers were unsure where to go with them. Early on, Chuck came off as a more kind, wise, caring figure and Howard more sinister and mean. "Pimento" flips these around once Chuck is revealed as the one who blocked Jimmy from entering HHM, with Chuck then becoming the viciously petty antagonist and Howard becoming Jimmy's {{foil}} who actually comes to like him.
* EarlyPersonalitySigns: In "Inflatable" a flashback shows a young Jimmy StealingFromTheTill while working at his parents' convenience store. Chuck occasionally recalls other examples, such as Jimmy making and selling fake IDs for his classmates at school.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: For a given value of "happy". [[spoiler:Jimmy may be effectively sentenced for life, but now he is clean, found peace with his true self, and got reconnected with Kim.]]
* ElderAbuse:
** A major story arc in the first season is Jimmy's investigation of Sandpiper Crossing's fleecing its elderly residents through deceptive billing practices. He ultimately launches a class action lawsuit on their behalf for $20 million.
** [[spoiler:Jimmy turns around and engages in some elder abuse of his own two seasons later, when he pressures Irene into settling the Sandpiper lawsuit by turning her friends against her. He [[TheAtoner feels bad]] afterwards and conspires to reverse the scheme and repair Irene's friendships by confessing on a hot mike, even though this means the settlement will be reversed and he won't get a payday as soon as he needs it]].
* ElevatorFailure: Engineered by Jimmy to get some one on one time with the assistant D.A. and power through his backlog of clients.
* EmbarrassingCoverUp: The cops see Daniel's burgled house and flashy Hummer and correctly deduce that he's a drug dealer, but Jimmy covers it up with a very ridiculous explanation; the money and burglary came from a disgruntled patron who paid Daniel to make fetish videos of him sitting in pie while crying.
* EmbarrassinglyPainfulSunburn:
** In "Bad Choice Road" Jimmy speaks with Lalo after delivering his $7 million in bail money and securing his release. Lalo can see he is badly sunburned from his ordeal in the desert and, with a grin, tells him "You did good!" while [[ComedicSociopathy slapping him on the back]].
** Later that episode Jimmy insists on attending court despite obviously being traumatised by his misadventure in the desert. He suffers a rare defeat in what seemed like an easily winnable case- and at the hands of DA Bill Oakley, who goes on to taunt him for "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory". Jimmy's severe sunburn hardly makes for a veneer of dignity.
* EngineeredPublicConfession:
** At the end of Season 2, Chuck tricks Jimmy into confessing to tampering the Mesa Verde documents by pretending to quit HHM over shame about his error with Mesa Verde, then recording Jimmy's admission that he was responsible.
** To counter this at his disciplinary hearing, [[spoiler:Jimmy goads Chuck into a MotiveRant.]]
* EnsembleCast: While the first four episodes focused on Jimmy, "Alpine Shepherd Boy" started to expand with Kim's history, Howard's feelings towards Chuck, Chuck's mental illness and Mike leaving the booth to start his own plotline. This grew to FourLinesAllWaiting, with Gus and the Cartel, and in multiple episodes, Jimmy might just have a scene or two.
* EstablishingSeriesMoment: In the FlashForward commercials that Gene watches his old self in, Saul is [[Series/BreakingBad as we know him]]: loud, hammy and bragging. Five minutes later, Jimmy [=McGill=] is shown, more hair, brown oversized suit, late for court because he’s anxiously rehearsing a big speech in the bathroom. This doesn’t just show that he has a long way to go to becoming the other guy, but the confidence mask/band-aid that Saul provides will become very important to the whole show.
* EurekaMoment: A villainous example. [[spoiler:Lalo realizes that Jimmy and Kim should be his next target in "Plan and Execution" after witnessing a cockroach on a pipe, having previously likened Jimmy to a cockroach in "Bagman".]]
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas:
** Tuco seems more annoyed by the skaters [[BerserkButton calling his grandmother a "biznatch"]] than he is about Jimmy trying to scam her. He also takes tremendous care to protect her from even knowing about his criminal activities (although, as noted elsewhere, it is implied that she does know about what he really does for a living).
** Nacho takes offense when he thinks Mike is threatening his family. He also loves his father enough to [[spoiler:try to kill Hector Salamanca to protect him]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler:Jimmy's identity theft partner Buddy refuses to finish their scam when he learns their victim has been diagnosed with cancer.]]
* EverybodyOwnsAFord: The Salamancas really value their antique General Motors cars. Hector drives a 1960 Chevrolet Impala, Tuco drives a 1970 Pontiac Tempest, Arturo drives a 1969 Oldsmobile 442, and Lalo drives a 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
** Played straight than subverted with Nacho, who drives a 1992 Chevrolet Express work van in the earlier seasons but then is seen driving an AMC AMX in the fourth and fifth season. The fact that he drives an AMC instead of a GM car can possibly symbolize that he is not really on the Salamancas' side.
** The newer blood in the cartel, including the Cousins and Gus' crew, drive in much more modern and sleeker GM [=SUVs=] like Cadillac Escallades, Chevy Suburbans, and GMC Denalis.
** Jimmy ''doesn't'' own a Ford, and his choice of car is a mystery to Lalo:
--->'''Lalo Salamanca:''' What do you drive?\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' An Esteem.\\
'''Lalo Salamanca:''' A ''what''?\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' A Suzuki Esteem. ''[{{Beat}}]'' It's [[TheAllegedCar an import]].
** After his Esteem is wrecked in a gunfight, Jimmy rents a Ford Taurus for himself and Kim to drive. Kim isn't impressed, and persuades him to swap it for his iconic Cadillac Sedan de Ville because the Cadillac is a much flashier car more befitting the image of Saul's office as a "cathedral of justice".
--->'''Kim Wexler:''' So, Saul Goodman drives a brown Ford Taurus?\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' Detroit calls that taupe, I believe.\\
'''Kim Wexler:''' Don't you think Saul Goodman would drive something with a little more... flair?
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: Part of Jimmy's plan to get sacked from Davis and Main.
* EvilFeelsGood:
** Kim really enjoys participating in Jimmy's schemes, which puts her at war with her conscience but keeps her sticking around Jimmy even at his lowest points.
** Mike is put in a good enough mood from robbing one of Hector's trucks of $250,000 that he buys a round of drinks at a bar and is even flirty with a waitress. Though it's short lived when he learns that a bystander got killed by Hector as a result of his actions.
* EvilIsPetty: In "Sabrosito" Jimmy is ordered to pay Chuck damages of $321 to cover the cost of repairing his door. Chuck insists on adding $2.98 for the cost of the cassette tape Jimmy also damaged.
* ExactWords: Howard presents the decision not to recruit Jimmy as "The partners have decided." Chuck being one of those partners ruling against Jimmy (and so is Howard.)
* EvilLawyerJoke:
** In the cold open of "Rebecca" Jimmy goes to dinner with Chuck and his then-wife Rebecca. He informs them that he's heard "maybe a hundred" lawyer jokes since starting work at HHM, and proceeds to reel off a string of them. Chuck is embarrassed at his brother's behaviour but this quickly fades to anger when he sees Rebecca actually finds it ''[[TheCharmer charming]]''- and then she even joins in with a lawyer joke of her own:
-->'''Rebecca Bois:''' What do lawyers and sperm have in common? 1 in 3 million...\\
'''Rebecca Bois and Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' ...have a chance of becoming a human being!
** In "Breathe" Jimmy attends a job interview and skims over the small matter of his disbarment. He uses a lawyer joke to convince the interviewer reading his resume that he quit the law over moral concerns:
-->'''Mr. Neff:''' Says here you were a lawyer up until not that long ago. What changed?\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' Well, you know why God made snakes before he made lawyers? He needed the practice.
* EvilPowerVacuum: "Breaking Bad" reveals that after Saul Goodman fled Albuquerque, Bill Oakley quit working as a public prosecutor and established a private practice as an ambulance-chasing attorney. As well as filling the gap in the market vacated by Saul he even takes up the advertising space with his similarly tacky bus bench ads.
* EvolvingCredits: The quality of the video in the title sequence [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0R8jSxhAcA degrades noticeably as the seasons go on,]] with the video developing scratches and other artifacts like those seen on degrading VHS tapes; by Season 6, there's no colour left and they're even interrupted by test patterns and bluescreens. This is a nod to Gene Takavic watching his collection of Saul Goodman TV commercials on VHS, and the quality degrading with repeated viewings, just as the memories of his GloryDays are also fading (as well as a parallel for the ''moral'' degradation of the characters in the 2002-04 timeline).
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange:
** In "Fun and Games" the last scene before the TimeSkip shows the back of Jimmy's head as we hear [[spoiler:Kim packing her bags, having just broken up with him]]. The scene then cuts to a shot of Saul Goodman waking up in his big tacky mansion some years later, also filmed from the back of his head, and showing that he now has a considerable bald patch, and the character's trademark combover. This serves to announce that we are now in the era of Saul Goodman, heading towards the ''Breaking Bad'' timeline. The jump cut shows the passage of time, the way that stress has [[OminousHairLoss taken a toll on Jimmy's looks]], and that Jimmy is now inhabiting the "Saul Goodman" persona 24/7.
** In "Waterworks" [[spoiler:we see Kim's new life after leaving Jimmy. She has lost the trademark blonde BoyishPonytail and wears her now-darkened hair loose and layered with a fringe]].
* FailedASpotCheck: Jimmy makes sure that the skaters memorize the make, color and license plate number of Betsy Kettleman's car. They still screw up and mistake a very similar-looking car for hers (they don't even memorize the shade of brown). That's minor. What's most egregious is that the Spanish-speaking little old lady who got out of the car should have raised the red flag that they'd got the wrong person. 'Cause there's no way on Earth that this woman's name is "Betsy Kettleman".
* FailedAttemptAtDrama: In "JMM" Jimmy turns down Howard's job offer in spectacular fashion... or so he thinks. Once he's done with his "LIGHTNING BOLTS SHOOT FROM MY FINGERTIPS!" rant he just looks like he wants the floor of the courthouse to swallow him up.
* FakeNationality: InUniverse. The Irish Jimmy [=McGill=] accuses a golf club of denying him membership because of his new Jewish name.
-->'''Saul Goodman:''' Five thousand years, and it never ends!
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Lalo Salamanca kills a body double with matching dental records so he can continue to investigate Gus in secret, but since Gus is ProperlyParanoid it doesn't take long before he figures out the truth.]]
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Jimmy goes through a lot of them: HHM's mail room after his arrest, working in a cell phone store during his 12-month suspension, and managing a Cinnabon as "Gene".
* FalseConfession: Jimmy claims his taped confession is this, even though it isn't.
* FalseFlagOperation:
** In "Something Beautiful," Gus has Tyrus and Victor stage a highway robbery to make Arturo's death look like the work of a Salamanca rival, retroactively pin Mike's truck robbery on this rival, and cover up Nacho's defection by shooting him nonfatally.
** In "JMM," Lalo calls Nacho from jail and directs him to torch one of Gus' restaurants. Since Nacho is now a double agent for Gus, Gus finds out about this, and decides to let Lalo think he's got the upper hand by allowing Nacho to carry out the attack. But since Gus wants to mitigate his losses, he selects the Los Pollos Hermanos in Los Lunas rather than the one in Albuquerque where he keeps his office, and personally goes along to rig an improvised bomb to destroy the restaurant.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** "Rock and Hard Place" has a shirtless, oil-smeared Michael Mando hosing himself down.
** After Bob Odenkirk trained up for ''Film/{{Nobody}}'', Jimmy suddenly got himself a lot more {{shirtless scene}}s. It's almost an apology for the "Fun and Games" heartbreak that when [[spoiler: Saul Goodman]] gets out of bed, he's completely naked.
* FatAndSkinny: Jimmy is thin while his brother Chuck is corpulent, reflecting how high or low on the hog each has been living for most of his life.
* FatalFlaw:
** Jimmy's impulsiveness and need to self-sabotage. Every time he gets something good, he always sabotages it with both his scams and his terribly misguided attempts to do the right thing in his own way. It ensures that no matter how many good things he gets, he'll always throw them away soon enough. However, in an inversion, one of Jimmy's few enduring ''virtues'' is his sympathy for old people, which proves to be his undoing. In the end, [[spoiler:he finds himself unable to harm the elderly Marion to prevent her from informing on him]].
** Chuck's biggest flaw his is his refusal to believe that people are capable of change. He believes that Jimmy is simply incapable of being anything other than "Slippin' Jimmy", and as such he does everything he can to prevent Jimmy from being a lawyer in an attempt to prevent the rise of Saul Goodman. His insistence on sabotaging his brother not only costs him everything, but it's a big part of Saul's existence in the first place.
** Kim, for all her intelligence, believes that her actions will have no long-term consequences and that she can do whatever she wants as a result; it's why she jumps so fast into pulling all her cons with Jimmy once she gets a taste. This flaw not only [[spoiler:leads to the ruination of Kim's life once she finally crosses a line she can't walk back, but costs Howard Hamlin his life]].
* FellAsleepDriving: Kim adds a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she dozes off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and all the papers in her briefcase flying around.
* FemaleGaze: The creators have acknowledged there’s a bigger female audience than in ''Series/BreakingBad'', and so give them treats, Jimmy ass-out on multiple occasions while Kim gets very little nudity, their relationship being fem-dommish, and plenty of focus given to Nacho’s arms and Lalo’s crotch area.
* FingerGun:
** At the end of "Winner" Jimmy does double finger guns as he triumphantly announces his intention to practice law under the name Saul Goodman. This is later [[MeaningfulEcho echoed]] by Kim in ''Something Unforgivable" as she declares her intention to [[spoiler:destroy Howard's reputation]]. [[https://i0.wp.com/cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1080/1*WJSQlWYBazV_oE84mTKtHQ.jpeg?ssl=1 In both case the gesture signifies the character's turn to the dark side]]. The final scene of the series features a callback to the gesture.
** In "Bali Ha'i" the Cousins also use finger guns as an ImpliedDeathThreat, intimidating Mike with a threat to kill his granddaughter.
* {{Fingore}}: In "Mijo" Tuco threatens to cut Jimmy's fingers off with wire cutters.
* TheFixer: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], since this is a {{Prequel}} focusing on ProtagonistJourneyToVillain for ''both'' Jimmy [=McGill=] and Mike Ehrmantraut, although they take TheSlowPath to do this.
* FiveFingerDiscount:
** In "Wiedersehn" Kristy Esposito tells the scholarship panel at HHM that her experience of being convicted for shoplifting is actually what sparked her interest in the law. Unfortunately it is also what ultimately [[ReformedButRejected prevents her from being offered the scholarship]].
** The flashback at the start of "Axe and Grind" reveals the start of Kim shoplifting. She is caught by the store's owner, but is let go with a warning.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: In "Klick", Mike doesn’t hear the pop of Lecerda getting shot until a minute later, which sets up how Gus can get to his car and disappear before Mike realizes what's happened.
* FlashbackEffects: Flashbacks have bluish tint with a high contrast filter applied to distinguish them from events in the present day.
* FlashForward:
** "Sunk Costs" begins with a seemingly throwaway ColdOpen showing a Los Pollos Hermanos truck driving towards the U.S.-Mexico border. [[spoiler:The end of the episode reveals that this scene is set a few years in the future, possibly overlapping with ''Breaking Bad'', showing that Mike's gambit helped Gus edge out Hector from the drug market.]]
** The teaser for "Quite a Ride" is [[spoiler:essentially a prequel for ''Series/BreakingBad'''s "Granite State", showing Jimmy/Saul ransacking his office before he contacts Ed the Vacuum Repair Guy.]]
* {{Flatline}}: In "Klick", Chuck and Jimmy's mother calls out for Jimmy just before her electrocardiogram flatlines. This confirms "Jimmy" as her last words, and further adds to Chuck's resentment at his perceived ParentalFavoritism of Jimmy.
* {{Foil}}:
** Howard Hamlin for Jimmy. He's confident and successful in the ways Jimmy isn't.
** The Vargas are one for the Ehrmantrauts, at least in the father-son pairings. Both families have one member who is highly noble and ethical and one member who is involved in criminal activities, the difference being which is which. Both eventually have the dirty one being forced to involve the straight one in their illegal acts. Both straight ones hesitate to accept a bribe, which puts both of them in mortal danger. The difference ends up being that Matt Ehrmantraut ends up getting killed for his obvious discomfort in taking dirty money, whereas Manuel manages to survive since Nacho goes above and beyond in making sure Manuel avoids that same fate, eventually [[spoiler: dying himself to protect him.]]
* AFoolForAClient: Jimmy decides to represent himself, despite being warned against it and knowing full well about the reputation doing so has. In this case at least he is a lawyer, and has done criminal cases, but even so. {{Downplayed}} as he teams up with Kim.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: PlayedWith. In their early years, Jimmy was the foolish sibling, living off small-time scams rather than getting a real job, before getting into serious legal trouble and having to call his more responsible older brother to bail him out. Later in life Jimmy is the responsible sibling when Chuck develops electromagnetic hypersensitivity and becomes dependent on him for his day-to-day care.
* FootsieUnderTheTable:
** Kim and Jimmy under the HHM boardroom table in "Cobbler".
** Jimmy tries this again in "Amarillo" while he is trying to convince the board that he did not solicit clients. Kim realises that Jimmy is lying- and lets him know by angrily pulling her foot away.
* ForegoneConclusion: Given that this is a prequel, a lot of the conflict and tension doesn't rely on ''if'' something will happen, but ''how''.
** Obviously, while Jimmy may begin as a benevolent public defender scraping by on his morals, he's going to eventually become Saul Goodman, the most infamous AmoralAttorney New Mexico has ever seen. The very first scene of the show is a ColdOpen following just how much his life has tanked since his role in Walter White's meth operation was revealed and he went into hiding. This ultimately means that any good opportunity that comes his way will ultimately be ruined one way or another.
** On the other hand, while Jimmy will eventually become Saul Goodman, he's still legally practicing law, even if not under the same name. This means that Chuck's attempts to get Jimmy's bar license revoked are all doomed to fail from the start, even when he ''does'' get a year-long suspension. [[spoiler:It also means that once Howard catches on to the kind of things Jimmy is willing to do and proclaims his intent to reveal his true colors, destiny arrives in the form of a bullet to the head from Lalo Salamanca]].
** Hector may be able to walk and talk at the beginning of the show, but he's eventually going to end up in a wheelchair, unable to speak. [[spoiler:The season three finale reveals that Nacho swapped out his heart pills in an attempt to kill him, but Gus kept him alive long enough to be resuscitated before sabotaging his care to ensure he never fully recovered]].
** Gus is still in good standing with the Cartel at the beginning of ''Breaking Bad'', meaning that despite all the moves he's making against them in this series [[spoiler:and his infiltration of them via Nacho]], his machinations ultimately aren't going to come to light until it's too late.
** None of the major characters in Saul's life are around by the time of ''Breaking Bad'', particularly Chuck, Kim, Howard, Nacho, and Lalo, so a major question for them is how their fates will be tied up. [[spoiler:In the end, Chuck, Howard, Nacho, and Lalo are all dead, while Kim is alive and living in Florida]].
** Mike and Gus's central conflict throughout the show is creating the Superlab, and by the time of ''Breaking Bad'', the cartel still doesn't know about its existence. This means that while it may be a massive logistical challenge, it ''will'' eventually be built, and most importantly, Lalo will fail in his goal to find it and inform the cartel. [[spoiler:This means that as soon as Lalo gets inside it for the first time, [[DoomedByCanon there's no way he's coming back out]].]] Additionally, Gus confirms to Hector that every Salamanca is dead in season four of the original show, so Lalo wasn't coming out of the show alive one way or another.
* ForWantOfANail:
** Chuck's decision to prevent Jimmy being hired at HHM as a lawyer after he passes the bar both causes a majority of the events of the entire series to happen ''and'' allows the events of '''Series/BreakingBad''' to go on much longer than they otherwise would have. Jimmy had actually been keeping his nose clean for quite some time working in the mailroom, and even after being turned down at HHM was trying to start his lawyering career the right way. He only went back to pulling cons because he was desperate to land a significant case that can jumpstart his career after an extended period of time grinding out terrible cases as a public defendant for measly pay. Had he gotten to start out at a reputable law firm ''and'' been able to work under his brother (who he idolized at the time), it's quite possible that Jimmy would have just played it straight. Chuck doesn't buy this, of course, believing that it's simply in Jimmy's nature to be a conman, and nothing can keep him straight for long.
** Jimmy would have never considered being a lawyer or even go straight if he didn't do a Chicago Sunroof. The real threat of having his life ruined for good by being labelled a sex offender made him want to clear up his act and Chuck pulling him out made Jimmy idolizes his brother to an unhealthy degree, he also wouldn't have moved to New Mexico.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** When berating the skaters for their attempt to pull a StagedPedestrianAccident on him, he gives them "a 9.6 for technique, and a 0.0 for choice of victim." After all, as we later learn, "Slippin' Jimmy" knows a thing or two about the ''proper'' way to pull this off...and it also foreshadows an even poorer choice of victim later in the episode: Tuco Salamanca's grandmother, for whom they get a 9.6 for technique and -6.0 for choice of victim...
** In "Pimento," when Hamlin harshly tells Kim that the "partners have decided" in not hiring Jimmy. Note the use of "partner''s''," as in the plural sense, which foreshadows the revelation of Chuck's involvement in denying Jimmy a job.
** As far back as the first episode, Chuck tries to convince Jimmy to accept Howard Hamlin's notion of changing his business cards so as to de-emphasize the name [=McGill=], and Jimmy flat out asks "Whose side are you on?" In "Pimento", [[EtTuBrute he finds out]]. Chuck responds to this by asking "wouldn’t you rather build your own identity", not unkindly, but the fact that Jimmy would rather just be someone else, multiple times, is a big theme in the show (he even spends his remaining money a few episodes later on dressing up like Howard for a troll). It's also a clue that Howard ultimately isn't the one who wants Jimmy to use a different name.
** After Jimmy's meeting with the Kettlemans, he holds out a business card to Craig, but it is quickly snatched up by Mrs. Kettleman. Her offering the bribe to Jimmy instead of her husband doing it will force them to take Jimmy's plea bargain.
** Marco's occasional coughing and pounding his heart in "Marco" foreshadow his heart attack and death at the end of the episode. The Green Ribbon cab company is an allusion to green ribbons showing respect for patients, worn in the 18th century.
** The first letter of each episode title in season 2 form the anagram "FRINGS BACK", foreshadowing the introduction of [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gus Fring]] to the show in Season 3.
** Numerous hints pointing to [[spoiler:Chuck's suicide]] are scattered throughout Season 3:
*** "Mabel" is a reference to ''The Adventures of Mabel'', a book that Chuck read to Jimmy when they were children. The book was written by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Thurston_Peck Harry Thurston Peck]], who, like Chuck, [[spoiler:committed suicide following professional disgrace.]]
*** At the beginning of "Witness," the [[spoiler:gas lantern]] is placed in the foreground. During the climax, Jimmy threatens to [[spoiler:burn Chuck's house to the ground]] when he confronts him about the confession tape.
*** At the beginning of "Sunk Costs", Jimmy tells Chuck that he will alienate everyone in his life and die alone. [[spoiler:Chuck does indeed die alone after cutting off ties with Jimmy, estranging himself from Howard, and getting kicked out of HHM.]]
*** In "Sabrosito", Jimmy specifically notes Mike's photo of [[spoiler:"a gas lantern sitting on a stack of friggin' ''Financial Times'',"]] and goes on to enter it as evidence during the trial in "Chicanery".
*** Finally, the ColdOpen of "Lantern" all but spells it out for us as the camera zooms in on the [[spoiler:gas lantern]] while Chuck is reading ''The Adventures of Mabel'' to Jimmy in their childhood flashback.
** In a deleted scene from "Sabrosito", Victor meets up with Gus behind Los Pollos Hermanos to inform him about Mike turning down the money, while Gus is in the midst of taking out the trash. Shortly before Victor gets out of his car, you can see a box cutter in Gus' back pocket [[spoiler:much like the one Gus will cut Victor's throat with]].
** Near the start of "Bagman" Jimmy notices a spot of dirt on his shoe and decides to rinse it off using his Davis & Main water bottle. The second that precious clean drinking water hits the New Mexico desert sand you know he's going to regret wasting it.
** In "Marco", Marco asks Jimmy why he isn't more tanned: "I mean, 10 years in the desert, you should look like Anthony Quinn in ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia''". Jimmy explains: "Hey, I’m Irish, ok? [[ProneToSunburn I spend my time staying out of the sun]].", Sure enough, in "Bagman", the episode which pays homage to ''Lawrence of Arabia'', Jimmy and Mike return from two days in the desert with horrific sunburn.
** The episode title "Breathe" spoils the final scene with [[spoiler:Gus suffocating Arturo with a plastic bag]].
** Jimmy's crazed lashing out ranting at Howard in "JMM" that Howard has no idea what worlds he walks in serves two purposes; Jimmy soon finds out that for all his ease with low level idiots he has no idea what he's got himself into regarding the actual criminals he's involved with, and when Howard starts to realise the world Jimmy and Kim are in, [[spoiler: he’s killed]].
** In “Bagman”, Jimmy attempts a HeroicSuicide [[note]]Odenkirk confirmed he had given up, and he never really gets that piece of himself back[[/note]] while wearing the space blanket that reminds him of Chuck. While that had a practical use, getting himself noticed, it would be followed by more parallels to Chuck in terms of SanitySlippage.
** In "Something Unforgivable", when Kim wants to ruin Howard's life, Jimmy is the voice of reason telling her in the cold light of the day she wouldn't be okay with this. She takes that as a challenge to go ahead, but after she [[spoiler: keeps Lalo a secret because she’s having too much fun, which indirectly leads to Howard getting killed, her husband terrified for life over being held captive by Lalo, and Kim gaslighting Cheryl]], he turns out to be right and she self-destructs.
** In “Point and Shoot”, Jimmy is willing to die if it means that Kim has a chance of getting out, and to a lesser extent, atone for getting Howard killed. The very next episode, Jimmy [=McGill=] does effectively [[spoiler: die when Kim leaves, becoming Saul Goodman]]. Kim is also willing to kill Gus if it means protecting Jimmy, and seeing him as Saul (feeling like that’s her fault) makes her want to destroy herself in penance even more.
** The sweet version. In "Nippy", Gene (conning with his real feelings as usual) bemoans that nobody would care if he died and he doesn't have a wife waiting for him. By the finale, he'll have found out that Kim called Fran because she was terrified Jimmy was dead after "Granite State", and she'll [[spoiler: visit him in prison very clearly intent on making it a regular thing, and help him get out]].
* ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics: The opening titles are styled in the mould of Saul Goodman's cheesy late-night commercials, which is why the show's theme tune ("Better Call Saul" by Little Barrie) cuts off at an awkward moment. It also cuts off [[https://youtu.be/5AI44gnaLxY just before the lyrics begin]].
--->♫ ''Kill communication\\
Steppin' off the grid\\
Just to let me know\\
So maybe cut my ties...'' ♫
* ForgotTheDisability: Chuck is convinced that he has developed a painful sensitivity to all electronics and anything that uses or conducts electricity, which has turned him from one of the most prestigious and influential lawyers in the state to a [[TheHermit rather pitiful shut-in]]. Although Chuck's symptoms are [[https://patient.info/health/psychosomatic-disorders# psychosomatic]], at times he has gone into a catatonic state reminiscent of [[AndIMustScream locked in]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome syndrome]]. On a few occasions however, Chuck has been so distracted by other things that he has failed to react at those same external stimuli and situations that otherwise cause him so much grief. In the end, his problem is exposed as psychosomatic (which he had denied) when Jimmy surreptitiously has a battery planted in his pocket, yet Chuck doesn't react to it until it's revealed.
* FourLinesAllWaiting: By Season 4, the show has four main storylines: Jimmy, Kim, and their individual storylines that are tied together by their relationship, as well as a separate storyline for the cartel that's further divided into subplots for Gus, Mike, Nacho, and the remaining elements of Hector's organization.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Applies to the four main lawyer characters.
** Sanguine: Jimmy/Saul.
** Choleric: Chuck.
** Melancholic: Howard.
** Phlegmatic: Kim.
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** If you're wondering where Jimmy hired the billboard worker for his stunt, he briefly appears in the courthouse lobby during a timelapse shot in the "Mijo" montage of Jimmy's public defender work.
** In "Breathe", as Jimmy is scouring the job section of the local newspaper, an ad for [[Series/BreakingBad Beneke Fabricators]] [[https://i.redd.it/s57o3hx0ekx61.jpg can also be seen]].
* FreudianExcuse: Shared by Jimmy and Chuck is a big reason why they're... like that. There's a sixteen year age gap between them, and Chuck was expected to be a surrogate father. He didn't even start out great, but Jimmy started acting up partly because his brother resented him, and their parents didn't want to admit it, so Chuck's anger and Jimmy gearing his whole life to get his brother's attention both got worse.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: In his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, Howard guesses a few of Jimmy and Kim's reasons for trying to ruin his life (both holding a grudge regarding issues with Chuck and her Red Cloud history) but tells them very bluntly there's no justification for what they did to him. They admit this much later, Kim saying in her [[spoiler: confession]] that Howard was perfectly coherent, and Jimmy confesses in [[spoiler: court]] about him, while they actually start working on their shitload of trauma.
* FriendInTheBlackMarket: Caldera the vet, who is able to get his hands on a tracking device for Mike and serves as the [[KnowsAGuyWhoKnowsAGuy Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy]] role that Jimmy serves in ''Breaking Bad''.
* FrivolousLawsuit: Saul makes calls regarding several NoodleIncident lawsuits [[spoiler:after the TimeSkip in "Fun and Games"]], including threatening to sue a radio station for playing one of his ads in mono.
* FunnyAnsweringMachine:
** The Kettlemans have a joint message with all of them speaking. "Hello! You’ve reached Team Kettleman! Please leave a message for Craig, Betsy, Warren and Jo Jo AFTER THE BEEP!"
** In season 1, Jimmy tries to class up his solo law practice by imitating an English secretary on his answering machine message. In Season 2, he records another version of the message, but erases it and does one as himself in his normal voice.
* FunnyFlashbackHaircut: Jimmy has a dumb looking mullet in the flashback where he is locked up because he defecated through a sunroof.
* GamesOfTheElderly: Jimmy works (and excels) in a retirement home, where his main duty is calling bingo.
* TheGhost:
** Howard's father, George Hamlin. He's a partner, but only his son is ever seen. He seems to take no part in the firm's activities, and Howard's conversation with Kim in "Fifi" implies that the elder Hamlin is deceased. We only learn his first name in season 4 when Howard is reading Chuck's obituary to Jimmy to get his final approval before running it in the newspaper.
** Though his death was a major part of "Five-O", Mike's late son Matt never showed up on camera (except as a child in a brief flashback in "Talk").
** Jimmy brings up Judge Papadoumian by Season 4's "Winner," who he later describes by ''Breaking Bad'' as hating harassment of elders and Saul's fashion sense. We potentially see [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/981xn8qpvlv411.png what they look like]] during one of the webisodes.
* GildedCage:
** The man who was once [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative the most infamous criminal lawyer in Albuquerque]] and acquired a bit of celebrity and a load of money in that life is now an anonymous Cinnabon manager with a nice house in FlyoverCountry, and can never again hope to achieve anywhere near the same level of fame or fortune.
** Jimmy also feels this way about Davis & Main, which is welcoming and comfortable, and yet at the same time has elements that cause Jimmy discomfort, like the annoyingly small cupholder in his company car, or even the corporate apartment he stays in.
** It is hinted that HHM is something of a gilded cage for Howard. In "Fifi" he admits to Kim that he had actually wanted to start his own firm but joined HHM [[MeddlingParents at his father's insistence]]. Given that he isn't a skilled litigator and his talents lie more in client development it is also possible that his father pressured him to study law and follow in his footsteps rather than pursue his own interests.
*** Howard's home life is another example. He lives in a BigFancyHouse where he is trapped in a [[DeadSparks loveless marriage]] to a woman who refuses to attend therapy or discuss getting a divorce.
* GloryDays:
** The FramingDevice of the series is a post-''Breaking Bad'' Saul, hiding out as the manager of a Cinnabon in Omaha and spending his nights watching tapes of his old commercials and morosely reminiscing about his time as a lawyer. The scenes are DeliberatelyMonochrome, but the reflections of his advertisements are given a SplashOfColor.
** Jimmy also has some fond memories of his time in Cicero, which is most evident when he tells Cal and Lars about "Slippin' Jimmy." However, this changes after a brief return to his old ways. He realizes through Marco that he was right to leave when he did.
** Chuck was once a successful lawyer and a named partner in a major law firm. An [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity EMS allergy]] has crippled his ability to function outside his home, and now he lives as a recluse in a dark and cold house.
* GoldMakesEverythingShiny: Saul's house is largely decked out in gold. This goes up to eleven with a gold ''toilet''.
* GoneHorriblyRight:
** Jimmy's scheme to [[spoiler:get Chuck in trouble with HHM's insurance company]] goes ''too'' well. [[spoiler:The episode causes Howard to essentially fire Chuck, which leads Chuck to relapse into his mental illness, which leads to Chuck's suicide, which Jimmy did ''not'' want or expect.]] Realizing this puts Jimmy into StepfordSmiler mode going into Season 4.
*** History repeats itself with [[spoiler:Kim and Jimmy's scheme to discredit Howard and secure an early end to the Sandpiper case. It goes entirely to plan, and when Howard confronts them at their apartment he admits defeat and even congratulates them on a scam gone right... and then Lalo turns up and, sees Howard as an inconvenient witness who must be despatched, and murders him with a bullet to the head.]]
** Jimmy's plan to turn the retirement home against Irene then manipulate her into settling succeeds, but he is unable to repair the damage he has done to Irene's friendships.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: Downplayed with the last Rolex scam in "Marco": it was going just fine until Marco's health screwed everything up, leading to Kevin running off with the wallet and Marco dying.
* GoodIsBoring:
** Part of the contrast between Chuck and Jimmy, and implied to be a big part of Chuck's resentment toward Jimmy. Chuck's always been hard-working, ethical, and meticulously follows the rules, which has made him successful but boring. Jimmy's always been a scammer and a cheat, but he's funny, entertaining and good with people. Chuck cares a lot more about doing the right thing, but Jimmy's the one people like to be around.
** This also sums up the respective fates of Jimmy in Nebraska and [[spoiler:Kim in Florida]]. Both are evidently bored with their new lives staying under the radar as law-abiding citizens.
* GoToAlias: Before Jimmy adopted it as his full professional name, "Saul Goodman" was Jimmy's fall-back alias; he used it when he was a conman, then later when selling his advertising time, and then on his business cards as a burner phone salesman.
* GreenEyedMonster: In "Something Stupid" Kim brings Jimmy to a social event at Schweikart & Cokely. Jimmy takes a look around Kim's office, noting all the Mesa Verde statuettes before walking across the soft carpet and counting his paces to get a rough idea of the dimensions- and how much bigger it is than any office he can afford. Back at the party, he gets into a conversation with Rich Schweikart, suggesting a company retreat and then loudly holding court as he describes hiring a party bus, chartering a private jet and taking the employees to Aspen for a skiing trip. While the other S&C employees are transfixed and entertained by his little performance, it is all done with barely-suppressed rage and envy, and Kim is clearly mortified. Cut to Kim and Jimmy sharing a very awkard car journey home in total silence.
* GreaterScopeVillain:
** Tuco, who is mostly doing his own thing while Mike and Jimmy interact with Nacho.
** For the fourth season, [[spoiler: Chuck takes this role [[PosthumousCharacter posthumously]], as he dies at the end of the third season but Jimmy spends the season with his suspension which Chuck caused and the grief with his suicide.]]
** For Season 6B, [[spoiler:Walter White becomes this, also posthumously, as 6B mostly takes place in the post-BB era with occational flashbacks to the past. In particular, Jimmy is eventually arrested and has to serve time for his role in Walter White's empire.]]
* GriefInducedSplit: A combination of grief and guilt leads to the end of [[spoiler:Jimmy and Kim's]] relationship after they witness [[spoiler:their colleague get murdered by a psychopath due to a juvenile prank they were playing.]]
* GroinAttack: In "Black and Blue", the [[spoiler:boxing match between Jimmy and Howard]] shows us that Jimmy is something of a dirty fighter.
* GunPorn: [[ArmsDealer Lawson]]'s exposition on the rifles he's offering to Mike when Mike contemplates using one to snipe Tuco. (And hinting at a little more of [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar his backstory]].)
* GutturalGrowler: Bob Odenkirk's famously scratchy vocals are worked into the plot on a couple of occasions:
** Jimmy attempts to warn the Kettlemans of impending danger but can't let them know he's the one giving the tip; realising his voice would be extremely recognisable he attempts to use a makeshift voice changer, which fails horribly.
** Jimmy is at a party singing karaoke but his singing skills are awful, he gets Chuck to join him and is completely outclassed as a result.
** "Gene" tries to arrange a second pickup from Ed Galbraith and is recognised over the phone as a returning customer instantly, which would have cost him double his original fee if he decided to go through with it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:H-P]]
* HairTodayGoneTomorrow: In both directions:
** In "Nacho" a flashback shows both Jimmy and Chuck with considerably more hair.
** The flash-forwards that begin each season show us that in his new life as "Gene", Jimmy has significantly less hair.
** The season 6 episode "Fun and Games" [[spoiler:features a TimeSkip from 2004 to approximately 2007, which shows Jimmy seemingly inhabiting the Saul Goodman persona full time, and with a bald patch which he struggles to hide under a combover. As the time jump is just a few years this could also be a case of OminousHairLoss due to the stressfull events of season 6]].
* HardWorkFallacy: Zig-zagged. One of the themes of the show is that hard work and playing by the rules often completely fail to improve your situation, while ethical flexibility and outright crimes often do. However, this is often just the perception of the characters.
** Jimmy worked hard to become an attorney but doesn't get the respect he deserves and resorts to cutting corners to get ahead. However, he ''does'' have several opportunities to simply put his head down and work hard to achieve success, but he's unwilling to do so. Jimmy's situation is further complicated in that he will always have to live under [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter his more succesful brother Chuck's shadow]]. He adopts the Saul Goodman alias largely for this reason.
** Kim finds herself attracted to this mentality. She started out working in HHM's mailroom, went to law school (apparently while still working), became a lawyer, and worked very hard to rise to the top. But she's repeatedly found her career derailed by forces beyond her control. Over the seasons, she's found real success by working hard, but keeps getting drawn back into Jimmy's habit of cutting corners to get even more.
* HardWorkMontage: "Mijo" has a variation (complete with AdventurousIrishViolins!) of Jimmy's daily life of litigation. He needs that $700 per client to pay his and his brothers' bills.
* HappilyMarried: [[spoiler: Tragically it only lasts a month in show time]], but Jimmy and Kim are delighted to be married, with the excuse that it’s only a legal arrangement dying fast, and them taking every opportunity to mention their husband or wife.
* HaveYouComeToGloat: In "Nailed" Mesa Verde drop HHM and decide to hire Kim's services instead. Jimmy offers to help her retrieve their files from HHM:
-->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]: '''"You want some help?"
-->'''Kim Wexler:''' "That depends. Are you gonna carry boxes, or are you gonna gloat?"
-->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]: '''"Uh, some from column A, some from column B."
* HeavenAbove: In the episode "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS4E9Wiedersehen Wiedersehen]]," Jimmy insults Kim for acting like she's better than him by telling her to go back to her "office in the sky," implying its more perfect and godly up in the heavens than wherever Jimmy is in life.
%%* HelloAttorney: Kim, although she tends to dress rather modestly by the usual standards of this trope.
* HereditarySuicide: Willard [=McGill=]'s DeathByDespair was very likely a suicide. Chuck kills himself after ripping his whole house apart and passing the DespairEventHorizon, while Jimmy attempts a HeroicSuicide in "Bagman", while wearing a space blanket to get noticed (and for symbolism). Obviously he gets out of that okay, but he's been metaphorically killing himself since Chuck’s death and his desert experience just makes him worse.
-->'''Odenkirk''': Chuck burned his whole self down, and Jimmy is burning big parts of his psyche down.
* HiddenDepths:
** Despite being well-known in ''Breaking Bad'' for his hilariously awful commercials, Jimmy proves early on that he's a pretty gifted director when he actually wants to make something good - for all that his way of handling it caused problems, the commercial he makes for Davis & Main is genuinely emotional. He's even shown using accurate film jargon, suggesting that he's done actual research into the topic rather than just picking it up naturally.
** As it turns out, Howard is pretty athletic. [[spoiler:He's a very skilled boxer (which has real-life basis, as boxing is a common hobby for those in white-collar jobs for stress relief) and knocks Jimmy on his ass when they fight, and the pictures at his memorial reveal him to have been a recreational triathlete (the pictures of which come from Patrick Fabian's Instagram account). [[WordOfSaintPaul Patrick]] believes that he took up swimming and biking because they're sports that can be done alone, meaning he can focus on the task at hand without thinking about putting on his work persona]].
** Lalo isn't just a skilled cook, he's also shown to be a heavy car enthusiast and is even seen tending to his car's engine himself at one point.
** "Fudge" Talbot, a public masturbator Jimmy poses as a Vet pilot as part of his commercial, knows enough about history to point out the Fifi was used against the Japanese, despite only pretending to be a pilot.
** While it's not impossible for an ex-cop to know how to hang a door on a doorframe as well as repair said doorframe, it's still a surprise Mike can do it well enough to convince Chuck he's legitimately a repair company employee. He's even later shown reading a magazine on the topic, suggesting that doing so caused him to develop a genuine interest in it.
** Despite being just as goofy as he was in the original show, Huell turns out to keep meticulous track of time, pointing out that the time between [[spoiler:planting a battery on Chuck's person and Jimmy revealing it in court]] was exactly an hour and forty-three minutes. He’s also the only person involved in [[spoiler:Jimmy and Kim’s scheme against Howard]] to finally ask them why they’re putting in so much effort on the scheme when they’re both successful adults who don’t want for anything, and he’s clearly not swayed by Jimmy’s response.
* HiddenDisdainReveal: Both played strait and inverted. Hamlin is built up as the BigBad of season one and seems determined to torpedo Jimmy's career, but at the end of the season Jimmy realizes he'd been doing so on behalf of Chuck the whole time. After that it becomes clear Hamlin has no real grudge with Jimmy and actually admires his slickness. Though Jimmy's actions as the series progresses lead to the two hating each other.
* HiddenInPlainSight: In "Wine and Roses" Jimmy is up to no good in a country club locker room when Howard and Clifford Main walk in and he suddenly has to hide. There is no suitable hiding place, so he takes all his clothes off and throws a towel over his head. He is taking advantage of the tendency for men to avert their eyes from other men's bodies in a locker room situation- and the ploy works.
* HistoryRepeats:
** The writers called both Jimmy/Marco and Jimmy/Kim a love story, and they [[https://www.tumblr.com/johncho/701549669781733376 both]] involve scamming as addiction metaphors with Jimmy getting pulled back in when he tries to say they're done. While [[spoiler: Kim and Jimmy get their happy ending]], Marco dies and Kim leaves, and they both loved him so much but Jimmy is left to think they only wanted him for "fun". Elsewhere, he managed to find two wives who cheated on him.
** Thanks to a lot of PTSD (Jimmy over Chuck and Lalo, Kim not over her past), feeling of lack of control over their lives, getting off on it and greed, Kim and Jimmy conspire against Howard in season six much like they did against Chuck in season three. Only Howard is actually pretty innocent whereas Chuck very much wanted to destroy his brother, and this time Jimmy is the GuiltRiddenAccomplice. As one can assume, it all goes badly wrong and everyone pays dearly for it.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** [[spoiler:If Chuck hadn't gone through with his scheme to attempt to force Jimmy into disbarment over the Mesa Verde confession -- heck, if Chuck took Howard's advice and didn't testify at Jimmy's disbarment hearing at all -- he wouldn't have given Jimmy an opening to make himself implode and Chuck might have succeeded in ending Jimmy's career.]]
** HHM concealed Chuck's condition from their clients for years, happy to cash in on the prestige that his name brought them while keeping him quietly tucked away. The firm's reputation takes a huge hit when Chuck's issues are finally revealed in his public humiliation at Jimmy's disbarment hearing.
* HoldingHands: Jimmy and Kim in "Saul Gone". She holds a lighter for his cigarette, but she's shaking, so after checking that it's okay, he holds her hands steady and squeezes. It's the first time they've touched in six years.
* HollywoodLaw:
** The Philadelphia detectives who talk to Mike in "Five-O" describe Matt as working in a "precinct". For the purposes of policing, Philadelphia is broken up into "districts", not "precincts". Outside of the NYPD, the word "precinct" is rarely, if ever, used by either police officers or civilians.
** It's what Jimmy himself practices, often committing ethically questionable (bribing a bus driver to stop so he can solicit passengers, for instance) or outright illegal acts (forging documents to [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslight]] Chuck; Squat Cobbler) to advance his lawyer goals. Unsurprisingly, he gets called out a lot.
** Jimmy's hearing before the Bar in "Chicanery". [[spoiler:As an adversarial hearing, both sides have rights to a fair hearing, so in real life, there is no way they could provide all the accommodations for Chuck with nothing said at all about Kim objecting to having the hearings in the dark and everyone being forced to turn over watches and phones. No sane judge would even entertain Chuck's requests absent a motion by Chuck's side to grant them, and an independent physical and mental exam required before granting them. It doesn't matter if everyone on that panel owed their careers to Chuck, they're on the panel because they've proven themselves to be objective jurists with a firm grasp of the law, so they're not going to subject a defendant to all of these accommodations unless Chuck could prove (backed by the testimony of an independent doctor) it was medically necessary. Justified in that Kim and Jimmy's plan was to discredit Chuck in court so they accepted the accommodations and without any parties objecting there was no reason to consider the hearing unfair.]]
** Also from the Bar hearing, there is a big conflict of interest for Kim to be Jimmy's attorney of record since they're sleeping together and more importantly (as noted by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCZ06Sfr9Cg LegalEagle]]), the actions Jimmy's facing disbarment over happen to be actions that Kim benefitted from, with Jimmy stating in the evidence tape that he committed his actions for her (thus making her a material witness). It continues to be a problem when they both represent opposite sides in the Everett Acker dispute, without telling anyone they're involved (living together, having sex and then even [[spoiler:married]]).
** There are a number of problems with Chuck going in to work at HHM in season 2. Namely, in knowingly putting a mentally ill lawyer on casework (although it can be argued that as far as HHM knows his illness is physical and in their interest to believe it), they are deceiving their clients. Chuck's illness isn't physical, it's mental, and it makes him a malpractice liability: if a client catches wind of Chuck's illness, then every client that HHM has allowed Chuck to work for subsequent to the onset of his mental illness would have grounds to make a class action case against HHM for malpractice, breach of contract, and a slew of other ethical violations. Every lawyer with knowledge of Chuck's impairment (and there was a conference room of them who had to turn over their cell phones and cut the power to the building whenever he came by) would be subject to disciplinary proceedings, with Howard being lucky if he got off with his license being suspended at minimum. Lawyers have an ethical and moral ''obligation'' to inform their state's Bar Association about an attorney who is obviously impaired. Chuck may be "brilliant" per se, but it is highly unlikely that his illness, and all the limitations and delusions that come with it, does not compromise his ability to practice and render competent legal counsel.
*** This is lampshaded by Howard early in season 3, as he points out that while Jimmy is at fault for forging the Mesa Verde papers, it shouldn't have happened in the first place since HHM ''locks those documents in safer places'' to avoid these kind of problems.
*** Ultimately, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome this comes crashing down]] when Jimmy tips off the insurance company about Chuck's mental illness. Between that and Chuck's testimony at the Bar hearing becoming public knowledge, Howard is left having to wine-and-dine HHM clients left and right as damage control. And the insurance provider punishes HHM for the deception by doubling the malpractice premiums on ''all'' of their practicing attorneys.[[note]]Yes, Jimmy did this with malicious intentions. But even if he hadn't, the insurance company would have inevitably found out about Chuck's condition on their own, just much later; Jimmy just made the inevitable happen sooner[[/note]] Howard's patience with Chuck is already growing thin thanks to Chuck prioritizing his vendetta against Jimmy over the firm's future, and that, plus the aforementioned things, proves to be the straw that breaks the camel's back between them. And in "Pinata", when Jimmy goes to Howard to get a check for the measly $5,000 Chuck left for him in his will, he sees that Howard's had to lay off quite a number of staff due to the number of clients that abandoned them (plus the strains of paying out to Chuck's estate).
*** At Howard's mild suggestion that Chuck consider retiring, Chuck decides to fire back a lawsuit against HHM for breach of contract. This lawsuit would be doomed to fail right out of the gate, as New Mexico is a state where "firing for cause" exists, and gross misconduct or negligence that directly harms a business's bottom line is enough justification, which Howard could demonstrate by the damage control he's been having to do with the firm's clients. Not to mention no client looking for lawyers specializing in banking regulations would want to hire a lawyer who sued their own firm. The fact Chuck jumped straight to suing the firm, rather than do something reasonable like negotiate a plan for paying out his severance in regular installments, is something that just further cements Howard's decision that Chuck's judgment is too compromised for him to continue working at HHM.
** In "The Guy for This", Krazy-8 and Saul work out a deal with Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez, allowing Krazy-8 his freedom in exchange for information that leads to arrests and the location of half a million dollars of Gus Fring's money. During this negotiation, however, there is no US Attorney in the room. The DEA agents have no authority to offer what they claim to offer in their deal without the prosecutor's presence and consent.
** In "Namaste," Saul swaps a defendant on the stand with a lookalike to injure the credibility of a witness. Although this sort of switch is doable (a trial is considered valid as long as the defendant is present in the room, with no specific requirements for seating, and as long as the bailiff is aware of where the defendant is so they can keep an eye out, there should be no security risk), doing so without informing the judge beforehand should've gotten him held in contempt of court and fined.
* HookersAndBlow: Jimmy and Kim attempt to [[spoiler:frame Howard as a cokehead who frequents prostitutes]].
* HopeSpot:
** At the end of season one, Jimmy has a small but reputable practice, a reputation as a savior to the elderly, a job offer with a partnership opportunity from another firm where he'll be working on his own high-profile case, and is finally ahead of Chuck's sabotage. But the events of the first season have taken too much of a toll, and Jimmy leaves the case with the intention of making money by playing to his strength as a conman. Which, of course [[ForegoneConclusion is the only way it could go.]] Kinda subverted, as he does take the job offer from Davis & Main, but this only prolongs the inevitable.
** [[spoiler:After Chuck is confronted with proof that his EHS condition is in his head, he makes a sincere attempt to overcome his delusion, to the point where he restores the power to his house and goes to the grocery store unattended. However, being forced into retirement by Howard and confronted by Jimmy (who ruined his reputation and, in Chuck's mind, got away with it) causes his EHS delusion to come back with the vengeance. After tearing apart his walls and trashing his electronic appliances, Chuck decides to end it all by kicking over a gas lantern and letting the house catch fire with him inside.]]
** In-universe, the flashback of Jimmy and Chuck actually having fun at karaoke and Chuck staying the night has Jimmy thinking he's [[https://ew.com/tv/2018/10/08/better-call-saul-season-4-finale-bob-odenkirk/ finally on the way]] to getting his brother's love and respect like he's always wanted. [[ForegoneConclusion He isn't.]]
** For a few episodes in season six, while he can't exactly be called better with the Saul of it all, Jimmy's PTSD eases off a little and he's back to animated and talking a lot instead of sounding like he's scared of his own shadow. Then he sees [[spoiler:Lalo alive, and he's fucked from that point on]].
-->'''Plan and Execution''': [[spoiler:Kim is frozen in shock, but at least she had Mike's warning that Lalo was still alive. But Jimmy... the air leaves his body. He sees a fucking GHOST. Lalo was dead. But here he is, again, a shit-eating grin on his face as he casually strolls into their home behind Howard. Jimmy's PTSD kicks in hard as he tries to comprehend what's happening]].
* HourglassPlot: In “Wexler vs Goodman”, Jimmy tells Kim that he lies to protect her and she calls him out on it. In early season six, it’s revealed to her that Lalo is actually alive, and she keeps it a secret which eventually blows up in her face, admitting in the end it wasn’t even because she was protecting him, it was because she was having too much fun destroying Howard with him.
* {{Hypochondria}}: Chuck suffers from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity electromagnetic hypersensitivity]], a psychosomatic illness where being near any electromagnetic fields causes someone pain. In season 1, a doctor turns on an electric medical device without Chuck's knowledge to determine that the illness is just in his head. In season 3, [[spoiler:Jimmy proves it at his disbarment hearing by slipping a battery into Chuck's pocket without Chuck suffering any ill effects. After this, Chuck begins to consider whether he's ruined his life for nothing. He finally admits he's mentally ill and begins treatment for it, but it doesn't last]].
* {{Hypocrite}}: In "Chicanery" Kim cross-examines Howard at Jimmy's bar hearing. When asked why HHM refused to hire Jimmy he claims there was a risk of his hiring looking like nepotism. As Kim is talking to Howard '''Hamlin''' of '''Hamlin''', '''Hamlin''' and [=McGill=] she finds this hypocrisy pretty easy to expose.
* HypocriticalHumour: "Piñata": Jimmy mocking Howard's receding hairline is more than a little rich.
* HumblePie: After six episodes of false starts, Jimmy finally delivers the Kettlemans the justice that entitled people like them so goddamn deserve.
* HumiliationConga:
** Daniel Wormald has his money, pills and baseball cards stolen by Nacho, and his efforts to get the cards back invites the suspicion of the police. In order to get his cards back, he has to give up his brand new car (which Nacho gleefully says he's selling to a chop shop), and to get the police off his back he has to make a humiliating fetish video where he [[ItMakesSenseInContext sits in pies while crying]].
** [[spoiler:Howard Hamlin is put through one in season 6, in a series of events plotted by Kim and Jimmy and intended to humiliate him and destroy his reputation]].
* IconicAttributeAdoptionMoment: Among the fandom there has been much discussion of "the moment when Jimmy becomes Saul". The transition is pretty gradual, with Jimmy slowly becoming sleazier, his outfits getting more colourful, and his hair getting thinner. That all changes with "Fun and Games, where [[spoiler:there is a TimeSkip]] and we finally see Saul's signature combover. This signifies that Jimmy [=McGill=] is no more and the Saul Goodman we know from ''Breaking Bad'' has arrived. This is also the episode where we first see Saul's famous white Cadillac [=DeVille=] with its VanityLicensePlate reading "LWYR UP".
* IdentityBreakdown: The Show. The writers have pointed out a few times it’s the long and slow killing/metaphorical suicide of Jimmy [=McGill=] into Saul Goodman [[spoiler: though he does get better!]], with diving into many other little identities on the way. This is mostly because of three main things: he wants love, he wants things to be easy, and he is terrible at dealing with his pain.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming:
** All but one of the titles of the first season episodes end in the letter "o." The only exception is "Alpine Shepherd Boy", which was originally titled "Jell-O" until Kraft Foods threatened legal action. There's also the first episode of season 2, "Switch".
** Taking the first letter of each episode title from Season 2 will form an anagram of the phrase "Fring's Back". WordOfGod confirmed that this was intentional. Gus did not appear on-camera, although associates the man works for show up, and it's implied that he was the one who left that "DON'T" note on Mike's car. Gus isn't properly brought back until the second episode of season 3.
** The episode titles of the last three episodes of season 3 telegraph the build-up to Chuck's suicide: "Slip", "Fall", and "Lantern".
** The episode titles for Season 6 all follow the convention of "____ and _____" ("Wine and Roses", "Carrot and Stick", "Rock and Hard Place", etc.) [[spoiler:until the story concludes the 2002-04 timeline.]]
* IHaveNoSon: At the end of "Pimento", after Chuck finishes his rant about how he doesn't consider Jimmy to be an actual lawyer, Jimmy leaves his house, saying he no longer wants anything to do with him. This feeling deepens further in Season 3 [[spoiler:when Jimmy humiliates Chuck by using his mental illness in court and puts on a show of no remorse for it]]. He tries to make amends in the season three finale, but ''that'' conversation and Chuck's suicide makes him go into denial harder, while also spiralling.
-->'''Rebecca Bois''': "Jimmy, he's still your brother."\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]''': "Not anymore, he's not."
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: But a realistic version. [[spoiler:Rhea's read of "I think you should turn yourself in" is that Kim knows Jimmy is still down there somewhere, under Gene and Saul and Viktor, and she knows he has a conscience and can't live like this. After some petulant SanitySlippage and more running, he proves her right]].
* ImplausibleDeniability: Jimmy tries to come up with a plausible explanation that the Kettlemans can give to the cops to explain why it seemed like they were kidnapped but quickly realizes that anything they say will sound like a lie. However, since no laws were actually broken, it does not really matter if their excuse is believable.
* ImprovisedBandage: When Mike arrives in Albuquerque he stops by an empty ladies' restroom in the train station and obtains a maxi pad, using it to stanch a bullet wound in his shoulder.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Marco coughs and thumps his chest in the beginning of "Marco." While waiting in an alley, he does it again. Surely enough, he's had a fatal heart attack by the time we see him next.
* InherentlyFunnyWords:
** The law offices of Schweikart & Cokely.
** Jimmy wants a cocobolo desk for no reason other than he likes saying the word "cocobolo".
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Downplayed with Kim and Jimmy, who both get turned on by how good the other one is at scamming. They’re also both {{insecure love interest}}s, Jimmy assuming Kim just enjoys him for sex or cheap thrills and Kim assuming Jimmy will leave if she doesn't make things exciting with a new scam, despite how much they truly adore each other/love existing next to each other, and so this ends up with a [[spoiler: body count]].
* InnocentBystanderSeries: The show is about the ''Breaking Bad'' series regulars who weren't introduced in that show's first season, and what happened in their lives before they crossed paths with Walt.
* InnocentInnuendo: Jimmy is hired by an inventor who invented "Tony the Toilet Buddy," a toilet that is intended to encourage kids as they poop. When Jimmy comes to observe it, he and the audience can't help but observe that the recorded messages sound more like phrases of sexual pleasure.
* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: Four of them are in this series, so far:
** “Mijo” starts off everything with the cartel, along with Jimmy’s issues over deserts and being helpless, as well as his tendencies to try and ignore the trauma that mounts up in him. It’ll also parallel “Rock and Hard Place” [[spoiler: Nacho’s execution in the desert]] and “Point and Shoot” [[spoiler: Jimmy is hostage to Lalo]] six seasons later.
** "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS4E8Coushatta Coushatta]]" seems like a {{Filler}} or BreatherEpisode, but it's actually important to the series since it reveals what all of Gus Fring's plans for Nacho have been building up to and it reveals Lalo Salamanca showing up to take control of the gang, plus notably, Kim Wexler's FaceHeelTurn (on a sliding scale of evil, not ''that'' evil ''yet'', but still, a grifter).
** The Kettleman subplot in season 1 may have seemed like filler at first to establish the kinds of clients Jimmy takes on. But it has major payoff in season 5, as Nacho's dealings with Jimmy during that period lead Lalo to hire Jimmy to be his attorney, which ends up dragging him into the conflict between Lalo and Gus.
** "Inflatable". Not just the montage of Jimmy wearing brightly coloured clothes and incorporating them into his wardrobe (and Kim liking them), but his rare moment of self awareness that he DesperatelyCravesAffection to the point of changing himself for Chuck or Kim but it's also not their fault, and Kim's interview where she can't admit her past, just saying she wanted more, sets up both of their BlueandOrangeMorality, their various insecurities, and the finale where they can admit what they've done and be at peace with themselves..
* InsaneTrollLogic: The Kettlemans attempts to justify the money they stole. Apparently Craig ''earned it'' by working ''overtime''. It's so absurd it sounds like it came straight out of an [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/reggie-bush-claims-he-made-100000-through-usc-work,2049/ Onion article.]]
* InsecureLoveInterest: Jimmy to Kim. He is worried that she just sees him as her [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys bit of rough]], someone she can have fun with but not someone she'd ever make a long-term commitment to. He has a tendency to bring up property whenever he's feeling especially needy, suggesting they rent an office or buy a home together as a little test of her commitment. In "Wiedersehen" he is visibly upset when Kim tells him to "stop going on about that stupid office!", not realising that to him a shared office represents something more than just bricks and mortar:
-->''"I'm good to live with, to sleep with, but God forbid you should have an office with me... You get bored with your life, so you come roll around in the dirt, have some fun with Slippin' Jimmy, then back up."''
** PlayedWith:[[spoiler:They eventually get married, and it was ''Kim'' who popped the question.]]
--->♫“I know I stand in line
--->Until you think you have the time
--->To spend an evening with me
--->And if we go someplace to dance
--->I know that there's a chance
--->You won't be leaving with me..."♫
** It's eventually revealed that Kim is almost as bad as Jimmy, with the "Waterworks" Insider Podcast confirming that she suggested bigger scams when she thought he might leave her (despite how obvious it is to the contrary), and not wanting to lose him by telling him about Lalo.
* InsideJob: [[spoiler:Jimmy (as Gene) plots a robbery of his own mall in "Nippy."]]
* IntimateTelecommunications: In "Nacho", Kim assumes that a late night phone call from Jimmy is him requesting dirty talk, or vice versa. It's not, but they've clearly done that before, and she knows all about the "sex robot" voice.
* InterfaceSpoiler: [[spoiler:Nacho was always considered to be DoomedByCanon due to ''Breaking Bad'' not mentioning his major role in Gus's battle with the Salamanca family, but what prematurely made it clear he would die was when he didn't receive a new promotional picture for season six despite still being a main character at that point. The episode where he dies also gets a big "Suicide" content warning on Netflix that likely will tip viewers off to his fate the second the episode starts, since Howard and Kim aren't in danger and all the other characters appear in ''Series/BreakingBad''.]]
* InternalHomage:
** Over on ''Series/BreakingBad'', Jesse and Jane try to tell themselves they'll get clean, not because anyone is telling them to but because they want to. That attempt is doomed, but scamming has always been a metaphor for addiction, and Jimmy and Kim really do get "clean" for their own sakes at the end of the show; [[spoiler:prison visits aren't much, but they'll take what they can get along with the chance of getting out early]].
** In "Breathe", Kim started to show her real dark side, pinning everything on Howard, followed by his asking what he could do to make it right, with her responding coldly that there was nothing. She's on the other end in "Waterworks" with [[spoiler: Cheryl, as she tries to soothe her conscience (also partly to try and self-destruct) but realizes she can't do anything to fix this and feels like she's ruined not just Howard but everything]].
* IronicEcho:
** In the “Nacho” flashback, a healthy Chuck puts all of his electronics into the prison box, in comparison to having everyone place their own in his mailbox.
** Nacho tells Jimmy that he rips off criminals because his victims can't report the theft to the police without having to admit to their original theft; in other words, they have no legal recourse for having their stolen property stolen from them. So naturally, when Mike takes the Kettlemans' embezzled money from its hiding place under the bathroom sink and sends it to the district attorney, and Betsy subsequently threatens to have Jimmy arrested, Jimmy echoes Nacho's threats to him by telling them that as criminals, they have no legal recourse for property stolen from them.
** In the season two premiere, Kim implores Jimmy to continue being a lawyer because, after all, he put in all that time and hard work in law school. Jimmy explains to her that it's the "fallacy of sunk costs" to keep moving in a given direction regardless of consequence simply because you've committed to it. Which means Kim knows exactly what it means in this exchange in season 3, when she's insisting on helping him fight Chuck at the bar hearing
--->'''Jimmy:''' Why are you helping me?\\
'''Kim:''' Let's call it...the fallacy of sunk costs.
** In the season 2 episode "Rebecca" Jimmy offers to get Kim out of the mess he got her into even if it means quitting his cushy job at Davis and Main. "[[SarcasmMode Wow, my knight in shining armour]]" she retorts, before uttering the immortal words "You don't save me. ''I'' save me." In the season 6 episode "Fun and Games" [[spoiler:she admits she knew Lalo was still alive but withheld this information from Jimmy because she was enjoying their scam on Howard too much and was afraid he'd call it off and try to save her from Lalo. In this instance, Jimmy actually could have saved not just Kim, but also Howard, Kim's career, and their relationship- if only she had let him.]]
** In "Chicanery", Chuck utters "let justice be done, though the heavens fall". At the end of "Fun and Games", Jimmy in full blown space blanket Saul Goodman mode, says the same line.
** In a version that also doubles as a CallForward, originally Chuck had told Jimmy that if he were sick manifesting as TheShutIn, he'd look after him. Jimmy's face has a mix of hope, guilt (as he used the night to swap the numbers) and a fair amount of doubt. In "Saul Gone", set before the series, Jimmy tells Chuck that he's looking after his brother because Chuck would do the same for him [[note]]"because you're my brother, duh" itself a nod to "because you’re my brother, and nobody should do that to their own brother" in "Sabrosito"[[/note]]. Chuck also looks rather doubtful and a little ashamed.
* {{Irony}}: For a guy with such IJustWantToBeLoved issues, Jimmy has a habit of ignoring people who really do love him (his parents, Marco) in favor of chasing [[BigBrotherBully Chuck]]'s approval. Even with Kim, he only really understands that he has her love and will for the rest of his life in the finale.
* IronicName:
** "Saul Goodman" of course.
** Ken Wins. Between being conned into paying for a lot of very expensive tequila and getting his car blown up by a chemistry teacher, he really needs to change that license plate to "Ken Loses".
** The model of Jimmy's car, the Suzuki Esteem, was chosen because it was an ironic name for a man who gets no respect and has very little self-esteem.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Marco's last words to Jimmy. He says their week of pulling scams like old times was the best he's had. Apparently, the feeling's mutual, as Jimmy's memory of Marco spurs him to abandon a more legitimate opportunity.
* ItKindOfLooksLikeAFace: Saul manufactures a visage of Jesus on a fence to stall the demolition of a client's home.
* ItRunsInTheFamily: It’s heavily implied, especially from season four (and how they both assert that Chuck would look after Jimmy if the situation was reversed), that Jimmy has mental health issues of his own, and that it's not actually just Chuck; he goes for more EmotionSuppression and unstable identity while Chuck is an obsessive shut in.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy:
** Jimmy reflecting on the events leading up to "Something Unforgivable":
-->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]''': [[spoiler:"Kim... am I bad for you?"]]
*** It's PlayedWith in that [[spoiler:Kim's response suggests that, by this point, Jimmy may not be bad ''[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys enough]]'' for her.]]
** Kim later refer to Jimmy's question in "Fun and Games" [[spoiler:and concedes that they are bad for each other, and while they do love one another and have a great time together, that will never justify all the hurt they cause to others, and so she ends their relationship for the sake of them both]].
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Attempted on Jimmy by Tuco in "Mijo". Nacho has to remind his boss that Jimmy will say anything with wire clippers on his fingers.
* JadeColoredGlasses: While Jimmy is still nowhere near as cynical as the Saul of ''Series/BreakingBad'', we definitely see the scales falling from his eyes. In flashbacks we see how excited Jimmy was to pass the Bar exam, and how much he was looking forward to making it as a lawyer and winning Chuck's respect. After years of hard work his brother still thinks he's a scumbag, and he finds himself living in the boiler room of a nail salon, wondering if HardWorkHardlyWorks.
* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife:
** Chuck takes his neighbor's newspaper off her driveway (leaving $5 as payment) and gets the cops called on him. They show up, and from the way he's acting, plus their observation of camping fuel and cut electric lines, conclude he's a junkie. They end up tasering Chuck, and he winds up hospitalized.
** We learn in "Marco" that the "Chicago Sunroof" incident that landed Jimmy in jail consisted of him getting drunk and defecating through the sunroof of his rival's car. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the guy's kids were in the back seat, and ended up charged with indecent exposure and sexual assault.
** In "Winner" Jimmy sits on the board of HHM's scholarship committee. One hopeful, Kristy Esposito, is turned down because of a shoplifting conviction, and Jimmy fails to convince the board that she made a youthful mistake and deserves a second chance, mainly because her situation is all too familiar to him.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** While our sympathies lie with Jimmy, causing Chuck's attacks on him to seem cruel, he's correct in his assessments of Jimmy's lack of ability to use the law ethically.
** Jimmy got his degree from a shady correspondence school and then failed the Bar Exam twice before finally passing. Chuck has little reason to hire Jimmy except nepotism, and Jimmy is being pretty unfair to expect such a handout.
** Chuck's determination to keep Mesa Verde with HHM instead of Kim is unsympathetic (given that she found the client in the first place) and clearly part of a campaign against Jimmy. That said, he's entirely correct that trying to retain a major client is the only logical thing for someone in his position to do. Moreover, his methods consist solely of giving a completely honest and convincing sales pitch. He acknowledges and praises Kim's abilities, while very reasonably pointing out her limitations as a relatively young lawyer without the resources of a firm behind her. And later seasons prove him to be entirely correct, as practical realities make it impossible for Kim to meet the needs of Mesa Verde on her own.
** Jimmy is handed a perfect opportunity at Davis & Main to go straight and practice law ethically, but chooses to throw it away, preferring to use his shady, cut-corners tactics. There's no reason to suspect that he wouldn't have done the same thing if handed a job at HHM.
** Even Jimmy occasionally has his moments, especially when it comes to dealing with people like the Kettlemans (like insisting they come clean with the authorities rather than try to fight the charges).
** While Jimmy committed a felony and really should be disbarred after that, he is right that his brother's hard-on to catch him is unhealthy, as Chuck was sent to the hospital twice because he tried to discover Jimmy's secrets. Jimmy is a criminal but not one worth dying over.
-->'''Jimmy:''' I thought you would finally accept it as a mistake and move on but ''no!'' Wishful thinking!
** Chuck's [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech last words with Jimmy]] in "Lantern" that it was pointless for Jimmy to try to make amends, or to express remorse, and that Jimmy would continue to go through life with a sort of "Midas Touch In Reverse", destroying people and things with whom he came in contact, turns out to be 100% correct, as we see in ''Series/BreakingBad''. The problem is that Jimmy's motivation to help people ''hinges on Chuck being proud of him as a brother'', making it a SelfFulfillingProphecy.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Jimmy is true to form: if he gets you into trouble, he tries his damnedest to get you out. And, if he cares about you, he'll fight for you. In his own way, and even if you don't agree. This actually earns him a larger cut than he expected in "Something Beautiful" after the Hummel heist, and Ira sees it as honor amongst thieves that Jimmy chose to rescue him from being caught in Mr. Neff's office rather than hang him out to dry.
** Howard Hamlin is introduced as a jerk, but is sometimes gracious towards Jimmy and Kim even despite their past disagreements, and occasionally goes out of his way to help Jimmy and others.
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: As a prequel and sequel and wanting to recontextualise ''Series/BreakingBad'', it's a slow burn to a reveal but they will eventually come out, like [[spoiler: Jesse talking to Kim leading to him having Saul as a lawyer]], or what crippled Hector Salamanca, or who Lalo and Ignacio are. Then there's flashbacks that explain how characters are, like Kim's mother making her pathologically self-reliant, or Jimmy watching his dad get scammed, or the mess that is him and Chuck.
* JustTrainWrong: In "Five-O", Mike is shown arriving in Albuquerque on a New Mexico Rail Runner commuter train. It's anachronistic as the episode is set in the summer of 2002, and the New Mexico Rail Runner didn't begin service until 2006. Also, Mike wouldn't be arriving on the Rail Runner if he'd just come from Philadelphia. He'd be on Amtrak's ''Southwest Chief'', the passenger train that runs from Chicago to Los Angeles and goes through Albuquerque.
* KansasCityShuffle: A favorite tactic of Jimmy’s. [[spoiler: He uses it in his plots against his brother Chuck as well as Howard Hamlin. Both men know they were set up by Jimmy but cannot prove it, and both go on a highly public tirade against Jimmy which causes them to lose the respect of their colleagues.]]
* KaraokeBondingScene: "Winner" begins with a flashback to Jimmy's admission to the New Mexico State Bar, followed by celebrations at a karaoke bar. Jimmy spots Chuck, then recently separated from his wife, sitting alone and looking depressed. Just as Chuck tries to make an early exit, Jimmy begins a [[GiftedlyBad terrible]] rendition of ''[[Music/{{ABBA}} The Winner Takes It All]]'' and manages to drag Chuck on stage to duet with him. Chuck comes out of his shell and eventually snatches the microphone for an [[TheCastShowoff actually pretty great]] solo performance of the song. Later we see the brothers at Chuck's house, laughing and singing.
** Subverted in that [[spoiler:while it seems to have brought the brothers a little closer, Chuck does not answer Jimmy's only-half-joking suggestion that he make him a name partner at HHM because he decided long ago that he will never employ Jimmy as an attorney]].
* KickTheDog:
** In Season 3, Jimmy starts pulls a cruel confidence trick on [[spoiler:his Sandpiper Crossing clients in order to profit from an early settlement]], but he feels pangs of guilt for this and voluntarily undoes the scheme.
** In "Waterworks", [[spoiler:Saul sexually harasses Francesca in front of Kim after signing their divorce papers.]]
* KillTheLights: [[spoiler:Gus kicks out the plug on the work lights in the underground lab to get the upper hand against Lalo.]]
* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Howard is shot in the head by Lalo when the latter unexpectedly shows up at Jimmy and Kim's apartment.]]
* KinkyCuffs: Jimmy and Kim always were a horny couple, and him being in [[spoiler: prison doesn't damper that]], as he pouts a little when she asks him to be uncuffed.
* KinkyRoleplaying:
** Jimmy and Kim start out mocking Kevin Wachtell just for fun, with Jimmy doing a (bad) Kim impression and Kim imitating Kevin’s accent, but then she starts bossing “herself” around and they get off on it, Jimmy still in character asking Kim as Kevin if she wants to have a shower with him.
-->'''Kim''' [still with accent]: …well shoot, I believe I would.
** In "Bali Ha'i", they play siblings Viktor and Giselle St. Clair and are... not shy about still being horny for each other, him smirking when she calls him a brat and her NoSenseOfPersonalSpace. Luckily the mark is either too drunk or too mooning over "Giselle" to notice.
* KnightOfCerebus: Gustavo Fring, [[Series/BreakingBad again]]. The stakes and body count of the series increase significantly with his arrival in Season 3.
** Lalo repeats this pattern; his arrival significantly ups the tension between Gus and the Salamancas, and he's responsble for Jimmy's deepest dive into the criminal underworld yet. [[spoiler: By the time he leaves the picture, Howard Hamlin is dead and both Jimmy and Kim are never the same again.]]
* KnowsAGuyWhoKnowsAGuy: Dr. Caldera is a veterinarian who has underworld connections. He helps Mike find criminal work, and also introduces Jimmy to Huell. [[spoiler:He has a small book that has all of his connections through code, as well as a business card with instructions for when one needs the Disappearer, which all end up with Saul.]]
* LampshadeHanging: More than a few characters point out that taking on a new identity, and hating your old self (as Jimmy tells Kim in Magic Man, “Jimmy” is “Chuck’s loser brother”) is not exactly the sign of a mentally well person.
* LastKiss: [[spoiler:In the episode "Fun and Games" Kim and Jimmy leave Howard's memorial and share a kiss at the spot in the parking garage where they used to go for a shared cigarette. The kiss is passionate but also seems ominously like their last, and comes before they drive home in their separate cars. Later in the episode Kim does indeed tell Jimmy that she is leaving him.]]
* LateArrivalSpoiler:
** Netflix openly shows off Gus on the show's main page image even though his appearance was originally meant to be a surprise.
** An infamous Netflix trailer for the fourth season, which would automatically play when the site was visited, revealed [[spoiler:Chuck's death]] in under five seconds.
* LateSpinOffTransplant: Gus Fring joined the cast during the third season.
* LaughingMad: [[spoiler:Jimmy laughs hysterically in his holding cell after he is arrested in "Saul Gone"]].
* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail: Much like in ''Series/BreakingBad'', everything in the scene is there for a reason. Lampshaded in the season three bloopers, where Gilligan moves a ''leaf'', and [=McKean=] gently snarks that he saved the show.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** Kim and Jimmy will (from season three) talk about Saul Goodman like a ThirdPersonPerson, or character separate from Jimmy. It serves three purposes: Jimmy's personality fracturing, [[ForegoneConclusion a reminder that Saul will happen eventually]] and the fact that [[PluckyComicRelief original flavour Saul]] and [[TragicVillain Jimmy [=McGill=]]] ''are'' technically different characters.
** Mike's "bad choice road" speech. As well as showing off his self-justifying ("you might as well stay making bad choices"), he’s in a prequel where his road, Gus' road and Jimmy's road are all set down by ''Series/BreakingBad'' and there's nothing that can be done to change that. When it gets to the Gene/sequel parts however..., then Jimmy and Kim are free in every sense to go down any path they choose, turning it from one road you can only go down to a time machine.
* LetMeTellYouAStory: Gus' story about the coaiti in "Piñata" is perhaps the most typical example, but this trope is used to great effect throughout most of the series.
* LeitMotif: The riff from "Smoke on the water" is hummed or played many times by Jimmy, often before or after he pulls off an especially dicey con.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: PlayedForDrama, as after the second desert trip, Jimmy gets told he can forget and it’ll be like it never happened. Well-versed in burying trauma anyway, he takes it onboard, and expresses to Kim that they never have to talk about this again, but it’s obvious that he has PTSD and of course Saul begs Walt and Jesse that they can off him anywhere but the desert.
* LighterAndSofter: The tone of the show is lighter than ''Breaking Bad'', and the stakes are lower. Jimmy is struggling to build a legal practice and occasionally uses shady tactics to achieve his goals, a big contrast to Walter White getting diagnosed with terminal cancer and building a murderous meth empire. That said, dark elements like the Salamancas and the drug cartels are still there, especially so from Season 3 onwards, when Gus Fring becomes part of the show.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Jimmy is two-faced, conniving, greedy, likes to spread the misery and runs from the problems he’s made as fast he can, while Kim is a ControlFreak with a god complex and minor sadistic streak to people she thinks deserves it, and [[spoiler:Mike makes sure to tell them that Howard’s death is indirectly their fault]], but they’re small drops in the water (with both having good qualities and a lot of self hatred) compared to Gus Fring and the Salamancas and all the twisted games they play with each other.
* LikeGoesWithLike: Inverted by Nacho Varga. Some scenes show that he has two live-in mistresses: one is white and one is Asian.
* LogoJoke: The title placards degrade from season to season. In season 1, they look like high quality recordings with only a couple of glitches. By season 6, they are so distorted and degraded that they are often barely comprehensible, and one finally cuts out entirely in [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E10Nippy the tenth episode]].
* LooseLips: In season 4, the German construction crew that Gus has hired to build the underground lab isn't permitted to know where they are for security reasons. That said, a French engineer that Gus had looked at prior to hiring Werner got rejected because he couldn't help but run his mouth about past jobs. And Werner has a slip-up when he drunkenly divulges details about the project to some patrons at a bar while Mike is distracted by another issue. Mike lets him off with a warning, only for Werner to break out of the compound and leave to see his wife. When Mike catches up to him with the intention of bringing him back in, he's unintentionally divulging details about the project to Lalo. At this point, Gus decides that Werner needs to be killed. So Werner is killed, while the rest of the German crew are sent home.
* LonelyTogether: As pointed out on the "Inflatable" commentary, one of the things that draws Kim and Jimmy together is that they’re both damaged in similar ways.
* LongDistanceRelationship: [[spoiler: When Jimmy is imprisoned for his crimes. He and Kim won't be able to snuggle on the couch watching a black and white film anymore, and they can't physically be together, but the strong implication (and supported by the actors) at the end of "Saul Gone" is that they'll be alright, she'll visit as much as they can, and their love will be the SplashOfColor in the grey.]]
* LongingLook: In "Saul Gone", Jimmy gets so distracted by Kim that it looks like he forgot [[spoiler: he's cuffed and on his way to his own court case]]. Later on, she repays the favour when walking out of the [[spoiler: jail]], looking back at him for as long as she can, making it clear she'll be back.
* LongSpeechTeaTime: In "Alpine Shepherd Boy", Chuck makes a long speech about probable cause, but the cops have already gone round the back of his house and made the assumption that he’s an addict.
* LoserProtagonist: As this show covers the [[RiseAndFallGangsterArc rise and fall of Saul Goodman]], minus the brief period of success in between, we mainly see the protagonist in his loser days. This is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Jimmy when he admits one major reason for changing his name:
-->"Jimmy [=McGill=] the lawyer is always gonna be Chuck [=McGill=]'s loser brother."
* TheLostLenore: Anita's husband went on a walk only to never come back. She attends a grief counseling group that seems to be targeted at people that lost their loved ones, including Mike and Stacey.
* LoveCannotOvercome: To quote Kim when she's [[spoiler: breaking up with Jimmy]], "and I love you, but so what?". While she's also fuelled by self loathing and the feeling she doesn't deserve anything good, in three episodes alone, [[spoiler: they got Howard killed, Jimmy was willing to die for Kim, Kim was willing to shoot for all she knew an innocent man for Jimmy, and she gaslit Cheryl Hamlin, using her failing marriage against her]].
* LoveDoodles: In season two and four, Jimmy does essentially the trope when he has a whole page of W+M logo doodles. Kim finds it later when he's sleeping and is very endeared.
* LuxuryPrisonSuite: [[spoiler:Jimmy tries to arrange one for himself as part of a plea deal when he pretends he was intimidated into working for Walter White in "Saul Gone". He ultimately gives it up by confessing all his crimes]].
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: While Gus Fring seems to put almost all of his money back into his criminal empire, he does have a sophisticated palette, which is to be expected for a restaurateur. In particular, he seems to be a fan of fine wine.
* MarriageOfConvenience: Although [[spoiler:Kim and Jimmy]] genuinely care for each other, the driving force behind their marriage is to protect them both legally, as she can't be forced to testify against him if they're married.
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Kim and Jimmy's relationship is a subtle example, with Jimmy being the more [[ProneToTears emotional]] and [[TheDandy flamboyant]] and Kim being the more [[TheStoic stoic]] and [[TomboyishPonytail practical]]. In addition, Jimmy is usually the one who prepares dinner, while Kim is the one who plays golf.
** [[https://www.bustle.com/p/how-better-call-sauls-kim-became-unintentional-feminist-hero-according-to-rhea-seehorn-49427 In the words of Kim herself]]:
--->''"I'm very much more the stereotypical 'man' as far as the relationship roles. Jimmy is more emotional, more reactive, wants to talk everything out, and thinks everything is personal and Kim's very project-oriented. Very just, 'Slow it down, here's the problem, here's the solution' kind of thing."''- Rhea Seehorn
* MatchCut: The opening montage of "Fun and Games" uses these to cut between Jimmy and Kim at work and [[spoiler:Mike cleaning up the scene of Howard's murder in their apartment]], reflecting how much the legal and criminal worlds have finally bled together.
* MeaningfulEcho: In “Fun and Games”, [[spoiler:Jimmy begs Kim to not leave him with almost the exact words he said to Chuck in the “Nacho” flashback, pleading with her to tell him what to do, and whatever it is he’ll do it. Unlike Chuck who took advantage, Kim can’t. Kim also tells Jimmy she had the time of her life with him before leaving]], like Marco told him he had the best week of his life with him, before dying.
* MenDontCry: “Slippin’ Jimmy” gets mad about being accused of crying to his mom in the middle of a jail. Given that he cries five minutes later in panic when Chuck starts to leave, and Jimmy is ProneToTears anyway, it’s fair to say he did.
* MedicationTampering: We find out how Hector Salamanca wound up in that wheelchair: his abused henchman Nacho switches out his heart medication with regular, unhelpful ibuprofen.
* MilhollandRelationshipMoment:
** While Kim's annoyed at the Mesa Verde swapping numbers and tells Jimmy she doesn't want to know (though still feels like she deserves them), she gives him her usual DoWrongRight advice about covering his tracks and is endeared when she actually does hear his confession. So much so that the script says she'd footsie with him if she could.
** Jimmy kept his role in Chuck's suicide a secret from Kim because he was afraid she'll see him as evil and as worthless as Chuck thought. He confesses finally in front of everyone, and she processes, but she still loves him as much as she ever did.
** Jimmy and Kim have a painful argument in "Wiedersehen", all the buried shit coming out like him assuming she sees him like Chuck did and her sick of ParentingTheHusband (who keeps sabotaging because he won't go to therapy), but as soon as Jimmy assumes that's it and they're done, she still assures him it's not over.
* MirrorMonologue: In Jimmy's very first appearance he is in the courthouse bathroom, nervously rehearsing his clients' defence in front of a mirror. The unglamorous setting and his nervousness [[EstablishingCharacterMoment serve to inform the audience]] that Jimmy has a long way to go before becoming the successful and breezily confident Saul Goodman.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: In "Marco", Jimmy waits outside in his car for as long as he can, and Chuck notices, but Jimmy drives off before Chuck can get up the will to open the door.
* MisplacedRetribution: Throughout season one, Jimmy thinks it’s Howard sabotaging him and trying to stop him from using his own name. It’s only in “Pimento” he finds out the AwfulTruth, Howard is just acting on Chuck’s say-so. This also applies after Chuck’s death, as Jimmy transfers all his brother issues onto Howard (and for Howard daring to think he should get help), and Kim is pissed with him because she hasn’t got over her childhood self-hate of being dirt poor and sees him as a nepo baby.
* MistakenForJunkie: Two police officers assume Chuck is a junkie when he refuses them entry to his run-down home and begins rambling that they must leave their electronics outside.
* MistakenForProstitute: There’s a small RunningGag of various people either comparing or mistaking Jimmy for a hooker. As he has a flamboyant fashion sense, a tendency to sell his soul for money, is very loud and persuasive and has a willingness to charmingly flirt to get what he wants, it’s not an entirely far off notion.
* ModestyBedsheet: PlayedWith in "Namaste" where one covers most of Kim but absolutely none of Jimmy. For Kim this is also a case of ToplessnessFromTheBack.
* ModestyTowel:
** In "Bagman" Jimmy uses a towel to preserve his modesty. Well, some of it.
** PlayedWith in "Wine and Roses": [[spoiler: Jimmy infiltrates a country club of which Howard is a member in order to plant a bag of fake cocaine in his locker. When Kim sends a text to warn him that Howard and Clifford Main are returning from the golf course, he has nowhere to hide... except under a too-small towel, so he quickly undresses and throws the towel over his head. Fortunately Howard doesn't recognise his voice. Or his ass.]]
* MondegreenGag: An early chat with a mark before the HeelFaceTurn to a lawyer suggests Jimmy's later name "Saul Goodman" (of which he jokes to the crook that's his name) came from "It's all good, man!".
* MonochromePast: The sequences that start off each season, showing Jimmy as "Gene" in the depths of his despair, are in actual monochrome; however, they represent the future rather than the past.
* MoodWhiplash:
** "Inflatable" goes from a montage in which Jimmy acts like an idiot to annoy everyone and get fired, to Cliff genuinely asking why he never gave the job a chance and Jimmy with tears in his eyes getting close to admitting he felt like there was no point in trying.
** “Rock and Hard Place” goes from Nacho calling his father, sobbing as he realises that was goodbye, and deciding to go to his death, to Kim and Jimmy dressing each other for work and getting turned on by their scam.
** "Plan and Execution" begins with Kim and Jimmy on a comedic caper to humiliate Howard, complete with a hired lookalike of a judge and Makeup Girl in an elf costume and prosthetic ears, having just been called from the set of "a live-action production of ''Film/TheDarkCrystal''". It ends with [[spoiler:Lalo coldly murdering Howard with a [[BoomHeadshot gunshot to the head]]]].
* MoralityChain:
** Chuck, Jimmy's brother, is an ethical lawyer and it is clear that his influence kept Jimmy from fully turning into an unethical AmoralAttorney. Sadly Chuck's stubbornness and the resulting bills are slowly turning him into a BrokenPedestal. The pedestal is fully shattered come "Pimento".
** Kim Wexler tries to help Jimmy make positive life choices, though this becomes more of a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype as the series goes on and Kim begins roping Jimmy into schemes of her own.
* {{Motif}}:
** Fire. Chuck's lanterns, Jimmy threatening to burn the house down, it actually burning down, Jimmy making up stories of saving someone from a fire, Jimmy telling Kim that his old name should be "burned".
** Ghosts. Lalo and Howard get [[spoiler: buried together under the next show’s superlab]], Jimmy was [[ForegoneConclusion dead since the beginning]], Marco is buried but Jimmy wears his ring for as long as he can, Chuck’s suicide hangs over everything after season three, Gene calls himself a ghost, Kim [[spoiler: destroys herself out of guilt]] and her legacy lives on in Saul Goodman, Mike is haunted by his dead son while Manuel has to be told about Nacho, Gus is motivated by his dead lover, and it lives with the knowledge of ''Series/BreakingBad'' and how most of these characters die.
** ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': Jimmy [=McGill=] is both Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, a bright man who seeks to be acknowledged by his peers and who ultimately becomes a "patchwork" of different personas. Kim Wexler is Elizabeth with some elements of Igor, a young woman completely devoted to her lover who [[spoiler:is ultimately "destroyed" by the creature she helped create: Saul Goodman]].
* MuggingTheMonster:
** The skaters try to pull a StagedPedestrianAccident on Jimmy, not realizing that he is a former conman and would see right through their scam. Jimmy and the skaters then try to pull the same trick on Betsy Kettleman but end up accidentally targeting Tuco Salamanca's grandma.
** Hector Salamanca honestly believes Mike is just a random old man he has to threaten to lighten Tuco's sentence. Mike goes on to steal a quarter million dollars from him, reveals Hector's supply line to the D.E.A. to give Gus an edge, attempts to assassinate Hector with a sniper rifle, and participates in Nacho's plot to cripple Hector, all as payback for threatening his granddaughter. Not to mention the Salamanca family members Mike will go on to kill personally in ''Series/BreakingBad''.
* MusicalSpoiler: Not satisfied with just Walt parallels, the scene with Gene in "Nippy" threatening Jeff replays "Chuck’s Relapse" from "Lantern", hinting at how Gene’s mental state is going to be for the next two episodes.
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: "Namaste":
--->'''Howard Hamlin''': "Am I allowed to call you "Jimmy"?"
--->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]''': "Uh, Saul Goodman is my professional name, but my friends still call me Jimmy. '''You can, too'''."
* MythArc:
** The Sandpiper Crossing class action lawsuit is introduced in Season 1 and takes until Season 6 to get resolved. It is touched upon once in a while at various points in the seasons, and [[spoiler:speeding up the settlement becomes the focus in both the second half of Season 3 and the first half of Season 6.]]
** The Omaha storyline with Gene Takavic is slowly developed at the start of each season. Until Season 6, [[spoiler:where it becomes the final plotline of the series.]]
* MythologyGag:
** Betsy Kettleman is named after Betsy Brandt (Marie Schrader in ''Series/BreakingBad'').
** The company that runs the courthouse parking lot that Mike works at, SMQ Parking, is named for the initials of Steven Michael Quezada (Steve Gomez).
** Kristy Esposito, the student who is denied a scholarship from HHM over her past as a shoplifter, is named after Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Gus Fring.
** The very colorful shirts Jimmy looks over are a reference to a page pulled down from bettercallsaul.com, his presumed family brand [=McGill=] & [=McGill=]'s.
* NatureVsNurture: It's subtle but fundamental to the [=McGill=] brother's conflict: [[spoiler: Chuck wholeheartedly believes that Jimmy will never overcome his nature as a conman while Jimmy has made genuine attempts at going legit]].
* {{Nephewism}}: As in ''Series/BreakingBad'', the various Salamanca family members are all cousins who are loyal to their only older male relative, their uncle Hector.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Invoked by Jimmy during the second reinstatement hearing, during his [[spoiler:phony speech about Chuck's final letter to him]].
* NiceGuy:
** Jimmy starts off as a way more caring lawyer than he is in Breaking Bad, but he becomes less nice as the Seasons progress.
** Clifford Main, Jimmy's boss at Davis & Main, could hardly be a nicer guy.
** Howard when he's not being Chuck's puppet. He's even willing to personally mortgage himself so the employees don't lose their jobs when he forcibly retires Chuck at the end of season 3.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Chuck [=McGill=]'s undermining of Jimmy's attempts to become an honest lawyer is what turns Jimmy into Saul Goodman.
* NiceToTheWaiter:
** We repeatedly see Jimmy having friendly, first-name basis relationships with low-level workers: custodians, mailroom workers, courthouse clerks, etc. There's a practical aspect to this (it's not uncommon for him to need favors from these people), but it also seems to be an innate part of his nature. Chuck on the other hand is really taxing on assistants like Ernesto and can come out as condescending when he tries to be polite toward others like Dr. Cruz and Howard.
** After Hector takes Los Pollos Hermanos hostage in an attempt to intimidate Gus, Gus makes it up to his traumatized employees by offering them counseling and compensating for a lost day of wages.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Somewhat of a recurring theme in Jimmy's life.
** While returning the entire sum stolen by Craig Kettleman - including the bribe given to him by Betsy for his silence - means giving up the new, professional-looking office he was planning to rent, and sending Kim, whom he wanted to join him as a partner at this office, right back into Howard Hamlin's good graces.
** Talking Tuco down from killing the skaters to breaking one leg apiece and being met with not only [[{{UngratefulBastard}} anger]] but the ensuing personal trauma and guilt.
** Calling the Kettlemans to warn them of danger which sent them on an ill-advised impromptu camping trip disguised as a kidnapping, which netted Jimmy a handsome bribe which he desperately needed but would later be forced to return, as well as the contempt of Nacho Varga. To make matters worse, the Kettlemans still refused to hire him.
** When Jimmy gets into Elder Law, he uncovers a massive case of fraud on his elderly clients. When he takes it to Chuck, Chuck convinces him to hand it over to ''his'' firm and then works to make sure that Jimmy won't get hired on anyway despite how much he proved himself. All because Chuck doesn't believe Jimmy's ever changed (or ever will change) from his "Slippin' Jimmy" days.
** Jimmy's father was a NiceGuy who liked to help people in trouble but was extremely naive about it. This made him a target of various grifters who took advantage of his charitable nature. Jimmy witnessed it all but was helpless to do anything about it. His concern for his father turned into resentment and Jimmy started StealingFromTheTill.
** [[spoiler:Ernesto is probably Jimmy's only real friend at HHM -- meaning Chuck sees him as a useful pawn against Jimmy. He uses Ernesto's NiceGuy nature to tip off Jimmy about the Mesa Verde tape's existence and lure him into committing the break-in. Then, because [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ernesto has served his purpose in the scheme]], Chuck unceremoniously fires him.]]
* NonActionGuy: Jimmy couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag, and often has to [[TalkingYourWayOut rely on his wits to get out of hairy situations]]. In "Bagman" we also see he is [[ConmenHateGuns terrified of guns]] and even struggles to use one in a desperate self-defence situation.
* NoodleIncident: Something happened to Chuck which caused him to develop his '[[YourMindMakesItReal allergy]]' to electromagnetism about two years ago, but the details are vague. One hint we get is that Jimmy thinks it's connected to his own behavior, getting worse when he suspects Jimmy of wrongdoing, though Chuck insists this is not the case.
* NoPoliceOption: Attempted to be exploited by Nacho, who robs people that he knows are criminals and thus they won't go to the police because if they do they will have their own misdeeds exposed in the ensuing investigation. The fact that it's "attempted" is because he then steals from Daniel Warmolt, a crook who is [[StupidCrooks so stupid]] that he does [[SpannerInTheWorks exactly what Nacho didn't wanted]] and does call the police, placing the two of them (and many other crooks) in trouble.
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore:
** It was almost a foregone conclusion since he doesn't appear in ''Series/BreakingBad'', but [[spoiler:Chuck's suicide]] hugely alters the dynamic of the show at the end of Season 3.
** [[spoiler:The murder of Howard Hamlin is the beginning of the end for the world of ''Better Call Saul''; Lalo dies hours after, Gus resumes construction of the underground lab uninhibited, HHM downsizes and is renamed, and Kim surrenders her law license and leaves Jimmy, leaving all the characters more or less where they are at the start of ''Series/BreakingBad'' after the TimeSkip.]]
* NothingPersonal: Like Chuck, Howard refuses to accept Jimmy as a partner in their firm, but unlike Chuck, that's simply because he doesn't feel Jimmy would make a good addition to their business. But he still recognises Jimmy as a good lawyer in his own right. Jimmy doesn't begrudge him for this. At least not until Howard starts punching down on Kim with Chuck's blessing.
* NotHyperbole: Among one of the teaser ads for Season 2, Jimmy is at a stop with a left (bright) and right (dark). Jimmy [[DefiantToTheEnd screws both]] and the camera pans to find a [[OhCrap cliff in that direction]]. According the directors in a post-interview, who were asked what direction they want the series they want to go on (after joking that they ''really had no idea what to do with the series and were just doing things to see if it works''), they remarked that they want the series to go ''off'' a cliff.
* NouveauRiche: Saul Goodman to a T. He lives in a gaudy mansion and wears the tackiest of suits all to project the image of wealth and success.
* NurtureOverNature: With the series finale, and Jimmy being [[spoiler: spurred on by Kim's honest confession, throwing away Saul and admitting both damage and sins]], the show answers the NatureVersusNurture question as "people aren't innately evil, that's just a convenient excuse for not changing." Even Chuck in a flashback is willing to believe that his brother can be better, [[IgnoredEpiphany if only for a moment]].
* OffTheWagon: Although he has been seen drinking socially without issues throughout the series, it seems [[spoiler:killing Werner has driven Mike back to alcoholism. [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in that it was never clear if his previous troubles with alcoholism were legitimate or merely [[ObfuscatingStupidity a ruse to catch Hoffman and Fenske off-guard]].]]
* OhCrap:
** Chuck's face at the end of "[=RICO=]" when he realizes that while he was distracted reading some papers, he had just spent the last minute or so outside and didn't feel a thing.
** "Plan and Execution": [[spoiler:Kim and Jimmy's faces when Lalo walks into their apartment and unexpectedly finds a drunken and upset Howard also there, and they realise they can't convince Howard this stranger is a serious danger to him and that he should leave immediately. We then get a further example in the look on Howard's face when he notices Lalo fitting a silencer to his pistol and reality finally dawns him just before Lalo [[BoomHeadshot shoots him in the head]].]]
* OldMaster: Mike may be retired and working as a parking lot attendant, but he shows his Cop-Fu is still much stronger than a couple of younger cops hoped it was.
* OldShame: An InUniverse example in "Cobbler". Jimmy is checking out his newly-delivered company car, feeling the quality and really savouring the moment. Until he notices it has a [[SunroofShenanigans sunroof]]...
* OminousHairLoss:
** In season 4 Jimmy starts losing hair a bit more rapidly and is seen fretting about it and noticing loose strands coming away. This follows [[spoiler:Chuck's death]] at the end of season 3, and the stress may be a cause.
** The season 6 episode "Fun and Games" [[spoiler:features a time jump from 2004 to approximately 2007, which reveals that Jimmy has lost a lot of hair over the course of just a few years. The stress of Jimmy and Kim's misadventures in season 6 may have taken their toll.]]
* OmnidisciplinaryLawyer: Played with as Jimmy has yet to specialize so he takes small and diverse jobs, from elder to defense and even patent law (until it turns out to be a creepy speaking toilet). Being a big law firm, HHM has lawyers specialized in criminal law and others for different fields like contract and banking law.
** Kim herself takes up public defender work when she begins to feel unsatisfied with her work for Mesa Verde.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: In the season six episode "Breaking Bad", we're re-treated to the scene from Saul's first episode when Walt and Jesse kidnap him to the desert. This time, we see it from his perspective, and with the full context, we now know that [[spoiler:he thought Lalo had finally come back to kill him after biding his time for so long, and Saul's desperately trying to tell him that he had nothing to do with Nacho betraying him. He has no idea that he's terrified of a man who's been dead for years]].
--> '''Saul''': [[CerebusRetcon OH NO NO NO NO NO! IT WASN'T ME, IT WAS IGNACIO! HE'S THE ONE-]]
* TheOner
** The episode "Fifi" begins with a complex tracking shot as a Regalo Helado truck passes through a border checkpoint, lasting 4:15. It has three disguised cuts.
** The episode "Plan and Execution" has a lengthy tracking shot of Jimmy, Kim, an actor, and the UNM film crew scrambling to stage a series of photos, albeit with a few disguised cuts.
* OneLastJob:
** After a wild week in Chicago with his old buddy Marco, Jimmy is eager to get home to his clients, when Marco asks if they can do one more Rolex scam. Marco suffers a heart attack during the scam and dies.
** [[spoiler:Jimmy pulls off an [[TheHeist elaborate heist]] to keep Jeff the cab driver from revealing his identity, roping Jeff into aiding him in robbing the mall where his Cinnabon is located.]]
* OneSteveLimit:
** Averted. There are two Marcos: Jimmy's con artist pal Marco Pasternak, and Marco Salamanca, one of the two Cousins. Both show up in the show, although Pasternak has died by the time the Cousins enter the plot and the Cousins are usually not referred to by their names anyway.
** There are also Brian Archuleta, a co-worker at Davis & Main, and Hugo Archuleta, a janitor working at [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White's school]]. No mention if there's a relation.
** In addition, in the flash-forward which opens the pilot, we see Jimmy working at a Cinnabon having assumed the name "Gene." In the cold-open of the episode "RICO," we see a flashback to Jimmy working in the mailroom at HHM, and one of the employees to whom he delivers mail is named Gene. Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Jimmy could have used the name as a tribute to him.
** And as with ''Breaking Bad'', there's Dr. Barry Goodman and Jimmy's alias "Saul Goodman".
* OnlyBadGuysCallTheirLawyers:
** A DiscussedTrope in "Uno". When the county treasurer Craig Kettleman is implicated for embezzling $1.6 million, Jimmy explains that what gets innocent people wrongly convicted is not understanding what makes you look guilty in the first place: it's the arrest, not your decision to lawyer up. He points out that the cops themselves often invoke this trope, to encourage people not to have a lawyer present during questioning. Without an attorney it's fairly easy for the police to twist what you said and get you convicted.
** Makes a more subtle second appearance in "Five-O", when Mike is questioned by police about the deaths of his deceased son's partners. They do their best to convince him he doesn't need legal counsel because he isn't under arrest, and seem disappointed that as a fellow police officer he isn't willing to cooperate with them by answering questions informally. Mike isn't fooled, and only replies with one word no matter what they say: "Lawyer." To take it a step further, he is guilty of the crime they're questioning him for: the revenge-murder of the two corrupt cops who set up his son Matthew to get killed.
** In "Cobbler", Daniel Wormald, a nerdish IT worker turned drug dealer who's been ripped off by Nacho, calls the cops to complain about his baseball card collection being stolen, but the cops quickly suspect that he's a drug dealer and start investigating ''him'' under the guise of investigating the burglary. Jimmy figures this out and Mike hires Jimmy to be Daniel's attorney. The cops are openly suspicious that a man who ''called'' the cops has an attorney present during questioning. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaHNB7DUm8g Jimmy ultimately has to come up with an outlandish justification]] for why the dealer is so protective of his privacy to throw the cops off the trail. The cops are [[RefugeInAudacity so stunned by the story]] (and the videos Jimmy forces Daniel to make) that they have no choice but to accept it.
** Lalo secures Saul as a lawyer to get Krazy-8 out of custody and negotiate a deal for the DEA to disrupt Gus' drop sites, and later takes on Saul as his attorney after Mike nudges the police to arrest him for Fred Whalen's murder.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Jimmy is very emotional and not afraid to show it. When he lays on a bit of the TranquilFury you know he's ''really'' angry.
* OpenHeartDentistry: Mike has to go to a veterinarian with [[BackAlleyDoctor criminal connections]] to get his bullet wound sewn up. Dr. Caldera lampshades this, saying that he can't provide a sling but can wrap a cone around Mike's head. [[spoiler: Later, Nacho has to do the same.]]
* OutGambitted: In "Switch," Jimmy and Kim pull a magnificent ploy against [[JerkAss Ken Wins]], by posing as two second-generation Central European immigrants trying to invest their non-existent uncle's inheritance money. They use the fake names they gave him to sign the papers he brought out, and immediately left the scene before he caught on. And for ''what'', exactly? It's all so he can [[MundaneUtility pay]] for their expensive bottle of Zafiro Añejo tequila.
* OutlawCouple: Jimmy and Kim's relationship has shades of this.
* OutOfFocus: After the Season 4 premiere which is centered around [[spoiler: Chuck's death]] and the immediate aftermath of it, Howard Hamlin has ''very'' minimal involvement throughout the rest of the season. His appearances only consist of short scenes scattered across four episodes. He has a minor subplot of [[spoiler: suffering from insomnia and struggling to keep HMM running as its reputation has diminished]] but it doesn't receive very much screen-time.
* ParkingProblems: A RunningGag is Saul clashing with Mike Ehrmantraut, the parking attendant at the courthouse, due to failing to collect the required number of parking validation stickers to have his parking fee waived. At one point, he reaches through the window of the booth to lift the barrier arm when Mike won't let him out without payment, causing him to be briefly barred from the car park. In another episode, he blocks the exit lane in protest and picks a fight with Mike, causing him to be arrested for assault.
* PercussivePickpocket: Played with. Huell uses this technique to plant a battery on Chuck before Jimmy's bar hearing.
* PetTheDog: For such a smarmy douche, Howard Hamlin has his moments.
** After Jimmy finds out that it was Chuck, not Howard, who stonewalled his career at HHM, Howard becomes much more friendly to Jimmy. He and Kim also put in a good word for Jimmy at Davis & Main.
** Howard does it again in the second season to Kim. After punishing Kim for Jimmy's screw-up and ultimately driving her out of the firm, Howard reacts to her decision with grace, casually waves off her remaining debt to the firm, and compliments her.
** [[spoiler:After Chuck threatens to sue HHM, knowing full well that the suit against his own firm would render it insolvent, Howard buys out Chuck's share using money from his own funds (and putting himself into debt in the process) in order to protect the firm and the people working there. He also gives Chuck a well-deserved ReasonYouSuckSpeech criticizing how he put his vendetta against Jimmy above HHM's best interests.]]
** [[spoiler:He does it more than once in "Smoke", urging Jimmy not to look at Chuck's body in the coroner's van, and calling Jimmy to have him approve the obituary HHM plans to print before Chuck's funeral. He also confesses to Jimmy and Kim about the role he thinks he played in Chuck's suicide, but Jimmy throws it back in his face and Kim accuses him of passive-aggressively pushing guilt onto Jimmy.]]
* PhoneyCall: In "Marco" Jimmy and Marco pull their [[ViolinScam "Kennedy Half-Dollar" scam]] on an unsuspecting bar patron. In order to convince their mark that the coin is valuable Marco has loud conversation with a "coin dealer" on the bar's telephone. Their poor mark isn't close enough to hear that he has actually called the speaking clock.
* PhonyDegree: Jimmy got his law degree from correspondence courses from The University of American Samoa. Jimmy insists that the school is actually accredited, but it's strongly implied that the school is just a shady diploma mill with rock-bottom standards. Chuck reveals that he feels Jimmy's degree has no legitimacy, and it's a major reason for him undermining Jimmy's legal career.
* PlaceWorseThanDeath: Jimmy really grows to hate the New Mexico desert. He already doesn’t like it, preferring the coldness of Cicero and calling it a barren wasteland, but all through his own shit choices, he gets himself kidnapped and brought out there, nearly tortured and has to convince Tuco to not kill the two skateboarders, is ambushed when he’s picking up bail money for Lalo and develops PTSD from the ensuing shoot-out as well as the trek he and Mike have to go on, and so when the OnceMoreWithClarity scene in the “Breaking Bad” episode happens, it’s really no wonder he’s screaming to do this anywhere but the desert.
* PlaceboEffect: Chuck suffers from the exact opposite: Nocebo Effect. Chuck has electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which studies (and the occasional InUniverse spotlight) have never shown to be anything more than in the subject's head.
* PlausibleDeniability: In "Five-O", before Mike executes his plan to murder the two corrupt cops, he tells the bartender that he's leaving for Albuquerque the next day to establish that he was already planning on going there.
* PoorCommunicationKills:
** A lot of people in Albuquerque wouldn't have been killed in ''Breaking Bad'' if Chuck just told Jimmy there was no place for him in HHM the first time Jimmy asked him about it.
** Chuck's situation wasn't really clarified enough to HHM. Howard sending Ernesto to Chuck implies that had they known the severe extent of it, they would have intervened to help out.
** Jimmy not getting authorization to run his TV ad from the Davis & Main partners, even though he had plenty of opportunity to do so. This bites him in the ass when the partners find out and are furious, and gets him very close to being terminated (the partners vote 2 to 1 in favor of terminating Jimmy, but Cliff votes to spare him with the understanding that Jimmy will be under closer scrutiny).
** The tragedy of Jimmy and Chuck, and hinted by the show, confirmed by [[https://ew.com/tv/better-call-saul-bob-odenkirk-on-series-finale/ Bob]] and [[https://ew.com/tv/better-call-saul-finale-cover-story/ Michael]], that they’ve been doing this since their childhood. If they had ever actually talked and grabbed the olive branches that they could occasionally give each other, whether it was Jimmy genuinely attempting to be better or Chuck trying to not be a BigBrotherBully, then things could have been different.
** While they eventually get better and reconcile, and genuinely are good together ([[DestructiveRomance mostly]]), this is the bug in Jimmy and Kim’s relationship. They’re coming from similar damage and are very insecure, and both resent actually talking about their feelings, so when their relationship gets into a bit of a lull like all long-term relationships do, Jimmy will assume it’s over and he’s blown his chance, or Kim gets freaked and make things exciting with a scam.
* PopCulturedBadass: Like his portrayal in ''Breaking Bad'', Jimmy makes a lot of pop culture references in his everyday dialogue.
* PosthumousCharacter:
** Mike's son Matty, whose death was a driving element in the plot of "Five-O", never showed up on-camera.
** Jimmy and Chuck's father, whose death Chuck blames, at least in part, on Jimmy's behavior.
** George Hamlin, Howard's father and one of HHM's named partners, is dead by the beginning of the show, leaving Howard and Chuck in charge of the firm.
* PrankingMontage: The episode "Inflatable" features a montage of Jimmy deliberately annoying and pranking his co-workers in a bid to get himself fired and keep the big bonus he'd forfeit by quitting. We see him intentionally spill coffee on a client, pretend not to know a Latino co-worker speaks English, repeatedly leave the toilet unflushed, and coming to work the whole time in garishly colored outfits that make everyone at the firm look ridiculous.
* PrecisionFStrike: AMC's limits on swearing and sex mean the F-bombs are used sparingly and to great effect:
** Jimmy calls Howard a pig-fucker in "Pimento", then repeats the insult when he apologizes in the following episode.
** In "Gloves Off", Tuco says it when Mike hits his parked car.
** In [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS4E6Pinata Piñata]], Howard to Jimmy, in response to Jimmy's TheReasonYouSuck speech.
** In "Wexler V. Goodman", Kim delivers the same line as above after Jimmy makes her the sucker in front of her employer.
** In "JMM", Saul to Howard during his FreakOut at the courthouse.
** In "Rock and Hard Place", [[spoiler:Nacho to Hector while revealing he's the one who put him in his wheelchair.]]
** In "Axe and Grind", Jimmy screams it after learning [[spoiler:the mediator is wearing a cast, foiling their plans]].
** In "Fun and Games", Jimmy uses it to refer to Lalo [[spoiler:when he's trying to convince Kim not to quit the law]].
* PresentDayPast[=/=]AnachronismStew:
** The first episode takes place in 2002, but in the scene where the skaters are following what they think is their target car, you can see a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited JK and a third generation Toyota Prius on the road, these vehicles were not available until 2007 and 2009 respectively. Understandably, it's not too uncommon to see other background cars of late 2000s and 2010s makes and models. But, seeing as the general design of cars hasn't changed much since the time the show is set, only a few people will notice.
** Jimmy's Suzuki Esteem is treated as a beat-up old clunker. In 2002, that car would have been five years old at most. Incidentally, it'd only be about two years older than the Cadillac sedan that Jimmy drives in ''Breaking Bad'', which is a 1999 model.
** There are a couple of stock timelapse shots of Chicago during the montage of scams in "Marco." In one of them, you can see the Trump International Hotel and Tower, the construction of which did not begin until 2005, three years after the scene is supposedly meant to take place.
** Tuco's gun is a "Raging Judge", which wasn't made until 2010.
** In "Chicanery", a bag of Wonderful Pistachios can be seen in the vending machine outside of the courtroom. The brand was known as Paramount Farms at the time.
** The New Mexico Rail Runner didn't begin operation until 2006, making Mike's arrival to Albuquerque via that train in 2002 anachronistic (not to mention he should be arriving on Amtrak's ''Southwest Chief'', given he's coming straight from Pennsylvania).
** In Season 5 Episode 8, a robber is armed with a MP7A1 sub machine gun, which would not be commercially available in 2004 even if the Mexican black market would somehow procure the model. It has not finished development yet.
** A minor one in "Bingo": During a call with Kim, Jimmy refers to the Kettleman case as "[[Film/TwentyFifthHour The 25th Hour]] starring [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Ned and Maude Flanders]]". ''25th Hour'' wasn't released until December of 2002 and this episode took place during the summer of that year so there is no way Jimmy or Kim could have seen that movie at that time. However, with Jimmy and Kim both being avid movie watchers, there's a possibility they were aware of the film's premise from trailers or other media.
* PretentiousLatinMotto: Jimmy's school where he got his degree, the University of American Somoa, has one. It fits his personality well. "Aut inveniam viam aut faciam."[[labelnote:translation]]"I shall either find a way or make one"[[/labelnote]]
* ProfaneLastWords: [[spoiler:Nacho Varga's]] last words to his captors are a long and hate-fueled rant towards [[spoiler:the entire Salamanca family, ending with him revealing to Hector that he sabotaged his heart meds and saying that any time he thinks about how much he hates his current life]]:
--> ''You think of me, you twisted '''fuck'''''.
* ProperlyParanoid: Chuck immediately suspects that Jimmy sabotaged his Mesa Verde paperwork. He's right.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain:
** Jimmy's path and descent to becoming Saul mirrors how Walter White descended to becoming Heisenberg; how a man who's had aspirations to do good becomes rotten in the process.
** If it wasn't enough, final episodes revealed how Saul can descend even further in the immoral despicable conman "Viktor".
** The series slowly becomes a {{Deuteragonist}}'s journey to villain, as [[spoiler: Kim progresses from sporadically acting as the stooge for Jimmy's cons to an aider and abettor first, to co-conspirator later and finally to a criminal mastermind in her own right]].
* PyrrhicVictory:
** [[spoiler:In season 3, Jimmy may have avoided disbarment from the disciplinary hearing, but that doesn't stop him from being suspended from law practice for one year, cutting off his main source of income. On the other hand, even though Chuck managed to get Jimmy (temporarily) out of the law, his mental illness has been publicly outed and his reputation is ruined as a result of the hearing. And he never recovers it.]]
** [[spoiler: In season 6 Kim and Jimmy's scheme to discredit Howard and bring about an an early settlement of the Sandpiper case goes entirely to plan. This secures their 20% share of the substantial payout earlier than planned, but it also indirectly leads to Howard's murder at the hands of Lalo. The near-death experience is so traumatizing that Kim leaves Jimmy over it the night after Howard's memorial.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R-Z]]
* RaceAgainstTheClock: In "Point and Shoot" [[spoiler:Kim has one hour to kill Gus, photograph his corpse, and bring the proof to Lalo before he executes Saul. {{Subverted}} in that Lalo doesn't actually expect her to succeed, and leaves the apartment to enact the next part of his plan as soon as she leaves.]]
* RealVehicleReveal: After Jimmy loses the "sex with a severed head" case in the pilot, he is seen walking across the courthouse parking lot towards a white 1999 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, the car he will drive in ''Breaking Bad''... only for the camera to pan as Jimmy gets into his actual car, in the space next to the Cadillac: [[TheAllegedCar a beat-up yellow 1997 Suzuki Esteem.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** When Nacho threatens Jimmy for ratting him out to the Kettlemans, Jimmy strikes back by flooding him with all the [[StupidCrooks textbook mistakes]] he's made.
** Chuck to Jimmy at the end of "Pimento."
--->'''Chuck [=McGill=]:''' You're not a real lawyer! "University of American Samoa," for Christ's sake? An online course? What a joke. I worked my ass off to get where I am, and you take these shortcuts and you think suddenly you're my ''peer''? You do what I do because you're funny and you can make people ''laugh''? I committed my ''life'' to this! You don't slide into it like a cheap pair of slippers and then reap all the rewards!\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' I thought you were proud of me.\\
'''Chuck [=McGill=]:''' I was. When you straightened out and got a job in the mailroom, I was very proud.\\
'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' So that's it then, right? Keep old Jimmy down in the mailroom. He's not good enough to be a lawyer.\\
'''Chuck [=McGill=]:''' I ''know'' you. I know what you were, what you are. People don't change. You're "Slippin' Jimmy." And "Slippin' Jimmy" I can handle just fine but "Slippin' Jimmy" with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun. The law is sacred! If you abuse that power, people get hurt. This is not a game. You have to know on some level, I know you know I'm right. You know I'm right!
** In "Nailed," Kim tells Chuck that he's always looked down on Jimmy and now blames him for his own failure. Subverted, as both she and the audience know that Chuck's accusations that prompted the speech are actually 100% true. But that it was Chuck's prior prejudices against Jimmy that caused him to become Slippin' Jimmy are also true.
** In "Lantern," [[spoiler:Howard points out to Chuck how he has put his personal grudges above the well-being of the firm he founded, which has led him to threaten a breach-of-contract lawsuit that the firm can't afford at the mere suggestion that he retire.]]
** In "Breathe," [[spoiler:Kim lets loose on Howard when she learns that Chuck pretty much short-changed Jimmy in his will. She specifically attacks Howard for having self-serving ulterior motives for telling Jimmy about his theory that Chuck killed himself, and for expecting Jimmy to sift through the charred ruins of the house where his brother died.]]
** In "Wiedersehen", [[spoiler:Jimmy and Kim give one to each other after Jimmy is told that his suspension from practicing law will be extended -- Kim for Jimmy's ungratefulness for all the times she has helped bail him out of trouble, and Jimmy for the way Kim uses his "Slippin' Jimmy" schemes for cheap thrills.]]
** In "Wexler v. Goodman", [[spoiler:Kim rips into Jimmy for going back on his word and showing the blackmail video/commercial during the meeting with Mesa Verde, calling him out for making her the "sucker" in his ploy. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that Kim, rather than ending their relationship as it's implied she's about to do, [[BaitAndSwitch instead suggests that they get married]].]]
** In "Plan and Execution", [[spoiler:Howard realizes that Kim was an active participant in Saul's plot to end the Sandpiper case, and he calls them out for doing their scheme ForTheEvulz.]]
** [[spoiler:Gus delivers one to Don Eladio, and the Salamanca family, while stalling so he can KillTheLights and shoot Lalo.]]
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Kim avoids this by the skin of her teeth when the Kettlemans fire her, being sent by Howard to the East Wing, or what Jimmy calls [[Literature/ItsAGoodLife "the cornfield."]] She gets assigned later to document review after viewing the ad that Jimmy had had aired without authorization.
* RedHerring:
** Howard Hamlin is set up as the season one antagonist, but it turns out that Chuck is the one who's actually blocking Jimmy's career.
** [[spoiler:Kai's]] abrasive personality will lead many viewers to see him as a liability to the [[spoiler: meth lab construction crew]], but in reality the liability is the affable [[spoiler: Werner, who first drunkenly reveals details of the project to strangers in a bar, and later breaks security protocol to arrange a rendezvous with his wife.]]
** [[spoiler: Kim comes across as a pragmatic and morally conscientious person who initially takes Jimmy to task for his missteps giving the impression that at some point Jimmy will cross a line that Kim won't be able to forgive him for and her rejection will lead to him becoming Saul. Ultimately, she reveals an unethical side of herself and she breaks with Jimmy due to disgust with her own behavior.]] It’s also revealed earlier that she ''likes'' Saul Goodman when she sees it as a comforting turn-on [[note]]until Lalo calls her “Mrs Goodman”[[/note]], and was the one to encourage the car, the office, the “I’ll fight for you” CatchPhrase, the flamboyant clothes and going further into criminality.
* RedemptionRejection: Jimmy learns at the end of Season 1 that Chuck, not Howard, kept him out of HHM. However, Jimmy then gets another offer to possibly become partner at a prestigious firm Chuck has no control over. But because of Chuck's disrespect and his time working with Marco again, Jimmy decides he doesn't want to be reformed after all.
* ReformedButRejected:
** The main plot of Season 1, as eventually revealed in "Pimento". Jimmy puts his "Slippin' Jimmy" past behind him, starts a new specialty in elder law, and winds up uncovering a massive fraud/racketeering case. It should have been his ticket to a great career as a lawyer, but Chuck doesn't respect him and can't forget his "Slippin' Jimmy" past, so he torpedoes Jimmy's career by refusing to let HHM hire him.
** In the season 4 episode "Winner" we meet Kristy Esposito, a student who is interviewed for the HHM scholarship. She is ultimately rejected because of a shoplifting conviction. The one committee member who casts a vote in her favour is Jimmy, who sees her as someone being unfairly penalised for having made one mistake in their youth- in short, he sees a lot of himself in her. Her rejection is a painful reminder that to some he will always be seen as a lowlife and refused a second chance no matter how hard he works.
* RefugeInAudacity:
** Jimmy's use of the "Squat Cobbler" defense to throw police suspicion off of Daniel Wormald works because the story is so ridiculous that the police believe that there's no way Jimmy could make it up. It also helps that Jimmy even bullies Daniel into making an ''actual'' Squat Cobbler video to satisfy the cops.
** Kim's scam involving a phony show of support and the threat of a fictitious media circus in "Coushatta" to get the assistant district attorney to plea bargain Huell to time served with probation (when she'd been seeking a multi-year sentence).
** How does Saul manage to disarm a belligerent old man like Mr. Acker so that he can convince him to pursue legal action against Mesa Verde? By showing him an ''incredibly'' obscene photo. And it works.
--->'''Saul:''' Sir, if you would just, just -- please, just take a look at my proposal? Okay? Because I think you'll find it persuasive.\\
'''Acker:''' I don't want it!\\
'''Saul:''' Just LOOK at it, sir. Just look. What do you see?\\
''[Acker looks down at the "proposal", then at Saul again with horrified disbelief, then back at the picture]''\\
'''Acker:''' ''[Voice breaking, in shock]'' A man...\\
''[Saul nods, encouragingly]''\\
'''Acker:''' ...F-fuckin' a horse.\\
'''Saul:''' Sir, I HATE Mesa Verde. I HATE them. Looking down at us from their glass tower -- they think they can shit on whoever they want, and we just have to smile and say 'thank you'? Look, picture me as the man, and Mesa Verde as the horse. I'm the guy who'll do whatever it TAKES to stick it to them.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Throughout season 1 it is strongly implied that Kim and Jimmy were previously romantically involved- and that they may still have feelings for one another. In the season 2 opener "Switch" they kiss and then sleep together, but Kim refuses to lend Jimmy her toothbrush despite Jimmy's protest that "our germs have already intermingled". In "Nailed" a close-up shot reveals a second toothbrush has appeared in Kim's bathroom, telling us that Jimmy has moved in with her.
* ReplacedTheThemeTune: In order to avoid SoundtrackDissonance, certain episodes drop the bluesy, suitably sleazy outro theme with silence or a more somber piece of music. They are [[spoiler:"Lantern", "Rock and Hard Place", "Plan and Execution", and "Point and Shoot", all due to a major CharacterDeath, as well as "Nippy", "Breaking Bad", "Waterworks", and "Saul Gone", all being Gene Takavic-related episodes]].
* ResolvedNoodleIncident: Saul’s panicked begging in his [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E8BetterCallSaul intro episode]] that it wasn’t him, it was Ignacio, and thinking Lalo has come to kill him, gets resolved ''thirteen years later'' with “[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E8PointAndShoot Point and Shoot]]” (and all the events leading up to it) [[spoiler:where, after [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS6E7PlanAndExecution indirectly getting Howard killed]] and making Kim leave, he gets tied up by Lalo who tells him all about [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS5E10SomethingUnforgivable Nacho’s betrayal with the compound]] and - [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS5E9BadChoiceRoad as he remembers Jimmy lying to him about the desert]] - thinks Jimmy helped, and promises he’ll come back so they can “talk”]]. Years later, even with “Saul Goodman” running the show and Jimmy shoved way down, a part of him will always be trapped in that moment.
* RetiredBadass: Mike is a retired cop with decades of experience. His comments about military rifles in "Gloves Off" also heavily imply that he's a Vietnam veteran. This history goes a long way to explaining his unflappable badass tendencies.
* TheReveal:
** Howard wasn't the one keeping Jimmy out of HHM all those years. [[spoiler: It was Chuck]].
** Jimmy's rant in "Marco" reveals what a "Chicago sunroof" is: shitting though the sunroof of a car, preferably when there aren't children sitting in the backseat.
** Chuck folding back a space blanket to reveal [[spoiler: a tape recorder, which he has used to tape Jimmy's confession to the Mesa Verde address swap]].
* RevolversAreJustBetter:
** Within the cartel, Tuco and Hector's truck driver use revolvers as their primary guns. Tuco uses a Taurus Raging Judge [=M513=], while the truck driver sports a Llama Comanche.
** Though Mike does occasionally use semi-automatics (like when Hector's men break into his house), his primary sidearm is a Smith & Wesson Model 629 Performance Center.
* RiseAndFallGangsterArc:
** The show essentially charts the rise and fall of Saul Goodman as we see him in ''Breaking Bad''--a successful [[AmoralAttorney mob lawyer]], criminal-for-hire and local celebrity. The struggling Jimmy [=McGill=] is Saul on the rise, and the paranoid and depressed Gene Takavic is Saul after the fall.
** We also get this for Mike, showing how he went from a cop working the beat at Philadelphia to [[TheDragon Gus' righthand enforcer]] in Albuquerque. We already see his "fall" in ''Breaking Bad'', so it's a matter of seeing where he came from and why he went down his path.
** By Season 3 onwards, we start getting this for Nacho. He goes from [[NumberTwo accompanying the leader of the Salamancas' Albuquerque branch]] with his own pettier agenda to [[spoiler:getting promoted by Don Eladio on Lalo's recommendation]], all under [[spoiler:Gus' manipulations as a double agent]] while trying to get himself ''out'' of the game.
* RomanticCandlelitDinner:
** In a flashback at the start of "Chicanery," Chuck sets up a romantic candlelit dinner with his ex-wife, claiming that the electricity went out so he decided to make an event of it. In reality, he hadn't been using electricity for some time due to a psychosomatic illness, but didn't want her to find out. This in spite of Jimmy's attempt to convince him to just tell the truth.
** Jimmy and Kim have one in the season 5 finale while laying low at a hotel to hide from Lalo.
* {{Roofhopping}}: Done by Nacho to retrieve a drug cache in a building that is actively being raided by the police, much to Lalo's amusement.
* RuleOfSymbolism:
** Jimmy's large, garish thermos does not fit into his practical, luxury Davis & Main car. He eventually leaves the company, calling himself a "square peg" and saying that the company wasn't a "good fit" for him.
** "Quite A Ride" reveals that the Saul Goodman office walls are fake and you can hide what you need behind it, just like Saul is a facade for Jimmy to lie down and die behind.
** In "The Guy for This," Kim is clearly uncomfortable with Jimmy's placement of a beer bottle on the narrow rail of their third-floor balcony, symbolizing her discomfort with his unethical approach to law. Later, after Kim does the right thing for a stubborn client and is rebuffed and insulted anyway, she lobs beer bottles off the balcony, and Jimmy gleefully joins her.
** In "Point and Shoot", [[spoiler:Lalo Salamanca and Howard Hamlin are buried next to each other, symbolizing how the previously separate legal and criminal stories the show ran on have now permanently merged together due to their deaths]].
** In “Breaking Bad” (the episode, not the show), the open grave that Jesse and Walt dug for Saul transitions into Gene lying in bed, momentarily in the grave himself, and the whole episode pinpoints how in any identity, Jimmy will respond to pain he can’t deal with by making self-destructive choices, i.e digging his own grave.
* RulesLawyer: Doesn't matter what excuse you make, you're not getting past Mike's booth unless you've got the right amount of cash or validation stickers.
** After getting a job at Madrigal to launder his illegal money, Mike applies his same details-oriented work ethic there.
* RunningGag:
** Jimmy having problems with Mike being such a strict enforcer of the parking validation rules at the courthouse.
** The show continues the ''Series/BreakingBad'' tradition of people with [[VanityLicensePlate personalized license plates]] being assholes, this time with Daniel Wormald's garish Hummer H2 baring a "PLAYUH" plate and Howard changing his license plate to [="NAMAST3"=] after accepting [[spoiler:Chuck's suicide]].
** Almost every PrecisionFStrike is either directed at Howard Hamlin or said by Howard himself.
* SadClown: With complicated baggage from his family history, inner turmoil stirring the more the series progresses from one traumatic event to another, and his desire to keep pushing forward while snarking his way through, Jimmy is ''very'' much this.
* SatelliteLoveInterest: Jimmy’s first two wives. The first one serves as an excuse for the Chicago Sunroof incident, and they could be assumed to be short marriages when Jimmy was younger, but they’re never seen or mentioned more than a couple of times, Jimmy’s OneTrueLove being Kim, and despite being cheated on twice, the main fault for his desperately craving affection and low self esteem is shown to be Chuck.
* SavedByCanon:
** Gus, Mike, Tuco and Hector all die during ''Breaking Bad'', but since they show up here, we know they'll survive this show.
** As tense as Chuck's scheme to get Jimmy disbarred can seem, we know Jimmy will still be practicing law by the end of the series. And no matter what situation Jimmy finds himself in, we know he'll live long enough to become Saul (and later, "Gene Takavic").
* ScrewDestiny: It’s a prequel, so Jimmy [=McGill=] was always doomed to become Saul Goodman, and for a long time, he’s hellbent on proving everyone right about him, turning into his own Heisenberg with his sociopathic Viktor St. Claire identity, but he realises at the end that he doesn’t have to stay [[spoiler: “like a chimp with a machine gun”, and spurred on by love for Kim and wanting to make her proud, goes back to being himself, now with added taking responsibility and not both shoving down trauma while using it as an excuse]].
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules:
** When Jimmy sees the money that the Kettlemans are accused of stealing, they try to bribe him to not mention it to anybody. Jimmy repeatedly insists that he cannot accept a bribe, but is willing to accept a ''retainer'' for his legal services. [[SubvertedTrope The Kettlemans still do not hire Jimmy, and he does eventually accept the bribe money]], [[DoubleSubverted but then he goes to his office and calculates out how much he would have actually charged them for his work as a lawyer, spending only the money that he "earned".]]
** [[spoiler:As revealed in "Waterworks", Kim refused her share of the Sandpiper settlement after what happened with Lalo and Howard]].
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction:
** Nacho makes his introduction in "Mijo," the second episode of season 1.
** Gus makes his introduction in "Witness," the second episode of season 3.
* SequelEscalation: Downplayed. After six seasons, ''Better Call Saul'' [[GrandFinale will end]] with 63 episodes, exactly one more than [[Series/BreakingBad its predecessor]].
* SerenadeYourLover: For part of season 2 Jimmy moves out of Kim's apartment in Albuquerque and into his Davis & Main corporate apartment in Santa Fe. He serenades her daily by calling her landline and singing to her answerphone- the episode "Bali Ha'i" is named after [[Theatre/SouthPacific one of his song choices]]. His singing is [[GiftedlyBad dreadful]] but Kim finds his attempts endearing.
* SexualKarma: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. After Kim leaves Jimmy and scamming behind and starts to do everything by the book, with her new LoveInterest Glen being similarly law-abiding and honest. Their sex life however is portrayed as passionless due to Glen being a [[GoodIsBoring unexciting man]] and a [[LousyLoversAreLosers lousy lover]], in direct contrast to the time she had with the amoral Jimmy, whom she had a passionate and healthy sex life with a PowerDynamicsKink.
* SexyDiscretionShot: The show features several of these, possibly due to AMC's restrictions on sex and swearing in their productions:
** In "Switch," Jimmy ropes Kim into conning KEN WINS. After conning him, they slip out, giggle over their conquest, and kiss. Cut to commercial break. We come back and it's clear that they did the deed at Kim's apartment.
** The same thing happens in "Coushatta" after the ADA caves to Kim's plea offer for Huell. Jimmy follows Kim into the stairwell to ask how it's turned out. She answers by dropping her briefcase, shoving Jimmy against a wall, and kissing him. Next scene is them in bed, limbs tangled together, Jimmy doing his "Southern pastor" voice.
** "Plan and Execution" features a close-up shot of a flip phone which is covertly dialled in to an HHM meeting. In the background, an out-of-focus Kim and Jimmy are making love on the couch, evidently turned on by the success of their scam.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Of the frustrated variety. Jimmy stocks Chuck up with a few days' worth of supplies before confronting him, and leaves him to care for himself after confirming Chuck's hand in secretly preventing him from getting ahead.
* SeinfeldianConversation: [[spoiler:Hank and Gomez]] engage in these in both of their season 5 appearances, debating about [[spoiler:Marie]]'s picky habits over expired food when coming to interview Krazy-8 in jail, and having a similar dispute about the origins of the word 'culvert'.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: It's debatable whether Chuck's criticisms of Jimmy's lack of ethics have driven Jimmy into becoming an unethical attorney. Jimmy seems to want to do right by his brother and is crushed when Chuck says that he'll always be Slippin' Jimmy, but we also see that Jimmy returns to his shady ways even when handed the perfect opportunity to go straight. By the time Jimmy [[spoiler: becomes Saul Goodman for real]], the show confirmed both points were true, Jimmy is a man over forty responsible for his own often spiteful choices, but Chuck’s constant little digs at his self esteem and thinking he was worthless, didn’t help in the slightest.
* SexualKarma: Inverted:
** Kim and Jimmy have a healthy sex life and have many cute domestic moments, but they mostly bang when EvilFeelsGood, literally having sex to the Sandpiper meeting falling apart. The crew have likened them to two addicts, still very much in love but having the most fun when they’re causing trouble. To contrast, "Waterworks" [[spoiler:shows Kim in her new life with her new partner Glenn. He's a mundane man and a [[LousyLoversAreLosers lousy lover]] who calls out "Yep. Yep. Yep." during their passionless and mechanical sex sessions. It's apparent that Kim was having a lot more fun with Jimmy]].
** Howard Hamlin is a decent guy trapped in a sexless marriage.
* ShootTheBuilder: Gus ends up having his lab architect killed. Downplayed, since Gus had no plans to kill him from the beginning and only did so once Werner showed he could not be trusted (first by speaking a little too freely while drunk at a bar, and then by actively sneaking out to rendezvous with his wife).
* ShootTheShaggyDog: Mike convinced his son, Matty, not to go to internal affairs (in fear of having him killed by other cops) and to just take the bribe from his corrupt partners. They killed Matty anyway since his initial reluctance made them fear he would rat them out.
* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/BetterCallSaul Has its own page.]]
* ShownTheirWork:
** During "Marco," Jimmy tells Marco that he plans on catching a Cubs game and getting a hot dog at Henry's. That's an actual Cicero area establishment, Henry’s Hot Dogs of Cicero on Ogden Avenue.
** With such an emphasis on his IdentityBreakdown, all the masks, and how he doesn't really know his true self and will keep stealing from everyone important to him, Jimmy's been praised as a character who is written and played like people who do actually understand dissociation as a disorder/coping response. Also helps that it's not an excuse for the incredibly bad choices he makes and the damage he's done, just part of an explanation.
* SignatureShot: Most (if not all) episodes include at least one shot of a character's face reflected in a mirror or another shiny surface. This device is even used for Jimmy's EstablishingCharacterMoment, a MirrorMonologue in the very first episode.
* SignificantAnagram: If you rearrange the first letter of the title of every episode in Season 2, the result could be welcome news to ''Series/BreakingBad'' fans, as well as a hint towards the identity of the person who [[spoiler:leaves Mike a note warning him against killing Hector Salamanca]] in the Season 2 finale. [[spoiler:Fring's back.]]
* ASimplePlan:
** Jimmy's plan to get hired as the Kettlemans' lawyer seems simple and foolproof. The skaters will pull a StagedPedestrianAccident on Mrs. Kettleman and Jimmy will 'just happen' to be driving by and able to come to her rescue. She will be grateful to Jimmy and impressed by his skill as a lawyer and will then tell her husband to hire Jimmy to represent him in his embezzlement case. Unfortunately, the skaters FailedASpotCheck and targeted the wrong car, which just happened to belong to [[AxCrazy Tuco Salamanca]]'s grandma.
** Jimmy [[spoiler:ratting out Chuck to HHM's insurer]] was probably just a petty, spur-of-the-moment decision simply meant to get back at Chuck over his suspension. [[spoiler:[[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom But it's this decision that gradually snowballs and leads to Chuck's relapse and suicide]].]]
** A drive down to the border to pick up the bail money for Lalo should be the simplest milk run conceivable, right? That is, until he's ambushed by another gang on the way back, is only saved from certain death by Mike, and then they have to spend two days hiking their way back to civilization.
* SlippingAMickey: In "Something Unforgivable" Kim considers drugging Howard before shaving his hair off. In season 6 she and Jimmy implement a plot which involves [[spoiler:drugging Howard with a substance absorbed through the skin]]. Later in season 6, [[spoiler:Viktor identifies bar patrons as marks before Jeff the cab driver drugs them with water laced with barbiturates]].
* SlobsVersusSnobs: Jimmy and Kim versus Chuck and Howard. Jimmy and Kim grew up poor (as did Chuck, but he grew up to be a highly respected lawyer who could be helped when he was broke), Jimmy having to take PD cases at the start of the series so he doesn’t starve and Kim still carrying around the childhood dread of having to stay ahead of the landlord, and they resent Chuck and Howard for having a seemingly charmed existence.
* SlutShaming: For a guy who is in a committed relationship five seasons out of six, is the one who got cheated ''on'' (twice) and adores his current partner, almost everyone seems to think Jimmy is a slut. Chuck firmly believes his brother ruined his marriage, Marco thinks him having clients means he’s a gigolo, Mike assumes Kim will think him not coming home means he's catting around, and Lalo calls him Spanish for gay prostitute. No wonder Saul ReallyGetsAround as a coping mechanism, with even Jimmy in season four thinking all he's good for is a quick lay.
* SnarkingThanks: Howard's response to Kim when she visits his office to argue that HHM is being unfair to Jimmy in "Pimento":
-->'''Howard''': Want to know what I believe? I believe that you're way out of your depth in this matter. So the next time that you want to come in here and tell me what I'm doing wrong, you are welcome to keep it to yourself. Because I ''don't care''.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Numerous examples:
** "Mabel": The DeliberatelyMonochrome flashforward to Jimmy's life as "Gene" is soundtracked with ''Sugar Town'' by Music/NancySinatra. While this clearly refers to an ingredient of Cinnabons, the lyrics about living a carefree life are wildly at odds with the portrayal of Gene becoming so stressed he collapses.
** "Bagman": The cold open shows The Cousins delivering Lalo's bail money to a garage where two Salamanca associates and frantically scrubbing a car's upholstery of blood stains. This scene is soundtracked with the upbeat love ballad ''Dejame Quererte'' ("Let Me Love You") by César Castro And His Group.
** "Axe and Grind": ''A Dreamer's Holiday'' by Perry Como at first appears a good fit for Howard's racks of Hamlindigo Blue suits, knitted ties and and expensive cufflinks. As the scene goes on however we see Howard is getting dressed for work in a sparsely-furnished guest bedroom, into which he has hurriedly moved his personal belongings following the breakdown of his marriage. This is another example of a song about carefree living playing over the actions of a very stressed and lonely man.
* SplashOfColor:
** In the opening DeliberatelyMonochrome flashforward, the reflection of the TV playing Saul's commercials in his glasses is the only color.
** The [[https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/2022/03/10/7d0bf2f6-d1df-40b9-927a-8a03441541eb/better-call-saul-season-6-key-art.jpg season 6 key art]] features a monochrome image of Gene putting on a bright red suit jacket.
* SpinoffBabies: The animated prequel series, ''Slippin' Jimmy'', follows the adventures of Jimmy and Marco as childhood best friends and precocious con artists in Cicero.
* SpousalPrivilege: The reason [[spoiler:Kim marries Jimmy]] in "JMM".
* StagedPedestrianAccident:
** Jimmy earned the nickname "Slippin' Jimmy" for his expertise at this racket. He goes back to his old ways in Season 3 to extort two music store owners who are refusing to pay him, through the use of strategically placed drumsticks on the floor.
** The two skaters try to pull this scam on Jimmy. He then hires them to pull it on the wife of a potential big client so Jimmy can come to the rescue. They end up accidentally pulling it on Tuco Salamanca's grandmother, who drives a very similar looking car, and this ends badly for them.
* StalkerShot:
** As one of Gus' top men, Victor is tasked to track and follow certain people to keep tabs on them:
*** In Season 4 "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS4E1Smoke Smoke]]", Nacho goes to a bridge to dispose of [[spoiler: the pills that caused Hector to have his stroke]]. When Nacho thinks he's safe, the camera cuts to show a different view of the bridge and the camera zooms out to reveal Victor sitting in his car watching Nacho from a distance and it's revealed he has a tracker installed on Nacho's truck so he's able to follow his movements.
*** In Season 5 "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS5E9BadChoiceRoad Bad Choice Road]]", after Lalo is done visiting Hector at the retirement home and he gets into the car with Nacho in the parking lot, as they depart, the camera cuts to Victor, who is parked several spots away from them, tracking their movements with the tracker that's installed in Nacho's car, again.
** In Season 4 "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS4E10Winner Winner]]", Lalo is on a hilltop overlooking Gus' chicken farm to watches the activities going on through binoculars and jots down detailed notes. When he notices Gus and his men getting into cars to hunt down Werner after he escaped, Lalo decides to follow them to sees what's going on. Mike goes to a money transfer office to find clues on Werner's whereabout, and once he figures out where he might be, the camera switches to a BinocularShot where Lalo is watching Mike through his car. Lalo was originally following Gus, but he changed his target to Mike to see what task Gus has him doing.
** In Season 5 "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS5E8Bagman Bagman]]", the Twins are grabbing $7 million at a Cartel stash house to pay for Lalo's bail and to meet with Saul to deliver him the money. As they leave in their car, the camera zooms out to reveal one of the workers at the stash house was observing the Twins and he makes a phone call to someone to inform them about the Twins' next move.
* StartOfDarkness:
** The show shows how the upstart, aspiring attorney Jimmy [=McGill=] becomes the fully crooked AmoralAttorney Saul Goodman. Ironically, the show starts just as Jimmy has turned his life around and gone straight after years of living as a conman and facing sex offender charges.
** A flashback episode shows the exact moment when Jimmy first began to go off the moral path: he watches his father get duped by an obvious con artist yet again, who tells Jimmy that everyone is either a wolf or a sheep. Jimmy visually resolves to be a wolf and [[StealingFromTheTill steals cash from his father's register]] for the first time.
** The show also shows Mike's rise from parking lot attendant to Gus Fring's lead enforcer. The show starts by the time he's already retired from a career as a [[DirtyCops dirty cop]] with a history of vigilantism.
** Beginning in Season 3, the show explores how [[spoiler:Francesca goes from a perky ex-DMV clerk to the jaded receptionist/accomplice we see in ''Breaking Bad'']].
* StealingFromTheTill:
** A young Jimmy literally did this while working at his father's shop in Cicero. Chuck tells Kim that Jimmy stole thousands of dollars from the cash register, which he believes eventually drove their father out of business and possibly shortened his life. Several episodes later, we see Jimmy as a child doing this for the first time, his StartOfDarkness.
*** Jimmy is guilty of a bit of petty theft while working at Davis and Main, and later he shamelessly furnishes his office with a Davis and Main-branded mug full of all the Davis and Main-branded pens he stole while working there.
** Craig Kettleman embezzles $1.6 million from the County Treasury while working there. Later he and his wife Betsy start their own tax services business and are found to be creaming off a portion of their clients' tax rebates for themselves.
** Daniel "Pryce" Wormald works in IT for a pharmaceutic firm and can't resist helping himself to some of their products, which he sells to drug dealers for profit.
** Mike snuck money from criminals he'd busted back in Philadelphia, which he says [[CorruptCop was the norm]] for his [[DirtyCop peers]].
* StealingFromThieves:
** Subverted in the episode "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E7Bingo Bingo]]", where Jimmy and Mike only take the Kettlemans' embezzled money [[FramingTheGuiltyParty to force them to take a plea deal]] for stealing it in the first place. Jimmy [[BeingGoodSucks regrets]] not invoking this trope [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E10Marco later on]], though:
--->'''Jimmy:''' Help me out here. Did I dream it, or did I have $1,600,000 on my desk in cash? When I close my eyes, I can still see it. It's burned into my retinas like I was staring into the sun. No one on God's green earth knew we had it. We could have split it 50-50. We could have gone home with $800,000 ''each''! Tax-free!
** Played straight with Nacho Varga, who outright prefers to rob other criminals because they can't go to the police. When he learns about the Kettlemans' embezzlement money, he plans to steal it from them, knowing they'll take the fall for it, and is only thwarted from doing so by Jimmy warning them. He does the same thing later when [[StupidCrooks Daniel Wormald]] carelessly leaves his vehicle registration (which includes his real name and home address) out in the open during a drug deal, breaking into his home and robbing him of all the cash he's made selling drugs.
* StealthPun:
** One scene in "Alpine Shepherd Boy" involves Tony the Toilet Buddy, a talking toilet making [[AccidentalInnuendo unintentionally lewd comments]]. You know, [[ToiletHumor toilet]] [[VisualPun humor]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrTubyoHsvc An advertisement]] for the Garden Weasel plow follows Jimmy's TV spot, as if judging him to be a weasel.
* StepfordSmiler: Jimmy in reaction to [[spoiler:Chuck's death]]. After initially suffering a HeroicBSOD, Jimmy becomes more upbeat and energetic than usual and behaves in a completely casual manner to any reference to the subject. This is shown to be a case of ObviouslyNotFine when he behaves erratically and self-sabotages at a job interview. He manages to repress his grieving right up until the season finale (where he also pretends to be grieving as much as expected in the bar hearing, when HHM's rejection of a [[ReformedButRejected troubled-but-promising]] internship candidate, followed by [[TheAllegedCar the Esteem]] failing to start, finally sets off a fit of InelegantBlubbering. This continues in later seasons, torturing Howard because Howard seemingly got over Chuck and he hasn't, and other traumas mount up until he's [[spoiler: Saul Goodman full-time]].
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: In season 4, Kim is shown borrowing one of Jimmy's neckties to dress up one of her public defender clients in court. Just like Jimmy was shown doing with his public defender clients in the montage in "Mijo". This is TruthInTelevision, as public defender's offices and even major law firms often do clothing drives to ensure that defendants always can dress up and look presentable (so as to avoid drawing any unfair bias from the judge and jury).
* StupidCrooks: The first season is ''rife'' with them, with only marginal improvements in later seasons.
** Jimmy's public defender clients in "Uno" broke into a mortuary, cut off the head off a corpse and then had sex with it. On top of it, they made a video of the whole event. The prosecutor only needs to play the tape as his closing statement to get them sent to jail.
** The second-rate skater hustlers of stupid also count; they're first introduced trying a StagedPedestrianAccident scam on Jimmy, despite Jimmy's shitty car obviously indicating that he has no money. Even with Jimmy's coaching, they're terrible: First, they target the wrong car because they don't bother to look too closely to make sure they struck the correct vehicle (such as not memorizing the specific shade of color). Then they call Tuco's grandmother a "bizznatch." Were it not for Jimmy's negotiating skills, their fate would have been bullets to the head, Columbian neckties, and burial in a shallow grave.
** The Kettlemans stage their own kidnapping and flee into the woods near their home. They [[AndThenWhat clearly had no plan beyond that]] and things could have gone very tragic if Jimmy did not find them. Furthermore, they did an awful job covering up the fact that they embezzled the money with tactics such as writing government checks to themselves to falsely claim it. Jimmy later lampshades this to Mike and tells him that he thought that criminals would be smarter than that.
** When Nacho threatens him, Jimmy responds by pointing to all the elementary mistakes Nacho made, like using his own van in staking out the Kettlemans' house, getting spotted by a neighbor, and failing to clean the blood (from the skaters) out of the back of his van which gave the cops the probable cause to arrest him and start to dig into his activities. He essentially framed himself for a crime he has not yet committed. Season 2, though, establishes that Nacho's stupidity on the Kettleman matter is the result of [[WrongGenreSavvy trying to apply the principles of his cartel dealings to crime in white-collar suburbia]]. Indeed, it takes Nacho a bit to grasp that [[SurroundedByIdiots not everyone in his organization has the same ability to look at the bigger picture as he does and too many of his mooks are stupid enough to make impulsive decisions that end up incriminating them]].
** Daniel Wormald uses his drug-dealing money to buy himself a brand new Hummer H2. When Mike refuses to get in such a [[SuspiciousSpending suspiciously flashy vehicle]], Daniel stupidly decides he no longer needs Mike's protection. Nacho immediately takes advantage of Mike's absence by sneaking a glance at Daniel's driver's license, so that he can learn his address and burglarize his house. If that weren't stupid enough, Daniel even goes so far as to report his stolen baseball cards to the police, who instantly deduce that he's a drug dealer.
** Jimmy's reasoning for going from being the cellphone guy to the Albuquerque low-lifes to lawyer as Saul Goodman is that he figures they'll need representation when their stupid antics land them in the back of a patrol car.
** Season 5 is kickstarted by a pair of junkies who take Saul's "50% off" pitch the wrong way, and the two twerps go on a multi-day crime spree. It culminates into them getting the police sent to the neighborhood where the Salamancas sell meth (due to their baggie getting stuck in the drainpipe the dealer uses to send the units down, and the two of them making a scene trying to get it out), resulting in Krazy-8 getting arrested when he's caught trying to remove the drugs. The junkies themselves are arrested only a few days later.
* StylisticSuck:
** Jimmy's commercials, full of cheap editing effects, corny promises and melodramatic delivery, are quite comical, but it's still easy to see why their dynamism and hard-sell tactics are better at getting the attention of viewers.
** Davis & Main's commercials, meanwhile, are awful in the exact opposite way from Jimmy's: they consist of nothing but flat, dull narration over plain white text on an amorphous blue swirly background. The partners are so protective of their urbane image that they keep it as safe and conservative as possible. Their ads aren't even targeted correctly; Jimmy catches one late at night, well after its target audience are asleep.
** The show's title cards use strange color patterns, a poor ChromaKey filter, a shaky handheld camera and cheesy computer effects to capture Jimmy's unsavory and low-rent character. Also, the soundtrack cuts off prematurely. From Season 2 onwards, the cards flicker between color and black-and-white and show the type of picture disruption seen on deteriorating VHS tapes, symbolizing the shift in Jimmy's path. By season 5, the title cards start to corrupt to show flashes of the next episode's title card. By second half of Season 6, already deteriorated images are switching to blue screen.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72NGmg3sIrA What is Mesa Verde Hiding?]]", a compilation of tacky greenscreened "testimonies" from subpar acting, accompanied by poor fonts and cheap effects.
** Played with in ''Bagman'' with the Cousins. Their scenes are shot using techniques which are common when split-screen doubling is used: favoring their backs, having a foreground object take up the middle of the frame to hide the matte line, building symmetrical sets so they can just mirror half of the image. This is all done is spite of the fact that the Cousins are played by two different actors (who are real life brothers). This is paid off in the scene where they're loading duffle bags with money, it looks like a symmetrical set is being used with mirroring, but one of the cousins drops a stack of bills and has to bend over to pick it up, breaking the illusion.
** The online training videos for Los Pollos Hermanos have deliberately bad effects. The green-screen effects on Gus are not only obvious, but tear in places. Also, the LimitedAnimation has a few flaws, such as dirt and errors on the screen. All of this was done intentionally to make them look realistically tacky, like a real employee training video would look for a fast food restaurant.
* SuddenlySpeaking: Played with for Hector Salamanca. In present-day scenes in ''Breaking Bad'', he couldn't speak on account of his stroke and could only communicate by ringing his bell, and in flashback scenes in that show, he only ever spoke Spanish. So Hector's interactions with Mike in season 2, and Gus and Nacho in season 3, are the first times we've heard him speak in English in any form.
* SunroofShenanigans: The "Chicago Sunroof", the entire reason why Jimmy ended up in Albuquerque.
* SuperOCD: While a lot of Gus' ControlFreak tendencies are explained by his genuine interest to provide the best fast food he can, he also displays these tendencies during situations they really don't matter in, and [[FalseFlagOperation where they could even hint at his involvement]].
* SurpriseCarCrash: Happens to [[spoiler:an overworked Kim]] when she falls asleep at the wheel.
* SurpriseWitness:
** At his disciplinary hearing, Jimmy names Huell as a surprise witness. Played with in that Jimmy did write his name in the list of witnesses, he just didn't tell anyone what Huell would be testifying to. [[spoiler: Huell planted a battery on Jimmy's electro-sensitive brother Chuck for almost an hour and Chuck felt nothing, proving that Chuck's sickness is mental despite what he claims and cause him to blow his whole case against Jimmy in a rant.]]
** In "Namaste", Saul reveals [[spoiler:a lookalike of the defendant has been at his side the whole time, with the actual defendant in the back of the courtroom]] much to the surprise of the witness and the annoyance of both the prosecutor and the judge.
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Gould pointed it out in a writer’s panel, that most of the cast are dead, one character is in [[spoiler: federal prison]] and only just learning how to be himself and live with guilt instead of switching himself off, another character has spent years destroying her life and will probably have a [[spoiler: civil suit]] hanging over her head… yet it’s still the happiest, romantic ending that these [[LonelyTogether two could wish for]], with a lot of hope for the future.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler:Chuck -- who's been doing good with his condition since it being revealed at the hearing -- relapses hard after being pushed out of his firm and having pushed away Jimmy. Even with the epiphany that the condition was all in his head, it can be hard to dump behaviors and habits that have been with you for years, especially after something as stressful as losing your job and having a falling out with a family member.]]
** One that extends into ''Series/BreakingBad'', as [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/how-better-call-saul-writer-ep-gordon-smith-brought-a-13-year-old-breaking-bad-story-to-a-close-1235180005/ Gordon Smith]] confirmed that Lalo holding Jimmy captive affected him so badly, a part of his brain is always going to be trapped BoundAndGagged waiting for the guy to come back, and it doesn't matter how many times he's told that all the Salamancas are dead, because that's what happens with PTSD, especially when you never get help for it.
* SuspiciousSpending: After a few deals, Daniel Wormald goes and spends his drug money on a gigantic Hummer with a flame paint job and spinning rims. Naturally, when his house is burglarized by Nacho, the cops take one look at the thing and swiftly deduce that he's engaged in illegal activities.
* SympatheticMurderBackstory: Mike really was involved in the deaths of those two fellow police officers, just as the Philadelphia cops suspects he might be. In fact, he's the one who killed them. Considering they were a couple of sleazeball [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] who murdered his son on the mere ''suspicion'' he didn't have their backs, and would have murdered Mike too once they learned for certain he knew, your sympathies are naturally entirely with Mike.
* TakeAwayTheirName: Downplayed realistically, as Chuck (but blaming Howard) doesn't want his brother using his own name, and asks if he wants to build his own identity instead of riding someone else's coattails. It's eventually revealed that Jimmy started on the way to using "Saul Goodman" as a name because he thinks that if he stays Jimmy, he'll just be considered Chuck's loser brother.
* TakeAThirdOption: Chuck refuses to retire after his breakdown at Jimmy's hearing, knowing that they'll have to let him stay since the only other option would be dissolve the firm since they don't have the cash to buy him out. Howard takes a third option and puts up most of the buyout money from his own funds, essentially forcing Chuck out.
* TearsOfFear: In "Bagman", Jimmy finds himself [[spoiler:in the middle of a shootout]]. As he is cowering behind his car he realises how totally out of his depth he is and begins literally weeping with fear.
* TemptingFate:
** Howard tries to dissuade Chuck from [[spoiler:testifying at Jimmy's hearing before the bar association]], reasoning that the case is strong enough with his eyewitness testimony to support it and that HHM's reputation is on the line. Chuck dismisses him and says that some things are more important. [[spoiler:Thanks to Jimmy's elaborate BatmanGambit, Chuck's testimony ends in disaster for himself and HHM.]]
*** Within that example is an even sharper one. [[spoiler:On the stand, Chuck calls out Jimmy's (apparent) strategy of bringing his ex-wife into town to see his condition revealed and rattle him. He specifically says that Jimmy's hoping it will make him break down and "confess like a murderer on an episode of [[Main/ThePerryMasonMethod Perry Mason]]", and that he won't fall for it. Then Jimmy reveals the battery in Chuck's pocket.]]
** Jimmy/"Gene" calls [[spoiler:Kim after the events of ''Series/BreakingBad'' to check up, because Kim called Francesca and asked about him. After some talk, she says he should turn himself in. He gets mad and says she could turn ''herself'' in for the things she's done, since nothing is stopping her[[note]]Any criminals who could retaliate against them are dead.[[/note]]. She ends up doing just that.]]
** Jimmy and Kim find out in "Axe and Grind" that [[spoiler:the lawyer they hired an actor to pretend to be--so it could look like Jimmy was bribing him--is in a cast so that the photos they took would instantly be discovered to be false and while Jimmy thinks they should cool it and plan for another point down the road, Kim refuses to give up on doing it the next day. The plan succeeds, but Howard confronting them that night results in his death at Lalo's hands]] in "Plan and Execution".
* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Jimmy goes through a short sequence meeting potential clients, including a rich nutjob who wants to secede from the country and found "the Sovereign Sandia Republic", a suburban dad who wants to patent a talking toilet that spouts creepy innuendos, and an old lady who wants to write a will divvying up her tacky Hummel figurines. The last one at least provides useful work, starting Jimmy on a career path in elder law.
* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Invoked by Jimmy during his first visit to Dr. Caldera with a very sick goldfish:
-->'''Dr. Caldera:''' "Jesus, what are you doing, man? There's barely any oxygen in that bag! You're suffocating her!"
-->'''Jimmy:''' "''Her''?"
-->'''Dr. Caldera:''' Yeah, just because you don't see swinging dicks doesn't mean you can't tell a boy fish from a girl fish.
-->'''Jimmy:''' "Oh yes, now I can see the lipstick."
* ThenLetMeBeEvil:
** Jimmy began his law career as an ex-conman trying to go straight and follow his brother Chuck's path as a legitimate attorney. However, Chuck believes that he'll never truly go straight and works to deny him opportunities at every turn, until Jimmy gives up on the straight and narrow and decides to do things his own, much darker way. While Jimmy is responsible for his own choices, it’s made clear that Chuck’s resentment and sabotage and “you never meant that much to me” cruelty didn’t help.
** After the courthouse where Jimmy spends most of his time [[spoiler:learns of his ruse to get Lalo Salamanca free from a murder beef, they start treating him like dirt. But he takes this in stride, as his criminal clientele jumps up considerably.]]
* TherapyIsForTheWeak:
** Jimmy would rather bottle up his emotions instead of talking about how his brother's betrayal of his feelings are eating at him in "Marco". Throughout Season 4, he refuses to go to a therapist after [[spoiler:his brother's suicide stirs with every clash they went through in Season 3]], despite showing clear signs of benefitting from having a professional to talk to. He tries his best to make himself too busy to seek any sort of counselling, and when he sees how battered Howard looks from confronting his own guilt, Jimmy shuts the idea of therapy down for good.
** Chuck is far too prideful and stubborn to even consider the chances of his EHS being a delusion. He instead requests alternative ways to treat his supposed illness up until [[spoiler:it's shown to not be real in front of an entire court]]. Jimmy also enables this, first by supplying him with everything for a non-electrical lifestyle, then by getting his mind off it with legal work from his practice.
* ThermometerGag: In "Axe and Grind" Jimmy agrees to be experimented on by Dr Caldera as part of his and Kim's plot to [[spoiler:destroy Howard's reputation]]. When Caldera gets out a thermometer of the kind usually used on animals Jimmy looks alarmed and asks if it has been sterilised. Caldera assures him that the thermometer is brand new, and that as a human patient he only needs to put it under his armpit.
* ThirstyDesert: So much so in "Bagman" that [[spoiler:Saul resorts to drinking his own urine]].
* TimeSkip: [[spoiler:"Fun and Games" skips into the future after Kim leaves Jimmy. WordOfGod suggests that the scene of Saul waking up in his McMansion [[https://twitter.com/TomSchnauz/status/1550173773705252864 is set in 2007]]]]
* TimeTravel: [[spoiler:The finale features flashbacks to Jimmy disussing the subject (as a proxy for discussing regret) with all the major characters he has known who have died throughout the two series: Mike Ehrmantraut, Walter White, and Chuck [=McGill=]]].
* TitleDrop: Each episode's title is spoken by different characters at least once in that episode, or alluded to in some form.
** In season 1, it's done in spoken form. This is especially true for Episode 5, having both the titles of "Jello" (the original title before copyright issues with Kraft forced them to change it) and "Alpine Shepherd Boy" mentioned in it.
** Season 2:
*** "Switch" refers to the light switch in Jimmy's new D&M office.
*** "Cobbler" refers to the "Squat Cobbler" lie Jimmy spins to the police about Daniel's secret stash. Nacho's last name, Varga, also means Cobbler in Hungarian.
*** "Amarillo" refers to the opening sequence of Jimmy bribing a bus driver so he can solicit clients.
*** "Gloves Off" refers to both the nature of Jimmy's confrontation with Chuck, and to Mike's setup of Tuco.
*** "Rebecca" refers to Chuck's ex-wife, the name shown in the sheet music in "Cobbler".
*** "Bali Hai" has Jimmy serenade Kim over the phone with the song.
*** "Inflatable" is named in reference to Jimmy spotting a wacky wavy arm inflatable tube man, and taking inspiration from it to get himself fired from Davis & Main.
*** "Fifi" is named for its usage of that particular B-29 for a commercial shoot.
*** "Nailed" refers to Chuck's integrity being thrown into question by Jimmy's forgery and Mike using nails as spike strip.
*** "Klick" is a unit of measurement, equating to a shooting distance of just under 1,100 yards. The episode also ends with a very significant "click" sound from Chuck's tape recorder.
** Season 3:
*** "Mabel" refers to ''The Adventures of Mabel'', a book that Jimmy and Chuck read together as children.
*** "Witness" refers to [[spoiler:Howard and a private investigator being present when Jimmy breaks into Chuck's house to threaten Chuck and destroy the tape recorder.]]
*** "Sunk Costs" refers to Kim invoking the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Loss_aversion_and_the_sunk_cost_fallacy sunk cost fallacy]].
*** "Sabrosito" refers to the bobblehead Hector presents to Don Eladio in the opening flashback.
*** "Chicanery" refers to [[spoiler:Jimmy's elaborate BatmanGambit which causes Chuck to have a meltdown on the witness stand.]]
*** "Off Brand" refers to [[spoiler:Jimmy being forced to promote himself as a commercial filmmaker instead of a lawyer as a result of his one-year suspension.]]
*** "Expenses" refers to [[spoiler:Jimmy's difficulty finding money to meet his half of the expenses for the office space he shares with Kim.]]
*** "Slip" refers to [[spoiler:the StagedPedestrianAccident that Jimmy pulls on two music store owners who refuse to pay him.]]
*** "Fall" can alternately refer to [[spoiler:Jimmy's moral fall by scamming his Sandpiper Crossing clients, Chuck's professional fall by being pressured to leave HHM, and Kim's physical fall by having her car accident.]]
*** "Lantern" refers to [[spoiler:the gas lantern Chuck uses to commit suicide.]]
** Season 4:
*** "Smoke" refers to that which lingers from [[spoiler:Chuck's house after his suicide]].
*** "Breathe" refers to the way by which [[spoiler:Gus kills Arturo at the end, by hogtying him with zip ties and suffocating him with a plastic bag, to intimidate Nacho]].
*** "Something Beautiful": Jimmy using the phrase when trying to entice Mike into his Hummel heist.
*** "Talk": Mike attends talk therapy, while Jimmy starts his career of selling drop phones to criminals.
*** "Quite a Ride": Gus has Mike subject architects being recruited for his secret meth lab to a very long ride in the back of a van while blindfolded. The title is also said word-for-word by Saul in the opening [[FlashForward flash forward]] before he calls Ed the Disappearer.
*** "Pinata": Jimmy gets back at the teens who mugged him by having Huell and Man Mountain tie them up like pinatas.
*** "Something Stupid": The episode shares a title with the song that accompanies the opening montage.
*** "Coushatta": Huell's hometown, where Jimmy goes to mail letters as part of Kim's scheme to strongarm ADA Ericsen into agreeing to a probation plea deal for Huell
*** "Wiedersehen": Lalo reconnects with Hector for the first time in ages and Werner flees from the secured housing for the superlab. It's also painted on the rock that Werner's construction crew are blasting to make room for their elevator shaft.
*** "Winner": Jimmy gets his law license reinstated through totally manipulating the reinstatement panel and even Kim. He sings "The Winner Takes It All" in the opening flashback and later invokes the song when talking to the girl who was rejected by H.H.M. because of her criminal record.
** Season 5:
*** "Magic Man" is what Saul claims Huell calls him, despite being asked not to.
*** "50% Off" refers to Saul's offer for a discount on the legal retainer for non-violent felonies, and becomes a [[{{Battlecry}} battle cry]] for the two lowlifes in the opening montage.
*** "The Guy For This", what Lalo calls Saul when he is sizing him up for the set up they're planning.
*** "Namaste" is the new vanity license plate on Howard Hamlin's car.
*** "Dedicado a Max", what the plaque reads on the fountain in the center of Gus' memorial village South of the border.
*** "Wexler V Goodman" refers to [[spoiler:Saul turning the tables on Kim during discussions with Mesa Verde.]]
*** "JMM" refers to the monogrammed bag Kim gave Saul, and the discussion Saul has with Lalo about what the initials mean.
*** "Bagman", how Kim disdainfully refers to Saul's role in Lalo's scheme.
*** "Bad Choice Road", Saul's bastardization of the talk Mike gave him after their experience in "Bagman".
*** "Something Unforgivable", said by Kim in reference to her plan to [[spoiler:ruin Howard's career]].
** Season 6:
*** "Wine and Roses", an abbreviated title of the song that plays in the opening FlashForward.
*** "Carrot and Stick", Saul and Kim's respective methods of dealing with the Kettlemans.
*** "Rock and Hard Place", obviously refers to the position Nacho has been put into between Gus and the Salamancas. It also refers to Jimmy having to choose between becoming a cartel lawyer or ratting on his dangerous clients.
*** "Point and Shoot", refers to [[spoiler:instructions given by Lalo on how to operate both the gun and the camera used to kill Gus and prove the job is done]], and is [[spoiler:what Gus does to put Lalo down for good, using the one he stashed behind equipment]].
*** "Nippy" is the name of the fictional dog Gene pretends to have lost.
*** "Waterworks" refers to [[spoiler:Kim's new job at a sprinkler company]], but also the tears that come to Saul's eyes after he reads [[spoiler:Kim's petition for a divorce]] and later [[spoiler:Kim's very public fit of [[InelegantBlubbering anguished crying]] after confessing her crimes to Cheryl Hamlin]].
* ToxicFriendInfluence: Starting in Season 2, it becomes increasingly apparent to Kim that loyalty to Jimmy means gradually becoming more and more complicit in his con games and his war with Chuck, usually to the detriment of the person involved. It's also a DeconstructedTrope, since Jimmy generally doesn't realize he's having this effect on others and isn't actively trying to talk his friends into getting involved in his schemes... most of the time, anyway. It could be argued he wakes up something in Kim, who has a past she's not very inclined to discuss much with others.
** Kim also seems to be something of an enabler to Jimmy. She may not want to encourage his immoral behavior, but she isn't exactly helping him by [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys jumping into bed with him every time they pull off a scam together]]. By the end of season 5, the shoe's on the other foot and Kim is the one [[spoiler:trying to rope Jimmy into ruining Howard's career, with Jimmy concerned that she may be going too far]].
* TrackingDevice: Upon realizing that Mike is starting to get mixed up in cartel business, Gus arranges for Mike's cars to be bugged in hopes of drawing him out.
* {{Tragedy}}: This being a prequel we know how things will end for Jimmy, and that [[DoomedByCanon it won't be pretty]]. It is the story of a DoomedProtagonist who learns that BeingGoodSucks and embarks on a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain which follows a RiseAndFallGangsterArc as his FatalFlaw brings about his brother's SelfFulfillingProphecy. AndTheRest. This show probably ticks even more of the boxes than its parent show.
* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Many of the misfortunes suffered by Jimmy and those close to him are entirely attributable to his recklessly impulsive behaviour. The course of his life would also have been drastically different if only he hadn't got drunk one fateful night in Cicero:
-->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' "One little Chicago sunroof and suddenly I’m Charles Manson?! And that’s where it all went off the rails! I’ve been paying for it ever since. THAT’S WHY I’M HERE!"
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler:The season 6 opening reveals that Saul kept the Zafiro Añejo bottle stopper- and that he left it behind when he fled to Omaha.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The previews for Season 3 featured Gus Fring heavily, even though he hadn't officially appeared in the show. It's implied that Fring left the note on Mike's car reading "Don't" in the final episode of Season 2.
* TranquilFury: Jimmy may be loud, flamboyant and emotional but he still has his moments:
** In "Pimento", after Chuck admits that [[spoiler:he has been blocking Jimmy's appointment to HHM]], Jimmy calmly replies:
--->"I got you [[UngratefulBastard a twenty-pound bag of ice and some bacon and some eggs and a couple of those steaks that you like]], some fuel canisters, enough for three or four days. After that, you're on your own. I am done."
** In "Sunk Costs", while waiting for the police to show up after Chuck reported Jimmy for breaking into his home:
--->"Here's what's gonna happen. One day you're gonna get sick, again. And one of your employees is gonna find you, curled up in that space blanket. Take you to the hospital. Hook you up to those machines that beep and whirr and hurt. And this time it will be too much, and you will die there. Alone."
* TraumaCongaLine: Jimmy's skateboarding scam is one long line. First, the skateboarders target the wrong car. A car that's driven by Tuco's grandmother. Which gets them in trouble with Tuco. Which ends with the skateboarders getting their legs broken and Jimmy being traumatized.
* TraumaButton:
** In "Mijo" Tuco [[ForcedToWatch forces Jimmy to watch and listen]] as he breaks the skateboarders' legs. Later he is in a restaurant, where diners snapping breadsticks trigger the memory of breaking bones, causing him to be violently ill.
** In "Bagman" [[spoiler: Jimmy's shirt [[BloodSpatteredInnocents gets spattered with blood]] when the man who was about to shoot him is shot by Mike first]]. In "Bad Choice Road" Kim makes a traumatised Jimmy some breakfast. The juicer gets clogged and orange juice backfires onto Kim's clothing, reminding Jimmy of the incident in the desert and triggering a PTSD flashback.
** In "50% off" Kaylee keeps asking Mike what Matty was like as a policeman, and if he was a good one. This reminder that Matty was one of the few non-corrupt cops on the force, and that this is what ultimately led to his death, clearly traumatises Mike before he loses his temper in an [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristic outburst]] at Kaylee.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Jimmy's father becomes concerned in "Inflatable":
-->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]:''' "Every grifter in town knows that this is the spot to come for an easy handout."
-->'''Charles [=McGill=] Sr.:'''"'Grifter'? Where in the world did you learn that word?"
* TuxedoAndMartini: Lalo while posing as a suave American businessman named Ben in "Black and Blue".
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: The bulk of the series takes place from 2002-2004, while the black and white flash forward segments take place in late 2010.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Through seasons 2 through 4, Mike's and Jimmy's plot lines are almost completely detached and only make a few interactions (Jimmy twice interacting with Mike at the booth, and Mike later hiring Jimmy to provide his amended statement regarding his altercation with Tuco). There's a bit more interaction in season 3, where Mike and Jimmy use each other for various jobs on a ''quid pro quo'' - where Jimmy goes into Los Pollos Hermanos to do some spying for Mike, and in exchange, Mike agrees to infiltrate Chuck's house posing as a repairman to get some photographs showing off Chuck's living conditions. But then they only have one intersect in season 4 as Jimmy tries and fails to recruit Mike to steal a valuable Hummel figurine. Their storylines finally come back together in season 5 as Jimmy gets roped into Lalo's conflict with Gus, and season 6 ties them together permanently when [[spoiler:Lalo kills Howard and Mike has to help with the coverup]].
* UnderestimatingBadassery: [[GunNut Mr Arsenal]] underestimates the OldMaster Mike and [[MuggingTheMonster directly challenges]] him. Mike disarms him and beats him up.
* TheUnfavourite: Chuck and Jimmy's dad always liked Jimmy better. Even though Jimmy was irresponsible (and secretly stole from their father), he's much more personable than Chuck. On their mother's deathbed, it was Jimmy that she called for. Chuck has clearly developed a complex about this, as evidenced in the flashback where he gets irritated by how charmed his wife is by Jimmy's jokes.
* UnflinchingWalk: Gus doesn't look back as his Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant explodes in a giant fireball. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in this case; Gus is not doing this just to look cool, he values his chicken business just as much as his drug empire. He catches a glimpse of the restaurant's burning husk through his rearview mirror before driving away, and seems genuinely upset at the sight.
* UnfriendlyFire: Matt Ehrmantraut, Mike's son, was an honest cop in a precinct full of {{dirty cop}}s. As a result he was "killed in the line of duty by an unknown shooter". Hearing the story Jimmy immediately realizes what really happened.
* UngratefulBastard:
** Nacho, in "Hero." What does he do after being gotten out of jail by Jimmy? Threatens him for ratting him out, of course. Jimmy, having had enough, points out that Nacho isn't as smart as he thinks.
** Cal and Lars, the skaters, for whom Jimmy stuck out his neck to save their lives from Tuco.
** Zig-zagged by Chuck. Throughout the first season, especially by the end, Chuck seems to take Jimmy's devoted care of him for granted. In the second season, however, Chuck does take a moment to sincerely thank Jimmy and say that he would do the same for Jimmy in spite of all their baggage if their positions were reversed. [[spoiler:However, Chuck falls back ''hard'' on being an ingrate by using and firing Ernesto and then turning on Howard, his own partner.]]
* UnitConfusion: In the episode ''Cobbler'', Jimmy makes futile attempts to insert a king-size coffee mug in the console of brand-new Mercedes, expressing "Must be Metric system". Justified, [[spoiler:since Mercedes-Benz is a German car and made with Metric measures.]]
* UnholyMatrimony: While they initally act like the marriage is just a legal arrangement, neither Jimmy or Kim can go an episode without mentioning they're married now, and while they're not true sociopaths like Howard accuses, they're both {{villain protagonist}}s.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Occurs frequently throughout the series. If the characters explicitly lay out the details of a scheme for the audience, expect it to [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]].
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
** Early in the series, Jimmy discovers Sandpiper ripping off its elderly patrons and begins a class action suit against them, with Chuck advocating for him to take it to HHM so an actual firm can take it up - it's later revealed that this is also Chuck sneakily throwing Jimmy out of the way out of distrust and the belief that he's not a "real lawyer". This single act, largely motivated by petty jealousy, kickstarts a deadly spiral of events that end with [[spoiler:Chuck and Howard dead, Kim leaving the legal profession, HHM crippled and downsizing, and Jimmy becoming Saul Goodman. Going even further, because Jimmy becomes Saul, he serves as the connection between Gus and Walter White, which, among all the deaths within the criminal underworld, also leads to hundreds of deaths in a midair plane collision - all because of a petty slight]].
** Jimmy getting back at Chuck by tipping off the insurance company about his brother's mental illness starts the series of events which end in [[spoiler:Chuck's suicide]]. Jimmy goes through fluctuating feelings of guilt, depression and denial when he realizes this at the start of Season 4.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Saul's assistant Francesca used to be a nice and rather innocent woman. When Saul first gets his law office, she designs the waiting room to be welcomng and comfortable for their clients and even plans to put in a water fountain. A few years later, she's become the sourpuss we all know, and the office waiting room is a gloomy place where clients are packed in like rats.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: The end result of Chuck and Jimmy’s CainAndAbel. [[spoiler: Not responding to Chuck’s sole olive brunch pre-show is deemed to be Jimmy’s greatest failure, and he admits his role in Chuck’s suicide]], having to live with that for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, Chuck has been trying to punish Jimmy since childhood for being the baby/favourite/spoiled brat, and ruined his life, career and every relationship trying to get at him.
* VillainyFreeVillain:
** Howard Hamlin is an uptight Jerkass, but still an honest lawyer who is in opposition to Jimmy. It's eventually revealed that he was merely following Chuck's orders and doesn't have much personally against Jimmy.
** Chuck pulls a FaceHeelTurn in "Pimento." While he is guilty of lying to and manipulating his brother, he feels that he's upholding the sanctity of the legal system. However, he loses the "villainy free" part of the trope as he becomes more obsessed with upstaging and disgracing Jimmy.
* VillainSong: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ5djcbM2fU Better Call Saul]]", written and performed by Junior Brown, with lyrics by Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan. It was produced as a promo for the first series, and the song [[BadassBoast showcases Saul Goodman's skills]] at helping the obviously guilty evade justice:
-->♫''Saul, Saul, you better call Saul''
-->''He'll fight for your rights when your back's to the wall''
-->''Stick it to the man, [[BlatantLies justice for all]]''
-->''You better call Saul''
-->''Better call Saul''♫
* ViolinScam: Both the coin scam and the fake Rolex scam that Jimmy and Marco pull involve pressuring someone into paying real money for an item that is actually worthless.
* WalkingSpoiler:
** It's hard to talk about the first two episodes without mentioning Tuco's involvement in them.
** Chuck similarly is hard to discuss, especially after "Pimento".
** Similarly, we have Marco's role in the show, ''[[ADeathInTheLimelight especially]]'' in "Marco".
* WentCrazyWhenTheyLeft: Neither Jimmy or Chuck are particularly pictures of sanity anyway, but they both go massively downhill when their wives leave. Jimmy's first wife cheating on him was the catalyst for the sunroof incident, and [[spoiler: Kim leaving is the final nail in the coffin to make him Saul Goodman. (Not that she does well either, leaving because of her own feelings of not deserving to be loved, and making herself miserable in Florida.)]] And Rebecca leaving was the snap in Chuck to make him TheShutIn.
* WhamEpisode:
** "Pimento": It turns out that Chuck has been secretly undermining Jimmy the whole time. He's disgusted by Jimmy's attempt to be a lawyer and thinks that he's nothing but a scumbag.
** "Nailed:" Chuck's integrity is thrown into question by Jimmy's forgery of his Mesa Verde documents. He ends up having an EMS attack in a copy center when trying to find evidence of it--and falling and suffering a horrible head injury as a result. Mike pulls off a heist on one of Hector's trucks and later learns that an innocent bystander was killed by Hector for stumbling upon the driver.
** "Klick": Mike is warned to not go through with his attempt to take out Hector by someone powerful who's been keeping eyes on him (every episode of Season 2's first letter rearranged spells out "FRING'S BACK") and Chuck fakes his retirement--in the wake of his injury, trauma and humiliation in the previous episode--in order to guilt Jimmy into confessing to sabotaging Mesa Verde's files—which Chuck secretly recorded.
** "Witness": Mike's pursuit of whoever warned him leads to Los Pollos Hermanos where Jimmy randomly encounters Gus and upon learning about Chuck recording him, Jimmy angrily forces his way into the house while berating him and destroying the tape--somethign Chuck didn't quite expect--only to realize that both Howardf and the PI are there to see it and will now back-up Chuck on the crime just committed right in front of them.
** "Chicanery": While cross-examining Chuck, Jimmy exposes and proves that his condition and negative reaction to electricity is not a physical one, but a mental one by having Huell Babineaux plant a fully charged phone battery on him and not telling him about it for nearly two hours. Chuck loses it and blurts out his resentment and mistrust toward Jimmy in front of everyone as a result of the prosecutor saying he has Schizophrenia and then realizes he's now wrecked his own credibility in the process—and begins to realize his condition actually isn't what he thought it was.
** "Lantern": [[spoiler:Nacho's plan to give Hector a heart attack works, only for Gus to notice. Along with him and Kim being forced to shut the doors on WM due to loss of funds, Jimmy purposely leaves on his mic in a plan to confess to driving Irene away from her friends, setting the path for him to become Saul. Finally, trying to permanently sever ties with Jimmy and suffering a horrible mental breakdown because of it—Chuck kills himself after being dismissed from HHM—Howard paying him out of pocket to protect the firm and condemning him for his pettiness—burning his house down.]]
** "Smoke": [[spoiler:In the aftermath of Chuck's death, Howard confesses his own feelings of responsibility and how he thinks ousting Chuck from HHM led to his fatal breakdown. Rather than take responsibility for his part—getting Chuck's insurance canceled by letting word of his illness slip—Jimmy instead chooses to deny it and lean into Howard's guilt.]]
** "Breathe:" [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for Gus to figure out Nacho's role, and once he has the proof, he kills Arturo in front of Nacho and uses this knowledge to blackmail Nacho into working for him.]]
** "Widersehen": [[spoiler:Werner flees from the facility when his request to take time off to meet with his wife is denied, Lalo looks into Gus's business more closely while Nacho continues to be dragged along for the ride and Jimmy is denied the chance to have his suspended license back due to not talking about his relationship with Chuck at all—to which Jimmy spews BlatantLies over how he doesn't think about or miss Chuck at all, before projecting onto Kim that she thinks of him as a lowlife like Chuck did]].
** "Winner:" [[spoiler:Jimmy makes a compassionate speech about Chuck to the bar association, convincing them to reinstate his law license. Immediately afterwards, he admits to Kim that he didn't mean a word of it and intends to no longer practice under his own name, signifying his final transformation into Saul Goodman. Also, Mike is forced to kill Werner when Lalo is on Werner's tail and everything is at risk.]]
** "Bagman": [[spoiler:Jimmy is nearly killed in the desert by gunmen sent to prevent him from delivering Lalo's bail, is saved by Mike who then guides him through the desert, the Esteem is ultimately severely damaged and abandoned to a ditch by Jimmy and Mike and Kim goes to see Lalo and her involvement increases—with Mike telling Jimmy that "she's in the game now."]]
** "Something Unforgivable": [[spoiler:Jimmy and Kim start hatching a plan to destroy Howard's career, Mike and Gus make arrangements to have Lalo killed with Nacho assisting in the gunmen being able to enter through the gate. This however results in Lalo killing everyone sent for him, discovering Nacho--whos' now running for his life--betrayed him and setting out on the war path against all his family's enemies.]]
** "Rock and Hard Place": [[spoiler:Nacho dies, and does so on his own terms—meaning with Mike's help, he allows himself to be captured by the Salamancas while insisting a rival gang that has nothing to do with Gus was who he was working with—and who was actually responsible for the hit on Lalo, says he doesn't regret it while confessing to causing Hector's stroke and then getting a gun to [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled shoot himself in the head]] to avoid a far more [[CruelAndUnusualDeath painful and unpleasant fate]] instead.]]
** "Hit and Run": [[spoiler:Upon discovering she and Jimmy are being followed, Kim meets Mike for the very first time who tells her he was having them watched because Lalo is alive and wanted to make sure he knew if Lalo came to them at any point—and that Mike is telling her because he thinks she can handle the truth better than Jimmy. Kim ultimately decides not to tell Jimmy as well.]]
** "Axe and Grind": [[spoiler:Upon the discovery that the judge they're making it look like Jimmy is bribing is currently in a cast—meaning they can't use the photos in which the look-alike is not wearing a cast—Jimmy suggests to Kim that they should call it off for now rather than try to fix it with only so much time. Kim after a moment of reflection, [[TemptingFate demands to go forward no matter what]].]]
** "Plan and Execution": [[spoiler:Lalo discovers that the line is bugged when he attempts to call Hector and make him aware of his next plan, so he lies about striking Gus at his house next while surveying the super lab site from a storm drain on the outside. Mike arranges to make sure Gus is heavily guarded and protected when Lalo shows up, meaning guys are all stationed directly there and nowhere else as a result. Saul and Kim's plot to end the Sandpiper case by discrediting Howard goes as planned despite the last-minute complication. Howard later appears at their home to chew them out for their actions, but Lalo arrives shortly after and kills Howard so he can interrogate the couple.]]
** Excluding the GrandFinale "Saul Gone", the rest of the sixth and final season--the Final Six--counts:
*** "Point and Shoot": [[spoiler:Lalo sends Kim to kill Gus—but it's really a distraction, Jimmy is tied up and forced to remain at the condo with Howard's body and the trauma of Lalo saying he will come back and question him again stays with him for years and Gus is captured by Lalo and taken to be executed at the super lab as Lalo films it, but then Gus is able to step on the switch to turn off the lights and shoot Lalo dead with the concealed gun he earlier hid there. Mike then oversees as Howard and Lalo's bodies are buried underneath the bedrock of the super lab.]]
*** "Fun and Games": [[spoiler:Gus decides to continue with his desire to ruin the Salamancas further rather than move on and have a peaceful and content future while Mike tells Manuel what happened to Nacho and receives Manuel's ire for thinking that picking sides when it comes to gang on gang violence matters in any way. Kim eventually cracks under the pressure of living the lie about what happened to Howard, has her law license withdrawn, packs her bags and prepares to leave Jimmy believing the two of them together constantly ruins the lives of everyone they encounter as well as admitting she knew Lalo was alive but chose to say nothing so that they could move forward with the scam on Howard which she now severely regrets. She also say that she thought things would end between them because he'd want them to hide and forget about the plan. Cue a TimeSkip going forward many years later to when Jimmy is now in full swing in his role as Saul and is about to meet Brandon "Badger" Mayhew in a matter of days.]]
*** "Nippy": [[spoiler:In present day, Gene manipulates Jeff and his friend into a massive robbery of merchandise from the mall only for the purpose of extorting them and guaranteeing their silence about him being Saul—all while now getting the taste for schemes and cons again as a result.]]
*** "Breaking Bad": [[spoiler:Saul is advised in a flashback by Mike against working with Walter White because he's way too new and ignorant to the business—which Saul clearly ends up ignoring when he goes to see Walt at his high school anyway and in present day, Gene ropes Jeff and his friend into a scheme that involves drugging rich guys and taking their money and/or other info in their house—only for Gene to get Jeff to help finish an aborted scam against [[IronicEcho a cancer patient]] in which Gene actively has to force his way into the house by means of breaking a window and unlocking the door.]]
*** "Waterworks": [[spoiler:Jimmy speaks to Kim for the first time in years, Kim confesses to the conspiracy against Howard Hamlin and the true circumstances of his death, Kim meets Jesse Pinkman in a flashback, Gene's plans get Jeff arrested when he tries to flee from the police and crashes his car and Gene's true identity is uncovered by Marion, who calls the police on him after he all but threatens her—forcing him to now flee for his life.]]
* WhamLine:
** In "RICO", Chuck states the amount of money he and Jimmy want from the shady nursing home and raises the stakes for a (what was until then) a rather low-stakes sub-plot.
--->'''Chuck:''' $20 million.
** In "Pimento", Chuck changes the entire tone of his person in a single cruel insult that confirms all of his brother's worst suspicions.
--->'''Jimmy:''' It was always you, right? Right back to when I passed the bar and tried to join the firm. ''You'' didn't want me. Speak up. Tell me why. It's the least you can do for me now. I am your ''brother''; we're supposed to look out for each other. Why were you working against me, Chuck?\\
'''Chuck:''' You're not a real lawyer.
** Kim and Jimmy's rooftop argument in "Wiedersehen":
--->'''Jimmy [=McGill=]''': "There you go, kick a man when he's down."\\
'''Kim Wexler:''' "Jimmy, you are ''always'' down."
** In "Winner", [[spoiler:After Jimmy gets reinstated and announces that he's not going to practice law under the name [=McGill=], Kim asks what he's doing. He turns around quips, "S'all good, man!" This signifies that his permanent turn into Saul Goodman has arrived]].
** [[spoiler:Mike's line to Werner Ziegler:]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Mike:''' Werner, ''nothing you can say or do'' will make anyone trust you again.]]
* WhamShot:
** The end of the first episode, "Uno," has Jimmy check on the house entered by his skateboard flunkies, only for someone to pull a gun on him and demand he come inside. [[AxCrazy Tuco Salamanca peeks out afterward.]]
** "RICO" has Chuck casually going outside while looking over some papers. And yes, he ''intentionally'' did this.
** At the end of "Klick," we find out that Chuck was hiding a tape recorder from Jimmy. ''After'' Jimmy confessed to committing forgery.
** In the ending scene of "Fun and Games", [[spoiler:after Kim leaves Jimmy, there's a TimeSkip to ''Series/BreakingBad'' (or at least close) with Jimmy in his complete Saul getup and office]].
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong:
** In "Switch" Pryce turns up for a drug deal in [[HummerDinger a car that screams "drug dealer"]]. He then tells Mike he won't be paying him to come to the meet because "You don't really ''do'' anything" before setting off to meet Nacho alone...
** In "Bagman" Jimmy sets out for his desert rendezvous in [[TheAllegedCar a car which often fails to start]], wearing a suit and tie and loafers, and with just one small bottle of drinking water, some of which he decides to use to clean his shoe. And that's before we even consider the possibility of his $7 million cargo and all of the dangerous people who could possibly be after it...
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Several characters wonder aloud what a straight-laced, hard-working, beautiful woman like Kim sees in a lowlife like Jimmy. Kevin Wachtell tells her "You could do a whole lot better" while Lalo thinks Jimmy is punching above his weight and is clearly impressed. The truth is that Jimmy and Kim have much more in common that people realise, and while Kim could have her pick of any of the wealthy but charmless older men who offer to buy her drinks at Forque, she'd much rather call her LovableRogue to help her pull a scam on them instead.
** This is [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] by [[spoiler:Howard Hamlin]] in "Plan and Execution". After questioning Kim's decision to choose a life of scamming with Jimmy, he has a moment of clarity, realising that they both enjoy scamming and do it for fun:
--->"You're perfect for each other."
* WhatHaveIBecome: Seemingly how Jimmy feels when [[spoiler:he sees the family of the victim his cartel defendant murdered in "JMM"]].
* WhiteCollarCrime: The Kettlemans with their rumbled attempt to embezzle $1.6 million of county funds, and Daniel "Pryce" Wormald selling stolen pharmaceuticals on the black market. While in both cases the perpetrators have stolen from an employer, they all struggle to accept that their actions were criminal:
-->'''Mike Ehrmantraut:''' "The lesson is, if you're gonna be a criminal, do your homework."\\
'''Pryce:''' "Wait, I-I'm not a bad guy, I don..."\\
'''Mike Ehrmantraut:''' "I didn't say you're a bad guy, I said that you're a ''criminal''."\\
'''Pryce:''' "What's the difference?"\\
'''Mike Ehrmantraut:''' "I've known good criminals and bad cops. Bad priests. Honorable thieves. You can be on one side of the law or the other, but if you make a deal with somebody, you keep your word. You can go home today with your money and never do this again, but you took something that wasn't yours and you sold it for a profit. You're now a criminal; good one, bad one- that's up to you."
* WitlessProtectionProgram: Season 4 features a fascinating, almost complete inversion of this trope. It involves the construction of a meth superlab using foreign contractors. The contractors are carefully vetted and hired by Mike, who supervises them in a secure location while they do the work (living in a warehouse almost like a government safe house). The contractors all have cover stories and don't know where they are geographically. When one naively exposes the operation to possible discovery by both the DEA and a rival cartel, Mike is forced to execute him and is shown to be greatly upset by it.
* WorstWhateverEver: In "Mijo" when Jimmy drops off the skaters to the emergency room after their legs were broken by Tuco. Despite managing to talk Tuco out of killing them, Lars still calls him the "worst lawyer ever".
-->'''Jimmy:''' I talked you down from a life sentence to a six month probation. [[BadassBoast I'm the]] ''[[BadassBoast best]]'' [[BadassBoast lawyer ever!]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Mike and Kim to Jimmy in different ways. Mike finds Jimmy irritating, but he’s disappointed in the guy for being hellbent on proving his brother right and turning into Saul Goodman, while Kim was always proud of the real Jimmy, wants him to live without pain, and mourned how much Chuck made him feel like he was doomed to be worthless.
* YouDidTheRightThing: When the German engineers are leaving New Mexico, Kai tells Mike that he did the right thing killing Werner, as he was a security risk. Mike responds by punching him, as he liked Werner and feels guilt over his death.
* YouHaveToBelieveMe: For all of Chuck's skill in strategy, this is his main GenreBlind move, as seen when he [[spoiler: freaked out about the numbers Jimmy swapped]] and when he [[spoiler: lost it at the disbarment hearing]].
* YouKnowImBlackRight: Jimmy invokes this after [[spoiler:the manager of a country club refuses his membership application]]. Having just introduced himself as "Saul Goodman", he tries to claim he's a victim of antisemitic discrimination and invokes GodwinsLaw: "I know you were JustFollowingOrders". When Kevin Wachtell overhears and calls him "money-grubbing" he takes offence, accusing him of invoking the GreedyJew trope. Wachtell isn't fazed:
--->"You're 'bout as Jewish as my Aunt Fanny."
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: The flashforward which opens "Axe and Grind" shows a nervous teenage Kim Wexler sitting in the back room of a department store where she has just been caught attempting to shoplift a necklace and a pair of earrings. The manager brings in Kim's mother, who apologises profusely and puts on a big display of being disappointed in her daughter. The manager accepts the apology and decides not to press charges, letting Kim go with a warning. As they leave the store, Kim's frowning mother suddenly breaks into a [[PsychoticSmirk smirk]], before telling Kim "I didn't know you had it in you" and appearing to actually be proud of her daughter. She then presents Kim with the jewellery she attempted to steal, having swiped it from the office herself. Kim looks more guilty and ashamed at her mother's reaction than she did at getting caught.
[[/folder]]

** Despite being just as goofy as he was in the original show, Huell turns out to keep meticulous track of time, pointing out that the time between [[spoiler:planting a battery on Chuck's person and Jimmy revealing it in court]] was exactly an hour and forty-three minutes.

** In the cold open of "Rebecca" Jimmy goes to dinner with Chuck and his then-wife Rebecca. He informs them that he's heard "maybe a hundred" lawyer since starting work at HHM, and proceeds to reel off a string of them. Chuck is embarrassed at his brother's behaviour but this quickly fades to anger when he sees Rebecca actually finds it ''[[TheCharmer charming]]''- and then she even joins in with a lawyer joke of her own:

* ArcSymbol: Lanterns in Season 3. The whole season has left subtle clues {{foreshadowing}} [[spoiler:Chuck's suicide]], often by making the gas lantern take center stage:

* FruedianExcuseIsNoExcuse: In his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, Howard guesses a few of Jimmy and Kim's reasons for trying to ruin his life (both holding a grudge regarding issues with Chuck and her Red Cloud history) but tells them very bluntly there's no justification for what they did to him. They admit this much later, Kim saying in her [[spoiler: confession]] that Howard was perfectly coherent, and Jimmy confesses in [[spoiler: court]] about him, while they actually start working on their shitload of trauma.

** Chuck [=McGill=] and wife Rebecca Bois also seemed to have been pretty distant before their divorce. Rebecca doesn't laugh at Chuck's jokes (despite laughing at [[TheCharmer Jimmy's]]) and when they attempt a reconciliation, Chuck still doesn't feel able to confide in her about his electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

* DeconstructedTrope: ThenLetMeBeEvil. It's depicted as pathetic (if understandable) on Jimmy's part to play the role his brother assumed/wanted him to, he constantly sabotages the good opportunities in his life because he feels like there's no point in trying, and he wants so bad for everything to be easy, putting the pressure on Chuck and Kim to just tell him how to act. Kim does the same, destroying her life and everyone else's because she’s sick of being seen as BeneathNotice, and they lead pathetic existences in [[spoiiler: Nebraska and Florida for a while before they both finally decide to make actual amends]].

* AluminumChristmasTrees: HHM trademarking a color, "Hamlindigo blue", is not unheard of. Target for example has trademarked their specific tone of red, which cannot be used for advertising purposes by any company bar Target.