Rico
Written by Gordon Smith
Directed by Colin Bucksey
Air date: March 23rd, 2015
The McGills team up to ensure justice prevails.
"If you don't stop shredding right now, that's destruction of evidence! Spoliation! That's what it's called, and it's a felony! So call your lawyers right now and tell them I said that! Me! James McGill, Esquire!"
— Jimmy McGill
In a flashback, Jimmy is working in the HHM mailroom and asks Kim to open his bar exam results; he passed, and she kisses him passionately. Jimmy shows Chuck his results and explains he studied law at the University of American Samoa through a correspondence course. Chuck tells Jimmy he is proud of him, and his colleagues in the mailroom throw a party to celebrate when Howard asks to speak with him. Although we don't hear the ensuing conversation, Jimmy's crushed face when Howard leaves says it all.
In the present, Jimmy continues to work in elder law without his new office. While assisting a resident of the Sandpiper Crossing home with her will, Jimmy discovers the company overcharges residents for expenses. After speaking to several other residents, Jimmy talks to Chuck, who confirms his suspicion of elder abuse. Upon returning to the facility, he learns that they have instituted a new policy against legal solicitation, and security prepares to escort him out. Hearing a paper shredder in the back office, Jimmy requests to use the restroom, where he hastily writes a demand letter on the back of his legal pad, and continued on a spool of toilet paper, that warns Sandpiper against destroying evidence. He searches their dumpster the following night, and is forced to take a call inside it from Sandpiper's lawyer, Rich Schweikart, who tells Jimmy to give up his "shakedown" of Sandpiper. Jimmy finds the shreds in a recycling bin.
Jimmy and Chuck put the pieces together and recover an incriminating document. Realizing the potential of the case as a class action lawsuit, Chuck agrees to aid Jimmy. After a more formal demand letter, Rich Schweikart visits Chuck in his home to negotiate. Although nervous, Chuck agrees to sit with Jimmy for intimidation. Jimmy reveals that their incriminating document makes Sandpiper eligible for a RICO case. When Schweikart asks Jimmy what the proper settlement amount would be, Chuck suddenly speaks up: "Twenty million, or we'll see you in court." In his excitement, Chuck goes to Jimmy's car for more documents, and is shocked to realize he went outside without suffering any electromagnetic hypersensitivity symptoms.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: A fairly small-scale case: Jimmy goes on a Dumpster Dive, having to go through bags of dirty garbage, and has to negotiate a phone call. Then he gets out and discovers the stuff he needed was in the recycling bin.
- Autopilot Artistry: As Jimmy and the audience as well aware, Chuck's EHS symptoms are really all in his head and self-perceptions, so Chuck is actually fully capable of going outside without suffering any real pain, but Chuck is too convinced that the opposite it true and unwilling to admit any flats for Jimmy to bring this up. Therefore, when he stops thinking about the reasons he can't go outside after getting too wrapped up in the Sandpiper case, Chuck is able to head outside on his own without a reaction, and even moves Jimmy's cellphone with his bare hands to get at his car keys. It's only when Jimmy rushes out of the door that Chuck remembers his 'medical' issues and the realization that he's apparently fine floors him.
- Brick Joke: Two episodes ago Mike told his barkeeper that he is moving out to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The barkeeper tells him that they have tarantulas over there. The opening credits of this episode show a tarantula crawling across the sand.
- Call-Forward: Rick Schweikart tries to dismiss Sandpiper Crossing's massive over-billing of its residents as nothing more than an "accounting error", the same argument that Ted Beneke pulled when confronted about his financial fraud by Skyler.
- Didn't Think This Through: In his desperation to find the shredded documents Sandpiper Crossing disposed of, Jimmy gets into and grunges around a dumpster. After getting covered in trash and having a call with Rich Schwiekart, Jimmy realizes that paper garbage is more likely to be found in a recycling bin, which sure enough is where he finds the shredded documeents.
- Dumpster Dive: Jimmy does this at Sandpiper Crossing in hopes of finding shredded documents to build his case. When he hears two of its employees approaching, he's forced to hide in it and gets extra bags dumped on him.
- Fence Painting:
- Chuck realizes he was tricked into doing Jimmy's work for him in the last episode, dropping the trope's name, source and all. And much to his dismay, he admits that it worked.
- Jimmy continues reintroducing Chuck to his love of the law by bringing his latest case in and showing up with shredded documents. Chuck decides to have a look at Jimmy's behest, and later puts the rest of the shredded papers together by himself when Jimmy falls asleep. Played with in that while Jimmy doubtless intended to ask Chuck his opinion on whatever he found in the documents, he didn't expect Chuck to reassemble them himself, much less discover something that would elevate it to a RICO case.
- Foreshadowing: In the flashback to Jimmy passing the bar and being denied employment at HHM, when Jimmy asks Chuck if he would consider hiring him, Chuck looks at him blankly and asks "As what?". At first, it seems like Chuck is still just processing the fact that his younger brother is about to be a lawyer. But it later becomes clear that Chuck can't accept Jimmy as a lawyer due to knowledge of his past, which leads to him doing all he can to prevent it from happening.
- Gilligan Cut: Jimmy proudly presenting his demand letter (written on toilet paper), telling the Sandpiper Crossing employees to stop shredding and calling their lawyers instead. Cut to Jimmy Getting the Boot.
- Hard-Work Montage: Of Jimmy trying to piece the shredded pages back together.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Early in his meeting with Jimmy and Chuck, Rich Schweikart mentions that Sandpiper Crossing is a large company with twelve separate facilities, presumably in an attempt to intimidate Jimmy into settling out of court. Unfortunately for Schweikart, this ends up cluing in the more experienced Chuck on the potential scope of the lawsuit, meaning that while Jimmy might have settled for somewhere between a quarter and a half-million, Chuck is able to work out that the actual value of the lawsuit could be in the tens of millions, and quickly shuts down any idea of settling for the numbers that Schweikart is throwing around.
- Innocuously Important Episode: The class action case against Sandpiper Crossing that gets underway in this episode will continue to run in the background all the way until the end of the first half of Season 6, leading to many important plot developments along the way.
- Loophole Abuse: Jimmy maintains to Chuck that digging through Sandpiper's dumpsters wasn't an illegal act this way:Jimmy: [I]t was in public. There was no lock, no nothing. I just lifted the lid, and there it was. There's no reasonable expectation of privacy in that situation, is there? You can't say it's private if a hobo can use it as a wigwam.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot:
- Irene being unable to pay for the will causes Jimmy to latch onto the fact that she's on an "allowance", instead of social security or pensions. He decides to investigate if it's the case for every resident, and eventually becomes determined to make a class-action lawsuit for systematic overcharging.
- Chuck and Jimmy discover an invoice for syringes by Sandpiper in one of their shredded documents. Since it was made across state lines, this allows them to invoke the RICO Act on top of their previous accusations. When Rich Schweikart mentions how his client manages several living facilities, it's enough for Chuck to bump things up into a federal multi-million dollar case due to the scope of Sandpiper's reach.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Rich is stunned upon hearing Chuck's demand of $20 million to settle things out of court. He tries to say "Oh you can't be [serious]" but gets cut off by Chuck repeating himself.
- Not Hyperbole: Jimmy is just as surprised as Sandpiper's attorneys over Chuck's demand of $20 million to settle. Chuck later explains why he chose that number: with the mounting crimes and several businesses across the country possibly tied to at least one facility's fraud, the scope of their case has expanded to that of a multi-million class action lawsuit. He then mentions the amount he quoted is conservative.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mike is so focused on helping Stacey and Kaylee that he waves a motorist through the toll gate without collecting the toll, so he can concentrate on Stacey's phone call. Up until this episode, it's been a running gag that Mike never, ever cuts parkers a break.
- Penny Shaving: By overcharging for utilities, hiding behind microscopic print, and using bizarre codes to conceal their intent, Sandpiper Crossing's facilities swindle every resident for hundreds of dollars every week, leaving them with a miniscule allowance.
- Read the Fine Print: To conceal their overcharging for expenses, Sandpiper's bills use lettering so tiny that Jimmy and Chuck have trouble reading them, much less elderly people with reading glasses.
- Rewatch Bonus: When Jimmy first gives his bar exams results to Chuck and reveals he passed, Chuck's first reaction is to incredulously ask if this is a joke from his former con-man brother. It can come off as surprise at Jimmy's competence and astonished pride that he succeeded on a first viewing, along with a little suspicion that Jimmy might be trying to pull a scan with such a dramatic announcement, but come the next episode, it becomes clear that it was actually horror that Jimmy has succeeded in becoming a lawyer, and hope that it wasn't true.
- Silent Conversation: Most of the dialogue between Jimmy and Howard in the opening flashback is inaudible.
- Stealing the Credit: Kim Wexler worked her rear off to get the Kettlemans a favorable plea deal. Howard Hamlin proceeds to take all the credit in the press conference, with the TV station helpfully identifying only him as the Kettlemans' lawyer. Kim is left completely offstage.
- Strongly Worded Letter: Sandpiper Crossing gets to shredding as many documents exposing their misconduct by the time Jimmy gets back, barring him from staying on the premises. Jimmy's response is to take a bunch of scrap in the bathroom to write a demand letter informing them of pending legal action. Since he's a lawyer, it's expected and Not Completely Useless; it's submitted at the last second before Sandpiper has the chance to cut contact with him for good, getting a big law firm's attention.
- Stupid Crooks: Despite being a large multi-state company, Sandpiper Crossing — or at least the staff at the Albuquerque facility — prove almost as inept as the Kettlemans when it comes to hiding their crimes. If they had thought to cross-cut their shredded documents, or taken any steps to dispose of the remains beyond just dumping them in an unlocked recycling bin, then Jimmy would have had a far harder, if not flat-out impossible, job of investigating them.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Jimmy tries to stop Sandpiper Crossing from shredding evidence with an improvised demand letter making legal action official, made from scrap cardboard and toilet paper. The people managing the place simply boot him off the property and finish shredding everything.
- To add weight to Jimmy's efforts, the letter is actually submitted to Schweikart & Cokely to prompt a response, indicating that a legal document is still to be taken seriously, crude or not.
- After retrieving the shredded papers, Jimmy gets to work on reassembling them all. Even after the Hard-Work Montage, he knows he's barely started. It takes Chuck working all day to find something useful.
- Jimmy tries to stop Sandpiper Crossing from shredding evidence with an improvised demand letter making legal action official, made from scrap cardboard and toilet paper. The people managing the place simply boot him off the property and finish shredding everything.
- Title Drop: Jimmy and Chuck point to Sandpiper sending an invoice for syringes from Nebraska to New Mexico, and because they planned shipments across state lines, more than one Sandpiper facility could be implicated through the RICO Act, much to Rich and his council's incredulity.
- Wham Line: An especially whammy one, seeing as Chuck had remained silent throughout the entire meeting up until this exchange:Schweikart: What number exactly did you have in mind?
Chuck: Twenty million. - Wham Shot: The ending of the episode starts off innocently; Chuck wakes up and starts looking through the Sandpiper paperwork, but notices he's missing some files. He knows that they are in Jimmy's car, but Jimmy is still asleep on the couch. So, almost nonchalantly, Chuck goes outside and opens the car up to get them—even moving Jimmy's cellphone with his bare hands to get his car keys for the trunk! It's only when Jimmy rushes out onto the porch that it clicks in Chuck's head that he's outside. He is so shocked he drops the box he was holding.
- White-Collar Crime: Sandpiper Crossing gets exposed for fraud, overcharging their residents after convincing them to sign their funds over with the promise to budget everything for them.
