Recap / Better Call Saul S 2 E 5 Rebecca

"At the funeral, no one cried harder than Jimmy."

"Prove you can go one week— hell, one day without breaking the rules of the New Mexico Bar Association or pissing off your boss, and don't insult my intelligence by saying you are doing any of this for me. You don't save me. I save me."

— Kim Wexler

Tropes

• All for Nothing:
  • Mike's plan of having the police arrest Tuco. He now knows that the very thing he tried to avoid (having more Salamancas looking into Albuquerque) has just happened and he's also being bribed to take the heat for the gun charge, which would significantly reduce Tuco's jail sentence.
  • Kim feels this way after Howard won't let her out of the Cornfield, even after all the trouble she went through to bring in Mesa Verde as a lucrative client. Although things will change in that respect in future episodes.
• Author Catchphrase: In-universe example. One of Erin's critiques of Jimmy's paperwork is that he over uses the words "clearly" and "obviously".
• Big "YES!": Kim screams this in an empty parking garage after finally securing a very wealthy client.
• The Bus Came Back: Hector Salamanca. And unlike in Breaking Bad, he's walking and talking perfectly fine. For now.
• Call-Forward:
  • During the dinner flashback, one of the places Jimmy says he's considering finding an apartment at is the Beachcomber, where Walt temporarily stays after Skyler evicts him.
  • The tense dinner scene itself seems very similar to the scene where Jesse has dinner with Walt and Skyler.
  • During the scene where Mike gets an unexpected visit from Hector at the diner, Fran, the waitress serving him, is the same one who serves him and Lydia at their meeting.
  • While Hector hasn't yet had his stroke, his entrance is foreshadowed by the diner bell using the sound effect used for Hector's bell.
  • Mesa Verde Credit Union is the same bank where Walt withdrew his life savings to pay for the RV in Breaking Bad.
  • Upon seeing Mike's injuries (from the fight with Tuco), Jimmy makes a Rocky joke and hums the theme song. He does something similar in response to seeing Hank talking with Jesse after he beats him down.
  • Chuck uses the phrase "dribs and drabs" to describe Jimmy's embezzlement. Skyler uses the same phrase to describe the accounting discrepancies in Ted's books.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Cliff has given Jimmy a handler in the form of Erin Brill, a junior attorney. And under her care, Jimmy is not allowed to slip up at all, not even bribing a clerk with a little stuffed animal that she takes a liking to in order to get a favorbout of her for a case.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • Jimmy comments, "I get it, first rule of Fight Club, right?" when seeing Mike's injuries. Except that movie had a bit part played by Michael Shamus Wiles, who appears in Breaking Bad as George Merkert.
  • During the cold open, Chuck suggests to Rebecca that if Jimmy annoys her, she should tug on her earlobe like Carol Burnett. Burnett would later appear in the series during season 6.
• Didn't Think This Through: Early in the episode, Jimmy attempts to help Kim get out of her demotion to doc review by trying to draft a lawsuit that would involve her suing HHM as a way of saying that what happened to her was wrong. Kim is quick to point out how stupid this is: as even if by some miraculous chance she actually won the case, it would still be career suicide as there would be no law firm willing to hire a woman who would sue their own firm.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite Hector trying to get a lighter sentence for Tuco, he claims to Mike that his nephew deserves a bit of jail time to learn a lesson about respecting his elders. Granted, some of this is probably Pragmatic Villainy as well, with Hector more likely wanting to punish Tuco for being stupid enough to needlessly start a fight in a public place (technically Mike had to provoke the fight after Tuco initially just settled for mugging him, but even the latter was a needlessly risky over-reaction to that situation).
• Evil Lawyer Joke:
  • Jimmy fires off a few of these in the flashback at the dinner with Chuck and Rebecca, saying he learned them from his co-workers in the mailroom. Rebecca found them amusing while Chuck trying to stay polite was clearly uncomfortable by them.
    What's the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a lawyer on a motorcycle? The vacuum cleaner has the dirt bag on the inside!
    What do you get when you cross The Godfather and a lawyer? An offer you can't understand!
    Why do they bury lawyers under 20 feet of dirt? Because deep down they're really good people!
    What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 60? "Your Honor!"
    What's the difference between a tick and a lawyer? The tick falls off when you're dead!
    How many lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb? Three; one to climb the ladder, one to shake it, and one to sue the ladder company!
  • Rebecca then adds one:
    What do lawyers and sperm have in common? One in 3-million have a chance of becoming a human being!
  • Later in bed after Jimmy left, Chuck awkwardly tries to tell one to Rebecca but it falls flat:
    What do you call 25 attorneys buried up to their chins in cement? Not enough cement!
• Failure Montage: Kim working in doc review and placing hundreds of calls trying to find HHM a big client, set to a Spanish cover of Frank Sinatra's My Way.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: The episode does so with Hector's appearance by having the diner bell use the sound effect that Breaking Bad audiences associate with Hector's wheelchair, moments before Hector enters.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • As vilified as Chuck is for his treatment of Jimmy, the backstory helps to explain it. Jimmy used to work for their father in the small store that he owned. When the store ran into financial trouble, Chuck investigated and found that Jimmy had stolen $14,000 from the store over the years. Their father was forced to sell and died, heartbroken, six months later.
  • Not exactly jerkish but annoying is Erin's supervision of Jimmy. Sure, she is obnoxious and it's kind of humiliating to have a junior teaching a senior about his job but Jimmy has shown that he needs someone to keep him in line.
  • Jimmy trying to get Kim to sue HHM was obviously a stupid idea, but he's right that it's ridiculous for her to be punished for something that wasn't her fault and that she knew nothing about, and her attempts to "save" herself ultimately mean nothing when Howard doesn't put her on the Mesa Verde case.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Just like in Rico, Mike gives his full attention to Stacey's phone call and waves people through instead of taking their parking ticket.
• Oh, Crap!: Mike has a rather quiet and subdued one when he realizes Hector is willing to do whatever it takes to get Tuco a lighter sentence. That offer of $5,000 is very much in the form of An Offer You Can't Refuse.
• Pet the Dog: Chuck does his best to console Kim after learning that Howard still won't let her out of the Cornfield despite bringing in Mesa Verda as a lucrative client.
• The Reveal: The Rebecca Bais mentioned in the sheet music in "Cobbler" was Chuck's ex-wife.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Kim attempts to get out of the Cornfield (doc review) by scoring a big client in the form of Mesa Verde Credit Union, but ultimately fails when Howard refuses to let her be part of the case after meeting with them.
• Shout-Out:
  • After seeing Mike with his beat-up face, Jimmy starts humming the theme music from Rocky as he and Erin drive away.
  • And when Mike Death Glares him after he asks what happened, Jimmy makes a nod to Fight Club.
    Jimmy: I get it, first rule of Fight Club, right?
• Stealing from the Till: Apparently (according to Chuck, keep in mind) Jimmy stole money from his father's store.^note "Inflatable" reveals that Chuck was partially correct: Jimmy did steal some money, but a lot of their father's money troubles stem from him being incredibly vulnerable to con artists. Not to mention Jimmy did effectively try to give his father a way out by pointing out the conmen but his father refused to listen due to being Stupid Good.
• Suddenly Voiced: A variant with Hector Salamanca. This is the first time onscreen that we've seen him speak in a non-flashback scene. And it's also the first time we've ever seen him speak English, flashback or not (in both of his Breaking Bad flashbacks, set in the 1980s, he spoke Spanish).
• Ungrateful Bastard: Kim certainly feels that Howard is one after bringing in Mesa Verde still isn't enough to get her out of the Cornfield.
• Wham Shot: The reveal of the person who talks to Mike in the diner: Hector Salamanca.

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