50% Off
Sticky and Ron, two tweakers who had previously attended Saul Goodman's promotional burner phone sale, go on a drug-induced crime spree throughout the city. In the morning they wake up after passing out behind the wheel of the car, which has crashed into the mailbox of a suburban house. The two remark that "It's Tuesday.., which means 50% off!" and they race off in their car. The camera pans out to reveal a garden gnome the two had stolen broken on the road.
With Lalo becoming a bigger problem by the day for Gus, he decides that he needs to apply pressure to Nacho. He has Tyrus and Victor abduct Nacho from his house in the middle of the night and take him to a restaurant where Nacho's father hangs out with friends. He is then forced to watch as Victor goes in and chats casually with him, and Gus informs him that if he doesn't want his father to die, he better start gaining Lalo's trust immediately.
In the morning while they're getting ready to work, Jimmy apologizes for taking up her half of the closet space with his suits and that he'll be storing them at the nail salon. When Jimmy asks about Bobby, she tells him that he took the five months deal, which surprises him. As Kim is about to drive to work, Jimmy unexpectedly gets into the passenger seat and requests to show her something for just a few minutes. They drive to an open house, but Kim is apprehensive as she feels it's too early for him to buy a home, but she reassures him that she really likes it. While viewing one of the spacious rooms in the home, Kim abruptly informs Jimmy that she doesn't want him to scam her clients, which Jimmy agrees. He also confesses that he created a 50% off deal for legal services against her advice, but eventually charms her over by showing her the house's walk-in closet and the multi-shower head system, which Kim playfully uses to get Jimmy soaked. This gets them kicked out by the realtor with Kim placated about Jimmy's homeowning ambitions.
Lalo visits his uncle Hector Salamanca at Casa Tranquila and discusses Gus' mysterious new construction project. Lalo doesn't buy Gus' cover story about building a new chicken refrigeration facility, and expresses disapproval that Don Juan Bolsa and Don Eladio Vuente seem to believe Gus. An elder care worker reminds Lalo to keep Hector hydrated and hands him a fruit flavored drink. He then adds liquor from a hip flask into the drink and serves it to Hector. Lalo tastes the drink but dumps more out and adds more liquor.
Mike wakes up at his home after what looks like a night of heavy drinking. He receives a call from Stacey Ehrmantraut, who tells him that she needs him to watch Kaylee that very day since she has to work. Stacey also tells Mike that Kaylee needs to do her homework before she helps him build the backyard tree house. Mike and Kaylee review the multiplication table by relating multiples of seven to football scores. However the conversation inadvertently leads to Kaylee commenting on how her dad Matt was a Philadelphia Eagles fan, and quickly dovetails into an uncomfortable conversation about what he was like as a kid. She also alleges that Mike taught Matt how to be a good officer. Reaching a tipping point, Mike lashes at Kaylee about not placing the grips on the tree house stairs correctly and then tells her that she's done, causing Kaylee to run back into the house. That night when Stacey gets back home, Mike tells her that she was in her room all day and she hadn't eaten dinner yet and refuses to elaborate on what happened.
The same two tweakers from the teaser come back to the Fifth Street Apartment looking for more cocaine, this time ordering ten bags rather than their usual two. Mouse sends the ten bags down the rain gutter, but they appear to be stuck. The skells and Mouse yell back and forth, demanding they get their product since they already paid Arlo.
Across town, Lalo, Nacho, Blingy, and Domingo are at Nacho's house playing poker. Lalo bluffs with 7+2 off-suit (the worst possible starting hand). Domingo has a pair of 8s with an 8 on the table, giving him three of a kind, but when Lalo bets big on the river, Domingo folds. Lalo shows his terrible hand and then, after looking at Domingo's cards, says he was crazy for folding and calls him "ocho loco" (Spanish for "crazy eight"), giving birth to his future criminal nickname. Domingo gets a call from one of the Fifth Street dealers saying there's a problem. He arrives at the scene and climbs onto a ladder in order to clear the blockage. Unfortunately for Domingo, a police car shows up, and the four other run off, leaving Domingo stranded at the top of the ladder. Police officers walk onto the scene and one asks him what he's doing, to which he replies that he was fixing the gutter. After tapping on it once more, Domingo inadvertently causes the cocaine packets to finally fall out of the chute.
Lalo, Mouse, Arlo, and Nacho sit in Lalo's car and watch from a safe distance as police prepare to raid the stash house. Lalo asks if they were able to save any of the product before the cops came but Mouse says it was left behind. Nacho, remembering Gus' request to gain Lalo's trust, boldly decides to take matters into his own hands by climbing onto the roof of an adjacent building, then jumping onto another where the gang has their product stored. The others watch tensely (with Lalo eating a snack) as a SWAT team lines up outside the door and prepares to breach it. Nacho climbs in through the roof and salvages several bags of product before jumping out through a window just as the reinforced door is breached. He surprises the trio by geting back to the car and showing the bags; Lalo commends his actions in salvaging the gang's supply.
Jimmy uses his newfound energy to finesse and sweet-talk his way through the Bernalillo County Courthouse. He prepares for a monologue to give before ADA Suzanne Ericsen, but instead he encounters ADA Bill Oakley, who is unimpressed by the film crew's "candid camera"-like stunt the last time they met and refuses to budge on a sentencing deal for one of Jimmy's clients. In a long shot scene, he speaks to a clerk and some clients before running to Oakley again, who has just exited the courtroom and is flabbergasted that Jimmy's client had witnesses. Oakley then agrees to commute the sentence. Jimmy encounters Howard Hamlin, who congratulates him on getting his law license reinstated. Howard invites him to have lunch, only to be interrupted when Jimmy spots Ericsen leaving a courtroom and follows her down the hall. Ericson refuses to discuss any of his 16 cases she is prosecuting until his appointment next week, telling him he's just trying to make as much money as possible by maximizing the turnover of clients, before stepping into an elevator.
Back at the El Michoacáno restaurant, Lalo asks Nacho how long he's known Domingo and whether he's been inside jail before. Nacho replies that he's been family friends for a long time, and Domingo has not been in jail but he will keep his mouth shut. As Lalo stares at him, Nacho asks if he wants him to take care of it. However, Lalo replies that he has something much better in mind for Domingo.
Another day at the courthouse, Jimmy follows Ericsen into an elevator, which promptly malfunctions as it begins ascending to the third floor. They both start reading over their case files while waiting, but Jimmy reads off his arguments to himself out loud, prompting Ericson to tell him to stop. He does it again and she eventually gives in as they start discussing the plea deals in his cases. In total they're stuck in the elevator for 20 minutes, and he reminds Ericsen of the three remaining cases he has with her next week. As Ericson walks down the hallway, Jimmy thanks the elevator repairman for engineering the accident, revealing that Jimmy had planned it all along. Jimmy pays the repairman with an envelope of money and guarantees that the repairman's brother (which Jimmy is representing) will have a clean record.
On the street outside court, Jimmy is talking to his clients on his wireless headset and eating a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone, when Nacho and Blingy pull up to him on the sidewalk. Jimmy greets Nacho, as the two have not seen each other for over two years, and Nacho orders him to get into the back of the car. Jimmy tries to enter, but Nacho gestures at the ice cream, which Jimmy unceremoniously drops on the sidewalk. The ice cream cone lands at an angle reminiscent of the broken garden gnome from the teaser.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- Lalo can't help but savor the moment when he learns that Domingo folded on a superior hand.
- He's also quite amused by Nacho's efforts to save the drug stash.
- Ambiguous Situation: Is Domingo merely bad at playing poker, or is he intimidated by Lalo to the point of not wanting to call his bluff?
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Gus was already operating on Nacho's fear by blackmailing him over his attempt at Hector's life, which the Salamancas are unaware of. But he decides to step up the tension by putting Nacho's father under threat of being killed by Victor should Nacho ever betray him.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Kaylee's innocent questions about Mike and Matty's careers as police officers unknowingly press on Mike's Berserk Button by reminding him of his Dark and Troubled Past, as well as his recent Startof Darkness involving Werner.
- Berserk Button: Mike's gets accidentally pushed again, this time by his own granddaughter. Kaylee is innocently asking him questions about her dad and how he wanted to be a police officer just like Mike. Mike, who's in a bad state because of Ziegler's killing, ends up snapping at her and making her retreat to her room in tears.
- Book Ends: The last shot of both the cold open and the ending are of an object being discarded on the ground: the stolen lawn gnome in the former, Jimmy's ice cream in the latter.
- Call-Back: Yet again, Stupid Crooks roll up to the drug den in a flashy car covered in stupid rope lights that screams "illegal activity".
- The cheque that Kim and Jimmy conned from a restaurant patron can be seen in the bedroom mirror of their apartment.
- Chekhov's Gun: Saul's 50% off discount deal from last episode winds up being the catalyst for what transpires in this one. As to drive the point home, the cold open starts right as the discount is announced.
- Chekhov's Gunman: As part of their minor crime spree, the "50% off!" dopes buy more drugs than usual, which leads to them getting stuck in the pipe, which leads to Krazy-8 being arrested while trying to fix it, which means Lalo drags Jimmy into getting him out, which sets Jimmy on a course of getting into Cartel business and the drug trade.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Lalo gives Domingo the nickname Krazy-8 thanks to him folding an especially badly played hand of Texas Hold-Em.
- Death Glare: Gus gives one to Nacho to punctuate the threat to his father should he fail to gain Lalo's trust.
- For Want Of A Nail: Two criminals decide to take advantage of Saul's 50% off discount for his services... by going on a several day long petty crime binge, culminating in them getting the cops sent to the neighborhood where the Salamancas sell cocaine (due to their baggie getting stuck in the storm drain, and the two of them making a scene trying to get it out), resulting in Krazy-8 getting arrested by the cops due to being caught trying to remove the drugs.
- Godzilla Threshold: Nacho is desperate for a way into Lalo's confidence after Gus threatens to kill his father should he not be able to help Gus bring Lalo down. So when the cocaine dealing site is besieged by police, Nacho decides that he's going to go across the rooftops - jumping over a sizable gap at one point - descend into the stashhouse via a roof light and exit via a window in the nick of time, before the cops break into the storehouse. This seems to have warmed Lalo up to him considerably.
- Hard-Work Montage: The episode begins with Jimmy giving away his last batch of cellphones, and promoting himself as a lawyer who can defend them, to numerous people. He's putting a lot of effort and investment into securing his future clientele base.
- Here We Go Again!: DDA Oakley groans at the sight of Jimmy in the courthouse hallway, expecting Jimmy to put him on candid camera again.
- Idiot Ball: Mouse, the lady at the cocaine dealing site, gets an order for 10 units. In the opening, she sends those units down the notably narrow drainpipe one by one, presumably to stop any of them getting jammed and also so nobody complains about not getting the right number of units (if they come down one by one, it's harder to claim that one was missed) - especially given how these addicts will go absolutely ballistic about not getting their fix. But here, for no good reason, she stuffs all 10 into the drainpipe at once - and sure enough, they get stuck, the addicts go ballistic, the police get involved, the site is raided by Narcos and Krazy 8 gets arrested - all of which could have been avoided by sending 10 units down the pipe one at a time, like normal.
- Improbably Cool Car: In the opening, Ron and Sticky have a beat-up car but in their second scene, they are in a car with a custom paint job, neon lighting, a loud sound system, and donked wheels.
- Kick the Dog: Mike's unjustified rage against Kaylee, whose innocent questions about her father's death smash Mike's Berserk Button.
- Let the Bully Win: Krazy 8 would rather lose money and face than risk Lalo's wrath by beating him. Though it's hard to say how much grace Lalo would take if Krazy 8 didn't fold when he did.
- Meaningful Background Event: Near the end of the episode, while Jimmy is walking down the street and talking to his clients through his headset, Nacho can be seen driving up to him from behind.
- Missed Him by That Much: Nacho manages to evade the Narcos as they breach the stashhouse door by mere seconds.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had Jimmy decided to listen to Kim's advice and not go through with the 50% off deal for non-violent felonies, the two petty criminals would not have have gone on an insane spree, which leads to a series of events that involve Krazy-8 being arrested and Nacho forcibly recruiting Saul into the criminal underground.
- Not So Above It All: Though she's rather dismissive of the open house Jimmy invites her to tour for the most part, Kim can't help but spray him with water while they're checking out the shower together, laughing as she does it. She also affectionately teases her boyfriend that the giant walk-in closet is what he's always wanted.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mike is spiraling hard from what happened with Werner Ziegler. His bedroom is a mess of empty beer bottles and cans. When he agrees to babysit Kaylee for Stacey, he ends up yelling at her after she presses him about Matty and being a police officer, causing her to stay in her room terrified. When Stacey comes out, he bluntly tells her Kaylee's in her room and didn't eat dinner before blowing her off.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Krazy 8 when he's caught red-handed by the cops with the drugs.
- Pass the Popcorn: Lalo has a snack while watching Nacho retrieve some of the cartel's stash under the noses of the SWAT team.
- Plot-Driven Breakdown: Invoked: In order to talk to Suzanne about the clients they share, Jimmy orchestrates an elevator breakdown in order to trap her, in exchange for helping the repairman's nephew out of a legal jam.
- Properly Paranoid: Both Hector and Lalo rightly suspect that whatever Gus is building, it will be to the cartel's detriment.
- Right Through His Pants: Gus' men come for Nacho at night, and he's shown sleeping next to some girl – while at first he seems like he's sleeping naked, a later shot shows he has underwear on, suggesting Tyrus let him at least get somewhat dressed before they took him to meet Gus.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The two skells, Ron and Sticky, end up causing Krazy-8's arrest, which leads to him being set up as a DEA informant next episode. Essentially, they inadvertently set up the beginning of Breaking Bad .
- Tempting Fate: At the house viewing, Jimmy reassures Kim that his client base isn't going to do anything illegal just for the sake of the discount. Right after he gives out the cards, that's exactly what the two tweakers did.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Jimmy isn't allowed to take his ice cream with him when he's picked up on the street by Nacho.
- Title Drop: Multiple times, when Jimmy first proposes his discount, and when he tells Kim about it later.
- Villain Cred: When Nacho rushes back into the drug house to pick up the remaining cocaine stash before the cops discover it, Lalo is practically giddy with the prospect of Nacho getting busted or killed, going so far as to eat a snack. So, when Nacho re-enters the car, stash in tow, Lalo outright calls him a badass.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: Gus secures Nacho's cooperation by showing him that he knows the places where his father goes to hang out socially, and that Victor has even wormed his way into becoming friendly with Manuel.Victor: Pop's a nice guy.
- Villains Out Shopping: Lalo and the Salamanca crew play a game of Texas Hold 'Em.
- Wham Episode: Saul's 50% off deal results in Krazy-8 getting arrested by the cops due to the discovery of a coke house, resulting in Jimmy being forced back into Nacho's world.
