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Recap / Better Call Saul S6 E7: "Plan and Execution"

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"You two are soulless. Jimmy, you can't help yourself. Chuck knew it. You were born that way. But you? [to Kim] One of the smartest and most promising human beings I've ever known... and this is the life you choose."
Howard Hamlin

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


Tropes:

  • Actor Allusion: A cool, merciless killer claiming to be "nobody."
  • Big "OMG!": And Big "NO!", on top of lots of screaming from Kim and Jimmy when Lalo kills Howard.
  • Bluff the Eavesdropper:
    • Lalo makes a call to Casa Tranquila asking to speak to Hector, but hears a clicking sound during the hold music which indicates the line is being bugged. After taking out his anger at the realization, he calls again and when he reaches Hector, falsely claims that he couldn't find any proof against Gus and is resorting to "Plan A", causing Mike and Gus to scramble for safety. When in actuality, he's going to pay a visit to his lawyers...
    • We find out that Howard's private investigator is working for Jimmy, so Howard is being bluffed while eavesdropping too
  • Boom, Headshot!: How Howard meets his end.
  • Broken Pedestal: An intern at HHM hopes he can become as lauded as Chuck. Howard thinks on this a moment, and muses that maybe there are more important things.
  • The Bus Came Back: Irene returns after not being seen since the last episodes of Season 3 as the Sandpiper lawsuit's class representative.
  • Call-Back:
    • Howard questioned whether Chuck really needed to testify at Jimmy's bar hearing, but Chuck insisted on doing so...which ultimately resulted in his downfall. Jimmy questions whether Kim really needs to be present at the photo reshoot, noting that he could probably do it all himself and she could still make it to her meeting...but Kim tells him that "this is where [she] needs to be."
    • As Howard notes, Chuck also knew that Jimmy "couldn't help" himself.
    • Howard explains to Cliff that Jimmy wanted him to settle with Sandpiper months ago.
    • Lalo gets the idea to visit Jimmy after seeing a cockroach scurrying across a pipe next to him. He previously referred to Jimmy as “La Cucaracha, a born survivor” (Spanish for “the cockroach”), when Kim visited him during his incarceration.
    • Lalo has claimed that he only needs one or two hours of sleep to function. Here, we literally see him set an egg timer for one hour and laying back - and waking up before the alarm anyway!
    • Lalo dismissively states that Juan Bolsa will support Gus no matter what because Bolsa thinks of him as an "earner".
    • Howard calls Kim (and Jimmy) "soulless", like Acker did previously.
    • Jimmy reacts to Howard sarcastically congratulating him just as ignorantly as he did when Cliff fired him, even offering the same aloof response of "What do I win?"
  • Call-Forward:
    • Howard's death is the result of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as a result of him coming in-between a meeting with his enemy and a criminal. Something that would also result in Hank Schrader's demise years later.
    • The situation also mirrors the death of Juan Bolsa: being deceived by someone he considered an ally, promising to land on his feet and then come for retribution... only to be gunned down moments later.
    • Jimmy and Kim's plot against Howard initially seems like a relatively small scale act of maliciousness but blossoms into unexpectedly horrifying results when, during his confrontation with them, Lalo enters and kills Howard. This thematically echoes a subplot in Breaking Bad where Walter White will commit a more fatal but nevertheless also seemingly small-scale act of callousness which leads to unexpectedly disastrous consequences.
    • Howard's comparison of Jimmy and Kim to Leopold and Loeb draws a parallel with a moment in "Live Free or Die", when Walt informs Saul that he's "not Clarence Darrow", referring to the attorney who defended Leopold and Loeb who routinely chose unpopular clients and causes out of a belief that everyone had the fundamental right to a fervent defence by a committed attorney.
  • Captain Obvious: As Lalo screws a silencer onto his gun and a terrified Kim tells him to leave, poor, drunk, befuddled Howard can only say, "I think... I'm in the middle of something..."
  • Cassandra Truth:
    • Howard is, of course, telling the truth: the whole incident at the mediation — everything from the fake photos to the condition of Howard's eyes to the sudden disappearance of his private detective — has indeed been engineered by Jimmy. But thanks to Howard's agitated behavior, it comes across as nothing more than paranoid conspiracy theories to Cliff, Schweikart, and everyone else in the room. Cliff himself acknowledges that Howard's claim is not entirely unreasonable and without merit, but unfortunately the damage has already been done.
    • When Howard confronts Kim and Jimmy, they dismissively tell him it's time he left their apartment as he's drunk, talking nonsense and should go home. They change their tune when Lalo arrives and try to tell Howard he really, really does need to leave right away, but doesn't listen.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: When Lalo appears on Jimmy's doorstep, Howard talks with him as if he was just a regular client of Jimmy and Kim and even jokingly suggests him to find better lawyers, not realizing the danger coming from the unexpected guest until it is too late.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Any vain hopes that the remainder of the final season would retain a lighter tone evaporate in this episode, with even the fig leaf of wacky hijinks engendered by the elaborate caper to smear Howard balanced against the actual human cost to him, firstly as a lawyer who was publicly disgraced in front of his peers as a paranoid addict, and finally in his ignominious and brutal murder by Lalo, for no better reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
  • Character Death: The last scene of the front half of Season 6 sees Howard Hamlin getting shot in the head by Lalo, purely for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
  • Chekhov's Gun: A literal gun; the pistol and silencer that Lalo had and almost used in "Black and Blue" gets used this time.
  • Cliffhanger: The end of the episode is Lalo having murdered Howard, setting the scene for the 'talk' between Lalo, Kim and Jimmy.
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Contrived Coincidence: The day of the sabotage against Howard becomes the day Lalo decides to "talk" with his lawyers.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Lalo baits Gus' security team to go on the move to observe how fortified the laundry is. What results is a small army and armored vehicles led by Mike scrambling to the scene.
  • Determinator: Despite everything he has gone through, Howard makes it clear in his final speech to Jimmy and Kim that he isn't out of business, he will land on his feet and he will attempt to bring them to justice in one way or another. His aspirations are cut short by Lalo's silencer pistol, however.
  • Disappointed in You: In his rant to Jimmy and Kim, Howard makes it clear that he's even more disappointed in Kim than in Jimmy; while he believes that Jimmy was simply born this way and thus, to a certain degree, can't help himself, Kim was such a bright and intelligent person who willingly threw away her morals for the sake of some childish love of the game.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Jimmy and Kim's scheme against Howard, involving framing him as a drug addict, blowing up the Sandpiper case, and severely damaging Howard's career and name in the legal community (and the rest of HHM by extension). His drunken rant at them is largely centered around Howard trying to comprehend why they think he deserves this as opposed to the usual pranks that they have been engaging in. He suggests that he might have let another prank slide (Kim was actually considering something more harmless before, like putting nair in Howard's shampoo), but what they did to him this time is so beyond the pale that he promises them he will do whatever he can to expose them.
  • Double-Meaning Title: In a rather dark manner, the "Execution" half of the episode's title doesn't only refer to the fact that D-Day is put into motion here. It also refers to Howard's death scene.
  • Double Subversion: The first time Jimmy and Kim's door opens, the candles ominously blow, making us think it's Lalo come to pay them a visit. Initially, it's a Bait-and-Switch as Howard comes in to see them instead. Eventually however, the candles blow again... and this time, it really is Lalo.
  • Downer Ending: The first half of the sixth season concludes with Howard's gruesome murder and Jimmy and Kim being held at the mercy of Lalo.
  • Dramatic Irony: Back in "Something Unforgivable", Kim made it clear she was determined to bring Howard down by giving Jimmy a double-finger gun gesture. And sure enough, after Howard's fall from grace here, Kim and Jimmy are forced to see him shot and killed.
  • The Dreaded: Jimmy and Kim go from smugly apathetic to Howard's plight to desperately trying to get him away from the situation the moment that Lalo enters the room; Jimmy in particular is so shocked that all he can do is wonder "how?" he could still be alive.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Howard is as visibly sloshed as he is miserable when he enters the Goodmans' home at night.
  • Dying Candle: The arrival of Lalo at Jimmy's apartment is preceded by a shot of flickering candle fire. Soon after, Howard is killed.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Lalo, frustrated on what to do after realizing Gus has bugged the phone lines, has a moment like this when he sees a cockroach crawling by.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: By this point Jimmy and Kim are both firmly Villain Protagonists who have no problem with gleefully destroying Howard's life (though it’s hinted by their reactions to Howard's speech that they’re maybe beginning to regret taking things quite so far, at least a little bit). Despite this they still plead for Howard to leave and save his life when Lalo shows up and are horrified when Lalo blows his brains out.
  • Evil Is Petty: This is essentially the crux of Howard's denunciation of Jimmy and Kim — their scheme against him, for all of its complexity and careful planning, was ultimately motivated by little more than petty spite over fairly minor grievances and a kind of childishly sadistic pleasure at being able to pull it off.
  • Eviler than Thou: Jimmy and Kim are smug manipulators who gloat over ruining Howard's career, leading him to declare them to be sociopaths. Moments later, Lalo, an actual sociopath, walks in and casually murders him, horrifying them both.
  • Exiled to the Couch: Guesthouse in Howard's case, as he elaborates on the decaying state of his marriage to Jimmy and Kim when he confronts them.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Once Lalo makes his presence known in Jimmy and Kim's apartment, he's calm and mildly pleasant as he makes it clear he wants to talk to them... even after blowing Howard's brains out. He even politely has them quiet down after he does it when they start screaming.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: Jimmy and Kim notice the candle on the table flickering for the second time, indicating someone has just opened the apartment door again. Moments later, they find out it's Lalo.
  • For the Evulz: Invoked by Howard, when he goes through possible reasons why would Jimmy and Kim would set him up in an elaborate plot, but then coming to the correct conclusion they did it for nothing else than their own, personal amusement. The fact that they literally had sex to the sound of the mediation falling apart only nails it further down.
    Howard: But now it's so clear. Screw the money, you did it for fun. You get off on it.
  • For Want Of A Nail:
    • If Kim kept driving to Santa Fe, not only would Howard have not shown up to her apartment at the same moment as Lalo that night, but she also would have been on an upswing in her legal career without having to witness (and deal with the aftermath of) Howard's murder.
    • Had Lalo not heard the clicking sound on the line to indicate Hector's phone line was bugged, he wouldn't have made a change of plans, and Howard would've lived.
    • If Lalo hadn't noticed a cockroach crawling around nearby while he was in the sewer, he wouldn't have gotten the idea to go see Jimmy (who he had previously likened to "la cucaracha").
    • If Jimmy hadn't been at the liquor store the exact same time to notice that Judge Casimiro had a cast on his arm, the D-Day scan most likely would have failed and Howard wouldn't have gone to Jimmy and Kim's apartment the same night Lalo did.
  • Foregone Conclusion:
    • In the video that he records for Don Eladio, Lalo outlines his intention to break into the Lavandería Brillante, kill everyone there, and obtain video proof of what will eventually become the Superlab by the timeframe of Breaking Bad. Seeing how the Cartel is still unaware of Gus's intentions regarding the Superlab in that series, it's clear that the proof in question is never going to make its way to Eladio and that Lalo may not even be alive.
    • Zig-zagged: Howard tells Jimmy and Kim directly to their faces that he's going to spend the rest of his life working to expose them for what they had done to him, a threat that comes off as hollow given how Jimmy's still practicing law in Breaking Bad... only for it to turn out that Howard only had about 90 seconds to live before Lalo walked in and killed him on the spot.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Howard's trick to defuse a shaken-up can of soft drink foreshadows Lalo screwing the silencer onto his gun. Howard describes said trick as Chuck's "way of being prepared for anything", foreshadowing his death at the hands of someone he could not possibly have been prepared for.
    • More comically, the would-be actor playing the judge heads off with Jimmy because he's so excited to get a paying gig that he leaves his shopping carts behind, allowing them to collide with a parked car. This foreshadows both the unexpected collateral damage of Jimmy and Kim's scheme against Howard, which was similarly for both fast money and the thrill of playing around, and also the symbolic collision of the two strands of the plot — the cartel storyline and the legal side of the plot — that will end in Howard's death.
    • After hearing Lalo (falsely) state to Hector on the phone that he's shifting back to "Plan A", Mike assumes this to mean he's going to attack Gus directly and informs Gus he's taken men off of lower priority targets to instead protect Gus. Now remember a couple of episodes ago when Mike met with Kim and told her he had guys watching her and her husband in case Lalo reached out to them...
  • Gaslighting: Right before Howard goes to the meeting concerning the Sandpiper lawsuit, he meets with his private investigator, who shows him pictures of Jimmy handing a bag (containing $20,000) to someone. Howard goes to the meeting and realizes that the 'someone' in the picture is the arbitrator overseeing the negotiations, leading to him quickly ending the meeting and accusing the arbitrator of accepting a bribe to force the case to a quick settlement. A secretary runs to Howard's desk to grab the envelope full of photos...of Jimmy handing a frisbee to a man bearing no resemblance to the arbitrator outside of the same mustache. Both sets of photos were staged by Jimmy and an actor in makeup to look exactly like the arbitrator, the private investigator was working with Jimmy all along, and he simply swapped out envelopes after showing the first batch to Howard. The ploy works perfectly to make Howard look like a fool in front of everyone, as well as further convincing Cliff Main that Howard is using cocaine (also the result of gaslighting), and the Sandpiper lawsuit has to be settled quickly before things get worse for the plaintiffs. When Howard later confronts Jimmy and Kim over it, they continue to act like it's all just in his head.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Kim and Jimmy's scheme against Howard plays perfectly according to the plan, despite the massive setback at the beginning of the episode (if anything, the new photos work in their favor because Howard might dismiss Casimiro as an Identical Stranger, but not when both Jimmy's actor and Casimiro have the same exact arm injury): Howard is made a fool of at the mediation because of his insistent attempts to claim that the mediator took bribes from Jimmy, has his reputation tarnished as a result and is forced to concede the Sandpiper settlement early. What Kim and Jimmy didn't account for, however, is that, in his following pursuit of payback, Howard would stumble across the most dangerous part of Jimmy's professional life at the worst possible time...
  • He Knows Too Much: Lalo wanted to talk to Jimmy and Kim. Unfortunately, Howard being there is something Lalo can't risk.
  • Hope Spot: In his rant, Howard notes that despite the damage done to his career by Jimmy and Kim, he is confident that he will land on his feet and dedicate the rest of his life to making sure Jimmy and Kim pay for what they've done. Then Lalo walks in...
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Amazingly, Gus gets this. He stubbornly insists on finishing his PR meetups, believing even Lalo isn't reckless enough to attack him in broad daylight in front of innocents and compromise himself and the entire cartel by extension. Mike, however, firmly warns Gus that he is indeed that crazy, and that he has to go home right away.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen:
    • Chuck is immortalized with a portrait in the HHM conference center, but it's clear the many moons since the degradating circumstances that led to the end of his career and life have caused his legacy to slowly fade into oblivion. One of the interns at HHM actually has to be told by Howard who he was.
    • Howard himself is put in a similar position by episode's end. His marriage has deteriorated, and Jimmy's machinations leave him with the loss of respect from his friends and colleagues who believe him to be a disheveled, paranoid drug addict. He practically looks the part when he visits Jimmy and Kim to ask what was so worth ruining his life for, and that's all before Lalo shows up and silences him forever.
  • Humiliation Conga: One BIG one for Howard. Poor guy.
  • Ignored Aesop: The last time Lalo Salamanca killed an innocent civilian for being a mild inconvenience to him, he was chastised for it by Juan Bolsa, arrested, and would have probably spent decades behind bars if not for some extremely good fortune. That experience was likely part of the reason why he decided a more stealthy approach would be preferred when fishing for information from Werner Ziegler's widow. But in this episode, Lalo executes someone just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, who he doesn't know and has absolutely no involvement with. Had he just waited for a few minutes, Howard probably would have just left the apartment, likely too drunk to think anything of the encounter with Lalo, if he would even remember running into him at all.
  • Infodump: Howard drops one on Cliff to let the audience know how Kim & Jimmy had managed to get Howard to hire the fake private investigator that was on their side. They called HHM and lied about the private investigator changing phone numbers.
  • Innocent Bystander: In an attempt to settle the score with Kim and Jimmy, Howard accidentally ends up being a collateral damage in Lalo's cartel war against Gus.
  • Internal Reveal:
    • Jimmy finds out in one of the worst possible ways that reports of Lalo's death were greatly exaggerated.
    • When he tries to call Hector and realizes that the phone line is bugged, Lalo also learns for certain that Gus knows he survived and prepared his defenses in advance of Lalo's return. And on Gus's end, although he had already been certain Lalo was alive, him calling Hector on the recorded line finally gives him and Mike the confirmation they needed.
  • Irony: Back in "Hit and Run", Mike tells Kim that he has men keeping an eye out on her and Jimmy because Lalo is still alive and there's a possibility that he might reach out to them. Mike thinks that he'll most likely never reach out to them because he got bigger fish to fry. But when Lalo bluffs to them that he's going to target Gus, Mike pulls out his men who are watching low priority targets and moves them to Gus's safehouse to deal with Lalo. Unfortunately, Lalo wanted Mike's men gone so he can meet with Jimmy and Kim.
  • Kansas City Shuffle:
    • Jimmy and Kim knew that Howard would easily figure out that they are the ones trying to discredit him and then try to counter-attack. Turns out that Howard's investigator is actually working for them and has been feeding Howard enough true information so that Howard trusts him. Thus when Howard is presented with definite "proof" of Jimmy's bribery, he does not question it since surveilling Jimmy was his own idea.
    • Lalo realizes that Hector's phone is bugged so he makes Gus and Mike think that Lalo is going to assassinate Gus. This results in them summoning all their men to keep Gus safe and discontinuing surveillance of secondary targets like Jimmy and Kim. It's the opening Lalo was looking for.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: A drunk and angry Howard realizes far too late that the "nobody" who arrived at Kim and Jimmy's place isn't just another client, and when he starts stammering about the situation, Lalo unceremoniously dispatches him.
    Howard: I uh... I think I'm in the middle of something... There's really no need to- (bang)
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: While Howard is determined to find out the truth about Jimmy's and Kim's gaslighting him, and to take the Sandpiper Crossing suit to trial if need be, Cliff points out that a trial would take several years — a length of time that some of their clients might not live through, and during which some of their other ones might go to another law firm — to produce any sort of outcome, and that considering how damaging Howard's false accusations against Casimiro were, there's no guarantee that it would be a good outcome. Howard reluctantly caves in and agrees to settle.
  • Literal-Minded: Clueless to the situation around him, Howard takes it at word when Lalo says that he needs to talk with his lawyers, as if he was Jimmy and Kim's client, and attempts to give him a friendly advice to find better lawyers.
  • Mood Whiplash: A good chunk of the episode is devoted to Howard's Humiliation Conga, played for laughs; the episode ends with Howard bitterly taking Jimmy and Kim to task for so thoroughly ruining his life for such petty reasons before being shot in the head by Lalo.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed; nothing is of this nature is outright said, but some of the looks that Jimmy and Kim have when Howard is laying into them at the end over their scheme strongly imply that that they're beginning to regret taking things so far. Jimmy looks particularly uncomfortable when Howard retorts by bringing up his failing marriage after Jimmy tries to suggest that Howard will land on his feet after everything; Kim looks somewhat taken aback when Howard accuses her of being worse than Jimmy because she made the choice to throw away her ethics and integrity, where shady dealing is just part of Jimmy's personality by this point; and when he lashes out and accuses them of being "sociopaths" like Leopold and Loeb who demolished his life less for the money and more because they found it fun, both react in a stung way which suggests that his words have hit a nerve that's closer than they might have realised. And, of course, both look utterly horrified when Lalo shows up and "deals" with Howard, whom he views as just a random witness.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After Lalo bluffs to whoever was eavesdropping on his call with Hector that he's going to target Gus soon, Mike pulls his men who were keeping an eye on low priority targets Lalo might reach out to and brings them to Gus's safehouse for a final showdown with Lalo. Unfortunately, among the low priority targets are Jimmy and Kim, and with no one keeping an eye on them, Lalo is able to meet them without any trouble and it indirectly led to the death of Howard.
  • Obfuscating Disability: Irene isn't disabled, but Howard still insists that she should sit in a wheelchair during the Sandpiper talks in hopes that this will invoke more sympathy. The sort of trick one would more likely associate with Jimmy.
  • Off the Table: It's strongly implied that the Sandpiper case had been going in favor of the plaintiffs, as their position is very strong, and the settlement offer from Sandpiper has been continually going up. It's not specified what the most recent offer was, but after Howard falsely accuses the arbitrator of accepting a bribe and makes himself look incompetent and paranoid in the meeting, Rich Schweikart knows it's time to press his advantage and retracts it. He reduces it to the previous offer, and says that it will go down by one million a day until the deal is accepted.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Jimmy has the face of someone staring down the killer in a horror movie when the man he thought dead turns up alive and well in his living room. Kim knew Lalo was alive and is still just as horrified to see him standing there, especially with Howard still there and not realizing the danger he's in.
    • Lalo looks absolutely shocked and panicked when he realizes his call has been bugged, perhaps even more so than when his house was being shot up.
  • The Oner: The entire scene of Jimmy setting up the reshoot of the staged photographs of him bribing Judge Casimiro on the campus is done in one long shot of at least a couple minutes, with the camera slowly rotating around the characters as they gather up and arrange the shoot.
  • Opt Out: Variation: When Kim shows up at with her cast at the photoshoot, Jimmy tries to talk her into leaving and making her lunch meeting in Santa Fe. Kim steadfastly refuses, saying she's where she needs to be.
  • Outside-Context Problem: While Howard is presumably aware that Saul represents a lot of lowlifes, unlike the courthouse lawyers he clearly has no idea about Saul's organized crime connections and thinks his rival is nothing more than a manchild Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, so Lalo's sudden appearance catches him entirely by surprise. Howard only manages to get out a few words when he realizes his life is legitimately in danger.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Howard directly tells Saul and Kim that, for all their delusions of moral superiority, they're nothing more than childish sociopaths lashing out at him for minor slip-ups and grievances that in no way justify what they've done to him.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When tearing into the two, Howard makes it clear that he now views Kim as being even worse than Jimmy. In his eyes, Jimmy was simply born bad and can't help but act according to his nature, just as Chuck had always said. Kim, however, could have been so much more, but willingly decided to abandon her ethics and her promise in order to join Jimmy on the Dark Side, out of little more than spite.
  • The Reveal: We finally see the entirety of Kim and Jimmy's plan to discredit Howard and force HHM and Sandpiper to settle.
    • Everything to do with Cliff Main - planting a fake coke baggie at Howard's locker, sending the Kettlemans to Davis and Main to sling mud on Howard's name, stealing and then throwing a prostitute out of Howard's car onto the street where Cliff happens to be eating - was solely so he would confront Howard about "his" actions, and clue Howard in on what Jimmy and Kim have been up to... without Howard realizing that's what they want him to do. In particular, they make it seem like their schemes are only on the level of Jimmy's previous pranks, rather than outright sabotage.
    • Howard's P.I. was actually a fake planted by Jimmy and Kim as part of the plan to set him up at the Sandpiper settlement hearing by making him look crazed, paranoid, and on drugs.
    • The drugs Jimmy and Kim purchased from Dr. Caldera were smeared onto the photos for Howard to come into contact with when he handled them, which made him sweat profusely and caused his eyes to visibly dilate while he's in the middle of ranting, furthering the appearance that he's on cocaine.
    • The staged photos were used to essentially gaslight Howard in the middle of the hearing, first by showing him seemingly incontrovertible "proof" of Rand Casimiro taking a bribery payment from Jimmy so that Howard will accuse him of it in front of everyone, and then switching the photos to ones of Jimmy handing out a frisbee to a runner out so that it looks like Howard made a paranoid lapse of judgment.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Two-fold with Howard's death: not only does his blood wind up being splattered onto the painting Jimmy and Kim were using to plan out their scheme against him, but he winds up collapsing onto the ground in a pose very similar to when Chuck collapsed in the copy store, complete with smashing his head against a table on the way down.
  • Scared of What's Behind You: Judging by Howard's reaction, he seems to think that Jimmy and Kim's sudden terror when they see Lalo is actually a response to his vow to bring them to justice.
  • Shout-Out: The scene in which Howard runs up the stairs to his office, shot from above, is reminiscent of Vertigo.
  • The Sleepless: Lalo, true to his word when he boasted about it to Nacho; only needs a maximum of two hours of sleep before resuming his nocturnal activities.
  • Soda Can Shakeup: After an intern accidentally drops half a tray of soda cans, Howard shows him a trick to opening a shaken soda can without it exploding in your face. He explains that he learned it from Chuck, who would do it every time he opened a soda can out of habit. One can only assume Jimmy is most likely at fault for ingraining such a habit into Chuck.
  • Solemn Ending Theme: One of the few episodes, along with "Lantern" and "Rock and Hard Place" (both of which also have a major character dying), that doesn't end with the same upbeat tune all other episodes play during the closing credits. Instead, it plays the more intense Lalo's leitmotif, which is fitting enough.
  • Stepford Smiler: Probably the most extreme example yet with Gus. He's seen at a photo-op with a bunch of kids for a PR event beaming away with the brightest smile in the world... even though inside, he's the most frustrated and paranoid he's ever been, wondering when Lalo is going to make a move against him.
  • The Stinger: There is a mid-credit scene showing Jimmy and Kim's apartment in black-and-white and has Jimmy saying, "So... after all that... a happy ending." The scene isn't present on all streaming platforms for the episode, however. It's then also not present with rerun broadcasts of the episode.
  • Stunned Silence: While Kim tries to keep some semblance of control over the situation by (futilely) pleading Howard to leave, Jimmy stands in a combination of utter shock, disbelief and grave silence at the mere sight of Lalo approaching their company, only managing to whisper a barely audible "How?".
  • There's No Kill like Overkill: Despite the fact that Lalo is only one man and the only opponent they're expecting, the level of security prepared for Gus is at the level of a minor military armada bracing for an actual war. However, given that Lalo survived the previous attempt on his life by a squad of supposedly highly trained killers, it seems reasonable Gus would up the level of firepower this time round.
  • Tranquil Fury:
    • When an angry Howard confronts Saul and Kim over their plot to destroy his career, he doesn't outright scream towards either of them, instead calmly stating what he thinks of the two in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
    • Casimiro is quite angry when Howard accuses him of accepting a bribe, but raises his voice only once. He calms down a bit when Howard's "drug problem" is exposed and wishes Cliff good luck on his way out.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: After an entire season of the two unconnected plot lines of Jimmy and Kim's feud with Howard and Lalo's game of cat-and-Mouse with Gus and Mike, Lalo shows up in Jimmy's room to put a stop to that with a bullet to Howard's temple right as the Sandpiper case has reached a resolution, clearly intended to conscript Jimmy into his plans to outwit Gus and discover the superlab he's hiding, irrevocably combining both halves of the plot going forward.
  • Uncertain Doom: While it's highly improbable someone like Lalo would show mercy, Casper's fate is left hanging. In his video recording to Eladio he mentions he "put up one hell of a fight" in regards to spilling the beans, but doesn't mention if he killed him.
  • Undignified Death: Compared to Nacho, who died on his own terms in his last appearance, Howard is murdered in a completely unceremonious manner, being casually shot by Lalo, without even knowing what hit him (and Lalo doesn't even seem to know who he is beyond an inconvenient loose end), all while his professional reputation was crumbled to dust in a single day.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Jimmy, Kim, and Mike each play a role in the chain of events leading to Howard's demise.
    • There is, of course, Jimmy and Kim's decision to ruin Howard in the first place, which came about for extremely petty reasons (Howard offering Jimmy a job he no longer wanted and Howard telling Kim that Chuck knew her husband best, respectively), and by this point they're just doing it For the Evulz anyway.
    • Kim made a more direct contribution when she chose to return to Albuquerque to see D-Day through instead of going to her luncheon in Santa Fe as Jimmy advised. If she and Jimmy had postponed D-Day to a later date, then Howard wouldn't have visited her apartment on the same night as Lalo. Also, she neglected to tell Jimmy of Lalo's possible survival after being warned by Mike and risked continuing the con against Howard despite knowing the above, resulting in the death of Howard and both she and Jimmy are at the mercy of Lalo.
    • Mike assumed that Lalo's message to Hector was genuine and that he was going to strike at Gus that night, which prompted him to pull surveillance off of the low-priority areas — including Kim's apartment — in order to fortify Gus's house. Had Mike's men still been tailing Jimmy and Kim, he would have intercepted Lalo long before he made it into Kim's living room.
  • Victory Sex: When Jimmy and Kim hear that their plan to frame, disgrace, and humiliate Howard has succeeded, they don't even wait to hang up the phone, moving to the couch to make out.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Lalo throws a huge tantrum and begins smashing apart a chair when he realizes Gus has bugged his phone call, meaning Gus knows he's still alive and has prepared for his return.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: We see Gus is (ironically) good with kids as part of his PR image.
  • Wham Episode: Kim walks away from a substantial opportunity to make a legitimate pro bono practice for herself in order to help salvage the con against Howard, which successfully causes enough of a setback to all but guarantee a quick settlement in the Sandpiper case. Meanwhile, Lalo has come back to Albuquerque, and he makes his presence known by paying Jimmy and Kim a visit... and blasting Howard in the head, killing him instantly right in the middle of their living room.
  • Wham Shot:
    • Jimmy running all the way to the end of the park and delivering the envelope with the photos... to the same P.I. Howard had been seeing, revealing even he's been a part of the set-up.
    • A twofold: Lalo entering Jimmy and Kim's living room while Howard is still standing there. And then shortly after, him shooting Howard in the head.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After everything is said and done, Howard shows up to Jimmy and Kim's place with a bottle of scotch in order to "congratulate" them for winning against him, before openly demanding to know why they put in so much time and effort into ruining his life. He doesn't get a straight answer from them, drawing his own conclusions that they did it simply because it was fun, and that deep down they are heartless sociopaths.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: In the final scene, Howard realises too late he's no longer in a Law Procedural.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess:
    • Jimmy and Kim's scheme against Howard hits a massive speed bump just hours before execution, and Jimmy is ready to call the whole thing off, after discovering that a person that he had an actor impersonate to stage some photographs had recently broken his arm. Instead, they manage to round up the crew and equipment necessary for a reshoot with no time to spare, and the plan proceeds almost exactly as originally intended despite the massive roadblock.
    • When Lalo calls Hector's nursing home, he realizes that Gus knows he is alive and had the nursing home's phones bugged, anticipating the possibility that Lalo might try to contact Hector. In only a couple minutes, Lalo improvises a plan to use this knowledge against Gus by Bluffing The Eavesdropper and drawing Gus' attention away from his true targets, Jimmy and Kim.

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