In the latest Better Call Saul recap, Jimmy continues to run head to head into his brother Chuck and it forces him to make a questionable call while Mike is worried about his daughter-in-law Stacey….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer @DamonMartin
If there’s been a common theme throughout the course of Better Call Saul in the first 13 episodes, it’s the fact that Jimmy McGill’s slow ride towards becoming Saul Goodman started in large part because he’s always been battling against his own instincts.
Now those same instincts served him well when it came to being an attorney for a meth-peddling former science teacher, but they only seem to get him into trouble as Jimmy tries to shoe horn himself into a reputable law firm where everything is done on the up and up.
It doesn’t help matters much that Jimmy is constantly reminded of his con man ways courtesy of his well-to-do brother Chuck, who refuses to ever believe the best in him and would rather demean ever action he takes. Granted, Jimmy wasn’t exactly doing things above board but the fact that his brother always expects the worst of him rather than just support his good work speaks volumes of the eventual spiral that will lead to strip mall attorney’s office and clients like Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
This week also gave a look into Mike Ehrmantraut’s own slippery slope as he started to drift further away from hired muscle into hitman territory. There’s no going back once you’ve been hired to make someone disappear and as much as Mike fought against that particular addition to his resume, the needs of his family outweigh the burden on his conscience.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of Better Call Saul titled ‘Amarillo’…
Reach Out and Touch Someone
With a pair of high powered law firms dedicated to bringing Sand Piper Crossing to its knees, every lawyer on the case has a specialized department to focus on as this class action lawsuit gets closer to the courtroom. For Jimmy McGill, he’s in charge of client outreach, which means getting more people from other Sandpiper communities on board with the lawsuit.
The more seniors who are willing to sign up for the lawsuit while attesting to being ripped off only helps to strengthen the case.
But Jimmy’s methods to add more names to the roster includes a very dicey action known as solicitation — meaning he can’t personally contact these residents and offer his services. He can only present them with the information and if they choose to hire the firm, they then have to make contact.
Jimmy’s trip to Texas includes meeting with one particular Sandpiper resident who did reach out to the lawfirm, but while he’s talking to her on a bus trip to a buffet, he catches the attention of 21 other people on board who also notice money going missing from their accounts courtesy of the assisted living center. So when Jimmy returns home to New Mexico, he’s on cloud nine with another group of residents ready to join the case.
But of course there’s Chuck ready to rain on his parade by bring up the solicitation laws and questioning Jimmy’s methods to gather these signatures. In response, Jimmy says he’ll no longer meet with clients personally and will instead come up with a new plan of attack.
The plan he devises is to run a commercial — at that key time in the afternoons when all blue hairs are known to watch “Murder, She Wrote” and at that first commercial break they will spot an advertisement for Davis & Man talking about the very law suit they should think about joining.
Jimmy’s very pleased with this idea but his boss Cliff isn’t exactly keen on the idea although the firm did run a similar commercial a few years ago so he wants a few days to think about it. After hearing about the previous ad-buy, Jimmy takes a look at the old commercial and nearly falls asleep in the 30 seconds that it’s running so if he’s going to get clients to call, he needs something much better
So he moves ahead with making the commercial with two annoying film students, who no one seems to like very much, and one of his sandpiper clients. The spot called ‘Where did my nest egg go?’ is meant to pull at the heartstrings and force those residents to dial the 1-800 number to ask for help.
Now Jimmy has the perfect commercial but shouldn’t he wait until Cliff gets back to actually use it? Unfortunately, Jimmy’s continued battle with his own need to prove Chuck wrong only forces him to make the call to a local Colorado Springs TV station to get the commercial on the air as soon as possible.
Shots Fired
In his down time away from the parking lot booth or wrangling would be drug dealers from going to cops to report their stolen pharmaceuticals (Ok technically baseball cards, but you get the point), Mike spends as much as his free time with his granddaughter Kaylee as possible. He’s also donating to Stacey as he attempts to keep her afloat while she tries to raise a daughter as a single mother on a low paying salary.
To make matters worse, Stacey divulges that for the last couple of nights she’s heard gun shots just outside the house and it has her panicking that somebody is going to hurt her or Kaylee. Mike offers to stay there for the night, but Stacey refuses his help.
Of course, Mike is going to help no matter what she says so he stakes out the house that night to find out if he can deal with this gun toting gangsters shooting up the suburbs.
Through a lot of coffee and a brown bag lunch, Mike finally catches the culprit — it’s a station wagon delivering newspapers that land on asphalt with a loud thud that echoes through the neighborhood. Not exactly a gunshot, but at least Mike found out the noise that Stacey has been hearing.
But just a few hours later after he goes into work, Mike gets a frantic call from Stacey asking for him to return. When he arrives, she’s worked up into a near frenzy after spotting a small chunk taken out of the side of her house and Stacey is convinced that it was the gunfire she heard from the night before. Now remember, Mike was there the whole time so he knows there were no bullets fired but she’s convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are in danger.
Mike is obviously concerned because Stacey’s paranoia is not only a little disturbing but could be potentially dangerous to Kaylee. Maybe all she needs is some time off from the daily grind she’s been living for the past few months?
So Mike ultimately goes back to his veterinarian friend and asks for some more work, but the sketchy doggy doctor only has a bodyguard job worth $200 unless he’s willing to cross a few more lines than he’s been willing to in the past. At first, Mike scoffs at the idea but later that night he gets a call from the vet offering him a very high paying job from a client who requested him specifically.
Mike decides to listen so he shows up in a dark alley — the kind of shadowy place that makes most people turn around and go the other way — to meet this mysterious client. Out of the shadows pops Nacho Varga and he’s got a proposition for Mike.
He’s got a pile of cash to spend but Mike needs to make someone in his life disappear — forever.
Cause and Effect
A $700 ad on local Colorado television is Jimmy’s big bet on himself that he can get more people to join the Sandpiper lawsuit while proving to his brother Chuck that he can handle this job without lying, cheating or stealing. The commercial was so good that even Kim said that if she saw it, she’d have to call the law firm for more information. La
Later that afternoon, when the phone calls start pouring in — over a 100 on the first day alone — Jimmy feels justified and vindicated that his idea worked.
Jimmy is riding high after this latest victory, but he’s about to come crashing back down to Earth when he gets a very angry call from his boss Cliff, who is none too pleased that he not only produced but then ran the commercial without permission. Results or not, Cliff is pissed that Jimmy went over his head and somebody is going to have to pay for this.
Jimmy is summoned to meet Cliff and the other partners at 8am the next morning but when he returns to the couch to finish watching “Ice Station Zebra” with Kim, he continues to lie to his girlfriend by pretending that he’s the star of the class. Kim was not happy to learn about Jimmy’s “pro bono” work from a week ago where he fabricated evidence and as much as he’s trying to prove his brother wrong, he’s also trying his best to prove her right.
She had faith in him when no one else did and Jimmy doesn’t want to let her down — even if that means lying to her over and over and over again.
Better Call Saul returns next Monday night at 10pm ET on AMC but check out a special preview of the next episode below:
