In the “Better Call Saul” recap, Gene’s crimes start to catch up to him while Kim Wexler returns to repent for her past sins…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
With only one more episode to go, it’s safe to say there was never going to be a happy ending for “Better Call Saul.”
Now that might seem like a foregone conclusion considering we already knew Saul Goodman ended up on the run from the law after Walter White’s meth cooking empire was exposed and dismantled but there was always some glimmer of hope that perhaps Gene Takavic could find closure in that Cinnabon store he was running in Omaha.
Instead, Gene couldn’t resist his worst urges and it didn’t take long for his inner Saul Goodman to come out again and that might be what eventually leads to his downfall in the series.
Of course, none of that happens without understanding why Gene finally came unraveled despite doing his best to lead a mundane life in the middle of nowhere under an assumed name.
It turns out Gene’s conversation with his ex-wife Kim Wexler served as the catalyst that once again made him embrace his criminal lifestyle as if he was begging to be discovered and caught.
By the time the series finale airs next Monday night, we might find out that’s exactly what Gene wanted all along — or at least what needs now — but before we get there, we first have to travel back to Saul Goodman’s first days as Albuquerque’s fastest talking lawyer and then return to 2010 when Gene Takavic can’t help himself but to return the con artist he’s always been while Kim is desperately attempting to repent for all the sins of her past.
With that said, let’s get to our full recap for the penultimate episode of “Better Call Saul” titled “Waterworks”…
Florida Woman
As teased in a past episode, Kim Wexler really did leave her law practice behind after declaring that she could no longer stay married to Jimmy McGill because they just brought the absolute worst out of each other. Rather than seek out some corporate job where her instincts and tenacious need for answers could still serve her well, Kim abandoned all of that, left Albuquerque and decided to start a new life in Florida where she works at Palm Coast Sprinklers.
These days Kim is about as far removed from being a ferocious litigator in the courtroom as possible because now she’s in charge of building and maintaining her company’s catalogue. Sure, Kim still attacks her new job with the same attention to detail that made her a worthy opponent for any judge, prosecutor or attorney in New Mexico but long gone are the days of power suits, high heels and a tightly pulled pony tail.
Instead, Kim has traded all that for long skirts, white tennis shoes and a brunette haircut complete with bangs.
The most taxing problems Kim faces in Florida involve her excruciatingly boring boyfriend Glen returning with Miracle Whip instead a mayonnaise when she’s trying to make some tuna salad and then listening to him shout “yep!” over and over again while they’re having sex. At the office, Kim’s biggest decisions revolve around picking the right ice cream for one of her co-worker’s birthday parties as she listens to the gals at lunch gasp at the thought of doing illegal drugs.
It’s safe to say there’s no point when Kim decides to share with them the time she stared down a terrifying member of a Mexican drug cartel.
If anything, living in Florida appears to be some form of mental flagellation as she’s forever punishing herself for all the baggage she left behind in New Mexico.
So when the day comes that Kim’s receptionist informs her that she’s got a call from Viktor St. Clair, it’s almost like she can’t quite reconcile with the past coming back to haunt her. Kim reluctantly picks up the phone and soon hears the over exuberant voice of her ex-husband Jimmy McGill on the other end of the line.
He’s excited to catch up with her yet Kim can barely utter two words in response — and considering the way she watched Jimmy transform into Saul Goodman and then by extension end up as one of New Mexico’s Most Wanted, her reaction is totally justified.
Still, Gene quickly transforms into Saul again as he begins slick talking Kim while bragging about the fact that he’s still getting away with everything even as the walls have already started to close down around him. Rather than engage with him, Kim tells her ex-husband that he needs to turn himself into the authorities, which only forces Saul to lash out.
He yells at Kim about all the awful things they did together long before their divorce was finalized and if she’s feeling so guilty, why hasn’t she confessed? At this stage there’s no one that will come looking for her if she comes clean — Gus and Mike are long since dead and he’s assuming Lalo met the same fate (it’s funny even in this moment, all these years later, Saul never found out for certain that Lalo was actually dead.)
After hearing her ex lament about how she’s just as guilty as him, Kim tells Saul that she’s glad he’s still alive before hanging up on him. That’s the scene from the previous episode where Saul/Gene ends up smashing the payphone following his brief and disappointing conversation, which counted as the first time he’d spoken to Kim in six years.
Considering she long since suppressed the memories of the years she spent in Albuquerque, Kim had a flood of emotion wash over her after hearing Jimmy-Saul-Gene remind her that she never bothered coming clean of her crimes any more than he did after “Heisenberg” was discovered.
With that, Kim takes a trip back to her old stomping ground where she makes a bee line for the Bernalillo County Courthouse. It’s a familiar yet haunting building for Kim as she drives through the gate that Mike Ehrmantraut once guarded and sees the picnic tables where she used to sit with Jimmy during a busy day in court.
Inside, Kim sees a young attorney preparing a defense with a client and she’s briefly reminded of the work she used to do when serving the law.
From there, Kim pays a visit to Cheryl Hamlin — Howard Hamlin’s estranged widow — who has never quite moved on after the death of her husband. Kim arrives with a signed affidavit where she confessed to all of the events that led to night when Howard was shot and killed by Lalo Salamanca.
Kim held nothing back — including the way she personally orchestrated Howard’s downfall by making him look like a cocaine addict — before he showed up at her apartment just moments before Lalo arrived with a gun in his hand. She tells Cheryl that Howard didn’t suffer at the time of his demise but that offers her very little comfort.
Sadly, Kim has no idea where Howard is buried — and that confirms the police never bothered to dig up the Super Meth Lab after it was destroyed.
Considering she’s personally confessing to a litany of crimes, Kim knows she could face all sorts of legal recourse but then she also knows the prosecutor may not even attempt to try this case considering at this point, there’s no physical evidence of any kind to tie her to Howard’s death. Cheryl suggests a civil lawsuit instead but even that doesn’t shake Kim’s resolve from finally coming clean on all she’s done wrong.
More than anything, Kim just wants to try to restore some semblance of the reputation Howard Hamlin once carried in this town before his untimely death.
After leaving the Hamlin home, Kim returns to the airport where she prepares to go back to Florida but not before breaking down and sobbing in the middle of the rental car bus as she truly begins to face the consequences for all of her actions. Kim not only ruined a man’s life and reputation but she indirectly put him in the line of fire that got Howard killed and no confession or even prosecution will ever absolve her of what she’s done.
When I Knew Him, He Was
Back in Omaha, Gene’s conversation with Kim on the phone that day is what truly left him unhinged and ready to take even greater chances to pull off more brazen crimes.
After starting his own identity theft ring, Gene was really beginning to relish a taste of his own life and that led him to conning a wealthy man named Mr. Lingk, who also happened to be dealing with a serious bout of cancer. When one of Gene’s partners got an attack of conscience, he was stuck finishing the job himself.
Gene ends up breaking into the guy’s home but rather than just steal his personal information to sell to the highest bidder, he begins inserting himself into the lavish lifestyle that his victim leads. Gene drinks his booze, steals some watches and even glimpses the urn that’s filled with Mr. Lingk’s dog that passed away.
Outside, Jeffie is nervously sitting in his taxi waiting for Gene to emerge when a cop car parks directly behind him. While Jeffie is starting to feel the paranoia seeping out of his veins, the cops are actually just on a lunch break with one police officer loudly complaining about the lack of flounder on his fish tacos.
In the house, Gene is enjoying himself a little too much when he notices that his drinking buddy from the bar, who has also been plied with barbiturates, has suddenly risen from his slumber to use the bathroom. After the man sits down on his stairs, blocking an escape out the front door, Gene decides to use the urn to knock him out cold so he can slip free.
Thankfully before Gene has to brain the guy, Mr. Lingk falls back asleep again and there’s no further complications leaving the house.
The real problems are happening outside after Jeffie finally decides he can’t wait on Gene any longer so he fires up his taxi and tears off in great haste as the cops behind him watch the car bob and weave down the street. A second later when Jeffie makes a left turn, he crashes directly into another car and the cops are forced to put down their disappointing dinners to deal with an accident.
Gene watches as the cops deal with Jeffie down the street as he slips away without being caught.
Later that night, Jeffie calls on his “father” Gene to help him with the legal problems he’s facing now that the cops have arrested him on suspicion of burglary. It seems Mr. Lingk did eventually wake up, he noticed his expensive watches missing and he blamed Jeffie as the thief who stole from him.
Now facing charges as a two-time loser, Jeffie believes he’s in some serious trouble and he better call Saul to get out of it. Gene promises that he’ll help Jeffie beat the rap but first they have to get him out of jail and that’s going to require bail money being paid.
Gene then calls on Jeffie’s mother Marion, who is equal parts seething with anger and brokenhearted that her son is back in trouble again. He offers to help her pay bail to get Jeffie out of lockup and Gene will even drive her to the police station that night.
We then flash back to the first days when Saul Goodman was establishing himself as the best lawyer to ever run an office out of a strip mall. This particular day is notable because it’s when Saul had been served with paperwork for his divorce from Kim Wexler and she was dropping by to sign the forms.
In his best effort to play off the emotion of the moment, Saul first makes Kim wait an exceedingly long time and then when she finally arrives in the office, he barely addresses her while simultaneously shrugging off any emotions they once shared. He does marvel at the fact that Kim is leaving behind her share of the Sandpiper Crossing settlement, which apparently closed and ended up with quite a hefty payment yet she declined taking any part during the divorce.
In the end, Kim leaves with the divorce papers in hands as Saul orders “sweet cheeks” Francesca to send in his next client.
When we meet Saul Goodman in “Breaking Bad,” he’s built a reputation on being offensive, particularly whenever he gets a chance to be a misogynist asshole, but it’s clear during this interaction with Kim that he’s going out of his way to prove to her that he’s moved on and become a completely different person from the one she fell in love with and married.
As she steps outside to have a cigarette, Kim hears a voice from the shadows asking if he can bum one of those for himself.
The person lingering nearby is none other than Jesse Pinkman, who immediately recognizes Kim as the lawyer who helped his friend Combo get off some charges in juvenile court after he stole a Jesus from a nativity scene. “Breaking Bad” fans should remember that name as Combo was an early dealer working for Walt and Jesse, who gets shot and killed as part of a territorial dispute.
Jesse, who always loved talking to hear himself speak, continues to mock Combo for stealing that Jesus and then asking Kim about Saul Goodman and his skills as an attorney. He’s there to hire Saul to help his friend Emilio — Jesse’s former meth cooking partner, who was killed by Walter White back in “Breaking Bad” season 1.
During the “Breaking Bad” season 2 episode where Saul Goodman first appears, Jesse mentions that the fast-talking lawyer got his friend Emilio get off from some potentially damning charges and that’s why he’s the man to help them keep Badger out of prison when he gets busted selling Walt’s blue meth. All these years later in “Better Call Saul,” Jesse was there at the law offices helping Emilio get an attorney and that’s when he ran into Kim Wexler.
Before she finally leaves, Jesse asks Kim if Saul Goodman was actually any good?
Kim turns to him and says “when I knew him, he was” before tossing her cigarette, pulling up her hood and walking out into the rainy Albuquerque night.
Fast forward to 2010 and Gene arrives at Marion’s home to pick her up so they can go get Jeffie released from jail. Marion isn’t quick to answer the door because she’s been on her computer looking up information on a conman from Albuquerque.
It seems after talking to Gene on the phone and realizing the trouble her son got into after she first met this sad lonely man who was looking for his dog, Marion put the pieces together that perhaps this was all designed as the ultimate con job. From there it only took Marion a few keystrokes to realize that Gene Takavic was actually Saul Goodman — a former attorney now on the run from law enforcement for his part in a drug empire that was partially ran out of his practice.
Realizing that he’s busted, Gene closes the computer and begins to intimidate Marion, who is threatening to press her life alert button that will bring emergency services to her house. For a brief moment with a phone cord wrapped around his hand after yanking it from the wall, Gene looks desperate enough that he might strangle an old lady to keep his identity hidden for at least another day.
But maybe it was thinking back to when he was actually James Morgan McGill or perhaps knowing that there was no coming back from murder, especially as he sought to maybe one day see Kim again, he hands the life alert button back to Marion, who wastes no time pressing it.
She calls out that there’s a criminal in her home and his name is Saul Goodman.
A second later, Gene leaves Marion behind as he tears out of the house to prepare to make another escape, this time as he attempts to leave Omaha without being discovered. Will Gene actually get away with it?
That seems impossible to believe considering the dire straits he faces with the walls quickly closing in on him but Gene Takavic, Saul Goodman and Jimmy McGill are nothing if not resourceful, although it appears more and more likely that this story will end with a prison cell door closing on the one man still alive to pay for all the crimes that have been committed.
“Better Call Saul” will return for the series finale next Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
