In the ‘Better Call Saul’ recap, Jimmy runs into legal trouble with an employee and he has to turn to Kim for help as their relationship continues to sputter out…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s always been known that Jimmy McGill would one day shed his family name to become Saul Goodman, but for the longest time, it appeared his inability to stay inside the law while practicing as an attorney would complete that transformation.
As it turns out, Jimmy losing his law license for a year thanks to some shady practices used in putting one over his brother Chuck is what ultimately seems to be the catalyst that will break up the best relationship he’s ever had while simultaneously rocketing him towards that sleazy strip mall and cheesy commercials airing on local Albuquerque television.
In the latest episode of ‘Better Call Saul’, we experience the biggest time jump yet during the show as we leap forward approximately eight months while the fracture in Jimmy’s relationship with Kim only grows wider while Mike’s patience for his German building crew is starting to wear thin.
The outcome of this episode puts Jimmy on even rockier ground with his girlfriend while Gus’s superlab might have a few bodies buried underneath it when construction is finished.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Better Call Saul’ titled ‘Something Stupid’…
Ding-Ding
Following the stroke that nearly took his life, Hector Salamanca has spent the better part of the last year in recovery while Gus Fring’s hand chosen doctor has been working to bring him back from the brink of death.
It’s not good enough that Hector is alive — Gus wants him to suffer and he wants his archrival to know that he’s the one torturing him until the day he expires. Gus’ thirst for vengeance against Hector is ultimately what will be his undoing but to understand just how much he hates this man is to see what happens in this episode.
Hector’s doctor is starting to see signs of improvement as he has begun communicating through a single tap of his finger while she asks him questions by flash cards. His reaction time is improving and the doctor believes with enough therapy over time, Hector might even regain the ability to speak or perhaps even walk again.
Gus has other plans once he sees a video showing Hector’s progression and he spots something that lets him know that the former drug kingpin is holding onto his faculties more than he’s letting onto his doctors.
Hector flicked a cup of water off his bedside table and then lustily looked at the nurse bending over in front of him to pick it up. The doctor felt it was an involuntary spasm but one look at Hector’s eyes and Gus knew different.
That’s when Gus instructs the doctor that her work is done — she can return home to a fully funded institute where she can continue to help patients on their road to recovery. Gus has Hector right where he wants him — as a prisoner of his own body, unable to speak or prove that he has the mental capacity to do much more than to eventually ring that damn bell.
A subtle half smile creeps across Gus’ face as he serves the doctor the same Chilean stew that he will one day cook up for both Walt and Jesse when they come to his home in ‘Breaking Bad’.
Rest and Relaxation
Despite all the comforts of the ultimate man cave, the German work crew tasked with building Gus Fring’s super lab are starting to get a little stir crazy.
Mike is forced to watch as one worker drives a forklift into a support beam that comes crashing down on some other equipment, inevitably delaying the construction project even further. The workers are at odds with each other and nearly coming to blows while arguing over the accident.
The engineer in charge Werner vouches for all of his guys but Mike is starting to lose patience as the six-month job has turned into an eight-month nightmare with the work still only about halfway finished (this is also where we find out exactly how much time has passed during this episode).
Mike wonders how hard it would be to remove Kai — the rebellious crew member he butted heads with on the last episode — and take him off the project. Werner warns that Kai might have a smart mouth but he’s the best demolition expert on the team and they are headed for another explosive charge that will be needed to complete construction on the super lab.
Werner instead suggests to Mike that the workers all expected to be home by now but instead they are laboring away without a glimpse of sunshine, a breath of fresh air or the touch of a woman.
Mike gives him a nod about this necessary rest and relaxation, which seems to hint at a field trip coming soon where these German workers will finally be able to release some tension. Judging by the delicacy of this job and how Gus was able to keep this super lab a secret for so long, it’s also safe to guess that these German workers might not be making it home even when the job is finished.
Need to Call, Buy from Saul
The majority of this episode is dedicated to the frayed relationship between Jimmy and Kim and how that’s only going to be torn apart even more after what unfolded this week.
The opening montage shows Jimmy and Kim waking up next to each other every morning, brushing their teeth, having breakfast, occasionally having dinner and eventually falling asleep — albeit as time passes, they don’t seem to be spending nearly as much time together in bed.
Meanwhile, Kim is focused on her new partnership at Schweikart and Cokely where she’s racking up trophies from Mesa Verde with each new branch that opens while she’s doing her favorite work as a pro bono defense attorney in court.
As for Jimmy, he’s dedicated to his new business selling pre-paid burner phones to a less that reputable clientele and things are going so well that he even managed to print up business cards. The name on the cards — Saul Goodman.
Yep, Jimmy has pulled out that Saul Goodman moniker yet again — the last time was during his failed commercial making venture — and now he’s using it to help him build a reputation amongst the people in Albuquerque who might have the need for an untraceable cell phone.
Jimmy has even hired his old buddy Huell to serve as security while he camps out in a van on a daily basis and sells off these cell phones at a considerable profit.
Unfortunately, Jimmy’s house of cards comes tumbling down when a plain-clothes police officer pays him a visit after arresting a drug dealer and finding his business card amongst his personal belongings. The cop wants Jimmy to peddle his pre-paid phones elsewhere, away from the criminal element in town.
Jimmy counters by pointing out that he has a permit and there’s nothing illegal about what he’s doing. As the cop continues to berate Jimmy about his new business, Huell returns from picking up sandwiches and spots the guy giving his boss a hard time. Thanks to his headphones blaring some rather loud music, Huell can’t hear Jimmy warning him that the guy he’s about to ransack is a cop.
Huell ends up cracking the guy with a bag full of sandwiches and thanks to a prior arrest by the same cop a few years earlier for pick pocketing (a skill Jimmy used to set up his brother in court last season), he’s taking him to jail. When Jimmy begs for reprieve, the cop reminds him that he refused to do the same when asked to take his business elsewhere.
Sadly because of Huell’s prior conviction, the prosecutor wants to give him 18 months in jail with an additional year added on because he’s repeat offender. Huell tells Jimmy that he won’t be spending any time in jail because he will flee and never return.
Jimmy decides the only way out of this predicament is to ask his girlfriend for help after they’ve been on shaky ground for weeks.
As Kim’s job has continued to flourish, Jimmy has been forced to be her arm candy rather than her equal as another attorney at law. Jimmy has been quietly hunting for office space during his down time, perhaps in hopes that he could still convince Kim to join him in a law practice.
During a business party, Jimmy tries to mingle and interact with Kim’s co-workers but he ends up going on an ill-advised diatribe to her boss about elaborate company retreats in the snowy ski paradise that is Colorado. Jimmy tries to put on the brave face as Kim’s boyfriend but in reality he’s watching these people live a respectable life — the one that has drawn in his girlfriend — and he’s drifting further and further away.
Afterwards, Kim can barely talk to Jimmy about what just happened and instead of hashing out his feelings, he just cranks up the radio and they don’t say another word on the way home.
So Jimmy coming to Kim for legal help comes with all sorts of baggage, especially considering she had no idea he had built this side business selling burner phones to Albuquerque’s criminal underground. Jimmy comes clean about that in a very matter of fact manner — ignoring that he’s been keeping this a secret from the woman he shares a bed with every night for the past eight months.
Instead, Jimmy rushes into a plan to discredit the cop who arrested Huell by painting him as an angry drunk after digging up an old DUI charge from his past. Kim refuses to dismantle a cop on the stand so instead she goes to talk to the prosecutor to see if they can hash out some sort of plea deal.
Kim is going against her best instincts to help Jimmy out of another bind, not to mention Huell doesn’t exactly seem like her typical case of a person just trying to get a second chance in life. Huell seems fairly set on what he’s going to do before and after this court case is finished.
Still, Kim talks to the prosecutor, who is quick to shut down her request for no jail time despite a long list of past cases that were pled down with far harsher violence being committed against cops rather than a sack full of sandwiches across the back of the head.
The prosecutor won’t budge and she really hits Kim over the head with a dose of reality when she admonishes Jimmy as “scumbag disbarred lawyer who peddles drop phones to criminals”. One part of Kim wants to lash out, the other half is starting to see Jimmy for who he really might be.
When Kim then calls Jimmy to share the bad news about Huell’s case, he says that he’s going to take matters into his own hands, which can only mean something nefarious is about to go down.
Knowing that Jimmy’s best plans usually force him to follow his worst instincts, Kim instead decides on another strategy of attack. She goes to the local office supply store and stocks up on pens, markers, highlighters and all sorts of construction paper before calling Jimmy to tell him that she has another idea to help Huell out of trouble so long as he doesn’t run from the law.
We won’t find out what Kim’s plan is until next week but she’s doing her best to skirt the line between her dedication to the law and trying to serve as Jimmy’s moral compass. Kim has enjoyed sticking her big toe over to the wrong side of the law before — like when she helped Jimmy swindle an asshole at a restaurant a few seasons ago — but lately she’s been all about what’s right and what’s wrong.
Kim has to know deep down that Jimmy will never walk the straight and narrow but she’s desperate to help him try. In the long run, however, Kim will seek out the law and Jimmy is going to do everything in his power to break it and thus it will eventually break them apart.
‘Better Call Saul’ will return with a brand new episode next Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. Check out a couple of previews for the next episode below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipKs9ymUCtQ
