Better Call Saul 6.13

Saul Gone

Gene runs but the police find him. He calls Bill Oakley, the attorney whom he regularly saw when he was working in Albuquerque. Oakley agrees to defend him. Saul gets a sweetheart deal despite the mountain of crimes with which they have charged him. Saul is riding high until he learns that Kim confessed to their role in discrediting Howard. Kim learns about what Jimmy has done and flies to Albuquerque for the the sentencing hearing.

Saul sees Kim in the courtroom and changes his testimony on the spot. He confesses to quite a bit and claims full responsibility in the matter of the smearing of Howard's good name. He was only going to serve eight years in a minimum security facility, according to the terms of the plea arrangement. His sentence is changed after his performance at the sentencing hearing and his sentence is increased to 86 years in a maximum security prison.

Better Call Saul 6.12

Waterworks

Breaking Bad time - Saul gives Kim what she wants and signs the paperwork to end their marriage. She refuses to take her portion of the Sandpiper settlement.

Gene time - Kim flies from where she lives in Florida to New Mexico, meets with Cheryl (Howard's widow) and gives her a copy of a sworn statement that she provided to the District Attorney's office. Cheryl has questions for her. Kim answers them to the best of her ability.

Better Call Saul 6.11

Breaking Bad

Gene calls a pay phone, from another payphone. Francesca picks up. He wants know what's been going on. She wants her money first. He tells her where to find it. They talk after she retrieves the money. The Feds got most of his money. Kim called, looking for Jimmy, wanting to know if he was still alive. Francesca says she didn't tell her anything.

Gene gets the band back together, the three man team he got up and running in the previous episode. He starts a new scheme. This time around they drug single men and steal their identities and passwords to their bank accounts. Everything goes well until Buddy, develops a conscience over bilking a guy with cancer. Gene shows him the door and then goes to finish the job himself.

Better Call Saul 6.10

Nippy

Gene finds Jeff, the taxi driver who recognized him from his Saul Goodman days in Albuquerque. He talks Jeff into helping him run a heist in a department at the mall where the Cinnabon is located. Gene plans the heist. He makes friends with the security guards on duty during the night. Jeff gets into the department store using a scheme that Gene set up.

Jeff takes enough stuff to net them some money but not enough to generate suspicion. Things almost go sideways but Gene steps in and distracts the security guard on monitor duty long enough for Jeff to finish what he started. Gene talks to Jeff after the job is over and done. He explains that there won't be another. Jeff agrees although he looks crestfallen as he does so.

Better Call Saul 6.09

Fun and Games

The episode opens with a montage showing Jimmy and Kim moving on with their lives and Mike and his men cleaning up the messy apartment to remove all evidence of what happened there.

Gus meets with Don Eladio, Don Bolsa, and Don Hector, and the twins. Hector claims that Lalo survived the attack on his home in Mexico and that he talked to him. The evidence says otherwise. The twins didn't overhear the conversation with Lalo so they cannot corroborate Hector's version of the truth. Don Eladio assumes that Hector just wants to blame someone and lets Gus leave.

Better Call Saul 6.08

Point and Shoot

The episode opens by the beach. Howard's shoes are there along with a few other belongings and his car. There is no sign of Howard's body

Lalo tells Saul and Kim to sit down, calm down, and listen to him. Lalo wants to send Saul to kill someone. Someone with dark skin and who wears glasses. He wants him to take pictures of the dead body and then return. He gives him one hour to do it. Saul begs and pleads and ultimately convinces Lalo to send Kim instead. Kim is horrified by the idea, she protests but Lalo agrees that she would look less suspicious than Saul.

Better Call Saul 6.07

Plan and Execution

Lalo keeps an eye on the building above the future meth lab. Jimmy, Kim, the actor, and the camera crew work double time to redo the work they did before but this time with the actor with his arm in a sling just like the real judge.

Jimmy gives the photographs, of what looks like the judge accepting a payoff from Jimmy, to Howard’s private investigator. The P.I. gives the pictures to Howard who doesn’t recognize the judge but asks the P.I. to figure out who it is.

Better Call Saul 6.06

Axe and Grind

The episode opens with a flashback to Kim when she was about thirteen. She shoplifted. Her mother is called in and is very stern with her but in the end she seems proud of Kim, once they have gotten away from the store manager.

Howard talks to his wife; at home, in the morning, before he goes into the office. Jimmy and Kim go to see the vet. He gets an injection that makes his eyes dilate. The vet tells them that he will be shutting down his operation soon. He lets them take a look at his client book but it’s in code.

Better Call Saul 6.05

Black and Blue

Kim is still nervous. She wakes up early and looks out the window. She places a chair under the door knob. Jimmy wakes up. She tells him that she couldn’t sleep and decided to do some work.

Gus is on edge. He tries working the register but he thinks he sees something outside and tunes out everything else while a customer is giving him an order, including the customer. 

Cliff questions Howard about the incident with his car. Howard concludes that it is Jimmy’s doing once he hears that Cliff was meeting with Kim at the time of the incident. 

Better Call Saul 6.04

Hit and Run

Jimmy uses the duplicate set of keys he had made for Howard’s car. He steals Howard’s car while Howard is meeting with his therapist. He collaborates with Kim and together they stage an act that looks like Howard kicking a prostitute out his car, where Cliff Davis can see it. 

Kim starts to wonder if she is being followed. She confronts two men who she suspects of following her. They apologize and leave but admit to nothing. Jimmy starts to get the cold shoulder from everyone at the courthouse. One of the public defenders tells him that it’s because of his association with a drug cartel murderer.

Better Call Saul 6.03

Rock and Hard Place

The truck Nacho is driving is too beat up and moving too slowly for him to hope to stay ahead of the Twins. He pulls over and hides well enough to evade capture although the Twins do stop and almost find him. He makes his way to a garage in the middle of nowhere. He cleans up with garage owners blessing and then makes a couple phone calls: one to his father and the other to Mike. 

Jimmy and Kim continue to refine their plans for Howard. Kim runs into Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Ericsen at the courthouse. Suzanne explains to Kim that they know de Guzman was actually Eduardo Salamanca. She also tells her that Lalo is dead. The DA’s office wants Jimmy to come in and tell them what he knows about Eduardo.

Better Call Saul 6.02

Carrot and Stick

Mike, Tyrus, and a few other men visit Nacho’s place. Mike evicts the two women living there. They break into the safe and then replace it with another safe.

Gus examines the evidence from the hit on Lalo’s place that the Fédérales collected and then calls Juan Bolsa.

Jimmy speaks to Kim about how to proceed with the scam they are running on Howard. He visits Betsy and Craig Kettleman in their place of business. He tells them that he thinks they could bring a civil lawsuit against Howard Hamlin. They hear him out and then tell him take a hike.

Better Call Saul 6.01

Wine and Roses

Saul’s home, before he skipped town at the end of Breaking Bad, gets cleaned out by professionals who pack everything up and load it into trucks.

Nacho, on the run, calls Mike who gives him instructions. Lalo shows up at the home of someone he knows where he is offered breakfast and meets up with someone who looks just like him. Jimmy and Kim wake up and get ready for work.

Mike meets with Gus. Mike wants Gus to give the order to go get Nacho. Gus wants to know how it is that Lalo and the strike team sent to kill him could all be dead.

Better Call Saul 5.10

Something Unforgivable

Jimmy and Kim move into a hotel in downtown Albuquerque. They are still worried about Lalo coming after them. Jimmy reaches out to Mike but Mike won't talk to him. Jimmy goes to Mike's house and makes a nuisance of himself. Mike lets him in and tells him that there is nothing to worry about. Lalo will be taken care of within 24 hours.

Kim goes back to work doing pro bono work. She takes on some more cases. She runs into Howard, who tells her about what Jimmy did to him: bowling balls, hookers. It makes her laugh. She goes back to the hotel and tells Jimmy about running into Howard. She suggests that they get him good, put a real dent in his reputation, something unforgivable.

Better Call Saul 5.09

Bad Choice Road

Saul and Mike return from the desert. Saul takes the cash to the detention facility and bails out Lalo. He doesn't mention Mike or the men who tried to kill him. He says that he got the money and then headed back but his car broke down about six or seven miles into the drive back. He walked back, across the desert. That's the story he tells Lalo.

Lalo accepts the story. Nacho picks up Lalo and they leave. Jimmy goes home to Kim. He doesn't tell her the full story. She finds his coffee mug which has a bullet hole in it. She says he's lying to her. He admits that he had to drink his own pee but he doesn't tell her about the men with guns or Mike. She doesn't tell him that she found the coffee mug.

Better Call Saul 5.08

Bagman

Saul gets instructions from Lalo. He heads out into the desert near the US-Mexico border to pick up the money. He meets the cousins at the assigned spot. They drop off two duffle bags full of cash and leave without saying a word.

Saul throws the cash in his car heads back to Albuquerque. He doesn't get very far before he gets pulled over by armed men. They are getting ready to kill him when a sniper starts shooting at the armed men. All but one of the armed men are killed by the sniper.

Better Call Saul 5.07

JMM

Jimmy and Kim get married. They have a civil service at the courthouse. Huell is one of the witnesses. He has questions for Jimmy about why he's doing it.

Kim and Richard meet with Paige and Kevin. Kevin is disappointed. It seems uncertain whether he will want Kim or Schweikart & Coakley to continue to represent Mesa Verde. Kim decides to set things straight. She tells Kevin exactly how she feels about how things have gone down recently.

Jimmy represents Lalo in court. Lalo makes it clear that he doesn't want a plea and he wants out of jail. The judge doesn't grant bail.

Better Call Saul 5.06

Wexler v. Goodman

This episode opens with a flashback to Kim's youth. Her mother comes to pick her up from school. Her mother is drunk and Kim can smell it. She refuses to get in the car. She opts to walk home instead. Her mother isn't happy about it.

Jimmy, in the present, with the help of his film making trio cooks up some commercials to make it look like Mesa Verde has been scamming its customers and worse. Kim doesn't want to proceed with the commercial. Jimmy agrees to shut it down.

Mike and Gus meets with Nacho. Nacho tells them about Lalo’s plans to bring down Gus's operations. Gus explains that Nacho needs to give Mike whatever help he needs. Nacho asks for help protecting his father. Mike says that they need to deal with Lalo first.

Jimmy hires a couple of his clients, sex workers, to embarrass Howard while he is having lunch in an upscale restaurant with Cliff Main of Davis & Main. 

Kim, Rich Schweikart, Paige, and Kevin meet with Saul to discuss a settlement. Kim thinks she knows what's coming. Saul pulls a fast one and shows Kevin the commercials. Kim, Paige, and Rich are all outraged. Kevin caves and agrees to Saul's terms.

Mike surreptitiosly passes information along to the police implicating that Lalo is the one who killed the guy at the money transfer business that Werner Ziegler used. He gives them enough information to track him down, which they do.

Kim comes home to Jimmy very angry about what happened. She no longer feels like she can trust him. She wants to break up with him but at the last minute she suggests that the only way they can stay together is if they get married.

Thoughts

I wasn't sure who the girl was in the opening scene. It wasn't until about ten minutes after I watched the scene that it occurred to me that it was Kim, even though her mother calls her by name.

What's next for Lalo? It looks like the police have him. My guess is that somehow he will wiggle his way out of jail. I doubt that he will exit the story this quickly. Who will take the blame for his apprehension by the police? Nacho?

Will Jimmy and Kim really get married? Even if they do I can't see it lasting.

What's next for Mike? What about Nacho?

This was a really good episode.  It makes me hungry for more.

Better Call Saul 5.05

Dedicado a Max

Mike wakes up south of the border. He tries leaving but he is still in bad shape. He resigns himself to staying. His phone is dead and there is no phone that he can use to call the United States. The doctor who takes care of him says it will probably be a week or more before he can leave.

Jimmy puts on the full court press for Acker, the man who refuses to leave. He finds all sorts of gimmicks to delay the police from forcing Acker out. Kevin doesn't like it but he refuses to back down. He knows that Kim's boyfriend, Jimmy, is the one behind it all. Kim offers to step down but Kevin says no. Rich Schweikart meets with Kevin but nothing will sway Kevin.

Better Call Saul 5.04

Namaste

The episode opens with Saul in a pawn store. He spends a lot of time looking around. He winds buying three bowling balls.

Saul meets with two clients of his who went on a spree a couple episodes back and expect him to give them fifty percent off. He has to convince them to go along with his plan even though it will mean doing some time.

Howard invites Saul to lunch. He wants to hire Saul but Saul is very reticent to give him an answer one way or the other. Howard asks him to spend some time and think it over.