"Better Call Saul" Recap: "Pimento"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Last night's episode of Better Call Saul was in a nutshell...jaw dropping. I never thought I would see such a horrific and painful betrayal befall Jimmy McGill, and well...while we all knew this story was a tragedy to begin with, I don't think any of us saw this coming. But before we get into the details of the betrayal of the century in "Pimento" we need to take a moment and talk about Mike's new line of work.

Yes, last week Mike approached the scuzzy veterinarian that patched him up on his arrival in Albuquerque for some "side work" and this week the vet delivered and Mike once again displayed his badassery. While waiting to be picked up for the job, he was confronted by a loud mouth gun toting yahoo who expressed his disdain for Mike not bothering to carry a gun. The end result of his bravado ended with Mike disarming him and dropping him in two seconds flat before accompanying his client to a warehouse to help him sell drugs to Nacho.  All of this led to a wonderful speech about whether or not criminals are bad people in principle and man...it seems like every time Mike is on the screen he steals the stage. 

But not tonight, while his storyline was pretty awesome nothing beats the revelations that were to come as things continued to heat up with the Sandpiper case. The scumbag lawyers for this firm begin to bombard Jimmy and Chuck with mountains of paperwork, leading Chuck to convince Jimmy that it is high time for the two of them to take the case to HH&M and let the giant firm handle the mess. Surprisingly Jimmy relents, convinced that this will no doubt get him a gig and let him work with his brother at long last.  But before the case arrives there, Chuck, who appears to be healing nicely from his electromagnetic sensitivity, sneaks outside in the middle of the night to make a mysterious phone call on Jimmy's cell.  

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Of course, Chuck's former firm is happy to see the legendary lawyer and well...Howard seems to be in love with the case and offers Jimmy an epic amount of money. It seems like Jimmy has finally made it, until Howard lets him know there is no way in hell Jimmy will work at the firm during this case. Dejected and angry, Jimmy basically keeps the case for himself. Kim of course does some pressing into the matter and what she discovers prompts her to tell Jimmy to take the deal Howard is offering. Angry at Kim for backing Howard he is left to his own devices in the silence of his office and while he charges his phone, which went dead at Chuck's house...an idea comes to him.

Then came the shocker of the night. Jimmy heads back to his brother's house, still upset about how things with the case have gone horribly wrong and tries to convince his brother to bring out the nuclear option to get Jimmy a job at the law firm, he needs Chuck to appear to quit. But this all turns out to be a gambit, because he has looked up his phone records and discovered that Chuck called Howard the night before the deal.  In a stunning moment, Chuck reveals that he is indeed the reason why Jimmy never moved out of the mailroom at HH&M, and why he didn't get a gig at the firm now.  Because he still sees Jimmy as a common crook, and flat out told him that he is "not a real lawyer."  Devastated and betrayed, Jimmy lets his brother know that he is done with him and storms out of the house.  

There we have it ladies and gentlemen. It turns out that this is undoubtedly the moment that Saul Goodman was born. All it took was the sheer betrayal of the one man he wanted to make proud in this world, and holy cow was this an ugly ending to an episode. I really felt for Jimmy on this one since we have literally seen him moving toward becoming an incredible lawyer and doing amazing things. This was simply a heartbreaker of an episode, no two ways about it, and it looks like next week's season finale will continue this tragic tale as the fallout from Chuck's betrayal begins.  

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