Lexie Corner
Staff Writer
*WARNING: This article contains spoilers*
“Better Call Saul” will never be as nerve-wrecking and extreme as “Breaking Bad,” but Vince Gilligan doesn’t let Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) have a clear, smooth start into his criminal lawyer career either.
In the latest episode, “Nacho,” Jimmy feels the weight of his secrets crush him. He knows that Nacho (Michael Mando) is coordinating a plan to exact revenge at the county treasurer’s family, the Kettlemans, for stealing over one million dollars from the townspeople. Conflicted, he calls Kim (Rhea Seehorn), an attorney at his brother’s law firm, to gain as much information as he can.
After the phone call, he drives to a dark phone booth and alert the Kettlemans of the possibility of danger to their family.
Jimmy McGill is an extremely relatable, real character in the sense of his personality, personal choices and disposition. Unlike some attorneys, he not only fights for the public to pay his bills but to do justice, and all with a humorous attitude and wit. He doesn’t think in conventional terms, as he later proves in the episode not only to Nacho but to the Albuquerque police as well.
The next day after the phone call, Jimmy discovers police cars piled around the Kettlemans’ house. To his distress, the house was found ransacked earlier in the morning and with no direct sign of the parents or their two children. Panic sets in for Jimmy as he rushes to another pay phone to call Nacho who fails to pick up.
Paranoid, Jimmy sees two approaching men who he assumes are part of Nacho’s group that have come to murder him. He runs for it to only find out that they are, in fact, cops. It is discovered that Nacho is the prime suspect in the Kettlemans’ disappearance. Even worse, the blood in the backseat that the police assumed were the family’s were, in reality, the two skateboarder’s and Jimmy’s from the previous episode.
In an interrogation room, Nacho discloses to Jimmy that he was sitting outside the Kettlemans’ in his car, but never stepped foot in the house. He was only there to gain insight on their daily schedule To Jimmy’s increasingly worse luck, Nacho declares that if he doesn’t get out of jail within the day, that Jimmy’s life will be in danger.
Despite Jimmy being seen by others, such as the lawyers at his brother’s law firm and the Albuquerque police, as a dim-witted, nonsensical public defender, this episode showcased his ingenuity. After seeing the crime scene at the Kettlemans’ home, he deduces that they skipped town in order to evade the impending danger. To no surprise, the cops brush off his idea but Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), the parking garage attendant, and Kim believes in it.
With some newfound confidence, Jimmy searches the surrounding area for a place where they might hide. He travels through desert and brush and discovers the family camping miles away from their very own home. In Jimmy McGill style, he decides to mess with them by jumping into the tent with the infamous line of, “Here’s Johnny!”
The Kettlemans’ did, in fact, run off with their stolen money. They had a bag with 1.6 million dollars stashed inside of their tent, and with this, Jimmy’s life is no longer in danger from Nacho’s gang.
With each episode, Gilligan forces Jimmy into more severe and heated altercations. The question still remains of how does Jimmy McGill become the upbeat, successful criminal lawyer, Saul Goodman, but the audience is slowly witnessing the events leading up to this evolution.
In the premiere episode, he was a worn-down, financially struggling public defender with a significant lack of motivation for both his career and life in general. As each episode progresses, he slowly adapts to his situations. He learns. He listens. He watches, and with each moment, his confidence and skill as a lawyer rises.
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