BCS 6.01: Kim and Jimmy Plot Against Howard

Across season 6 of Better Call Saul a number of sub-plots are drawing to a close. One that's new-ish is Kim and Jimmy conspiring to pull down Howard Hamlin with a con.

Jimmy has his own reasons for disliking Howard. In season 5 he plotted a few nuisance pranks to annoy and embarrass Howard. He seemed ready to give it up after that as he was just kicking a man while he was down, but then Kim took new offense to Howard and pressed him to think bigger with revenge.

What offended Kim? It was when Howard confronted her in a courthouse hallway in ep. 5.07, ratting out Jimmy to her for his pranks. Kim didn't mind that Howard was complaining to her about Jimmy. She already knows that Jimmy is that kind of person. She knows it and actually likes it. What offended her was Howard's overbearing manner of framing it as I'm warning you for your own good and you need to know what kind of creep you're with. One thing we've seen with Kim is that she really gets bothered when people criticize her judgment or imply she's ignorant for staying with Jimmy. And Howard's such a douche overall that any douche-y thing he says sounds extra douche-y the way he says it.

The goal of this new scam is to force a quicker resolution to a class action lawsuit against a nursing home chain. Jimmy was the lawyer who found and initially developed this case. He's out of it now, but as the finder he stands to earn a sizable sum when it settles— well over a million dollars, based on the defendants' most recent offer. But Howard, now the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, and the other senior attorneys are dragging out negotiations, possibly for a few more years, hoping for an extra 30%. Jimmy— and now Kim— would rather they just take a quicker deal so they can get paid out now.

The gist of the scam is that Jimmy and Kim are discrediting Howard. They're engaging in various steps to make people around Howard, especially his co-counsel, Clifford Main of Davis & Main, suspect that he's developed a cocaine habit. If people like Cliff think Howard's becoming untrustworthy, they'll move to settle the case quickly instead of risking Howard spinning out of control and jeopardizing the settlement.

What's the motive here? Well, Jimmy and Kim both hate Howard. But while Jimmy seemed happy to stop kicking at Howard last season, it's Kim who's really looking to punish him now. Money's a motive, too. But again, while Jimmy was scraping for money months ago, it's no longer urgent to him to get this case settled. It's Kim who really has her eyes on the money. The settlement would fund her decision to quit corporate law and instead conduct pro-bono defense work for sympathetic clients. So, really, this con to destroy Howard's career is Kim's idea— and Jimmy even challenges her as much in dialogue. And that's sad because throughout the series Kim has always been the smart, hardworking, straight shooter. Now she's becoming just as bad as Jimmy. Or worse!

BCS 6.02: The Kettleman Clowns Again

In ep. 6.02 of Better Call Saul we see the Kettlemans, Craig and Betsy, again. They were part of a subplot in season 1 of the series. Craig was the (fictitious) treasurer of Bernalillo County, NM, who embezzled $1.6 million from his own office. Betsy is his domineering and, frankly, delusional wife who kept denying they had the money even as she literally held a duffel bag with $1.6 million cash in her hands, and thought they could somehow avoid jail time without returning the money.

Kim was their lawyer for a while and arranged a plea deal for Craig: 16 months in prison if he returned the money. He faced a sentence of up to 30 years if he went to trial, and there was plenty of evidence to convict him, as he wasn't particularly good at hiding his tracks. He wrote, and cashed, numerous checks to himself! Betsy torpedoed the deal because she wanted to keep the money. Jimmy did a bad thing for noble purposes. He stole their stolen money to give it back to the county, forcing them to accept the deal.

The Kettlemans come back into the story in ep. 6.02 through Kim and Jimmy's con to destroy Howard Hamlin.



Jimmy visits their new place of business— they run a small-time tax preparation service out of a trailer on the outskirts of town—and tells them they could get Craig's conviction overturned by suing Howard Hamlin, their lawyer of record, for ineffective counsel as he was using cocaine at the time. (The notion that Howard is a coke addict is the core of their con to destroy his reputation.)

Curiously, while Craig is pleasant toward Jimmy, even congratulating him on his recent marriage, Betsy is nothing but bitter. She blames Jimmy for Craig's conviction. Never mind that Craig actually stole the money and almost certainly did so at her behest. Never mind that she fought against effect lawyering that would have gotten Craig a much lighter prison sentence than he deserved. To her it's everyone's fault but their own. "Our kids have to go to public school now because of you," she hisses at Jimmy. And that's where I found myself rooting for Jimmy in this stage of the con.

You see, the con's a con, and the Kettlemans are patsies. Jimmy asks them to sign him up as their attorney but doesn't actually want them to hire him. He wants them to hire anyone but him. He wants them to go shopping for lawyers all around Albuquerque, saying, "We think our former lawyer, Howard Hamlin, was on cocaine when he represented us."

Interestingly while Betsy is completely delusional about responsibility for the money her husband stole and she tried to conceal, she figures out Jimmy's con. She doesn't figure it out right away, though. She marches in to various lawyers' offices— we see her being a delusional jerk with Cliff Main, head of white-shoe law firm Davis & Main— and makes her allegations against Howard. Only after being laughed out of several offices in a row does she realize she's been played for a chump.

Jimmy using the Kettlemans to spread false innuendo had the potential backfire. Betsy, once realizing she's been played, could go back to all the lawyers she visited and say Jimmy put her up to it. Howard could sue Jimmy for slander. But Jimmy— and Kim, who's really the architect of this con— thought of that. They were prepared to shut down the Kettlemans' shot at revenge.

Jimmy goes to visit the Kettlemans' office again. Betsy confronts him with having figured out his con and threatens to turn him in. Jimmy offers a small wad of cash to buy her silence. Betsy is righteously indignant at the bribery attempt and refuses the cash. Then Kim drops the boom.

Kim figured out, perhaps as a lucky guess by knowing Betsy Kettleman is a narcissist crook, that their little tax prep business is a sham. She calls a contact at the IRS, in front of Betsy and Craig, and threatens to turn them in for defrauding customers with fake tax returns. Kim alleges that they file real paperwork with the IRS while giving fake paperwork to the taxpayer, pocketing the difference in the returns. Kim's lucky guess seems to have hit a bullseye, as Betsy hangs up her phone call and agrees to keep mum about the con.

And just to be nice, Jimmy gives them the bribe anyway. Maybe he feels bad for Craig, having a life sentence with Betsy.