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canyonwalkerOne of the story arcs in season 2 of Better Call Saul is that Jimmy's lawyer friend, Kim Wexler, is often in the doghouse at her job. Her employer is HHM, the law firm where Jimmy's older brother is a senior partner, and the managing partner is Jimmy's nemesis, Howard Hamlin.
In 2.04 Kim is demoted to the doghouse— or cornfield, as Jimmy calls it— of the document review office at HHM because of quick TV ad Jimmy made at a different law firm that pissed off the partners there. In 2.05 we see her working hard to get back into the good graces of her firm by landing a major new client, but Howard Hamlin continues to treat her poorly even as he warmly welcomes the new client. In 2.06 Hamlin sends her to defend an unwinnable motion in court, by herself, while opposing counsel has a senior partner backing them up. Said opposing senior partner invites Kim to lunch and tells her she's being treated poorly.
Last season I rolled my eyes when a lot of various episodes of "Better Call Saul" was given over to supporting character Mike. Like, is this Better Call Mike now? Better Call Saul a Less Charismatic Co-star? Ultimately I embraced it because even though Saul (né Jimmy) is the titular character the show is enriched by having strong supporting characters rather than 2D props. Plus, Mike's charcter is fun to watch as he transforms from parking lot attendant to hit man. The episode with Mike's backstory was the best episode of the series to date.
In a similar vein I don't mind Kim getting a lot of focus time in recent episodes. She's smart, educated, and hard working. And of the main supporting characters she's the most sympathetic. She's not a cheater, back-stabber, ass-hat, drug dealer, or hit-...woman. It's refreshing to watch a Kim story for a bit. Likewise, it's painful to watch her work so hard, with such sincerity, and still find herself held back.
So, who or what is holding Kim back?
Is it Kim herself? When someone's demoted at work it's natural to wonder if they brought it on themselves. The bosses, of course, will always tell them they did. Indeed, Howard and Charles tell her that. But it's not her action directly that caused trouble. It's Jimmy's. He ran a TV ad, once, at another firm. He's being punished by his firm for it. It's unfair that Kim's firm is punishing her, as well. Yes, she recommended Jimmy for his job at the other company. But she didn't work with him on the ad, and even when she learned he already ran it, she thought his bosses approved.— because he lied to her that they did.
So it's Jimmy, right? Enh, not really. Jimmy's responsible for what he did. And he's responsible for misleading Kim into thinking he got approval. But Kim shouldn't be punished for things Jimmy did, when her only mistake was believing what he told her.
Is it Howard? It's easy to blame Howard Hamlin. We've seen from season 1 he's characterized as a total asshat— at least from Jimmy's perspective. And he is the senior partner who pointedly gave Kim the cold shoulder and minimized the value of her work even after she brought in a major new client. But we've also seen that Howard is willing to be the fall guy who personnel decisions made by Chuck. Remember the dramatic reveal in 1.09 that the multiple times Howard refused to hire Jimmy, it was actually Charles, his brother, who blocked Jimmy.
Okay, so is it Charles? Charles comes across as a bit of a lovable uncle type of character. He's smart, he's the oldest of all the lawyers we've seen, and you kind of have pity on him because of the mental illness he's suffered for the past few years that have him imagining that electromagnetic waves from lightbulbs and mobile phones are killing him. But Charles is the monster who couldn't forgive Jimmy for his past indiscretions and secretly held him back at work. Plus he manipulated Howard into being the fall guy for it. And throughout season 2 so far Charles has made a point of coming into the office to sweat what Jimmy's doing. Jimmy cuts straight to the chase and accuses Charles of holding back Kim, too. Charles sort-of denies it. I say "sort of" because he doesn't actually deny it but instead says he'll "talk to" Howard about Kim. In a separate scene, Kim asks Charles point-blank, "Do I have a future at this firm?" Charles dodges the question with a story about Jimmy from his childhood making Jimmy out to be a terrible person that sounds a bit fishy.
Bottom line, I think Kim's punishment is another Charles manipulation. Charles is out to prove to everyone that Jimmy is a phony and he seems not to care that Kim is collateral damage. Yes, Howard is the one administering the punishment, but his motivations for it seem superficial. There was even one scene where Howard fixed a clearly over-acted sour puss expression on his face while escorting Kim to meet the high-value new client she brought in... until he broke character for a moment with a wide smile that matched what any sensible business exec would feel for the great work Kim did. And soon enough he un-punished Kim by moving her back to her third-floor windowed office instead of the basement docs room. ....Though by then the damage had been done. Kim seems mentally checked out from the firm that, up 'til now, she'd been fiercely loyal to.
In 2.04 Kim is demoted to the doghouse— or cornfield, as Jimmy calls it— of the document review office at HHM because of quick TV ad Jimmy made at a different law firm that pissed off the partners there. In 2.05 we see her working hard to get back into the good graces of her firm by landing a major new client, but Howard Hamlin continues to treat her poorly even as he warmly welcomes the new client. In 2.06 Hamlin sends her to defend an unwinnable motion in court, by herself, while opposing counsel has a senior partner backing them up. Said opposing senior partner invites Kim to lunch and tells her she's being treated poorly.
Last season I rolled my eyes when a lot of various episodes of "Better Call Saul" was given over to supporting character Mike. Like, is this Better Call Mike now? Better Call Saul a Less Charismatic Co-star? Ultimately I embraced it because even though Saul (né Jimmy) is the titular character the show is enriched by having strong supporting characters rather than 2D props. Plus, Mike's charcter is fun to watch as he transforms from parking lot attendant to hit man. The episode with Mike's backstory was the best episode of the series to date.
In a similar vein I don't mind Kim getting a lot of focus time in recent episodes. She's smart, educated, and hard working. And of the main supporting characters she's the most sympathetic. She's not a cheater, back-stabber, ass-hat, drug dealer, or hit-...woman. It's refreshing to watch a Kim story for a bit. Likewise, it's painful to watch her work so hard, with such sincerity, and still find herself held back.
So, who or what is holding Kim back?
Is it Kim herself? When someone's demoted at work it's natural to wonder if they brought it on themselves. The bosses, of course, will always tell them they did. Indeed, Howard and Charles tell her that. But it's not her action directly that caused trouble. It's Jimmy's. He ran a TV ad, once, at another firm. He's being punished by his firm for it. It's unfair that Kim's firm is punishing her, as well. Yes, she recommended Jimmy for his job at the other company. But she didn't work with him on the ad, and even when she learned he already ran it, she thought his bosses approved.— because he lied to her that they did.
So it's Jimmy, right? Enh, not really. Jimmy's responsible for what he did. And he's responsible for misleading Kim into thinking he got approval. But Kim shouldn't be punished for things Jimmy did, when her only mistake was believing what he told her.
Is it Howard? It's easy to blame Howard Hamlin. We've seen from season 1 he's characterized as a total asshat— at least from Jimmy's perspective. And he is the senior partner who pointedly gave Kim the cold shoulder and minimized the value of her work even after she brought in a major new client. But we've also seen that Howard is willing to be the fall guy who personnel decisions made by Chuck. Remember the dramatic reveal in 1.09 that the multiple times Howard refused to hire Jimmy, it was actually Charles, his brother, who blocked Jimmy.
Okay, so is it Charles? Charles comes across as a bit of a lovable uncle type of character. He's smart, he's the oldest of all the lawyers we've seen, and you kind of have pity on him because of the mental illness he's suffered for the past few years that have him imagining that electromagnetic waves from lightbulbs and mobile phones are killing him. But Charles is the monster who couldn't forgive Jimmy for his past indiscretions and secretly held him back at work. Plus he manipulated Howard into being the fall guy for it. And throughout season 2 so far Charles has made a point of coming into the office to sweat what Jimmy's doing. Jimmy cuts straight to the chase and accuses Charles of holding back Kim, too. Charles sort-of denies it. I say "sort of" because he doesn't actually deny it but instead says he'll "talk to" Howard about Kim. In a separate scene, Kim asks Charles point-blank, "Do I have a future at this firm?" Charles dodges the question with a story about Jimmy from his childhood making Jimmy out to be a terrible person that sounds a bit fishy.
Bottom line, I think Kim's punishment is another Charles manipulation. Charles is out to prove to everyone that Jimmy is a phony and he seems not to care that Kim is collateral damage. Yes, Howard is the one administering the punishment, but his motivations for it seem superficial. There was even one scene where Howard fixed a clearly over-acted sour puss expression on his face while escorting Kim to meet the high-value new client she brought in... until he broke character for a moment with a wide smile that matched what any sensible business exec would feel for the great work Kim did. And soon enough he un-punished Kim by moving her back to her third-floor windowed office instead of the basement docs room. ....Though by then the damage had been done. Kim seems mentally checked out from the firm that, up 'til now, she'd been fiercely loyal to.
