Beter Call Saul 6.07: Howard's End
May. 22nd, 2025 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerIn episode 6.07 of Better Call Saul we see the conclusion of Howard Hamlin's story. ...Well, kind of.
Kim and Jimmy have been running a con to discredit Howard to speed up settlement of a case. It's an elaborate con, more elaborate than anything Jimmy seems to have done in the past. And that's because Kim has sunk her teeth into it and assisted with the planning. The two even have created an elaborate "storyboard" of the plot, hidden on the back side of a large framed picture in Kim's living room. Ep. 6.07 is when "D-Day", as they call it, arrives.
The final stroke of the plot is discrediting Howard in front of all of his legal peers who are negotiating a settlement on the Sandpiper case— the class action suit about a chain of nursing homes overcharging elderly residents. Jimmy and Kim have phonied up a set of photographs that supposedly show the mediator assigned to the case, a respected retired judge, accepting a clandestine payoff from Jimmy. The staged photos are given to Howard by a private investigator he's hired to investigate Jimmy.
Unbeknown to Howard, the PI is part of the con. Not only did Howard see staged photos of an actor dressed as the judge taking the payoff, the PI furtively swapped the photos after showing them to Howard. Thus when Howard makes a big scene of challenging the judge during the mediation, announcing he's got photographic evidence to prove he's in an illicit bribery scheme with Jimmy, the photos he triumphantly shows everyone depict a man in exercise clothes who sorta looks like the judge taking a frisbee from Jimmy.
To make this con even more embarrassing to Howard, Jimmy dabbed a contact drug on the original photos that contains something akin to a heavy dose of caffeine. Howard is sweating, agitated, and has dilated pupils as he frantically waves the supposed evidence around. This builds on the innuendo campaign Jimmy has been running for weeks that Howard is using cocaine. The other lawyers in the room, who've all heard the innuendo up to this point but were willing to dismiss it as smear campaign by Jimmy, believe it.
Howard's credibility is destroyed. His most senior co-counsel, Cliff Main of the highly respected firm Davis & Main, is sympathetic— he's revealed to Howard that his son struggled with drug addiction, so he understands a bit of the difficulty— but walks him out of the room and tells him he's done. Cliff also apologizes to the retired judge. The opposing lead counsel, Rich Schweikart of Schweikart & Cokeley, rescinds his latest settlement offer and drops back to a previous offer that's lower by a few million dollars. Furthermore, he says he'll reduce his offer by another $1 million each day they wait. Cliff quietly accepts it on Howard's behalf as Howard is still panting and sputtering in his office, ranting about how it's all Jimmy's chicanery. Nobody believes him.
Kim and Jimmy have been running a con to discredit Howard to speed up settlement of a case. It's an elaborate con, more elaborate than anything Jimmy seems to have done in the past. And that's because Kim has sunk her teeth into it and assisted with the planning. The two even have created an elaborate "storyboard" of the plot, hidden on the back side of a large framed picture in Kim's living room. Ep. 6.07 is when "D-Day", as they call it, arrives.
The final stroke of the plot is discrediting Howard in front of all of his legal peers who are negotiating a settlement on the Sandpiper case— the class action suit about a chain of nursing homes overcharging elderly residents. Jimmy and Kim have phonied up a set of photographs that supposedly show the mediator assigned to the case, a respected retired judge, accepting a clandestine payoff from Jimmy. The staged photos are given to Howard by a private investigator he's hired to investigate Jimmy.
Unbeknown to Howard, the PI is part of the con. Not only did Howard see staged photos of an actor dressed as the judge taking the payoff, the PI furtively swapped the photos after showing them to Howard. Thus when Howard makes a big scene of challenging the judge during the mediation, announcing he's got photographic evidence to prove he's in an illicit bribery scheme with Jimmy, the photos he triumphantly shows everyone depict a man in exercise clothes who sorta looks like the judge taking a frisbee from Jimmy.
To make this con even more embarrassing to Howard, Jimmy dabbed a contact drug on the original photos that contains something akin to a heavy dose of caffeine. Howard is sweating, agitated, and has dilated pupils as he frantically waves the supposed evidence around. This builds on the innuendo campaign Jimmy has been running for weeks that Howard is using cocaine. The other lawyers in the room, who've all heard the innuendo up to this point but were willing to dismiss it as smear campaign by Jimmy, believe it.
Howard's credibility is destroyed. His most senior co-counsel, Cliff Main of the highly respected firm Davis & Main, is sympathetic— he's revealed to Howard that his son struggled with drug addiction, so he understands a bit of the difficulty— but walks him out of the room and tells him he's done. Cliff also apologizes to the retired judge. The opposing lead counsel, Rich Schweikart of Schweikart & Cokeley, rescinds his latest settlement offer and drops back to a previous offer that's lower by a few million dollars. Furthermore, he says he'll reduce his offer by another $1 million each day they wait. Cliff quietly accepts it on Howard's behalf as Howard is still panting and sputtering in his office, ranting about how it's all Jimmy's chicanery. Nobody believes him.
