Better Call Saul, episode 3, Nacho

Like a rock rolling down a hill in the desert, this season of Better Call Saul is really picking up speed.  This week offered more background on the man who became Saul Goodman.

The episode begins with Jimmy behind bars; in a red jumpsuit talking to a younger Chuck whom he hopes can represent him.  Jimmy’s reason for incarceration is vaguely explained as having to do with property damage and assault. (Sexual?) Jimmy called their mother and she called his older brother Chuck. (I was mistaken previously in thinking Chuck was Jimmy’s dad, he’s a much older brother.) Jimmy keeps asking, “What’s the strategy?”  A beleaguered Chuck reluctantly agrees to represent Jimmy on the promise that he’ll finally turn his life around.

In a wonderful shot of the cucumber water dispenser at the salon, Jimmy enjoys a glass as he prepares to make a call.  He calls Kim, the blonde attorney at his brother's law firm to ask her about the Kettleman case.  He wants to know where the embezzled money is stored and tells her that the Kettlemans could be in danger.  After hanging up, he makes a device out of a paper towel tube and wax paper.  Jimmy goes to a phone booth and calls the Kettlemans using the tube to disguise his voice and implores them, “You are in danger! They are coming for your money!”  But, they can’t understand him, frustrated, he tells them again in his normal voice and they seem to get the message.  Looking out the window, they see Nacho waiting in his truck.

The next day, back at the courthouse, Jimmy is talking to the “petty and a prior” prosecutor in the bathroom.  This time he’s trying to make a different deal, when it becomes clear the prosecutor doesn’t even know the case he’s talking about. Disgusted, Jimmy cries, “I’m trying to work for $700 a shot and you don’t even know your defendants!”

Outside the bathroom, Kim calls and Jimmy leaves the building in a rush.  As always, he meets Erhmentrout at the parking garage who refuses to give Jimmy a break on the fee without the proper validation stickers. This time Jimmy opens the gate himself and flees without paying.  Jimmy arrives at the Kettleman’s to find police swarming. Kim tells him the family has been kidnapped, and they have two young children.

Jimmy finds a deserted payphone and makes multiple calls to Nacho, each one a little more desperate.  Finally, there is an incoming call to the phone then the line goes dead.  There are two men approaching from ends of the street, Jimmy tries to stay cool but then breaks into a run once out of view.  The men aren’t Tuco’s, they are detectives and Jimmy is now forced to come with them.

At the courthouse the detectives inform him they know he is Nacho’s lawyer and they have damning evidence against him.  Nacho’s van was reported as suspicious and it’s been searched and they found blood on its floor.

Jimmy enters the interrogation room to speak to Nacho. He implores him to give himself up and tell the authorities the Kettleman’s location.  He promises Nacho that he could get him a deal, maybe eighteen years with good behavior!  Silence continues, “Tell me you miserable piece of sh*t!” Jimmy yells.

“You set me up!” Nacho replies.

Nacho is angry.  Nacho explains that Jimmy was the only other person who knew he was interested in the Kettlemans.  He is convinced that Jimmy stole his idea and beat him to the money. He states the blood in the van is likely from the two red haired knuckle-headed skaters.  Nacho says, “Get me out, or you’re a dead man!”

Jimmy comes out of the room and speaks to the two detectives.  Of course they aren’t impressed when he implores them that Nacho is innocent. (It’s what all defense attorneys’ say, right?)  Under a hyper-colored framed flag, Jimmy tries to make the case that the blood on the floor of the van is not the Kettleman’s.  Frustrated, he insists on going to the crime scene.  The detectives agree, thinking that seeing the rooms of the missing children will have an effect on Jimmy and his opinion of his client’s innocence.

As Jimmy looks at the children’s bedrooms, he arrives at the startling theory that the Kettleman’s “kidnapped themselves."  He notices that the girl’s favorite doll is missing as evidence.  The detective retorts that the “bad guy” might of let the girl take the doll to shut her up.  Jimmy pulls Kim aside and confesses that he warned the Kettlemans last night of the impending danger and thinks they have fled.  Kim is now both worried and irritated at Jimmy’s poor judgment.  He tells her about Nacho’s threats, “Right now my ass is on the highway to the danger zone!”

Unimpressed, Kim sighs arguing that the Kettleman's are her clients and finding them isn't in their best interest. Jimmy is exasperated, and replies, “This is why people hate lawyers!”

Now Jimmy is trying to get back in the courthouse parking lot, he offers Erhmentrout a weak apology and offers to pay him back with interest.  Erhmentrout says he needs to find another place to park.  Jimmy escalates the situation by threatening to park in the entryway and the car behind him honks.  Jimmy gets out, and Erhmentrout says, “You don’t want to do that.”

“What are you going to do, throw a poop filled diaper at me?” Jimmy gets a hand on Erhnmentrout.

Faster then you can say poop filled diaper, Erhmentrout has Jimmy’s arm-twisted behind his back!

Back inside, the detectives are speaking to Erhmentrout about the case. It seems that Jimmy may be charged with assault since he touched the parking attendant first. The two tell him about Jimmy's "kidnapped themselves" theory. They need Jimmy to make Nacho talk so that they can find the Kettlemans. Approaching Jimmy, he says again, "Nacho is not your man!"(Making the words rhyme.)  Disgusted, they have Jimmy stand so he can be booked for assault.   But then Erhmentrout tells them he won't press charges thereby telling the detectives to let Jimmy go, which prompts Jimmy to run after him. “Why do you believe me?”

“Yes, your story makes sense.” Erhmentrout replies.  In their first real conversation, he tells Jimmy that he was a cop for many years in Philadelphia.  He recounts a case in which the police were looking everywhere for a suspect who was hiding in a foreclosed property two doors down from his own home.  “Nobody wants to leave home.”

Inspired, Jimmy goes back to the Kettleman’s place.  (The song plays as he hikes, “Find Out What’s Happening” by Elvis Presley)  He spots a sticker on the family car of a cartoon family hiking.  He begins to hike behind their house.  Several hours later, he starts to hear singing in the dimming light.  The family is singing “BINGO” in an orange tent.

Bingo indeed! He’s found them! Unzipping the tent, he tells the family the gig is up and that they need to go home.  Betsy offers the greatest resistance and she and Jimmy fight over a duffel bag which rips, and part of the one point six million dollars spills into the tent.

The “next on” teases the about the money and if Jimmy can be swayed with it.  A pattern of unintended consequences has emerged.  Where will it lead our hapless but still moral lawyer on his evolution into our beloved Saul Goodman?