Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The second season of AMC’s Better Call Saul is almost here, and we couldn’t be more excited. The Breaking Bad spin-off series follows everyone’s favorite fast-talking and shady lawyer, Saul Goodman. While it’s always a good thing for this silver-tongued Vince Gilligan character to get more screen time, we didn’t expect to be so emotionally invested Saul Goodman’s rise to the criminal attorney top.
The series follows Saul Goodman AKA Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) in the years leading up to meeting Walter White. To help you prepare for Season Two’s premiere on Monday, February 15, we have your complete guide on Season One (which is now on Netflix!). The good news is that you won’t have to re-watch 10 hours of amazing TV. The bad news? We’re moving quickly, so try to keep up.
CHARACTERS
Saul Goodman, AKA James Morgan “Jimmy” McGill (Bob Odenkirk)
Our fast-talking and shady protagonist. Season One follows how scam artist Jimmy transformed into a misguided elder care lawyer trying his best to be good. You know him. You love him.
Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks)
Probably the hardest death to process in Breaking Bad and the reason you hate Walter White. Mike is former police officer turned private investigator and “cleaner.” He’s also a certified badass.
Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn)
A high-class lawyer working for Hamlin, Hamlin, & McGill law firm. She’s also Saul AKA Jimmy’s love interest and seemingly only friend. Don’t let her good looks fool you; Kim is a chain-smoking shark.
Charles “Chuck” McGill (Michael McKean)
Saul AKA Jimmy’s brother. He’s a partner at Hamlin, Hamlin, & McGill, but lately he’s been confined to home because of his crippling case of electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
EPISODE 1: UNO
Remember in Breaking Bad when Saul mentioned that, best case scenario, he’d be managing a Cinnabon after everything he’s been through with Walter? Turns out that was less of a joke than a premonition. In the present, Saul is managing a Cinnabon under his new name, Gene. We’re done with that, but keep Gene in mind for Season Two.
Cut to 2002 and the real meat of our story. Saul is still Jimmy, a struggling public defender who lives and works in the back of a Vietnamese nail salon and pretends to be his own secretary. Jimmy’s also responsible for taking care of his brother, Chuck. The now-reclusive Chuck has a bad case of electromagnetic hypersensitivity, AKA he freaks out every time a cell phone is around. Jimmy hates how his brother’s own law firm, Hamlin, Hamlin, & McGill, has been taking advantage of Chuck. He confronts the firm’s co-founder, Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), to cash out Chuck’s $17 million share in the firm.
Speaking of millions, Jimmy has his sights set on an embezzlement case starring the Kettlemans. Craig Kettleman was the county treasurer who took $1.6 million of the state’s money, not that the duo will admit to it. However, the Kettlemans turn Jimmy down because he’s “the type of lawyer that guilty people hire.” Ouch.
In an effort to win their business back, Jimmy recruits a pair of skateboarding scam artists to stage a car accident with Betsy Kettleman. However, they target the wrong car, and I really do mean the wrong car. They try to scam Tuco Salamanca’s (Raymond Cruz) grandmother instead, and that’s how Jimmy ended up held at gunpoint by an unstable gangster.
EPISODE 2: MIJO
Jimmy uses his silver tongue for his own good and explains that the trio was targeting the Kettlemans, not Tuco’s grandmother. It looks like he’s about to go free, but the twins ruin everything. Seems like Jimmy said something about charging the grandmother with a hit and run.
All three are taken to the desert, where Jimmy talks his way out of getting killed again. He also convinced Tuco to break each of the twins’ legs instead of killing them, and we get to watch it happen. Tuco’s subordinate, Nacho (Michael Mando), makes it clear that if Jimmy changes his mind about not talking, they know where to find him. To add insult to injury, the twins call Jimmy “the worst lawyer in the world” as he rushes them to the hospital.
Nacho visits Jimmy’s office/nail salon, and it looks like Jimmy isn’t the only one interested in the Kettlemans. Nacho wants that $1.6 million, and he’s willing to give Jimmy a 10% finders fee. Jimmy turns him down because he’s a lawyer, not a criminal. Cue studio audience laughter.
EPISODE 3: NACHO
We’re in a flashback, and Jimmy’s back in jail, but he’s behind bars this time. Jimmy is faced with multiple charges and the possibility of being branded a sex offender when his brother visits. Chuck agrees to clear up everything on the condition that Jimmy will quit all the shady nonsense. He agrees.
Back in the present(ish), Jimmy anonymously warns the Kettlemans that they may be robbed. He swings by the house to find the place wrecked and no Kettlemans. The police suspect a kidnapping and arrest Nacho, who was spotted casing the joint.
Nacho accuses Jimmy of tipping off the police and threatens to kill him unless Jimmy can prove his innocence. Talk about incentive. Jimmy proposes the theory that the Kettlemans kidnapped themselves, and with some help from parking attendant Mike, Jimmy proves he’s right.
EPISODE 4: HERO
After a tug of war with the $1.6 million of embezzled money, Jimmy offers his legal services to the Kettlemans again, promising that he will prove that they’re innocent. They counter with “no” and a $30,000 bribe. Disheartened, Jimmy shows the police the safe Kettlemans, and Nacho is released.
Jimmy uses his newfound wealth to get a very-specific image upgrade. He dresses up like rival-Howard and erects a billboard for his legal services that looks almost identical to Hamlin, Hamlin, & McGill’s. To Howard’s fury and Kim’s exasperation, Jimmy is almost immediately handed a cease and desist order. Which is what Jimmy wanted. Jimmy hires a college student to film him as the billboard is being taken down, claiming it’s a story about big business squashing the little guy. However, the guy removing the billboard falls, and Jimmy heroically saves him. That’s how Jimmy does advertising.
Though Jimmy’s proud of himself, he doesn’t want his brother to see. He hides the newspaper, but Chuck needs to know about the news, by God. He steals a neighbor’s paper, and reads the story.
EPISODE 5: ALPINE SHEPHERD BOY
Chuck’s neighbor reports him for stealing her paper, and the police enter the scene. They grow suspicious when Chuck refuses to leave the house and arrest him. Later, Chuck is hospitalized, and the doctor tries to have Jimmy commit his brother to a mental institution. Jimmy refuses, but the doctor does prove to Jimmy that Chuck’s disease is all in his head.
Meanwhile, Jimmy’s advertising stunt has landed him a mess of crazy clients, including a man who wants to secede from America and the inventor of a sex toilet. The only normal one is an old lady who needs a will. At Kim’s prompting, Jimmy decides to specialize in elder law and makes himself a fixture at a nursing home.
With toll booth Mike, several cops from Philly pay him a visit. Something’s up.
EPISODE 6: FIVE-O
We’re focusing on Mike this round. In a flashback, Mike and his daughter-in-law discuss Mike’s recently murdered son. Mike has a bullet wound and finds a crooked veterinarian to patch him up. The vet offers Mike some work, but Mike declines.
Back in the present(ish), Mike is at the police station and requests Jimmy as his lawyer. It becomes clear that Mike is the lead suspect in the murder of two cops, but Mike is only interested in one thing — stealing one of the detective’s notepads. We learn that the murdered officer, Mike’s son, is accused of being a crooked cop, but the truth is bleaker. His son was the only clean cop, including Mike. Cue all the awards for Banks.
In a flashback, Mike pretends to be drunk, knowing the two cops who killed his son are tracking him. The cops decide to take Mike out after admitting that they were the ones who murdered Mike’s son. That’s all our residents badass needed to hear, and he kills them both.
EPISODE 7: BINGO
Back in 2002, Mike and Jimmy are accused to stealing the detective’s notebook, but Jimmy talks his way out of the accusation. The next day, Jimmy takes Kim to his new office, purchased with his recent bribe. He offers her partner, but she refuses.
Kim now has the Kettlemans as clients, and we feel for her. She offers them the best deal she can, but anything less than innocent isn’t good enough for the insane couple. Kim’s fired, and the Kettlemans run back to Jimmy, remembering his promise. Jimmy tells them that his terms have changed — he’s no longer guaranteeing them no jail time — before recommending them to return to Kim, who is catching serious heat for losing the Kettlemans.
Jimmy enlists the help of Mike again, stealing the $1.6 million from the Kettlemans and adding his bribe to the huge pile. The Kettlemans finally return to Kim at Jimmy’s prompting.
EPISODE 8: RICO
In a flashback, Jimmy is working in the HHM mailroom when he learns he passed the bar. Kimmy and Chuck are excited for him, but one person isn’t — Howard. Howard refuses to hire Jimmy as an attorney. So much for dreams.
Back with 2002 elder law, Jimmy notices that a a senior care home called Sandpiper Crossing is dramatically overcharging its residents. All signs point to fraud, and Jimmy recruits Chuck to figure out the case. They meet with the Sandpiper Crossing legal team and demand $20 million. This case is looking bigger and bigger. While they’re working on the case, Chuck absentmindedly walks outside to get some folders without being affected by all things electromagnetic.
EPISODE 9: PIMENTO
With our favorite badass, Mike has agreed to a job from the crooked vet. He scares off the two other men, and gets the job, helping his client sell pills to Nacho. The client tries to argue that he’s not a bad man, but Mike clarifies. The man is now a criminal, and morality has nothing to do with it.
Jimmy goes to court to argue a restraining order by Sandpiper Crossing, which he wins. He returns to Chuck, triumphant, but Chuck isn’t happy. Sandpiper Crossing is flooding them with paperwork to slow them down and Chuck thinks the case should go to HHM. A downtrodden Jimmy agrees. They go to HHM, Chuck’s space blanket sewn inside his suit jacket, but not before Chuck makes a phone call away from Jimmy.
At HHM, Howard says that he wants the case but not Jimmy. Jimmy refuses to give him the case and tells Howard to go to hell. Later, Kim tries to convince Jimmy to take HHM’s deal, but Jimmy refuses. It’s only when he’s charging his phone that he realizes something.
Chuck was was one who told Howard not to hire Jimmy, and Chuck has been keeping Jimmy out of HHM for years. When confronted about it, Chuck says that Jimmy isn’t worthy of being called a lawyer and nothing has changed since his con artist days.
EPISODE 10: MARCO
Jimmy reluctantly takes the HHM deal, and later has a breakdown over a Bingo game at a retirement home. He reunites with his old scamming buddy, Marco, and the two run a series of scams over the next week. After his week of illegal fun, Jimmy tells Marco that he has to return to Albuquerque. Marco insists they run one last scam, but he has a heart attack and dies in the middle of the Rolex con. A grieving Jimmy puts on Marco’s pinky ring.
Kim calls Jimmy, telling him that a Sante Fe firm is assisting with the retirement home lawsuit, and they’re considering Jimmy for partner. Jimmy races back, but, at the last minute, he doesn’t go to the meeting. Instead, he asks Mike why they returned the embezzled $1.6 million.
Mike mentions something about Jimmy saying it was the right thing to do, and Jimmy says that “is never stopping [him] again.” He drives off, smiling, as he hums “Smoke on the Water.”
