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I'm sorry You're just (...) You're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire.
― Betsy rejecting Jimmy as her lawyer[src]

Elizabeth A. "Betsy" Kettleman is the wife of Craig Kettleman and the mother of Warren and Jo Jo Kettleman. She has been helping her husband, who was a thieving treasurer, flee from his conviction at any cost for the sake of her family's financial health. Betsy and Craig currently own the company Sweet Liberty Tax Services.

History[]

Better Call Saul[]

Season 1[]

Betsy and her husband, Craig, arrange a consultation with Jimmy McGill to discuss their case: Craig is the county treasurer and has been accused of embezzling $1.6 million. Just as they are about to hire Jimmy, Betsy stops her husband and hesitates, claiming Jimmy is "the type of lawyer guilty people hire."

In an attempt to convince the Kettlemans to hire him, Jimmy plots a scam targeting Betsy with brothers Lars and Cal Lindholm; however, the brothers mistake Betsy's car with that of Abuelita and target her instead, resulting in a violent altercation with her grandson, Tuco Salamanca. ("Uno")

After receiving an anonymous tip from Jimmy, Betsy and her family go into hiding for their safety. After an arduous search, Jimmy finally comes across them camping in the woods behind their home; Jimmy encourages them to return home, but Betsy, determined to save her husband from conviction, adamantly disagrees. Betsy wrestles with Jimmy over a large duffel bag and the contents spill, revealing a substantial quantity of money. ("Nacho") Betsy and Craig plead with Jimmy not to expose them, offering him a portion of the money as a bribe, which Jimmy initially refuses. Jimmy retorts with the option of them hiring him as their lawyer, which is refused in turn by them, who refer back to the cash bribe. ("Hero")

Betsy and Craig meet with Kim Wexler at HHM; Kim advises them not to take their case to trial as their chances of winning are very low. She urges them to take the plea deal she has negotiated on their behalf, which would reduce Craig's sentence from 30 years to only 16 months. Betsy declines the offer before firing Kim, persistently assuring that Craig is innocent and that he should not serve any jail time.

Betsy and Craig then return to Jimmy, again demanding that Craig does not serve any jail time; Jimmy politely refuses their offer, telling them that he has recently decided to specialize in elder law and that he no longer wishes to represent them. Jimmy calls Kim and discusses the case before urging the pair to return to HHM, assuring them that it is in their best interests to take the plea deal. Betsy and Craig remind Jimmy that he took their bribe and if they were to return the money, they would need to have all of it present; realizing this, Jimmy reluctantly takes their case.

Jimmy has Mike Ehrmantraut break into Betsy and Craig's house to collect the stolen money. Once they have it in their possession, Jimmy returns the funds he took from the bribe and asks Mike to take the money to the district attorney's office. The following day, Jimmy informs Betsy and Craig about where the money is heading and again encourages them to take Kim's deal. Betsy initially refuses to go through with it, but Craig persuades her that their family should come first and that they should take Jimmy's advice. Jimmy escorts the couple to HHM, where the deal is finally made. ("Bingo")

Season 6[]

Some time later, after Craig has paid his debt to society, Betsy and her husband have their lives deteriorate a bit as Craig is no longer the county treasurer and they have been reassigned to low-ranking positions at a tax service business inside a small trailer that stands outside of town. Due to this, their children have to attend public school, a fact that makes Betsy really upset. Desperate to get their standard-of-living back, Craig and Betsy fall into their criminal habits again and resolve to extort their elderly customers.

One day, Jimmy enters their trailer in hopes of making them patsies in a scheme to implicate Howard Hamlin for drug use. Betsy is very upset at seeing him and soon, she and Craig explain to Jimmy that since their last encounter, their lives have gone downhill (though they refuse to recognize their own actions). Jimmy tells them that they could have their lives back by accusing Howard of giving them unreliable legal counseling due to drug use, thus granting them exoneration; they just need to sign a Letter of Engagement. Reluctant at first, the Kettleman’s agree, but they refuse to hire Jimmy to represent them, which Jimmy pretends to feel offended towards.

Betsy and Craig visit lawyer Clifford Main in hopes of representing them against Howard. However, Clifford turns them down, due to working together with Howard on a case for Sandpiper Crossing, and also stating that their potential case is a lost cause, so Betsy haughtily bids him farewell (though Clifford actually believes that Howard may be abusing drugs due to false evidence planted by Jimmy earlier). They try to get other lawyers to help them, but are also turned down, convinced that their case against Howard is hopeless.

They call-up Jimmy and ask him to come to their trailer. When he does so and brings Kim with him, Betsy reveals that she has discovered that Jimmy was using them as pawns to take down Howard and after refusing a bribe Jimmy has, threatens to report him to the authorities if he does not represent them against Howard, but is forced to keep silent when Kim, who has found out that they are scamming their elderly customers, threatens to report their unscrupulous acts to the IRS unless they refund their customers. ("Carrot and Stick")

Personality and traits[]

Betsy has shown herself to be an incredibly stubborn and self-righteous woman who refuses to admit to her husband's embezzlement and insists on fighting for his innocence despite the fact that failure in the courts is unavoidable. Her determination and greed makes her go to extreme lengths to avoid facing the consequences of her own crimes such as attempting to bribe Jimmy in order to keep his mouth shut or to ignore the well-being of her own children. Even after Kim Wexler is able to give the Kettlemans the best court deal they can get, which will spare Craig 30 years in prison, Betsy remains stubborn and refuses to take the deal and blackmails Jimmy into helping her and her husband. Even after their money is stolen by Mike she still threatens Jimmy and refuses to give up but is finally defeated when Jimmy reveals that she will be found guilty as well if she tells of the bribe she gave Jimmy and when Craig makes her realize that the deal is for the good of their children.

Some time later, Betsy’s personality has seldom changed as when Jimmy re-enters her and her husband’s lives, she acts incredibly hostile and bitter to him, blaming him for their legal trouble (ignoring their own transgressions along the way). Her self-righteous attitude has also remained unchanged as when she tries to get Clifford Main to help them represent a case against Howard Hamlin, he declines on account of seeing how hopeless the case is and how his firm and Howard’s are in process of working together, so she haughtily takes her leave. In spite of this, Betsy seems to have taken what she learned before about knowing when to cut her losses into account as when Kim threatens to report her and her husband defrauding their customers, she backs off and agrees not to tell anyone that Jimmy and Kim are trying to bring down Howard.

Appearances[]

Better Call Saul[]

Episodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6

A short film called "No Picnic" is set at least a year into Craig's sentence. Betsy and her children are shown to have a picnic under a highway overpass to cheer him up while he's performing community service.

Betsy and Craig appear in an episode of the CNBC true crime documentary series American Greed, apparently broadcast after Jimmy's flight from the law in 2010, in which the couple attempt to portray themselves as Jimmy's victims.

Trivia[]

References[]

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