"Pimento" is the ninth episode of the first season of Better Call Saul and the ninth episode of the series altogether.
Summary[]
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Shortly after Chuck surprised both Jimmy and himself by leaving his house unattended, the brothers sit quietly on a nearby park bench. Chuck tries to relax and enjoy the sunshine, but keeps glancing nervously at an electrical transformer overhead. Jimmy redirects Chuck's attention to the grass, successfully encouraging him to take off his shoes. Finally reaching his limit, Chuck tells Jimmy that he's ready to go inside and get back to work building their case against Sandpiper Crossing. He rises and walks gingerly back toward his house, a buoyant Jimmy at his side.
Act I[]
In Stacey's backyard, she and Mike watch Kaylee play with the adopted dog that Mike wishes to give to Kaylee. Stacey struggles with the idea of taking on a pet, but Mike assures her that the dog is healthy and worthwhile. Stacey agrees to let Kaylee keep the dog. Their conversation is interrupted when Mike receives a phone call. He steps away to answer it and quietly accepts a job opportunity.
Schweikart seeks a restraining order against Jimmy on the grounds that his "loud and flamboyant" behavior disturbs the routine of the Sandpiper residents, although the judge doesn't buy it and rules in Jimmy's favor. Jimmy rides high on his victory all the way to Chuck's house, but finds that Schweikart has sent over boxes and boxes of documents, trying to drown the McGill brothers in paperwork and legal "softballs". Chuck tells Jimmy that the Sandpiper case is becoming too big for them to handle alone, and insists they hand over the case with HHM. Jimmy argues vehemently against it, but Chuck eventually convinces him that it's the only way to win the case. Jimmy then mentions getting an office at HHM for himself, a remark to which Chuck does not answer.
That night, Jimmy crashes on Chuck's couch. Chuck sneaks past his sleeping brother to retrieve a pencil and an oven mitt. Wrapped in his space blanket, he goes outside and takes Jimmy's cell phone from the mailbox. He turns it on and uses the eraser end of the pencil to dial a number. Grimacing, he puts the phone next to his ear and talks to someone.
Act II[]
Mike waits in a parking garage with two thugs: a large man and another named Sobchak. The three men have each been hired by Caldera to provide protection for a new client who is in his first drug deal. As they wait for their employer, Sobchak gives Mike a once-over and asks what type of gun he's "packing". Mike casually nods to a paper bag sitting on the nearby curb and states that he packed a pimento sandwich. Sobchak thinks Mike is joking and presses him, but Mike stands firm. He didn't bring a gun.
The employer drives up in a wood-paneled minivan, and an unassuming man steps out and introduces himself as Pryce. Sobchak tells him that Mike is dead weight because he didn't bring a weapon and suggests firing Mike and splitting his cut between him and the big man. Mike responds that if he needs a gun, he'll take one of Sobchak's. Sobchak dares Mike to take it from him and tauntingly holds out a pistol; Sobchak points a gun at his head after Mike asks him to "make it not so easy", and he is swiftly and effortlessly disarmed. An enraged Sobchak lunges forward, but Mike incapacitates him with a single hit to the throat, then finds and disposes of all of Sobchak's weapons. He holds up a particularly ostentatious one and offers it to the large man, who flees in terror. Mike dumps the weapons into a nearby trashcan, picks up his sandwich, and heads for the minivan. Mike states that he is to be paid the full fee for three men, to which Pryce agrees, and the two drive off to the meet.
Meanwhile, Jimmy and Chuck prepare for their meeting at HHM. Chuck is apprehensive, but Jimmy reassures him. He helps Chuck to the car and retrieves his electronics from the mailbox, confused to find that his phone's battery has died. At HHM, Howard arranges for everything electric to be deactivated and confiscated in preparation for Chuck's arrival. The firm's employees gather in the lobby and shower Chuck with applause when he enters with Jimmy. A cheerful Howard embraces Chuck and guides him upstairs, leaving Jimmy behind to carry the boxes.
In the conference room, Jimmy and Chuck bring Howard and his associates up to speed on the Sandpiper case. Seeing it as a case they can handle, Howard guarantees Jimmy twenty percent of the common fund share of the final settlement, as well as an immediate "of counsel" fee of $20,000 for having done the leg work. Jimmy accepts both conditions but asks if he can have the office next to Chuck's. Clearing the room, Howard tells Jimmy that while HHM wants the case, "the partners" aren't interested in hiring Jimmy. Shocked and hurt, Jimmy lashes out and asks why Howard doesn't want him and what Howard has against him, but Howard has no answer. Jimmy then states that he will not be relinquishing the case to HMM and leaves.
Act III[]
Kim visits Howard in his office, demanding to know why he refused to hire Jimmy. Howard asks why it is her concern, and she states that Jimmy is her friend. Howard coldly reminds her that she's speaking out of turn and that this was a decision made by the partners, and one that he does not need to explain to her. She then turns and begins to head out, but Howard tells her to close the door and come back.
At an abandoned power plant, a nervous Pryce debates the best way to conduct the drug deal. As Mike offers some advice, the buyer, Nacho Varga, arrives along with two henchmen. The deal goes smoothly until it turns out that Nacho's payment is $20 short. Mike demands that Pryce receive payment in full, or the deal is off. Nacho is offended by the idea that he stiffed Pryce on purpose and can't believe that Mike would blow up the deal over such a small amount of money. Mike replies that he is quite happy to believe it was an honest mistake, but insists that Nacho honor the deal. Nacho begrudgingly holds up a $20 bill and drops it to make Pryce catch it in a breeze.
Afterward, Mike tells Pryce that he wasn't worried about the deal, because he had researched the deal beforehand and knew that Nacho was doing this deal without his boss' knowledge, and therefore was incentivized to make sure the deal went as smoothly as possible. Mike tells Pryce that as a criminal, he should do his homework. When Pryce retorts that he is a not a bad guy, Mike states that he said that Pryce was a criminal, not a bad guy. Pryce asks what the difference is, and Mike explains that he has met dirty cops and corrupt priests as well as honorable thieves, and that being in an "honorable profession" does not make someone a good person, the same way that being a criminal does not make one a bad person. He clarifies that as Pryce had stolen something and sold it for profit, he was now a criminal, but that it would be up to Pryce to determine if he was a good one or a bad one.
Act IV[]
That night, Kim visits Jimmy at the nail salon and urges him to take Howard's deal. Livid, he accuses her of being bought off by Howard and asks her what she was promised. Near tears, she reiterates that taking the deal is the best thing for Jimmy but leaves without going into more detail. Bothered by their exchange, Jimmy retreats to his office and finally plugs his dead cell phone into the wall. As it begins to recharge, Jimmy stares at the phone suspiciously.
The next morning, Jimmy visits Chuck and tells him that, after speaking with Kim, he's going to give the Sandpiper case to HHM. Chuck replies that it was the right decision to make, and Jimmy laments that he wishes he could have worked with his brother. As Chuck remarks that he could put in a word to Howard in the future, Jimmy suggests another option: based on the reception Chuck received when he returned to HMM, he could threaten to quit; as the partners would not risk losing Howard, they would agree to hiring Jimmy rather than face the alternative of losing a partner. When Chuck hesitates, Jimmy reveals that he already knows that Chuck is not remotely interested in bringing Jimmy into HHM. Jimmy explains that as he always turns off his phone when he puts it in Chuck's mailbox, something he never fails to do due to routine habit, he became suspicious when he found the battery dead. A call to the phone company revealed a deleted call to Howard two nights prior, while Jimmy was asleep on the couch, and that only Chuck could have made that call.
Jimmy accuses Chuck of telling Howard not to hire him, and wonders how much pain Chuck would have had to go through, to put a cell phone against his ear, to ensure that Jimmy was not hired. Jimmy then demands to know why Chuck would do this to him, and Chuck lashes out that he does not consider Jimmy to be a real lawyer. He states that Jimmy took "shortcuts" by using online courses and diploma mills to start his legal career, while Chuck himself has worked hard his whole life to be a lawyer, and that he finds it a joke that Jimmy thought they were peers. Chuck declares that he knows what kind of person Jimmy is, and states that Jimmy is still "Slippin' Jimmy" and that people do not change; additionally, he remarks that Jimmy is dangerous with a law degree as the law is sacred. Processing this, Jimmy tells Chuck that he brought over some groceries but will no longer do so again, and that he is done with Chuck. He then gets up and exits the house, with Chuck following him, telling him to stop. Jimmy makes his way to his car and drives off, betrayed, as Chuck stands by the open door of the house.
Official Photos[]
Trivia[]
- In the Breaking Bad episode "Cornered", Mike Ehrmantraut offered Jesse Pinkman a pimento cheese sandwich while staking out Tucker and Scary Skell's house.
- A flashback scene was filmed for this episode, where a young Jimmy McGill witnessed his father getting scammed by a grifter. The scene was deleted due to time constraints, but was not included within the deleted scenes for the season 1 home video release as the producers wished to use the footage in a future episode. This cut flashback scene was later used in the season 2 episode "Inflatable".
- The director of this episode Thomas Schnauz has confirmed that the parking garage shown in this episode is not the same one that Gus was in the Breaking Bad episode End Times.
- The judge that appears at court when Schweikart seeks a restraining order against Jimmy is named Kurt N. Forshager who is named after the show's supervising sound editor Nick Forshager.
Errors[]
- The AT&T building visible from the parking garage when Mike meets Pryce for the first time is the lower-case "at&t" logo which was not used until 2005.
- When the HHM employees put their phones inside a bin in preparation for Chuck coming to HHM, one of the phones shown in the bin is a Sprint version of the Motorola Q which wasn't released until 2007.
Production[]
Credits[]
Starring
Guest Starring
Co-Starring
Featured Music[]
- "Groton Farewell" by Cast
References to other media[]
- Sobchak refers to Mike Ehrmantraut as "Uncle Fester", a character from the television and film series The Addams Family.
Memorable Quotes[]
- "Confidence is good. Facts on your side, better. Know what you're walking into."
- ―Chuck to Jimmy.
- Howard: "It's easy money, Jimmy. No reason not to take it."
- Jimmy: "Go to hell, Howard! I'm not giving you my case. And I'm gonna tell every one of those clients what a lying miserable pig fucker you are. I will burn the whole thing to the ground before I give it to you!"
- ―Howard and Jimmy arguing.
- "Well, duly noted. Want to know what I believe? I believe that you're way out of your depth in this matter. So the next time that you want to come in here and tell me what I'm doing wrong, you are welcome to keep it to yourself. Because I don't care."
- ―Howard to Kim about the decision not to hire Jimmy on the case.
- Mike: "The lesson is, if you're gonna be a criminal, do your homework."
- Pryce: "Wait. I'm not a bad guy."
- Mike: "I didn't say you were a bad guy. I said you're a criminal."
- Pryce: "What's the difference?"
- Mike: "I've known good criminals and bad cops. Bad priests. Honorable thieves. You can be on one side of the law or the other. But if you make a deal with somebody, you keep your word. You can go home today with your money and never do this again. But you took something that wasn't yours. And you sold it for a profit. You're now a criminal. Good one, bad one? That's up to you."
- ―Mike and Pryce on the difference between criminals and villains.
- Jimmy: "I'm your brother. We're supposed to look out for each other. Why were you working against me, Chuck?"
- Chuck: "You're not a real lawyer."
- Jimmy: "I'm what?"
- Chuck: "You're not a real lawyer. University of American Samoa, for Christ's sake? An online course? What a joke. I worked my ass off to get where I am. And you take these shortcuts and you think suddenly you're my peer? You do what I do because you're funny and you can make people laugh? I committed my life to this! You don't slide into it like a cheap pair of slippers and reap all the rewards."
- Jimmy: "I thought you were proud of me."
- Chuck: "I was. When you straightened out and got a job in the mailroom, I was very proud."
- Jimmy: "So that's it then, right? Keep old Jimmy down in the mailroom. He's not good enough to be a lawyer."
- Chuck: "I know you. I know what you were, what you are. People don't change. You're Slippin' Jimmy. And Slippin' Jimmy I can handle just fine. But Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun. The law is sacred! If you abuse that power, people get hurt. This is not a game. You have to know on some level, I know you know I'm right. You know I'm right."
- ―Jimmy brutally discovering what Chuck actually thinks of him as a lawyer.