Hero
In a flashback, Jimmy stumbles out of a bar with a drunk tourist named Stevie. In an alley, they come across a wallet with $1,000 in it, and realize it belongs to an unconscious man nearby, who is also wearing what Jimmy recognizes as a Rolex. Stevie suggests he take the Rolex and Jimmy the cash, but Jimmy retorts that the watch must be worth at least $3,000. Stevie, knowing a real Rolex is worth much more, agrees to give Jimmy the $1,000, plus another $580 of his own. After Stevie leaves, the man wearing the watch gets up, revealing himself to be Jimmy's accomplice; the watch was one of many worthless fakes.
In 2002, the Kettlemans plead with Jimmy after he discovers their money. They offer a $30,000 bribe, but Jimmy counters with him taking it as a "retainer" - and becoming their attorney. The Kettlemans turn him down: "You're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire." Jimmy decides to take the bribe. Jimmy gets Nacho released from jail, but Nacho deduces that Jimmy tipped off the Kettlemans and warns him about "consequences", to which Jimmy replies that he warned them out of concern for the safety of their children, and furthermore, that Nacho got arrested because he let himself be identified by a neighbor.
Jimmy uses his windfall to purchase new clothing and a billboard that deliberately imitates one of HHM's. Howard obtains a cease and desist order, forcing Jimmy to take the billboard down. As a worker begins taking it down, Jimmy hires a film crew from the University of New Mexico to generate sympathetic media coverage. Suddenly, the worker falls and dangles from the billboard, prompting Jimmy to spring into action. When he pulls the man up, a crowd gathering to watch, they high-five; Jimmy staged the whole thing, the worker being one of Jimmy's former clients. To Howard's disgust (and Kim's quiet glee), Jimmy's publicity stunt generates positive news coverage for Jimmy and brings him new clients.
Jimmy makes his daily trip to Chuck's to drop off groceries and bring in his newspapers, but removes the local paper from Chuck's stack. Jimmy lamely waves it off when Chuck notices the Albuquerque Journal gone. Chuck wraps himself in a space blanket to run outside and steal his neighbor's. When he returns home, he sees the story about Jimmy's billboard and his supposed rescue of the worker on the front page.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: Betsy flat out tells Jimmy that she won't hire him because he looks like the kind of lawyer guilty people hire. He grimaces in response.
- Artistic License – Law: Jimmy tries to finesse a way to accept the cash bribe from Joan by suggesting she use it to hire his services as a lawyer. Pretty much every bar association or law society prohibits lawyers from accepting what they know to be the proceeds of crime as a retainer. So it wouldn't have been anymore legal than accepting it as a bribe.
- As the Good Book Says...: After Jimmy registers the Kettlemans' bribe into his budget, he quotes Matthew 16:18: "Upon this rock, I will build my Church..."
- Bad Liar: Jimmy, could you have made it any more obvious that you took Chuck's newspaper?
- Bait-and-Switch: After Jimmy's bar patron runs off with Marco's watch, we see Marco get up behind Jimmy and for a moment it looks like Marco's going to beat up Jimmy for having his money and watch stolen, only for Marco and Jimmy to celebrate pulling off a con.
- Batman Gambit: Jimmy intentionally all but copies the billboard of HHM and sets his billboard where he knows Hamlin will see it, knowing that there's no way Hamlin won't take the bait and attempt to get it taken down. (Hamlin, after all, had tried to stop Jimmy from using his own name for his law firm.) Hamlin takes the bait, and it sets up Jimmy's Publicity Stunt that wins him new clients and will likely prevent Hamlin from trying to bar Jimmy from using the McGill name due to potential bad publicity.
- Call-Forward:
- We get a nod to Jimmy's future persona during the Cold Open flashback, with Jimmy using "Saul" as a pseudonym during a grift and complimenting it with the play on words, "Saul good, man!". When he's buying a new suit to imitate Howard, a brightly coloured orange shirt catches his interest.
- Like in Saul's debut episode, Jimmy is offered a large bribe to protect a criminal's interests. Except here, he decides to accept the money, showing that he hasn't realized the dangers of accepting cash from strangers, a lesson he'll learn soon enough.
- Characterisation Click Moment: Kim Wexler's smile at the end of the episode.
- The Con: Marco is introduced as helping Jimmy with this, acting as the fake mark Jimmy convinces a bar patron to steal from.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Jimmy asked the Kettlemans what did they plan to do after staging their kidnapping and running away with the $1.6 million. They stammer they were working on that part.
- As Nacho threatens and blames Jimmy for his arrest, Jimmy throws the blame off himself by pointing out how sloppily Nacho executed his plan. Namely, he didn't mind using the same van that was responsible for keeping the bleeding skaters, and ended up bringing it to an upper-class suburbia, which caused a neighbor to become suspicious enough to report the license plate.
- To avoid having Chuck notice that he made the front page of the Albuquerque Journal, Jimmy steals his paper off the driveway and pretends that he didn't receive it at any point. He failed to consider the idea that Chuck could merely look out the window and see all the other papers delivered to his neighbors, then promptly take one of them for himself.
- Engineered Heroism: The worker removing the advertisement slips and falls, only holding on by his harness. Jimmy takes it upon himself to climb the equipment and pull the worker to safety, as the public watches and records the whole thing. Then it turns out the worker was really coordinating the event, with the accident staged by Jimmy as a Publicity Stunt.
- Flipping the Bird:
- Marco does it in the opening flashback scene while pretending to be drunk and not giving a shit.
- Jimmy gives a clever one to Hamlin following the injunction, using it to scratch his forehead.
- Foreshadowing: While filming his piece on having to take his billboard down, Jimmy keeps looking up at it. The last time he does it, when looking back at the camera, he makes a subtle hand gesture. Immediately following, the billboard worker falls.
- Hypocritical Humor: Why don't the Kettlemans want Jimmy as their lawyer? He's the type of lawyer guilty people hire. In honesty, the Kettlemans keep telling themselves they're not guilty.
- Idiot Ball: Nacho parks his dingy van in a mainly white neighborhood, where people can (and do) notice him.
- The Reveal: Not a big one, but the Cold Open establishes how "Saul" has been an alias of Jimmy's for a long time, going back to his conman days in Cicero.
- Stupid Crooks: Nacho really didn't think things through when he attempted to rob the Kettlemans. He then decides to threaten Jimmy on the (accurate) belief it was he who tipped off the Kettlemans, only to get the following Shut Up, Hannibal! lecture:Jimmy: You didn't need any help getting caught, okay? The neighbour ID'd you, you were sloppy. Any trouble you might have, that's on you. Not to mention the blood in your van—here's a thought: Ajax, Formula 409. You have no idea the tap-dance I had to give those cops to get you out of here.
- Take My Hand!: Happens when Jimmy "saves" the billboard worker.
- Trunk Shot: The shot when Jimmy picks up the newspapers from his trunk.
- Violin Scam: Jimmy and Marco's "Rolex" scam in the opening flashback scene.
- Wham Line: Once pulled up to safety, the billboard worker tells Jimmy, "Took ya long enough", confirming the accident was staged.
- Wham Shot: Early in the episode (after it hasn't been made clear if he took the Kettlemans' bribe) we see Jimmy at his desk in his office. He then reaches for something out of view... and it's the money they offered.
- What You Are in the Dark: Jimmy accepts the bribe from Betsy.
- White-Collar Crime: Jimmy cooks the books to justify why he suddenly has $30,000 in his budget, writing different amounts off as serving different expenses. It leaves $1,000 unaccounted for, which he invests elsewhere.
