Alpine Shepard Boy
Chuck's neighbor reports him to the police for stealing her newspaper. Mistakenly believing his empty camping fuel cans and damaged home electricity lines indicate illegal drug production, the officers on the scene break down his door and taser him. Chuck is hospitalized and the doctor wants Jimmy to have him committed to a mental institution, but Jimmy convinces her he can continue Chuck's care at Chuck's home. The doctor advises Jimmy that Chuck's "disease" is psychosomatic, based on a surreptitious test she performed at Chuck's bedside. Before Jimmy signs the release forms, though, Hamlin arrives at the hospital and provokes a confrontation about the possible motives Jimmy might have for committing Chuck to a psychiatric facility. Jimmy pretends that he's going to do exactly that (in order to gain power of attorney and cash out of HH&M), then reveals to Kim he only wanted to "see him sweat".
Jimmy's newfound fame attracts less than promising clients, including a wannabe inventor and someone who wants to "personally secede" from the United States, until he meets an elderly woman who wants him to prepare a will. Her bequests consist almost entirely of leaving her Hummel figurines to various friends and family members, but she pays in cash upfront. Kim suggests that, due to Jimmy's rapport with her, he should specialize in elder law. Jimmy begins promoting himself at a nursing home, including ads at the bottom of cups of Jell-Onote , and clothing patterned after the titular character of the TV series Matlock.
Mike is visited at home by several Philadelphia police officers. He asks, "Long way from home, aren't you?", to which one replies, "You and me both."
Tropes in this episode include:
- Brick Joke: Jimmy finally has enough stickers to get out of the parking garage.
- Call-Forward: The assisted living facility Jimmy promotes his new elder law practice at is the same one that Hector Salamanca will eventually find himself in.
- Compartment Shot:
- When the "sovereign citizen" takes out his money from the safe.
- A shot from inside the toilet when Roland throws samples in to trigger the speaker.
- Double Entendre: Roland's toilet invention, which gives verbal recognition to toddlers using a toilet, actually yells out for the child to "put it in me" and "fill me up" and that what they're putting in is "so big." Complete with moaning. Roland doesn't get how inappropriate it sounds and tells Jimmy to Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter.
- Fancy Toilet Awe: Downplayed and Played for Laughs: Roland reveals what looks like an ordinary toilet to Jimmy, but explains he wired a motion sensor and speaker to the toilet to create "Tony the Toilet Buddy". After demonstrating the toilet, Jimmy, clearly confused and a bit creeped out, explains the obvious problem: the affirmations the toilet is using are sexually suggestive. Roland, clearly oblivious, is shocked and demands Jimmy leave.
- Foreshadowing:
- Chuck plays up his condition in order to get Jimmy to own up to the billboard scam, only to shrug off his space blanket and go make coffee once he confesses. He will use the same strategy later on to get Jimmy to admit to the Mesa Verde forgery, and it doesn't end well for either of them.
- This is also the episode where they decided about The Twist in "Pimento", so all the doctor could find for contact information was a business card with Howard's number, even when in a hospital bed Chuck makes cracks about Jimmy's intelligence, and he passive aggressives about someone has to make coffee when they get home.
- At the hospital, the doctor warns Jimmy about Chuck's lifestyle. Saying that living indoors with white gas lanterns and camp stoves is a major fire risk. In "Lantern", Chuck ends up committing suicide by setting his house on fire with one of the lanterns while inside.
- Literal Money Metaphor: Subverted. Jimmy meets with eccentric landowner Ricky Sipes, who wants Jimmy's legal help to secede his land from the United States. He offers a flat $1,000,000 fee and does indeed deliver... and we see Jimmy's glum reaction when Ricky proudly presents him a million dollars of his self-printed currency (with Ricky's own face in place of the President's). Needless to say, Jimmy doesn't accept the job.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Chuck appears frail and in need of his space blanket when Jimmy gets him home from the hospital. Once he has Jimmy's promise that Slippin' Jimmy is dead and buried, Chuck shrugs off the space blanket and strolls off to make coffee.
- Not What It Looks Like: When one police officer swings around the back of Chuck's house, they notice all of the camp stove oil for his lanterns, and that his breaker box has had all of its wires shredded. They suspect he's actually a drug abuser.
- Odd Name Out: The only episode title in the first season that isn’t a single word ending in "o". Originally it was to be named "Jello" after the cups of Jell-O Jimmy was serving at the nursing home. But the Jell-O company refused to clear the name for use.
- Oh, Crap!: The stone-faced variety when the wealthy "sovereign citizen" hands Jimmy a million dollars of his own currency.
- Self-Deprecation: Jimmy self-deprecates by saying that half of all lawyers are idiots, and the other half are crooks.
- Sensory Overload: Chuck's electromagnetic sensitivity is portrayed as this, with piercing screams and oversaturation of the white balance.
- Shout-Out: Jimmy watches the show Matlock and copies the character's suit in order to gain appeal among potential elderly clients.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Jimmy goes through a short sequence meeting potential clients, including a rich nutjob who wants to secede from the country and found the Sovereign Sandia Republic, a suburban dad who wants to patent a talking toilet that spouts creepy innuendos, and an old lady who wants to write a will divvying up her tacky Hummel figurines. (The last one, at least, provides useful work, starting Jimmy on a career path in elder law.)
- Title Drop: Jimmy's third client meeting proclaims, "I've found the Alpine shepherd boy!", while she descends her staircase on a Stair-Lift. She's referring to a ceramic figure that she then passes to Jimmy.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The doctor who informs Jimmy that Chuck's condition is almost certainly psychosomatic is, of course, just trying to help by enabling him to get his brother appropriate treatment. Later episodes will go on to show this knowledge being used to devastating effect, however.
- Worthless Currency: One of Jimmy's clients offers him a million dollars for assistance seceding to form his own country. Jimmy backs out when he finds out the payment is in his potential country's money.
