It was kind of the show’s thing to kill off important characters. Better Call Saul, which came before Breaking Bad, has been a bit more restrained in that way over its six seasons. Sure, every now and then you get a fiery Charles McGill suicide or a rare cartel murder that doesn’t mess with the original show’s continuity. But for the most part, the way Better Call Saul is set up as a legal drama doesn’t give too many chances for violence. Because of this, when a character dies, it seems especially important. And man, oh man, the death of poor Howard Hamlin felt like one of the worst I’ve ever seen (Patrick Fabian).
In the midseason finale of Better Call Saul season 6, Jimmy and Kim’s evil plan comes to pass, and Howard’s reputation is ruined. They didn’t know, though, that someone else was planning something even worse, and that Howard’s presence would make it hard for them to do it. Oh well, it’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a quiet bullet to the head.
The people who make Better Call Saul deserve praise for coming up with such a surprising moment, and the episode’s director deserves extra praise for tweeting this rope-a-dope with a straight face.
Simply put, there was a lot to take in during this episode, so let’s go over the details together. Here, we’ll try to make sense of all the different plot lines in “Plan and Execute.” Oh my god, they called the episode “Plan and EXECUTION.” Those trolls are nothing but trolls. Anyway, let’s talk about how this story ends.
How did Jimmy and Kim plan to do it?
We gave our best guess last week about what Jimmy and Kim might be planning for Howard. And wouldn’t you know it, we did quite well! Except for a few small things. Jimmy and Kim’s plan was to make Howard lose his mind in public during the mediation of the very important Sandpiper case. Even they could not have known how well things would turn out.
Even though Judge Rand Casimiro broke his arm, it turned out to be a small problem. Jimmy was able to get his usual UNM students and his “actor” to retake the photos of him giving a bribe to the fake Casimiro. Then, with only a few minutes left, Jimmy was able to give those photos to “Janidowski,” the fake P.I. that Jimmy had hired.
We were able to figure out that Jimmy gave us a fake P.I. because that’s what he would do, but Howard is kind enough to fill in a few more details. When Howard realizes he’s been tricked, he tells Cliff Main in a panic that the office just got a call saying they need to switch security providers. He thinks that HHM fell for a classic phishing scam, and Jimmy installed Janidowski because of that. We don’t remember this happening in season 6 of Better Call Saul, but if we knew the show and the fans, we’d bet that it did, and if we knew the fans, they’d find the scene in no time.
Janidowski, who is worth three times what Jimmy is paying him, puts the caffeine-like substance in the photos he gives to Howard to make him look crazy. When Howard isn’t looking, he switches out the photos that show Howard doing something wrong with ones that don’t show him doing anything wrong. So when Howard thinks he has Judge Casimiro dead to rights, he looks like a crazy person who thinks there is a plot against him. Game over. The case about Sandpiper is over. Jimmy has won. Howard loses. Oh does he ever lose.
What’s Lalo’s plan A?
Nick Harley points out in his Den of Geek review of this episode that there are some interesting similarities between Howard Hamlin and Lalo Salamanca that no one noticed until this midseason finale:
“Both men work in their families’ businesses and have a charisma that seems to come from nowhere. During the episode, they both believe that their biggest rival is working on a secret, complicated plan to hurt them.”
Even though their lives are pretty similar right now, the way they deal with them couldn’t be more different. Lalo has spent the whole season looking for proof that Gustavo Fring is working against what’s best for the cartel. His need for proof is so strong that it sends him halfway around the world to look for proof in Germany. When he gets home, he spends his time in a real sewer.
Despite his pathological need to find proof, Lalo is able to take a step back, look at the big picture, and realize that he’ll never find enough. The Chicken Man knows way too much. He doesn’t leave enough clues. Lalo sounds just as crazy as Howard when he records a sweaty video message to Don Eladio from his sewer saying that Gus has a secret villains’ lair in an industrial laundromat. He knows this. So he calls his uncle Hector and tells him he is going back to Plan A.
Plan A is without a doubt to just kill Gus. This is riskier, but Lalo will find it easier and a lot more rewarding. Is it possible, though, that Lalo isn’t as impatient as he seems and is still playing the long game?
When Lalo calls the hospital where Hector Salamanca is being treated for the first time, he seems to get a sudden rush of paranoia and hangs up the phone. Then, though, he calls back right away, talks to Hector, and tells him he’s going back to Plan A. Now, I’m no cartel genius, but doesn’t “Plan A” sound like a pretty lame name for an operation? For anyone who knows what is going on, it is clear that Plan A involves killing some people. In fact, there are people listening to that phone call who know that much about the situation. Mike’s people pick up the call right away and can give it to Gus in no more than 20 minutes. Because they can, of course. Gus Fring would have to listen in on the phone line of the place where his worst enemy lives. That’s pretty basic Gus Fring.
So, in the end, Lalo’s Plan A might not be Plan A at all. Instead, it might be a smart continuation of Plan B. Do I sound like Howard Hamlin? Don’t say anything. When it comes to Howard Hamlin…
Is Howard Hamiln Dead?
Well, he dies, as though you could forget. Howard dies suddenly when Lalo Salamanca shoots him in the head with his gun. It’s a horrible and scary scene that no fan of Better Call Saul will soon forget. It will probably also overshadow the scene that came before it, which was just as powerful.
Before we know for sure that Lalo has sneaked into the Goodmans’ house (and with those flickering candles, he might as well be a ghost), it looks like Howard’s meeting with Jimmy and Kim will be the emotional high point of the whole series. Hell, it might still be. Howard finally says what he really thinks about Jimmy McGill after holding it in for many seasons. and he has him right where he wants him.
Kim is the one who really makes him mad, though. Jimmy is known to be good. Since he was Slippin’ Jimmy in Cicero, he’s been a bad guy. Kim, though? It was thought that she was one of the good ones. Howard will never find out what went wrong with Kim. We might never know, to be honest. But Howard knows one thing: “You’re the perfect match. You don’t have everything. You did it for fun. “It gives you pleasure.”
He says that he doesn’t even know that Jimmy and Kim made out while listening to his downfall, copulating on his figurative corpse just before he died.
Better Call Saul has had more patience and understanding for its characters over its six seasons than Breaking Bad. Walt’s darkness was always there, just waiting for a good reason to show itself. Jimmy McGill and, later, Kim Wexler have never really given that impression.
Jimmy and Kim both have good reasons to feel put down. They have fought, clawed, and scratched their whole lives to find their place, only to have the Howards of the world walk into their dad’s job with a smile and a firm handshake. But in order to balance what they thought were the scales of justice, they have let themselves go so far that they are no longer recognizable.
They no longer even have the same names. They are the Goodmans, and a dead person is on their carpet.
Monday, July 11, at 9 p.m. ET, AMC will start showing the last episodes of Better Call Saul.