Better Call Saul, S4 Recap: For Gale. Or Walt.

The aftermath of the stroke and the fire

We’re all frogs in the boiling water. At some point we should’ve stopped rooting for these characters, but we never did.

Following Hector’s stroke, Bolsa orders Nacho and Arturo to look after the Salamancas' business. Gus has Victor tracking and following Nacho, and Victor sees Nacho throwing the meds over the bridge.

Bolsa also instructs Gus to run a dummy distribution to catch the perpetrator of the recent incidents and outsource a new supplier, which they know Eladio doesn't approve. Unbeknownst to the cartel, Gus has already been making a move, getting Gale Boetticher to test new products for him.

Mike quits his parking attendant job, but he’s restless at home and doesn’t want to be just on Madrigal’s books. He physically goes to the company’s warehouse and advises on its security weaknesses.

Howard tells Jimmy that he doesn’t think Chuck’s death was an accident, and he blames himself for it – having pushed Chuck into retirement after the insurance premium increase. Because Jimmy’s an asshole, he lets Howard take the blame and goes on with his life.


“I decide.” – Gus Fring

Hector’s in a coma, and Gus sneaks in his own doctor, Barry Goodman, to check on him at the hospital. The doctor tells Gus that there’s no way of knowing Hector’s chances of a full recovery, but a better facility like Johns Hopkins may help. When the doctor suggests that Hector deserves the fate, Gus says, “I decide what he deserves. No one else.”

Gus pays Dr Bruckner from Johns Hopkins to oversee Hector’s treatment. Hector’s awake and undergoing rehab with her. Seeing Hector drop a cup to make a nurse bend over in front of him tells Gus that Hector is still Hector despite incapacitated, so he ends Dr Bruckner’s service and sends her home. The story about the coati that he tortured for stealing his lucuma fruits when he was a kid only means Gus just wants Hector to stay alive, but not back to normal.


Two new jobs

After going back to convince a copier company to hire him, Jimmy stuns the bosses by rejecting the offer immediately. But one thing catches his attention: a valuable figurine called Bavarian Boy in the office’s display cabinet. Through the vet, he hires Ira to steal the figurine and replace it with a fake one, which doesn’t go without a hitch. To Ira’s shock, the owner of the company, Mr Neff, is sleeping in the office that night, having been fighting with his wife – trapping Ira in the room. Jimmy pushes Neff’s car to slide across the parking lot to create a distraction and get Ira to escape.

Ira tells Jimmy to call him through the vet again if Jimmy has another job for him. “New job, new phone. You never know who’s listening,” he says. This gives Jimmy, who by that time is employed by CC Mobile to man their quiet outlet, an idea: to sell drop phones at the store.

He moves to selling the burners on the street and is robbed on the first night by three teenagers that he calls Peewee, Skippy and Scooter. He hires Ira and Huell to trap the three teenagers in a room full of pinatas and threaten to smash them like the candy bags, teaching them a lesson and getting them off his back.

Jimmy continues to sell the phones on the street, hiring Huell as his assistant. One day, misunderstanding the situation, Huell hits a plainclothes cop who’s asking Jimmy to stop selling the phones to criminals. Huell is arrested, and to save him from jail time, Jimmy and Kim create an elaborate scheme, flooding Judge Munsinger’s office with fake letters of recommendation from Huell’s “church members” in Coushatta, Louisiana. Pressured not to turn the case into a circus, ADA Ericsen offers Huell a four-month probation.

Kim’s overwhelmed after being shown with more Mesa Verde’s expansion plan by Kevin, so she starts observing cases in the courtrooms. Judge Munsinger doesn’t like Kim doing this and warns her that he’ll get her to work on public defense cases if she doesn’t stop. So she continues sitting in the courtroom and is assigned with PD cases, which she’s passionate about. One day, while attending one of those cases, she ignores Paige’s call to correct a mistake in her work. Paige warns Kim not to hang up on her again. She later goes to Rich Schweikart to propose a banking division for Schweikart & Cokely, which she’ll lead as a partner, so she’ll now have associates to help her with Mesa Verde’s work and also time for PD cases.


And one new name

In his will, Chuck leaves his property to Rebecca, most of his money to a scholarship trust, and $5k and a letter to Jimmy, which doesn’t surprise Jimmy. But wow Chuck, I don’t know what to say.

Jimmy applies to reinstate his law licence. The interview seems to go well, but the application is rejected as some members of the committee think his statement lacks sincerity. Kim says, considering how he got into the situation, Jimmy is not showing remorse by not mentioning Chuck. So he and Kim work the PR to make the legal community talk about his good relationship with Chuck, which includes paying $23k to host a party naming UNM’s law library after Chuck. Jimmy ends the campaign by improvising a speech during the appeal, telling a compelling story about his complicated relationship with Chuck. He gets his licence back.

Kim is stunned when Jimmy reveals that the speech was an act and that he has decided to legally change his name to Saul Goodman.


We haven’t met a sane male Salamanca yet

After another tense drug collection at LPH’s farm, Gus and his men ambush Nacho and Arturo. Gus kills Arturo by suffocating him in front of Nacho, who’s held at gunpoint. Gus tells Nacho he knows about Nacho’s plot against Hector, so he owns Nacho now. To cover for Arturo’s death, Victor and Tyrus stage a shootout in the middle of the desert, shooting Nacho twice and leaving a phone for him to get help from the Mexican twins.

The twins in their typical we-have-our-own-pace way save Nacho and get the vet to treat him. Nacho tells the twins that the attack was done by the rival gang Espinosa. And because the twins also have no chill, they kill the entire gang at their compound. Nacho tells Gus that he knows Gus’s plan is to expand his territory as the Espinosa’s now goes to Gus.

Then arrives Lalo Salamanca at the taco shop on a collection day, saying he’s here to help the business. He visits Hector and gives his uncle a bell he took as a souvenir from a hotel they burned down – now making it easier for Hector to communicate, to Nacho’s horror.

Gus confronts Mike about not telling him of Nacho’s plot against Hector. Mike says he only promised not to kill Hector; he'd never promised to protect him.

And Mike calls Gus out – he knows this is just an excuse to get him to do something for Gus. Gus asks Mike to oversee the work to build the meth lab.


The story behind that super lab

Werner Ziegler and his crew are picked to build the lab. It’s all done discreetly, and they are housed in a huge warehouse, complete with sporting and entertainment equipment, and strict surveillance.

Months into the work, the workers are getting tired and irritated and behind schedule, being cooped up for a long time with no outside contact. To release the tension, they are allowed on a supervised night out at a strip club. Seeing Werner’s bored at the club, Mike brings him to a quiet bar, and they start talking about their families. Mike has to leave Werner alone at one point to handle one of the guys who’s causing trouble at the club. When he returns, he finds drunk Werner is telling a couple of the patrons about his work. Mike warns him that this kind of slip-up will not be tolerated in the future. Werner’s getting increasingly unhappy and requests for a few days leave to see his wife. When it’s denied, he jams the surveillance cameras, leaves a note of instructions and flees to a hotel, saying he’ll be back; his wife is flying in from Germany.

Mike tracks Werner to TravelWire, but he's being followed by Lalo who’s been spying on Gus’s chicken farm. When Mike realizes this, he loses Lalo, making Lalo go back to TravelWire to look at the CCTV. When the staff, Fred, refuses to cooperate, Lalo kills him. Lalo manages to locate the hotel Werner’s staying and extract some information from him over the phone, pretending to be one of Gus’s men. Halfway through the conversation, Mike arrives and grabs the phone from the unsuspecting and never-learned Werner. Gus wants to kill both Werner and his wife once she arrives. Seeing there's no going back from this, Mike says he’ll take care of the mess. He gets Werner to call his wife and ask her to return to Germany before shooting the man.

Image: AMC