Bob Odenkirkis back as our favorite crooked lawyer Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman for the sixth and final season ofBetter Call Saul, a prequel toBreaking Badthat’s fighting the original series for the title of bestVince Gilliganshow. Season 6 premiered last night with two brand-new episodes that are already off to an intense start.
While the premiere, “Wine and Roses,” focused on the aftermath of Season 5’s explosive finale, Episode 2, “Carrot and Stick,” lays down the path Jimmy and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) will follow while trying to destroy Howard Hamlin’s (Patrick Fabian) career. The second episode also gives a shout-out to the past, bringing back two long-forgotten characters who last appeared in the series' first season. It looks like the show is coming full circle and forcing Jimmy/Saul to face the consequences of his morally ambiguous actions — and the price he’ll have to pay may be Kim’s soul. Like with the premiere, there’s a lot to unpack in the second episode ofBetter Call SaulSeason 6.
RELATED:'Better Call Saul' Season 5 Recap: Everything You Need to Remember Before Season 6
Sheep Among Wolves
“Carrot and Stick” follows Jimmy and Kim as they continue with their plan to discredit Howard. In the first episode, the duoplanted fake cocaine in Howard’s lockerso he would be caught red-handed in front of Clifford Main (Ed Begley Jr.), the senior associate of a respected law firm and HHM’s partner in the Sandpiper case. To make sure Cliff will buy the idea that Howard is a drug addict, Jimmy and Kim try to come up with an invented case that some actor could present to Davis & Main. Their goal is to have Cliff himself receive the potential customer, but not take up the case so that Howard stays in the dark about their plan. The fake case must also be related to Howard’s history as a lawyer, and the actor they hire needs to casually mention that Howard is addicted to cocaine. After some back and forth, Kim comes up with the perfect solution: bringing back some old clients from Season 1.
InBetter Call Saul’s first season, Jimmy gets in touch with a couple of potential clients, Betsy (Julie Ann Emery) and Craig Kettleman (Jeremy Shamos). Craig has been embezzling money from his job with the help of his wife, and Jimmy offers to represent them. However, they refuse Jimmy’s help and go to HHM, where Kim becomes their lawyer instead. Kim comes up with a deal to cut Craig’s prison time, but the couple refuses to take the deal, preferring to bribe and then blackmail Jimmy to force him to clear Craig’s name. Since winning on trial would be impossible, Jimmy hires Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) to break into the couple’s home, steal the dirty money, and deliver it to the authorities. In one strike, Jimmy prevents himself from getting exposed for accepting bribery and condemns Craig to prison.
It’s been a few years since Craig got out of jail, and the Kettlemans are back at business by working in their own tax service company. Unfortunately, the Kettlemans lost their money, and are now stealing pennies from the elderly, happy to get any amount of dollars they can while pocketing a portion of their clients' tax returns. Kim’s plan involves Jimmy contacting the couple, revealing that Howard is addicted to cocaine, and insinuating that since he’s the head of HHM, the Kettlemans could pledge that his addiction harmed the outcome of Craig’s case. Jimmy plays his part perfectly, namedropping Cliff’s name to ensure that the couple will look for him as a reputable lawyer after understandably refusing to work with Jimmy in the past.
As expected, the Kettlemans reach out to Cliff, increasing the lawyer’s suspicion about Howard’s potential substance addiction. However, the Kettlemans also figure out that Jimmy is using them to get to Howard and threaten to expose the truth. Jimmy wants to offer the couple some money to keep their mouths shut, a strategy that doesn’t quite work. Fortunately for Jimmy, Kim is right beside him, and instead of a carrot, she has a big stick to push the Kettlemans in the intended direction. Kim calls up a friend of hers in front of the Kettlemans and blatantly threatens to expose their new white-collar scheme. When the Kettlemans are desperate and willing to do anything to avoid prison, Kim orders them to pay their victims back and forget Howard’s name entirely.
Kim is ruthless in the final scene, surprising both the audience and Jimmy. It’s clear thatBetter Call Saul’s last season is exploring how Jimmy’s repeated mistakes may have robbed Kim of her moral compass, and now the crooked lawyer needs to face the monster he created. To make matters worse, the final scene of “Carrot and Stick” shows a mysterious car following the two after leaving the Kettlemans' workplace. It could also be that Saul’s previous involvement with the cartel will come back to haunt him as he gets dragged back into the Fring vs. Salamanca war, which is still raging.
Loyalty Goes Both Ways
On the cartel side of “Carrot and Stick,” Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) is still trying to cover all his tracks after having ordered a hit on Lalo Salamanca’s (Tony Dalton) home in Mexico. Gus is ready to sacrifice Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) to save his back, a man he blackmailed to become part of Lalo’s inner circle, only to open the back door to let a team of mercenaries into the Salamanca general’s home. Now, Nacho is on the run with a bounty on his head and the Salamancas' most vicious assassins on his heels. Even so, Nacho remains loyal to Gus and does what he’s ordered to do.
That’s why Mike finds no pleasure in planting some fake evidence in Nacho’s safe to force the cartel to think the Colombians were paying Nacho. Mike takes a crew to Nacho’s home, breaks into his safe, and replaces it with a new one, leaving behind an envelope that contains a series of money deposits linked to an account in Peru. The envelope also has the phone number of the hotel where Nacho has been hiding out since Season 6’s premiere. Nacho already has a fake identity that he can use if escaping to South America, so that’s all the cartel need to think they know the truth. Nacho’s safe also contains a fake identity for his father, which Mike hides away. Mike disagrees with Gus on the matter but is still following his boss’s orders to sacrifice Nacho. Nevertheless, the old henchman will not agree to put Nacho’s father in the line of danger.
While Mike makes sure that the cartel will follow the breadcrumb trail he and Gus left behind, the owner of the Pollos Hermanos keeps investigating Lalo’s supposed death. Gus is still unsure if Lalo was killed during the hit, even though all the documentation from Mexican Federal Officers points toward it. To get a definitive answer, Gus sets a meeting with Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis), the leader of the criminal family. Gus pretends he’s setting the meeting to give his support to the Salamanca and keep the peace among the several groups who work for the cartel. In fact, he wants to measure Hector’s reaction to his presence. After being warmly greeted by Hector, Gus is confident that Lalo is alive, and Hector is keeping this information a secret so that the Salamancas can take him down without authorization from the cartel leader.
The confirmation that Lalo is alive makes Gus desperate. What’s even worse is that Nacho, isolated and anxious, finds out that Gus has been paying someone to watch him. Nacho finds out the truth just as the Salamanca Twins (Daniel MoncadaandLuis Moncada) get to his hotel with an army of goons. Nacho shoots his way out of the hotel, helped by the fact the Twins want to capture him alive. However, even though he escapes, Nacho is too exposed alone in Mexico, and Gus knows he needs to tie up all loose ends. That’s why Gus orders Mike to grab Nacho’s father as a trade coin, to which Mike refuses.
In the final moments ofBetter Call Saul’s Season 6’s second episode, Mike, Gus, and Gus’ right-arm man Tyrus Kitt (Ray Campbell) are in a standoff. Tyrus points a gun at Mike’s face while Mike locks the door behind him, signaling he will do anything he can to stop Gus from getting to Nacho’s father. Mike promises Gus he won’t let anyone get near the innocent man and calls out Gus' lack of loyalty towards the men serving under him. As if things were not tense enough, Mike receives a phone call from Nacho. Mike answers the phone, says a couple of words, and offers the phone to Gus. Nacho wants to speak to the big boss, and that conversation could seal the fate of everyone involved with the cartel. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see what happens after that. That means we already have a big cliffhanger to keep us excited about next week’s episode.
