Jimmy never imagined that his "perfect" fake accident plan would ultimately fail because the two idiots had mixed up the car. What was even more fatal was that the old lady’s grandson, Tuco, was no pushover. On one hand, he was a good kid who took good care of his grandmother; on the other, he was a gangster involved in smuggling and drug trafficking. His grandmother was Tuco’s only family member—anyone who showed disrespect to her would be in big trouble, let alone someone who dared to extort her.
When Jimmy was dragged into the house, the bloodstains left on the carpet told him that the two boys were most likely in grave danger. Now, with a dark muzzle pressed against his head, the only thing that could save him was his silver tongue. Jimmy calmed himself down and acted as if he had no ill intentions at all. He pinned all the blame for the accident on the two petty crooks, begging Tuco to let everyone go and promising that such a thing would never happen again.
Tuco, who was already wary of attracting too much trouble due to his illegal dealings, was willing to drop the matter now that Jimmy had said so—he didn’t want the police showing up to investigate. So Tuco led Jimmy to the garage, where the two crooks were lying on the floor with their hands and feet tied up with tape. Jimmy hurried over to untie them, eager to leave as soon as possible. But to his utter shock, the two fools, completely oblivious to the gravity of the situation, immediately confessed that Jimmy was the one who had come up with the plan as soon as the tape was removed from their mouths. They thought this would save their lives, not realizing it would only push them into even greater danger. Upon hearing this, Tuco flew into a rage and raised his gun again.
Jimmy and the two crooks were taken by Tuco and his accomplice to the desert in New Mexico—a perfect place to kill someone and destroy all traces of the crime. Before making a move, Tuco wanted to find out why Jimmy had followed and extorted his grandmother, and whether the police were using this as a chance to conduct a secret investigation.
By now, Jimmy didn’t dare to hide anything anymore. He told Tuco the entire story from start to finish: the whole thing had started because Craig was suspected of embezzling $1.6 million in public funds, so Jimmy had wanted to approach Craig’s wife Betsy to secure a consulting contract. In the end, the two fools had mixed up the car, leading to this misunderstanding. But Tuco didn’t believe a word of this. He took out a pair of wire cutters and pressed them against Jimmy’s little finger. Terrified out of his wits, Jimmy made up a ridiculous story about being an undercover FBI agent.
This was exactly what Tuco wanted to hear—he was now convinced that his illegal activities had been targeted by the police. However, Nacho Varga, Tuco’s accomplice standing beside him, was not convinced. He pointed out that they only needed to ask Jimmy which case he was investigating to realize that Jimmy had no idea what Tuco was really up to. Nacho gave Jimmy a chance to tell the truth, and he came to believe that Jimmy was indeed just a lawyer. Killing a lawyer would only bring unnecessary trouble, and since Jimmy had revealed his real identity, they would know where to find him if anything happened later.
So Tuco took Nacho’s advice and let Jimmy go. But the two crooks, who had disrespected his grandmother, would not be let off so easily.
Jimmy had only walked a few steps when his lawyer’s professional instinct kicked in—he wanted to take the two crooks with him too. Noticing how much Tuco loved and respected his grandmother, Jimmy used this as a starting point to negotiate with Tuco. He painted a picture of the crooks having a single mother who had worked hard to raise them, exploited by the rich and suffering from various illnesses. He claimed that the mother lived for these two "troublemakers," and without them, she would have no reason to go on.
This story struck a chord with Tuco, reminding him of his own mother and grandmother. Seeing that Tuco’s tone had softened a little, Jimmy seized the opportunity to negotiate further: disrespecting his grandmother was not a crime punishable by death, but it shouldn’t be forgiven lightly either. After a tough round of haggling, they finally agreed that each of the two crooks would have one leg broken as punishment. Tuco accepted this—he lifted his leg and stomped hard on their calves. Amid the sound of breaking bones, Tuco let out a wild laugh.
Jimmy drove the two crooks to the nearest hospital to treat their right legs, which had been twisted halfway backward. He was sure the two crooks had learned a lifelong lesson, and Jimmy himself was left with psychological trauma from this incident—from then on, the sound of anything breaking would make him feel sick to his stomach.
But Jimmy also gained something from this experience: turning the two crooks’ "death sentence" into a "prison term" of lying in a hospital bed for a few months was definitely a victory. This experience taught Jimmy an important lesson—how to help clients negotiate for a lighter sentence, and how to fight tooth and nail with prosecutors to get reduced charges. Things at the courthouse seemed to be taking a turn for the better, except for his ongoing troubles with Mike, the parking lot attendant.
Jimmy was gradually getting used to life as a public defender. But before long, his first client—an unexpected one—showed up at his door. The client who walked into Jimmy’s small, cluttered office was Nacho. Nacho had spoken up for Jimmy in the desert, but he had had an ulterior motive all along. After hearing that Craig might have embezzled millions of dollars in public funds, Nacho had been thinking of stealing the embezzled money for himself. He had come to Jimmy behind Tuco’s back, hoping to find out where the stolen money was hidden; once they got their hands on it, they could split it with Jimmy getting 10% and Nacho 90%.
Jimmy didn’t dare to get involved in such a thing. Nacho didn’t press him, either. After getting Jimmy’s promise not to reveal a word about this, he left Jimmy his phone number in case Jimmy changed his mind later. After seeing Nacho off, Jimmy let out a long sigh of relief.