A year had finally passed, and Jimmy retrieved his law license once again. By selling untraceable burner phones, he had already made a name for himself in the criminal underworld. Of course, he didn’t use his real name—instead, he adopted the alias "Saul Goodman." Regaining his right to practice law brought him joy, but Jimmy had a bigger idea: to legally change his name to Saul Goodman. From then on, he would take on the seedy cases of gangsters and thugs, no longer living in the shadow of his brother Chuck.
While Kim didn’t approve of Jimmy’s eccentric plan, she didn’t want to dismiss it outright. As Jimmy rambled about giving away free phones for advertising and offering discounted legal services, Kim subtly hinted that such tactics would harm his reputation. Kim meant that taking these kinds of cases would tarnish his standing in the legal community, but Jimmy only heard that discounts would make people think he was desperate. Jimmy nodded eagerly in agreement, leaving Kim to shake her head silently.
That night, Jimmy set up a tent at his old phone-selling spot to give away free burner phones, with Huell managing the crowd outside. Local gangsters, addicts, bikers, sex workers, and homeless people flocked to the scene— the tent was packed. No matter who they were, Jimmy handed each person a phone, with the number 1 programmed as a speed dial to Saul Goodman. Even after running out of phones, many people lingered. Jimmy went all out, hanging a sign offering "50% off non-violent crime defense" and passing out stacks of business cards.
Gangsters were always getting into trouble, and Jimmy seized the perfect opportunity to turn Prosecutor Bill into an unwitting spokesperson. The day Bill walked into the courthouse, he was swarmed by reporters. Confused and unaware of who they were asking about, Bill stood frozen—until Jimmy jumped out, loudly accusing Bill of framing his client and persecuting the innocent. It was early morning; Bill hadn’t even looked at his case files yet, so he had no idea what Jimmy’s client was supposedly guilty of. Humiliated, he slunk back to his office. Jimmy milked the moment for all it was worth in front of the cameras, boosting his fame even more.
By noon, Jimmy had finished all the paperwork for his name change. He wanted to ask Kim to lunch, but found her sitting glumly on a courthouse bench. Her client had stolen a truckload of mini-fridges and foolishly sold them to undercover cops, getting arrested on the spot. With irrefutable evidence, Kim had fought hard to secure a plea deal for five months in prison from the district attorney. But her client refused point-blank, insisting on going to trial for a long-shot acquittal.
Going to trial meant certain defeat, but the client was stubborn and ignored Kim’s advice. Seeing how stressed Kim was, Jimmy suggested impersonating a prosecutor to lie to the client—claiming new evidence had surfaced, the plea deal was being revoked, and harsher charges were coming. Deceiving a client was a serious breach of professional ethics, crossing Kim’s moral line. She refused, so Jimmy left reluctantly.
Back on the bench, Kim thought long and hard. Out of options, she followed Jimmy’s plan and told the client the lie. The client panicked instantly, begging on his knees to get the original plea deal back. The problem was solved, but Kim felt no joy—she was devastated that all the legal knowledge she’d studied for years had to be supplemented with such underhanded tactics.
In a restaurant, Lalo—who had taken over his uncle Hector’s operations—muttered two names: "Mike" and "Werner." He knew Gustavo was plotting something, but without finding these two men, he couldn’t prove it. Just then, Nacho, sitting nearby, mentioned that some dealers in the Fourth Ward were complaining about faulty products. Lalo went to the Fourth Ward’s drug drop himself—a second-floor room in a small building. A lookout stood outside, collecting money and holding up fingers to indicate the number of bags requested. The second floor would then drop the corresponding number of cocaine bags down a drainpipe, allowing buyers to pick them up without entering the building.
The lookout didn’t recognize Lalo and snapped at him—until he saw Nacho get out of the car, then fell silent. Lalo marched straight upstairs, grabbed the drugs, and inspected each bag in the sunlight leaking through the roof. With just his eyes, he could tell nearly a third of the product was cut or inferior. Nacho was horrified—he’d been picking up the drugs directly from the fried chicken restaurant lately; no one could have tampered with them.
This was no trivial matter. Drug lord Don Eladio sent his representative Juan to mediate. In the fried chicken restaurant’s warehouse, Gustavo—uncharacteristically—lowered his head and admitted that Werner, the German foreman in charge of his construction project, had stolen two bags of cocaine. After disposing of Werner, he’d run out of product, so he’d bought replacement drugs from the black market to fill the gaps.
Lalo didn’t buy this nonsense for a second, but as long as Gustavo was making money for Don Eladio, there would be no consequences. So Lalo didn’t point out the contradictions—he only cared about what construction project Werner had been working on. Gustavo was prepared; he led Lalo and Juan to the other side of the warehouse, where workers were busily assembling a fresh food supply chain system. Lalo immediately recognized Mike Sr. Based on the few words Werner had said on the phone, this could never have been the project he was overseeing—but Lalo kept his thoughts to himself and left without a fuss.
As long as Lalo was watching, Gustavo dared not proceed with his real plan. The project was put on hold. The workers, paid in full, were arranged by Mike to fly back to Germany in batches from different locations. And Werner’s death had hardened Mike’s heart—he refused to work for Gustavo ever again.