Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 9 review: Kim finally gets to her breaking point

Howard's death at the hands of Lalo Salamanca was the last straw for Kim.

Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in a still from the show

Better Call Saul

Story: One of the aftermaths of the hurricane that was Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), was the unfortunate death of Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), who was shot dead by Don Hector’s nephew, at Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim’s (Rhea Seehorn) apartment. With Lalo taken out of the picture, Mike (Jonathan Banks) is now on cover-up duty. Howard’s presence at Jimmy’s place has to be explained, even as any incriminating evidence is removed. And amid all of this, Jimmy and Kim have to go about their lives like nothing untoward ever happened.

Review: Kim finally owns up to the folly of her ways; she’d been enjoying the scam she and Jimmy were pulling on Howard a wee bit too much, perhaps. She was totally on board with inflicting professional loss on her former boss, but witnessing him having his brain blown out by Lalo was most unexpected. That’s not what she’d signed up for; but it is what makes her realize what a ‘deadly’ combination she and Jimmy are when they are together. They are bad news for each other and people tend to get hurt because of them. She won’t have any of that any more, which is also because she is guilt-wracked. Jimmy would have, perhaps, not gone through with the scam on Howard if he’d known that Lalo was still alive. Information that she chose not to tell him because she was having too much fun on this con job.

Kim still loves Jimmy a lot, but continuing to be with him is a bad idea. We’ve known for the longest time that something’s got to give in their relationship because Kim’s not part of the Saul Goodman world in Breaking Bad. Well, we’re finally there. As much as it pains to see Kim leave, it appears to be for the better, at least for Jimmy/Saul, who is then show, after a time jump, thriving in his law practice, setting up the narrative perfectly in line with the continuation of the story.

Although Kim and Jimmy were clearly the focal points of the episode, there was other stuff also that needed to be set right. As the only one within the family who knew that Lalo was still alive and gunning for Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), Don Hector (Mark Margolis) wants to settle scores and tells Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) the truth. Problem is, no one’s buying Hector’s version of events – the dental records of the man who burnt to death in Mexico matched those of Lalo. For Gus, this means that the Salamancas will not be gunning for him and he can continue with his operations peacefully, while also starting work on his underground meth lab again.

Verdict: Saul Goodman has officially arrived, which also means that the much-awaited Walter White (Bryan Cranston) cameo is not far off. Only four more episodes to go in this final season of Better Call Saul and while we can’t wait to see how this unfolds, here’s hoping that Rhea Seehorn gets that much-deserved Emmy nod.

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