Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 7 mid-season finale review: Take down of Howard Hamlin is now complete, quite literally

4/5

Story: It’s D-Day on Jimmy/Saul (Bob Odenkirk and Kim’s (Rhea Seehorn. plan to ‘destroy’ Howard (Patrick Fabian) professionally. The mediation in the class action against Sandpiper Assisted Living is where the action unfolds. How can Jimmy and Kim get to him when Howard has a man following them?

Meanwhile, Lalo (Tony Dalton) is back in Albuquerque, having figured out what Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) is hiding under the laundromat. He’s been casing the place for a while, before setting his plan in motion. In doing so, he needs to give the others in the cartel, including Don Eladio and his uncle Hector Salamanca, proof that Gus is up to no good.

Review: Jimmy and Kim’s elaborate con to discredit Howard during a Sandpiper case mediation goes off without a hitch, after the minor set back they had. Turns out, the pictures that Jimmy had got shot was of someone impersonating the judge who is to mediate on the case. The pictures would imply that the judge is on the take from Jimmy and Howard gets them from the private investigator (PI) he had hired to follow Jimmy. And that’s where the twist comes in. The PI is Jimmy’s man, which Howard realizes a tad too late though. The damage is done by then.

This is an episode that packed in a lot. It is also one that needs to be watched in rapt attention, because this is where the pieces of the puzzle come together. Remember Jimmy being administered something that dilates his pupils? Well, that’s not the only thing that begins to make sense on this episode. It’s also that Jimmy and Kim planned this long con in such detail that there was no scope for failure. They wanted Howard to get wind of the fact that they were playing him, because they would then also get to control the narrative of how he reacts to this knowledge.

There’s an unfortunate fallout of this takedown, and sad as it is, it also sets the stage for Lalo’s confrontation with Gus. He’s come to talk to Jimmy and Kim and we now have an almost two-month wait to know what that’s going to be about. Better Call Saul is now on a hiatus and will return with six weekly episodes starting July 11.

Verdict: We knew the last few weeks were building up to something big, but we certainly didn’t see that ending coming. It marked the end of the road for one of the principal cast members of the show, and going by how things are placed now, it’s not looking good for some others too.