‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 Premiere Sets Up Jimmy-Kim Scheme & Raises Stakes for Nacho (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 6, Episodes 1 & 2 of Better Call Saul, “Wine and Roses” & “Carrot and Stick.”]

Better Call Saul is back and kicking its final season off with a bang as the show returned with two jam-packed episodes, “Wine and Roses” and “Carrot and Stick.”

From setting up new schemes to following through on major cliffhanger plots, Better Call Saul returns with a satisfying pace that will make viewers eager for the next episode. Below, we’re breaking down all of the details from Season 6’s first two installments, so beware of major spoilers ahead.

New Intro

Over the past six seasons, most premiere episodes open with Jimmy’s (Bob Odenkirk) life post-Breaking Bad under a black and white lens as he lives under the name of Gene. This time around though, the black and white shifts to color as Jimmy’s house is ransacked by authorities. The gaudy home appears to be the same one he looked at with Kim (Rhea Seehorn) in Season 5, but instead of its white barren walls, there are gold embellishments everywhere (including a golden toilet).

(Credit: Warrick Page/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

As authorities sift through the home, some key details are lingered on including a safe room hidden in Jimmy’s closet, a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, an assortment of Beanie Babies, and absolutely no signs of women’s clothing (beyond a pink thong)… Something viewers would expect if Kim were still in Jimmy’s life leading up to his Breaking Bad escape. As items are removed from the home, the rattling of a dresser on a moving truck dislodges the bottle topper Kim used to hold as a token from their relationship. The item falls to the ground and into the gutter making us wonder, is this symbolizing things to come for the current couple?

Jimmy & Kim’s Scheme

At the end of Season 5, Kim suggested to Jimmy that they come up with a plan to sabotage Howard (Patrick Fabian). Yet, it felt as though Jimmy was less than eager to pursue such a feat with Kim who until recently, had been walking a fair and just path in her career. As their story picks back up, the couple is still in their hotel room used to escape potential harm from Lalo (Tony Dalton) and his crew after their tense exchange with the cartel man.

When they wake, they return to their apartment and get ready for the day. Before heading out the door, Jimmy pulls some money from the stash leftover from his bond retrieval in the desert last season to pay for a cab. On her way out, Kim also grabs Jimmy’s coffee thermos that now includes a bullet hole and tosses it into the trash before zipping away in the taxi.

(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Wishing Kim luck with her case for the day, Jimmy goes his own way in court but seems nervous and it doesn’t get better when ADA Gina Khalil (Saidah Arrika Ekulona) seeks answers regarding his client, Jorge de Guzman (a.k.a. Lalo) who is nowhere to be found. She says the leads regarding his role in the community were false and accuse Jimmy of lying, but he’s fiery in his response claiming that he could accuse her of prosecutorial misconduct for not researching de Guzman more thoroughly.

During the heated discussion, he accidentally lets the name Lalo slip and after Gina catches him, he claims that he has a lot of clients and he’s just mixed up, adding he’ll see her at the next hearing in six weeks. Later on, Jimmy meets Kim at the El Camino dining room (a nice nod to the franchise’s movie featuring Aaron Paul‘s Jesse Pinkman).

Finishing up with a client of her own, Kim begins telling Jimmy about her day and cases, before turning her attention to Jimmy’s image as Saul. She notices he’s rented them a new car, after his was ditched in the desert. She complains it’s not fitting of his new persona and Jimmy asks what would be. It seems that Kim has an idea of who Saul Goodman is more so than Jimmy himself. With that in mind, Kim turns her attention to the scheme against Howard. When Jimmy asks if they’re still doing that, she is insistent they should follow through.

(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Kim says there needs to be a reason for everything and that they should pace it just right by starting with Cliff Main (Ed Begley Jr.). As the episode carries on, the plan takes the couple to a country club where Howard and Cliff are playing golf. Kim sits as a lookout in the car while Jimmy goes into the establishment for a “tour.” While Howard and Cliff play golf outside, Jimmy is greeted by one of the club’s membership team leads, Norman (played by James Urbaniak).

The mission hits a snag when Jimmy runs into Kevin Wachtell (Rex Linn) though as the Mesa Verde head is still bitter about being outsmarted by the lawyer known as Saul Goodman. As Kevin fills in Norman about the conflict, Jimmy is then told there’s no room for new members. Thinking fast, Jimmy accuses the club of being antisemitic towards him because of his name and makes a scene before asking to use a bathroom. There, he clogs a toilet to distract the locker room attendant and infiltrates the locker room to find Howard’s cubby.

Kim alerts Jimmy that Cliff and Howard ended their game early and asks him to abort the mission, but Jimmy’s in too deep. We see him mess with the locker but don’t know what he’s done until Cliff and Howard open their lockers and a little baggy filled with white powder falls out. Jimmy in the meantime had stripped down and covered his head with a towel in order to go undetected by the other men.

(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

When he makes it out to Kim, she asks if it was too subtle of a seed to plant, but Jimmy reassures her that Cliff took notice of the item that fell out of Howard’s locker. The bigger question, is what’s the next step in their plan? Recruit some familiar faces to plant more seeds of doubt.

Cartel Chaos

As for the other side of the story, Nacho (Michael Mando) continues to run unaware that Gus’ (Giancarlo Esposito) mercenaries have failed in their attempt to kill Lalo. Receiving a call from Tyrus (Ray Campbell), Nacho is told to seek shelter at a motel further north where he’ll receive further instructions. Lalo in the meantime has also fled his compound and been taken in by a couple named Sylvia and Matteo, the latter of which is a close lookalike to Lalo when mostly-clean shaven. They provide sustenance and care for the cartel man until he makes his next move, which presumably includes using Matteo as a corpse double at the compound where he plants the body.

As for the compound, the Salamanca twins (Luis and Daniel Moncada) enter the premises to find a gruesome crime scene and a corpse burned beyond recognition that they believe to be their cousin Lalo. In America, Juan Bolsa (Javier Grajeda) gives Gus a call to inform him that Lalo has been killed in an attack on his compound, unaware that Gus organized it, and claims Nacho is to blame.

(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Seeing his plan has worked, Gus can’t seem to shake a lingering concern over the fact that the mercenaries are dead but that the mission was still somehow a success. Once Nacho arrives at the motel, he receives another call from Tyrus who tells him that in two days a farm truck will pick him up but there will be no stopping. After hanging up, Nacho tries calling Mike (Jonathan Banks) with no luck as the man ignores the call to spend time with his granddaughter.

Unaware that Lalo isn’t on his back, paranoia sets in for Nacho while the Salamanca looks for a way north, attempting to hitch a ride with some smugglers. Before doing that, he calls his uncle Hector (Mark Margolis). He tells the old man he’s alive and that Gus is responsible for the hit but urges him not to tell anyone about his status. When Hector asks for proof regarding Gus’ role, he thinks of an idea and ends up shooting the smugglers and taking their truck to head back deeper into Mexico after Nacho.

Covering Up

As Nacho continues to hide out, Mike oversees the process of cleaning up any loose ends stateside that could connect Gus to the shooting. First up is Nacho’s house which is still being occupied by Amber (Katerina Tannenbaum) and Jo (Poppy Liu). Mike orders them to leave, handing them money if they agree to flee the premises and never look back. Once they’re gone, Mike and Gus’ other men turn their attention to Nacho’s safe where money and fake IDs for him and his father Manuel (Juan Carlos Cantu) are held.

(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Removing the items, Mike has the safe replaced with an exact replica where they plant an envelope. At Gus’ headquarters, Tyrus goes over the crime report with him regarding Lalo, but he’s still not convinced that something’s not off. Gus tries to keep the peace and has an idea for Juan Bolsa over the phone. We later see him meet his colleague at Hector’s nursing home where Gus attempts to maintain his innocence. But when Hector goes to shake Gus’ hand, the Los Pollos Hermanos proprietor knows something is off. Calling Mike, Gus says that Lalo is alive.

Meanwhile, back at Nacho’s home, Bolsa oversees the search to find clues regarding his potential whereabouts where they uncover the planted envelope holding the phone number to the motel where he’s located, and bank statements hinting at his betrayal of the Salamancas. At the motel, Nacho begins going crazy with paranoia and sees something catch his eye out the window.

Calling Tyrus, he tells the man he can’t take it anymore and jumps from the back window of his room and investigates the peculiar setup he’d noticed outside his window. He ends up finding a man who is hiding out to keep tabs on him, learning that it’s Gus who hired him. Realizing this means Gus has decided to sell him out, Nacho knocks the man out and tries to run by stealing a truck but there isn’t enough time as the Salamancas drive up.

(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

At first, Nacho is able to duck inside the truck’s compartment but they don’t take long to notice him and a shoot-out ensues. Once the twins tell their men they need Nacho alive, giving him a brief window to drive away but it’s unclear if he manages to escape until later in the episode when Mike confronts Gus about selling Nacho out. Just as Tyrus is threatening Mike for complaining about wronging Nacho, his phone rings and Mike answers, telling Gus that someone wants to speak to him. It would be safe to assume this is Nacho who is now higher on the hit list than he was before, no doubt.

The Kettlemans

As for Kim and Jimmy, their scheme against Howard continues to take shape as they think up their next step. Hoping to pull Cliff deeper into doubt over Howard’s sobriety, Kim tells Jimmy she has an idea that he won’t like and involves getting in touch with some former clients. Pulling up to a shack in the desert declaring itself Sweet Liberty Tax Services which also boasts a Statue of Liberty balloon, Jimmy enters the space to find Betsy Kettleman (Julie Ann Emery) behind the counter.

As fans may recall from Season 1, the Kettlemans embezzled money and found themselves in quite the legal pickle. They didn’t leave things with Jimmy on good terms, making Betsy’s disgust over seeing him in her business that much funnier. Jimmy suggests that he can help exonerate her husband Craig (Jeremy Shamos) who is also working in the tax establishment.

(Credit: Lewis Jacobs/AMC)

At first, Betsy wants nothing to do with Jimmy, but Craig gets her to hear the lawyer out. Knowing their conniving ways, Jimmy makes them sign a form of confidentiality, agreeing to be his clients. He tells them that they didn’t get proper council from Howard, suggesting that he wasn’t sober and therefore didn’t do the best he could for the Kettlemans in their embezzlement case.

Once they’re told the information, Betsy claims that they’re firing Saul as their lawyer and will seek counsel elsewhere, unaware that this is exactly what Jimmy wants. As their story continues, the Kettlemans end up at Cliff Main’s office and relay the information about Howard that they heard, claiming Craig overheard people in the prison yard talking about it.

Cliff tells the couple they’ll lose an exoneration case and refuses to help them based on a conflict of interest as he works with Howard on joint cases. The interaction continues to spark doubt in Cliff’s mind about Howard though, which is what Jimmy wants. Catching onto Jimmy’s ruse, the Kettlemans call and set up a meeting with him and Kim tells him she’ll join for the excursion.

Related

'Better Call Saul' Star Tony Dalton Previews Lalo's Season 6 'Warpath'

Betsy tells Jimmy that he set them up to character assassinate Howard, as Kim takes a seat in the corner. While Betsy and Jimmy debate, Kim gets fed up and looks to Craig for direction on how to dial the phone out of their office. She takes the chance to call the tax authorities and Kim tells a friend about a joint that she’s had her eye on where the owners are taking half of the profit for themselves and ripping off their customers, revealing to the Kettelmans that she can sell them out just as easy by accusing them of tax preparer fraud.

Knowing that their lives would be over metaphorically, Betsy hangs up Kim’s phone call and agrees to play nice. Kim tells the Kettlemans to pay back their clients what they’ve taken and to forget the name Howard Hamlin. Exiting the building, she is followed by Jimmy who admits to securing the deal by offering some bribe money as well. As the couple drives off from the tax services building, a car pulls out and follows them. But who could it be? Could Lalo be following them or is it someone else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section and stay tuned for more from Better Call Saul as Season 6 continues.

Better Call Saul, Season 6, Mondays, 10/9c, AMC and AMC+