Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. Spoilers ABOUND!

“Piñata”

Better Call Saul always had sudden, short bursts of action, most involving violence, but it’s mainly focused on a slow, gradual decline into darkness.

Both of these aspects feature rather heavily in “Piñata” for many of the show’s characters. The episode’s cold open is a flashback to Jimmy hauling a cart around HHM’s mailroom. It turns out that Kim did a stint in the mailroom, too, while she was going to law school at UNM (my alma mater!). It was already clear from previous episodes, even before season 4, yet it’s crystal now: Jimmy and Kim have two very different ways of doing things. Jimmy walks around the mailroom collecting Oscars ballots and chatting up coworkers, whereas Kim pays attention to the firm’s cases and actually learns the lawyer trade.

This is proven when Chuck enters the office and earns a standing ovation for winning a seemingly impossible case, the details of which Kim can recite from memory. When Chuck is introduced to her, she congratulates him and also throws in a bit of her knowledge of the case. Chuck looks impressed with her before throwing some shade Jimmy’s way. Then he joins Howard to celebrate the victory. Later on, we see Jimmy sneak into the firm’s library, determined to prove Chuck wrong and eager to learn the law himself, I assume to impress Kim more than anything. I think his attraction to her goes that far back.

In the present day, Kim is staying up late to work on Mesa Verde, speaking into a recorder, all the while glancing at the files of her criminal defense clients. When she joins Jimmy in bed, she finds that he’s been doodling new names and logos for Wexler-McGill, their joint law practice. Kim can’t be pulled in this many directions. She has to make some changes and fast. When they talk in the morning, Jimmy tells Kim that he decided against seeing a therapist. However, he certainly doesn’t divulge the reason why.

So Kim indeed does make a change, and FAST. She drops in on Rich Schweikart, who fans will recognize from season 2 as a partner of a competing law firm, Schweikart & Cokely (S&C). She meets with Jimmy for drinks and tells him that Rich offered her a job, although to us, it’s obvious that she sought it out earlier. Impressively, in one day, Kim makes herself a partner, which is awesome. This obviously affects Jimmy, though, as this pretty much puts an end to any ideas of Wexler-McGill as a firm, in my opinion. He still has some time before he becomes a lawyer again, and he bravely tells Kim that he can’t ask her to wait around for him.

With those dreams effectively dashed, Jimmy makes some changes of his own. He visits Howard to finally collect the money that Chuck left him. He finds Howard still dejected and discovers that HHM is falling apart as much as Howard is. Jimmy says to Howard, “Get your shit together.” For real, I continue to feel for Howard, and I truly hope that he and HHM recover, although my gut tells me neither will. Jimmy goes on to spend the money ($5,000, you’ll recall) on those burner cell phones and takes up residence at the nail salon again. Jimmy is sliding out the back door to make some unsavory transactions.

Remember the bursts of action I mentioned before? Well, there aren’t any gunfights or murders in this instance. Jimmy tracks down the teens who mugged him in last week’s episode and leads them straight into a trap. They find themselves in a piñata warehouse, about to be beaten with baseball bats. Jimmy might have thugs threatening the physical violence, but this is easily him at his most cold-blooded and calculating. He tells them, “You get one warning… and that was it.” Last time, it was Jimmy’s sliminess that sent shivers down my spine. Now it’s the real deal.

The other characters we check in on are Mike, as he resumes overseeing construction of the superlab, and Gus, as he lingers in the shadows of Hector’s hospital room and delivers a hell of a monologue.

Alright, time to review the actual episode from this week!