Season six of Better Call Saul opens with Nacho on the run,
following his assistance in helping Gus’s men raid the Salamanca compound.
The Salamanca family is hunting him for revenge over the supposed death of Lalo. And Gus wants
Nacho dead before the Salamancas catch him so that he can’t reveal Gus’ involvement in the assault.
Ultimately, the kindhearted Mike convinces Gus to make a deal with Nacho. Nacho would turn
himself over to Gus, in exchange for Fring’s men ensuring his father’s safety. In addition,
when Gus turns Nacho over to the Salamancas, they would allow him to fake an escape attempt,
which would result in a mercy killing instead of a prolonged torture at the Salamanca family’s hands.
And so, as Gus turns Nacho over to the Salamancas, Nacho escapes. But instead of
running, he steals a gun and shoots himself, allowing Nacho to go out on his own terms.
But, of course, Lalo isn’t actually dead, and has faked his own death. Lalo informs
his uncle Hector of his survival and his plan to search for intel that they could use against Gus
and prove his involvement in the assassination attempt. Lalo’s only lead is Werner Ziegler,
so he heads to Germany to uncover why this German engineer was involved with Gus Fring. Eventually,
Lalo tracks down Casper, a member of Werner’s crew during the construction of Gus’ secret meth
superlab. Casper reveals everything to Lalo, who returns to America with everything he needed
to take down his family’s bitter rival. Meanwhile, Gus has deduced that Lalo
survived the attack and works with Mike to prepare for the eventual retaliation.
Elsewhere, Jimmy is facing his own repercussions for his involvement with Lalo. He has become a
pariah amongst his colleagues in the courthouse for his assistance in freeing Lalo from prison,
and threats of an investigation against him are raised. But Jimmy’s work with such
a high profile member of the cartel also leads to a massive boost in his clientele,
allowing Jimmy to rent his own office space and hire a full-time secretary, Francesca.
In the midst of this career resurgence,
Jimmy and Kim have concocted an elaborate plan to ruin Howard Hamlin’s reputation,
ensuring a swift end to the Sandpiper lawsuit and therefore an immediate massive payout for
Jimmy and Kim. While Kim insists this scheme was all about getting the money necessary to fund her
benevolent, low paying legal work, Jimmy begins to fear how much he may have corrupted his wife.
First, Jimmy and Kim repeatedly plant evidence to make it appear that Howard
was addicted to cocaine. Then, they frame Howard to appear as if he was regularly and publicly
soliciting prostitutes. Howard’s lawyer friend and fellow lead on the Sandpiper case, Clifford Main,
confronts him about the cocaine and prostitution, but Howard insists that Jimmy is framing him.
Kim becomes convinced that Howard has hired private investigators to follow her and obtain
evidence of her and Jimmy’s scheme, but instead Mike pays her a visit to reveal
that it was his men who were following her. He reveals to Kim that Lalo was still alive,
and his men were following her in case Lalo tried to make contact.
A shaken up Kim is still resolved to move forward with the plan against Howard.
When Cliff notices Kim’s work ethic and commitment to defend those that can’t afford
proper legal counsel, he offers her a meeting with a foundation that financially supports lawyers
with similar motivations. This was everything Kim ever wanted, and achieved by her own skill
and dedication, but the meeting coincided with the final stage in her plot against Howard.
Despite Jimmy’s reservations, Kim can’t help but to ditch the meeting to complete her plan.
During a meeting between Howard, Cliff, and a mediator for Sandpiper named Casimiro,
Howard makes a complete fool of himself. Jimmy and Kim had secretly drugged him,
making him appear high and unhinged. Jimmy and Kim had also tricked Howard into believing that
they had bribed Casimiro, prompting Howard to publicly accuse Casimiro of illegally accepting
the bribe. Howard is humiliated in front of his colleagues, and Cliff informs him that
they would now be forced to immediately settle the Sandpiper case for much less than they had hoped.
As Jimmy and Kim celebrate the successful completion of their plan, a distraught Howard
arrives to confront them. Unfortunately, Howard is not the only visitor that would unexpectedly
drop in on Jimmy and Kim. Lalo tricks Gus into thinking he was going to attack him that night,
prompting Mike to redirect all of their men, including the ones watching Jimmy and Kim,
to protect Gus. And so, Lalo enters Jimmy and Kim’s apartment in the
middle of Howard’s confrontation. Despite Jimmy and Kim’s pleas,
Lalo shoots Howard in the head before telling the couple that they all needed to talk.