Better Call Saul Season 4 Ep. 2 Recap: 'Breathe'

Photo: Nicole Wilder/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

What exactly is wrong with Jimmy? After what seemed like an effortless brush off of any guilt over Chuck's suicide onto the tailor-suited shoulders of his sometime nemesis Howard, he should feeling as light as a feather, right?

However, as "Breathe," demonstrates, Jimmy is anything but breezy. The episode opens with him whipping up fresh OJ, bacon and coffee with splash of cinnamon. While Kim is still in her PJs, Jimmy's already fully dressed and ready to tackle a day's worth of job interviews, despite her suggestion he slow down. And he has even less time to go to a meeting Howard has scheduled for the afternoon (more on that in a minute). One of the those interviews is for a salesman position at a copier company. Throughout the whole scene, Jimmy is firing on all cylinders, talking shop with one of the managers and bringing up his days in the mailroom. He sidesteps a question about why he left the law by breaking down how the wheeling and dealing that comes with being a public defender also makes him a great salesman. Then he vaults himself to the top of the candidate list by giving a rousing speech about the copier as the heartbeat of a business. But before his new employers can even ring up HR, he berates them for hiring him without so much as a background check. "No due diligence...I could be a serial killer!" he snaps during his rant, before capping off his self-sabotage with, "I feel sorry for you. Suckers."

The importance of background checks notwithstanding, watching Jimmy flush his job prospects down the drain was tough to watch. Why would a man who defines the phrase "natural born salesman," bomb so spectacularly on purpose? Could he, like Howard, be dealing with some lingering guilt and self-loathing? Has the belief that deep down, Chuck was in fact be right creeped back into his psyche? His call to Mike about a new scheme that involves stealing the copier company's valuable knick knacks implies it has. Maybe Jimmy genuinely meant to go out and find an honest job. But without Chuck's moderating--albeit judgemental as fuck--influence, it's easier than ever to backslide into old habits.

Kim could be a moderating influence. But at the moment she's acting as Jimmy protector, not his conscience, as evidenced by her evisceration of Howard at a meeting settling Chuck's estate. If you were like me, you assumed Kim's raised eyebrows and startled expression in "Smoke" were a reaction to Jimmy's blasé attitude. But no. No, no, no, no, no. Kim was saving all her ire for Howard, and unloads on him for, among other things, telling Jimmy Chuck killed himself, expecting him to dig through the remains of Chuck's home for personal effects, and for wanting to give him a personal note from Chuck, no doubt a post mortem tsk tsk from the king of tsk tsk. "There's nothing you can do," she seethes when Howard stammers how he can help. "Stay away." She is all in when it comes to Jimmy, just as he appears to be recommitting himself to the wrong side of the law. This can't end well.

Mike is still living his best security consultant life, not even breaking a sweat when meeting with Lydia, who is not pleased with his "surprise inspection" of Madrigal Electromotive. She believes such visits will open to him to exposure, while Mike counters it will make his job as consultant more believable. In fact, he plans to visit the seven other Madrigal buildings. "At the moment you have Gus Fring's respect. I'd wanna keep that if I were you," she warns before walking away.

But Gus has bigger concerns than Mike, who he views as reliable. Hector's condition is now stable, though he is still unconscious. An associate tells Gus to basically chalk it up to well-deserved karma, but Gus is not trying to hear it. "I decide what he deserves. No one else," he replies. With that attitude, is it any surprise a specialist from Johns Hopkins shows up to help rehabilitate Hector, encouraging the terror twins Marco and Leonel and Nacho to talk to their boss to order to help his recovery? Nacho finds himself an even more uncomfortable position by the end of "Breathe," as Gus' men ambush him and his partner after a tense drug deal. "I know what you have done," Gus reveals as Nacho watches his partner suffocate to death. "The Salamancas do not. From now on, you are mine."

The violence and subsequent blackmail are a sharp rebuke to the question Nacho's father posed to him earlier. "When is it over for you?" he asked, to which Nacho replied "I'm working on it."

Work harder Nacho. Work. Harder.