Better Call Saul Season 4 Ep. 8 Recap: 'Coushatta'

Photo: Nicole Wilder/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

"Let's do it again."

Oh Kim Wexler, how you will (hopefully) live to regret those words. Kim's request to Jimmy comes toward the end of "Coushatta" after the two have pulled off an elaborate scam to keep Huell out of jail. Even by the standards set by previous McGill schemes, this was a thing of scumbag beauty. It starts with Jimmy taking a four-day trip to Louisiana, during which he ropes in fellow passengers to write letters and postcards, before arriving at a post office in Coushatta. Meanwhile, Kim keeps up the pretense she's gearing up for a trial, bringing along a team of associates who lay out requests for the arresting officer's personnel file and security camera footage from nearby businesses in her next meeting with the DA. Kim even talks about pursuing civil litigation. It's all first-rate bullshitting that Suzanne sees right through, asking Kim why she's throwing all this money and legal muscle behind a pro bono case.

"Bring every fancy associate you got, file all the motions you want, and at the end of all this, your client is still going away," she says. "I guess we'll see," Kim replies, her steely composure faltering slightly as she leaves the room, realizing just how much could go wrong. It's only when an irate Judge Munsinger--whose office is piled high with letters from the "good folk of Coushatta"--calls Kim and Suzanne into his office and demands to know the meaning of all this postage that the plan starts to take shape.

Jimmy is thorough, building a fake donation website with pictures of a smiling Huell, and enlisting his old commercial crew to act as concerned church members when Suzanne calls one of the burners he has spread out in rows. Unsurprisingly Jimmy gives the best performance, channeling his inner cajun to play Pastor Hanford, who spins a tale of the time Huell's saved the senior church members from a fire, before mentioning he and his congregation will be rolling up in two charter buses once the trial gets underway. Is all of this absolutely underhanded and despicable? Yes. Is Jimmy's and Kim's sheer level of strategy, ingenuity and commitment to the con perversely admirable? Well...yes.  It's also sad, because if Jimmy applied those same qualities to something legitimate, he'd likely have the respect he desperately craves.

With what looks like a media circus heading her way, Suzzane caves, agreeing to four months probation with time served. However, the cherry on this deceitful sundae is what comes next. From what we've seen this season--particularly last week's "Something Stupid"--this latest round of chicanery should drive Kim further away. Instead she answers his question of what happened in the courtroom by pushing him up against the wall and making out with him. It's startling at first, but this is the same woman who helped talk a drunken dudebro into handing them a check for thousands of dollars. The whole business with Huell is really a high stakes version of their old Viktor and Giselle games, except now they've dropped the aliases. Kim can barely keep herself from smiling while in a meeting with Mesa Verde, snapping out of her trance to nix Kevin's idea of new design for another branch. Running scams with Jimmy is the more exciting option--it certainly resurrected their moribund sex life--yet she glosses over the fact it's also corrupted the public defender work that's kept her love of the law alive. Kim may have a taste for the occasional walk on the wildside, but she'll soon realize her boyfriend's appetite for the hustle is one that will never be satisfied.

Mike heeds Werner's advice to give the guys some much needed R&R by accompanying them to a strip club. Werner and Mike head to a bar, where Werner reveals his father was the engineer behind the Sydney Opera House. Unfortunately, he gets a little too loose lipped with some fellow patrons, drawing out floor plans and explaining the finer points of pouring hundreds of pounds of concrete for an underground structure. "Think about how much money you're making. Thinking about what happens if something goes wrong," Mike warns him the next day. Werner apologizes, and Mike assures Gus all is well. Though Gus' tolerance for indiscretion is extremely low, so Werner better be on his P&Q's.

"Coushatta" gives us our first glimpse of Nacho in weeks. He's looking drastically better, sitting in what was once Hector's chair in the restaurant as underlings collect money for him from dealers. All appears well, but his life outside of work is desolate. Aside from two young women he lives with (who likely stick around for the dope he throws out like goody bags), he doesn't have much in the way of companionship. Some unwelcome company greets him when he goes back to the restaurant however. It turns out the Salamancas have sent Eduardo to Albuquerque to keep an eye on things, to make sure business is running smoothly. "It's gonna be like I'm not even here," Eduadro says.

Well that was fun while it lasted.

Other Thoughts:

• Watching Nacho suffer as a pawn in Gus Fring's power games made me forget his own capacity for violence. Though the dealer whose earring he ripped out likely won't forget anytime soon. 

• Also shout out to the future Krazy-8, who was collecting cash for Nacho in the restaurant! Beware of men named Walter!

• Kim and Jimmy sharing a cigarette is nice call back to the series' first season, when the two would stand outside HHM for their private pow wows. 

• Mike on his father's legacy: "[He] left a cold water flat and a stack of bills." You could never accuse the man of being sentimental.

• Staying with Mike, was I the only one who found him bringing up Werner's wife Margerethe when he was spilling plans for the super lab vaguely threatening?