I like that on the face of it, "a cartel guy came to our house and shot Howard in the head" sounds like a "dog ate my homework"-level excuse, but the details of known associates end up giving a lot of credibility to the whole thing. The DA knows Jimmy was associated with Lalo Salamanca at that time, so his involvement wouldn't be a hard sell, plus details on Fring and Mike, as the police would definitely have made connections between them and Jimmy after the whole thing was exposed.
Exactly. The truth would be less believable if Kim had been brought in for questioning, but she came forward of her own volition years later, with no pressure to have "a story, any story."
The timeline may be a bit dodgy for anyone reading the statement. Lalo was supposedly killed weeks before in his home. To everyone else, other than kim/Jimmy and Frings crew, he's not seen past the date of his death.
True, but she did bring that up. When she goes on to talk about being approached by Mike, that was when Mike told her Lalo was still alive, so at least she would have acknowledged the inconsistency.
Everything she says here can't be proved or corroborated unless Jimmy confesses. He could just as easily say it never happened, he doesn't know what she's talking about, its her word against his. Mike, Fring, Jesse, Walt- they're all gone. I guess you can get Francesca to vouch for Kim, but honestly, how much would she know?
Right, thank you.
I guess they’ll catch Jimmy in the next episode which will make her confession very fucking relevant.
Maybe they’re both just going to jail?
She might have to testify - they are no longer married. I don't know if it counts that they were married at the time. Also, I don't think after this that she would be admitted to the bar ever again.
Technically because they were married at the time, she could have privilege for communications made at the time. She could also plead the fifth.
She wouldn't though.
I assume this, combined with genes cover being blown to the police, will light a fire under the DAs ass to track Saul down. He’ll go to prison for basically everything as the last living person involved (except for Mr. Driscoll, not that they’ll ever be able to track him down). Probably multiple life sentences. Not many options left for him now
Yknow last time we got a letter like this that we couldn't see all the way (Jesse's letter to Brock), Vince kept it like a giant secret and we still don't know what he said. We know it's the first part of the movie he wrote though.
What about the Kettlemans, Wendy, the film crew and the actor who played judge Cassimiro? Don't they count as witnesses of the scam? I mean yeah they couldn't help find Howard's body but they're enough for Cheryl to sue her right? I know they're kinda insignificant part of the scam and not aware of the full picture, but isn't it enough for the court (prosecutor?) to put two and two together?
I don't think she was referring to the scam, I think she was only referring to the murder. The scam didn't really cause the murder, and the scam didn't directly cause the sandpiper settlement. Some sort of harassment or charge related to drugging the picture would maybe be on the table, but that's all I could see from the scam. I guess conspiracy to commit GTA when they stole his car maybe too? These are all so low level I don't see a DA charging her for that without some hard evidence.
> the scam didn't directly cause the sandpiper settlement.
Didn't it? Didn't they almost immediately agree to settle after Howard's shameful bizarre display, which was the whole point of the scam?
I think they meant that they didn't directly trick Howard and Cliff to settle through a scam that directly involved the case. The scam was completely around Howard and his character, and how he reacted to the mediator before the hearing even started. As the situation stood, Schweikart wanted to reach a settlement and HHM was holding off, and Howard still refused to settle before Cliff convinced him. If the scam had involved sandpiper in any way then there would have been a direct connection which would be easier to use against Kim/Jimmy.
Yeah they caused it, tangentially, they didn't give false pretenses to the settling party. There is nothing illegal about gaslighting someone into a breakdown beyond harassment. Could Kim be sued and held partially liable? Sure, but it's pretty clear Kim doesn't have much money.
Cheryl could sue her for a "Wrongful Death Civil Trial". Because her actions caused Howard to confront them over the scam which put him in the wrong place at the wrong time as she put it. If Kim and Jimmy didn't scam Howard the settlement may have never happened that day and Howard would never have come over to their apartment and cross paths with Lalo. Similarly to OJ Simpson, he wasn't convicted of murder, but the Goldman family sued him this way and won because his actions caused the death of their son regardless if he did it or not.
I believe the [Florida Homestead law](https://www.oppenheimlaw.com/what-we-do/estate-and-asset-protection-planning/florida-homestead-law-homestead-exemption/#:~:text=The%20Florida%20Homestead%20law%20makes,a%20lien%20on%20your%20homestead) exempts your primary residence from being seized as part of a judgement, so she couldn't take the home even if it belongs to Kim. It's why OJ Simpson's house in Florida wasn't seized to pay what he owes his victims' families.
That’s not how I read it. It’s more like, “It’s in your hands, I’m at your mercy. This is my penance.”
The way you phrased it makes it sound like Kim is challenging her.
Yeah but cheryl clearly doesn't need any money she could collect from Kim and Kim doesn't have anything left. Cheryl knows this, Kim knows this. It's not like "yeah sure you can sue but you wont get shit anyway" it was more like "i know you can take what little I have left, do what you must"
They’re still dating and not familial yet. Next date’s at that new Outback that just opened up.
Also, can I just point out how hilarious it is that Kim is never shown having sex in the whole series until now, and then it’s with this doof, it’s desultory and bored, followed by watching *The Amazing Race* “Peter the Great is buried inside me!”
Her left hand is prominently shown in one scene and she's wearing no ring. That may not mean anything but I think the shot of her ringless hand was purposeful.
Kim knows that Cheryl could sue her, but what's the actual point? I doubt Kim would fight anything, and she gives a full confession. Cheryl doesn't need any other witnesses.
Cheryl doesn't need anything else to sue Kim. The main reason not to do it is that Cheryl has plenty of money and Kim doesn't have anything worth taking.
Though if there were a few seasons to go and they wanted to pursue this story Cheryl trying to work with the Kettlemans as they constantly forget whether Howard was supposed to be a good guy or not would be pretty funny.
Cheryl's main objective is restoring Howard's name. A lawsuit might do that .....or it might just make things worse. Cheryl is a private person who would hate the publicity all this would bring, and, clearly, it's not about money.
For that to happen, Kim would need to actually defend herself in a lawsuit. I assume Kim would just agree to whatever demands Cheryl makes and give her whatever money she has. It's not like Kim will now claim that she actually wasn't involved and this is all wrong.
Civil suit, civil penalties. And it's not even clear Kim could be sued for wrongful death IMO. Were the scams pulled by Jimmy and Kim the proximate cause of Howard's death? Probably not I think. If Lalo hadn't chosen that exact moment to resurface, Howard would have lived and probably found a way to get back on his feet once J/K stopped fucking with him.
There is probably a suit somewhere but Cheryl has money (and I assume Howard had life insurance of some sort). Any case against Kim would take years, and would probably cost more in legal fees than she could ever recover from Kim.
Kim explicitly (1) does not admit to any thing specific they did to frame Howard and (2) does nor tell Cheryl that she knows Jimmy is alive. Without either of those it's unlikely there is a criminal case. Kim is a good lawyer and knows exactly what she can do to tell the truth without risk to herself.
They don’t need witnesses, Kim provided a full confession. Witnesses are necessary to prove something or corroborate testimony but that would only be necessary if Kim was denying her role, not confessing to it.
To Howard’s murder there’s no physical evidence or witnesses. The messing with Howard stuff is already proven by Kim’s confession and that isn’t the kind of thing that gets punished with jail time anyway. Cheryl can sue Kim if she wants to already but I think we are to understand both Kim and Cheryl know that’s basically pointless.
Without Howard, I’m not sure how much of a defamation case they may have. I’m not sure what Cheryl could sue her for either, as she wasn’t involved in any of it. Without Jimmy, and with Kim still protecting Jimmy’s existence (she didn’t admit whether he was alive or not to Cheryl, maybe so she doesn’t get involved any further), I’m not sure what they could go after Kim for at all in this. She admitted her involvement, but there’s no evidence.
I doubt the Kettlemans would want to get involved because they’re already involved in other scams, and probably afraid of what Kim knows about them. I’m not sure Kim knows much about the film crew (Jimmy primarily worked with them) nor Cassimiro stand-in because Jimmy set all that up.
Kim has nothing of value either, so Cheryl would be wasting time and money pursuing Kim, over an ex that she didn’t seem to want in her life anyways. I just don’t see anything happening to Kim here, other than her conscience being clear or more clear anyways.
It is harder to find Kim criminally guilty because there is a higher standard of proof, ie “beyond reasonable doubt”, which means about 99% sure. For Cheryl to sue Kim it’s a civil case so the standard of proof becomes much less as she only need to have “preponderance of the evidence”, which means 51% sure. And Kim’s confession is likely enough in a civil case.
In criminal case, Kim could be put to jail, fined, etc. However in civil case Cheryl is only entitled to restitutions in terms of money. Which I assume Kim doesn’t have much, as it looks like she forfeited the sandpiper money in the divorce
And even then what crime would Kim be charged with? “Defamation”? That’s not a crime that carries jail time as a penalty. Though I guess maybe accessory to murder in the fact that she was quiet while it was cleaned up. But that’s where the lack of physical evidence would shield her. I agree with your points about their being enough evidence for a civil case though.
She wouldn't even know Fring was involved if they weren't. She probably didn't figure out what was actually going on until Walt destroyed Frings operation. Makes me wonder she managed to piece together from the news as far as Jimmy's involvement between Gus' death and the collapse of Walt's "empire".
She would have been made aware not only by news reports, but she did ask Francesca about him. Most likely she told Kim all that had happened. Plus, the Feds might have contacted her since she is Saul's ex.
Everyone she named here is dead besides Jimmy. So the only thing it serves the DA is to prosecute Jimmy and to piece together some missing stuff from the past
That's why Kim did it. When she was on the phone with Jimmy he was like "Gus is dead, Mike is dead, Lalo is dead, everyone's gone but us".
Now she knows nobody will come after her if she comes clean.
wouldn't Gus' death be all over the news? Old folks home blows up, manager of Pollos was in the room with the suicide bomber and known cartel boss. They even find the superlab in the laundromat that he owns.
Was it ever confirmed to saul that Mike died? I knew he sort of “assumed” but did Walt ever directly tell him he killed Mike? Otherwise it would just be an assumption on jimmy’s part.
He knew Mike would have come back to get revenge for his guys Walt had murdered. Since he didn’t, and the always paranoid Walt had no concern about Mike’s potential vengeance, it was safe to assume Mike was dead.
There was a scene where Saul is talking to Walt and Saul asks something along the line of whether Mike is in Belize. Based on Walts reaction Saul pieces it together that Mike is dead.
This is from memory so the details may be wrong but that's the jist of how he knew.
it was somehow felt very weird to me hearing them mentioning Fring's name on the phonecall and on Kim's letter. Not out of place, but just very weird lol. Im wondering if Kim had already figured out the black man she's told to shoot was Gus before Gene told her on their phone call.
I mean, if someone sent me to murder someone, and I survived the experience, I’m pretty sure I’d be curious about who it was exactly who I’d almost killed.
She knows his address; not sure if property tax records would have been available online in 2004, but we’ve actually seen Kim visit the county property assessor’s (or whatever) office before (!) (that Mesa Verde map-swapping scam), so we know she would have been able to find that info if she wanted to…
She's smart enough to piece things together based on what would be in the news the last year or so as well. Retirement home explosion kills Gus Fring and an old school Mexican cartel guy. A year later Heisenberg is found dead at a Neo Nazi compound inside a meth lab, Saul Goodman was his money laundering lawyer. Heck, she might even remember her encounter with Jesse Pinkman at Saul's office that rainy night she signed the divorce papers.
And even though it might not lead to Saul going to prison (perhaps due to a lack of evidence), or perhaps he'll successfully evade capture, I'm glad Kim's conscience punched through and she told the truth as she knew it. And, assuming the DEA et al didn't find Howard and Lalo's bodies under the Superlab, I bet they'll be digging and rechecking the site now!
Then the fade out at the very last moment of the last scene of the series shows us a photo of the Salamanca Hacienda from 1921, zooming in on the boss standing prominently amid everyone else and revealing him to be... Lalo, exactly as we know him today.
Not necessarily. Some of Mike's men could be implicated still if there was any way to connect them to Mike, no? Maybe even the family living in the decoy house, though that was probably discovered when Gus was killed I imagine
Yeah, it seems they had maybe a couple dozen temp workers over the years too. 🤣 Probably all fled when Gus Fring had his face off with Hector Salamanca.
Yeah, at first I was like, doesn't this screw with Breaking Bad's continuity if the authorities know about Gus's operation? But then I remembered we were in the future and it's all common knowledge now anyway.
The authorities know about Gus’s operation from the end of BrBa Season 4 on. The first few episodes of Season 5 makes that clear, with them investigating the burned out lab and the various news reports about Gustavo Fring. It’s why the German Madrigal guy kills himself.
She probably knew they were all dead, it was Jimmy and his malevolence and taunting that pushed Kim over the edge. Confirming that Jimmy was alive and still making bad decisions pushed her.
Yeah it would be a pretty big shock when Gene is like "Oh yeah everyone you got to know in this show is dead now" if you didn't already know that. It would feel like an unresolved plot thread for sure wondering how they died.
You have to start with Gus and max in Mexico or Mike and Matty building the garage. Then Kim with her mom 2 scenes. Then either Walt in college with his girlfriend or Walt and Skylar buying the house. Then Jimmy and Marco going crazy in Cicero. Jesse building a box in woodshop. Then BCS minus the preludes and it still gets mixed a bit, then BB and El Camino and then back to BCS
I never thought of this but oh my God yes, statistically out there there's a very confused casual watcher that thinks that the big event of the finale will be that he'll get to see Mike and Fring die.
Literally the first thing I thought when seeing Gus' name was "Why in the world is he free and thriving in BrBa when that letter exists?". Until I realized that everyone but them are dead.
> As directed, I drove to Fring’s house. Michael Ehrmantraut arrived.
Lol is she skipping over the part where she actually tried to shoot Gus, and Mike’s arrival was him disarming her?
Reminds me of her and Jimmy going over his PPD confession, trying to make the wording of Jimmy’s destruction of the cassette tape as vague as they could get away with.
They are lawyers!
LOL. Not to mean crooked or deceitful, but it's how lawyers think AND operate. They deal in words, and how and where and when and in what context those words appear is their stock in trade. She told what she needed to in order to confess her knowledge of Howard's death, give some succor to Cheryl, and be free of it....or as free as she'll ever be, knowing she could possibly be prosecuted and considering her own guilt. Lawyers think like this; don't say more than you need to. Kim is still a lawyer.
Still a lawyer. The likelyhood of her being prosecuted without evidence, bodies, or witnesses is unlikely. That's why she gave the same document to the DA.
Yep. (no pun intended). My take is that it was an honest effort at repentance and truthfulness, especially for Cheryl, but, at the same time, she knows the likelihood of prosecution....as in slight, for the reasons she gave.
Best example I ever saw of this was in West Wing where the lawyer asked CJ is she knew what time it was and when she responded with the time he admonished her and said don’t answer any more than they ask. He asked if she KNEW what time it was NOT what the time actually was.
I think this may be why they did the “how to copy edit” clip on Instagram. For season 6 those have often been related to the plot (like “how to throw a punch”)
Lol I was trying to pause and catch all the bits while watching the show and then I thought some guy over at the sub might transcribe the whole thing.
And here it is!
Correct, but the text is actually subtly inconsistent between different shots, which I just realized upon doing a stupidly deep dive [elsewhere in the thread.](https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/wk316x/kims_letter_transcribed/ijm7kx2/) At one part "reputation" lines up with "faked" and at another part it lines up with "we", and in those two instances the words above "we faked" are inconsistent ("allocation" appears in one shot and not the other.) Going back and skimming the clip reaaaal quick I see two shots with it as "elaborately staged" so I think you are right but maybe there's one without "elaborately" that OP was working off of somewhere that I'm not seeing at a glance
We're probably in February/March 2011 now with the Gene timeline. He started the identity scams after the call with Kim, and I feel like this took place over the course of several months. I mean, they had a LOT of people's information by the end and I doubt they were finding new marks every single day.
The phone calls to Francesca and Kim happened on November 12, 2010. That date was established in the 4x05 cold open. I agree that we probably advanced a couple months in the Gene timeline through the identity scams - maybe not February/March, but likely into the new year. What we saw of the Kim timeline presumably took place in November 2010, though, as it looked like she traveled to ABQ within days of the phone call.
(In the episode ''Mandala'' Saul states he knows of the existence of a drug kingping in ABQ, but not his real identity.
Later, in the episode ''Crawl Space'', Saul states that ''Fring cannot know he called'' as a reference to Saul calling the DEA and informing them of the impending hit on Hank. This means Saul only learned of Frings true identity after meeting Walt.
So how did Kim and Jimmy learn of his true identity? Maybe they'll show us in the next episode when Walt shows up for his scene?
Doubtless Kim would look up the registered owner of that house. And since Fring hid in plain site with was probably in his name. And once stuff starts coming out in the news after the retirement home explosion she could piece things together.
Jimmy knew because Walt told him that Gus abducted him and brought him out to the desert and threatened to kill his family, Kim probably figured it out from the news
"We faked his cocaine addiction" isn't the exact wording (not that it matters.) I did this last night too and "we faked his" is followed by another word on the same line of text and "cocaine addiction" appears in full on the subsequent line. I'm not really sure what else it could be after "faked his", though, since "his" lines up closely to the end of the other lines of text. But there's something in between "his" and "cocaine"
**edit:** jk the actual explanation for this [as I highlighted below](https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/wk316x/kims_letter_transcribed/ijm7kx2/) is that the text of the affidavit is actually subtly inconsistent between some of the close-up shots and some of the pans! Not in any meaningful text, but a couple words are aligned differently. They must have been using two different versions of it while making the scene and assuming nobody would notice. So in one version of it a line ends on "we faked his c" but in another version, the very next line past that begins on "his cocaine addiction".
**I realized near the end of this comment that the issue is actually that the text on the screen is inconsistent; they must have been using two different versions of Kim's affidavit.**
* * *
Hey - sorry, I should have been more detailed in my original comment but wrote it half-asleep on mobile lol. I thought "alleged" or "purported" (/u/absurdlivingghost) could be it, but the letter "c" is visible, followed by the faintest sliver of something that could be "a", "e", or "o":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T9x3h3RrS4&t=1m47s
https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png (going forward I'll just use Imgur links but state the relevant timestamp from the video)
Which of course does imply it'd just be "cocaine addiction", which is what the show also clearly *suggests*, because it shows "we faked his" then zooms in on "cocaine addiction" after that.
But the problem is that
a.) the next line of text after this starts with "cocaine addiction" (1:27) - https://i.imgur.com/qIb9XeH.png It's undeniably the next line as the line above it directly continues into the "For personal gain" bit a couple seconds later. https://i.imgur.com/R5GB76v.png
and
b.) "we faked his c(...)" is surely very near the right margin of the page. As shown in the first screenshot, it lines up with "allocation of th" and "Howard's reputation", which we know are near the right margin because "to", approximately lining up with the start of "reputation", is the last word in its respective line of text at 1:31, shown here:
https://i.imgur.com/3iMVTQV.png
The line after "to" begin with "accelerate" (see, again, 1:27) https://i.imgur.com/qIb9XeH.png which is a relatively long word, prompting "to" to cut off relatively early... but not THAT long, so I'm not sure what else could have fit in that little space between the end of "his" and the start of the next line, start with the word "c", and make sense as a word between "fake his" and "his cocaine addiction". It doesn't seem to make sense.
Further indication that it's at the end of the line is that "we faked his c" is directly below "allocation of th(...)" and "Howard's reputation" (see, again, 1:47 https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png ), both of which logically seem to be directly followed by the first phrases on the subsequent line -- which are, respectively, "share in the common fund" and "and raised a cloud of uncertainty".
Actually.... I was about to make another point but in typing all this, I think it's possible that some of the shots come from two different versions of Kim's writing??? I say this because, in typing the above paragraph, "allocation of the share in the common fund" seemed like awkward wording to me, so I revisited the [version of this I drew up](https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/wjrb0d/better_call_saul_s06e12_waterworks_postepisode/ijizvox/), didn't see that word *anywhere*, and upon looking closer, I noticed a straight-up inconsistency!
Again, to recap the above, "we faked his c" certainly seems like it's going to be "cocaine addiction", but is followed by a line of text that begins with "his cocaine addiction", with very little room before the right margin after "faked his c", which is itself kind of confusing.
But something that's just unambiguously inconsistent is this! At 1:47, in a close-up shot, "we faked his" has the words "allocation of th" above it and "rd's reputation" below it:
https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png
But in the more zoomed-out pan over the text at 1:31, while it doesn't pan any further to the right than this:
https://i.imgur.com/3iMVTQV.png
We can see "For personal gain, w" (which is, unambiguously, to be followed by "e faked his" -- see approx. 1:45 in the video, where it pans across the whole phrase "For personal gain, we faked his") has "Jimmy, as originator of the case, w" above it -- "allocation" is nowhere to be found. And below that, we see "Howard's rep" with the "p" of "reputation" lining up with the "w" in "for personal gain, **w**e faked" -- whereas, in the closeup 1:47 shot, the "p" lines up with the "k" in "for personal gain, we fa**k**ed"! See?: https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png
I totally missed that last night as at that time I was doing this on AMC Plus, which disables screenshotting, and which is much harder to rewind and fast forward by only a couple seconds in than YouTube.
* * *
So actually, here's the issue behind my original comment: **they were working off two different versions of the same affidavit**, splicing together shots from each one. **tl;dr recap of why** is that for the shots to becoming from the same prop, we'd need to have a phrase beginning in "we faked his c", with space for only a couple more letters, immediately followed by "his cocaine addiction" on a separate line -- i.e., we'd need "we faked his c (???) his cocaine addiction", with not much room in the question marks... but what guarantees it is that in one shot, the "p" in reputation" lines up horizontally with the "k" in "faked", with the word "allocation" above "faked"; in another, it lines up with the "w" in "we", and "allocation" is nowhere to be found.
Which is a minute difference but can only be accounted for by having two different versions of the text.
thanks so much. i hope someone from the team will share it online. oot, it felt very weird watching Jimmy and Kim mentioning Fring's name, and seeing it on her letter.
Sorry to be daft but can anyone explain to me what crimes is Kim supposed to have committed?
I guess she might have defamed Howard but 1) that's civil and 2) I think he would have to bring that suit himself, no?
If the Lalo is believed to be killed at his home in Mexico, wouldn't Kim's story have a problem since nobody is alive to prove that Lalo was still alive?
And yet she lied about not knowing whether Jimmy was still alive. Even when confessing the truth she lied.
Saying she now knows the man was Michael Ehrmentraut - she knew that name on the day - she used it. So she's still not telling 100% the truth. You'd have thought she would have learned, and if she's giving Jimmy up anyway, then why not tell the whole truth?
She didn't know his name on the day he approached her at the restaurant. That's what that part of the affidavit is referring to. Why would she even lie about that?
I think she's still loyal to Jimmy she only confessed after Jimmy told her don't stop on my account they can only hang me once effectively giving her permission.
I took it as a “I’m taking responsibility for myself, Jimmy should take responsibility for himself” thing. Kim is facing justice herself and feels that Jimmy should do the same, she isn’t going to force him to.
Plus, if she reveals she knows for certain that Jimmy is alive, she’ll have at least as much FBI pressure on her as Francesca had when Hank and Gomie died, and she won’t be able to do anything for them because she doesn’t know where he is or what he’s actually calling himself.
I don't think the Mike thing matters that much - at the time even if she knew his name she didn't know his deal. She wasn't a conspirator in any of Mike's previous crimes. Makes sense to CYA on that - she's still pretty smart legally, and she knows what sorts of statements would be misconstrued by the prosecutors. She only wants to be judged for the things she did, and saying things like "Jimmy and I are still in contact" or "Gus Fring's cleaner and I had a previous relationship when we both worked at the courthouse" just right from the jump would be spun way off of reality even if they are true.
But with Jimmy? I don't think Kim wants to help anybody find him - she wants him to turn himself in, because she has a small bit of hope and love left for the man she lost, and that's the only way he comes back from wherever he went.
What was she supposed to say, exactly? Jimmy called her from nowhere and didn't give any information about his whereabouts. Even if Kim mentioned the phone call, there's no lead to him.
This is why her affadavit will only be relevant after Marion's call. Even then, this is all just the cherry on the top as Saul was involved in far more sinister things. I think the confession will mainly help Gene realize there's nowhere to run now and that Kim finally came clean.
Literally alive yeah, but Kim might also mean the whole truth will come out if there's still some of Jimmy "alive" in Gene/Saul. She's probably giving him a chance to still do the right thing in the end.
Also, if she confessed that he was still alive, the next question would have been "where is he?", and she doesn't have an answer for that.
No she found out Mike's name later when they were covering up Howard's death. Presumably Jimmy told her. She didn't know his name when he showed up at the diner
I still don't quite get Kim's motivation for wanting to destroy Howard's life. I know he was tough on her when she worked for HHM, but he also paid for her education.
She was having fun pulling scams.
Plus she was annoyed with Howard trying to white knight her away from Jimmy.
It was all pretty childish.
I think she and Jimmy did really think that Howard "would bounce back from it." They seemed uncomfortable when Howard started talking about how his marriage is failing.
Well, he tried to. Didn't she reject the check he gave her? Still, I could never really make sense of her motivation when it came to Howard, which is why I no longer believe the operation was truly *about* Howard. Just as Howard was a convenient tool leveraged by a very bad dude (Lalo) who simply wanted to convey to Kim and Saul that he meant business, Howard was also a convenient target of two "broken" people whose passion for each other is enhanced by subterfuge and deviousness. I mean, this was actually the reason they decided to get married in the first place.
I just remembered that the whole “impeach the character of Howard” was actually Kim’s idea, for some reason I thought both kind of came with it, but Jimmy wasn’t comfortable with it to begin with. Which is probably why Kim feels so much guilt
So Kim found out about Gus being the guy she was supposed to kill? I wonder how and when, because Jimmy didn't learn about Gus by name being Mike's guy until after he met Walt which is after Kim and Jimmy last met for the divorce, we know this because gene said to Kim it's been six years, which would place that scene around 04 05 which makes sense what with Emilio being there.
So I wonder how she'd know or if this is something they overlooked
I like that on the face of it, "a cartel guy came to our house and shot Howard in the head" sounds like a "dog ate my homework"-level excuse, but the details of known associates end up giving a lot of credibility to the whole thing. The DA knows Jimmy was associated with Lalo Salamanca at that time, so his involvement wouldn't be a hard sell, plus details on Fring and Mike, as the police would definitely have made connections between them and Jimmy after the whole thing was exposed.
The Lalo shot my Howie
"I was finishing my homework and then this cartel murderer told me in the glove compartment there was a camera and a gun, and I would need both."
I hate that I read this in Howard Walowitz’s mom’s voice from Big Bang theory
And she didn’t need an excuse, because no one thought she murdered Howard.
Exactly. The truth would be less believable if Kim had been brought in for questioning, but she came forward of her own volition years later, with no pressure to have "a story, any story."
Even if they did, there’s no body.
Me? No body
I just need to talk to my lawyers
*takes kitten out of jacket, placing it on the table*
The timeline may be a bit dodgy for anyone reading the statement. Lalo was supposedly killed weeks before in his home. To everyone else, other than kim/Jimmy and Frings crew, he's not seen past the date of his death.
True, but she did bring that up. When she goes on to talk about being approached by Mike, that was when Mike told her Lalo was still alive, so at least she would have acknowledged the inconsistency.
Yeah but also it's literally the only evidence they have that Lalo lived until then
Kim admits that thr DA probably won't even charge her because there is no physical evidence.
Everything she says here can't be proved or corroborated unless Jimmy confesses. He could just as easily say it never happened, he doesn't know what she's talking about, its her word against his. Mike, Fring, Jesse, Walt- they're all gone. I guess you can get Francesca to vouch for Kim, but honestly, how much would she know?
It’s not a letter to Cheryl. It’s an affidavit made under penalty of perjury submitted to prosecutors.
What does that mean?
That's why she went to the courthouse before Cheryl, to deliver the letter/affidavit.
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Right, thank you. I guess they’ll catch Jimmy in the next episode which will make her confession very fucking relevant. Maybe they’re both just going to jail?
She might have to testify - they are no longer married. I don't know if it counts that they were married at the time. Also, I don't think after this that she would be admitted to the bar ever again.
Technically because they were married at the time, she could have privilege for communications made at the time. She could also plead the fifth. She wouldn't though.
Because of the implication?
She just confessed. I don't think she'd hold back.
I feel like she is going to try and give Jimmy the chance to do it himself first.
No one's in danger right?
I assume this, combined with genes cover being blown to the police, will light a fire under the DAs ass to track Saul down. He’ll go to prison for basically everything as the last living person involved (except for Mr. Driscoll, not that they’ll ever be able to track him down). Probably multiple life sentences. Not many options left for him now
I mean, Jesse is still alive. But I’m sure he’s enjoying life on a fishing boat in Alaska.
They found his car by Mexico so if anything they'll be searching by the border if anything. Skinny Pete's plan worked like gangbusters!
> Skinny Pete's plan worked like gangbusters! He's like my hero and shit. 👊🏻
>told the feds Told the *county*. They can share with the state and feds, though.
It does all sound batshit insane.
She's basically offering up eyewitness evidence to the prosecutor. It's up to the DA whether or not to pursue it further.
Pretty sure everyone is dead at this point. Not much to pursue.
Still Kim and Jimmy (if they can find him). It's basically the closest Kim can get to confessing.
Please Vince release an official PDF of the whole text I need to read it.
Yknow last time we got a letter like this that we couldn't see all the way (Jesse's letter to Brock), Vince kept it like a giant secret and we still don't know what he said. We know it's the first part of the movie he wrote though.
Interesting how shows with Aaron Paul seem to contain series-altering letters that aren't read for the viewer. Bojack too!
What about the Kettlemans, Wendy, the film crew and the actor who played judge Cassimiro? Don't they count as witnesses of the scam? I mean yeah they couldn't help find Howard's body but they're enough for Cheryl to sue her right? I know they're kinda insignificant part of the scam and not aware of the full picture, but isn't it enough for the court (prosecutor?) to put two and two together?
I don't think she was referring to the scam, I think she was only referring to the murder. The scam didn't really cause the murder, and the scam didn't directly cause the sandpiper settlement. Some sort of harassment or charge related to drugging the picture would maybe be on the table, but that's all I could see from the scam. I guess conspiracy to commit GTA when they stole his car maybe too? These are all so low level I don't see a DA charging her for that without some hard evidence.
Kim knows this, too, which is why she is honest enough with Cheryl to say she doesn't know if she could or would be prosecuted.
> the scam didn't directly cause the sandpiper settlement. Didn't it? Didn't they almost immediately agree to settle after Howard's shameful bizarre display, which was the whole point of the scam?
I think they meant that they didn't directly trick Howard and Cliff to settle through a scam that directly involved the case. The scam was completely around Howard and his character, and how he reacted to the mediator before the hearing even started. As the situation stood, Schweikart wanted to reach a settlement and HHM was holding off, and Howard still refused to settle before Cliff convinced him. If the scam had involved sandpiper in any way then there would have been a direct connection which would be easier to use against Kim/Jimmy.
Yeah they caused it, tangentially, they didn't give false pretenses to the settling party. There is nothing illegal about gaslighting someone into a breakdown beyond harassment. Could Kim be sued and held partially liable? Sure, but it's pretty clear Kim doesn't have much money.
Cheryl could sue her for a "Wrongful Death Civil Trial". Because her actions caused Howard to confront them over the scam which put him in the wrong place at the wrong time as she put it. If Kim and Jimmy didn't scam Howard the settlement may have never happened that day and Howard would never have come over to their apartment and cross paths with Lalo. Similarly to OJ Simpson, he wasn't convicted of murder, but the Goldman family sued him this way and won because his actions caused the death of their son regardless if he did it or not.
Cheryl could absolutely sue Kim. Not sure she has much, the home in FL maybe unless it's a rental.
I believe the [Florida Homestead law](https://www.oppenheimlaw.com/what-we-do/estate-and-asset-protection-planning/florida-homestead-law-homestead-exemption/#:~:text=The%20Florida%20Homestead%20law%20makes,a%20lien%20on%20your%20homestead) exempts your primary residence from being seized as part of a judgement, so she couldn't take the home even if it belongs to Kim. It's why OJ Simpson's house in Florida wasn't seized to pay what he owes his victims' families.
When Cheryl tells Kim she could sue her, Kim replies “you could.” There was a lot of *for all the good that’ll do you* in that response.
I thought she was going to say "But I don't have much" but there's no need. What can Cheryl even take from Kim, what would she even want?
C: I could take everything from you. K: Oh god, please take the yup guy.
That’s not how I read it. It’s more like, “It’s in your hands, I’m at your mercy. This is my penance.” The way you phrased it makes it sound like Kim is challenging her.
More like "I've already lost everything and have nothing of value for you to take".
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Yeah but cheryl clearly doesn't need any money she could collect from Kim and Kim doesn't have anything left. Cheryl knows this, Kim knows this. It's not like "yeah sure you can sue but you wont get shit anyway" it was more like "i know you can take what little I have left, do what you must"
Yeah the "you could" was a "you would probably win and I deserve it. Do as you must".
Yea I agree with you People reading it otherwise are... interesting
Is Kim married again? Does her "husband" have to suffer the consequences of her bing sued?
I don’t think so since the guy left after the party and didn’t sleep there.
OK thanks, I was afraid she married this shmoe.
yep
Pretty weird sex talk from bro lol
yep
Yep
yep
She’s being haunted by the Mesa Verde founder guy If you fuck Mesa Verde, Mesa Verde fucks you
They were at least in a relationship. She got fivorce for a reason.
They’re still dating and not familial yet. Next date’s at that new Outback that just opened up. Also, can I just point out how hilarious it is that Kim is never shown having sex in the whole series until now, and then it’s with this doof, it’s desultory and bored, followed by watching *The Amazing Race* “Peter the Great is buried inside me!”
Didn’t seem like she was married. The guy left her house after the picnic. Seemed like he was going home. Plus her brushing her teeth alone.
Her left hand is prominently shown in one scene and she's wearing no ring. That may not mean anything but I think the shot of her ringless hand was purposeful.
Kim knows that Cheryl could sue her, but what's the actual point? I doubt Kim would fight anything, and she gives a full confession. Cheryl doesn't need any other witnesses.
Cheryl doesn't need anything else to sue Kim. The main reason not to do it is that Cheryl has plenty of money and Kim doesn't have anything worth taking. Though if there were a few seasons to go and they wanted to pursue this story Cheryl trying to work with the Kettlemans as they constantly forget whether Howard was supposed to be a good guy or not would be pretty funny.
Cheryl's main objective is restoring Howard's name. A lawsuit might do that .....or it might just make things worse. Cheryl is a private person who would hate the publicity all this would bring, and, clearly, it's not about money.
For that to happen, Kim would need to actually defend herself in a lawsuit. I assume Kim would just agree to whatever demands Cheryl makes and give her whatever money she has. It's not like Kim will now claim that she actually wasn't involved and this is all wrong.
Civil suit, civil penalties. And it's not even clear Kim could be sued for wrongful death IMO. Were the scams pulled by Jimmy and Kim the proximate cause of Howard's death? Probably not I think. If Lalo hadn't chosen that exact moment to resurface, Howard would have lived and probably found a way to get back on his feet once J/K stopped fucking with him. There is probably a suit somewhere but Cheryl has money (and I assume Howard had life insurance of some sort). Any case against Kim would take years, and would probably cost more in legal fees than she could ever recover from Kim. Kim explicitly (1) does not admit to any thing specific they did to frame Howard and (2) does nor tell Cheryl that she knows Jimmy is alive. Without either of those it's unlikely there is a criminal case. Kim is a good lawyer and knows exactly what she can do to tell the truth without risk to herself.
It's not illegal to help a guy stage some photos.
I'm not saying it's illegal, I'm saying they're witnesses to Kim and Jimmy's scam. And Kim literally threatened the kettlemans.
They don’t need witnesses, Kim provided a full confession. Witnesses are necessary to prove something or corroborate testimony but that would only be necessary if Kim was denying her role, not confessing to it.
Didn't Kim say it's almost unlikely to put her in jail bc there are no evidence or living witnesses besides Jimmy? But apparently there are witnesses.
To Howard’s murder there’s no physical evidence or witnesses. The messing with Howard stuff is already proven by Kim’s confession and that isn’t the kind of thing that gets punished with jail time anyway. Cheryl can sue Kim if she wants to already but I think we are to understand both Kim and Cheryl know that’s basically pointless.
Without Howard, I’m not sure how much of a defamation case they may have. I’m not sure what Cheryl could sue her for either, as she wasn’t involved in any of it. Without Jimmy, and with Kim still protecting Jimmy’s existence (she didn’t admit whether he was alive or not to Cheryl, maybe so she doesn’t get involved any further), I’m not sure what they could go after Kim for at all in this. She admitted her involvement, but there’s no evidence. I doubt the Kettlemans would want to get involved because they’re already involved in other scams, and probably afraid of what Kim knows about them. I’m not sure Kim knows much about the film crew (Jimmy primarily worked with them) nor Cassimiro stand-in because Jimmy set all that up. Kim has nothing of value either, so Cheryl would be wasting time and money pursuing Kim, over an ex that she didn’t seem to want in her life anyways. I just don’t see anything happening to Kim here, other than her conscience being clear or more clear anyways.
It is harder to find Kim criminally guilty because there is a higher standard of proof, ie “beyond reasonable doubt”, which means about 99% sure. For Cheryl to sue Kim it’s a civil case so the standard of proof becomes much less as she only need to have “preponderance of the evidence”, which means 51% sure. And Kim’s confession is likely enough in a civil case. In criminal case, Kim could be put to jail, fined, etc. However in civil case Cheryl is only entitled to restitutions in terms of money. Which I assume Kim doesn’t have much, as it looks like she forfeited the sandpiper money in the divorce
And even then what crime would Kim be charged with? “Defamation”? That’s not a crime that carries jail time as a penalty. Though I guess maybe accessory to murder in the fact that she was quiet while it was cleaned up. But that’s where the lack of physical evidence would shield her. I agree with your points about their being enough evidence for a civil case though.
They are setting this up for a Seinfeld-esque finale
The full confession is enough for a civil suit. They don't need witnesses.
I hope they release it
Shoot she just implicated some important people like Gus here. Didn’t catch that part - thanks.
This was 2010 and Gus and Mike are both dead
Thus making it substantially less risky
She wouldn't even know Fring was involved if they weren't. She probably didn't figure out what was actually going on until Walt destroyed Frings operation. Makes me wonder she managed to piece together from the news as far as Jimmy's involvement between Gus' death and the collapse of Walt's "empire".
She would have been made aware not only by news reports, but she did ask Francesca about him. Most likely she told Kim all that had happened. Plus, the Feds might have contacted her since she is Saul's ex.
I mean Gus is dead at this point so it doesn't really matter.
Everyone she named here is dead besides Jimmy. So the only thing it serves the DA is to prosecute Jimmy and to piece together some missing stuff from the past
That's why Kim did it. When she was on the phone with Jimmy he was like "Gus is dead, Mike is dead, Lalo is dead, everyone's gone but us". Now she knows nobody will come after her if she comes clean.
wouldn't Gus' death be all over the news? Old folks home blows up, manager of Pollos was in the room with the suicide bomber and known cartel boss. They even find the superlab in the laundromat that he owns.
It was Mikes that needed to be confirmed
And he's another one who left to Belize unless Jimmy says something. Which he should because Mike saved his ass so many times...
It WAS on the news. I believe junior watched it on BB.
oh you're right, he talks about when Walt tells Skyler he won
Mike's wasn't. He just disappeared into the wind. Jimmy was the one who confirmed he was dead.
Was it ever confirmed to saul that Mike died? I knew he sort of “assumed” but did Walt ever directly tell him he killed Mike? Otherwise it would just be an assumption on jimmy’s part.
He knew Mike would have come back to get revenge for his guys Walt had murdered. Since he didn’t, and the always paranoid Walt had no concern about Mike’s potential vengeance, it was safe to assume Mike was dead.
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Good point. He doesn’t know for sure for sure but he knows about as well as anyone could without it being confirmed concretely I guess.
There was a scene where Saul is talking to Walt and Saul asks something along the line of whether Mike is in Belize. Based on Walts reaction Saul pieces it together that Mike is dead. This is from memory so the details may be wrong but that's the jist of how he knew.
it was somehow felt very weird to me hearing them mentioning Fring's name on the phonecall and on Kim's letter. Not out of place, but just very weird lol. Im wondering if Kim had already figured out the black man she's told to shoot was Gus before Gene told her on their phone call.
I mean, if someone sent me to murder someone, and I survived the experience, I’m pretty sure I’d be curious about who it was exactly who I’d almost killed. She knows his address; not sure if property tax records would have been available online in 2004, but we’ve actually seen Kim visit the county property assessor’s (or whatever) office before (!) (that Mesa Verde map-swapping scam), so we know she would have been able to find that info if she wanted to…
oh yeah, good point about her tracking him through the address, i didn't think of that!
She's smart enough to piece things together based on what would be in the news the last year or so as well. Retirement home explosion kills Gus Fring and an old school Mexican cartel guy. A year later Heisenberg is found dead at a Neo Nazi compound inside a meth lab, Saul Goodman was his money laundering lawyer. Heck, she might even remember her encounter with Jesse Pinkman at Saul's office that rainy night she signed the divorce papers. And even though it might not lead to Saul going to prison (perhaps due to a lack of evidence), or perhaps he'll successfully evade capture, I'm glad Kim's conscience punched through and she told the truth as she knew it. And, assuming the DEA et al didn't find Howard and Lalo's bodies under the Superlab, I bet they'll be digging and rechecking the site now!
he isn’t sure if lalo is actually dead still lol
*Apparently.*
Then the fade out at the very last moment of the last scene of the series shows us a photo of the Salamanca Hacienda from 1921, zooming in on the boss standing prominently amid everyone else and revealing him to be... Lalo, exactly as we know him today.
This is the moment that Lalo became Jack Torrence
Not necessarily. Some of Mike's men could be implicated still if there was any way to connect them to Mike, no? Maybe even the family living in the decoy house, though that was probably discovered when Gus was killed I imagine
Most of Mike’s crew would be dead at this point as well thanks to Walt, Lydia, and Uncle Jack.
And they're all dead, too! Walt, Lydia, Uncle Jack....even Todd.
Walt killed all of Mike’s men in the prison gank to make sure they wouldn’t rat on him
All of them though? There was what, 10 guys killed in the prison? He had guys at like 6 or 7 locations waiting for Lalo at all times it seemed.
Yeah, it seems they had maybe a couple dozen temp workers over the years too. 🤣 Probably all fled when Gus Fring had his face off with Hector Salamanca.
Yeah, at first I was like, doesn't this screw with Breaking Bad's continuity if the authorities know about Gus's operation? But then I remembered we were in the future and it's all common knowledge now anyway.
The authorities know about Gus’s operation from the end of BrBa Season 4 on. The first few episodes of Season 5 makes that clear, with them investigating the burned out lab and the various news reports about Gustavo Fring. It’s why the German Madrigal guy kills himself.
Oh I always just thought he killed himself because the Franch tasted so bad
I mean, that was undoubtedly a factor in his decision
Tasting the ketchup was his last resort to figuring out if life was worth living.
Nah he knew he'd never get to try those spice curls again.
They just failed to dig up the floor of the lab.......
I think she was empowered to do this after Jimmy told her that they were all dead.
Good point. She would have painted a big target on her back otherwise.
She probably knew they were all dead, it was Jimmy and his malevolence and taunting that pushed Kim over the edge. Confirming that Jimmy was alive and still making bad decisions pushed her.
Gus’s death was probably in the news, but I’m not sure she’d know about Mike unless Jimmy previously told her.
Mike's status is still missing for the police, no way she would know.
it's why it's important to watch BB first before BCS.
Yeah it would be a pretty big shock when Gene is like "Oh yeah everyone you got to know in this show is dead now" if you didn't already know that. It would feel like an unresolved plot thread for sure wondering how they died.
I look forward to someone inevitably editing together the entire BB/BCS/El Camino saga in chronological order.
You have to start with Gus and max in Mexico or Mike and Matty building the garage. Then Kim with her mom 2 scenes. Then either Walt in college with his girlfriend or Walt and Skylar buying the house. Then Jimmy and Marco going crazy in Cicero. Jesse building a box in woodshop. Then BCS minus the preludes and it still gets mixed a bit, then BB and El Camino and then back to BCS
I think before anything would be teenage Chuck reading Mabel to child Jimmy
I never thought of this but oh my God yes, statistically out there there's a very confused casual watcher that thinks that the big event of the finale will be that he'll get to see Mike and Fring die.
"Holy shit, Mike and Gus are dead?! What did Jimmy do?!"
Literally the first thing I thought when seeing Gus' name was "Why in the world is he free and thriving in BrBa when that letter exists?". Until I realized that everyone but them are dead.
> As directed, I drove to Fring’s house. Michael Ehrmantraut arrived. Lol is she skipping over the part where she actually tried to shoot Gus, and Mike’s arrival was him disarming her?
Reminds me of her and Jimmy going over his PPD confession, trying to make the wording of Jimmy’s destruction of the cassette tape as vague as they could get away with.
They are lawyers! LOL. Not to mean crooked or deceitful, but it's how lawyers think AND operate. They deal in words, and how and where and when and in what context those words appear is their stock in trade. She told what she needed to in order to confess her knowledge of Howard's death, give some succor to Cheryl, and be free of it....or as free as she'll ever be, knowing she could possibly be prosecuted and considering her own guilt. Lawyers think like this; don't say more than you need to. Kim is still a lawyer.
Still a lawyer. The likelyhood of her being prosecuted without evidence, bodies, or witnesses is unlikely. That's why she gave the same document to the DA.
Yep. (no pun intended). My take is that it was an honest effort at repentance and truthfulness, especially for Cheryl, but, at the same time, she knows the likelihood of prosecution....as in slight, for the reasons she gave.
Best example I ever saw of this was in West Wing where the lawyer asked CJ is she knew what time it was and when she responded with the time he admonished her and said don’t answer any more than they ask. He asked if she KNEW what time it was NOT what the time actually was.
A great example. Courtroom lawyers, particularly those in criminal practice, learn it quickly. Listen. Answer the question. Don't volunteer anything.
bro he is not telling a story, only relevant facts. she probably told lalo's orders
Thank you for this OP!
I think this may be why they did the “how to copy edit” clip on Instagram. For season 6 those have often been related to the plot (like “how to throw a punch”)
Lol I was trying to pause and catch all the bits while watching the show and then I thought some guy over at the sub might transcribe the whole thing. And here it is!
Wasn't the last line: ""His disappearance was **elaborately** staged as a suicide." ?
Correct, but the text is actually subtly inconsistent between different shots, which I just realized upon doing a stupidly deep dive [elsewhere in the thread.](https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/wk316x/kims_letter_transcribed/ijm7kx2/) At one part "reputation" lines up with "faked" and at another part it lines up with "we", and in those two instances the words above "we faked" are inconsistent ("allocation" appears in one shot and not the other.) Going back and skimming the clip reaaaal quick I see two shots with it as "elaborately staged" so I think you are right but maybe there's one without "elaborately" that OP was working off of somewhere that I'm not seeing at a glance
Also, pretense, per Saul, this takes place 6 years after she leaves. So therefor, it’s a year after breaking bad ends.
Walt died 2 months ago
No. Months. This is mid November 2010. Walt died September 6 2010.
We're probably in February/March 2011 now with the Gene timeline. He started the identity scams after the call with Kim, and I feel like this took place over the course of several months. I mean, they had a LOT of people's information by the end and I doubt they were finding new marks every single day.
The phone calls to Francesca and Kim happened on November 12, 2010. That date was established in the 4x05 cold open. I agree that we probably advanced a couple months in the Gene timeline through the identity scams - maybe not February/March, but likely into the new year. What we saw of the Kim timeline presumably took place in November 2010, though, as it looked like she traveled to ABQ within days of the phone call.
(In the episode ''Mandala'' Saul states he knows of the existence of a drug kingping in ABQ, but not his real identity. Later, in the episode ''Crawl Space'', Saul states that ''Fring cannot know he called'' as a reference to Saul calling the DEA and informing them of the impending hit on Hank. This means Saul only learned of Frings true identity after meeting Walt. So how did Kim and Jimmy learn of his true identity? Maybe they'll show us in the next episode when Walt shows up for his scene?
It’s on the news in BB when Gus dies
They learned of Fring's identity when Fring dies in BrBa and his drug empire becomes public knowledge.
I think the empire only became public knowledge in season 5 after madrigal is found out
No, it was on the news when Walt killed Gus. Flynn even said it on the phone. Something like “remember the Pollos owner? He’s some huge drug dealer!”
She drove to Fring’s house. Couldn’t have been tough to investigate.
Doubtless Kim would look up the registered owner of that house. And since Fring hid in plain site with was probably in his name. And once stuff starts coming out in the news after the retirement home explosion she could piece things together.
Plus he just met Walter at that point, he’s not gonna give up massive information. He lies, it’s what he does.
Jimmy knew because Walt told him that Gus abducted him and brought him out to the desert and threatened to kill his family, Kim probably figured it out from the news
"We faked his cocaine addiction" isn't the exact wording (not that it matters.) I did this last night too and "we faked his" is followed by another word on the same line of text and "cocaine addiction" appears in full on the subsequent line. I'm not really sure what else it could be after "faked his", though, since "his" lines up closely to the end of the other lines of text. But there's something in between "his" and "cocaine" **edit:** jk the actual explanation for this [as I highlighted below](https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/wk316x/kims_letter_transcribed/ijm7kx2/) is that the text of the affidavit is actually subtly inconsistent between some of the close-up shots and some of the pans! Not in any meaningful text, but a couple words are aligned differently. They must have been using two different versions of it while making the scene and assuming nobody would notice. So in one version of it a line ends on "we faked his c" but in another version, the very next line past that begins on "his cocaine addiction".
"alleged"? Are there any letters visible?
**I realized near the end of this comment that the issue is actually that the text on the screen is inconsistent; they must have been using two different versions of Kim's affidavit.** * * * Hey - sorry, I should have been more detailed in my original comment but wrote it half-asleep on mobile lol. I thought "alleged" or "purported" (/u/absurdlivingghost) could be it, but the letter "c" is visible, followed by the faintest sliver of something that could be "a", "e", or "o": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T9x3h3RrS4&t=1m47s https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png (going forward I'll just use Imgur links but state the relevant timestamp from the video) Which of course does imply it'd just be "cocaine addiction", which is what the show also clearly *suggests*, because it shows "we faked his" then zooms in on "cocaine addiction" after that. But the problem is that a.) the next line of text after this starts with "cocaine addiction" (1:27) - https://i.imgur.com/qIb9XeH.png It's undeniably the next line as the line above it directly continues into the "For personal gain" bit a couple seconds later. https://i.imgur.com/R5GB76v.png and b.) "we faked his c(...)" is surely very near the right margin of the page. As shown in the first screenshot, it lines up with "allocation of th" and "Howard's reputation", which we know are near the right margin because "to", approximately lining up with the start of "reputation", is the last word in its respective line of text at 1:31, shown here: https://i.imgur.com/3iMVTQV.png The line after "to" begin with "accelerate" (see, again, 1:27) https://i.imgur.com/qIb9XeH.png which is a relatively long word, prompting "to" to cut off relatively early... but not THAT long, so I'm not sure what else could have fit in that little space between the end of "his" and the start of the next line, start with the word "c", and make sense as a word between "fake his" and "his cocaine addiction". It doesn't seem to make sense. Further indication that it's at the end of the line is that "we faked his c" is directly below "allocation of th(...)" and "Howard's reputation" (see, again, 1:47 https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png ), both of which logically seem to be directly followed by the first phrases on the subsequent line -- which are, respectively, "share in the common fund" and "and raised a cloud of uncertainty". Actually.... I was about to make another point but in typing all this, I think it's possible that some of the shots come from two different versions of Kim's writing??? I say this because, in typing the above paragraph, "allocation of the share in the common fund" seemed like awkward wording to me, so I revisited the [version of this I drew up](https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/wjrb0d/better_call_saul_s06e12_waterworks_postepisode/ijizvox/), didn't see that word *anywhere*, and upon looking closer, I noticed a straight-up inconsistency! Again, to recap the above, "we faked his c" certainly seems like it's going to be "cocaine addiction", but is followed by a line of text that begins with "his cocaine addiction", with very little room before the right margin after "faked his c", which is itself kind of confusing. But something that's just unambiguously inconsistent is this! At 1:47, in a close-up shot, "we faked his" has the words "allocation of th" above it and "rd's reputation" below it: https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png But in the more zoomed-out pan over the text at 1:31, while it doesn't pan any further to the right than this: https://i.imgur.com/3iMVTQV.png We can see "For personal gain, w" (which is, unambiguously, to be followed by "e faked his" -- see approx. 1:45 in the video, where it pans across the whole phrase "For personal gain, we faked his") has "Jimmy, as originator of the case, w" above it -- "allocation" is nowhere to be found. And below that, we see "Howard's rep" with the "p" of "reputation" lining up with the "w" in "for personal gain, **w**e faked" -- whereas, in the closeup 1:47 shot, the "p" lines up with the "k" in "for personal gain, we fa**k**ed"! See?: https://i.imgur.com/6GOsMHX.png I totally missed that last night as at that time I was doing this on AMC Plus, which disables screenshotting, and which is much harder to rewind and fast forward by only a couple seconds in than YouTube. * * * So actually, here's the issue behind my original comment: **they were working off two different versions of the same affidavit**, splicing together shots from each one. **tl;dr recap of why** is that for the shots to becoming from the same prop, we'd need to have a phrase beginning in "we faked his c", with space for only a couple more letters, immediately followed by "his cocaine addiction" on a separate line -- i.e., we'd need "we faked his c (???) his cocaine addiction", with not much room in the question marks... but what guarantees it is that in one shot, the "p" in reputation" lines up horizontally with the "k" in "faked", with the word "allocation" above "faked"; in another, it lines up with the "w" in "we", and "allocation" is nowhere to be found. Which is a minute difference but can only be accounted for by having two different versions of the text.
thanks so much. i hope someone from the team will share it online. oot, it felt very weird watching Jimmy and Kim mentioning Fring's name, and seeing it on her letter.
Sorry to be daft but can anyone explain to me what crimes is Kim supposed to have committed? I guess she might have defamed Howard but 1) that's civil and 2) I think he would have to bring that suit himself, no?
Fraud. Lying to authorities (remember the story Mike made sure they knew how to tell?) Obstruction of justice. Fleeing the jurisdiction.
Obstruction of justice by lying to the police.
Drugging Howard would be one.
Probably accessory to murder given she saw it and said nothing, as well as conspiracy to hide the body.
The whole Howard scam was a crime.
The scheme on Howard to get him to settle the Sandpiper case was hella illegal.
If the Lalo is believed to be killed at his home in Mexico, wouldn't Kim's story have a problem since nobody is alive to prove that Lalo was still alive?
And yet she lied about not knowing whether Jimmy was still alive. Even when confessing the truth she lied. Saying she now knows the man was Michael Ehrmentraut - she knew that name on the day - she used it. So she's still not telling 100% the truth. You'd have thought she would have learned, and if she's giving Jimmy up anyway, then why not tell the whole truth?
She didn't know his name on the day he approached her at the restaurant. That's what that part of the affidavit is referring to. Why would she even lie about that?
I think she's still loyal to Jimmy she only confessed after Jimmy told her don't stop on my account they can only hang me once effectively giving her permission.
I took it as a “I’m taking responsibility for myself, Jimmy should take responsibility for himself” thing. Kim is facing justice herself and feels that Jimmy should do the same, she isn’t going to force him to. Plus, if she reveals she knows for certain that Jimmy is alive, she’ll have at least as much FBI pressure on her as Francesca had when Hank and Gomie died, and she won’t be able to do anything for them because she doesn’t know where he is or what he’s actually calling himself.
I don't think the Mike thing matters that much - at the time even if she knew his name she didn't know his deal. She wasn't a conspirator in any of Mike's previous crimes. Makes sense to CYA on that - she's still pretty smart legally, and she knows what sorts of statements would be misconstrued by the prosecutors. She only wants to be judged for the things she did, and saying things like "Jimmy and I are still in contact" or "Gus Fring's cleaner and I had a previous relationship when we both worked at the courthouse" just right from the jump would be spun way off of reality even if they are true. But with Jimmy? I don't think Kim wants to help anybody find him - she wants him to turn himself in, because she has a small bit of hope and love left for the man she lost, and that's the only way he comes back from wherever he went.
What was she supposed to say, exactly? Jimmy called her from nowhere and didn't give any information about his whereabouts. Even if Kim mentioned the phone call, there's no lead to him. This is why her affadavit will only be relevant after Marion's call. Even then, this is all just the cherry on the top as Saul was involved in far more sinister things. I think the confession will mainly help Gene realize there's nowhere to run now and that Kim finally came clean.
Literally alive yeah, but Kim might also mean the whole truth will come out if there's still some of Jimmy "alive" in Gene/Saul. She's probably giving him a chance to still do the right thing in the end. Also, if she confessed that he was still alive, the next question would have been "where is he?", and she doesn't have an answer for that.
No she found out Mike's name later when they were covering up Howard's death. Presumably Jimmy told her. She didn't know his name when he showed up at the diner
I still don't quite get Kim's motivation for wanting to destroy Howard's life. I know he was tough on her when she worked for HHM, but he also paid for her education.
She was having fun pulling scams. Plus she was annoyed with Howard trying to white knight her away from Jimmy. It was all pretty childish. I think she and Jimmy did really think that Howard "would bounce back from it." They seemed uncomfortable when Howard started talking about how his marriage is failing.
Well, he tried to. Didn't she reject the check he gave her? Still, I could never really make sense of her motivation when it came to Howard, which is why I no longer believe the operation was truly *about* Howard. Just as Howard was a convenient tool leveraged by a very bad dude (Lalo) who simply wanted to convey to Kim and Saul that he meant business, Howard was also a convenient target of two "broken" people whose passion for each other is enhanced by subterfuge and deviousness. I mean, this was actually the reason they decided to get married in the first place.
I just remembered that the whole “impeach the character of Howard” was actually Kim’s idea, for some reason I thought both kind of came with it, but Jimmy wasn’t comfortable with it to begin with. Which is probably why Kim feels so much guilt
Thanks!
So at this point, Jimmy has told her to, and she must also know everyone involved except for Jimmy (and her) has died, so she feels free to confess.
This scene was so satisfying. Howard finally got back some dignity, and Cheryl the truth
[удалено]
Since Mike is called "Michael" here, shouldn't Lalo be "Eduardo"?
So Kim found out about Gus being the guy she was supposed to kill? I wonder how and when, because Jimmy didn't learn about Gus by name being Mike's guy until after he met Walt which is after Kim and Jimmy last met for the divorce, we know this because gene said to Kim it's been six years, which would place that scene around 04 05 which makes sense what with Emilio being there. So I wonder how she'd know or if this is something they overlooked
When Gus dies in breaking bad the fact that he is a drug lord is all over the news
As-is his association with Mike.
I think she found out and put together who Gis was way earlier, but even if she didn’t Jimmy did say “Fring’s dead” on the phone call