Original subtitles

In this episode of American Grief, James Morgan McGill has a secret weapon,

his mouth.

What do the Irish call it? Blarney? That man could spin a tale with the best of

them. He could even hold a jury in the palm of his hand.

Oh, to be 19 again.

Do you remember 19?

Yeah, you do.

Armed with just a correspondence school law degree, he sets up shop in the back

of a nail salon.

As a public defender, he fights for the little guy and wins.

But helping people soon loses its cachet.

Jimmy McGill sees new opportunities for making money.

With that comes a bigger office and a whole new identity.

Hi, I'm Saul Goodman. Did you know that you have rights?

Constitution says you do, and so do I.

Commercials, billboards, and bus benches across New Mexico exclaim his

trademarked catchphrase. Better call Saul!

Better call Saul!

Better call Saul.

Clients meet a path to his door.

One of them, an unassuming high school chemistry teacher, changes Goodman's

forever. The teacher has a peculiar nickname,

Heisenberg.

For him, Saul Goodman launders untold millions and covers up the most heinous

crimes. Walter White was the most notorious meth king found in this

seen. He destroyed lives and terrorized the Southwest.

But he couldn't have done it without Saul Goodman.

In the early hours of March 20, 2010, police and DEA agents descend upon a

strip mall in the northeast corner of the city.

Looming above them, 30 feet tall, stands an inflatable Statue of Liberty.

Beneath its watchful eye, they enter the office of Saul Goodman and Associates.

Inside, they discover styrofoam columns and an oversized image of the

Constitution plastered on the wall, signature backdrops for Goodman's

commercials. But the columns are toppled, and a mysterious hole has been

dug into the sheetrock.

What was stashed in this secret hiding place?

Francesca Liddy, Saul Goodman's secretary, is detained for questioning.

According to District Attorney Suzanne Erickson, Goodman himself has vanished

without a trace.

The beginning of the end was when we had two federal agents, Hank Schrader and

Steve Gomez, go missing.

Schrader was Walter White's brother -in -law.

We had to presume them deceased, which sadly turned out to be the case.

That's when the whole house of cards began to crumble for White.

He and his partner, Jesse Pinkman, disappeared.

Goodman followed suit.

Despite his verbal superpowers, Saul Goodman has finally found a situation he

can talk his way out of.

But where is he now?

Rumors abound.

Did he flee the country?

Is he dead?

Murdered by his former associates?

Well, first off, he's alive.

I will go on record completely alive.

Fingers crossed.

Definitely not dead. The world is not that lucky.

While there's still good, honest people in the world, he will have a steady

supply of victims like us.

Unfortunately, that's what we are. We're victims.

We're survivors. We're survivors.

Craig Kettleman is the former treasurer of Bernalillo County.

He and his wife Betsy find themselves exploited by Saul Goodman.

He courted us as clients, and oh, where to begin.

I mean, he lied to us, yeah, and gave us terrible legal advice, absolute

malpractice, really.

I mean, he actively tried to ruin us. He broke into our house and stole our...

Really, it's too many things to live? Yeah.

Yeah. And right from the start, he was the kind of lawyer guilty people hire.

Which was not us. And when we first met this person, he was still going by his

given name. You know, this Saul Goodman business came later.

Back then, he was just trading on the family reputation.

In 1992, Jimmy McGill works in the mailroom at Hamlin Hamlin McGill, where

brother Charles is a named partner.

Charles Lindbergh McGill is known far and wide as a brilliant attorney.

Highly esteemed, his reputation for honesty and legal acumen is second to

Jimmy idolizes his older sibling.

But according to Deputy District Attorney Bill Oakley, that respect never

both ways.

Chuck McGill was a god around these parts.

He was like the second coming of Clarence Darrow. And then his brother

lawyer.

Flippin' Jimmy with a mail -order diploma from University of wherever it

mean, wow.

The guy had street smarts, but come on.

I can't imagine how humiliating that must have been for Chuck.

Still, trading on Chuck's name got Jimmy a job at a big Santa Fe law firm. Nice

office with a window.

Of course, he blew that one too sweet.

Sometimes I kind of think maybe his older brother was everything Jimmy

be but wasn't.

Yeah. You know, maybe Jimmy, Saul, maybe we're talking about a person who lived

his life in someone's shadow.

You know, when I think about it like that. We don't feel sorry for him. No.

he made his bed. He made it, yeah. And now he has to sleep in it.

Yep.

Forging his own path.

Jimmy leaves Hamlin Hamlin McGill and goes into private practice.

Dabbling in the field of elder law, he institutes a large class action lawsuit

against a chain of retirement homes.

Stan Piper crossing.

That was quite a case.

He was colorful.

And this was even before the crazy suits, the new name.

But he could be a formidable adversary if he didn't feel this constant need to

cut corners.

Had he kept that under control, who knows how far he could have gone.

He and Kim, those were two smart cookies.

Kimberly Wexler is a bright and ambitious young woman Jimmy meets in the

mailroom.

She becomes a fellow attorney, a business partner, and eventually Jimmy's

For the life of me, I don't know what she saw in him.

Never understood it.

For a time, life is good.

Jimmy finds his practice flourishing.

He builds a reputation for providing advocacy that's vigorous, if

unconventional. You feel confident that you can identify this person. That's

what you're saying.

I can.

It's him, your client.

Would you be surprised to learn, Mr. Harkness, that the person you just

to is not the defendant?

My client is in the back of the courtroom.

Mr. Saiki, would you please stand up?

Objection! Oh, Mr.

Goodman!

But the lure of easy money is seductive.

Along with his name change, Saul Goodman pivots to a new breed of client.

I don't know when it happened. I don't know the exact date. But at some point,

he started to work with the drug cartels.

And that was the beginning of the end.

Because from there, if you survive, it is a short hop to becoming the

consigliere to Heisenberg himself.

Among the Mexican cartels, one family is feared above all others.

Ruthless and cruel, they rule their territory with an iron fist.

When Saul Goodman's greed puts him on a collision course with the Salamancas,

there's bound to be trouble.

One day it arrives in a smiling, handsome package.