1
00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:14,560
In this episode of American Grief, James
Morgan McGill has a secret weapon,

2
00:00:14,740 --> 00:00:16,180
his mouth.

3
00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:21,000
What do the Irish call it? Blarney? That
man could spin a tale with the best of

4
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,440
them. He could even hold a jury in the
palm of his hand.

5
00:00:24,860 --> 00:00:26,600
Oh, to be 19 again.

6
00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:28,320
Do you remember 19?

7
00:00:29,060 --> 00:00:30,060
Yeah, you do.

8
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:35,800
Armed with just a correspondence school
law degree, he sets up shop in the back

9
00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:36,800
of a nail salon.

10
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:42,220
As a public defender, he fights for the
little guy and wins.

11
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,120
But helping people soon loses its
cachet.

12
00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:50,540
Jimmy McGill sees new opportunities for
making money.

13
00:00:51,180 --> 00:00:55,500
With that comes a bigger office and a
whole new identity.

14
00:00:56,060 --> 00:00:58,860
Hi, I'm Saul Goodman. Did you know that
you have rights?

15
00:00:59,380 --> 00:01:01,960
Constitution says you do, and so do I.

16
00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:07,260
Commercials, billboards, and bus benches
across New Mexico exclaim his

17
00:01:07,260 --> 00:01:09,920
trademarked catchphrase. Better call
Saul!

18
00:01:10,340 --> 00:01:11,340
Better call Saul!

19
00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:12,540
Better call Saul.

20
00:01:13,860 --> 00:01:15,540
Clients meet a path to his door.

21
00:01:16,180 --> 00:01:21,300
One of them, an unassuming high school
chemistry teacher, changes Goodman's

22
00:01:21,300 --> 00:01:24,420
forever. The teacher has a peculiar
nickname,

23
00:01:25,220 --> 00:01:26,220
Heisenberg.

24
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:32,460
For him, Saul Goodman launders untold
millions and covers up the most heinous

25
00:01:32,460 --> 00:01:37,260
crimes. Walter White was the most
notorious meth king found in this

26
00:01:37,260 --> 00:01:40,940
seen. He destroyed lives and terrorized
the Southwest.

27
00:01:41,940 --> 00:01:44,200
But he couldn't have done it without
Saul Goodman.

28
00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:14,160
In the early hours of March 20, 2010,
police and DEA agents descend upon a

29
00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,600
strip mall in the northeast corner of
the city.

30
00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:23,520
Looming above them, 30 feet tall, stands
an inflatable Statue of Liberty.

31
00:02:25,140 --> 00:02:30,240
Beneath its watchful eye, they enter the
office of Saul Goodman and Associates.

32
00:02:31,950 --> 00:02:36,950
Inside, they discover styrofoam columns
and an oversized image of the

33
00:02:36,950 --> 00:02:41,610
Constitution plastered on the wall,
signature backdrops for Goodman's

34
00:02:41,610 --> 00:02:48,370
commercials. But the columns are
toppled, and a mysterious hole has been

35
00:02:48,370 --> 00:02:49,590
dug into the sheetrock.

36
00:02:51,430 --> 00:02:54,550
What was stashed in this secret hiding
place?

37
00:02:56,750 --> 00:03:00,850
Francesca Liddy, Saul Goodman's
secretary, is detained for questioning.

38
00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:07,320
According to District Attorney Suzanne
Erickson, Goodman himself has vanished

39
00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:08,820
without a trace.

40
00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:14,380
The beginning of the end was when we had
two federal agents, Hank Schrader and

41
00:03:14,380 --> 00:03:15,580
Steve Gomez, go missing.

42
00:03:17,140 --> 00:03:19,540
Schrader was Walter White's brother -in
-law.

43
00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:24,360
We had to presume them deceased, which
sadly turned out to be the case.

44
00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:27,960
That's when the whole house of cards
began to crumble for White.

45
00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,780
He and his partner, Jesse Pinkman,
disappeared.

46
00:03:32,010 --> 00:03:33,190
Goodman followed suit.

47
00:03:34,470 --> 00:03:40,230
Despite his verbal superpowers, Saul
Goodman has finally found a situation he

48
00:03:40,230 --> 00:03:42,030
can talk his way out of.

49
00:03:42,670 --> 00:03:44,090
But where is he now?

50
00:03:44,970 --> 00:03:46,190
Rumors abound.

51
00:03:46,650 --> 00:03:48,190
Did he flee the country?

52
00:03:48,750 --> 00:03:49,830
Is he dead?

53
00:03:50,770 --> 00:03:52,890
Murdered by his former associates?

54
00:03:56,390 --> 00:03:58,170
Well, first off, he's alive.

55
00:03:58,910 --> 00:04:01,730
I will go on record completely alive.

56
00:04:02,110 --> 00:04:03,110
Fingers crossed.

57
00:04:03,130 --> 00:04:05,750
Definitely not dead. The world is not
that lucky.

58
00:04:06,550 --> 00:04:10,970
While there's still good, honest people
in the world, he will have a steady

59
00:04:10,970 --> 00:04:13,210
supply of victims like us.

60
00:04:13,490 --> 00:04:16,390
Unfortunately, that's what we are. We're
victims.

61
00:04:16,730 --> 00:04:18,450
We're survivors. We're survivors.

62
00:04:19,410 --> 00:04:26,130
Craig Kettleman is the former treasurer
of Bernalillo County.

63
00:04:26,830 --> 00:04:30,790
He and his wife Betsy find themselves
exploited by Saul Goodman.

64
00:04:31,030 --> 00:04:34,810
He courted us as clients, and oh, where
to begin.

65
00:04:35,170 --> 00:04:40,450
I mean, he lied to us, yeah, and gave us
terrible legal advice, absolute

66
00:04:40,450 --> 00:04:41,790
malpractice, really.

67
00:04:42,130 --> 00:04:46,650
I mean, he actively tried to ruin us. He
broke into our house and stole our...

68
00:04:46,650 --> 00:04:49,010
Really, it's too many things to live?
Yeah.

69
00:04:49,330 --> 00:04:53,730
Yeah. And right from the start, he was
the kind of lawyer guilty people hire.

70
00:04:53,970 --> 00:04:58,710
Which was not us. And when we first met
this person, he was still going by his

71
00:04:58,710 --> 00:05:01,650
given name. You know, this Saul Goodman
business came later.

72
00:05:03,030 --> 00:05:05,650
Back then, he was just trading on the
family reputation.

73
00:05:08,590 --> 00:05:14,670
In 1992, Jimmy McGill works in the
mailroom at Hamlin Hamlin McGill, where

74
00:05:14,670 --> 00:05:16,710
brother Charles is a named partner.

75
00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,940
Charles Lindbergh McGill is known far
and wide as a brilliant attorney.

76
00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:28,080
Highly esteemed, his reputation for
honesty and legal acumen is second to

77
00:05:28,580 --> 00:05:30,840
Jimmy idolizes his older sibling.

78
00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:36,800
But according to Deputy District
Attorney Bill Oakley, that respect never

79
00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:37,800
both ways.

80
00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,860
Chuck McGill was a god around these
parts.

81
00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:46,180
He was like the second coming of
Clarence Darrow. And then his brother

82
00:05:46,180 --> 00:05:47,180
lawyer.

83
00:05:48,500 --> 00:05:54,940
Flippin' Jimmy with a mail -order
diploma from University of wherever it

84
00:05:54,940 --> 00:05:55,940
mean, wow.

85
00:05:58,900 --> 00:06:02,200
The guy had street smarts, but come on.

86
00:06:02,620 --> 00:06:05,820
I can't imagine how humiliating that
must have been for Chuck.

87
00:06:06,860 --> 00:06:12,240
Still, trading on Chuck's name got Jimmy
a job at a big Santa Fe law firm. Nice

88
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:13,260
office with a window.

89
00:06:13,620 --> 00:06:15,720
Of course, he blew that one too sweet.

90
00:06:20,260 --> 00:06:25,040
Sometimes I kind of think maybe his
older brother was everything Jimmy

91
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:26,040
be but wasn't.

92
00:06:26,740 --> 00:06:33,740
Yeah. You know, maybe Jimmy, Saul, maybe
we're talking about a person who lived

93
00:06:33,740 --> 00:06:35,020
his life in someone's shadow.

94
00:06:35,860 --> 00:06:40,220
You know, when I think about it like
that. We don't feel sorry for him. No.

95
00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,800
he made his bed. He made it, yeah. And
now he has to sleep in it.

96
00:06:44,460 --> 00:06:45,460
Yep.

97
00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:49,460
Forging his own path.

98
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:54,100
Jimmy leaves Hamlin Hamlin McGill and
goes into private practice.

99
00:06:55,140 --> 00:07:00,260
Dabbling in the field of elder law, he
institutes a large class action lawsuit

100
00:07:00,260 --> 00:07:02,680
against a chain of retirement homes.

101
00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:05,120
Stan Piper crossing.

102
00:07:05,340 --> 00:07:06,660
That was quite a case.

103
00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,380
He was colorful.

104
00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,640
And this was even before the crazy
suits, the new name.

105
00:07:12,900 --> 00:07:18,140
But he could be a formidable adversary
if he didn't feel this constant need to

106
00:07:18,140 --> 00:07:19,140
cut corners.

107
00:07:19,260 --> 00:07:22,600
Had he kept that under control, who
knows how far he could have gone.

108
00:07:23,700 --> 00:07:26,840
He and Kim, those were two smart
cookies.

109
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:34,400
Kimberly Wexler is a bright and
ambitious young woman Jimmy meets in the

110
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:35,400
mailroom.

111
00:07:35,940 --> 00:07:42,880
She becomes a fellow attorney, a
business partner, and eventually Jimmy's

112
00:07:43,500 --> 00:07:45,800
For the life of me, I don't know what
she saw in him.

113
00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:47,520
Never understood it.

114
00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:50,260
For a time, life is good.

115
00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:52,920
Jimmy finds his practice flourishing.

116
00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:58,200
He builds a reputation for providing
advocacy that's vigorous, if

117
00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:03,140
unconventional. You feel confident that
you can identify this person. That's

118
00:08:03,140 --> 00:08:03,879
what you're saying.

119
00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:04,719
I can.

120
00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:06,240
It's him, your client.

121
00:08:06,460 --> 00:08:10,120
Would you be surprised to learn, Mr.
Harkness, that the person you just

122
00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:11,160
to is not the defendant?

123
00:08:11,939 --> 00:08:14,140
My client is in the back of the
courtroom.

124
00:08:14,380 --> 00:08:16,160
Mr. Saiki, would you please stand up?

125
00:08:16,620 --> 00:08:18,240
Objection! Oh, Mr.

126
00:08:18,620 --> 00:08:19,620
Goodman!

127
00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:24,760
But the lure of easy money is seductive.

128
00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,900
Along with his name change, Saul Goodman
pivots to a new breed of client.

129
00:08:30,380 --> 00:08:35,340
I don't know when it happened. I don't
know the exact date. But at some point,

130
00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:37,520
he started to work with the drug
cartels.

131
00:08:38,419 --> 00:08:40,740
And that was the beginning of the end.

132
00:08:41,419 --> 00:08:46,960
Because from there, if you survive, it
is a short hop to becoming the

133
00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,640
consigliere to Heisenberg himself.

134
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:56,600
Among the Mexican cartels, one family is
feared above all others.

135
00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:02,060
Ruthless and cruel, they rule their
territory with an iron fist.

136
00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:08,180
When Saul Goodman's greed puts him on a
collision course with the Salamancas,

137
00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:09,880
there's bound to be trouble.

138
00:09:10,830 --> 00:09:15,230
One day it arrives in a smiling,
handsome package.