# Better Call Saul 1.07 "Bingo" 3/16/2015 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128 "2015-03-16T17:09:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/121 "2015-03-19T20:53:08Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Why does she change her name to Ellen Swatello and move to California? Heck if I know. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/122 "2015-03-19T22:38:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Heck if I know. 🙂 Beaches. ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/123 "2015-03-20T03:37:29Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > When I saw Mike spray the money and put it on the RC car I immediately flashed on _Ocean’s 11_ (the good version, not that crappy remake). He was going to use a blacklight to see where it was taken! > > Given that it was found on the RC car (one of the kids’ toys), the father thought that this was one of the kids’ doing. Note how there was some “discussion” with the kids when he came back in and soon they were sent to bed. > > I don’t understand why people put money away without at least sealing it in a bag. Especially under a bathroom sink which could leak. > > Mike is turning to The Dark Side. Jimmy is probably maxing out on The Good Side right now. Turning to the dark side? They already showed that he was on the wrong side of the law for at least the end of his career and probably the majority of his career. He was a dirty cop and then murdered two cops. Granted, the cops he murdered were also dirty and murderers, but claiming he is just now turning to the dark side is not correct. What he did for Jimmy is arguably much less dark than being a dirty cop and a murderer. Okay, you could argue he killed the cops in self defense, but his whole intention of the interaction that night was to kill them whether or not they tried to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/124 "2015-03-20T11:12:29Z")
> [@theR](#): > > Okay, you could argue he killed the cops in self defense, but his whole intention of the interaction that night was to kill them whether or not they tried to kill him. One could argue that he gave them the non working gun so that he could be sure they intended to kill him, but he was already “dirty”. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/125 "2015-03-20T13:36:21Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > So. Again, he’s allowed to accept a payment in cash. The Kettlemen’s probably had $30,000 before they even started stealing the money. It seems like the less wise thing would be to tell your lawyer you paid him with stolen money. If (especially after services have been rendered) he was forced to turn over the money, he’s going to sue you to recover what you owe him. > Since they only had to pay back what they stole, this isn’t going to bankrupt them, their best bet would be (would have been) to just put their own 30k back in the pot (if they took the deal). > Actually, their best bet would be to say they sent $100 to 300 different charities, anonymously. > Something like that, I haven’t thought it through, just that they did something untraceable with it. There were a thousand ways he could have kept the money but his goal was to save his friend’s job and the only way to do that was if every penny was returned, thus his sacrifice. ETA: I think the plan was the Father would think one of his kids found the money and was playing with it. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/126 "2015-03-20T13:45:04Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > What I’m lost on is this: Why did Mike break into the cop car? Because I thought he was dropping the notebook on the floor or tucking it between the seat cushions, so that NewGuy would find it when he noticed it missing. What did he do in there? If you are talking about last week’s episode, that was part of the flashback. He broke in to hide a gun. That was how he was able to shoot them after they searched him. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/127 "2015-03-20T14:06:09Z")
I just watched the episode, it was another good one. I read somewhere that the Kettlemans were just supposed to be in the pilot but the writers liked them and figured out a way to keep them on for some more episodes. It will be interesting to see what goes on with Chuck. I wonder if his goal is to go back to working at HHM, and if he tried if they would truly let him back, or if he’d be seen as a liability. It’s nice to see him trying to improve, though I’m guessing there will be a major setback. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > So it seems to me that Jimmy could very easily say “The Kettlemans came to me (or I found them), they gave me $30,000 to defend them and I took it, what’s the problem, happens every day”. It was 1.2% of the money it’s not like they gave him a half million dollars for the defense in an attempt to get rid of it. > > Yes, it was cash, but it’s not up to Jimmy to ask why it was cash, that’s not his problem. He offered a service, they paid for the service. Beyond that, I’m sure Jimmy could have figured it out, but they didn’t go that route so it doesn’t matter. I’m sure Jimmy could have figured out a clever way to keep the money. But it wouldn’t be easy, and Mrs. Kettleman would not have quietly let him keep any money without taking him down with her. Even if he isn’t arrested or charged or anything, it’s not the type of publicity that Jimmy would be wanting for his burgeoning elder law career. Also, he is still mostly trying to do the right thing. It is interesting to see the moral conflicts for him. I wonder if there will be some big event that changes his moral definitions, or just tiny little slips down the slippery slope. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Mrs. Kettleman makes me laugh. She’s great. My favorite part was this part at the diner: “If there were any money, there would have to be a full accounting of it. Every penny of it,” “That includes the $30,000 that—” “Craig, he gets it.” > [@Joey\_P](#): > > So. Again, he’s allowed to accept a payment in cash. The Kettlemen’s probably had $30,000 before they even started stealing the money. It seems like the less wise thing would be to tell your lawyer you paid him with stolen money. If (especially after services have been rendered) he was forced to turn over the money, he’s going to sue you to recover what you owe him. > Since they only had to pay back what they stole, this isn’t going to bankrupt them, their best bet would be (would have been) to just put their own 30k back in the pot (if they took the deal). > Actually, their best bet would be to say they sent $100 to 300 different charities, anonymously. > Something like that, I haven’t thought it through, just that they did something untraceable with it. There’s no way that the Kettleman’s would let the money be returned and cover for Jimmy keeping some of it. No way at all. Even if it was in their best interest. Not the money that they worked so hard to “earn.” Mrs. Kettleman said she was going to call the cops on Jimmy for taking their money, and seemed sincere about it. > [@Shakester](#): > > Maybe [del]Saul[/del] Jimmy called Mike and asked him for advice about where the Kettlemans might be hiding the cash, and Mike offered to find/pinch it in return for Jimmy waiving his fee. That’s not so hard to imagine, is it? Not everything needs to be spelled out onscreen, and that scenario is hardy a fanwank. That sounds plausible. Jimmy helped him out with the Philadelphia cops, and I’m guessing Mike doesn’t like to be in debt to people, and offered to do this and they’d be square. > [@Pashnish\_Ewing](#): > > I keep hearing about how the Kettlemans are ‘clueless’ - and I think it’s true for Mr K, but I think Mrs K knew exactly what she was doing. > > I imagine that she had grown tired of her milquetoast husband, but she doesn’t believe in divorce. So how can she get rid of her husband for the next thirty years? Talk him into embezzling and then get him sent up the river. And as a bonus, she’ll have over a $1M to take care of the kids and keep them in their affluent suburban lifestyle (and don’t tell me she can’t spend it - Walt seemed to do okay with his ill gotten cash). Plus she becomes a sympathetic character in the community. And, of course, she knows that Mr K will go along with whatever she says. > > So when she breaks down at the end, I see it as the final realization that her grand plan has failed. Say goodbye to the lifestyle, Mr K comes back in 18 months, and she will have to get a job to support the kids. Her worst nightmare. I don’t think that Mrs. K is the big mastermind that some people seem to think she is. Out of her family, she’s the mastermind, but she’s still not a criminal genius. She seems to have some good short-term plans, but not always thinking out the long-term consequences. Like the “camping trip,” what do you think their long-term plans were for that? That they’d somehow be able to leave the country with their money and not come up on any radars? Even if she is living a double life and has shady connections that can get them fake IDs and get them new lives, she has her two kids with her, do you think they’d never slip up and say their real names to someone? And it took Saul several hours to find them, but it was less than one day. If he hadn’t found them, it seems like someone else would stumble upon them eventually. Also, she threatened to call the cops on Jimmy for taking their money and didn’t seem to realize how absurd that was. It is possible that she’s a criminal mastermind who had everything all set up perfectly until Jimmy foiled her plans. But it seems more likely that it’s just like Jimmy and Kim think, and that Mrs. K is not as smart as she thinks she is and has been living in Cloud Cuckoo-Land. > [@cmyk](#): > > Yeh, but look what Walt had to do in order to launder and conceal his earnings. His wasn’t embezzelment either. Just cash by ill-gotten means. And for the length of it, he wasn’t caught. > > Then, when he was, he had to > > go into hiding for a year in NH, then blackmail the Schwartz to deliver the money to Walt Jr after so long. Then he died. Not a great long-term plan, and Walt was a mastermind. This is very true, for most of Breaking Bad, there was no reason for anyone to be investigating Walt’s finances, because for all anyone knew he was a high school chemistry teacher. That’s how he got away with it for so long. If he was under investigation from the start like the Kettlemans are, Breaking Bad would have been a much different show. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/128 "2015-03-22T12:56:31Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > I don’t think that Mr. K. has enough imagination or initiative to start embezzling on his own. He’s absolutely a follower. The wife is the leader in all things - in every conversation, in furniture selection, in justification of Mr. K.'s “alleged” crimes. The husband was even leaning towards the deal when Kim first suggested it. But, he got trumped by the Mrs. > > Mrs. K. only folds after Jimmy & Mike stole all of her cards. I wish people would stop talking about us this way. I have not embezzled any money, nor have I been accused of such. My wife certainly would never go along with it, let alone try to be the mastermind. What? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/129 "2015-03-22T13:31:37Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > I wish people would stop talking about us this way. I have not embezzled any money, nor have I been accused of such. My wife certainly would never go along with it, let alone try to be the mastermind. That’s what you’d _like_ us to think. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/130 "2015-03-23T15:19:45Z")
Mrs Kettleman’s so freaking hot. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128/131 "2015-03-24T14:03:20Z")
Mike breaking into the police car and Mike swiping (and through Jimmy, returning) the notebook were months apart. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-07-bingo-3-16-2015/715128.md?page=6)