The DA doesn’t seem to know about Kim and Jimmy’s relationship, since she casually trashed Jimmy to Kim. I imagine if she did, she might suspect shenanigans, but as far as I can tell Kim has a clear local reputation and has just taken a partnership at an established firm so accusing Kim of anything without solid (or indeed, any) evidence is likely to create more problems for the DA than it solves.
Heh, on investigation, I was amused to learn the “sucker” was an established character, “Ken”, who years after being conned by Kim and Jimmy would have a run-in with Walt.
I think the $6K “raised” on the fundraising page explains the high priced lawyers. I retract what i said about the ADA knowing she was being scammed, now I think the look of bemusement on her face while talking to Reverend Jimmy and watching the church website was due to realizing where the funding was coming from.
I still think they used (or could have used) a real church that didn’t have a web site.
One reason that Kim’s scam worked so well is the reason that many magic tricks work so well. People want to believe the simplest explanation, even when that explanation is clearly not possible.
Imagine I want a card trick in which a cockroach appears at just the right moment. A magician might very well consult with an entomologist about what sort of cockroach to use, where to get one, how to care for one, how to handle one, and so forth. The magician might take the time to arrange the cards in the deck, have multiple decks, have a non-regular deck, and so forth. The only thing that the witness sees is cards doing things that they shouldn’t and wow a cockroach! The witness will see none of the preparation - even knowing ahead of time that it’s a magic trick. Give the witness an afternoon with the props for a careful inspection and a video of the trick being performed… The witness might form some ideas about how it was done.
In the case of Kim’s scam, there was a big reveal - the bags of letters - but, very quickly, life had to move on. There was no long afternoon to spend wondering. Make a deal. Next case, please.
I’m 80% sure that would be the worst thing ever and completely ruin Breaking Bad in retrospect… but in the other 20% it would be the most audacious and brilliant gambit in the history of American pop culture.
I’m 100% sure it would result in me throwing something at my television in anger.
Bad idea. He’ll alter it so that the cartel poisons first.
emphasis mine
Well hell, I’m totally over trying to predict what’s going to happen to Kim and Jimmy …
The Huell con was fun, intricate and exciting … gave Kim and Jimmy a chance to team up, Kim doing the brain work, Jimmy the grunt work. They went from barely speaking to a passionate slam up against the courthouse stairwell … then to bed for victory sex. He makes her laugh again using funny accents about crawdads in his pants. Did my heart good.
Again, I remember something creator Gould said long ago - that Kim and Jimmy seem to have the most fun when they’re scamming, or right after.
“Let’s do it again” certainly aims the show in a new direction. Maybe finally accepting one another for who they are and what they love to do? Maybe not Bonnie and Clyde, but this Huell caper danced on the edge, flirting with federal crime … which could lead to her disbarment.
How would S&W react if they found out Kim had used $400 an hour associates to defend a pickpocket for whalloping a cop with a bag of sandwiches? Or were they just law student props? The show made a point of ADA Suzanne commenting on Kim doing this pro bono. Kim replied - “I never said that.”
Seems that Kim’s involvement started with doing Jimmy a favor, to keep him from doing the cop-smear. During her meeting with ADA Suzanne she resented that Huell wasn’t being treated fairly, that his sentence was heavier than that of white defendants, etc. …then she really got mad about the scumbag lawyer comment.
Kim seems more motivated by unfairness than money … both she and Jimmy like to stick it to bullies.
Please don’t let the thrill of the scam destroy her - her favorite movie of all time is “To Kill a Mockingbird” because she wants to BE Atticus Finch! My fingers are crossed that she survives, and that was her card that Saul gave Francesca in the flashback earlier… and they’ll end up together in Nebraska for their golden years. They had that flashback for a reason DANG IT!
Poor Nacho in his fancy bachelor’s pad with cool art work, now being squeezed between Gus and another Salamanca. Lalo is going to be interesting - loved the light-hearted dancing around the kitchen - “taste this, you’re gonna die!” Nacho is saving money (or skimming?), making plans to escape to Canada with his father using fake IDs… yeah, like he’s going to get his Papa to leave. Wasn’t that Spanish song at the end - “paco, paco, paco … caballo” - about packing bags to ride horses to Canada?
Chilling - the last shot of Nacho in silhouette with the emphasis on his own earring …
Mike lets the Germans go out for a little “R and R” … to a strip club … where men hungry for women can look but not touch. I don’t understand.
And maybe it’s not just Kai who’s gonna die. Yes, Werner goofed up …but as soon as he said he misses his wife back home, and has never been away from her this long in 26 yrs … I knew he was a goner. He’s already shown that he can’t keep his mouth shut when he gets drunk. His pride for his father’s work on a world landmark compared with his work on something just as difficult… that no one will ever know about … made me sad.
Maybe the whole crew dies in a private plane crash going home …
Oh yes, I liked that Mrs. Nguyen finally showed some compassion by offering Jimmy advice about saying sorry, flowers and cloth napkin restaurants … and the strong rice wine.
Most likely a kudos. It’s very common in most law firms to take cases pro bono or for reduced fees to break in the Baby Barristers. Outside of the large financial hubs like NY, London, Dubai etc, even big firms, even those with narrow specialties have at least some briefs and work on general matters. Three young lawyers got the experience of Court room litigations and negotiation. Skills easily transferable elsewhere.
Thank you, most of what I know about law firms and courtrooms comes from TV shows and legal thrillers on the best-seller lists.
I’m kind of wondering, did Nacho buy himself that fancy new modern apartment? Complete with a couple of drug whores? Or was it given to him by the cartel as a perk, like a company owned pied-a-terre to live in? I may be all wrong, but he doesn’t seem to be the type who would pick out such a super-modern ‘urban penthouse’ place to live in. With his poor old father in a shack in the desert cranking out belts and purses, how did Nacho go from that to a glass walled Architectural Digest centerfold? Complete with a giggly druggie twosome to make a threesome?
The links between prostitution and drug running are old and established. I would ventured guess that the place is sort of a rec area/halls of residence. The prostitutes and muscle can relax and unwind. Maybe with each other.
Again, your assertion about ‘infinite resources’ is simply wrong. Simple phone calls and mail records requests to not require ‘infinite resources’. That’s what’s needed to established that the church doesn’t actually exist. Once that’s one, then there’s enough reason to spend the higher resources to check the prints on letters and pull harder records (phone ownership, Bus/train/plane tickets under likely names, and the like). And that’s a level of expense that’s routine in felony cases, not ‘infinite’.
Your assertion that the judge wants “the matter” disposed of quickly, and that that puts a limit on investigating the letters, is not supported by anything on the show. The judge states wants Huell’s trial disposed of without the ‘circus’ of busfulls of yokels, but says nothing about a time limit. There’s an implied limit of ‘by the time trial date comes up’, but that’s a typically delay of weeks or months without even filing for a continuance (which, incidentally, the judge has no reason to object to). Further, and more critically, that’s only about Huell’s case, the judge didn’t set any kind of restriction on resolving ‘the matter’ of the fake church and scam because he doesn’t actually think it’s fake. Huell’s trial isn’t actually a time limit for that, time is simply not a scarce resource if the ADA chooses to investigate.
I thought Kim opened a card during the scene, but it looks like she only touches outside packaging. So no prints of hers, just Jimmy.
The INSIDE of the envelopes, where the cards are, have not been handled by multiple people except for the few that are opened in the office. Lifting fingerprints from paper is not a hard task, it’s done all the time. Getting a match would be absolutely trivial, because they wouldn’t need to run all fingerprints, just a few likely suspect who’s prints are on file (Jimmy and Huell, though Huell’s probably won’t turn up). Also they wouldn’t need to get something flagged quickly, as I pointed out above the time limit idea is not supported by reality or the show - fingerprint/dna evidence would be gathered AFTER realizing the church is a scam to try to find the perpetrator, it wouldn’t be the piece that shows that the church is a scam.
And no one is licking the letters to get their DNA on it, and from what we’re shown in the episode Jimmy is the only one licking envelopes (since he checks the cards before paying people). Contrary to your assertion, getting a DNA sample from a licked envelope is NOT functionally impossible, and was definitely doable in 2004:
Oh, and real-world investigators think that your ‘functionally impossible’ lifting of DNA is a reasonable thing to try to envelops that have been sitting around since 1969:
All of the items I’m discussing are predicated on her suspecting that the church is fraudulent and choosing to investigate that. What we see in this episode indicates that she doesn’t. It’s come from a discussion of the risks and vulnerabilities of the scheme and cover-up.
No, they don’t. I know people who are social workers (not even ADAs) who call police for basic information about people and situations, it takes a brief phone call not a week and batch of forms. Some kinds of formal interagency documents will take forever, but that’s not what I’m talking about - this would be a basic verbal request for information to point the investigation in the right direction. But hey, that’s just assertion vs assertion, so I’ll PROVE your claim that it takes weeks to get a response from the IRS is false. If you want to verify if a non-profit is recognized by the IRS, you can do it today. Go to this link and pick a state, and you’ve got every single one in the state. Go to a different link and you can do a search for a specific entity. Funnily enough, that didn’t take weeks, and didn’t result in a cycle of requests for clarifications. I’m not sure when the web search went online (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was post 2004), but there is also a number you can call to check tax exempt status which was definitely around then. Common anti-scam advise is to check the tax exempt status of any place you’re thinking of making a donation to, not finding it for an alleged church is a huge red flag.
Also two other places to quickly find a problem:
Local library, ask for basic info on the church, there won’t be any. (Yes, reference desks generally would do a phone book lookup)
Local information (usually 312-555-1212) and ask for the Church’s number, discover that it’s not listed.
Yeah, I think it was a really bad choice and I don’t get it. Renting a vacation house for a weekend or week and bringing in some girls would be easy to do, not overly expensive, provide better security, give anyone who doesn’t like strip clubs a chance to fish or sunbathe or whatever, and provide a real chance to get out of work mode. Aren’t most West Europeans used to 4-6 weeks of vacation a year?
[quote]
And maybe it’s not just Kai who’s gonna die.
I’m still on team ‘no die for Kai’. He’s mouthy, but he’s not making the ‘let me tell you about the secret project’ screwups.
Ouch! I guess some folks take the show pretty seriously.
We know that the BCS writers are well aware of drama’s clichés and tropes, and enjoy subverting them. So this may be a case of setting up expectations in genre-savvy viewers—that the writers will then proceed to flout.
Ha! Yes. I just watched the episode and wondered if this had come up as a thread topic.
First off, if you are doing a Coushatta accent, it sure ain’t Cajun. There are no Cajuns in Coushatta. Well, maybe one or two who wandered into the northern part of the state, but essentially, no Cajuns. The accent up there is “East Texas nasal drawl.”
And, like **Tread **mentioned, they pronounced “Coushatta” and “Lake Pontchartrain” wrong. And Lake Ponchartrain is like 4 hours away from Coushatta, across the Great Cultural Divide of Louisiana. LP comes up in casual conversation in northeast Louisiana approximately never.
And Jimmy referred to the ADA as “y’all.” Yes, it would have been okay if the implication was that he was referring to the ADA and her legal team, but it sure seemed like he was addressing her personally.
Southerners don’t refer to a singular person as “y’all.”
Hollywood southerners refer to a singular person as “y’all” all the damn time.
Anyway, these are minor gripes. I’m good with suspending my disbelief to allow the plot to move forward the way the writers want. Sure, the scam could fall apart in any number of ways, but I’m good with taking it on faith that it worked.
As pointed out in the post you quoted, would Jimmy know any of that? If he wouldn’t, those gripes miss the point completely.
This isn’t a show set in LA with LA characters. It’s a show set in NM with a NM conman impersonating someone from LA. I would think it would be less plausible if he got the accents and subtleties right.
Quick specific example: Does Jimmy the character know that you don’t say “y’all” to a single person? Where would he have learned his y’all usage from? TV, maybe?