‘Better Call Saul’ season 3, episode 7 recap: Jimmy is on the struggle bus

Photo by Michele K. Short/Sony Pictures/AMC Image Acquired by AMC

Jimmy is determined to make his commercial business work, even if it’s going to cost him.

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This week’s Better Call Saul opens with a quiet scene of people lining up against the wall of a building to do their community service. Jimmy can’t shake the lawyer in him and asks if he can read the waiver first, but then elects not to. During his community service time, he constantly takes calls to try to get some more commercial business. It’s fun to see Bob Odenkirk getting more into the Saul Goodman role even though he’s technically still Jimmy at this point in time.

The beginning of the episode spends a lot of time with Jimmy, which is great since the show is called Better Call Saul. He tries to sell a client on buying more commercials for $3500, but only winds up making $500. Then, he and Kim go over expenses for the law offices that he no longer works at and he has just enough cash to cover his portion of the costs and buy them some Chinese food for dinner. With Jimmy no longer being a lawyer for the time being, he’s still putting his skills to good use.

If you want to talk about a guy who has plenty of money stashed away, though, Mike has you covered. He’s smart enough to not spend it lavishly and literally keeps it under his floorboards. In fact, he uses a stack to help build the kids a playground. He’s the ultimate grandpa in that instance. Even though he’s a lone wolf, it’s nice to see him give in just a little and allow others to help him build it.

Kim meets with Mesa Verde and has a moment of unprofessionalism. You can see the disappointment in herself on her face even before she apologizes for it. Then, she speaks up about how she went after Chuck in court after Paige already made a joke about it earlier in the scene. Kim wants to take the high road and it suits her character well.

Jimmy is so desperate for customers that he offers to shoot a spot for free. His make up girl offers her share of the money back to Jimmy, but he refuses to take it. Jimmy really is a good guy at heart and he’s not going to screw someone out of their share just because he’s losing money. You can see how beaten down he is with not being able to be a lawyer, but we already know where he ends up so it’s a joy just to see how he gets there.

Kim shares a smoke with Jimmy and he makes her take a break from her work. They go out to a bar and have some fun people watching. Jimmy goes after the biggest jerk in the car and Kim gets a little worried when Jimmy goes on about how they’d get the guy. His anger is coming right on out until Kim snaps him out of it by saying they weren’t going to actually do it. This scene is some great acting from Rhea Seehorn.

Mike calls up Pryce, who he met with earlier, to work on the deal he mentioned. This leads to a meeting with Nacho because Mike wants to know what he’s up to. He pieced together that Nacho wants to get rid of Hector Salamanca. Nacho is doing all of this to save his dad, who has nothing to do with the drug business. Even with the bad guys, Better Call Saul gives us something good to see in them. Mike realizes this and gives Nacho some tips on how to succeed at it.

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Jimmy heads to Santa Rosa Insurance Group to see if he can get a refund on his malpractice insurance since his license is suspended. It’s hard to tell if his breakdown is real or not because he really is struggling as much as he says he is. However, he goes into a little rant about Chuck and you instantly know he’s just trying to get a little payback for Chuck going after him. And I must say, not seeing Chuck this week was a nice little break from the frustration he causes whenever he’s on screen (even if it’s because he’s just so darn good at it).

The way that they’re showing Jimmy’s struggle with not being an attorney is great. Mike making a connection with Anita from the support group is a nice little addition to his storyline, too. He’s typically only around Jimmy, his daughter and granddaughter, or criminals. So it’s nice to add someone new for him to interact with. This was a solid episode, even if it felt like things didn’t advance too much.

Better Call Saul airs Mondays at 10/9c on AMC.