Spoilers below for the season finale for Better Call Saul!
Much as I hate to accept it, "Something Unforgivable" is the final episode of Better Call Saul that fans will get to see for quite a while, with Season 6 still in the developmental stages. Thank goodness, then, that the show's creative team found a way to cap off the main Season 5 narratives in thrilling and nerve-rattling ways. The stage is now set for the drama's swan song, which will likely be a grim experience for Jimmy, Kim, Mike, Nacho and literally everyone else. (Except for maaaybe Don Eladio.)
Below is a somewhat brief rundown of how Better Call Saul's Season 5 finale wrapped up all the main characters' storylines. (You can also check out what star Michael Mando told us about Nacho's finale arc.) Let's kick things off with the lawyerly couple with the shifting dynamic.
Jimmy and Kim
For anyone who thought that Jimmy might spend the finale jumping through flaming hoops and fast-talking his way out of doomed situations, showrunner Peter Gould made the choice to keep the sunburned Jimmy largely in the same hotel room for the whole episode. He and Kim sought out such temporary residing after Lalo's threatening visit to their home, though they did spend some of the episode in good spirits whenever they were under the assumption that Lalo was marked for death.
Minus that enraged trip to Mike's house, Jimmy stayed cooped up while Kim was making the effort to still get her legal work done, even if she was desperately taking on police department overflow instead of working for Schweikart and Cokely. But after having something of an eye-opening conversation with Howard, Kim seemingly fell down Saul Goodman's rabbit hole.
Although Jimmy tried giving Kim some heart-to-hearts about why she should probably move on in life without him, Kim doubled down by appealing heavily to his Saul persona. She wisely (or not) planted seeds in Jimmy's head to completely destroy Howard by revealing some kind of misconduct or otherwise negligent behavior he may or may not be legitimately guilty of. The Howard plot is a means to an end, where the "end" is imploding the long-gestating Sandpiper class action lawsuit so that Jimmy and Kim can recuperate their expansive share of the common fund.
Jimmy was initially wary of buying into Kim's plan as the real deal, but it became clear to him that she had put serious thought into it, and won't be keen to back down just because Howard's career might be destroyed. Part of Jimmy was bemused by the situation, but there was obviously a deeper part of him concerned with the aggressive and dangerous road Kim is heading down. Here's hoping Kim comes to her senses in Season 6 long before it's too late.
Nacho
Despite thinking he would soon be a free man in Episode 9, Michael Mando's Nacho found himself drawn deeper into the cartel's clutches in the finale. Lalo took Nacho into his home and had him fraternizing with family, which definitely isn't a privilege Lalo would extend to any random passerby. Nacho had finally and fully gained his boss' trust, right on the same day everyone was scheming to having Lalo killed, with Nacho being the lynchpin.
As if he wasn't already a ticking stress bomb, Nacho didn't just have to hang out with Lalo's peeps; he also had to meet and impress big bossman Don Eladio, as portrayed by Steven Bauer. A man of few words, Nacho did indeed pull off his meet and greet with flying colors by offering some rather smart advice that could very well shake up how the cartel does its business.
Nacho's first two at-bats may have been successful, but he eventually fouled up the third one by not sticking around to make sure the job was done. Tasked with allowing Fring's enforcers to enter Lalo's family compound, Nacho set a stove fire to distract Lalo, and then hauled ass immediately after getting the front entrance unlocked. Unfortunately for Nacho, Lalo couldn't be stopped by his attackers the way that all the more innocent people were. So one can easily assume that Nacho won't be allowed back into Lalo's squad, which may mean he will get more fully invested in Gus Fring's crew. Unless Lalo gets to him first, of course.
Lalo
After having been completely put in his place by Kim, Lalo got Nacho to drive him back to his crib in Mexico, where the idea was to introduce Nacho around and then put him in contact with Don Eladio. As Lalo made it clear in his own not-too-complimentary way, he let Nacho know his hard work was being observed, and that he would likely move up in the cartel's ranks. It went unspoken that Nacho shouldn't be part of an assassination attempt against Lalo, but wouldn't you know that's exactly what happened.
After having given Don Eladio a gift that dwarfed Fring's offering, and realizing that Nacho had proven himself within the cartel kingpin, Lalo was a happy man. So his mind was no doubt in disarray that evening when it became clear that Nacho had set him up to die. Still, Lalo is nobody's victim, so it was awesome to watch him take out each of his would-be killers, complete with the use of an underground tunnel.
It definitely spoke to the weight of this final act that Season 5 specifically ended on an increasingly outraged Lalo walking away from his family's corpses, presumably to rain hell on anyone standing in his way. This is the Lalo that would cause the kind of fear that Breaking Bad fans witnessed in Saul Goodman whenever he mentioned Lalo's name for the first time in the franchise. This is the Lalo who knocks.
Fring and Mike
Somewhat surprisingly, Giancarlo Esposito's Gus Fring played a pretty minuscule role in the Season 5 finale, popping up mainly to have a conversation with Mike about Nacho's future. While Mike thought that Nacho had done enough to earn the right to dictate his next moves, Fring was keen on having a man on the inside to make the assassination attempt that much easier. (Not that it helped, obviously.) Beyond that, Fring mostly stayed out of things, though he'll likely be back in a big way for Season 6.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Banks' Mike didn't exactly have the most prolific role in the episode either. Beyond his talk with Fring, Mike was also accosted by an angry Jimmy, who showed up on Mike's doorstep hollering and causing a scene. Mike kept his cool and maintained the knowledge that Jimmy had just been through a hell in the desert like he'd never known before, so overreacting wasn't necessarily out of character. Still, Mike definitely didn't want Jimmy to still be there when his family showed up. The guy has an image to uphold, after all.
Howard
While there are plenty of reasons why Patrick Fabian's Howard Hamlin should want to straight-up avoid publicly connecting with either Jimmy or Kim, the guy's principles just won't let him slack off in that respect. Howard's topsy-turvy relationship with Jimmy only got weirder and more destructive in Season 5, despite Jimmy (or Saul here) being offered the olive branch of a position with HHM. So when Howard ran into Kim in the courthouse, it perhaps wasn't a surprise that he gave her the very salient warning that she should be worried about Jimmy's unchecked behavior.
Of course, from Kim's perspective, Howard was possibly just bullshitting to make Jimmy look bad. But even if he was telling the 100% truth, Kim's stood tall in Jimmy's defense, which led to Howard invoking Chuck's name. Howard said that Chuck was the only person who really knew Jimmy, and he barely tolerated his younger brother, with nary an ounce of trust going Jimmy's way. Kim did not take that comment likely, and it played a big part in her later scheme to take Howard down.
For now, Better Call Saul is over and done with. Season 6, the Breaking Bad spinoff's final season, will presumably go into production later this year to hit a 2021 release date on AMC. Until then, check out all the other big TV finales that will be airing soon.
