Under the direction of Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, the scams and cons that occur throughout Better Call Saul know no limit and can range from massive to minute. No matter the scale, they always pack a punch (and the occasional montage) that leaves the audience in awe and craving more.
With Better Call Saul back for its sixth and final season, and the shocking news that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) are confirmed to appear, there's no better time to revisit the scams and swindles that have formed Jimmy McGill into the infamous criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.
7. The Firing Scam, "Inflatable" (Season 2, Episode 7)
Feeling more confident on his own as opposed to being attached to a firm, Jimmy decides to quit his prestigious job at the conservative Davis & Main law firm, intending to take his recently accrued bonus with him. However, his assistant informs him that he won’t be able to keep the bonus if he quits. Discouraged and frustrated by this revelation, Jimmy finds inspiration after driving by a brightly colored inflatable dummy in front of a used car lot. He realizes the only way to keep the bonus and ditch the job is to get himself fired. The ultimate ‘have your cake and eat it too’ scenario.
What follows is one of the more entertaining montages in the series as Jimmy sets out to get sacked. Showing up in obnoxiously colored suits and even wilder ties, bringing a juicer into the office and constantly using it, playing the bagpipes in his office, all intercut by the imagery of the flailing inflatable. Jimmy becomes unavoidable, assaulting his coworkers' senses in every possible way. He even routinely neglects to flush the toilet and takes immediate, shameless credit when the situation is addressed.
While his scheme is undeniably flamboyant and his antics zany, there’s nothing overly creative about it. While it isn’t likely to be replicated in reality, it is something anyone could pull off if truly desired.
6. The Watch Scam - "Hero" (Season 1, Episode 4)
This scam occurs in the early days of Jimmy’s career, back when he was known as Slippin’ Jimmy. Working with his accomplice, Marco, Jimmy manages to scam a man out of the cash in his wallet through an elaborate ruse involving a fake Rolex. The creativity in this con is in the story that the two must-have scripted and choreographed several times before setting it into motion. The way the scam plays out, Jimmy is able to make it appear as if his mark is controlling the situation when he is just a puppet in Jimmy and Marco's scam.
It becomes clear to the viewer that Marco and Jimmy have successfully pulled this same hustle on multiple occasions. The con works effectively and highlights Jimmy’s artful skills of persuasion early in the series. And while creative, in comparison to his other cons it’s essentially a one-dimensional, quick hit for cash. Sure, it marks an important point in Jimmy’s backstory, but it lacks the genius and ambition of his bigger schemes.
5. The Tequila Scam - "Switch" (Season 2, Episode 1)
While imbibing at a swanky hotel bar after deciding to leave the law, Jimmy, who is joined by his friend Kim, wants to try a shot of tequila called Zafiro Añejo but is discouraged by the $50 price point. The pair happen to be sitting near a pompous stockbroker, who is in the middle of loudly blabbing about his latest deal into his Bluetooth earpiece. Recognizing the man as an easy mark, Jimmy starts a conversation about inheritance with Kim to catch his ear. After Jimmy has reeled him in and pretended he and Kim are siblings, Jimmy slyly asks if “wealth manager” Ken has ever tried the expensive tequila. Ken bites and buys rounds for them all.
After more nonsense conjured up by Jimmy and Kim, who have since decided to go with the ruse, they end up drinking the entire bottle of Zafiro Añejo. Once their conversation wraps up, and they sign a frivolous contract to work with Ken, Jimmy offers to foot the bill, but as anticipated Ken insists. Jimmy lets Ken pay as he and Kim bolt before they can be stopped.
This is another scam where the reward for the ruse is not overly significant, but it is very clever and quite humorous. It is also a great demonstration of Jimmy’s ability to read and manipulate people. More than anything, it is a way for Jimmy to prove to Kim that he doesn't need to be a lawyer or work at a firm to be successful or to be happy. He succeeds in this greater goal as Kim could have easily put an end to the scam, but she leans into it instead. There is an allure to Jimmy’s ability to affably con and create something from nothing. The tequila scam is a great example of that. Plus Kim got to keep the bottle topper!
4. The Battery Scam - "Chicanery" (Season 3, Episode 5)
Attempting to prove that his brother Chuck doesn’t truly suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, Jimmy and Huell manage to slip a phone battery into Chuck’s breast pocket before a trial. Jimmy later gets Chuck to expose it to himself and everyone else in the room while questioning him. Chuck is shocked and appalled, but as Jimmy suspected and proved, there was no medical reaction.
While the trick itself wasn’t much more than a reverse-pickpocket routine, the cunning of the scam is found in the ramifications. The room was empty of all electronics, including lights and cell phones, as requested by Chuck himself. It was filled with jurors and a judge to bear witness. He even had Chuck describe his symptoms, getting him to confirm that he was fine in his current state. Once Jimmy had exposed that Chuck’s condition was mental, and not truly physical, it would be undeniable proof that Chuck was not of sound mind and therefore unfit for the bar.
The creativity manifests itself in the illusion that Jimmy creates. Chuck is smug during the trial and Jimmy feeds into it, making it appear as if he has lost the upper hand. He allows Chuck to find the phone that Jimmy planted in his own suit and begrudgingly hands it over for Chuck to examine, finding the battery removed. Chuck’s ego grows even more inflated, but when the moment finally comes and the battery is revealed to have been on him the entire time, Chuck flies off the handle. Through his ensuing tirade, Chuck loses any sense of civility, all in front of his fellow associates and the entire courtroom. Jimmy has won. It is perhaps his most devastating and effective con.
3. The Veteran Scam - "Fifi" (Season 2, Episode 8)
Jimmy wants to film a high-quality commercial on a low-quality budget, so he does what he does best and scams his way onto a US Air Force Base to film one.
The creativity and ingenuity in this scam are again, mainly rooted in Jimmy’s ability to thread a convincing story. By calling on the help of an elderly man he once defended (a registered sex offender by the way) and dressing him up as a veteran he already has a good start. But Jimmy also needs to get his rag-tag film crew on board as well, so they instantly become relatives of the World War II veteran. Finally, he needs to smuggle the equipment, camera, microphone, etc. So Jimmy relies on a wheelchair to double as a sympathetic part of his story and as a caddy. Jimmy talks the captain who is providing the tour into bending the rules and taking them to visit a WWII bomber plane named Fifi. While the eager captain is gushing over the veteran, Jimmy convinces him that the elderly man needs water. Jimmy has now forced the captain to run back to the base to grab water simply out of verbal obligation, leaving them alone with the plane and their equipment.
Like a pit crew in the heat of a race, Jimmy’s ‘veteran’ is out of his wheelchair, posed heroically in front of Fifi, while the film crew uses the wheelchair as a dolly to shoot the scene. They don’t waste a single second, and they get out undetected. Jimmy now has the commercial footage he needs and the misplaced respect of an entire Air Force Base. The manipulation in this one is off the charts as Jimmy demonstrates powerful use of pathos in his speech to sell the captain on his fake veteran's story. Not only has Jimmy crafted the perfect story, but he is able to sell it convincingly to such a degree that if he had been caught, he'd be able to talk himself out of any trouble.
2. The Xerox Scam - "Fifi" (Season 2, Episode 8)
Also occurring in the episode "Fifi," the Xerox scam is by far the most meticulous and intricate of Jimmy’s entire catalog. In an attempt to prevent Chuck and HHM (Chuck and Howard’s law firm) from stealing the Mesa Verde account from Kim, Jimmy tampers with Chuck’s files from Mesa Verde. Chuck happens to be out cold, suffering from his journey into the outside, “electric” world, which gives Jimmy the perfect opportunity to snag the files. He takes them to a copy center where he spends the entire evening using an Exacto knife, glue, and precise measurements swapping the last two numbers of the Mesa Verde law firm’s address on every single document in Chuck’s file. He then returns the file with Chuck none the wiser.
The beauty of this con is in its sheer simplicity. Jimmy knew this minuscule, seemingly benign, numbers error would drive Chuck over the edge much more than anything else, all while directing Mesa Verde back in Kim’s direction. His successful forgery checks all the boxes of a quintessential Better Call Saul scam, it’s clever, resourceful, and serves a greater purpose. While certainly unethical, this is another scenario where Jimmy does the wrong thing for what he believes is the right reason. HHM is trying to pluck the Mesa Verde account away from Kim, even though she was the one who discovered and acquired their business in the first place. Through Jimmy’s endlessly creative psyche he realizes if he can forge an indisputable error on HHM’s side, Mesa Verde will stick with Kim. He pulls this scam off, one which could severely compromise him all to better Kim and her career.
1. The Huell Scam - "Coushatta" (Season 4, Episode 8)
Elaborate, colorful, strenuous, expensive, ingenious. The scam that Jimmy pulls in the episode Coushatta is by far his most creative. After Huell assaults a man he didn’t realize was a cop while working as Jimmy’s security for his burner phone hustle, Jimmy and Kim team up to keep him out of prison.
Relying on Huell’s birthplace of Coushatta, Louisiana as his inspiration, Jimmy intends to paint him as a hometown hero. He boards a bus from Albuquerque to Louisiana and spends the entire time writing/addressing letters (and bribing passengers to help in the effort), to the judge back in Albuquerque trying Huell’s case. Jimmy has a bag of assorted pens and colored craft paper which he uses to appear as if coming from different senders. We have seen Jimmy go to great lengths before, and while the stakes don’t feel intimidating amidst all the colored pencils and glitter, there is still so much to be in awe of.
Once all the letters, which amount to a duffel bag full, have been mailed and left the judge and prosecuting attorney beside themselves, Jimmy continues the con back in Albuquerque. Again displaying his one-of-a-kind resourcefulness, Jimmy utilizes his side gig of selling burner phones to benefit his scam. With over twenty burner phones laying across his desk and the help of his film crew, Jimmy fields calls from the baffled prosecuting attorney who is calling the multiple phone numbers that Jimmy planted on the cards. Jimmy and his crew go through a variety of accents and improv, most notably, Jimmy’s impersonation of a Louisiana pastor that claims he will be sending a charter bus to the trial. Every character passionately vouches for Huell. The scam is so thorough that he has even established a fake website for the Coushatta church where donations can be sent in support of Huell. There is so much faux outpouring of love for Huell that it completely overwhelms the prosecuting attorney, allowing Kim to get her to agree to a misdemeanor charge.
The level of detail and care that went into this con was so significant that it took an entire episode to completely unfurl. It is undoubtedly the most creative scam of the series as yet and is also a perfect way for Bob Odenkirk to demonstrate his iconic comedy improv chops that gave him his start in the business. It’s also important to note that this con worked towards helping someone, in this case, Huell, out of a tight spot, and not just for the benefit of himself. It transcends the genre of a con or scam through its ingenuity, and it also serves as the perfect way to show how Jimmy begins to form into the greatest criminal lawyer we know and love from Breaking Bad.