"Something Stupid" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the AMC television series Better Call Saul, the spinoff series of Breaking Bad. The episode aired on September 17, 2018 on AMC in the United States. Outside of the United States, the episode premiered on streaming serviceNetflix in several countries.
Plot
Opening
In a split-screen time jump sequence spanning eight months, Jimmy and Kim are shown to be drifting further apart, even as they continue to live together. Kim's arm heals and her cast is removed, leaving her less dependent on Jimmy. She thrives at Schweikart & Cokely, with the Mesa Verde expansion proceeding on schedule, and Kim finding time to continue the pro bonocriminal defense work that gives her personal satisfaction. Jimmy continues his visits with his probation officer and his boring job at the cellular phone store, but his side business re-selling prepaid phones on the street continues to grow. Jimmy's increasing contacts with Albuquerque's criminals cause him to frequently use the "Saul Goodman" alias. The time jump ends in early 2004, with Kim and Jimmy on opposite sides of Kim's bed, still in split-screen, while Kim's side slowly goes dark.
Main story
Jimmy shows Huell a prospective space for his new law offices, which he plans to finance with the profits from his cellular phone side business. Kim takes Jimmy to a reception at Schweikart & Cokely; initially charming and gracious, he increasingly feels out of place, and ducks into Kim's office. As he looks around, he realizes how successful she is, and how much better her office is than the one he showed Huell. He returns to the party and embarrasses Kim by making a fool of himself during a conversation with Rich and the other S & C lawyers. Hector begins to recover, and Dr. Bruckner helps with his therapy. Dr. Bruckner shows Gus video footage of a session which indicates Hector has improved cognitively and has limited mobility in his right hand, a sign the therapy is working. Dr. Bruckner dismisses Hector knocking a glass of water over as an involuntary action, but Gus sees that Hector did it purposely so he could ogle the nurse who bent over to clean it up. Gus tells Dr. Bruckner to end further treatment, in effect trapping Hector's healed mind inside his unhealed body. Werner's crew begins excavating the meth "superlab" under the industrial laundry. The work proceeds more slowly than anticipated, and when Casper accidentally knocks over a ceiling support with the skid-steer loader he's driving, Kai and Casper get into a shoving match. Mike intervenes to stop the fight and later meets the crew at their warehouse quarters, where Werner apologizes for their behavior. Mike wonders if they would be better off without Kai, but Werner suggests that his crew just needs some rest and relaxation, since they have been on the job far longer than anticipated. Jimmy continues to re-sell phones on the street, with his business now based in the back of a van on the outskirts of town. An off-duty police officer in plain clothes arrives and displays one of Jimmy's business cards, which he took from a drug dealer who purchased one of Jimmy's phones. He suggests Jimmy target a better class of customers and Jimmy argues that he's running a legal, legitimate business. During the dispute, Huell returns from a trip to buy lunch. Because he's wearing headphones, he doesn't understand the context of the argument, and strikes the police officer with a shopping bag containing sandwiches before Jimmy can stop him. The officer knows Huell from past interactions and arrests him. Jimmy is still a month from being reinstated to the bar, and can't represent Huell, so he enlists Kim's aid. Kim reluctantly accepts, but refuses to use unethical tricks to ruin the police officer's reputation. She wants Jimmy to assure that Huell will not flee before his court appearance, but Jimmy's reply is less than convincing. Kim tries to plea bargain with Suzanne Ericsen, the prosecutor in Huell's case, but his arrest record precludes Suzanne from agreeing to a deal. On her way to meet with Huell, Kim stops to buy office supplies and then calls Jimmy to tell him to stop whatever he's doing to help Huell, because she has a better way to handle the situation.
Production
The song played in the opening montage is a cover of "Somethin' Stupid" performed by the band Lola Marsh. The song was originally written by Carson Parks and made famous by Frank and Nancy Sinatra; the series' music supervisorThomas Golubić commissioned Lola Marsh for the cover for this episode.
Reception
"Something Stupid" received critical acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it garnered a perfect 100% rating with an average score of 8.14/10 based on 12 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, "'Something Stupid' sees director Deborah Chow delivering an episode that's visually striking even by Sauls high standards." In an 8.7-star review, Matt Fowler of IGN called the episode "great" but also seemed like the first half of a bigger arc. Writing for Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall praised Chow's direction, hoping that the episode won't be her last entry in the series. However, he criticized the lack of Nacho's appearance, describing the character's absence as "particularly glaring because of how hopeless his situation seemed when we last saw him with his father".
Ratings
"Something Stupid" was watched by 1.35 million viewers on its first broadcast, earning a 0.4 rating for viewers between 18 and 49.
