Better Call Saul Will Teach You To Get What You Want By Being A Jerk

A considerable portion of Better Call Saul's second season has revolved around how fast, and how intensely, Jimmy has come to regret the seemingly sensible decision to join a reputable law firm. But as much as Jimmy's hated Davis & Main, nothing could prepare this viewer for the sequence in which Jimmy, in "Inflatable," makes Davis & Main hate him.

Now that Kim's got one and a half feet out the door to Schweikart, where she won't be working on the Sandpiper case at all, Jimmy seems like he's about to lose the last incentive he has to stay at Davis & Main: what's the point of continuing to eat shit in the form of Erin's relentless corrections if he won't even have covert conference room flirting as a reward? There's nothing more to do but grab Omar, sit down behind that cocobolo desk, and dictate his letter of resignation...except for one thing. Jimmy knows he'll be giving up perks -- the apartment; the car. He just didn't realize, until Omar mentions it, that unless he stays at the firm for a year, he'll also have to give up his bonus. Jimmy, as we're reminded in the '70s-era cold open flashback, has been helping himself to what he can, as fast as he can; why would it ever occur to him that his gratification could be contractually delayed?

Jimmy hastily retracts both his resignation letter and mild expression of "not...happy"-ness to Omar and grits his teeth through the drive back to Albuquerque, where he has a pivotal encounter with a local.

Inspiration strikes, and a plan is born.

But that's not all. Cliff has reserves of patience the rest of us can only dream of, and Jimmy has to escalate his aggressions...

...but buying a set of bagpipes from a pawn shop and trying to teach himself to play at the office, during business hours, finally forces Cliff's hand. If he'd fired Jimmy for cause -- which, as he notes, he should have, back when Jimmy went off the reservation and made that TV ad -- then he wouldn't have had to pay out Jimmy's bonus: "However! If I fire you not for cause but for being an all-around jackass? Yeah. Hooray for you." Jimmy plays dumb (though even he would say it's not the most convincing such performance of his career) before accepting, with resigned dismay, his termination. On his way out the door, though, he has a brief moment of what seems like genuine remorse for what he's put poor, decent Cliff through.

For what it's worth, I think they both nailed it.