The Guy for This

Nacho takes a nervous Jimmy to Lalo, who knows of Jimmy's reputation from his cousin Tuco.[lower-alpha 1] Lalo wants Jimmy to get Domingo out of jail by giving the DEA information on Gus's dead drops. Jimmy quotes Lalo what Jimmy believes is an exorbitant fee, and is surprised when Lalo readily pays in advance and in cash. He tells Kim he had a good day financially, but does not disclose any details.

Mike gets drunk at the bar he once visited with Werner,[lower-alpha 2] and demands that the bartender take down a postcard of the Sydney Opera House, which reminds him of Werner because he knows Werner's father worked on it.[1] On his way home, a gang of thugs attempt to rob Mike but he breaks the leader's arm and calmly walks off.

Nacho's father Manuel visits him at home and reveals that someone has offered to buy his upholstery shop for much more than its worth. Manuel accuses Nacho of arranging the deal to help Manuel steer clear of the drug business. He refuses to accept and says he will not flee. He goes on to tell Nacho that if Nacho is in trouble, then Nacho should decide for himself whether to flee or turn himself in to police.

Jimmy meets with Domingo in jail and explains Lalo's plan. When DEA agents Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez arrive to interview Domingo, Jimmy steps in as Domingo's lawyer Saul Goodman, arranging for Domingo to be released and protected as a confidential informant for Hank in exchange for Gus's dead drop locations. Jimmy reports the results of the interaction to Lalo, who is pleased, while Nacho warns Jimmy that once he begins working for drug dealers like the Salamancas, there is no turning back: "Once you're in, you're in." That night, Nacho reports Domingo's release to Gus and explains Lalo's plan for the dead drops. An unhappy Gus decides to maintain the dead drops, because doing otherwise would reveal to Lalo that someone is providing inside information about the Salamancas. Gus is visibly frustrated and angry because leaving the dead drops to be found by police will cost him at least a half million dollars.

Kim has a full day of pro bono cases, but Rich demands she take care of pressing Mesa Verde business. A Tucumcari homeowner, Everett Acker, is refusing to leave property leased from the bank so that the bank can begin construction of a new call center. When Acker refuses a compromise and insults Kim, she argues with him and says he has no choice. Paige and the bank representatives are happy with her hard line approach, but Kim is troubled. On her way home, she turns around and returns to Tucumcari. She approaches Acker sympathetically, tries to convince him to move, and offers to help him herself. Acker rejects her offer, and tells her she will say whatever is necessary to get what she wants. Kim vents her frustrations by throwing beer bottles from her balcony with Jimmy.

Dean Norris reprises his Breaking Bad role of Hank Schrader.

This episode features the appearance of Dean Norris reprising his starring role on Breaking Bad as DEA agent Hank Schrader, along with Steven Michael Quezada reprising Hank's partner Steven Gomez; Norris is the first of the leading cast credited through the entirety of Breaking Bad's run to appear on Better Call Saul.[lower-alpha 3][2] When Better Call Saul was first in development, Norris had been unavailable due to starring in Under the Dome but expressed interest in returning.[3] Norris said that he and showrunner Peter Gould had spoken many times before of bringing Hank back for Better Call Saul, though Norris said to Gould, "Just don't let it be a gratuitous return, just to say he's in it."[4] Norris said that Gould wanted to have Hank come back to have some part in the transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman so that Hank's appearance was not gratuitous.[4] Gould himself spoke of the need to have "some very smart law enforcement people who are worthy opponents" for Jimmy that would push him into using the Saul Goodman persona even deeper without necessarily recognizing the full consequences of those actions, and thus where it made sense to bring in Norris to play Hank.[5] Norris found it easy to fall back into character, particularly as the version of Hank prior to his PTSD from killing Tuco in "Grilled", as well as acting alongside Quezada, whom he has remained friends with since their Breaking Bad days.[4]

The show opens and closes on scenes involving a mass of ants swarming over an ice cream cone that Jimmy dropped when he was picked up by Nacho. The shots were made with about two thousand live red harvester ants, collected from and returned to the wild by animal trainer Jules Sylvester. They used an ice cream-like substance that would not be toxic to the ants but still draw them to swarm across it as to get the shots they wanted.[6]

"The Guy for This" received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it garnered a perfect 100% rating with an average score of 8.3/10 based on 14 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, "Better Call Saul gifts viewers with a welcome hunk of Hank Schrader in an otherwise ominous chapter that illustrates how the forces of darkness are enclosing around Jimmy and Kim like ants on an ice cream."[7]

• "The Guy for This" at AMC
• "The Guy for This" on IMDb