An innocent remark from Kim in Breaking Bad, but hasn't yet had opportunity to meaningfully interact with Rhea Seehorn's Kim Wexler. That all changes in Better Call Saul season 6's "Hit & Run," when Mike has two henchmen tail Kim just in case Lalo Salamanca makes . Kim notices, and their exchange is predictably sizzling, with the lawyer plainly frightened by news of Lalo's survival, and Mike intriguingly itting Kim's "made of sterner stuff" than Jimmy.
Perhaps the most fascinating line in Mike and Kim's long-awaited Better Call Saul collision, however, comes at the very end. Just as Mike leaves the El Camino diner, a spark of recognition fires in Kim's mind. Suddenly, she recalls, "I do know you... you worked in the parking booth at the courthouse... you're the attendant?!" Mike solemnly replies, "I was..." before walking out the diner door and bringing the scene to a close.
Better Call Saul viewers are, of course, fully aware of Mike's gig as a courthouse parking attendant, but Kim's line brings his evolution (or devolution, depending on your position) into stark perspective. Thanks to Breaking Bad, audiences dived into Better Call Saul knowing Mike would eventually become a criminal handyman, but season 6's "Hit & Run" highlights Kim's point of view. The man who once took her change every time she turned up to court is now sending armed men to tail her, dragging Jimmy on a near-death trek through the desert, and working for some powerful unnamed shadow. It's the Better Call Saul equivalent of seeing an old high-school class mate on an episode of Forensic Files, and only through Kim's eyes does the strangeness of Mike's abrupt career change become brutally clear.
Just as vital as Kim ing Mike as the courthouse parking attendant from Better Call Saul season 1 is Mike's response. Despite consisting of a mere two words, Mike's "I was..." adopts a morose, wistful tone. As if the enforcer is painfully aware of how far he's fallen since then, and longs for those simpler days of taking coins and guarding a parking lot, as opposed to taking lives and guarding a drug lord.
The tone of Mike's comeback highlights the real tragedy of his Better Call Saul story. Gus Fring's permanently-frowning right-hand-man takes little pleasure in his criminal activities, and lacks the greedy motivations most others in his line of business are driven by. Mike works for Gus because it allows him to give his granddaughter a better life - even if that means swallowing his pride before heading to work each morning. In pointing out Mike's past as a parking attendant, Kim reminds him (and Better Call Saul's audience) of that one, rare occasion Mike was able to live a peaceful, violence-free, quiet life. Those times feel a long way in the past, and Mike has fallen an even longer way down the moral rabbit hole since.
Reminiscing over Mike's parking past feels even more poignant in the light of Nacho Varga's recent Better Call Saul death. Mike tried and failed to keep Nacho alive, and although the incident isn't mentioned whatsoever in "Hit & Run," the episode surely finds the grieving Mike at his lowest ebb since involving himself in criminality. If there was ever a time Mike would wish to be sitting back in that courthouse booth solving crosswords, it's now, when the contents of Nacho's skull are freshly splattered over the desert.
Better Call Saul continues Monday on AMC.