Kim Wexler is one of Better Call Saul. In season 1, she is introduced as Jimmy's friend who works at his brother's law firm, HHM. Smart, clever, and calculating, she is one of the best litigators there and has a promising career ahead of her. Unlike Jimmy, she is generally a morally upstanding character who never breaks the law.
As the TV show's plot thickens, Kim is the only one who is always on Jimmy's side. She puts up with his lies and risks her reputation for him on several occasions. She finds Jimmy's criminal schemes exciting and so her moral com slowly starts faltering. By season 5, she is nothing like the innocent litigator we first encountered in season 1 and it's hard to say who is playing who.
It All Began With Zafiro Añejo
While Kim was merely a ing character in season 1, her arc truly begins in the second season. After Jimmy turns down an offer to work at Davis & Main, Kim finds him lounging in a pool where he is ed under a false name. Jimmy orders the most expensive tequila on the price list, Zafiro Añejo, and explains to Kim that he decided to go back to hustling.
What follows is Jimmy and Kim's first con they pull off together. She is wary at first but decides to play along, calling herself Giselle. They fool an obnoxious rich stockbroker into buying them a whole lot of Zafiro Añejo and giving them a fat check.
She Asks Jimmy Not To Tell Her About His Illegal Actions
In "Cobbler", Jimmy and Kim casually talk about their work. As if it's nothing, Jimmy tells Kim that he manufactured evidence, which obviously upsets her. She tells him to keep her out of his schemes because she doesn't want to be liable. Also, her reputation is on the line since she always stands up for Jimmy, be it in front of his awful brother Chuck or Howard.
As time progresses, Kim is sick of Jimmy's constant lying and she demands that he is always truthful with her. In order to prevent her from becoming a witness in a potential trial against Jimmy, she proposes they get married. It's a solution to the problem, but it definitely isn't the best one.
She Starts Lying For Jimmy
In "Gloves Off", Kim gets in trouble because she tried to cover up for Jimmy's mistake. Cliff Main, Jimmy's boss, was upset because Jimmy ran an ad on TV without consulting him first. Instead of punishing Jimmy, Chuck and Howard got Kim involved. In a meeting, they asked her if she knew anything about it. To save face for everybody involved, she said that she didn't think it was necessary.
Instead of realizing the same pattern repeating itself over and over again, she keeps lying for Jimmy and sabotaging her own career.
Her First Very Own Con
At the beginning of season 2, Kim was reluctant to con strangers, but by episode 6, she initiated her very first con all by herself. When Kim and Jimmy's relationship is tense, nothing deescalates the conflict like some conning. In "Bali Ha'i", a man starts flirting with her at the bar. She invites him over and proceeds to call Jimmy - Giselle and Viktor are back in action.
Kim's enthusiasm in this episode only foreshadows how skillful she will end up being in pulling all kinds of elaborate schemes.
The Mesa Verde Fraud
At the end of season 2, Jimmy does one of the most shameless things he has ever done: he changes some numbers on Mesa Verde's contracts in order to make his brother look back and get the client back into Kim's lap - and he didn't bother telling her a single thing. His brother is smart, though. He is absolutely positive that Jimmy was behind his public humiliation and decides to take him down.
Kim finally finds out about what happened but only berates Jimmy and continues to get tangled up in his mess.
The Car Accident
In season 3, Kim no longer works for HHM. She is her own boss with a major client and her own offices. Things are looking up: the CEO of Mesa Verde sent another client her way, Gatwood Oil. However, she is in denial about being burnt out. Having Jimmy around definitely doesn't help. He cannot even begin to imagine the stress that Kim is under and does nothing to help her alleviate the fatigue.
She falls asleep at the wheel, crashes her car, and breaks her arm. There is a lot going on under her calm exterior. She doesn't seem to enjoy her job anymore and she definitely can't stand having Jimmy around. Her law offices turn out to be more of a burden than a sign of success.
She Chastised Howard After Chuck's Funeral
Season 4 opens with Jimmy and Kim finding out about Chuck's death. No one confirmed it was a suicide, but Howard correctly suspects that Chuck truly killed himself and that he is partially to blame. Jimmy coldly tells him that that's his cross to bear and Kim's facial expression shows that she thought that he was being harsh towards Chuck's business partner.
However, when Kim comes to collect things for Jimmy, she outright chastises Howard. She says: "What's wrong with you?" and attacks him for telling Jimmy that Chuck killed himself. Kim's criticism of him says more about how she sees him than who Howard truly is. Kim is now obviously seething with resentment and anger.
She Starts Neglecting Mesa Verde
Kim is sick of working for corporations and wants to help people in trouble. In "Quite A Ride", she goes to court as a public defender, a job she seems to be genuinely ionate about. She got one client an amazing deal and went out of her way to bring another one to the court. Kim is virtuous, reliable, and responsible. But at what price?
The old Kim would never start using white lies and avoiding her clients. In this episode, she hangs up on Mesa Verde instead of rushing in to sort their problems out. Not only did she start to falter professionally, but she also started scheming with law: together with Jimmy, she pulled an elaborate scheme to get Jimmy's friend Huell out of serving time.
She Stands Up To Lalo
Kim's notorious speech to Lalo Salamanca went down as one of Kim's strongest, bravest, and above all, craziest moments. After Lalo shows up at their place and demands Jimmy to tell him the story of what happened in the desert, Jimmy's bravado fades away. He looks weak and afraid. Outside, Michael is aiming at Lalo, ready to pull the trigger. The situation is one of the most suspenseful in the entire series so far.
Kim powers through her fear and attacks Lalo. She tells him to get his house in order and to stop bullying some attorney who just went through living hell for the cartel. Lalo seems impressed and content with what she told him and leaves the flat immediately. She is now definitely on his radar - either because she is Jimmy's wife or because she is obviously a very competent attorney.
She Proposes To Take Down Howard
In the aftermath of the confrontation with Lalo, Jimmy looks like a broken man. Kim, on the other hand, has now fully come to the dark side. She suggests to Jimmy that they take down Howard in the future and get him the Sandpiper case settlement. Jimmy looks at her as if he doesn't know her and that he is a bit afraid of her. In one of the eeriest scenes of the Season 5 finale, she pulls finger guns on Jimmy. Not cool, considering Jimmy is suffering from PTSD that also involved gun violence.
In season 2, Jimmy first invited Kim to play along as he tries to con a man. By season 5, the student has become the master and Jimmy doesn't seem to like what he sees. For now, we can only guess what is in store for season 6.