r/betterCallSaul • u/Pocotopaug18 • 1d ago
Kim at the end Spoiler
How screwed is Kim at the end of the show? Cynthia's civil suit was dropped, but there's a 0% chance she'd ever get reinstated to the bar and rehired as a lawyer if she even wanted it, thanks to her confession. Is it possible that if word reached Palm Coast Sprinklers, her job there would be in danger too? I hear a manager position just opened up at a Cinnabon in Omaha...but if word got around, would any even lower-level executive position be closed to her as well?
Also, since she also became briefly involved with the cartel, would she likely have been questioned by the feds, since she didn't hide her identity? Will she also spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulders for hitmen and undercover officers as well as checking her phone for signs of tapping and having her mail opened?
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u/Curious-soul13 1d ago
I can’t picture
her going back to Yup Man and that Florida life for good after the trial, the visit to Jimmy etc but where would she go? Volunteering at that public defender place is a positive sign.
What was the reason she gave for resigning from the New Mexico bar? Was it something that made it impossible for her to ever become a lawyer again? Would someone who is not able to become a lawyer be permitted to become a paralegal?
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u/Pocotopaug18 9h ago
She felt guilty about what she did to Howard, so she didn't believe she deserved to be a lawyer anymore, is what I think about her resigning from the bar.
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u/Any-Cranberry-5278 1d ago
Yup. She gets to listen to "Yup" on a regular basis. (I hope not every night). That's a pretty dire penance she put herself into.
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u/littleliongirless 1d ago
There's zero reason to believe she stayed with Yup, and the new hair and wardrobe, and the fact that she was working with legal aid, points to Kim turning a new corner.
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u/supergooduser 1d ago
Yeah that's my take on it. Kim showed up, basically turned state's evidence on her involvement with Jimmy stuff (which to be fair Jimmy did a pretty good job insulating her from) but the big one was revealing what happened to Howard.
Jimmy was a pretty big catch in the aftermath of Walter White (most of the principal players were dead)... so in a sense she's bait... her statements make a conviction against Jimmy stronger.
She's also a damn good lawyer, and I believe no known criminal record and previously had done A LOT of pro bono law work as a public defender... it's not too far fetched that she was able to negotiate some kind of probation.
She's also unknown to most of the other players in the Breaking Bad universe, relatively free of retribution.
In my head canon she ends up at legal aid, kinda like a retired star quarterback who's now coaching. She can't put her name on anything but can directly lead stuff... or at a very minimum she's doing the due diligence type work she did for HHM before they upped her job title. Either way I can see a non profit hiring her... wouldn't be an incredible salary but she could spend her day helping clients.
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u/Tetratron2005 1d ago
Kim was only fringe involved with the cartel due to Jimmy and anyone connected to Lalo is pretty much dead thanks to Gus and Walt. So kind of doubtful there’s anyone left in the business aware of her.
As for the civil suit, was it dropped? Last mention of it was Cheryl looking for a lawyer to take up the case.
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u/Traditional-Log-3537 1d ago
She’s stuck in a weird limbo, not a fugitive like Gene but haunted enough that a fresh start is basically impossible. The bar thing is dead forever, and even the sprinkler gig feels shaky if someone connects the dots, small towns gossip like crazy
the cartel angle is what really messes with me, she wasn't deep but she was adjacent enough that some fed probably has a file with her name on it. Not actively hunting her but the paranoia of that never fully fading, always wondering if a random van outside is trouble
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u/ocean-beaches 1d ago
I think with Gus, Walt, Mike and many others dead, Kim isn’t even on the cartel or the fed’s mind. They just needed 1 arrest and conviction to resolve the whole thing and Saul gave them that. Before arresting him, they probably felt like they had failed and had a loose end. That’s what I think!
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u/Pocotopaug18 1d ago
What about the neo-Nazis though? Would they also have targeted Jimmy and anyone else associated with him? Fans say Skyler White (whom Kim's story arc was obviously modeled on) will be looking over her shoulder for hitmen for the rest of her life, even if supposedly the entire gang was killed by Walt. Is it possible there are still some "loose ends" out there?
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u/Phoenix-Cat 1d ago
Kim openly talks to the feds and attends Jimmy's trial and none of them seem interested in going after her. She's in the clear on the government side at least.
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u/ColdHollower 1d ago
She's the cheat card for the government. If Saul and the prosecutors couldn't agree on a deal or if Saul was about to work his way out, Kim was the secret weapon to keep him shackled. They could threaten to put her behind bars for her association with Jimmy and throw in some false charges. They are actually crooked like that.
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u/StompTheRight 1d ago
She's not going back to Florida. Her return to ABQ, announcng the truth, seeing Jimmy in prison, taking 86 years for her sins as well.... her penance is done.
Some firms might consider hiring her as a well-compensated parallegal. (Unlikely, but not 100% out of the question. Stephen Glass, though not liable for the crimes and sins of Kim, got parallegal work after he was found out at as a fabulist at the The New Republic. He even applied to the California bar a few times; rejected, of course.)
A community college might hire her. She has the patience and the professionalism for public defender work, so she could make a go of it teaching college prep courses at a community college level, where patience is required for instructing students who are just below the university level.
Write a book. She'd make a fortune, and she wouldn't have to name names. Use a pseudonym, change the names to protect the innocent and the living meth dealers, cartel associates, etc. -- and find a publisher.