You said it, VG

Could it be that Kim blames Howard for how Jimmy has ended up? Not realizing this is who he is and Chuck & Howard were right about him?

Kim was so hot during this episode
i cant watch this show anymore

I think Kim know Jimmy well at this point. She also uses him in order to get what she wants. She loves him, but at this point all she wants is her firm and money to do whatever she wants and how to get it is not a problem.

Howard and Mike might be the only two guys in this show who reflects exactly who they are.

I don't know how much Kim "doesn't realize" who Jimmy is, but something we've seen a few times now is that she has a really extreme reaction to people bad-mouthing him. It shakes her into action. We saw this when Chuck confronted her about Jimmy's document tampering, when the District Attorney referred to him as a "some scumbag," when Kevin from Mesa Verde told Kim she could do better than Jimmy. All of these things had an immediate galvanizing effect on Kim. I think this plan to bring Howard down is another example of that, an extreme reaction to Howard's condescension.

Good points all, but does she not accept the badmouthing b/c she thinks differently of him or b/c she sees Jimmy/Saul in herself?

I personally think the former, whereas I get the sense you all see the latter.

I think it's both. She certainly thinks differently of Jimmy than everyone else. And as we seem to be discovering it's probably because he's a kindred spirit. Everyone else wants to see his cutting corners as a bad thing. Kim sees no problem cutting corners, so she sympathizes with him and sees him in a better light than everyone else.

Love is blind

That ended with a thud. See you in 2022

Yeah that's Manny from Scarface. Tony does him dirty.

After all is said and done, I think this was clearly the best season so far.

I did a full re-watch in the lead-up to season 5. My ranking now is:

5
3
2
4
1

Season 4 had several great episodes towards the end (including what I think is the strongest season finale yet) but there's a stretch near the start that was just brutal. Season 1 is not bad but the show still felt kind of light and tentative; the Kettlemans were basically cartoon characters, I'm not sure they would fit in what the show eventually became.

I rewatched season 4 leading up to this season and thought it was fantastic. I mean, they've all been great. I'll have to rewatch the others at some point. Some of the Chuck stuff might be a bit exhausting to rewatch though.

Nacho has really evolved into a very sympathetic character. He's been just been nailing that character.

Ill do a rewatch soon yes. Its a bummer we have to wait more than a year for the last season.

Kim in pyjamas leading to naked under the sheets was pretty great.

Terrific season.

Question on Kim:

Spoiler: show

Re: Kim's ideas to ruin Howard, do we think this is because she's legitimately going over to the dark side, because Jimmy's broken something loose in her? Or is more like a test, like she's pushing herself to see what her moral compass will do with a different set of expectations, and maybe how Jimmy might respond?

And Nacho is fucked.

I think Kim is showing her true colors.

I think Nacho and his family will get the vacuum cleaner repair guy treatment.

Two options for Kim:
1) After another close call with the cartel, she also gets the Robert Forster treatment and ends up in Nebraska with a new identity and fake mustache.
2) She pulls a Jimmy and betrays him severely enough that he removes her from his life and fully embraces the Saul persona as an emotional response. ("I don't give a shit about anything anymore.")

yeah, both of them are possible.

I feel asleep 2/3 through the finale. I'm so sorry everyone.

Neither. I think she’s finally letting herself go unfettered.