10 Smartest Things Saul Goodman Did In Breaking Bad
Saul Goodman was great comic relief on Breaking Bad, but the corrupt lawyer was also one of the smartest people on the show.
Saul Goodman has done a lot in Better Caul Saul but an argument can be made of him being at the peak of his intelligence in Breaking Bad. After all, he was much older in the latter, and with age comes wisdom. Since the stakes were higher when dealing with Walt and Jesse, Saul also put on his thinking cap more often.
Since Saul constantly stood out, it wasn’t a surprise when he was chosen as the ideal lead character for the spinoff series. At some point, the showrunners even considered making the prequel a comedy series. That idea was shelved and luckily the new one worked out just fine.
Using Walter Junior’s Website To Launder Money
Walt’s earnings were becoming too high so he asked Saul for advice on how to launder it. The sleazy lawyer’s first suggestion was that he should do it through his son’s website SaveWalterWhite.com. As a loving son, Walt’s son was concerned for his father’s health so he created a website to raise funds from well-wishers. This way, the family would afford the rising cancer treatment costs.
Saul figured that since the funds were donations, no one would look into them. The lawyer was also more than glad to provide Walt with the services of his hacker friends to inflate the figures. It was a genius idea at the time, though Walt’s increasing earns soon called for more advanced ways to launder money.
Connecting Walt To Gus Fring
“You two suck at peddling meth!” Saul’s words to Walt and Jesse were quite fitting. Combo had just been shot while trying to sell meth at a rival dealer’s space so there was the need for a new strategy. Instead of feeling sorry for Walt and Jesse, Saul was brutally honest with his assessment of them.
They had a good product but they were selling it the wrong way. He thus offered to connect them to a cautious big-time distributor who’d buy their meth in bulk. The distributor turned out to be Gus Fring. The move once again proved just how quick the lawyer was at spotting and seizing opportunities. From every batch Walt sold Gus, Saul would get his cut.
Bugging Walt’s House
In Season 3, Walt and Skyler decided to separate and it was all thanks to the former’s many secrets and lies and his involvement in the drug trade. Walt moved into a different apartment and took a break from cooking, something which concerned Saul. When he visited Walt, the former chemistry teacher told him that his wife has threatened to turn him into the authorities.
Saul was skeptical as he didn’t believe Skyler would risk losing everything by turning her husband in. For his own protection, he tasked Mike with bugging Walt’s house so that he would know exactly what Skyler was up to. This demonstrated his caution, not to forget that the decision helped save Walt’s life since Mike spotted The Cousins right after bugging the house.
Securing The Fumigation Business
When the hunt for a new cooking spot began after Gus Fring’s shocking death, Saul took Jesse, Saul, and Mike on a tour around the city where he showed them potential bases. The final idea involved using a fumigation company. They would cook inside houses undergoing fumigation and no one would be suspicious of the smell.
The lawyer then linked the team up with the owner of a fumigation company who also happened to be a criminal who knew how to keep secrets. The owner then sold the business to Walt and Jesse who began cooking.
Turning On Jesse
After Jesse began cooking alone, he asked Saul to connect him to Gus once again but the drug lord only paid him half of his money, opting to give the rest to Walt. An angry Jesse thus approached Saul to help him convince Walt to hand over the rest.
Apparently, Gus was only using Jesse to lure Walt into cooking again. The drug lord didn’t need him anymore. Realizing who the new cash cow was, Saul quickly turned on Jesse and offered to work for Walt again. He was right to do this because Jesse had proven to be really unstable in recent weeks. As a self-proclaimed winner, he couldn’t stay on the losing team either.
Going On The Run
After Walt got exposed as Heisenberg, it was only a matter of time before the police came for Saul too. Jesse had also disappeared and Saul wasn’t sure whether he’d been killed or was planning to be safe. To be safe, he decided to leave Albuquerque.
He disposed of all the evidence at Saul Goodman & Associates before calling Ed The Disappearer to set him up with a new life. In Ed’s basement, he found himself with Walt, who also had intentions to disappear. Walt tried to convince him to stay but he wouldn’t. Ed thus took Saul to Nebraska where he assumed a new identity.
Tricking Hank Into Leaving The Junkyard
The determined Hank soon found out about the existence of the RV, forcing Walt to make plans to destroy it. As he was at the junkyard discussing how to demolish it, Hank showed up. In a panic, Walt called Saul for help. Trust the lawyer to always have a way to get out of situations like that.
Saul quickly instructed his secretary Francesca to masquerade as a police officer and call Hank, lying to him that his wife had been involved in a car accident. The trick worked immediately as Hank left the junkyard in a hurry to go see his wife. This gave Walt and Jesse time to flee as well as time to destroy the RV.
Lying To Ted About The Inheritance
Since Skyler was having an affair with her boss Ted, she decided to use some of Walt’s drug money to help him solve his IRS problems. All roads lead to Saul, so she teamed up with the star lawyer who lied to Ted that his long-lost “Aunt Birgit” had left him an inheritance of $621,552.33. This was almost the same amount Ted’s company Beneke Fabricators owed I.R.S.
Since inheritances are legit, no one would question Ted about his sudden ability to pay his taxes. Sadly, instead of using the money to clear his debts, he decided to get an expensive Mercedes.
Getting Badger To Snitch On A Fake Heisenberg
Jesse’s friend Badger was arrested in Season 2 when he sold meth to an undercover cop. Saul Goodman was thus assigned as his legal counsel. The quick-thinking lawyer came up with a solution. Badger would snitch on his boss Heisenberg (who Saul didn’t personally know yet). When Walt realized this was going to happen, he paid Saul a visit, pretending to be Badger’s uncle Mr. Mayhew.
His attempts to convince Saul to stop Badger from snitching failed, so he and Jesse kidnapped the lawyer. Saul quickly found out that his kidnapper was Mr. Mayhew when Walt coughed. He thus came up with another genius solution. He would get a jail lover and Walt lookalike named Jimmy In-‘N-Out to pretend to be Heisenberg. Badger would then snitch and that would be case closed.
Tricking Jesse’s Parents Into Selling The House To Their Son
After Jesse left rehab, he found his parents renovating the house that he had inherited from his aunt. They were planning to sell it after doing so because Jesse had misused it by using it as a cooking spot. Angry at his parents, Jesse sought assistance from Saul on how to get the house back.
Saul approached Jesse’s parents, claiming to represent a client who wanted to buy the house. Their price was $875,000, but he countered with $400,000. As they were leaving after declining the offer, Saul threatened them with a lawsuit because they hadn’t divulged the existence of the meth lab. They were thus forced to sell, only to realize later on that Jesse was the buyer.
