"How about a day without drama?"
Oh boy. What an episode.
Kim is, of course, the focus of our sense of mounting dread and, naturally, the episode itself. But let's do a tour of the other plates that are spinning during this penultimate episode of the season...
Jimmy and Mike finally get out of the desert and can begin to recover... but Jimmy is not so battle hardened as Mike, who can afford to be philosophical, true stoic that he literally is. Jimmy is physically worse for wear (although he has Kim, ooooh he has Kim...) but more; he hobviously has PTSD following his experiences.
Gus, chilling as ever, is debriefed by Mike, works out exactly what's going on, and gets back to his usual chillingly amoral ten-dimensional chess, played with typical cold intensity by the sublime Giancarlo Esposito. Mike may sympathise with Nacho's wish to get out of this cartel life, but to Gus, Nacho is just another pawn. Once you become a "friend of the cartel", you don't get out... are you listening, Kim?
But Kim... oh, so many bad decisions. Shockingly, she gives up her job so she can focus on her pro bono workm much less well paid. This is... unwise, and ties her even more to Jimmy's criminally adjacent, "friend of the cartel" life. The final scene, with Lalo demanding andswers from Jimmy, is a masterpiece of tension, with Kim very much present, involved... and showing real guts in resolving the situation.
But she's in, now, irrevocably. Her decision to quit her main job wasd, ironically, so she could focus on work with which she feels much more ethically comfortable rsather than driving old men off their land... but she's driven into the hands of Jimmy, who may not like getting his hands dirty but has zero morals as long as he isn't personally close to the bloodshed.
Oh Kim. I'm now certain. Her downfall will not just be the ruin of a genuinely good person. The moment has come: I'm certain that we're going to see her die. Itr's her only possible trajectory.
Better Call Saul is not Jimmy's tragedy. It's Kim's.
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