Better Call Saul episode 3 found Jimmy McGill taking matters into his own hands and proving that he is one lawyer who’s not to be messed with.

As if this show wasn’t enough of a prequel for you, the beginning of tonight’s Better Call Saul found us jumping further backwards in the lawyer’s life to before he was any sort of lawyer. Jimmy is being held in an Illinois prison (or at least that’s where we assumed based on the “Cook County” line) where he’s facing being charged as a sex offender. Chuck arrives on the scene and promises to help, but only if Jimmy stops his bad behavior. The context around the scene wasn’t clear, but it seems like Jimmy took his brother’s request seriously. Perhaps these flashbacks will continue to appear in future episodes and further explain what kind of bad behavior Jimmy was up to.

In present day, Jimmy is in the nail salon enjoying some cucumber water and contemplating teaming up with Nacho to steal the Kettlemens’ cash. He gives former flame and Hamlin Hamlin & McGill lawyer Kim a call to sneakily ask just how much the family has and where it’s hidden, but she’s uninterested in sharing details. He also hints that the family — and the money — could be in danger, but chalks the thought up to being drunk.

Without Kim on his side, Jimmy heads to a payphone to make a threatening call to the Kettlemens. After initially going to voicemail a few times (with their gross, super happy greeting), Craig finally answers. Jimmy distorts his voice with a paper towel holder, but after they fail to hear what he’s saying he finally warns they’re in danger outright. The voice he was putting on, we learn later from Kim, was the “sex robot” voice that he must’ve used with Kim in bed back in the day. It’s… not very sexy.

The next morning Jimmy begins putting on a more tough-guy attitude when dealing with the prosecution at the court house. Today Jimmy is defending a client who beat a cashier with a bottle of Kahlua, and thanks to the fact that the prosecutor can’t keep his cases straight, Jimmy talks his client’s sentencing down. Jimmy is fed up with dealing with this shit — literally. “[I’m] inhaling your BM, which is straight from Satan’s bung hole, and you can’t tell one defendant from another?” Jimmy says in one of the best lines of the episode.

Jimmy’s work at the courthouse is put on hold when he gets a call from Kim about the call the Kettlemens received. He peels out of court without paying for his parking (Mike is upset) and arrives at the family home.

The Kettlemens’ place has been ransacked and the family is nowhere to be found. Jimmy is pushed away from the scene by Kim after she tries but fails to connect his conversation with her on the phone last night to the Kettlemens’ disappearance.

Surprised by this turn of events, Jimmy hits up another pay phone to call Nacho, who he suspects has kidnapped the Kettlemens. His calls initially go unanswered. Jimmy’s nervous while leaving voicemail messages and tiptoes around describing what’s going on (“Time is of the essence on this matter. I can put out this matter if there is a fire.”).

Good thing he was speaking broadly in the voicemails. When Nacho — or someone — finally calls back, no one speaks. That’s because the person on the other end of the line was a cop, and the police begin to swarm Jimmy when he starts running away.

Jimmy learns that Nacho’s been arrested in connection with the Kettlemens’ disappearance. When Jimmy enters Nacho’s holding room, he starts ranting, assuming that Nacho kidnapped the Kettlemens since his bloody van was there, but Nacho says he didn’t do it. He suspects Jimmy set him up and is now worried that the police are going to catch on to his meth business. “You get me out now, or you’re a dead man,” Nacho says.

Jimmy asks the police to take him to the house so he can look at the evidence and hopefully clear Nacho’s name. After he receives a tour of the home, he notices something suspicious: The Kettlemens daughter’ is holding a doll in all of the photos, but the doll is nowhere to be found in the home. If this was a kidnapping, how would the girl have had time to take the doll with her?

The Kettlemens kidnapped themselves, Jimmy suggests, and he partially comes clean to Kim about his threatening call to the family. Now he has to prove his theory right to A) get some serious cred with the Albuquerque cops and B) stop Nacho from killing him.

Jimmy returns to the courthouse to relay the new information back to Nacho, but first he’s told by Mike he can’t park in the lot. Frustrated, Jimmy parks his car at the gate and starts walking past Mike when the latter throws him to the ground.

Inside the courthouse, the cops talk Mike into accusing Jimmy of “attacking” him so that Jimmy’ll come clean about Nacho’s supposed guilt. They begin to take Jimmy in for booking when Mike stops them because he’s changed his mind about pressing charges.

Jimmy asks Mike why he would’ve done something that resembles kindness, and he admits that he overheard the lawyer’s story about the Kettlemens and believes it. Jimmy is thrilled but admits there are holes in his theory. Mike suggests, while retelling a story about his days in law enforcement, that the family is still close to the house. He thinks they didn’t run away at all. “No one wants to leave home,” Mike says.

Jimmy returns to the Kettlemens house and heads out to the family’s gate behind the pool to start tracing their potential steps. He starts following a trail and doesn’t stop until, sure enough, he comes across a tent with the family and their money (or at least part of it) inside a backpack. “Bury your scat, civilization awaits,” Jimmy tells them.

What did you think of ‘Better Call Saul’ episode 3?

Just like no one loves to leave home, no one loves to part with their money. Will Jimmy get some money out of the Kettlemens directly now that he knows their secret? Or will he tell them where to hide it, then steal it with Nacho? We’re eager to see where the show heads next.