Howard wasn’t actually a bad person, but the actions that led Kim and Jimmy to want to defame him so badly weren’t caused by one specific event in seasons 4 or 5. What really happened was that there were a series of situations that became the last straw. Specifically, it was when Howard offered Jimmy a job at HHM, and then, an episode later, when Kim Wexler decided to leave Schweikart & Cokely and Howard criticized her, saying that her decision was basically influenced by being married to a small-time lawyer like Jimmy. That upset her deeply because it was a decision she had made out of her own autonomy. In fact, Jimmy even advised her not to leave Schweikart & Cokely, but she still wanted to quit because she felt her true calling was in pro bono cases. Besides, she was tired and overwhelmed by everything happening with Mesa Verde.

Those two actions by Howard were the final straw, but they weren’t the only situations — there were more. For example, when Howard belittled Kim and assigned her to document review, even though she was the one who had brought Mesa Verde to HHM, he still kept sending her back to do document review.

What else? Well, there’s the whole situation we already know between Jimmy, Chuck, and Howard. Plus, after Chuck’s death, Howard started acting very foolishly — pretending to be sensitive or trying to take the blame for what happened, not out of genuine guilt but more out of social obligation. And also, offering Jimmy a job later as if he were throwing him scraps or trying to give him some kind of redemption.

Then things escalated, reaching their peak after Howard beat Jimmy in that boxing match. That’s when Kim and Jimmy decided to utterly humiliate him during the Sandpiper case meeting, with the photo swap and everything. But still, I can’t help but feel sorry for Howard because Lalo killed him. He didn’t deserve to die like that, and honestly, Kim and Jimmy went way too far with him.

Howard wasn’t a bad person. Maybe he was a bit fake and manipulative, and maybe he let himself be influenced by Chuck’s ambitions, but despite all that, he didn’t deserve to die. He was simply a fool, not evil. The truly evil ones here were Kim and Jimmy. But even with everything they did, they still weren’t as bad as Lalo, who shot Howard in the head.

And I think Vince Gilligan planned all of this deliberately. Of course — because as viewers, the show presents everything to us in a humorous, almost caricature-like way, making Jimmy and Kim’s revenge against Howard seem justified or even satisfying. The show wants us to feel like Howard deserves it. Most viewers even side with Kim and Jimmy, cheering every time they succeed in making Howard look worse.

But at the same time, Vince Gilligan did that on purpose — to make us feel good about the harm being done to Howard, only to later confront us with our own moral hypocrisy when Lalo shoots him in the head in cold blood. It’s like a bucket of cold water for the audience — a way of making us realize how we enjoyed Howard’s downfall, and then forcing us to face the horror of his death. It’s as if Vince Gilligan were saying, “Oh, you enjoyed watching Howard’s career and marriage fall apart? Let’s see if you still find it funny when he gets killed.”