Kim's characterization and Seehorn's performance have received critical acclaim, earning her two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series nominations.

The writers saw how Seehorn acted out the scene and realized how much more it defined the character going forward, someone that prioritized work and placed boundaries on her relationship with Jimmy but still cared for him.

Seehorn was able to use very subtle smiles to indicate Kim's appreciation for Jimmy during that episode, which Gould said, "The way she played it just felt so right that it gave us a strong feeling for where we were going with her.

The first-season finale, "Marco" shows Jimmy walking away from a potential job with the law firm Davis & Main that Kim had set up for him.

After attaining admission to the bar, Kim quickly became one of HHM's top lawyers, and her success inspired Jimmy to secretly attend a distance learning law school and become an attorney.

During the period leading up to the events of Better Call Saul, Kim and Jimmy are shown to have developed a close personal relationship, which eventually turns romantic.

[11] Jimmy is reluctant to take the job at Davis & Main, and hides away at a luxury hotel using an assumed name and stolen credit card.

Jimmy skirts the law when soliciting Sandpiper residents to become plaintiffs, creating the potential for damage to Davis & Main's reputation among its more conservative clients.

Chuck's paranoid testimony degrades his professional reputation, and HHM loses standing in Albuquerque's legal community.

Jimmy conceals his role in causing the rate increase, allows Howard to shoulder the blame, and regains his usual happy-go-lucky demeanor.

[23] Kim works on Mesa Verde's rapid regional expansion, but is increasingly bored with banking law,[24] so she begins taking pro bono criminal defense cases, which she finds more satisfying.

[25] After she is reprimanded by Paige for putting her pro bono work ahead of Mesa Verde's, Kim persuades Schweikart to hire her as a partner to manage a new banking division at Schweikart & Cokely, which enables her to handle both Mesa Verde work and pro bono criminal defense cases.

[26] With her career becoming more successful, Kim becomes distant from Jimmy, who works a boring job as a cellular phone store manager while he serves the suspension of his law license.

By 2004, Jimmy has a lucrative side business reselling prepaid cellular phones on the street under the alias Saul Goodman, and hires Huell Babineaux as his bodyguard.

[27] Finding it impossible to convince the prosecuting attorney to enter into a plea bargain, Kim and Jimmy run a con to fake a show of support for Huell in his hometown.

[29] After his suspension ends, Kim helps Jimmy win reinstatement to the bar by faking remorse for Chuck's death.

He promises to do justice to the McGill name, but after winning his bar association appeal he shocks Kim by announcing that he does not intend to practice under his own name.

[30] Jimmy tells Kim that his "Saul Goodman" alias gives him a ready-made client base for a criminal law practice.

Kim continues balancing her workload between pro bono criminal defense work and Mesa Verde business.

Kim tells Jimmy she is upset that he made her the "sucker" for his con and says that because of the lack of trust they either need to separate or get married so they can enjoy spousal privilege.

Jimmy tells Kim as a test their new relationship, and she is appreciative of his honesty as well as his intent to not fight for Lalo's release on bail.

Kim returns to S&C, but her mind wanders, and she decides to quit on the spot, leaving Mesa Verde with S&C but taking her pro bono cases.

The plan involves dropping clues to convince Cliff Main that Howard is a cocaine user and is indulging in the services of prostitutes.

Kim finds she is being followed, and Mike explains that he has men watching her and Jimmy because Gus suspects Lalo may be alive and may seek revenge.

Kim starts towards Santa Fe, but as she's doing so, Jimmy happens to be in a liquor store where he crosses paths with Rand Casimiro, the retired judge acting as the mediator in the Sandpiper suit.

Casimiro walks out of the meeting, and Schweikart takes advantage of this to force Howard and Cliff to accept a lower settlement from Sandpiper than what they wanted.

Kim rejects her share of the Sandpiper settlement and moves to Titusville, Florida, where she lives a mundane life with a new boyfriend and works a boring desk job.

Kim responds by giving Cheryl Hamlin a written confession of the scheme against Howard and the true cause of his death.

With her signature ponytail, her sensible bargain-rack suit separates and heels that are low enough to polish her look but high enough to suggest a whiff of danger, Kim is a stand-in for every cubicle dweller who takes pride in working hard and doing a job well but at some point realizes that it's not doing enough.

CNN's Brian Lowry said "This has, in essence, really been Seehorn's year, crystallizing what has drawn Kim to Jimmy, and his mounting fears that his activities were endangering her.