"Plan and Execution" is the seventh episode and mid-season finale of the sixth season of Better Call Saul, the spin-off television series of Breaking Bad.

In the episode, Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler carry out their plan to discredit Howard Hamlin during the Sandpiper settlement hearing.

"Plan and Execution" was met with critical acclaim for its direction, writing, cinematography, score, and on-screen performances, most notably that of Patrick Fabian as Howard.

Howard's erratic behavior causes the end of the mediation conference, and HHM and Davis & Main are compelled to settle the case for less than they expected.

"Plan and Execution" was written and directed by Thomas Schnauz, a veteran writer on Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad.

Schnauz and director of photography Marshall Adams shot Jimmy and Kim's reactions to Lalo's entrance in a number of ways, finding inspiration from a scene in the fifth-season episode "Bad Choice Road" where a series of intercuts show a traumatized Jimmy's reaction to the sounds of a juicer.

Schnauz and editor Skip Macdonald initially submitted a version of the final scene to AMC and Sony that featured a close-up of Jimmy's pupil dilating.

[2][3][6] Rumors of Howard's death began to circulate online in December 2021, when Odenkirk shared a photo of himself with Fabian, who was dressed in character and had blood in his hair.

"[8] The trick Howard performs to stop a shaken soda from fizzing was added in by Schnauz, who learned it from his father.

[3] Jennifer Bryan was the wardrobe designer for the suits Howard wears in the episode and throughout the season, which were handcrafted in Genoa and put together in Los Angeles by Di Stefano of Italy.

The sewer system was built on a stage using pieces from the oil tanker from the sixth-season episode "Rock and Hard Place".

[10]: 23:12–25:35 In August 2020, series co-creator Peter Gould said he was not in favor of splitting the sixth and final season into two parts.

[17] Scott Tobias of Vulture and Nick Harley of Den of Geek shared five out of five ratings for the episode, while Kimberly Potts from The A.V.

[20][21][23] Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall gave positive notes to Porter's score during these sequences, calling it "some of his jauntiest caper music of the series' entire run".

[23] The attention to detail, such as the flickering of the burning candle, staging, and performances in the final scene received critical acclaim.

Howard's death was compared to that of teenager Drew Sharp's death in the Breaking Bad episode "Dead Freight", in addition to the apartment scene from Pulp Fiction where Samuel L. Jackson's character casually shoots a man before asking the man's friend, "Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?