We have to start with an extra spoiler warning. The penultimate episode of the final season of Better Call Saul contains one of the most critical and most anticipated plot twists since the very beginning of the series. So it is recommended to read with absolute discretion, since it will be impossible not to talk about the central theme of the chapter title.
the week before with nippy we come across a crucial episode that laid the foundations for the outcome of our protagonist’s future and here we see how the narrative adopts new dynamics to further intertwine the past, present and future history of Saul Goodman.
The episode starts in the year 2008. Saul has been kidnapped and is in the back of an RV with bullet holes in the door, he fears that Lalo has finally come for him, but the viewer understands that we have finally reached the line of time of Breaking Bad where the protagonists know each other.
Cut to the timeline shortly after the Nippy episode, Francesca deals with her tenants and rushes out for the hour. She notices that someone is discreetly chasing her and manages to evade them, she arrives at the agreed point in that mystery scene from season four.
The pay phone rings, it’s Saul, now Gene. There we discover what has happened to the characters after the end of Breaking Bad and also what happened to Kim.
Gene can’t help it and calls him at his new job Palm Coast Sprinklers in Florida. Something goes wrong, there is an argument, the call abruptly ends, Gene kicks the booth and breaks the glass.
Our protagonist returns to his life at the Cinnabon, decides to move on, recruits Jeff and Buddy to mount a new wave of elaborate scams where he intoxicates lonely people in bars to photograph credit cards, government IDs, checkbooks, bank accounts, passwords. and everything possible.
Back to the opening scene in 2008 we see Saul Goodman’s first meeting with his captors: Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Stuck in the VR, the protagonist quickly understands that they make the blue goal and that Walt is Heisenberg. Lalo Salamanca is no longer even known among the traffickers.
Returning to the most current timeline we see Gene getting rich again and picking up some Saul Goodman habits like one-night stands and strip club visits. Our protagonist has been corrupted again.
The new victim of the trio seems like an easy target, but halfway through getting him drunk, the subject confesses that he has cancer and that it’s something serious. Gene hesitates but decides to go ahead with the heist.
Jump to 2008. Saul Goodman receives Mike who has thoroughly investigated Walter White and Jesse. Both confirm that he has near terminal cancer and that for Gus Fring the chemistry teacher is someone harmless who does not deserve his attention. Saul sees the opportunity to make a big deal…
Back in the 2010 timeline Gene gets a call, Buddy left the house and didn’t finish work seeing that the guy was sick with cancer.
Gene is furious, forces a noisy meeting in the yard of Jeff’s house, his mother discovers them, at the same time that the protagonist says goodbye to Buddy and decides to go to his victim’s house to complete the job.
As he enters the victim’s house we see a flashback where Saul Goodman visits JP Wynne High School, the place where Walter White teaches.
Winks to Breaking Bad
This episode is distinguished by tying up a lot of loose ends that were floating around for years after seeing the outcome of the Walter White story.
To start the chapter has the title of Breaking Bad and contains the first appearance of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the Better Call Saul series. The first Breaking Bad episode where Saul Goodman appears is called Better Call Saul.
We finally see the scene where the three characters meet, but from Saul’s perspective. We understand that he was the one who engineered much of Heisenberg’s success, and that he is still afraid of Lalo Salamanca even though no one knows him anymore.
At the same time we know the fate of a lot of characters and situations that remained in limbo, even after the El Camino movie:
Nothing changed after Walter White’s death and, in fact, made things worse for those who survived, like Jesse’s friends, Pinkman himself, and Saul.
Skyler White struck a deal with the feds, just as Walt approached her in “Felina.” So the bodies of Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez may have been recovered.
Bill Oakley now takes the place left by Saul Goodman and even replaces him in the classic bus bench ad.
But things go a step further, as if you go to the website marked on the new lawyer’s band we will find a website that reminds us of that garish yellow Saul Goodman web page:
There is talk in the phone call with Francesa that Pinkman’s car was found near the southern border. That means Badger and Skinny Pete’s plan in El Camino worked.
Huell went back to New Orleans, so we can put an end to that meme about him sitting in that room waiting forever.
The whereabouts of some characters, namely Patrick Kuby and Ira, are unknown, and Francesca knows nothing about Kuby, only sarcastically responding to Gene asking about Ira.
When Saul visits, we can see Walter White’s Aztek truck parked there. We had quite some time without seeing the vehicle.
But perhaps the most forceful wink and that seems to predict what will come in the next episode is this part where when the RV is turned off Saul says to Walt: “Hey, are you going to try it again, because… they will find us, already?” you know, buried in a sandstorm a thousand years from now?”
The line ends with an indirect allusion to Ozymandias’s poem, the one that gives the title to the most devastating chapter of Breaking Bad.
In a week comes the penultimate episode of Better Call Saul.