Better Call Saul recap: Get up to speed before the final season starts

Virgin Radio

14 Apr 2022, 10:48

The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul is set to arrive on Netflix on April 19th, concluding its protagonist’s origin story, and dealing with the issue that we’re all worried about: what the heck happens to Kim Wexler which means she doesn’t appear in Breaking Bad?

The same could be asked of another popular Better Call Saul character, Nacho Varga, and we’ll presumably also see exactly how Jimmy/Saul reaches his starting point in season one of Breaking Bad. 

Bob Odenkirk recently joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the new episodes. “I can't wait for you to see the final season of Better Call Saul. It's the best season we've done,” he said.

Because it’s been a couple of years since Better Call Saul was last on our screens, if you’re anything like us, you could probably do with a reminder of exactly where we left the characters at the end of season five. 

So, here goes (obviously there are massive spoilers ahead if you’re not up to date with the show).

The fifth season saw Bob Odenkirk’s character Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman becoming increasingly embroiled in the Albuquerque underworld, but the show’s climax actually focused more on chicken shop owner/drug kingpin Gus Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) failed assassination attempt on loose cannon cartel member Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton). 

The plan, which was organised by ice-cool private investigator Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Nacho (Michael Mando), saw the latter visit the Salamanca compound in Mexico. This enabled him to leave the back door ajar so that Gus/Mike’s team of assassins were able to get in to kill Lalo. 

The plan went decidedly south and, although Nacho escaped, Lalo ended the season very much not dead and fully aware of who tried to kill him. Not only that, but he forced the last remaining hitman to call his boss and falsely inform him that Lalo was dead. So, Gus, Mike and Jimmy/Saul will presumably start the new season with the misapprehension that Lalo is a goner, when the reality is that he’s alive and kicking and out for revenge. Uh-oh.

And don’t count on Lalo biting the dust in the upcoming season either. When Saul first appears in Breaking Bad, he asks Walt and Jesse (Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul), “Who sent you? Was it Lalo?”

Speaking of Walt and Jesse, it’s been revealed that the dynamic duo will appear at some point in the final season of Better Call Saul. Exciting! 

After Jimmy’s traumatic desert hike with Lalo’s bail money in the penultimate episode, and the subsequent mega-tense confrontation with the mobster, the season ended relatively quietly for him and his wife, Kim (Rhea Seehorn).

The couple were laying low as the result of Jimmy's involvement with the Salamanca Cartel, although Kim - who until now had been Jimmy’s moral compass - was busy hatching a plan to set up Howard Hamlin (a senior partner at law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill) for misconduct that could lead to his disbarment or maybe even imprisonment, and would consequently force HHM to settle the Sandpiper class action lawsuit. 

Remember the Sandpiper case, which started all the way back in season one? Well, as soon as the case settles, or reaches a verdict, Jimmy is set to receive 20 percent of the attorney's fees, which could equate to a cool two million bucks. 

In the trailer for the new season, Kim asks her husband: “You think we’re wicked?” 

With the final season on its way, Bob Odenkirk told Chris Evans that he knew there would be a spin-off series almost as soon as he started playing Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad. He recalled: “It was like, the fourth take of the big scene with me and Brian in our first episode. I did my long riff that Saul does, explaining that it's all a front and he's, you know, a phoney.

“One of the cameramen, after they say cut, says, ‘Can I get a job on the spin-off?’ And everyone laughed because everyone immediately understood this character is bigger than anybody we've seen.”

We can’t wait to see where season six takes Jimmy/Saul and the rest of the characters. As Mike says in the trailer: “Whatever happens next, it’s not going to go down the way you think it is.”

Better Call Saul season six will be split into two parts. Part one (seven episodes) will premiere on Netflix on April 19th. The final six episodes will then begin on 12th July.