Vince Gilligan’sBreaking Bad universe” ends with Better call Saul’s finale, and for some fans of this character-driven crime drama, coming to terms with it can be difficult. Re-watching the show that started it all, equipped with the knowledge of everything that happened in You better call Saul can help fill the void.
You better call Saul lays the groundwork for many of the key plot points that take place in Break bad. Beyond the big picture, the show masterfully weaves symbols, characters, and events that provide additional context for individual scenes into the source material. Some of these even reveal an entirely new way of understanding the actions of certain characters.
10 The Zafiro Anejo Scam
First seen on screen in Season 4 Episode 10 of bad break, the fictional Zafiro Añejo tequila was the drink behind the demise of Don Eladio and his cartel. Gus poisoned the luxury drink and disguised it as a gift, killing Eladio and his associates as a way to get revenge for killing Fring’s business partner. Zafiro Añejo also appears in You better call Saul, where it takes on a completely different meaning.
In Season 2 Episode 1, Kim and Jimmy trick a stock trader into paying the entire bottle at $50 a shot. It was the first scam that brought the couple together, with Kim keeping the bottle cap as a reminder of that night. In You better call Saul, Zafiro Añejo symbolized the destructive nature of their love. In bad break, it literally killed dozens of men while in bcs, this tequila represented a toxic relationship and added more nuance to Breaking Bads famous Don Eladio death scene.
9 Jimmy and Kim’s Divorce
There’s no denying that Jimmy and Kim genuinely loved each other, and their relationship was at the heart of You better call Saul. However, their love of running increasingly risky scams turned them into a destructive and poisonous force in other people’s lives, ultimately leading to the favorite couple breaking up in “Fun and Games”, the ninth episode of Season 6. .
One of the recurring themes in BCS is Jimmy’s inability to deal with painful emotions and trauma. He deals with them by suppressing them under a carefully constructed mask (and ripping people off). McGill invented Saul Goodman shortly after his brother’s death. His break with Kim was the straw that broke the camel’s back, turning him completely into Saul. These background details permeate every Saul comic scene Breaking Bad with a hidden layer of tragedy.
8 Lalo kills Howard Hamlin
Kim’s decision to end Jimmy was largely prompted by the shocking result of their attempt to kill the character Howard Hamlin. The whole scam culminated in the Season 6 season finale where Howard visited the pair and drunkenly expressed his anger at them. Not long after, Lalo Salamanca enters the apartment and tries to use Jimmy to kill Gus Fring. On seeing Howard, he kills him in cold blood, so as not to leave any loose ends.
That moment shattered Jimmy’s reality. Not only did he think Lalo was dead, but Howard’s abrupt and unnecessary murder left the main character truly terrified of the Salamanca for years. This can be clearly seen in season 2, episode 8 of Breaking Badwhere Saul, while being kidnapped by Walt and Jesse, asks them if they were sent by Lalo and begs for his life. Knowing how brutally Hector Salamanca’s nephew has re-entered Saul’s life, one can say that his fear is more than justified.
7 The Death of Werner Ziegler
In bad break, Mike Ehrmantraut is Gus Fring’s most trusted henchman. He is shown to kill on command, without giving it a second’s thought or showing any remorse. In You better call Saul, however, he is extremely reluctant to kill, going so far as to get his face beat up to avoid killing Tuco when Nacho hired Mike to “take him out of the picture”.
Killing the German architect he helped hire to build Gus’s superlab marked the very first time Mike had been left with no choice but to commit a murder. The moving scene of Werner Ziegler’s death clearly shows how impactful and transformative this event was for the beloved character. It was the beginning of his journey to become the cold-blooded assassin who doesn’t even flinch when he pulls the trigger.
6 Mike and Saul meet the vet
When viewers meet them in bad break, Saul Goodman and Mike Ehrmantraut are already very well connected in the Albuquerque underworld, but the show never really explains how exactly they developed such a wide network of acquaintances.
As it turns out, the couple inherited most of their contacts from Dr. Caldera, a criminal veterinarian, who acted as a fixer, linking customers to providers of illegal services, such as security gigs, break-ins, or even murders. In bcs, it is revealed that Caldera had the contact details of Ed Galbraith, the “Disappearer”, who was responsible for helping Walt, Jesse and Saul escape the law as Heisenberg’s meth empire began to fall apart.
5 Nacho Spiking Hector Salamanca’s Heart Pills
One of the greatest mysteries in Breaking Bad was the origin of Hector Salamanca’s condition, which left him strapped to a wheelchair and unable to communicate except ringing his now iconic bell. The writers revealed that he was perfectly fine not long ago in a retrospective scene where the cartel kills Don Max, Gus Fring’s longtime business partner and close friend.
In You better call Saul, we learn that Hector suffered from a heart condition that forced him to take nitroglycerin. Nacho Varga, one of the Don’s closest associates who became Gus’s informant, traded Hector’s medication for ibuprofen, causing the Salamanca leader to suffer a stroke, which left him incapacitated for life.
4 “bag man”
The eighth episode of Better call Saul’s The fifth season is largely considered one of the best chapters in the Jimmy McGill saga, for good reason. What started as a simple job collecting Lalo’s bail from his cousins turned into Jimmy targeted by hitmen and forced to walk through the desert with duffel bags filled to the brim with cash, forced to drink his own urine and Mike to help kill a man who followed them to survive.
It was a deeply traumatic experience that left Jimmy terrified of the desert (this fear was also mentioned several times in break badly). More importantly, though, delivering Lalo’s bail was the job that prompted the Albuquerque legal community to ban him, marking a crucial milestone on Jimmy McGill’s path to becoming Saul Goodman.
3 Francesca starts at Wexler McGill
Fans of the Breaking Bad universe had the chance to investigate the origins of Francesca Liddy and Saul Goodman’s working relationship in You better call Saul. She made her prequel series debut in the third season when she was interviewing for the secretary job at Wexler McGill. She was a very different person then, exuding joy and ambition, unlike the Francesca viewers know from Breaking Bad.
Previously, fans just assumed her blasé, careless attitude was how she always behaved, but it turns out the truth is much darker. She started out as a positive, hard-working person, but after working with Saul Goodman, these bits of her personality were slowly chopped away as she endured years of humiliation and unusual clientele. After seeing Francesca’s character bow in You better call Saul, it’s impossible to look at her the same way in Break bad.
2 Saul ignores Mike’s advice
In “Breaking Bad”, the penultimate episode of You better call Saul, Mike discourages Saul Goodman from working with Walter White because the chemistry teacher is inexperienced and unpredictable, but Saul goes ahead and reaches out to Walt anyway, hoping to turn him into a criminal force to be reckoned with.
When Breaking Bad first aired, it gave viewers the impression that Walter White was responsible for most of his own success. In the extra scenes introduced in You better call Saul, The rise of Heisenberg was contextualized as carefully engineered by Saul Goodman in hopes of making a fortune from the terminally ill chemist.
1 “Bad choice road”
Mike gives the following “choices” speech to Jimmy in Season 5 Episode 9 of: You better call Saul, right after the two returned from their accident in the desert:
“We all make our choices. And those choices, they put us on a path. Sometimes those choices seem small, but they get you going. You think about getting out… but eventually you get back on it.”
This iconic quote from Mike not only makes clear the consequences of Jimmy’s actions, but it can also be used as a lens through which one can see Breaking Bad, also. After all, Walter White’s choices drive him deeper into the Albuquerque underworld, and although he considers quitting “the game several times throughout the series,” he is always drawn back into it no matter how hard he tries to stay away.
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