‘Better Call Saul’ Season Six Premiere: What We Know So Far
Warning: Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad spoilers ahead
It’s been seven years since the titular series premiered, and two years since viewers were granted a new season. Things are finally set to pick back up as part one of season six begins.
Season six of Better Call Saul is set to premiere April 18th on AMC, with two episodes airing concurrently. The 13 episode season, making it the longest in the show’s history, is broken up into two parts. Viewers can expect the first seven episodes to air weekly on Monday nights 9 p.m. ET, with the mid-season finale slotted to air May 23rd. Two months more of waiting will bring viewers to the mid-season premiere airing July 11th.
The upcoming season has been long awaited as season five left viewers with no shortage of loose ends. After Nacho Varga (played by Michael Mando) spent the last season working with Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) as a double agent against the Salamanca crime family, the finale saw Nacho’s cover was finally blown.
After Nacho propagated a midnight attack against Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) in his home, viewers were left in shock as Lalo not only survived the invaders, but seemed to realize that Nacho had double-crossed him, helping the perpetrators to enter the compound.
AMC’s first teaser trailer for the upcoming season showed the return of the Salamanca twins. Since the last time BCS saw them appear was at Lalo’s request, could this be the case again? Have the twins arrived to exact revenge for the lives taken at Lalo’s compound?
But this teaser was not the trailer that left fans of the series most shaken. On March tenth, AMC released a full length trailer, and it promises an anxiety-inducing season ahead.
When we left off, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) seemed to be in a downward spiral. After each season saw Kim buy into her partner, Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk)’s antics more and more, the season five finale saw Kim coming up with some illegal, meanspirited hijinks of her own. Audiences were left with Kim’s intense proposal to ruin former employer, Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) once and for all. The trailer for season six seems to indicate a final showdown of Hamlin v. Goodman.
The Hamlin debacle seems to be a mere morsel of suspense in the upcoming season as one harrowing shot shows a yard seemingly covered in dead bodies, while another shot shows Kim questioning whether Saul believes they are being followed. Fans are wondering whether this has anything to do with the tense standoff between Kim, Jimmy, and Lalo in the penultimate episode of season five. While Kim was able to successfully and epically, rush to Jimmy McGill’s defense when the drug lord came inquiring about the bullet-hole-covered Suzuki Esteem, it is unclear whether Lalo bought the story in the end.
Although the friendliness of their encounters is yet to be seen, according to one clip from the trailer showing a stranger recognizing Saul Goodman as “Salamanca’s guy”, their reunion seems likely. To get a sneak peek into the nature of their future relationship, a glimpse into Saul Goodman’s first appearance in predecessor series, Breaking Bad garners a closer look.
In season 2 episode 8, “Better Call Saul”, we met Saul Goodman for the first time. After main characters of Breaking Bad, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) donned masks and kidnapped Saul in an attempt to stop a fellow collaborator from working with the DEA, a tied up, confused and frightened Saul Goodman yells: “No, it wasn’t me. It was Ignacio” followed by pleading in Spanish. Once Saul’s captors ordered he speak English, one more hint was revealed as the lawyer said: “Lalo didn’t send you? No Lalo?”
Fans of the show know that Nacho Varga’s real name is Ignacio. It seems that Saul Goodman becomes aware of the attack on Lalo’s compound. Or could this mean that season six will show Varga and Goodman working together to sabotage the Salamancas? No matter the answer, Saul Goodman’s pleas make one thing clear: As season six begins to catch up to where Breaking Bad began, the attorney believes Lalo Salamanca to be alive, well, and in search of revenge. What this means for the final season, only time will tell.
Speaking of Breaking Bad, fans have wondered at length how much of the predecessor’s storyline will appear in Better Call Saul. According to creators Vince Gilligan and Mike Gould, viewers are in for a crossover “in a way that you haven’t seen before”. While the appearance of Jesse Pinkman and Walter White are not confirmed, Gilligan teased: “It would be a damn shame if the show ended without [them] appearing”. Will viewers see Walter White pre-cancer diagnosis? Or will the events of Better Call Saul end exactly where Breaking Bad’s introduction to the ill-fated Saul Goodman began?
The trailer did promise some good fortune for the titular character though. Quick glimpses of the Cadillac with the license plate that Breaking Bad fans recognize in an instant, shows that Saul Goodman’s legal practice must be fairing well. Although given the history of “Slippin’ Jimmy”, it could very well be illegal practices that funded the purchase of the Cadillac. Or as Saul Goodman is known to blur the lines between legal and not, it could more than likely be a combination of the two.
The former James McGill Esquire does appear to have amassed quite a clientele as one scene from the trailer showing Saul Goodman in the nail salon seems to indicate. The nail salon, viewers will remember, is where Jimmy McGill started his legal practice, and simultaneously lived, in his days of a struggling public defender. Never seen before is the salon waiting area packed with clients for the attorney, but the trailer heralds a change in the times.
Heartbreakingly, however, a “blink and you’ll miss it” scene in the trailer seems to paint a grim picture for the future of Kim Wexler and Saul Goodman. Although fans of Breaking Bad are already fully aware of Saul’s future penchant for happy-ending massages and sexual harassing his secretary, the question of Jimmy and Kim’s fate has been on many viewers’ minds from episode one. Surely Kim Wexler must not be a figure in Saul Goodman’s future life of sleazy comments about women. The trailer showing a quick glimpse of Jimmy McGill’s treasured gift from Kim Wexler, “The World’s 2nd Best Lawyer” cup in the trash is an aching reminder that there is no foreseeable future for Kim and Jimmy. Granted, the cup may have been trashed simply to rid themselves of any evidence of their lie to Lalo Salamanca, but the underlying message is nonetheless clear.
While there are certainties of the future for characters that fans of Breaking Bad are privy to, such as the survival of the Salamanca twins (at least long enough to have a parking lot showdown with DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris)), all fans are left in the dark when it comes to the fate of one, Gene Takovic.
Every season premiere, viewers are treated with a flash forward of the events following Breaking Bad, as they pertain to the man with many names. So far, fans are aware that the man formerly known as Jimmy McGill is a manager at a Cinnabon in Nebraska. He is clearly racked with paranoia as his lowkey lifestyle and use of a police scanner seem to indicate. One flash forward shows viewers that Takovic has not forgotten his past as Saul Goodman as a hidden nook in his Nebraskan home reveals memorabilia from his former life. A distressed Takovic rewatches commercials from his glory days with a palpable heartache.
Tensions were left at an all-time high following the events of our last encounter with Takovic. After a far-away-from-home taxicab driver seemed to recognize the face of the criminal defense attorney who once graced the billboards and park benches of New Mexico, riding as his passenger, Gene Takovic’s paranoia spiked. This anxiety was worsened later when the cab driver, this time with a partner in tow, found Gene outside of his place of employment. This time, the taxi driver left no room for speculation as to whether he recognized this man to be Saul Goodman or not. He approached Takovic and insisted repeatedly that Takovic perform Saul Goodman’s titular catchphrase. In an effort to draw as little attention to the matter as possible, Takovic finally caved and obliged.
Cover blown, Gene Takovic makes a call to a certain vacuum repair shop where the right phrase and cash can buy a person an escape plan. Gene seems poised to flee his Nebraskan home, when a mysterious change of heart prompted him to hang up the phone. Does Takovic have another plan in mind? Has he grown tired of living under the radar? What will become of Saul Goodman’s legacy?
Only time will tell. And after two years of waiting, the time is finally almost here.
