The sixth and final season of theBreaking BadspinoffBetter Call Saulis set to begin on April 18 on AMC. Like its predecessor,Better Call Saul’s final installment will be split into two sub-seasons; after the first segment wraps up on May 23, the final run of episodes will begin on July 11 and conclude on August 15. It is easily one of the most anticipated shows of the year;Better Call Saulis one of the rare television spin-offs that has managed to live up to, and maybe even surpass, the quality of the original. Even thoughBreaking Badis often cited as one of the greatest television shows of all time, some fans have argued that the more nuanced, methodical approach ofBetter Call Saulis even better.
Better Call Saulfollows a parallel storyline focusing on the exploits ofBreaking Bad’s Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) both before and after the events of the core series. Years before he met Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), Saul was once a promising young lawyer named Jimmy McGill. Jimmy has always been drawn to danger and deceit, but he manages to surprise his successful brother Chuck (Michael McKean), the co-founder of the respected law practice Hamlin Hamlin McGill. Jimmy becomes an untraditional, yet effective lawyer, but he’s constantly drawn to the same moral grayness that would turn him into Saul Goodman.
In addition to this backstory,Better Call Saulincludes brief snapshots of what Saul’s life looks like once he’s in the witness protection program following the end ofBreaking Bad. It’s unclear how much of the post-Breaking Baduniverse we will see in the last season ofBetter Call Saul, but the prequel storyline certainly has presented enough questions of its own. Chief among them is the fate of Jimmy’s love interest and law partner, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn). Kim doesn’t appear onBreaking Bad, andBetter Call Saulwill have to explain what her fate is as the two timelines grow closer.
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Season 5 was easily the strongest season ofBetter Call Saulthus far, as it moved the show closer to Jimmy’s eventual fate. Over the course of the ten episodes, Saul becomes a corrupting influence over Kim, reunited his partnership with Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), and became the target of the brutal cartel leader Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton).Breaking Badvillain Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) continues to expand his operation, and Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) finds himself in danger after failing to kill Lalo.
Mike has been reluctantly working for Gus, who is in the middle of a rivalry with Lalo. Mike has been trying to support his granddaughter Kaylee and provide for her, but he grows more distant after he’s forced to kill the German scientist Werner Ziegler (Rainer Bock) by Gus. Mike begins to gather evidence that will aid the police in their pursuit of Lalo, which Jimmy ends up using to accuse the DEA of fabricating evidence.
Jimmy’s relationship with Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) worsens throughout the season. Jimmy continues to blame his brother’s death on Howard, even after he’s offered a position at Hamlin Hamlin McGill. Howard begins to worry about Kim’s fate, as he fears that Jimmy has corrupted her integrity. After their lives are threatened, Jimmy and Kim decide to sabotage Howard’s case involving the Sandpiper Crossing retirement community in order to earn settlement money themselves.
Howard’s suspicions about Kim aren’t wrong. She begins to use Jimmy’s scheming techniques to gain advantages in the Mesa Verde case, and win over difficult clients. However, she can’t get over her feelings for Jimmy. They are married in the seventh episode, “JMM.” Although the marriage was plotted so that Jimmy will get spousal privileges when he’s questioned about his past crimes, they do feel genuine affection for each other.
One of the most exciting reveals about the upcoming sixth season is the announcement thatboth Cranston and Paul will reprise their roles. They’re hardly the firstBreaking Badalumnus to appear inBetter Call Saul. In the episode “The Guy For This,” Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) deals with Jimmy’s defense of Lalo’s henchman, Domingo Molina (Max Arciniega). Gus gets closer to the legendary status that he had onBreaking Badwhen he recruits Nacho to help him assassinate Lalo.
In the Season 5 finale “Something Unforgivable,” Jimmy is finally forced to tell Kim about how he and Mike were nearly killed in the desert by gunmen. Kim had suspected that Jimmy was hiding something from her when he returned home, obviously shaken by post-traumatic stress disorder. After they are ruthlessly questioned by Lalo in “Bad Choice Road,” Lalo decides to stay in Albuquerque, even though he had planned to return to Mexico with The Cousins. He eludes the assassins sent to kill him, but leaves one survivor, and informs him to tell Gus that they were successful.
Season 6 sets the stage for a full-on war between Lalo and Gus, with Nacho caught in the middle. Mike has only somewhat helped Nacho with his relationship with Gus; he’s trying to protect and rattled Jimmy and Kim at the same time. Meanwhile, Kim has prepared to launch a full-on assault on Howard. Now that she’s left Hamlin Hamlin McGill, Kim has 20 felony cases to work on pro bono. She’s grown obsessed with getting revenge on Howard, and even Jimmy is surprised by her intensity. Will she fall down the same dark path that he did?
