One of the most remarkable things about Better Call Saul over five seasons now is how Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, and the writers have managed to take throwaway lines from Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and build entire story arcs and characters around it on Better Call Saul. For instance, in season two, when Walt and Jesse kidnapped Saul and dragged him out into the desert, Saul assumed he was being abducted by someone named Lalo, and Saul tried to blame his predicament it on Ignacio. Better Call Saul turned Ignacio into Nacho and made him a series regular, while Lalo entered in season four and became the main villain in season 5. So much of Better Call Saul has been built around that one line. It’s remarkable.
Likewise, Hank and Gomez spoke about someone “croaking” their snitch in the opening season of Breaking Bad, and three episodes ago, that snitch was revealed to be Krazy 8. Or remember in season three of Breaking Bad how Saul told Walt a throwaway story about convincing a woman he was Kevin Costner and sleeping with her? That became an episode in Better Call Saul.
By the end of six seasons, Better Call Saul will probably be able to provide an explanation for every single thing that Saul Goodman does in Breaking Bad, except for maybe one scene.
What was that?!
I am sure at the time — long before anyone though to spin the character off into a prequel — that the statement seemed consistent with the character, but that is not something that Jimmy McGill (who is practically sexless) would ever say.
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Why would a guy who barely shows intimacy with the woman he loves so lewdly harass his assistant, an assistant for whom he has a lot of affection, as we have seen in Better Call Saul. Was Saul having an affair with Francesca Liddy? Does this one statement completely throw doubt into the theory that Kim and Saul are actually married in Breaking Bad, but we just never see her? Because not only is it hard to imagine Saul ever saying that to Francisco, it’s twice as hard to imagine it if Saul and Kim are married, following Kim’s pseudo-proposal in this week’s episode.
It doesn’t square, and we’re not the only ones who think that. Bob Odenkirk, who plays the character, can’t quite square it, either. “The one thing that doesn’t fit yet,” Bob Odenkirk told Variety this week, “is when his assistant is walking away in the first scene, and he makes some wisecrack about wanting to grab her ass. Why would he do that? I don’t understand.”
Peter Gould and company don’t have much longer to explain it, but I assume that they will eventually. They spend at least six months in the writers’ room before they start shooting, and they may need to spend a few weeks on that moment alone. Maybe it’s part of an inside joke? Or maybe Saul really did sleep with her after a particularly hard time without Kim? Or maybe in addition to turning into a sleazy lawyer, Saul Goodman goes full-sleaze in every other aspect of his life, too.
We probably won’t find out until season six. In the meantime, there are four more episodes left this season.
(Via Variety)
