Warning: The following contains spoilers forBetter Call SaulSeason 6.
Across its six-season run,Better Call Saul,the prequel to AMC’s belovedBreaking Bad,achieved the rare feat of transcending its predecessor to become an acclaimed series in its own right. As with all prequels,Better Call Saulhad the tricky task of not only setting up the events ofBreaking Bad,but also bringing the story ofAlbuquerque’s shiftiest lawyerto a satisfying conclusion. Thankfully, showrunners Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, and their writing team managed to pull it off, and then some. But with nearly three years since the show’s conclusion, even the biggest fans of Gilligan’s meth-ridden New Mexico might have forgotten exactly what happened toall the series' main characters. Let’s take a look at whereBetter Call Saulleaves its (anti)heroes.
Better Call Saul
Jimmy McGill, a.k.a. Saul Goodman
Better Call Saulactually gives its protagonist, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), not one, but two arcs to wrap up. First, there’s how an unscrupulous public defender turns into every Albuquerque criminal’s favorite defense attorney, and also what happened to said attorney after the events ofBreaking Bad,which saw Saul assuming a new identity and going into hiding. The first question is satisfyingly answered over the course of the series, but the second one doesn’t get fully explored until the series finale, “Saul Gone.”
The series shows thatSaul’s new life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, managing a mall Cinnabon and dreaming of his past glories. Eventually, his cover is blown, and he’s taken in by the authorities while attempting to hide in a dumpster. Facing a massive life sentence for his role in Walter White’s empire, Jimmy initially tries to claim he was a victim of Walter’s machinations, getting his sentence reduced to a staggeringly low seven years. But when he learns that some blowback might fall on his ex-wife Kim Wexler, Jimmy changes his tune and takes the fall.
At the sentencing, faced with Kim for the first time in years,Jimmy claims he was the mastermind behind Walter’s operation, and even confesses to his role in his brother Chuck’s (Michael McKean) suicide. As a result,he ends up sentenced to 86 years behind bars. One final flash-forward shows Kim visiting Jimmy in prison,sharing one final cigarettebefore she leaves, and he gives her their signature finger-gun salute on the way out.
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Kim Wexler
Probably one of the biggest questions throughoutBetter Call Saulis what would happen to Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), Jimmy’s wife and fellow lawyer. Since she never appeared inBreaking Bad,viewers watched in a constant state of concern that she would meet a violent end thanks to her association with the man known as Saul Goodman. Kim was a much more by-the-book lawyer than Jimmy ever was, but over the course of the series, she kept getting pulled deeper into Jimmy’s unscrupulous ways.
Thankfully,Kim survives the seriesand manages to escape with her soul largely intact. A flash-forward reveals thatKim has left her law days behind, moving to Florida and working for a sprinkler sales company, living a dull suburban life with a new, dull suburban husband. She eventually finds her way back to the law, albeit in a different way, signing up to volunteer at a pro bono legal aid nonprofit. The work brings her back to what she loved about being a lawyer in the first place, helping less fortunate clients who can’t afford good lawyers but still need quality representation.
Mike Ehrmantraut
Former crooked cop turned criminal fixerMike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks)is one of the few characters to appear in bothBreaking BadandBetter Call Saul,and fans of the former no doubt know his ultimate fate.Better Call Saulmostly shows how Mike came to be involved with drug kingpin Gus Fring, as well as being drawn into Saul’s orbit.By the end of the series, Mike is still working for Fring while occasionally doing some private investigating for Saul on the side.
Mike’s arc ties directly into the events ofBreaking Bad,as Saul hires him to look into Walter White after he and Jesse Pinkman kidnap him to compel him to represent their associate, Badger (as seen in theBreaking BadSeason 2 episode “Better Call Saul”). Mike concludes that Walter isn’t worth working with, calling him an amateur and revealing that he’s dying of cancer.Saul ignores Mike’s advice and offers his services to Walter anyway, kicking off hisBreaking Badstoryline.
One of the otherBreaking Badcharacters to make the jump to the prequel,Better Call Saulshows Gus Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) rise from mid-level cartel operative to drug kingpin of the Southwest. Gus’s downfall begins when he meets Walter White, but in the prequel, he’s got different problems to deal with. In the Season 6 episode “Point and Shoot,” Gus’s cartel enemy Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) survived Gus’s attempt on his life, returning to the states and leading Gus to the site of the meth lab he’s been building beneath the laundry service, as seen inBreaking Bad.Gus manages to get the upper hand and kills Lalo, burying his body in the lab’s foundation.
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Better Call Saul has incredible dialogue and among the numerous memorable quotes, the following stand out.
Gus ends up in an uneasy truce with the cartel, getting a large portion of the New Mexico drug territory, and continues his work on the underground lab.Things continue to go pretty well for him, at least until Walter White enters the picture.
Nacho Varga
One of the series' most tragic arcs is that of Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), a formerly loyal cartel footsoldier who ends up facilitating a botched raid on Lalo’s compound in Mexico, after falling into the clutches of Gus Fring. He’s eventually given up to the cartel after his usefulness to Gus expires, but agrees to take the fall for Gus to protect his father, Manuel, whose life hangs in the balance.In the end, rather than do as instructed, Nacho tells off the Salamancas, gets a hold of one of their guns, and kills himself. It’s a shocking, but perhaps inevitable end for a character whose life of crime really could only end one way.
