‘Better Call Saul’: Deliciously Corrupt Final Season Opens With Violent Schemes

Alci Rengifo

AMC’s “Better Call Saul” gets ready to close the curtains as it enters its sixth and final season. The “Breaking Bad” prequel became its own, respected series, garnering a loyal fan base with its superb quality. It’s a slow-burning character study and violent crime drama, packaged in a way where you can find intellectual stimulation while basking in the tension. Because this is a prequel, we have a sense of the fate of double-faced lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), going by the identity of Saul Goodman. What is morbidly engaging is how he will get to his spot in the “Breaking Bad” universe. We also care enough about everyone else to truly wonder who will make it out alive.

It’s turning into a season of open warfare in Saul’s world. The scheme by Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) to assassinate Mexican drug baron Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) did not go as planned. Lalo has made it out alive and is trekking towards the U.S.-Mexico border, while Nacho (Michael Mando), who was playing both sides, has been outed as Gus’s rat. Now Nacho is fleeing through arid Mexican desert to escape Salamanca killers on his trail. Back in New Mexico, Gus and Mike (Jonathan Banks) try to handle the fallout of the botched hit. As Nacho hides out in a grimy motel, only peeking out through the blinds to spot any potential hitmen, Gus and Mike try to cover up evidence and strike a cordial tone with the Salamanca clan. Meanwhile, Jimmy is still slightly hesitant to fully embrace his new identity as Saul, even as Kim (Rhea Seehorn) continues to turn to the dark side and schemes with him to take down former boss Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian). 

Still as intricate as ever thanks to the careful work of showrunner Peter Gould (who took over most duties from creator Vince Gilligan), this first half of the final season still has a sense of things winding down. “I hope fans are expecting an exact bookend to ‘Breaking Bad,’” Esposito tells Entertainment Voice. “That’s the way the show should go. But in general, I hope they are drawn into what is eventually a drama about Saul Goodman. It’s about someone trying to figure out if they’re going to be moral or immoral. Kim starts off as someone who wants to be in service and do good but how does the relationship with Saul affect her ego? It’s a real moral tale about who we choose to be.” The final season opens precisely with that kind of inner tension. While the gangsters traffic in violence, Saul and Kim are literally scheming in order to manipulate people into accepting them as clients or in order to frame Hamlin. In a bit of good dark comedy, Saul sneaks into the elite country club where Hamlin plays golf, planting cocaine in his locker.

“This show is meant to leave you thinking,” Jonathan Banks tells Entertainment Voice. “There are a lot of broken characters, a lot of flawed characters. Some realize they are flawed and others don’t. I hope there’s some contemplation on the part of the audience.” In the tradition of the anti-hero genre that has become such a factor in the rise of Peak TV, it’s hard to morally “root” for someone in “Better Call Saul.” Nacho hides out in a hotel contemplating death, but he has no one else to blame for his situation. Mike, played with such great presence by Banks, can coldly threaten two junkies to get out of town, handing them some cash, without showing any hint of sensitivity. Saul himself is the portrait of a lawyer learning how to operate corruptly. “I’ve played this character for 13 years now and it’s made me very aware of my own personal limits, even with the knowledge that I can’t change much of it,” says Banks. “I can’t ignore that I did things that I wish I could go back and fix. For those of us who have a conscience and realize we have fucked up in one form or another, this show resonated.”

The layers in “Better Call Saul” feel rich because it never rushes. Early episodes of this season have no shockers, just developments and moments. Lalo realizes Nacho was working for Gus as he’s about to hop on a migrant caravan, then proceeds to kill the coyotes and hand the migrants their money back before speeding off in a stolen truck. We can see the gears turning in Gus’s mind as he attempts to figure out how to visit Lalo’s powerful uncle and make it seem as if they’re on the same side. Nacho is the only one who is trapped in a more traditional, thriller nightmare. “When the show started, I figured Nacho’s ambition was to rule all of New Mexico,” Miguel Mando tells Entertainment Voice. “He does get offered all the power he could ever dream of, but deep down he also wants to break good when everyone else is breaking bad. I felt grateful, shooting this final season. I learned lots of resilience with this show. There’s a difference between personality and character. My father passed away last year. He was battling cancer while we were shooting season five and that was the hardest experience of my life. I’m glad for the friendships formed in this journey.”

There is a real pleasure in simply watching the characters of “Better Call Saul” think and operate. For a show that has less violence than the ads would suggest, it’s far more immersive to see Mike cleaning up a safe or Saul stare off into the New Mexico horizon, wondering if it’s all worth it. There are stylistic touches, like Mexican assassin twins in cowboy boots looking for Nacho, but it’s also not necessarily glamorized. Killing to make a buck, and being the legal arm of such killers, is feeling more somber as this unique show prepares to end. “Aren’t we finding out that so much of our time in this world is about the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’? It’s all about getting what you can, when you can and it doesn’t matter how you get it,” says Esposito. “We’re at a time where people are maybe becoming awake enough through war and innocent people dying to realize money is not king. The whole world is at a precipice and people become pawns of the powerful. It’s like we’ve become a living snuff film. This show has been so magnificent in depicting that state of affairs. I, of course, will have my own cherished memories of bringing it to life.”

“Better Call Saul” season six premieres April 18 and airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.