Better Call Saul Director on That Big Breaking Bad Crossover

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Monday's "Waterworks" episode of Better Call Saul. Yeah, bitch! Crossover! After six seasons of fans wondering where Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) was during the events of Breaking Bad, the answer comes in the penultimate episode of Better Call Saul: in Titusville, Florida. In a reprieve from Kim's colorless life as a Palm Coast Sprinkler employee circa 2010, a flashback to Albuquerque 2004 reveals the moment she serves sleazy strip-mall lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) divorce papers. It's the first — and last — time we see Kim during the Breaking Bad era.

Just as Kim steps out of Saul Goodman's office, client Emilio Koyama (John Koyama) steps in. He's the crystal meth-making partner of one "Cap'n Cook": Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), still years away from hiring Saul's services as a criminal lawyer after Walter White (Bryan Cranston) breaks bad and gets into the game in 2008.

Jesse is just outside, asking to bum a cigarette and making small talk about the rain. ("It's, like, bananas, all this rain," the hoodied stoner says. "I mean, I thought we were, like, in a desert, you know?") In another nod to Breaking Bad, Jesse recognizes Kim as the ex-pro bono lawyer who once got buddy Combo (Rodney Rush) off scot-free when he unwisely stole a Baby Jesus from a Nativity scene.

"This guy Goodman? He the real deal? Like, lawyer-wise?" Jesse asks Kim, telling her Emilio needs "top-shelf legal representation." It was the two-bit, bus bench lawyer's commercials — Better Call Saul! — that got the drug dealer's attention. 

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"Is this guy any good?" Jesse asks. Kim answers: "When I knew him, he was." With that, she walks away from Saul Goodman and Associates, never hearing from her ex-husband again — until a fateful phone call in the post-Breaking Bad timeline of 2010.

"It was so much fun. We all wanted a scene with the two partners from the two separate shows," Better Call Saul co-creator Vince Gilligan, who wrote and directed "Waterworks," told AMC.com of the Breaking Bad cameos bridging the two shows. "We just thought it would just be delicious to see Kim Wexler and Jesse Pinkman together. What would that look like? How on earth would they get together? What would cause their paths to cross? And we landed on sharing a cigarette out in the rain."

Cranston and Paul first reprised their roles in Better Call Saul's "Breaking Bad" episode, which revisits the moment Walt and Jesse abduct Saul in Breaking Bad's "Better Call Saul" episode. 

"It was wonderful working with Aaron again," said Gilligan, who marked an end to his time in the Breaking Bad Universe with Saul's penultimate episode. "We were shooting in the cold and the artificial rain. And by the way, artificial rain is just as miserable to stand around in for nine, 10 hours straight as the real thing. … It was a rough scene, but I love it so much."

Gilligan added: "There's no greater story reason that I could point to as to why we needed those two characters together. I think the idea just delighted us. We wanted to see those two worlds collide." 

Better Call Saul's series finale, "Saul Gone," premieres Monday, August 15 on AMC and AMC+.