Spoilers follows! After last weeks’ episode of Better Call Saul, the prequel series finally caught up to the events of Breaking Bad and now the show has officially crossover over with the flagship drama in a big way. Much like how Breaking Bad had an episode called “Better Call Saul,” now Better Call Saul has arrived with an episode titled “Breaking Bad,” and with it Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul have officially returned as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Let’s break down the episode below and dig into what it means for the big picture.
What’s especially interesting about this episode of Better Call Saul is how it acts in direct contrast to the episode of Breaking Bad that first introduced Bob Odenkirk’s lawyer character. The episode begins with frantic movement, and we see Saul experiencing his trip to the desert at the hands of Walt and Jesse in Breaking Bad episode 2.08, the same episode that brought the character to the world and planted the seed for Lalo Salamanca way back in 2009. Though the episode does spend most of its time in the black-and-white days of Saul in Omaha, living as Gene, there are some interspersed scenes set during Breaking Bad, specifically filling in the gaps of Saul’s first episode.
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An extended scene between Saul, Walt, and Jesse inside the Crystal Ship, with the pair explaining their business to Goodman and him explaining attorney-client privilege to them both. There’s a handful of funny references to the larger Breaking Bad narrative in the scene, like how Walt will flood the RV’s engine in the very next episode of the series.
Another scene midway through the episode flashes back to the events of Breaking Bad, wherein Mike enters Saul’s office and reveals to him all the information he was able to find out about Walt and Jesse, including the former’s status as a high school chemistry teacher and that he has lung cancer. When Saul asks if Gus had an opinion on the pair Mike replies that he doesn’t even know about them, they’re too small potatoes.
Finally as the episode is drawing to its close, Better Call Saul begins to cut back and fourth between Saul in Omaha and Saul in Albuquerque. In the Gene timeline he’s involved in a scheme with Jeff and his partner to rip off single guys with a lot of money, coming across a potential mark that also happens to have cancer, just like Walt. In this moment we see a moment of humanity with Breaking Bad-era Saul as he considers working with the cancer-stricken meth dealer and the Omaha-era Saul as he plans to steal the identity of a guy, no qualms about how he has cancer at all.
The episode concludes with Saul entering J. P. Wynne High School, creating a perfect bookend for his introductory episode in Breaking Bad. As fans may recall, that episode ended with Saul entering Walt’s classroom and revealing that he’d tracked him down thanks to his Private Eye and finally offering his services to Heisenberg. Two episodes remain in Better Call Saul before it’s officially over, and since the next episode will be written and directed by Vince Gilligan, we’re going to guess that Walt and Jesse will be back.
