Breaking Bad Star Speaks Out on Better Call Saul Return and Justice for Hank

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Better Call Saul’s “Saul Gone” episode. “If somebody was in trouble, no matter the time, no matter the place, Hank Schrader would be there,” Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt) said when confronting Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) in the Better Call Saul series finale. For the first time since Breaking Bad’s “Felina” finale in 2013, Brandt reprised her role as the grieving widow of DEA ASAC Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), who died in the line of duty while arresting his meth-making brother-in-law: Walter White (Bryan Cranston). 

And for the first time since Breaking Bad ended, there was justice for Hank and Agent Steve Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada), gunned down by Jack Welker (Michael Bowen) and his gang when protecting the arrested Walter in Breaking Bad‘s “Ozymandias.” 

After Walt’s widow, Skyler (Anna Gunn), gave up the location of Hank and Steve’s bodies in exchange for a deal with the feds, Goodman — née James McGill — was sentenced to 86 years in prison for a list of federal offenses, including accessory to the murders of decorated officers Schrader and Gomez.

While Brandt’s co-star Norris reprised his role in two episodes of the Breaking Bad prequel’s fifth season, the Saul series finale — set in the post-Bad timeline of late 2010 — was Brandt’s first time reprising her purple-clad character in nearly a decade. 

“Oh my God, it was an absolute pleasure. It wasn’t something that I thought I’d get to do. When you’re finished, you’re finished. That’s usually how it goes,” Brandt told Variety. “I thought the last time I played her would be when I had to loop the Breaking Bad finale when I was in New York on the Michael J. Fox Show. I thought that’s how I’d finish, in a soundstage on the phone with the team back in L.A. But it was like putting on your favorite sweater that you forgot how much you loved. I’ve missed her.”

Brandt continued, “I know she can be a real pain in the ass, but I’ve missed her, that purple-wearing, obsessed person. The way they brought her back, she’s grown up a lot since we saw her. I love the dignity that they gave her. It was everything I wanted for my character as an actor.” 

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After the Albuquerque conman turned fugitive is apprehended in Omaha, Nebraska, Marie tells the jailed Goodman, “They tell me they found you in a garbage dumpster. Well, that makes sense.” With Walt dead and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in the wind, Goodman is the only one left to hear Marie’s emotional appeal: “My husband was the best man that I have ever known.” 

“I still wanted her to be the same person; you have to recognize her. Marie’s so tightly wound, and she still is, but she’s determined and she wants to do right by Hank,” Brandt said. “I always had this feeling that — I get emotional talking about this and I know it’s pretend, believe me, I get it — what kept her going after Hank died is that she wanted to make him proud, even after he’s gone. Dean Norris wasn’t in this episode, but Hank was in my heart all the days we were shooting. That is what really guides her. Not ‘What would Hank do?’ but ‘What would Hank think of what I’m doing?’ Their love story in the show is really beautiful, and it was wonderful to get to honor that.”

While Marie’s sister, Skyler, doesn’t make an appearance, the aftershocks of Breaking Bad reverberate throughout what was the finale for the Bad Universe. 

“What Walt did to our family, my husband, my sister and I, to Walt Jr. — to Gomez’s family, she’s a widow and three kids lost their dad. I loved the gravity of having both of them together and holding each other up through that,” Brandt said of the courtroom scene. “I thought it was a really beautiful moment. Also to see Odenkirk say ‘I’m James McGill.’ When we were shooting that scene, Bob gave me chills.” 

Asked what’s next for Marie post-Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Brandt said, “She keeps going. I think she’s going to live the life she knows Hank would want her to. I think that’s exactly what guides her. I can’t imagine what dating would be like for her, because she’ll compare everyone to Hank, and she’ll do that for a while. But I think she’ll live a long, happy, full life.”

As for mending what’s left of the White/Schrader family, “I hope she and Skyler have some connection. It’ll never be the same, but I love that relationship. I love that they had that war-buddy connection. That was such a loss for my character when she realizes Skyler was in on this. I think that would be hard to forgive, but I hope they have some connection. And I hope she sees Walt Jr. and little baby Holly.”