Better Call Saul Season 6
Better Call Saul Season 6 has just begun off on Netflix and AMC. From Saul and Kim's plans to take down Howard, to Nacho fighting to stay alive and Gus feeling the heat, the show has built on dramatic and tense plot threads for the final season, and as the episodes go on, I hope they can really capitalise on them. In this spoiler review, I'm going to be giving you my recap of Better Call Season 6 episode 1, entitled Wine And Roses, and episode 2, titled Carrot And Stick.
So Better Call Saul’s final season starts in a fantastic way. It may be reaching the stylistic tension that Breaking Bad simmered with, but it keeps it's identity with moments of extreme tension, moments of hilarity and everything in between.
It could easily just become Breaking Bad after the cliffhanger of the last season and the fact that were every so inching towards the timeline of that show, but while it feels like the series is being dipped into the Breaking Bad sauce, what we love about Better Call Saul is ever-present. So what happens in the first two episodes of Season 6, titled 'Wine and Roses' and 'Carrot and Stick'?
Episode 1, entitled Wine And Roses
Well in the season 6 premiere, all of the assets in the luxurious home of Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, are boxed up, while a life-size cut-out of him is put straight in the trash.
In the flash-forward opening of the episode, instead of a monocrome scene like we are used to seeing, we get one that has transitioned to colour in which all of Saul’s assets are taken away from his home. We focus in on the famous bottle top, which once again highlights that this show is more focused on the little details that evoke actual meaning rather then using it's runtime to explain everything through dialogue as if we don't already know.
But alongside the future scenario of what were eventually leading to with Saul Goodman, there are more plot threads in this coming together narrative that takes a huge boil in the start to season 6. Nacho had already attempted to cross the US border in avoiding both the cartel and the police, and after surviving the attack by Gus Fring, Lalo goes to his doppelganger’s house, kills him, and burns his body in an unrecognisable. So that everyone believed he is dead.
But he does inform his uncle, Don Hector, that he's still alive, which may be a slight mistake on his part, because Gus Fring discovers this once he visits Hector to create a sense of peace. While this tension is building, we come back to Kim and Jimmy, with Wexler appearing to be doing well as a pro bono attorney, while Jimmy appears anxious after all the things they went through at the back part ofSeason 5.
He was convinced that Lalo is dead, but remains quite tense, and while having to battle those emotions, he and Kim decide to look for a new office. And we know that this will be the one he has in Breaking Bad, alongside that of the Statue of Liberty inflatable that we late see in episode 2. But in the opening episode, Saul and Kim really start to put their plan into motion surrounding that of taking down Howard.
In a quite funny scene, Saul pretends to be interested in joining Howard’s golf club, and when he gets access to his locker, he places a little plastic bag there, to be disguised as cocaine, when actually just baby powder. And to Saul's luck, Clifford Main is with Howard when he opens the locker and sees this suspicious substance. So already in the first episode, we've got Saul and Kim setting the seeds for the con on Howard and Nacho is waiting in a motel, doing what he's told to stay alive, until Gus's men can apparently pick him up.
Episode 2, titled Carrot And Stick.
This is definitely my favourite of the two they released. It's no suprise that Breaking Bad show creator Vince Gilligan, who also directed least season's classic episode Bagman, is once again back in the director's chair, apparently doing 3 of the final season's episodes.
And this is yet again a great one from director. In the appropriately named episode, Carrot And Stick, we follow straight from the events of episode 1, with Kim building out a scheme, which Saul agrees to carry out and we fully see her breaking bad shift in motion come the end of this episode. Saul approaches the Kettleman's motorhome, one which has that statue of liberty inflatable outside, and of course they are the couple from the beginning of the show, and he persuades them that Howard was doing cocaine while defending them, and that if they engage him as their attorney, he will clear Craig’s name of whatever happened to them in the year's since.
Betsy who was anxious about taking on Saul originally in Season 1, immediately goes against employing him, but because of their situation, it won't be long before they take this cocaine incident straight to Clifford Main himself.
As scheduled, the next day, she and Craig go to see Main to get him to take the case, but none of the lawyers are going to defend them. They are told they won't have a case and this sends Betsy straight back to Saul as she realises that he is plotting something against Howard. This is when at the end of the episode, Kim intervenes, showing us her complete transformation and that she has truly broke bad, with her threatening to inform the IRS about their latest scheme.
It's only going to pick up from here, but with us seeing the inflatable outside and the nature of Kim in this season so far, there is truly going to be some tragic and dark twists to this scheme along the way. But Saul's new office, his famous car with Lawyrup plate from breaking bad are explicitly mentioned and of course briefly seen, so the endgame of this is going to be taking form quite quickly in the episodes to come.
Episode 1 and 2 Review
So what did I think of the opening two episodes. Well, it's a really strong start and the writers have done an amazing job at seemlessly connecting all different genres and tones into one engrossing storyline. We get the traditional slow-burn yet meaningful progress of events, sprinkled with the payoff of action that made Breaking Bad so good before it. But the infuse of comedy and well written character struggles to contrast it, make this start all the more hooking. We move from insane action, to the stoic schemes of a drug boss to the heart and descent of our two main leads.
Kim and Saul are not of two different worlds like they were for a lot of this show, they are now apart of the same one, the bad choice road philosophy rather than the more successful one aligned with Howard. In a twisted way, you're rooting for Saul and Kim, even though deep down you know they are quite unforgivable, and that's because of extroadinary writting and filmmaking on all ends of the spectrum.
Just from the focus on smaller objects like the bottle top opener left at the side of the road or the worlds best lawyer mug and cardboard cutout thrown in bins, the tradgedy, yet called-for-one, is all the more approaching. The con they pulled on Howard is fun to watch, yet the reality of it is that this will probabaly end with something bad happening to him, even though it's not right.
Yes Howard looked down on Jimmy like his brother, but Saul and Kim are completely going beyond it here. It reminds us that the performances and writing of this show is only going up, becoming more complex, more detailed and more satisfying. The breathless tension has only been escalated, the tradgedy and laughs are only more impactful, and having all of this balanced so well, just makes me wonder, how can they keep raising the bar. Years of plot lines and planning is fitting in place so well, that when we do get the eventual fates of characters not seen in Breaking Bad, is will be totally worth it.
Well I hope so, because up until now, the writters haven't dropped the bar.The bar is only going up and as Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad's world collide, I expect it to reach a monumental conclusion. The first two episodes continue to ooze confidence, and while it's not promissed, it's a very good indication that this show will go out guns blazing. And it's in characters like Nacho and Kim that we are really feeling either the sympathy or worry, that this show needs to stimulate reaching the back end.
Even the familiar faces from Breaking Bad are more detailed and that is extremely telling, since Better Call Saul is a prequel series. The fact that I honestly don't have a clear idea over how they will tackle the end of characters like Kim and Nacho, alongside that of the recurring ones, puts this show in a very strong place.
But the turn of the page from Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad is of course inevitable, and with other characters like Walt and Jessie soon to pop up, that idea will be firmly highlighted. All I hope is that like everything we've seen so far, that they execute this smoothly and not have it feeling like just a cool cameo. But we fans of the show know that these writters don't tend to do that, and treat their story with the respect that they came in with. Now it's just time to sit back and trust them once again, as the car speeds further and further down bad choice road.
Final Thoughts
But that was my spoiler review and recap for Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 1 and Episode 2. The writing and pacing is absolutely brilliant here, the performances are of another level and the building of tension is something that no other show on TV is doing quite as well right now. If this final season continues this run come it's last few episodes, there's honestly a genuine debate to be had over whether it's as good or even better then Breaking Bad.
But it's crucial to note that Better Call Saul has established it's own territory without the need to act as simply a prequel. This is the trap that many spinoffs, sequels and prequels of other franchises fall into and I think that Better Call Saul really deserves as much attention as that of it's predecessor.
Once the second episode finished I was honestly ready to dive straight into another, but I think the developments and tension that has been set in motion, is going to carry all the way through to next week. I think we may have something really special on our hands come the end of this show, all that's left now, is for Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould to land the ending to another great show that they've concieved. I'm giving Season 6 Episode 1 and 2 of Better Call Saul a rating of 9.25 out of 10. But to those who have already seen the first few episodes, what are your thoughts on the way the final season of Better Call Saul has kicked off and what do you think will happen in Episode 3?
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