Recap / Better Call Saul S6 E13: "Saul Gone"

United States v. Saul Goodman

Judge Small: Mr. Goodman, sit down and stay seated.

Jimmy McGill: The name's McGill. I'm James McGill.

In 2004, during their trek through the desert, Jimmy and Mike find some relief when they come across a cistern full of fresh water. While they rest, Jimmy jokingly suggests they steal Lalo's bail money and flee town. This leads to a discussion of what they would do if they had a time machine. Mike says he would use it to go back to 1984 and not take his first bribe, then go 5-10 years into the future to check up on people he cares about. Jimmy says that he would go back to 1965, invest in Berkshire Hathaway on the day it was taken over by Warren Buffett, and come back a billionaire. Mike chides Jimmy for focusing exclusively on money. The two then resume their journey.

In 2010, "Gene" flees Jeff's house while Marion remains in contact with her Life Alert operator. She is able to read off his license plate number as he drives away. Returning to his residence, Gene retrieves his shoebox and overhears information about his car being broadcast on the police radio scanner. Spotting a police car outside, he escapes through a rear window with the shoebox and a burner phone. As the police sweep the streets of Omaha, Gene climbs into a dumpster and removes Ed Galbraith's business card from the shoebox, memorizing the password. However, as he struggles to open the phone's clamshell packaging, he upends the contents of the shoebox. A squad of police officers find him and he surrenders at gunpoint.

As he is being booked, Gene sees some cops watching one of his Saul Goodman commercials on a computer. He makes a phone call to the Cinnabon, telling one of his employees that they will need a new manager. Later, as he paces around his holding cell, Gene hurts his hand by punching at the door. Collapsing to the floor, he notices a graffiti message etched into the wall: "MY LAWYR WILL REAM UR ASS" and bursts into laughter. He gets up and demands another phone call.

In Albuquerque, Bill Oakley is shocked to receive a call from the man he knows as Saul Goodman. Saul wants Oakley to act as "advisory counsel" as he represents himself in his legal proceedings. Oakley doubts he can mount a successful defense against the evidence the District Attorney and the government have against him. When Oakley asks how he imagines this scenario ending, Saul confidently replies, "With me on top, like always."

As Saul is being led through a corridor of the Douglas County Detention Center, he spots Marie Schrader in an adjoining room. Saul and Oakley negotiate a plea with a team of prosecutors, who are offering a reduced sentence of thirty years in prison. Knowing that Marie is watching the meeting through a mirrored window, Saul asks that she be allowed into the room, which they reluctantly allow. Marie sits across from Saul and eulogizes her late husband, Hank, and his partner, Steven Gomez, blaming their murders on Walter White. Saul portrays himself as a victim of Walt, recounting how he and Jesse Pinkman kidnapped him; his actions as their accomplice, he claims, were borne out of fear for his life. No one in the room is fooled, but Saul reminds the lead prosecutor that he only needs one juror to believe his story to avoid conviction; Marie pleads with them to not make a deal. Later, Marie, angry and defeated, storms out of the DCDC.

The plea negotiation drags on late into the night, with the prosecution team being forced to agree to a reduced sentence of seven years. Saul successfully pressures the prosecutors to place him in a low-security prison in North Carolina, as opposed to the maximum-security ADX Montrose. Feeling smug, he attempts to dangle one last piece of information in a bid to get his sentence reduced even further: the murder of Howard Hamlin. However, he is stunned to learn that Kim has already disclosed the truth of Howard's murder, meaning that he has no more leverage in the negotiations. Oakley is forced to finalize the plea deal while Saul sits in stunned silence.

Eight months earlier, Saul lies on his cot in the basement of Ed's vacuum shop as Walt tries to repair a faulty water heater. Pointing to Walt's former occupation as a scientist, Saul asks what he would do if he had a time machine. Walt is angrily dismissive of the question and recognizes that what Saul is actually talking about is past regrets. Walt says that his biggest regret is allowing his former business partners to take over the company he co-founded and profit from his discoveries. Saul replies that his biggest regret is an experience from his youth in which he hurt his leg in a slip-and-fall scam. Walt, incredulous, states that "you were always like this" and returns to fixing the water heater, leaving Saul sitting on his cot.

In the present, Saul is on a passenger flight to New Mexico, accompanied by Oakley and a US Marshal. Saul asks Oakley what Kim's situation is now that she has disclosed the details of Howard's murder to the authorities. Oakley replies that while it remains unlikely that she will be prosecuted, Cheryl is "shopping for a lawyer" and planning to sue her in civil court for a "wrongful death" suit. A thought occurs to Saul; he tells Oakley and the Marshal that he has more information to divulge about the murder once they land in New Mexico.

Back in Titusville, Kim struggles to return to her daily routine at Palm Coast Sprinkler. Eventually, she leaves work early and drives to a legal aid office, telling the woman in charge that she wants to volunteer. Working late into the night, Kim is filling filing cabinets when she receives a call on her cell phone from ADA Suzanne Ericsen back in Albuquerque. Performing the call as an unofficial courtesy, Ericsen informs Kim that Saul was captured two days previously; what's more, he is offering to give testimony that will affect Kim. Kim is shocked by the details of Saul's potential testimony.

Wearing a flashy suit, Saul enters a courtroom in Albuquerque for his sentencing hearing; Oakley, Marie, Blanca Gomez, and Kim, the latter sitting in the back row, are also in attendance. While the lead prosecutor makes a statement to the judge defending the plea agreement, Saul asks to address the court. He initially repeats his speech from the DCDC, recounting his kidnapping by Walt and Jesse. However, he throws the hearing into disarray by confessing that, far from being a victim, he was a willing and indispensable participant in Walt's drug empire. In a breaking voice, he credits Kim for starting over legitimately after Howard's murder, admits to the role he played in his brother Chuck's suicide, and addresses himself as "James McGill" for the first time in years. His conscience cleared, Jimmy sits back at the defendant's table and looks at Kim while Oakley and the prosecution team begin arguing.

Back in May 2002, the night before Jimmy's first meeting with Tuco, he delivers groceries to Chuck's house. Chuck expresses interest in hearing about Jimmy's fledgling solo practice; Jimmy clearly finds his clients distasteful, but Chuck tells him that even they deserve a good legal defense. Chuck seemingly wants a genuine conversation with Jimmy, saying that it is not too late for him to change his path, but Jimmy assumes that his brother is criticizing him and rebuffs the attempt. After Jimmy leaves, Chuck, taking his gas lantern and a copy of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, retreats into his study.

In 2010, Jimmy is transported by bus to ADX Montrose. One of the prisoners on the bus, sitting in front of Jimmy, initially threatens him but quickly recognizes him as Saul Goodman; despite Jimmy insisting that his name is "McGill," the other prisoners recognize him as the "Better Call Saul" guy one by one. Eventually, the prisoners use the "Better Call Saul" slogan as the basis of a chant. Jimmy smiles, amused.

Later, while he is fixing food in the prison kitchen, Jimmy is told that a lawyer has come to see him. Taken to a visitation room, he finds that the lawyer is Kim; since her New Mexico bar card doesn't have an expiration date, she is allowed to visit him as an attorney. Evoking their talks together in the HHM parking garage, the two share a cigarette and lean against a wall. It is revealed that the plea agreement was quashed and that Jimmy has been sentenced to 86 years. As she walks out of the prison, Kim sees Jimmy watching her from the exercise yard. The two look longingly at each other through the barbed-wire fences; he gives her a pointed-gun gesture. Kim steals one last glimpse of Jimmy as she turns a corner of the prison.

---

Tropes:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The prison Montrose is based on has twenty three hours in solitary confinement, is hell for mentally-ill prisoners and would kill someone like Jimmy's spirit for good. So it's probably for the best that while it's depicted as a very hard place, Kim is allowed to visit as his "lawyer", he works in the prison bakery and the other criminals like him.
• All for Nothing: Saul, Bill, and the team of prosecutors spend a significant amount of time hammering out a plea deal for Jimmy, working the initial offer of a 30-year sentence down to seven and a half in a cushy, white-collar prison, with numerous perks to make the stay as comfortable as possible. Jimmy then proceeds to destroy the deal at the last possible second, confessing to being a willing participant in Walter White's meth empire, winding up with a sentence nearly three times longer than the initial offer, and functionally no different than the sentence the prosecutors were threatening him with if the case went to court (life + 190 years). All of this is, of course, exactly what Jimmy wanted. By having Kim (whom he had requested be present in the courtroom under false pretenses) witness Jimmy confess to all his crimes as Saul Goodman, Jimmy is able to show her that he is able to change as a person.
• Ambiguous Situation: Many things are left for the viewer to decide.
  • Jeff's fate after Gene's arrest is not known, with chances that he'll either go to prison for breaking and entering or get off on account of the total lack of physical evidence against him. Who knows, maybe Jimmy confessed to the break-in as well.
  • It's anyone's guess as to whether the government or Cheryl will take any course of action against Kim. Bill surmises that the affidavit will simply be ignored by authorities with no further evidence, though believes the chances of a civil suit from Cheryl are likely. Kim having a very mundane life with very little worth taking leaves it possible that Cheryl won't even bother pursuing anything, but if she does take it, Kim will have to pay her debts for the rest of her life.
    • It's worth noting that Kim has moved to Florida, a state that has strong protections against creditors, e.g. the Homestead Law. She may well have chosen to move to that particular state as part of a plan to ensure that she was protected before coming clean to Cheryl.
  • Kim stops much of her self-punishment with a return to the law, working as a paralegal and general assistant to a nonprofit law office. It's not confirmed if she'll fully commit to being a lawyer again, with her New Mexico bar card just being an excuse to visit Jimmy in prison.
  • Jimmy is facing 86 years in federal prison, though mentions getting out earlier on good behavior. With him in his 50's, realistic conclusions range from spending the rest of his days behind bars to being released in his twilight years. His time in prison is also very briefly seen, so anything he might be up to while inside is left to the imagination. For what it's worth, Gould, Gilligan, and the actors think he'll serve a pretty short time from both behaving and Jimmy/Kim using their lawyer skills for good, even if he'll be seen as "Saul Goodman" forever.
  • The nature of Jimmy and Kim's meeting in prison is not outright stated that this is meant to be their final encounter or if she'll be frequently visiting Jimmy from time to time. And while it holds romantic undertones, it's also not confirmed if Kim left Glenn at any point. invokedBoth actors and creators believe their relationship has been restored, albeit in a much different form.
  • It's unclear if Jimmy was convicted of the charge of being an accessory after the fact to the murders of Hank and Gomez, considering that while it's still believed Walt killed them, there's no evidence Jimmy and Walt ever met with each other following the murders and Jimmy is aware it was Jack Welker and his gang who killed them, so there's no reason beyond wanting to punish himself to plead guilty to a crime he's innocent of. Although given that he knows what the Aryan Brotherhood is capable of doing in prisons, he may well have wanted to keep quiet about that and just take the flak for the deaths of Hank and Gomez.
• And Another Thing...: Right when the AUSA and associates think they're done offering Saul's 19 requests and bargaining, Saul decides to add a 20th request for mint-chocolate ice cream. His decision is to trade what he knows about Howard's true fate in exchange, but everyone blows it off since Kim already confessed about it.
• Artistic License – Prison: ADX Montrose is supposedly based off of ADX Florence and is also referred to as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies". ADX Montrose as depicted is nothing like ADX Florence, as inmates there are depicted holding assigned jobs and doing recreational activities with each other, things inmates can't do in a proper supermax prison.
• Armor-Piercing Response: "So you were always like this." Saul goes from a hopeful smile to looking like he's about to burst into tears, a lot like how Jimmy did in "Pimento".
• Artistic License – Law:
  • Saul excuses himself from the government's charges by arguing duress, in that he was simply forced into participating and aiding Walter White. The show portrays his defense as rather bulletproof, but in reality, the government would still have a fighting chance of placing him behind bars, given how they've previously prosecuted other syndicates like The Mafia. Giving credit where it's due, it's a pretty strong argument that would cause a headache for government officials, combined with Saul's knowledge of what the AUSA's no-loss record really means. Saul even says it would not work under law but he just needs one person in the jury to be moved and he wins.
  • In actual federal criminal cases, defendants cannot request specific prison facilities as part of a plea bargain. After a conviction is secured and the sentence determined, the case is referred to the Bureau Of Prisons, who determines the facility and level of security at which the prisoner should be held.
• Artistic License – Space: In-Universe, Saul decides to ask Mike and Walt about what they'd do with a time machine. He means it in a playful manner, and Walt ends up angrily rebuking him for daring to think time travel is even a scientific possibility. Saul then mentions having watched Nova and heard of wormholes. Walt just brushes the whole thing off and demands he re-word the conversation to be about "regrets". What might really press Walt's buttons is Saul asking "From a scientist's point of view".
  Walt: Stay in your lane!
• Ascended Extra: Having been a minor Recurring Character throughout the show, Bill Oakley returns to the Grand Finale with a much larger screentime as he gets to represent Jimmy as a co-counsel during the Saul Goodman trial, which he soon comes to regret.
• Ascended Meme: The prisoners on the bus to Montrose refer to Jimmy as "Better Call Saul".
• Back for the Finale:
  • Marie Schrader comes back to help press charges against Saul. Bill Oakley and Suzanne Ericsen also return for the last Better Call Saul episode in the current day.
  • In a Meta sense:
    • Bryan Cranston's cameo as Walter White. As this episode is the final installment of the Breaking Bad franchise, it's fitting that its original lead character returns for its final hour.
    • Michael McKean comes back to portray Chuck McGill one last time, in a flashback.
• Bait the Dog:
  • Saul requests for Marie to be present for when he confesses to his first encounter with Walt and Jesse. His speech alleging he was forced to conspire with them gets delivered under a lens of fake remorse and fear over the consequences of being a loose end like with Mike's guys and their lawyer Dan Wachsberger. While the audience most likely won't buy it and the leading prosecution clearly doesn't, his spiel ends up being convincing enough to make half the legal team shift in their seats and even give Marie pause. Just in case there were any viewers that were willing to somehow give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he had a breakthrough here, this is immediately followed by Saul's plan to cause a deadlock.
  • It ultimately becomes an inversion; Saul approaches the witness stand to deliver the same excuse, but then stops himself and changes his testimony by admitting he wanted money and glory from helping Walt, confessing to both legal and personal sins, and reaffirming his real name as James McGill, all in front of Kim and the court.
• Batman Gambit: Saul's plan to give himself the best possible outcome of getting caught relies on two things: the impartial nature of juries and this particular US Attorney never having lost a case.
  • For the former, he submits an entire claim of committing all his crimes against his will and spins a reasonable narrative of being too scared to disobey. It manages to be so convincing that it makes Marie actually pause with slight sympathy. If he can con someone who blames him for part of the destruction Walter caused and her husband's death, the risk of a deadlocked jury becomes much higher. By the end of his "testimony", about half of the prosecution is shifting around in their seats.
  • Regarding the latter, a prosecutor who boasts an undefeated record typically keeps said record by avoiding something as risky as going to trial, usually preferring deals. Thanks to Bill telling him this, Saul now feels confident about never having to take things to trial in the first place if he can win a game of "legal chicken" with AUSA George.
• Big Brother Bully: Part of the tragedy of the Chuck scene is Chuck genuinely thinks he might have been wrong about his useless little brother for once, and tries to be kind to him, but Jimmy ^note apparently not even being able to get respect from Chuck as a child raises his walls up and they butt heads.
• Bittersweet Ending: Jimmy winds up going to a maximum-security prison with a sentence of 86 years, with the chance of an earlier release on good behavior. However, the other inmates considering him a celebrity ensures he doesn't have to worry about being harmed, he managed to finally make right by Kim (who had decided to resume a career under the law), fully accepted himself as James McGill, and both Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn confirmed that he and Kim are renewed as a couple, just in a different form. And on a wider-scale, while the victims of Walter White/Heisenberg's crimes are still hurting from the events of this series and Breaking Bad, particularly Marie and the Gomez family, they get some comfort in knowing one of his associates was brought to justice.
• Blatant Lies: Jimmy has two flashbacks with Mike and Walt, and in them he plays it cold and greedy, acting like his only regrets are not getting enough money and messing up his knee as a kid. The third flashback is him and Chuck, with them eventually butting heads again, showing how this is his greatest regret.
• Bookends:
  • A Meta example for finale writer/director Peter Gould. He and Vince Gilligan co-created Saul's character and, equally importantly, Gould penned Saul's very first appearance. So, it's very fitting that Gould gets to be the one to have the last word on the franchise's beloved criminal attorney.
    • Again, on another Meta level, Bryan Cranston's cameo. He appeared in the very first episode of the franchise and now returns for an appearance in its very last episode. This also applies to Betsy Brandt with her appearance as Marie Schrader.
  • The series starts with Gene making cinnamon rolls at a Cinnabon. One of the last things we see in the finale is Jimmy baking bread in prison.
  • One of the last scenes we see between Jimmy and Chuck (via flashback) is the same as the first: Jimmy delivering groceries to Chuck's house.
  • One of the last scenes we see between Jimmy and Kim is the same as the first: sharing a cigarette in near-silence.
  • Just like in Saul's debut, someone named Jimmy is arrested and sent to prison.
  • Breaking Bad starts its first episode in the desert, as does this episode, the last one of Better Call Saul.
  • The first and last episode of the season begin with somebody on the run.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Nine years after her last appearance, Marie Schrader makes her Better Call Saul debut.
  • Chuck McGill makes his first appearance since "Winner" in Season 4.
• Butt-Monkey: Bill Oakley still doesn't have it easy even after opening his own private practice. He accepts the Saul Goodman case under the impression that it would be a boost for his career, spends most of the time sitting and letting Jimmy talk, and ultimately sees the case blow up in his face thanks to Jimmy's self-sabotage. He even tries to withdraw from the case once he realizes what's happening, but the judge orders him to stay.
• Call-Back:
  • When Jimmy asks Mike when he would go back if he had a time machine, Mike at first answers a date in 2001, clearly the date of his son's death, before changing his answer to when he took his first bribe.
  • Gene finds himself inside a dumpster once more, and once more, it is done in vain.
  • Kim decides to volunteer at a law office to answer phones and review documents, the kind of lowly work that she used to resent doing at HHM (especially the of times Howard sent her to doc review as punishment) but is now actively seeking out as a chance to regain some feeling of her old life again.
  • Like his little speech in “Inflatable” about how he’d do anything for Chuck and Kim, but it’s not their fault it’s his choice, Jimmy goes back to that little glean of self-awareness, realizing that no matter what Chuck or Walt did to him, he still made terrible terrible choices in ruining Chuck’s career and furthering Walt’s.
  • Jimmy's final testimony is a reflection of the testimony he gave at the appeal for his license reinstatement, where he started with a rehearsed speech to gain the sympathy of the jurors only to break from it and instead give an earnest, improvised speech about all the mistakes he's made and how he wronged his brother. The difference is, this time he actually means it.
  • When giving his true, final testimony, Jimmy finally reveals to the court that he deliberately sabotaged Chuck's malpractice insurance which led to him being forcibly exited from HHM and committing suicide.
  • Jimmy's testimony on the stand is also played like his conversation with Frank the security guard in "Nippy" in which he begins confessing about his past and how lonely he is as a distraction technique, only for it to end up becoming unexpectedly real. Only whereas in the previous example it was clearly unexpected on his part, in this case it's deliberate; Jimmy begins confessing his crimes in the clear hopes that it will impress Kim, only to see that she is initially unmoved and that he will have to reach a deeper level of sincerity in order to do so.
  • The last scene with both Kim and Jimmy together is shot similarly to Manuel Varga's and Mike's confrontation, but with both Kim and Jimmy behind fences, as opposed to only Mike behind a fence.
  • Like Chuck telling Jimmy he's not a real lawyer, Walt makes Saul shrink by telling him that had he wanted to sue Elliott and Gretchen, Saul would have been the last lawyer he would have gone to.
  • As Jimmy is arranging Chuck's groceries, Chuck asks him if he got the ice from a motel. Jimmy would tell Howard that he does exactly that when he gives him Chuck's grocery list. Jimmy also reveals that a stand is considering selling the Financial Times soon, which is the same newspaper he ends up bringing Chuck all the way back in the Pilot.
  • The final scene of the episode has Jimmy give Kim the finger guns as she's leaving the prison, which he also gave her in the season 4 finale to express his commitment to leaving Jimmy McGill behind and becoming Saul Goodman. In this episode, he gives them to express his commitment to the opposite, accepting responsibility for what he did as Saul Goodman and becoming Jimmy McGill again. You can also see that she's put her fingers in the gun position, if not holding them, showing that she knows this and will see him again.
  • Just like Gene did in Nebraska, Kim receives a troubling phone call that isn't heard.
  • When Jimmy mentions Chuck in his court hearing, the shot cuts to an angle with an exit sign out of focus and its electrical buzz can be heard.
    • In a thematic callback to the same episode, like Jimmy ultimately outwitting Chuck on the stand by using the only man who could take him down against him, Chuck himself, Jimmy allows his defense to argue a plea bargain down to seven years, essentially showing that even if he's captured, the prosecution can't actually 'punish' him like he deserves for his crimes, before throwing that all away voluntarily on the stand to ensure that the law gives him his full deserved recompense. Ultimately, the only person who could really dispense justice against Saul Goodman, was Saul himself, or rather, Jimmy.
  • Jimmy's true confession is also played like Kim's confession to Cheryl (that's where he got the idea from), explaining his actions without trying to justify them, and knowing he has to save any emotional upheaval for somewhere that's not a courtroom.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Mike eyes Jimmy, knowing what PTSD looks like when he sees it, and Jimmy starts going on about a time machine.
• Character Development: After years of running away from himself, pushing down trauma, and yet also Playing the Victim Card, Jimmy wants to be called his actual name, admits that he was genuinely terrified in the desert but he's not actually a victim, still wanting to spread the misery with Chuck and working tirelessly to help Walt with his empire.
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • Bill Oakley becoming a defense attorney was pretty funny to see, especially since he's recently taken up Saul's old advertising spots. It also comes into play when Saul decides to use his services.
  • Saul briefly mentions meeting a client of his at an "ADX Montrose", showing how much he wants to avoid being sent there. Once he's been given a new and harsher sentence thanks to his sabotage, not only is he finding himself exactly there, but the bus ride taking him there is packed full of criminals that can recognize him. This defuses the usual threat of a Hellhole Prison thanks to his "celebrity" status.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Mike can see Jimmy acting skittish and weirder than normal, and asks if he's alright, in a nod to Jimmy's PTSD that formed from this trip.
  • Much like Huell did when handling Walt's money, Jimmy half-jokingly suggests taking the bail money for Lalo's release and just splitting it with Mike, only for Mike to sternly remind him who the money belongs to. It also brings to mind Jimmy and Mike's own conversation in the final scene of the season 1 finale about why they didn't just split and take the Kettlemans' money for themselves.
  • As part of his prepared testimony speaking on how afraid he was of Walt, Saul reveals the circumstances of Walt and Jesse kidnapping him and threatening him in the desert. He also reminds the prosecutors that Walt arranged for ten prisoners to be killed in jail within a span of two minutes, and that one of them was Dan Wachsberger, a fellow lawyer and colleague of his who was spilling for the DEA.
  • Walter's last appearance in Better Call Saul, which takes place underneath Best Quality Vacuum, is the same as Saul's last appearance in Breaking Bad. His conversation with Saul over the regrets each have had over their choices in the criminal life has Walt cast a Meaningful Look at the watch Jesse gave him before claiming his greatest regret is selling his shares in Grey Matter, implying that his true greatest regret pertains to his pupil and partner. This informs his choice to remove the watch and leave it on a random payphone in the middle of nowhere when embarking on his return to Albuquerque, preparing to set his mistakes as right as he can and die with no regrets.
  • Look closely during Saul's final courtroom scene and you will see he is wearing the same Wayfarer 515 memorial ribbon that he wore between Seasons 3 and 5 of Breaking Bad. Also, Wayfarer is the airline he and Oakley are taking when they fly to New Mexico.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
  • After Walt tells Saul about his history with Gray Matter while they are in Ed Galbraith's hideout, Saul points out that he could have easily used his legal skills to get Walt the money he needed for his family by suing the company instead of cooking meth. Granted, Walt tells Saul he would never have come to him for legal help in the first place had he decided to go that route.
  • Rhea Seehorn points out that the legal side of Kim is thinking Jimmy should have come to her with his confession, both the crimes he did as Saul and the guilt he felt as himself, and they could have worked out something that isn’t essentially a life sentence.
  • There's one that applies to Mike. If he had taken Jimmy's advice and split the 7 million 50/50 then he would have had enough money to get out of the game for good. Mike objects that the money isn't theirs and the cartel will mostly likely send assassins to hunt them down, but that comes off as a weak excuse Mike is giving to hide that he likes working for Gus and he's not ready to exit the game. In-universe there are guys like Ed the cleaner who can make you disappear and start you over with a new life, for the right price of course. With 3.5 million dollars Mike could have taken his daughter-in-law and his grand daughter and given them a fresh start somewhere else, and Mike could have died quietly in retirement rather than getting shot by Walter White.
• Divorce Is Temporary: After six years of not talking to each other and anger on both sides, Jimmy and Kim are back on in a "shared sentence".
• The Dog Bites Back: Given that we see one last little moment of Walter White being a condescending, dismissive jerk towards Saul before they parted ways forever, it's quite fitting that in his confession before the court Saul manages to get the last word in on the legend of "Heisenberg". Saul makes it more than clear that, far from the criminal mastermind mystique that's built up around him, Walter was actually a hapless amateur completely out of his depth who would have quickly ended up in jail or dead without Saul acting as his advisor.
• Double-Meaning Title: As Saul Goodman is a play on "It's all good, man," the episode's title plays on "It's all gone," symbolizing that Saul's journey as Slippin' Jimmy/James Morgan McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takavic/Viktor St. Clair is over, and everything he built is gone. It also means that he has finally buried his Goodman persona forever, and is content to live as plain ol' Jimmy McGill. In a meta-sense, it also means both that "It's all gone" (in that the story that began in Breaking Bad is now over and done) and that "Saul's gone" (in that Saul's own series is now finished).
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Minor example when Walt's discussing Gray Matter Technologies with Saul and the circumstances of his exit from the company. Saul says that if Walt had approached him, there were legal avenues he could've pursued to get the money that Walt felt entitled to. However, Saul is unaware that Walt not only sold his Gray Matter shares of his own volition, but that it was Walt's own pride and inferiority complex that drove him out rather than his business partners. Saul likewise doesn't know said business partners approached Walt and offered to pay for his medical expenses — only for Walt to spurn their kindness out of pride and ego.
  • In their pre-series scene, Chuck doesn't expect Jimmy to actually take care of him, in comparison to expecting it, and tries to actually talk to Jimmy, making up for some of his Big Brother Bully moments, but Jimmy rebuffs him, expecting to be told he's just a dumbass again. And despite that, Jimmy is also in full-on caretaker mode, no worrying about money or resenting that he has to do this like in the pilot.
  • Zigzagged with Marie still believing it was Walt who murdered Hank and Gomez. The audience knows it was actually Uncle Jack and his Neo-Nazis who killed them — and that Walt tried to save his brother-in-law. However, the Neo-Nazis would also never have shown up guns blazing if a desperate Walt hadn't cut a deal with Jack. It's justified, as due to Marie's last conversation with Hank at the end of "To'hajiilee" and Walt's panicked explanations to Skyler in "Ozymandias", everyone drew the wrong conclusions. Jesse's the only person still alive who knows exactly what went down at To'hajiilee — and he's not exactly in a position to set the record straight anytime soon.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • Gene is in complete despair sitting in his holding cell at the police station until he sees "MY LAWYR WILL REAM UR ASS" carved into the wall, causing him to break out into hysterical laughter. Then Saul Goodman stands back up.
  • The AUSA brushes his attempts at further bargaining by mentioning how Kim confessed to everything regarding Howard's death and disappearance. At first, Saul is shocked, but it gives him impudence to get Kim to witness his courtroom appearance, by threatening Kim's testimony.
• Exact Words: Saul recounts his first ever meeting with Walt and Jesse, how they tied him up and held him at gunpoint to work for them, and also continues by mentioning Jesse's successful escape and describing how Walt arranged the death of 10 witnesses to keep his empire afloat. Technically, it all happened, and we know he went to see Walt as a distraction from grief he couldn't deal with, but he's Playing the Victim Card, and eventually confesses that he was also greedy and wanted glory.
• Expy: ADX Montrose, the prison Jimmy ends up in, seems to be one for the real-life supermax prison ADX Florence, though possibly in name only, considering it seems far more lenient in prisoner housing in comparison (see Artistic License – Prison above).
• Extra-Long Episode: With a total running length of just under 70 minutes, this is by far the longest episode for the entire Breaking Bad franchise (not counting the epilogue film, El Camino), which otherwise range between 47-58 minutes in length.
• Face of a Thug: The prisoner sitting in front of Jimmy during the prison bus ride initially meets him with a threatening expression, then quickly changes his demeanor once he recognizes him as Saul Goodman.
• Fauxshadow: The cache of diamonds that Gene was revealed to have in his shoebox in "Magic Man" make a reappearance here, and a YouTube video released earlier in the week hinted at their intended use by having Saul explain how to spot fake diamonds. However, Gene is unable to use the diamonds before getting arrested.
• A Fool for a Client: Saul decides to represent himself, though with Bill Oakley acting as co-counsel. Justified, as Saul is of course a lawyer, but then exaggerated when it turns out he's more than capable of talking his sentencing down to a meager 7 years (and some fancier requests) with his skills. Really, Bill being present was just a courtesy. Plus Saul probably just wanted to flex on his old courtroom rival one last time before going to prison.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Saul asks for mint chocolate chip ice cream in response to (seemingly) selling Kim out. Remembering season five; mint ice cream having to be dropped on the ground to meet Lalo and Jimmy in that finale refusing the flavour because of the reminder, is a clue that he had no intention of doing that to his ex-wife.
  • Saul brags to Oakley that he'll end up on top "as always". Kim was right in her assertion that Jimmy was “always down”, and naturally he ends up both losing and winning, back with Kim as well as his humanity, but will be in jail and known by his persona for the rest of his life.
• For Want Of A Nail: What factor might ultimately have sent Saul to prison (whether for most of a decade or most of a century)? Plastic clamshell packaging. While he was in the dumpster, he was trying to extract his burner phone from the packaging and as a result spilled the diamonds into the dumpster, meaning that even if he subsequently called the Ed the 'Vacuum Repair Guy', he wouldn't have enough to pay Ed with - and Ed has been quite picky on that point before. That being said, shortly after hiding in the dumpster, Gene was quickly caught by the police, so whether he would've had the time to call Ed and arrange another disappearance or not is a riddle for the ages.
  • The same can also be said for Gene's phone call to Kim and/or Francesca mentioning hers in a previous episode. If Gene didn't call Kim, shoot down Buddy's suggestion of calling off the scam, or even linger in the victim's house, he wouldn't have been arrested.
    • Also goes for the shoplifter from season three. Had he chose not to shoplift, hide somewhere else or simply do it at a different time or store, Gene would have never met Jeff.
  • If Saul hadn't gone for the maximum possible flex and requested weekly deliveries of mint chocolate chip ice cream during his incarceration, or even offered something other than the truth behind Howard's death in exchange for it, he would never have learned about Kim's confession, and therefore wouldn't have been inspired to do one of his own in order to impress her. He'd have enjoyed what would have essentially been an extended vacation in a Luxury Prison Suite and would have been out in time to catch the Season 4 premiere of his own show if it existed in his world.
• Freudian Excuse Denial: Jimmy finally decides to stop running, stop shoving everything down, and admits that while he was terrified that night Walt kidnapped him, he still was completely willing in that meth empire, and no matter what Chuck did to him, he still caused his brother’s suicide and he has to live with that.
• Gilligan Cut: After Saul reveals his plan to force the jury into a deadlock by presenting himself as a victim of Walter White, Marie Schrader angrily tells the lead prosecutor that he cannot consider negotiating a deal with Saul. The next shot is her walking out of the interrogation room looking angry and defeated.
• Grand Finale: Of both Better Call Saul and the Breaking Bad franchise as a whole.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Walter White becomes this posthumously, given that all the events in the post-BB era can be traced back to him and his actions. In particular, Jimmy is eventually arrested, prosecuted and sent to prison for his role in Walter White's empire.
• Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: After Saul's arrest and Oakley's arrival, he's brought before a team of United States Attorneys building the case against him, who begin listing off his crimes and offer a plea deal.
• Heel–Face Turn: After six seasons of Jimmy McGill's inevitable transformation into the Amoral Attorney Saul Goodman, Jimmy is moved by Kim's confession and throws away an incredibly generous plea deal that would have seen him serve only seven years, instead choosing to confess to everything. He ends up in jail for probably the rest of his life, but in so doing he symbolically leaves Saul behind forever, becomes Jimmy McGill again, and reconnects with Kim.
• Hellhole Prison: Saul knows he could likely end up in the general population of "ADX Montrose", which a former client of his once referred to as "The Alcatraz of the Rockies". Instead, he argues for staying at a more lenient place like FCI Butner Low. He ends up going to Montrose, but while he still has no freedom and will probably be there for the rest of his life, the criminals thinking Jimmy’s still Saul gives him some protection from the usual clichés of jail. And a yearly visit from Kim, knowing she loves him, is enough to keep him happy.
  Gould: I think the other side of it was, if we had just said he’s going to this awful prison, you’re going to picture every cliché about what happens to people in prison. And we wanted to give a feel for what he’s actually going to experience and the suffering he’s in for is pretty much the suffering he deserves.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Saul's gambit to come out on top relies on two things the government has against him.
  • Bill is in disbelief that Saul wants to take his chances with a lawyer since the government has mountains of evidence and records surrounding Heisenberg's empire, recognizing him as a key figure in its rise. When brought to the prosecuting team, Saul delivers a long-winded speech full of Crocodile Tears, claiming an excuse of duress. While they may have everything they need to prove his role in criminal conspiracies, they don't have any evidence to disprove he was forced into it, and the more they have against Walt's organization, the more Saul can simply shift the blame onto the infamous "Heisenberg". This gets many charges against him stricken from the record.
  • Saul then says Bill mentioned how AUSA George has never lost a case. Though it sounds intimidating to those unfamiliar with the law, Saul knows it really means that anybody boasting a spotless record simply has an aversion to going to trial and prefers offering plea deals. This lets Saul pressure him into accepting a negotiation if he wants to avoid the gamble of a hung jury.
• I Am Not Shazam: invoked An In-Universe example. The prisoners on the bus call Jimmy "Better Call Saul" instead of "Saul Goodman" or his real surname of McGill, as if "Better Call Saul" was his professional name.
• Identity Breakdown: Inverted. After spending the entire show fracturing into disassociation to bury his trauma and guilt, Jimmy finally dismantles all of his identities so that he can be his real self again.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • During the first two times Saul asks about a time machine, he tells Mike and Walt how he wishes he could have made more money or kept his knee from dislocating respectively. The final flashback with him and Chuck show him refusing to stick around to talk things out with his brother, showing that deep down, Saul wishes he had the chance to start mending their relationship. He finally stops ignoring his feelings by the end of the episode.
  • Chuck in the last flashback is revealed to have had his own moment of regret. He wanted to start conversation with Jimmy over the latter's pro-bono clients, but Jimmy couldn't trust him enough and thought it would just be another lecture. After Jimmy takes his leave, Chuck takes his copy of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and walks off into the distance, unaware of how their relationship will further deteriorate.
• Informed Kindness: Although it’s obviously justified since Marie is a grieving widow, she describes Hank as someone who had bottomless kindness and a willingness to help any troubled person out when talking down Saul in her meeting with him. While Hank could be kind to his loved ones, he was really something of a sleazy Jerkass: he was sardonic, abrasive, casually racist, had little empathy for addicts, and frequently went through bouts of moodiness from near-death experiences and Sanity Slippage when he discovered the truth about Walt.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Saul, who knows nothing of Walt's past with Gray Matter, asks Walt if the company he left became successful and worth a lot of money, not seeing how Walt is bristling at this line of questioning.
  • Deliberately invoked by Saul when he responds to Marie's tearful rant about what happened to her husband and his partner by proclaiming that he's a victim too. He doesn't expect Marie to fall for his statements, but points out that he can easily convince at least one juror with it, forcing a deadlock.
• Insufferable Genius: Being a genius scientist, Walt can't allow himself to just engage with the time travel thought experiment that Saul poses without pompously informing him of all the reasons why time travel is almost certainly impossible.
• Internal Reveal: As part of his statement at the court hearing, Jimmy admits to the indirect role he played in triggering Chuck's suicide by sabotaging his malpractice insurance. Kim silently reacts to this admission.
• Ironic Echo: In what the creators called “Saul at his Sauliest”, Saul recounts being kidnapped by Walt and plays the victim card, using real trauma as cynically as possible and telling Marie and the prosecutors that all he needs is one person on the jury to believe it. When he’s actually on the stand, Jimmy admits that it was true, that he was terrified… but that it also doesn’t excuse what he did next, which was to help create a meth empire.
• Irony:
  • Bill is finally a defense attorney instead of the bumbling prosecutor we last saw him as. What's the first case where we can see him in action? Defending his old colleague in the law, Jimmy McGill as Saul Goodman.
  • This time, it's Saul who needs to call a lawyer.
    • After toying with the law for so long as Slippin' Jimmy and desecrating his brother's memory as Saul Goodman, Jimmy is given an extended sentence to a federal prison.
    • Though ready to gear up and evade punishment one last time like he did for so many other criminals, he forgoes the option. Sadly, this is also at the expense of his co-counsel, Bill Oakley, making it our first known case Bill has lost as a defense attorney.
  • After believing he'd finally cast the "Saul Goodman" persona away for good, the prisoners all recognize his career as the Criminal Lawyer, and refuse to refer to him by his real name. Even the guards at his prison prefer calling him "Saul" instead of "McGill" like he wants. Kim is the only one who calls him "Jimmy", the only one who really sees him, and if he has that, he's okay with being misnamed.
  • During the time we see him in prison, Jimmy is working in the kitchen and dishing out baked bread from the oven. It's shot much similar to "Gene's" work in a Cinnabon, showing how his time in Omaha was really no better than what he'd actually be facing from the government. For further irony points, Jimmy is clearly shown to be a lot happier and at peace in prison than he ever was as Gene.
  • Saul Goodman becomes the only major figure of Gustavo Fring and Walter White's meth empires to be shown receiving legal punishment and jail time, despite being the least personally involved (notably, many of his charges are based on being an accessory after the fact).
• It's All About Me: Downplayed, but Walt's end of the second 'Time Machine Discussion' flashback. It is so quintessentially Walter White that rather than focus on a selfless regret (e.g. not saving his brother-in-law from Uncle Jack or Jane from overdosing or even choosing to "break bad" in the first place), Walt chooses instead a selfish regret (selling his Grey Matter shares). That said, it's also implied that Walt is lying to Saul and presenting a regret he's comfortable talking about him, with his Meaningful Look at the watch Jesse gave him implying that he actually regrets something pertaining to his former pupil and partner, but isn't willing to disclose exactly what.
• I Let You Win: After delivering his confession in court, Saul can't entirely help himself as he takes a moment to turn to the prosecution and say "You got that?", just to make it clear that — from his point of view — he had them over a barrel with the previously negotiated appeal deal, and they wouldn't have stood a chance of winning this case if he hadn't decided to deliberately make himself "lose" by throwing out the deal and coming clean. It also marks the last little act of defiance from Saul, before Jimmy puts the persona to rest for good.
• Jerkass: Perhaps fittingly, our last glimpse of Walter White within this universe makes a point of reminding us what an abrasive, bitter, condescending, dismissive, pompous and self-deluding asshole he could be.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • "Gene" is finally arrested, dragged out of a dumpster... but thanks to his experience as a lawyer, Saul is set to serve a rather generous 7 years in a cushy prison with accommodations, rather than the maximum security facilities and life sentences for his role in a criminal conspiracy. However, at the last minute, Jimmy decides to avoid this after realizing Kim was willing to punish herself for what happened to Howard, and sabotages his testimony with a new one.
  • Cheryl is more than likely set on pursuing a civil lawsuit against Kim after her testimony, which — assuming she is successful in doing so — means Kim will be paying Cheryl back for as many damages as necessary for as long as she'd need to.
• Karmic Jackpot: Played With. Jimmy confesses his willingness to go along with everything, which naturally earns him a spot at ADX Montrose and 86 years instead of the easier sentence he initially argued for. However, after finally being honest with himself and in front of Kim, he's recognized as "Saul" during the transportation there, establishing himself as something of a folk hero amongst criminals and ensuring a better time in jail.
  • It should also be noted that Jimmy is ultimately never held accountable for any of the various felony-level crimes he committed throughout Better Call Saul proper, including falsifying evidence, forgery, burglary, drugging a person without their consent, or identity theft.
• Kick the Dog: Walt responds to Jimmy's efforts to make polite conversation first with overblown condescension about the time travel question and then responding to his revelation about his past with "so...you were always like this", crushing Jimmy's mood.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: One of charges brought against Saul is his accessory to the murder of Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez, which gives away one of the biggest twists of Breaking Bad for those who are watching the prequel without having seen the original first.
• Laughing Mad: Gene is driven to hysterics by seeing "MY LAWYR WILL REAM UR ASS" carved into the wall of his holding cell. Which ends up being the last we ever see of Gene, since that phrase is what triggers Saul to take the reins once again.
• Left Hanging: A few plotlines are left deliberately open by the end of the series, with the writers saying they want the viewers to draw their own conclusions:
  • We never find out if Marion was able to or even decided to help post bail for Jeff after calling the police on Gene.
  • Saul learns that Cheryl Hamlin is shopping for lawyers to pursue a civil suit against Kim for her part in Howard's death and take her for everything she has. This is the last mention of Cheryl in the episode, so it's left unclear if that develops any further.
  • Kim's own path forward is left ambiguous, especially with the aforementioned civil suit possibly hanging over her. Although Rhea Seehorn shares several fans' beliefs that Kim might re-apply to become a lawyer again, it's also just as likely that she stays content with volunteering at the legal aid office in Titusville (and depending on the outcome of the suit, might end up being the only life she can afford to live anyway).
  • The manhunt for Jesse is still ongoing, since the authorities still believe he fled to Mexico when he actually escaped to Alaska.
  • Finally, it's left up in the air whether Jimmy will be in prison for the rest of his life to serve the full 86-year sentence. He mentions the possibility of an early parole for good behavior with Kim, but his tone implies that he sees it as unlikely.
• Literal-Minded: Saul tries to ask Walt what he would do if he had a time machine, saying he wants a scientist's opinion. Walt responds by deriding Saul for thinking time travel is even a possibility, citing all of the different scientific laws that the concept violates. Saul clarifies that it's supposed to be a thought experiment, which only angers Walter further.
• Longer-Than-Life Sentence: Because of the long list of crimes Saul did and enabled, he potentially faces a sentence of life plus 190 years if he doesn't make a deal. To begin with, the prosecution offer him a 30 years plea bargain instead. Saul manages to negotiate the plea bargain down to seven-and-a-half years, but eventually foregoes the deal, deciding to instead come clean and admit full culpability for his actions as a member of Heisenberg's empire and throw himself at the mercy of the court. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that he got a final sentence of 86 years, basically ensuring that he will die in prison. Jimmy comments to Kim that he might have a chance of getting out earlier on good behavior, but his tone makes it clear that he isn't sure if it would really change that much.
• Love Redeems: Jimmy is faced with a choice between spending seven years in a Luxury Prison Suite but losing Kim forever, or spending the rest of his life in the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies' but regaining Kim's love and respect. He chooses the latter, and the series ends with their relationship rekindled and Kim visiting him in prison once a year.
• Luxury Prison Suite: Saul wants to arrange for his term to be carried out at wing D of FCI Butner Low, in North Carolina. He mentions it as the only federal institution with a golf program, and references how Bernie Madoff served his time at FCI Butner Medium. He ultimately goes to ADX Montrose, the "Alcatraz of the Rockies".
• Make an Example of Them: Implied with Saul's prosecution and the charges leveled against him. While Saul is guilty of being an accessory to Heisenberg's drug empire, he was also ironically the one least directly involved with the worst crimes (such as Hank and Gomez's murders). But the government can't convict Walt, Jesse, or any of the Neo-Nazis, so that just leaves the Criminal Attorney.
• Meaningful Echo: Music-wise, the music that plays over Jimmy and Kim having a cigarette is called "shared sentence", while the scene in the pilot was "shared smoke".
• Meaningful Name: The episode's title is meaningful in two ways:
  • By confessing to his crimes and admitting to his wrongdoing James ends up leaving his Saul Goodman persona behind forever.
  • Given that he is sentenced to 89 years in prison it is almost certain that Jimmy is doomed to die in prison.
• Meaningful Rename: After confessing all his sins, Jimmy removes any doubt he's left Saul behind when he says "The name's McGill. James McGill." to the judge calling him Mr. Goodman.
• Mirror Character:
  • The similarities between Chuck and Walt get more pronounced, as Walt is an Insufferable Genius who makes Saul (who by virtue of Cerebus Retcon sounds again like the guy who would always kneel first with Chuck) feel like a bug on the ground. Bob Odenkirk confirmed that Saul had realised he'd just recreated his dynamic with his brother.
    Chuck: You're not a real lawyer.
    Walt: You're the last lawyer I would have contacted.
  • Jimmy is also similar to Walt in one particular regard, in that one selfish decision they made quickly snowballed into a bigger tragedy (Walt's decision not to save Jane resulting in the plane crash, Jimmy's decision to screw with Chuck's malpractice insurance resulting in Chuck's suicide). Where they diverge is how Walt felt deep guilt over the plane crash but ultimately chose not to confess his role in it, whereas Jimmy buried his guilt about Chuck's death for years until coming clean at the plea hearing.
  • Jimmy's confession to the court itself is a mirror to Walt. Walt spent the entire series lying to himself that he did his crimes for his family. While maybe that was true at first, after a certain point Walt was mostly in the game for himself; he liked it, he was good at it, and it made him feel alive. Jimmy telling the court that he saw opportunity to get rich when he partnered with Walter White's drug empire is essentially his way of saying the same thing. He was good at being a criminal lawyer and he's proud of the fact he made Walter White as powerful as he became, and that was his crowning achievement. The only two things he regrets in his confession are Howard and Chuck, and you can tell by his tone those were the things that were truly tearing him apart inside. Similar to Walt, Jimmy doesn't regret his criminality fundamentally — the crimes themselves were thrilling, it was only the consequences of those crimes that he regrets.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • Marie remembers Walter White as the heinous criminal who killed her husband with malice. The circumstances surrounding Hank's death are multi-faceted. Hank refused to let go of his vendetta against Heisenberg, despite knowing that Walter himself had no desire to kill off his family. Jesse refused to let go of his resentment towards Walter and conspired with Hank to get Walter arrested. Walter, when backed into a corner called upon his gang affiliates to come rescue him, but changed his mind at the last minute because he didn't have the heart to kill Hank. Walter gets saved by the Neo-Nazi gang and is forced to beg for Hank's life, even offering them his entire 80 million dollar fortune, but Jack kills Hank anyway. Walter may have set the circumstances of Hank's death in motion, but he tried his best to save him. Walter tried to atone for his mistake by successfully killing the Neo-Nazi gang that murdered Hank and Gomez, and paid for that revenge with his own life (the M60 threw a stray bullet at his lung). Walter may have been a drug kingpin and a murderer, and Marie has every right to hate him for that, but Hank's death is not something he wanted.
  • In turn, Marie's anger towards Saul is misplaced. Saul was the money launderer, the guy who represented the criminals that Gus and Heisenberg wanted to keep out of prison, and he was the guy who filed the paperwork for them. Saul was no kingpin, he was basically a pencil pusher inside the organization. He made a lot of money off of doing that, but he never pulled a trigger against any of Gus or Heisenberg's enemies — they had their own enforcers who handled that stuff. Jesse arguably has more of a role in Hank's death than Saul does (trying to use Hank to get his revenge on Walter), and the people more chiefly responsible, Walter and Jack, are dead and gone. Marie comes off as feeling powerless for not being able to bring Walter to justice, so the blame has to land on someone even if it's unfair.
• My Greatest Failure: After two flashbacks with Mike and Walt where Jimmy posits to them what their greatest regrets are while avoiding giving an honest answer himself, we get one final flashback to what is heavily implied to be his actual greatest regret: Rebuffing Chuck's request to stay and talk with him after one of his deliveries, not recognizing that it was Chuck trying to reach out and possibly bury the hatchet.
• My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours: Saul intimidates AUSA George Castellano and the rest of the team prosecuting his case with his potential spiel on his experiences with Walter White, able to claim he was threatened into working for him rather than happily aiding in the creation of a criminal empire. If this manages to convince at least a single juror to spare him, they won't be able to agree on a verdict. This is the starting point of negotiation; after some off-screen discussion, Saul manages to talk their threats of life behind bars into a measly 7 years with several requests to make his time behind bars as comfy as possible.
• Never My Fault:
  • During the second "Time Machine Discussion" flashback, Walt completely and unsurprisingly still blames Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz for "artfully manipulating" him out of Gray Matter Technologies and causing his subsequent financial problems. He still refuses to acknowledge or accept that it was his own pride and feelings of inferiority that drove him out.
  • Finally subverted by Jimmy. After spending the entire series burying all of his guilt over causing Chuck and Howard's deaths by embracing the persona of Saul Goodman, Jimmy drops all of his pretenses and fully confesses to everything he's done, taking all the guilt off of Kim and shouldering it onto himself.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A very interesting variation. The only reason that Jimmy decides to throw away his incredibly and unjustly generous plea bargain and confess to everything he's done is because when he impulsively and cockily tries to trade information on what really happened to Howard Hamlin in exchange for more perks, he learns that Kim has beaten him to it, and realizes that it would have been because he goaded her into doing so. In a sense, the trope is played straight, in that his impulsive decision to try and get more out of the situation is ultimately what leads to him throwing it away and receiving a worse punishment. However, in doing so, he rediscovers the better part of himself and earns some small redemption and grace for all of his actions, meaning that in a way he 'fixed' himself for real.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The status quo is rocked, with characters facing varying levels of consequences.
  • Someone finally faces the punishment for Heisenberg's Empire, and it's the lawyer who helped make it all happen. After so many years of avoiding prison, Jimmy pays for his crimes with 86 years at a tough federal prison.
  • A number of people now recognize Jimmy's role in sabotaging Chuck's insurance, and with that confession, Jimmy says a personal "goodbye" to his Saul persona, though the rest of the world continues to fixate on it.
  • Cheryl now has a chance to seek legal reparations for what Kim and Jimmy did to Howard, though what exactly happens is left ambiguous. The authorities and a number of the legal scene at least know the truth about Howard.
  • Kim is back to the world of the law, this time as a volunteer paralegal, but with Cheryl's lawsuit in the background and her new hairstyle sticking around. Jimmy and Kim rekindle their relationship, with a much different outward look.
• Not So Above It All: During their walk across the desert with Lalo's bail money, Jimmy wants to pass some time by asking Mike what he'd do with a time machine. Rather than blow the idea off, Mike chuckles, then gives it some thought before genuinely answering. He even reconsiders and picks a different "destination" after his first choice. This is a stark contrast to Walt throwing the entire concept back at Saul's face out of frustration.
• Not What It Looks Like: While on the flight to New Mexico, Saul mentions to Bill that he had remembered some more information that would be "beneficial" for the government and that it involves Kim heavily. Once the trial starts, and Jimmy starts confessing everything, he admits he actually lied about what he claimed about Kim; he only wanted her present at his trial so she would see him confess.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: When Jimmy said that Chuck would take care of him the same way he did for him, his brother briefly looked down uneasily while knowing what he did to him.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Walter White gives Saul a succinct "The Reason You Suck" Speech by telling him "you were always like this". This is despite the fact that one of the main themes in Breaking Bad is that Walter was always an arrogant, manipulative Jerkass, even before becoming a meth dealer.
• Off on a Technicality: Saul threatens the AUSA and prosecution with a hung jury. Since there's no evidence contradicting his claim of being threatened into complying with Walt's criminal escapades, Saul can bring just enough doubt into at least one juror's mind to prevent a verdict. This causes the prosecution to settle for a more lenient sentence instead.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Bill Oakley drops his paperwork on the ground in shock when he recognizes Saul's voice calling him.
  • The AUSA and their joint partners prosecuting Saul's case begin to sit back in horror as Saul schools them with his knowledge on hung juries and his chances of actually throwing the case off.
  • Just as Gene gets some relief from escaping the police at his apartment, he hears a police helicopter and has to run into a storm drain to hide from it.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Saul wants to know what Walt would do with a time machine, seeing that he's a scientist and all. Rather than claiming to know otherwise, Walt derides the very idea of time travel, then brushes aside the topic of quantum physics before telling Saul to stop.
• Only in It for the Money: This is Saul's primary motivation, as Jimmy tells Mike about what he'd supposedly do with a time machine and explains to the court how he saw a chance to make big money with Heisenberg. It's also deconstructed, as it's simply the excuse he keeps telling himself and is part of the Saul persona he crafts to run away from his emotions. In place of his true regrets in life, he ignores a chance at introspection by focusing on the monetary gain.
• Playing the Victim Card: Saul initially gets himself a plea deal by claiming that he was forced to work for Walt after he threatened him in the desert and the reason he never told the authorities and then went into hiding in Nebraska was because he was afraid of being killed by him or his associates like Dan Wachsberger was. However, it's ultimately subverted when he decides to admit in court that, while he was afraid of Walt, his decision to join him was out of his own free will and greed.
• Plea Bargain: The bargain Saul strikes after being arrested (negotiated down from 30 to 7.5 years for underpinning an entire meth empire and all the murders/other crimes that entailed) is such that only Vic Mackey from The Shield would consider him hard done by. A pity, then, that he throws it away and adds 78.5 years to his sentence.
• Poor Communication Kills: In the pre-series flashback, Chuck actually extends an olive branch, asking if Jimmy wants to stay and they can talk, but Jimmy doesn't trust him in the slightest and expects to be talked down on again. The show portrays this moment as where Jimmy would really go back to and fix if he had a time machine.
• Psychological Projection: Between Saul and Walt, the latter is more likely to “have always been like this”, as Saul’s hopeful puppy smile fades into looking like he’s going to cry, knowing it’s not true, and Walt will eventually admit that all the meth empire wasn’t for his family, it was because he liked it.
• Pun-Based Title: The title refers to both Jimmy's persona and glory days as 'Saul' being over, the journey of Saul's Protagonist Journey to Villain and Heel–Face Turn being done, and the end of the Breaking Bad franchise overall.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: Although Jimmy ultimately confessed to everything and was sentenced to 86 years in a maximum security prison, he made up with Kim, the prisoners practically worship him for his stint as Saul Goodman, and he has a small chance of an early release with good behavior.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The prison bus chant, complete with rhythmic fist-bangs and foot-stomps on the metal seats and flooring.
  Inmates: Better! (THUMP!) Call! (THUMP!) Saul! (THUMP THUMP!)
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Kim intentionally broke the pedestal Jimmy had her on to stop him begging her to stay by telling him that she was just thinking of her own fun by not telling him about Lalo. He was crushed, intentionally cruel to her both as Saul and Gene, but hearing that she did actually confess and could be in trouble, and actually seeing her, brings all the respect back (though he's learned not to idolize her). She sees him too after worrying That Man Is Dead, as he confesses to all the damage - and choices he made after that - that she knows has been corroding him all his life.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Marie rants at Saul, reminding him that The Dead Have Names (specifically Hank and Steve) and that he bears some responsibility for all of the death and destruction caused by Walt's empire.
  • After hearing Saul's supposedly biggest regret (injuring his leg during one of his slip-and-fall scams), Walter, who shared his own regrets about leaving Gray Matter Technologies, retorts back at him.
    Walter: Right. So... so you were always like this.
• The Reveal: In a minor example, we find out what Jimmy wanted to do before he figured cons were all he was good at, and before he fixated on being a lawyer to impress Chuck and Kim... bartending.
• Revenge: Marie is understandably very invested in seeing Saul convicted and rotting away in prison because of Hank and Gomez's murders. While Saul didn't physically pull the trigger, he is just as culpable because of his role in forging Walter White's drug empire. More, Walt is now beyond earthly justice (as are Jack, Todd, and the rest of the Neo-Nazis). Jesse Pinkman is also presumed to have fled to Mexico and is beyond the government's reach. That leaves Saul as Heisenberg's last major criminal associate still standing, meaning he's the one left holding (and deserving) the blame in her mind.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • After a lot of wigs in this series - Slippin' Jimmy's mullet, Jimmy's fringe, Saul's combover, Gene's bald spot - Bob Odenkirk finally uses his real hair, as Jimmy finally decides to pop up again after spending so long hidden.
  • The only Splash of Color is the light of the cigarette and the flame of the lighter, showing how now that Kim and Jimmy have reconciled, it's a "Ray of Hope" Ending, for her, for him, and for them.
• Rule of Three: There are three flashbacks in this episode that all show Jimmy conversing with a since-deceased character about regrets and what they would change if they could go back, in a manner that writer Peter Gould equated to the three ghosts in A Christmas Carol:
  • First, during the events of "Bagman", Jimmy and Mike take a stop from their desert hike and discuss what they would go back and change if they had a time machine. Mike at first answers the day of his son's death, then changes his mind and decides he would go back and prevent the first bribe he ever took. Jimmy on the other hand talks about going back to when Warren Buffett founded Berkshire Hathaway and cashing big, to which Mike criticizes him for just thinking about money.
  • Next, during the events of "Granite State" when he and Walter are bunking under Ed's vacuum repair shop together, Jimmy raises the same time machine question to Walt. Walt, after first deriding Saul because time travel isn't possible and making clear Saul is just asking about regrets, declares he would've never left Grey Matter Technologies.^note  Although it's implied by glancing at the watch Jesse gave him for his birthday that, like Saul, he's picking a lesser regret. Saul tries to tell a story about a slip and fall that happened in Chicago, which just makes Walt walk away after concluding that this means Saul was always a criminal.
  • Finally, the last flashback is set before the start of the series and features Jimmy arriving at Chuck's house to do his delivery runs. He starts complaining to Chuck about his clientele, to which Chuck raises the question of if Jimmy has ever thought about changing his career path. Jimmy simply retorts that Chuck never changed his mind and walks off. The flashback ends with Chuck picking up his copy of The Time Machine and walking away as well.
• Screw Destiny: Chuck told him "this is what you are", and Walt told him "so you were always like this", but Jimmy decides he's going to do the right thing and that he doesn't have to stay the "chimp with a machine gun".
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Suzanne Ericsen contacts Kim to warn her about Saul's impending testimony that could possibly put Kim in legal jeopardy. She makes it known that her call is not part of her job as ADA and because she believes Kim has a right to hear about this.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Attempted and defied by Bill when he realizes Saul is sabotaging his own case and asks to be withdrawn as advisory council, only for Judge Small to order him to remain.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Walt stealth insults his ex-lawyer for having a load of clothes but no pocket knife or screwdriver.
• Serious Business: Walter angrily tells Saul off for bringing up the notion of "time travel" in what was supposed to be an innocent hypothetical question. Saul mentions watching Nova: Science Now and the topic of wormholes to try and justify it, which just makes Walt madder since it means discussing quantum mechanics.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
  • Over the course of the episode, we are shown Jimmy/Saul discussing with someone about where they would go if they could go back in time, once in the desert, while lugging those bags of money through the desert, once while in Ed's basement room:
    • Mike's immediate answer is to go back to December 8th, 2001,^note likely the date his son Matt died before changing his mind and picking a different date: March 17th, 1984, when he took his first bribe as a cop. He them mentions going forward 5 or 10 years to "check up" on some people.^note Which, given his first date, implies Mike's next goal would be going after the cops that would've killed his son. Jimmy meanwhile instead picks May 10th, 1965, just so that he can invest in Berkshire Hathway once Warren Buffett took over.
    • Walt, while initially dismissing time travel as a concept, admits he would want to go back to when Gretchen and Elliott started to phase him out of Grey Matter in order to prevent that.^note This is, of course, Walt's interpretation; what he actually meant was stopping himself from selling his portion of the company and willingly leaving. Furthermore, before he claims this, he looks at the watch that Jesse gave him, implying that his honest biggest regret is one of the torments he inflicted on his student. Saul, meanwhile, states he'd go back to when he was 21 and did the slip-and-fall that wound up paying his way through bartending school, as that incident is what caused his bad knee.
  • Chuck clearly has this on his mind when he wants to talk to Jimmy about "changing his path", as it is shown he was reading The Time Machine during Jimmy's visit.
  • However, the end of the episode sees him doing this for real when he fully confesses to his part in Walter White's empire, as well as what he did to Howard and (most of all) Chuck. This is not just to absolve his own conscience but Kim's as well, and it's revealed at the end that her guilt was lifted enough to return to Jimmy and even go back to being a lawyer.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Jimmy's entire time living as "Gene" in Omaha turns out to be this. Once he finds himself in ADX Montrose, he winds up living pretty much the same exact life he did there by working as a baker in the kitchen. Plus, he has the added benefits of being able to be open about who he is, being on friendly terms with the other inmates, and getting visits from Kim.
• Shame If Something Happened: Saul reminds the AUSA and their associates about how it only takes a single juror to jeopardize the whole case against him. He then brings up how George has never lost a single case in his entire career, and reminds everyone about the speculative nature of juries.
• Splash of Color: Subtly done. The present scenes remain Deliberately Monochrome until the end of the show, but near the end, where Kim and Jimmy share a cigarette while she visits him in prison, the flame from Kim's lighter gives off yellow light, while the cherry of the cigarette glows red.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Saul gets the idea to return to the law, this time to defend himself, with Bill's help. As it turns out, Oakley doesn't have much effect on the outcome and doesn't even seem to know why he's around. There are however a few factors he plays a role in:
    • He's the one that lets Saul know AUSA George has never lost a case, a crucial piece of information Saul helps use as leverage in his Batman Gambit.
    • Bill's knowledge of the current status of things outside of Omaha let Jimmy know where Kim has sent her confession and what could happen to her. He then acts as a lawyer discussing things with his client in front of a government agent, who will no doubt record the discussion and have it eventually reach Kim so she'll appear at his trial.
  • The shoplifter from Season 3. If he hadn't decided to steal, Gene would have continued living as a Cinnabon manager with no one else knowing who he really is.
• Smoking Gun: Jimmy does it to himself. Instead of attempting to garner sympathy with his own surprise witness testimony, he admits his guilt to the charges brought against him and says he was a willing accomplice to Heisenberg's system, all at the last possible second at his own trial.
• Solemn Ending Theme: The theme that plays during the credits, "Saul Gone", is a slower and sadder version of the theme that plays during the credits of most episodes.
• Stunned Silence:
  • Once Bill recognizes who's calling him, he drops one of his folders in his brief moment of speechlessness.
  • Saul fails to barter Howard's fate for more accommodations since the AUSA reveals that Kim already confessed days before. This stuns Saul to his core, forcing Bill to speak in his place and accept their current deal before they push things too far.
• Surprise Witness: At Saul's courtroom hearing, Saul himself decides to testify. Or rather, Jimmy McGill decides to testify and come clean about all his wrongdoings.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: The flashbacks, as well the show leading up to it, make the point that Jimmy genuinely isn't lying about PTSD (he's so skittish in the desert that Mike is concerned, Saul is flinching every time Walter raises his voice, the Chuck feelings could fill up a page alone), but he needed to realize that he can't act like a victim - especially to a widow - and take responsibility for the choices he made afterwards.
• Taking You with Me: By fully confessing that he was an active willing participant in Walt's empire, Jimmy decided to tarnish Oakley's career as well with Oakley pleading for a withdrawal but is denied. Desperate for a last resort, Oakley tries stopping Jimmy from giving away too much in his testimony by arguing that Jimmy is over-reliant on speculation and future case scenarios only ruining his own legal career even further since he already requested a withdrawal.
• That Man Is Dead: Judge Small notes at the start of the trial that Saul put in a request to be called "Saul Goodman" during it. After his confession, Jimmy declares once and for all that his name is James McGill, thus symbolically killing off the Saul Goodman persona. He maintains his insistence on the prison bus when the criminals there recognize him as Saul, although they ignore him. By the time of his actual incarceration, he's apparently given up and accepts being referred to as Saul. Still, in his own mind and heart, Jimmy McGill is back, and that's good enough for him, regardless of how the rest of the world sees him.
• That Was Objectionable: Bill tries to salvage Jimmy's lighter sentence by interrupting his testimony as "speculation". (E.g., Jimmy says that Walter would have ended up getting killed or arrested pretty quickly without Saul advising him, and that therefore it's Saul's fault that Walter was in a position to do his worst deeds.) As the judge notes, Jimmy is testifying to his own actions and what he'd done. Bill then tries to argue he's just describing hypothetical events instead of what actually happened.
• They're Back!:
  • After eight years operating as his Amoral Attorney persona of Saul Goodman, several months laying low as Gene Takavic in Omaha, and a new spree of cons as Viktor St. Claire, Jimmy finally buries all of his aliases for good and declares that his name is James McGill, symbolizing him finally letting go of all his guilt and misdeeds and returning to the good-natured man he was at the start of the series.
  • Kim decides to step away from her time at Palm Coast Sprinklers to volunteer at a local law office, answering calls. She spends the rest of her day until nightfall there, sorting files about different cases.
  • The scene where Gene is freaking out in the holding cell before noticing the message engraved by a previous inhabitant about his lawyer is played as this for the Saul Goodman persona (which is pretty much spelled out in the script, an excerpt of which can be read here). As Gene, he was a wanted fugitive and on unfamiliar ground, but now he's in the legal system, he's on Saul Goodman's turf...
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: ADX stands for administrative maximum, meaning Jimmy got sent to a supermax prison for 86 years. While the show's depiction of the prison is way lighter it still means the state considers Jimmy dangerous enough to require the maximum amount of security. Justified in that Heisenberg's empire was global (thanks to Lydia's distribution), has killed ten inmates in different prisons thanks to Aryan Brotherhood connections and Jimmy admits his involvement in the organization was crucial making him a serious threat on paper.
• Thicker Than Water:
  • Jimmy finally admits what he did to his brother, inducing his suicide by canceling his insurance behind his back, even though it's not even a crime.
  • In a flashback, Chuck assures Jimmy he could easily hire someone else to run errands for him. Jimmy replies that he wants to help him, believing it's what he should be doing as his sibling.
• Title Drop: Upon recognizing who Jimmy is while on the way to the federal prison, all of the prisoners on the bus begin chanting "BETTER CALL SAUL!" before being told to shut up by one of the guards, to no avail.
• Undying Loyalty: According to Odenkirk, while Saul had never planned to sell Kim out, he was planning to let her see that he was supposedly irredeemable by getting a plea deal, but after actually seeing her he couldn't do it and became Jimmy again.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Walter derides Saul as being "the last person [he] would ever hire", despite the fact that Saul had been insanely useful for Walt's criminal empire more than once.
• Unperson: Marie unsurprisingly refuses to even say Walter White's name aloud because of his role in Hank's death. She only refers to her dead sibling-in-law as "the two-faced, poisonous bastard".
• Unreliable Narrator: The flashback with Chuck takes place just prior to the events of the series, yet Jimmy is wearing Marco's ring in it—which he didn't acquire until the end of Season 1. This strongly implies that the episode's flashback scenes are portrayed how Jimmy remembers them rather than an accurate depiction.
• Unseen No Longer: Steven Gomez's spouse Blanca was mentioned several times in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. She finally makes an appearance in this episode in the public gallery at Saul's trial.
• Villain Cred: The prisoners on the bus ride to Jimmy's incarceration recognize him from his days as "Saul Goodman", and chant his slogan as loudly as they can. It's shown they still respectfully refer to him as "Saul" while inside, which means his time even at a maximum security federal prison won't be too threatening.
• Villainous BSoD: As one last bargaining chip, Saul offers a story about what happened to Howard for one last exchange. He's then told that Kim already confessed to everything regarding that situation, which leaves him shocked into silence up until his extradition in the airplane. Eventually, his conscience changes by the time he's in court.
• Wham Line: Jimmy talks about Walt kidnapping him in court, starting out the same way he did during plea negotiations, but suddenly changes it to admitting both trauma and responsibility.
  Jimmy: I was terrified. But not for long.
• Wham Shot: As Saul is being led down the hall to his interrogation room, he looks through a window and spots, of all people, Marie Schrader as one of the people on the other side of the one-way mirror ready to listen in on his case.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • It's not clear what happened to Jeff after Gene ditched him and went on the run.
  • Oakley mentions that Howard's widow Cheryl is "lawyer-shopping" with the intention of taking everything Kim has and then some in civil court (as she is very unlikely to be prosecuted due to the passage of time and lack of evidence). However, this is the last time that Cheryl is mentioned, and it's left open what she actually elects to do.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Thanks to Saul's threats of a deadlocked jury, the prosecuting team believes they have no choice but to discuss a lighter deal with Saul. Both Marie and Judge Small cannot believe the government is willing to give Saul only 7 years.
• What Were You Thinking?:
  • Gene paces back and forth inside his holding cell at the Omaha police station, still shocked at himself for getting caught in such an embarrassing and ridiculous manner after evading authorities for so long.
  • Judge Small questions how George Castellano and the government can give such a light sentence as a response to Saul's numerous crimes.
  • Judge Small gives another one of these to Saul, when he tries to offer further testimony since it could endanger his sentencing.
• Wounded Gazelle Warcry: Saul plays up the trauma from the desert kidnapping to try and get sympathy from Marie (and possibly the jurors), and places Jesse in his fear of Lalo still being out there. It’s both manipulation and finally admitting to feeling pain for something, but he eventually realises this is no excuse, and he was scared, but helped Walt willingly.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: We're finally seeing Bill win a case, this time on-screen and as a defense attorney, even though Saul did most of the work coming to his own defense. Later, Jimmy is the exact same reason he begins losing the case, sabotaging his own efforts to secure a lenient sentence.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Bill is shocked to hear Saul not only call him, but also tell him he's finally been caught and wants legal representation with his help. He already thinks it's a lost cause given how much evidence the government likely has stacked against him.
  • George is in disbelief that Saul is going to deliver a statement gambling on the sympathy of the jurors. Saul then mentions he only needs one to side with him to stall his sentencing. George's smile melts away.
  • Marie gives a nonverbal variant; After Saul offers his proposal, recognizing the gamble they'll take with a sympathetic jury and a lack of evidence to counter Saul's baloney recounting of events, Marie begs George to avoid negotiation with him. Cut to her sternly walking out of the room and several of the prosecution team absolutely exhausted.

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Better! Call! Saul! Better! Call! Saul!

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