“It’s one of the most nail-biting hours of TV I’ve ever seen in my life,” Better Call Saul co-creator and executive producer Peter Gould says of the Breaking Bad prequel’s Season 6 return. And if you recall the drama’s jaw-dropping May cliffhanger, it’s easy to imagine why.
To recap: Shady lawyer Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), and his increasingly corrupt legal eagle wife, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), had just triumphed in their scheme to discredit colleague Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) and force him to settle a class-action case that would net them $2 million.
(Credit: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)
As Howard confronted the duo at their home, cartel gangster Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) unexpectedly appeared behind him. Rather than let Howard excuse himself, Lalo simply put a bullet in his head as Jimmy and Kim huddled, horrified. “What exactly is he doing at their apartment?” asks Gould. “Lalo’s got definite intentions, let’s put it that way.”
Those intentions — to avenge the ambush murders of his family and crew on his Mexico compound in last season’s finale — had been on track. Presumed dead in the raid, Lalo’s been quietly setting wheels of payback in motion against the man responsible, aspiring drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). But then Gus figured out that he was alive. Lalo suddenly appearing at Jimmy and Kim’s door marks a shift in his plan…and could raise the body count considerably.
As tense as the showdowns to come will be, Gould promises the series’ trademark humor will continue in these final six hours of its Emmy-worthy run. “Some episodes have some of the biggest laughs we’ve ever had on the show,” he says. And what of the anticipated appearances of Bad’s Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)? “We did say that you would see Walt and Jesse; I don’t know that I definitely said it was going to be Aaron and Bryan,” the producer offers coyly.
One thing is certain: The series known for its shockers has plenty of surprises still to come — “some of them delightful, some scary,” Gould says. “But the hope is that you’ll see these left turns and also think, ‘There’s no other way that could have gone.’ By the time we’re done, you’re not going to see Breaking Bad the same way.”
Better Call Saul, Season 6 Returns, Monday, July 11, 9/8c, AMC