The second half of the final season of Better Call Saul debuts tonight, and I’d be lying if I wasn’t anxious to see it. The only two prestige television series that have sustained my interest throughout their run have been Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
I did not expect that heading into the final run of episodes, the character of Kim Wexler would strike me as more morally compromised — almost more the protagonist and creator of “Saul” than Jimmy McGill himself. This leaves me totally in the dark about how her story ends, or if it does. Was she still behind her man during Breaking Bad?
The flash-forward sequences and the promotional material drop some hints that perhaps the post–Breaking Bad timeline of the show, featuring Gene Takovic, may end with Jimmy somehow resuming his Saul persona.
The only thing that leaves me worried as a viewer is that, while Breaking Bad gave its protagonist a full arc and sustained my interest the whole way, the way it closed the loop on Walter White’s jealousy of his former business partners was not entirely satisfying. Yes, he had achieved so much financially in such a short time, but he was little more than an especially clever thug trying to bully them with violence at the end. He seemed to have forgotten about them as he became absorbed in his enterprise, in a way that made their reentry a surprise.
There are a lot of open loops to close in the final episodes of Better Call Saul. The end of Lalo’s story, Kim’s. In this short a time, I have no idea how Jimmy McGill goes from the guy who is shaking in fear in the last episode, to the one who full embraces his persona as a criminal lawyer.