‘Higher Name Saul’ and ‘Breaking Unhealthy’ Crossover, Gene’s Name Defined

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t learn in case you have not watched the eleventh episode of “Better Call Saul” Season 6, titled “Breaking Bad.”

“Higher Name Saul” followers have waited over seven years for the Bob Odenkirk-led collection to intersect with the world of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). This week’s episode of the spinoff, aptly titled “Breaking Unhealthy,” offered viewers with all that and extra.

The episode goes forwards and backwards between the black-and-white timeline, which options Saul’s post-“Breaking Unhealthy” persona Gene Takovic in Omaha, and the world of Saul Goodman inside “Breaking Unhealthy” Season 2. Sadly, Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) stay prior to now (at the least for now).

Within the Gene timeline, our favourite Cinnabon supervisor is reliving his Albuquerque days, orchestrating yet one more scheme with cab driver Jeffy (Pat Healy), who had acknowledged Gene from when he was Saul. Collectively, they swipe sufficient private info to steal a pair dozen dudes’ identities, however it’s clear that Gene/Saul/Jimmy isn’t actually in it for the rewards, however as a result of he misses “the sport.” In final week’s episode, “Nippy,” Gene arranges a mini division retailer heist for Jeffy in change for him retaining quiet about his true identification. This time, Gene’s in it for the thrills.

Within the flashback to “Breaking Unhealthy” Season 2, Saul is tied up in a recognizable, bullet-ridden RV earlier than being dragged exterior to a shallow grave by two mysterious males. “Oh no, no, no!” he pleads. “It wasn’t me, it was Ignacio! He’s the one!” We’ve seen this actual scene earlier than, within the Season 2 episode of “Breaking Unhealthy” titled “Higher Name Saul,” when Albuquerque’s most well-known meth cooks first meet their legal lawyer. Again then, it was a throwaway line. Now, six seasons into the spinoff with Nacho’s (Michael Mando) dramatic dying nonetheless recent in our minds, it places all the pieces into context and locks the 2 collection in place. All through its run, “Higher Name Saul” has served as a prequel collection that additionally teases the aftermath of “Breaking Unhealthy.” At this second, nevertheless, the 2 collection are unfolding concurrently.

Walt and Jesse first met Saul in “Breaking Unhealthy” as a result of he represented considered one of their sellers, Jesse’s buddy Badger, who was arrested for meth distribution. Scared that Badger will quit Heisenberg (aka Walt) to the DEA, Walt enters Saul’s workplace posing as Badger’s uncle and provides him $10,000 to advise Badger to remain quiet. Saul kicks him out for the bribe. As a final resort, Walt and Jesse kidnap Saul and intimidate him within the desert, assuring that he’ll advise Badger to remain quiet. They’re carrying ski masks to hide their identities, however Saul acknowledges Walt’s cough and calls for that he and Jesse put a greenback in his pocket… you understand, for attorney-client privilege. In a pickle, Saul agrees to not take a cope with the DEA.

Now within the “Higher Name Saul” flashback, we’re handled to a brand new scene that takes place because the trio re-enters the RV, and we lastly see Walt and Jesse’s faces (13 years after Cranston and Paul first shot this pivotal sequence). Saul admires the makeshift meth lab and accurately surmises that Walt is, the truth is, Heisenberg. Walt and Jesse are bickering (oh, how I’ve missed “Breaking Unhealthy”), and Saul, minutes after being held at gunpoint, is hard-balling them on his retainer. After a quick silence, Jesse asks Saul, “Who’s Lalo?”

Within the “Breaking Unhealthy” model of the intimidation scene, Saul asks Walt and Jesse if Lalo despatched them. Again then, Lalo was additionally only a random title and never the notorious Salamanca villain we’ve grown to concern in “Higher Name Saul.” The lawyer pauses for a second — maybe reflecting on representing Lalo, carrying his bail cash throughout the desert, the failed assassination try, the rip-off in opposition to Howard, Lalo’s shock go to, Howard’s homicide, shedding Kim — after which merely responds: “It’s no person.”

Later within the episode, Saul sits in his workplace with Mike (Jonathan Banks), who provides him intel on his potential purchasers. “Even when this man was gonna reside, I wouldn’t go close to him. He’s an entire novice,” Mike says of Walt. “If the most cancers doesn’t get him, it’ll be the cops or a bullet to the top.”

“I acquired a sense about this,” Saul retorts. “This Heisenberg man’s acquired one thing. It’s top-of-the-line product, that’s the thrill on the road, and I simply assume with the correct administration…” However Mike interrupts him. “Let it go,” he says. Ignoring his recommendation, Saul arrives at J.P. Wynne Excessive College, the place Walt is instructing chemistry. He heads towards the science constructing, however that’s all we get on this episode. It doesn’t matter, after all. We all know what occurs subsequent.

To not be forgotten, at the start of this bombshell episode is Gene’s name with Francesca (Tina Parker), his former secretary. It’s been a short time because the occasions of “Breaking Unhealthy” and spinoff movie “El Camino,” so Francesca (who’s now a landlord serving to her 20something tenants unclog their sink) is updating Gene on the statuses of his mates and former associates again in Albuquerque. Right here’s what we be taught:

• Issues have cooled down, however Francesca nonetheless will get adopted infrequently. She says her mail will get opened and her residence cellphone is tapped. “Skyler White acquired her deal, so the one ones left to go after are you and Pinkman,” she tells Gene, “and I heard they discovered his automobile down by the border.” Francesca is definitely referring to Skinny Pete’s automobile, the Ford Thunderbird that Badger drives all the way down to the Mexican border in “El Camino” to throw the cops off. So far as we all know, Jesse resides peacefully in Alaska after escaping the Nazi compound and beginning a brand new life, by way of Ed the Disappearer.
• The cops are nonetheless in search of Saul Goodman.
• The feds discovered the nail salons, merchandising machines and laser tag enviornment that Walt, Jesse and Saul used to launder cash.
• When requested how Saul’s henchman Patrick Kuby (Invoice Burr) is, Francesca responds: “No concept,” however she says Huell Babineaux (Lavell Crawford) is again residence in New Orleans. Apparently he walked as a result of the DEA held him underneath false pretenses.
• Invoice Oakley (Peter Diseth), the district lawyer who seems all through “Higher Name Saul,” has “switched sides” and develop into a protection lawyer.
• In some unspecified time in the future, Kim referred to as Francesca to test in on her and requested about Jimmy and whether or not he was alive. Francesca says she didn’t inform Kim something about Jimmy’s present whereabouts (or new identification).

This final realization emboldens Gene to name Kim, whom we be taught is now working in Titusville, Fla, presumably not as a lawyer since she gave up her license. We don’t hear any audio from their dialog, and it’s not clear in the event that they even get related. However no matter is going on on the opposite line is upsetting Gene, who bashes the cellphone in opposition to the dial pad and kicks the glass payphone sales space till it shatters.

There are two episodes left of “Higher Name Saul,” and we haven’t seen Kim since she left Jimmy, so right here’s hoping for a black-and-white pleased ever after.