Bob Odenkirk Teases Better Call Saul Ending And What Happens To Saul After Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul is currently in the midst of its sixth and final season, and star Bob Odenkirk has now shed some light on how the AMC drama will wrap up for his character, Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill/Gene Takavic.
Odenkirk told The Los Angeles Times that he’s argued with Better Call Saul creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan about core ideas regarding his character. “My pitch to them is always: Sometimes people learn the right lessons from challenges and trauma,” he said.
Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen. As viewers know, Seasons 1-5 of Better Call Saul began with black-and-white flash-forwards of Saul after the events of Breaking Bad, now living in Omaha, Nebraska under the name Gene Takavic.
In his post-Breaking Bad life, he manages a Cinnabon and doesn’t have much a life. These flash-forward scenes culminated in a sequence involving Gene seeking to change his identity once again, but then he apparently change his mind. Presumably, the remaining episodes of Better Call Saul will pick up the threads and reveal Saul/Jimmy/Gene’s choice and what happens next.
Odenkirk spoke briefly about this in the interview, saying Gene is finally coming to terms with what he really wants in life.
“He’s looking back on his whole life and asking himself, ‘Do I react the way that my instinct tells me, the same instinct that has landed me in a f**king mall in Omaha, making cinnamon rolls? Do I keep following that gut?’ He’s still Jimmy McGill. He’s still Saul Goodman. I promise you that. But in his growth, he’s asking himself, ‘Really? Is this all worth it?’ And you see in that moment that he can-t hold that shit in any longer. He needs to be himself.”
Odenkirk went on to say, “I’ve always told Peter and Vince that sometimes people learn the right lessons and not the most selfish, resentful lesson from a bad thing that’s happened to them. They become bigger and more gracious and not smaller and ground-down.”
Odenkirk claimed this is not a spoiler about the character, and he understands how people might take that quote as a tease that Saul is going to become some “goodhearted, generous, caring person.” That may not be the case, but something is brewing.
“I can’t tell you where he ends up, but it’s not like he has some revelation of humanity. I think he gets to. I think I’ve said all I can say. But I like where his journey ends. And I think you’ll like it too.”
Better Call Saul has one further episode remaining in the first half of the final season, which is set to premiere May 23. The show then takes a break before returning for its final run of seven episodes, beginning July 11.
We haven’t seen them yet, but Bryan Cranston’s Walter White and Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman will appear in the final season of Better Call Saul in some capacity.
