Better Call Saul finally brought back Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul for its final season and made the smart choice of not using de-aging technology to do it. After six years of waiting, Walt and Jesse returned to the screen in an episode appropriately titled "Breaking Bad." Better Call Saul cleverly weaved Breaking Bad flashbacks from season 2, episode 8, "Better Call Saul" into one of the final episodes of the prequel series.
While Breaking Bad is the father series, Better Call Saul has done an excellent job at expanding the Breaking Bad universe. Since many of these characters met their demise in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul provided the opportunity to further develop them despite their deaths. However, shooting scenes from the past can be tough when the actors are much older. While some shows have used de-aging technology successfully, many times de-aging technology has looked terrible and taken audiences out of the story. The creators of Better Call Saul have previously spoken about not de-aging characters due to budget. Jimmy McGill himself has leaped through time throughout the six seasons and Bob Odenkirk has managed to keep himself looking age-appropriate for every scene.
The pressure to get Walt and Jesse's return right has been building since Better Call Saul season 1. Five seasons later, Better Call Saul presented the first Breaking Bad scenes with Walt and Jesse. Better Call Saul chose a great scene to reintroduce the characters through the eyes of Jimmy McGill. At that point in the Breaking Bad series, Jimmy wasn't familiar with the great Heisenberg, and his time in the R.V. turned the gears in his head until he decided to work for Walter White. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul nailed their return with such chemistry that it felt like time hadn't passed. Since the budget presumably didn't allow for de-aging technology, the scene was dark and the actors wore hats. Despite the dimly lit scene, the actors do an excellent job bringing a sense of déjà vu to viewers.
Aaron Paul's Voice Is The Only Weird Part Of Walt & Jesse's Return
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul may have looked the part, but it is hard to ignore how much deeper Aaron Paul's voice is now. During six seasons, Better Call Saul has reintroduced characters at younger ages, but usually, the result isn't so jarring. Since Breaking Bad season 2, Aaron Paul has aged from his early 30s to his early 40s. While Aaron Paul didn't miss a dialogue beat, his voice didn't sound like the Jesse from 2009 in his Better Call Saul appearance. Regardless, the two actors made the most out of their return. Bryan Cranston, especially, played Walter White to perfection. De-aging technology wouldn't have fixed Aaron Paul's voice, and recasting him would've proved disastrous, so Better Call Saul made the best move possible in its clever incorporation of the now-older actors.
Better Call Saul confirmed two more Breaking Bad flashback scenes, one with Walt and one with Jesse. While the two were absent from the previous five seasons, Walter White's influence on Jimmy's life was essential to the series, not only to the plot but to the theme. With only two episodes left, Better Call Saul proved once again that Jimmy will always break bad.
New episodes of Better Call Saul air Mondays on AMC.