Although it could’ve easily disappeared into its predecessor Breaking Bad’s shadow, Better Call Saul has emerged as a fellow cornerstone of the Peak TV era. Regardless of its attachment to Breaking Bad, Saul stands as one of the greatest TV series ever made in its own right, using the inevitability of fate as a powerful dramatic tool and arguably even besting Bad in some respects.
The series recently concluded its penultimate season with more explosive action than ever, but the endgame for the sixth and final season is still anyone’s guess. Here are the most memorable scenes from IMDb’s 10 top-rated episodes of Better Call Saul.
JMM (9.2) – Jimmy And Kim Get Hitched
There are a handful of unforgettable moments in “JMM,” particularly Jimmy’s “Lightning bolts shoot from my fingertips!” rant at Howard, but the scene that felt like it had the biggest payoff was Jimmy and Kim’s marriage.
Instead of a big, lavish ceremony with friends and family like most TV weddings, Jimmy and Kim got married at a courthouse, purely so Kim could never be compelled to testify against Jimmy. And yet, there was something comforting in seeing these two tie the knot. They don’t have a perfect relationship, but they do love each other.
Lantern (9.2) – Chuck Kills Himself
The season 3 finale “Lantern” opens with a flashback to a young Chuck impatiently reading a story to an even younger Jimmy by the light of a gas lantern.
At the end of the episode, having snapped under his embarrassment at Jimmy’s hearing and his ousting from H.H.M., Chuck kicks a gas lantern off his coffee table to burn down his house, setting himself on fire. It was a very morbid note to end the season on.
Nailed (9.4) – Chuck’s Collapse
In the second-to-last episode of season 2, Chuck went down to the copy place where Jimmy altered his Mesa Verde documents, but the clerk remained tight-lipped about whether Jimmy was there, acting on a bribe from Jimmy himself.
Chuck grew angrier and angrier until the electricity got to him and he collapsed, smacking his head on the way down. Jimmy saw the whole thing from across the street and was torn: he wanted to help Chuck, but he’d have to give himself away to do so.
Something Unforgivable (9.4) – Lalo Turns The Tables On The Assassins Sent To Kill Him
Gus Fring supposedly hired “the best men” to sneak onto the Salamanca property and kill Lalo in the middle of the night. However, the assassins were woefully outmatched by Lalo.
He escaped from the estate through a tunnel under his bathtub and then returned to the premises, armed himself, and took out the men sent to kill him, one by one.
Five-O (9.5) – Mike Shoots Matty’s Killers While Pretending To Be Drunk
In addition to telling the origins of Saul Goodman, Better Call Saul has expanded on a bunch of different characters from Breaking Bad. Mike Ehrmantraut got some heartbreaking backstory in season 1’s “Five-O,” in which we see what happened to his son, Matty, and led him to Albuquerque.
He figured out which crooked cops killed his son, then pretended to be drunk and confronted them in a bar. They picked him up and drove him out to a secluded place to kill him. There, he revealed that he wasn’t really drunk and shot them both dead.
Wexler V. Goodman (9.5) – The Old Switcheroo
Kim took a shine to Mr. Acker throughout season 5, and arranged a scam with Jimmy that involved him representing Acker against Mesa Verde with some illicit tactics.
Before the meeting at Mesa Verde’s office, Kim called off the scam, so she was shocked when Jimmy went ahead with it anyway and projected slanderous ads featuring Kevin Wachtell’s father on the wall of the meeting room.
Winner (9.6) – Jimmy And Chuck’s Karaoke Performance
Sometimes, a well-chosen soundtrack in a scene can give a song a whole new unshakable context. It’ll be tough for Better Call Saul fans to ever listen to ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” without picturing the McGill brothers drunkenly performing karaoke.
Not many scenes endear us to Chuck, but his karaoke performance with Jimmy at a party to celebrate his brother becoming a lawyer is a surprisingly sweet Chuck moment.
Chicanery (9.7) – Chuck’s Meltdown At Jimmy’s Hearing
In season 3’s “Chicanery,” Chuck’s ruthless takedown of Jimmy comes to a head as Jimmy’s hearing arrives. He hires Huell to plant a fully charged cell phone battery in Chuck’s pocket, which is revealed during his fateful testimony.
It becomes obvious to the panel that Chuck has become dangerously blinded by his desire to stop Jimmy from practicing the law, inspiring some lenience in his verdict.
Bagman (9.8) – The Desert Shootout
From the moment Jimmy told Kim that his plan to drive out into the desert and pick up Lalo’s $7 million bail would go off without a hitch, a bad omen hung over season 5’s action-packed “Bagman.”
As he drove away from the pickup site in his trusty Esteem, singing a cash-related twist on “99 Bottles of Beer,” he was tailed by a convoy of SUVs and run off the road by some gun-toting mercenaries. And then, he was saved from certain death by an unseen sniper who turned out to be Mike Ehrmantraut. What a ride.
Bad Choice Road (9.8) – Lalo Confronts Jimmy And Kim Talks Him Down
Since neither of them appeared in Breaking Bad, the fates of Lalo and Kim are completely unknown. We know where Jimmy ends up, but we have no idea what gets Lalo and Kim out of the picture before then. That’s what made the final scene of “Bad Choice Road,” the penultimate episode of season 5, so exhilarating.
Mike was across the street with a sniper rifle pointed at Lalo as he confronted Jimmy in his and Kim’s apartment about the bullet holes in his Esteem. And Kim masterfully managed to talk Lalo down and get him to leave without finding the bullet hole in Jimmy’s coffee cup. The great thing about Kim is that she doesn’t need to shoot someone in the head to be a badass.