Caution: spoilers ahead for Better Call Saul season 6, episode 3
That odd blue flower in the opening moments of Better Call Saul season 6's "Rock & Hard Place" carries a curious connection to Kim Wexler... and also Walter White. After the one-two punch of Better Call Saul season 6's introductory episodes, "Rock & Hard Place" begins with a strange first scene - a close-up landscape of a desert during a rainstorm. The water droplets splash on a shard of glass covered in mud - the very same shard Nacho Varga used to stab Juan Bolsa in the episode's shocking climax. Nacho's makeshift shank isn't the most striking object in the sequence, however - that honor belongs to a bright blue flower (a desert bluebell?) growing amid the arid wasteland.
Everything carries meaning in the Better Call Saul/Breaking Bad universe, and color is particularly vital in denoting symbolism. Breaking Bad's Marie often wore purple, while Walter WHITE and Jesse PINKman carry color everywhere they go. Blue is specifically associated with innocence in death. For example, Krysten Ritter's Jane dies (and is buried) in blue, while the plane crash ribbons honoring flight 515 are the very same color. The appearance of a blue flower on the spot (more or less) where Nacho Varga dies continues that duality between death and innocence. Nacho ultimately perishes, but he was one of the more "innocent" cartel members - a good but misguided soul who desperately wanted out. The bright, vibrant plant surrounded by dead, bleak ones is perfect imagery for Nacho and the cartel. Better Call Saul's blue flower is a fitting in-universe tribute - one that speaks to Nacho's inner kindness, and remains in-keeping with Breaking Bad's color wheel of metaphors.
The Better Call Saul season 6, episode 3 blue plant also provides a bridge between Nacho and Kim Wexler. More than any other character, Better Call Saul's Kim is renowned for her blue wardrobe. And beyond just her clothes, Kim and Jimmy's signature tequila - the Zafiro Añejo that's allegedly vital to season 6, according to Peter Gould - is exactly the same color as the desert bluebells in "Rock & Hard Place." The flower that grows where Nacho's blood spilled reminds viewers of the morbid meaning behind sapphire blue in Better Call Saul... so Zafiro Añejo sharing exactly the same hue should come as a concerning omen for Jimmy and Kim's relationship - and Kim in particular, since her fate remains unknown. We've already seen the tequila bottle-stopper falling to the roadside in Better Call Saul season 6's premiere. Is Nacho's sapphire blue flower a potential sign that Kim will be hot on his heels to purgatory before long?
Discussing sapphire blue within the context of Breaking Bad, it's impossible not to touch upon Walter White's famous Blue Sky meth. The drug became renowned for its unique coloring, and blue followed Walt to his grave - quite literally, since the song "Baby Blue" plays as he fades out. When applied to Walt's meth, the color blue once again represents death (because drugs are bad, m'kay) and innocence (purity is a better term in this instance). With Nacho's flower, Better Call Saul is copying the same color symbolism that accompanied Walt's departure from the mortal plane - the flower denotes both death, and the innocence/purity of Nacho's heart.
A final (potential) important detail surrounding the blue flower in Better Call Saul season 6, episode 3 relates to the Gene timeline. When Nacho drops the glass shard shortly before his death, the ground is nowhere near as overgrown as it is during the opening scene - and there's no blue flower in sight. That would suggest the intro sequence is set years ahead of Better Call Saul's prequel timeline. Although Gene scenes are traditionally black and white, Better Call Saul season 6 opened with a colorized house clearing sequence that potentially happens in the "Gene" era. The striking boldness of episode 3's blue flower may provide another subtle clue that Better Call Saul's future timeline is no longer being depicted in shades of gray.
Better Call Saul continues Monday on AMC.