Warning! Spoilers ahead for the final season of Better Call Saul.
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s critically acclaimed Breaking Bad spin-off, Better Call Saul, is just a few short weeks away from its long-awaited conclusion. The final episodes promise answers to the questions that fans have been asking since the beginning of the series. What fate awaits Kim Wexler? What will happen to Gene in the post-Breaking Bad timeline?
The ultimate thesis question posed by the spin-off is: how (and why) did Jimmy McGill turn into Saul Goodman? With a shocking time jump, the episode “Fun and Games” finally completed Jimmy’s fabled transformation into the *criminal* lawyer seen in Breaking Bad. Across six seasons, that journey was captured in a few key moments.
When He Reconnected With Marco
The season 1 finale, “Marco,” is named after Jimmy’s old partner-in-crime. In the episode, Jimmy goes back to Cicero, reunites with Marco, and starts pulling cons again – until Marco suffers a heart attack and dies during a scam. Jimmy’s final days with Marco inspire him to bring some “Slippin’ Jimmy” antics into his law career.
Marco’s influence is symbolized in the final scene when Jimmy puts on Marco’s pinky ring, abandons his meeting with Davis & Main, and hums “Smoke on the Water” – the song that Marco was humming right before he died – as he drives away. The road to Saul Goodman began there.
When He First Came Up With The Alias
In the third season of Better Call Saul, Jimmy was temporarily banned from practising law after Chuck exposed him for tampering with his Mesa Verde documents. In the interim, Jimmy picked up a new career as a commercial director.
He’d bought a bunch of airtime for his lawyer ads, and as long as he couldn’t be a lawyer anymore, he decided to fill that airtime with other businesses’ ads. He initially adopted the “Saul Goodman” alias to produce these commercials.
When He Started Selling Burner Cell Phones To Criminals
While his law license was suspended, Jimmy was hired to manage a cell phone store. Within minutes of performing this mundane job, he became agonizingly bored with it and figured out a way to go back to his old “Charlie Hustle” ways.
He started hitting the streets at night and selling prepaid cell phones from this store as burner phones for gangsters. With this new venture, Jimmy amassed a network of criminal contacts that would come in handy when he went back to practising criminal law.
When He Started Practising Law Under The Name “Saul Goodman”
In the season 4 finale, the suspension of Jimmy’s law license is finally lifted after he pretends to express grief over Chuck’s death. Kim thinks his grief is genuine, but she’s shocked to learn that he feigned the whole thing.
As soon as his license is reinstated, Jimmy applies for a DBA (“doing business as”) to change his name to Saul Goodman. In the episode’s poignant final moment, he tells Kim, “S’all good, man!”
When He Agreed To Work For The Salamancas
Back when Nacho was working for both Gus Fring’s meth empire and the Salamanca drug cartel, he was tasked with getting a newly arrested Lalo out of prison. Fortunately for Nacho, he happened to know a lawyer with shaky morals.
When Jimmy was recruited as the official legal representation for the Salamancas, he crossed over from criminal lawyer to *criminal* lawyer.
When He Ran The Mesa Verde Scam Alone
When her client Mesa Verde threatened to kick Mr. Acker out of his home and Kim found herself empathizing with him, she teamed up with Jimmy for a scam that would bring Mesa Verde to its knees. But, at the last minute, she called off the scam.
However, against Kim’s wishes, Jimmy went ahead with the con anyway. He later casually apologized for pulling “the old switcheroo,” highlighting Saul’s shamelessness and Jimmy’s obliviousness.
When He Rejected Howard’s Job Offer
Howard felt responsible for Chuck’s death, because he ousted him from HHM to avoid increasing insurance premiums (without realizing the premiums were increased at Jimmy’s behest). As an olive branch, Howard offered Jimmy a job at HHM.
When Howard enquired about the job offer at the courthouse, Jimmy launched into an explosive tirade in which he claimed that, as Saul Goodman, he’s too big for HHM: “I travel in worlds you can’t even imagine! You can’t conceive of what I’m capable of! I’m so far beyond you! I’m like a god in human clothing! Lightning bolts shoot from my fingertips!”
When He Accidentally Revealed Lalo’s Real Name
When he was confronted about his work with “Jorge De Guzman” at the beginning of season 6, Jimmy accidentally slipped up and revealed his real name: Lalo, a member of the infamous Salamanca cartel. Thanks to this slip-up, Jimmy outed himself as a “cartel lawyer.”
As a result, he was ostracized by the law community. No one at the courthouse would talk to him or eat lunch with him. So, he decided that he might as well double down on the Saul Goodman persona.
When He Ruined Howard’s Life
Throughout the first half of Better Call Saul’s final season, Jimmy and Kim sabotaged Howard’s career with a series of pranks leading up to the “D-Day” scheme in the midseason finale.
When Howard figured it out and came over to Jimmy and Kim’s apartment to call them on it, he delivered a bunch of home truths: “You two are soulless. Jimmy, you can’t help yourself. Chuck knew it. You were born that way.”
When Kim Left Him
In its final run of episodes, Better Call Saul has finally completed Jimmy’s turn to the dark side with a perfectly placed time jump. As soon as Kim left, the show went straight from the Better Call Saul timeline into the Breaking Bad timeline.
All of a sudden, Jimmy was in full Saul mode. Fans have spent six seasons eagerly waiting for Jimmy to turn into Saul, and now that it’s happened, based on the tragic circumstances, those fans are just sad.