Better Call Saul is going to come to an end with season 6, and that should mean a shift in the show's storytelling, not least how it approaches its traditional opening future-set scenes with Gene Takovic. While Better Call Saul is a Breaking Bad prequel first and foremost, telling the story of how Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) becomes the slime-ball lawyer Saul Goodman, who fans first met in season 2 of the parent show, it's also continuing the story beyond the end of that too.
It was something of a surprise when Better Call Saul's first episode opened in a monochrome world, showing viewers the new life of Saul Goodman, working as a man called Gene in a Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska. Perhaps even more surprising, though, was that despite the premiere opening with that scene, the subsequent episodes of season 1 never returned to that part of the story. Instead, fans had to wait until the first episode of season 2 to see more of Gene's life, and these glimpses into the future have become the traditional way of opening each season of Better Call Saul, giving audiences just a once-yearly hint of what's become of Jimmy.
That's worked fine so far, largely because the central narrative of Better Call Saul, first with Jimmy and Chuck (Michael McKean), and more lately Jimmy and Kim Rhea Seehorn), has been so great, but it's also because the makers of the show have managed to put together a compelling, mysterious story about Gene in just five opening sequences. But with Better Call Saul ending after season 6, that's not going to be able to work the same way it has thus far. Gene's story - from the diamonds he strangely has to the taxi driver who recognized him - is far from over, and there are too many plates spinning in it, despite the short visits, to wrap it up satisfyingly in just one last 10 minute scene.
Season 6 has to end Jimmy's story, but to do so means ending Gene's, because of the long-stretching arc creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan have crafted. And while viewers know where Jimmy will end up - even if the "how" of that is going to be fascinating to watch - the final stop on his journey is a complete mystery. It could be that Jimmy/Gene ends up caught by the police or even killed, with El Camino hinting at a sad ending for Saul. Or the series could give him a happier ending, much like the movie did for Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and perhaps even a reunion with Kim, who is absent from Breaking Bad. Either way, it needs to pack in a lot more story for Gene than normal.
There are a few ways Better Call Saul could feasibly do this. They could take the existing framework of the opening scene and, rather than just having it in the premiere, use it for each episode of season 6, which will have 13 episodes instead of the usual 10. That would give viewers far more Gene, without dominating the main story. Another intriguing possibility would be an entire Gene episode. Better Call Saul, like Breaking Bad before it, often plays around with what the format of TV allows, and a standalone Gene episode towards the end of the show, still entirely in black and white, could be something special. Another, and maybe the most likely option, would be to bookend Better Call Saul season 6 with Gene, having him open and close the season and the series, bringing things full circle. This is, in a sense, the true ending of the story, so it would for Better Call Saul to end in the future.