Better Call Saul season 6 star Julie Ann Emery reacts to the return of the Kettlemans. Audiences first met Emery's Betsy and Jeremy Shamos' Craig Kettleman in season 1 of AMC’s acclaimed Breaking Bad spinoff. The seemingly homespun but actually crooked couple soon found themselves embroiled in Jimmy McGill’s haphazard schemes, and quickly became fan favorite characters.
The Kettlemans’ initial foray on Better Call Saul of course ended in negative fashion for them, as Craig went to jail for embezzlement despite his and Betsy’s best efforts to wriggle off the hook. That might have seemed like the end of the road for the plucky criminal couple, but producers indeed never forgot about the characters and finally elected to bring them back for Better Call Saul’s second season 6 episode “Carrot and Stick.” In the episode, Craig is out of jail and he and his wife are now running a fly-by-night tax services business out of a trailer (advertised with a very familiar inflatable Statue of Liberty), and of course can’t resist bilking their mostly elderly customers along the way. Realizing how desperate the Kettlemans’ situation has become, Jimmy and Kim suck them into their own scheme to frame Howard Hamlin, but find Betsy less-than-willing to go along with things due to her warranted mistrust for both McGill and Wexler.
Better Call Saul fans were indeed delighted to see the Kettlemans back in the mix in such an unexpected and ultimately perfect way. Speaking to THR, Betsy Kettleman actor Emery discussed just how the scamming couple’s return came to pass after so many years. She said:
"The writers have been talking about bringing us back for a long time, and [co-creator] Peter [Gould] has reached out several times, saying, ‘We’re looking for a good way to bring you guys back, but it has to make sense for the story.’ But I always thought that they were still doing some sort of grift and that they felt entitled. So it did not surprise me at all that they were still doing something slightly off-center. I guess Betsy would see it that way, but they’re still doing something illegal."
“Carrot and Stick” indeed was an approrpiately-titled episode as it showed Jimmy and Kim first offering the Kettlemans the carrot of exoneration for Craig before turning to the stick: threatening to expose their tax scam to the IRS. Of course Jimmy and Kim are old hats at manipulation at this point, making it easy for them to wrap the somewhat hapless Kettlemans around their fingers. But the episode in fact ended on somewhat of a dark note, as Jimmy seemed to experience misgivings after watching Kim become so ruthless in handling their over-matched adversaries.
Indeed Kim’s increasingly hardcore attitude seems bound to become more of an issue for Jimmy as Better Call Saul season 6 plays out. As was already teased by Kim’s infamous season 5 “finger guns” moment, Jimmy’s wife possesses her own dark tendencies, and it seems Jimmy is less-than-thrilled to see this other side of Kim emerging more-and-more. Ultimately, the return of the Kettlemans proved to be more than just a fun fan service moment, but actually served to further bring out the real Kim Wexler. This skillful juggling of different agendas indeed is just more evidence of how strong the writing continues to be on Better Call Saul as season 6 marches relentlessly toward its sure-to-be-shocking conclusion.
Source: THR