Warning: SPOILERS for Better Call Saul season 6, episode 11.
After a long wait and a not-so-well-kept secret, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman finally make their Better Call Saul cameos, leading some viewers to wonder when their scenes take place in Breaking Bad's timeline. Jesse and Walt's appearances have been much discussed and theorized about ever since news broke out of them returning to the show. Many viewers believed that Breaking Bad's greatest meth cooks would run into another Better Call Saul character or would appear much earlier in the Jimmy timeline.
As often is the case with Better Call Saul though, Occam's Razor prevails, and Walt and Jesse's scenes come in the most ordinary way possible, with them being an extension of a previously seen Breaking Bad scene. While Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston do look a little older in the scene than they did in the early years of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul didn't use any CGI de-aging technology. Their appearance is but a trifling matter, however, as Walt and Jesse's cameos do not disappoint, referencing infamous moments of Breaking Bad, and adding more complexity to the original series.
Walt and Jesse's scenes in Better Call Saul season 6, episode 11, "Breaking Bad" actually take place in Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8, "Better Call Saul." Walt and Jesse's cameos are completely new scenes, a viewer can imagine them as what happened between the action of Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8. The bulk of the cameos take place entirely after the scene where Jesse and Walt take Saul to the desert, where he pleads for his life and says the infamous Lalo line. Better Call Saul season 6, episode 11 also adds some padding to their appearances, with the opening scene being new footage of Saul tied up in the back of their RV, teasing the cameos, and a cross-cut sequence at the end of the episode hinting that there's more Walt and Jesse to come.
Why Walt & Jesse's Better Call Saul Scenes Are Set During Breaking Bad Season 2
Sometimes simple is best, and in the instance of bringing Jesse and Walt back, the simplest way is the most effective. Having Jesse and Walt's Better Call Saul scenes being in Jimmy or Gene's timelines, or having them meet with Better Call Saul characters, such as Kim, creates too many potential plot holes. Setting their scenes during Breaking Bad season 2, allows the writers to return to the meeting point between Saul, Jesse, and Walt with a completely fresh perspective. In Breaking Bad season 2, viewers knew next to nothing about Saul, only to be lulled in by his lawyer-like lyricism, however, in Better Call Saul season 6, viewers know the full context. They are aware that Saul knows a considerable amount more than Walt and Jesse about the dangers and consequences of the drug trade, and audiences know that he goes ahead with them anyway.
The exchange in the two titles of the Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad episodes is poetic but it also makes a point about Saul's choices throughout both shows. Mike gives Saul the full lowdown on Walter after he and Jesse kidnap Saul in Breaking Bad. After some investigating, Mike advises Saul "I wouldn't go near him," and flatly says "Let it go." Of course, Saul doesn't. The connectivity of the two titles has shades of the connectivity throughout all of Better Call Saul's timelines. Just as he breaks bad in the Jesse and Walt timeline, he chooses to break bad again in the Gene timeline.
While Better Call Saul season 6, episode 11 ends with Saul arriving at Walt's school, this doesn't mean that Walt will appear again. The Better Call Saul scene takes place minutes before the final scene of Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8, when Saul pitches to Walt why he would make a good partner, and informs Walt of all the information he finds out (courtesy of Mike). Nonetheless, if that's all audiences will get to see of Jesse and Walt, it was still worth the wait, especially since Better Call Saul manages to finally address the Lalo line once more.
New episodes of Better Call Saul air Mondays on AMC.