This Moment From The Better Call Saul Finale Still Gives Fans Chills
In some ways, "Better Call Saul" had the deck stacked against it from the start. As with the conman turned lawyer at the heart of the show, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), and his ace lawyer brother Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), the series was following such an impressive predecessor in the form of "Breaking Bad" that it seemed almost impossible to live up to it.
While "Better Call Saul" had some tonal shifts and focused on a legal drama angle not depicted in its parent series, it still managed to tell an awe-inspiring story throughout its six seasons. This is particularly noteworthy, considering the fates of many of its characters, like Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), were already known.
Still, even with these caveats, "Better Call Saul" managed to keep fans guessing across three different timelines for almost the entirety of the series. In fact, some fans are still reeling from the series finale and the bittersweet ending that it offered for its central characters.
Resonance between Kim and Jimmy's final scene gutted fans
On the "Better Call Saul" subreddit, Late_Candy_1989 made a thread that compared the first scene with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) and Jimmy McGill smoking in the parkade in Season 1, Episode 1 ("Uno") with their final scene together in the series finale, Season 6, Episode 13 ("Saul Gone"). The user noted the obvious bookends of the two scenes for the series and its two main characters with the caption: "Still hurts."
With over 1000 upvotes from other users, it was clear that many other fans were still reeling from the emotional whiplash of the final season of "Better Call Saul," particularly for its last episode, which aired on August 15th, 2022. "Still the best black and white scene in the whole show, IMO," wrote StillWill18 in the top-voted comment. The series was known for subverting expectations by setting the past in color and the future segments in black and white.
Still, Dbarnett191 had a more poetic take, noting how much the show says in the scene symbolically. "The way Jimmy steadies her shaking hands to light his cigarette. The flame being in color. The flame between Kim & Jimmy still alive, amidst a world washed void of color," the user explained. "Truly beautiful. Couldn't have been a better ending." When looked at this way, the scene definitely has even more emotional resonance for "Better Call Saul" fans.
Peter Gould agrees the ending is bittersweet
Regarding the opinion of co-creator Peter Gould, who wrote and directed the series finale of "Better Call Saul," he wholeheartedly agreed with fans that the ending could be very emotional when he spoke with The Hollywood Reporter. "Oof! I love the fact that you think it's a happy ending when you have one character in prison for a very long sentence and the other one who's under threat of a giant civil action," Gould said after the interviewer suggested that the duo did pretty well in the end.
Still, Gould was adamant that, despite the emotional toll it took on him, he wanted to be absolutely sure that the ending worked and that it made sense for Kim and Jimmy. He recalled asking himself, "What is the right ending for this guy? What is the right moment to leave him? What is the right moment to leave Kim?" With so much to consider and such high expectations from fans of both series, it wasn't easy to come up with a fitting ending that wouldn't become too predictable.
All the same, Gould agreed that there was some optimism to the ending. "Yes, I agree it's optimistic, because he makes a change," the writer-director said. "Anybody who studies the human beings around you, you can see that making a real change is very difficult and rare." Judging by the fan reactions and critical reception, it looks like Gould and "Better Call Saul" co-creator Vince Gilligan nailed it with the ending.