Better Call Saul's Vince Gilligan On The Weight Of Kim's Tears At The End Of Season 6 Episode 12
Contains spoilers for "Better Call Saul" Season 6 Episode 12, "Waterworks"
One of the best episodes of "Breaking Bad" is "Granite State," the show's devastating and low-key penultimate outing. As such, fans might have been prepared for a whole lot of heartbreak before "Better Call Saul's" second to last episode, "Waterworks," dropped. After all, the "Breaking Bad" spin-off has been setting its characters up for tragic failure since the very beginning, and Season 6 has spread death and sorrow with a particularly large shovel.
Sorrow, indeed, is what the episode brings. While there are epic moments, like the understated chance meeting between Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), "Waterworks" has a definite air of doom and gloom. The viewer witnesses Kim's difficult process of owning up to past mistakes, as well as Jimmy McGill's (Bob Odenkirk) steadily imploding Gene Takovic facade.
In an episode full of greyscale sadness, one particular moment stands out. After the usually unflappable Kim confesses to Cheryl Hamlin (Sandrine Holt), she breaks down in tears while riding a bus. Now, co-creator Vince Gilligan has shed more light on this particular scene. Here's what he says Kim's tears really mean in "Better Call Saul" Season 6 Episode 12.
Kims tears mean she's not holding back anymore
As "Better Call Saul" Episode 11 hints and Episode 12 confirms, Kim's created a completely new life for herself, working for a sprinkler company in Florida and steering clear of her past ... and of the law career she loved. As Vince Gilligan told Variety, her bus breakdown is when the walls she's set up to cope with everything she's gone through finally come down ... and the moment is so important and powerful that they actually named the episode after it.
"She has purposely stunted herself," Gilligan said. "And there's something tragic about that. And so when the waterworks finally do start, the 'Waterworks' of the title, it comes to me as a relief. When she's crying on that bus, she's so bereft. She's letting it all out and there's so much sadness there. But it's a lot of relief to and it just feels like this has to happen. And it's a long time coming. It should have happened years ago. I think she's just sort of divorced herself from the pain and the memories and the guilt. She's just sort of anesthetized herself from the neck up."
While Kim's tearful crash is a powerful and harrowing moment, Gilligan did note that it may end up being a positive and cathartic experience ... at some point down the line, anyway. "Once she cops to her sins, to the guilt she has for these terrible things she and Jimmy did, then the healing hopefully will begin," he said.
It's far from a fairy tale ending, but even the slightest chance to atone and heal might be considered a win if you're a major character in "Better Call Saul." As such, if this is the last we see of Kim Wexler, it might just be that her tears are the show's closest equivalent to a happy ending.