A recent Better Call Saul season 6 teaser hints at the series' wildest season yet, which will likely prompt further comparisons to Breaking Bad.
A recent Better Call Saul season 6 teaser hints that the show is growing to become more like Breaking Bad. Veering between presenting as a prequel and sequel of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan's spin-off chronicles the transformation of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) from an earnest lawyer and former con artist into the greedy criminal defense attorney known as Saul Goodman. Better Call Saul has certainly seen its fair share of narrative shocks, including heists and assassination attempts, but season 6 promises to double down on the mayhem as Jimmy becomes further ingratiated with the dangerous Salamanca clan.
Better Call Saul's season 5 finale confirms this promise after Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) survives the assassination attempt on his life, with the cartel fixer instructing his surviving attacker to falsely report his death. Seperately, Jimmy and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) plot to sabotage Howard's (Patrick Fabian) critical Sandpiper case, while Jimmy also betrays Mike's (Jonathan Banks) confidence. These key events are almost certain to form the crux of Better Caul Saul's season 6 narrative, primarily with Lalo gunning for revenge following his attack by the Juarez cartel.
As if to pour gasoline on the proverbial fire, one Better Call Saul actor teased season 6 will be more like Breaking Bad than ever before. In a recent interview with Screen Rant, Tony Dalton (who plays Lalo Salamanca in the series) stated: "You have no idea what’s going to happen. It’s out of control what these guys wrote." This statement, more than any other before it, confirms Better Call Saul season 6 is headed towards the unprecedented carnage that quickly came to symbolize Breaking Bad's hectic narrative.
While season 5 certainly upped the ante in terms of violence and gang-level interaction, Better Call Saul has typically been a far more methodical series than its predecessor. Better Call Saul's storylines certainly stride forward with purpose and conviction in classic Gilligan style, but they seem less tense in an effort to almost reserve the biggest moments and stories for Breaking Bad itself. Indeed, the journey towards becoming Saul Goodman seems nowhere near finished, with Jimmy's permanent name change to Saul only shown in a flashforward at the beginning of season 5.
However, this all looks set to change with Dalton's "out of control" comment, which feels far more akin to the Walter White-driven chaos that quickly became synonymous with Breaking Bad's story. There is also the question of how long Better Caul Saul can realistically air for before needing to wrap up McGill's origins, meaning Better Call Saul season 6 is the perfect time for Gilligan and company to take the handbrake off Jimmy's story. The attempted assassination of Lalo seems the perfect catalyst for this event, with the unhinged Salamanca boss sure to wreak bloody revenge across Albuquerque. Dalton may not have offered details about what is in Better Caul Saul's future, but his comments suggest that season 6 could resemble the overtly violent Breaking Bad events from which the series derives its premise. Many primary Breaking Bad characters, especially the larger antagonists, met a bloody demise by the time the story ended, and Better Call Saul seems perfectly set up to follow this trend through to its conclusion.
