Let's Talk About the Breaking Bad Callbacks in Better Call Saul
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Better Call Saul debuted this week, continuing the thread showrunner Vince Gilligan started with Breaking Bad. Though the spinoff is a prequel, taking place six years before Saul (known as James McGill at the time) meets Walter White, there are a few characters and callbacks to Breaking Bad in the series premiere. Let's discuss the biggest ones from the spinoff's first episode.
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Saul's Job at Cinnabon
Better Call Saul's opening scene is a mesmerizing black-and-white sequence that takes place in a Nebraska Cinnabon, where a present-day Saul (Bob Odenkirk) now works. This didn't come out of nowhere — in Breaking Bad's final season episode of "Granite State," Saul mused, "If I'm lucky, in a month from now, best-case scenario, I'm managing a Cinnabon in Omaha." It's a prediction come true, though we see very little of Saul's new life before the timeline switches to the past.
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Mike
While we know that Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston won't be stopping by to reprise their Breaking Bad roles this season, there are some show alums who will be on Better Call Saul, including Mike (Jonathan Banks), whose casting was announced last month. In the series premiere, we see how Mike and Saul meet (which you can watch again), and it's less than friendly. We're still left wondering how this meeting translates into their eventual partnership, and we can't wait to see it develop.
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Tuco!
While we knew Mike would be in the series, one Breaking Bad character who pops up was a total surprise. Tuco (Raymond Cruz) shows his face in the final moments of the first episode after pointing a gun directly at Saul after a scheme-gone-wrong. Tuco, you remember, is the first big bad meth dealer who Walt and Jesse deal with (and whose family wreaks havoc on Walt's life for much of the series). It'll be interesting to see how much he plays into Better Call Saul and if he actually works with Saul, considering Tuco and Saul never had scenes together in Breaking Bad. Oh, and another total Breaking Bad trademark in Tuco's debut scene? The classic cliffhanger.