When AMC announced Better Call Saul as a spin-off series to Breaking Bad, most fans assumed it would be a wacky comedy based on the slimy lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). Who could have known at the time that Better Call Saul would ultimately become just as beloved in the fandom? Or that it would be so widely recognized throughout the entertainment industry as one of the best dramas on television?
Goodman is a wild card, willing to bend the rule of law whichever way suits him at the moment. But in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, his tendency to act selfishly brings him nothing but trouble and pain. In preparation for the premiere of Season 6 next month, here are the best Saul Goodman episodes to rewatch from every season of television in which he appears.
“Better Call Saul” (Breaking Bad Season 2, Episode 8)
The very first appearance of the character in Breaking Bad was in an episode appropriately titled “Better Call Saul.” Every criminal needs a criminal lawyer, and this episode asks the question: When you're in trouble with the law, who you gonna call? Enter Saul Goodman. The episode takes us right into the heart of Saul's sleazy law practice, with the colorful suits, bad comb-over, and strip-mall office painting an accurate picture of his loose ethical standards.
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) put on ski masks and take Goodman out into the desert to intimidate him into not allowing a client – their own drug dealer, Badger (Matt Jones) – from giving up information to the DEA about the mysterious "Heisenberg." Instead, Goodman gets directly involved in their business, helping solve the Badger problem while inadvertently setting the events of the rest of the series in motion.
“Full Measure” (Breaking Bad Season 3, Episode 13)
In the final episode of Season 3, Jesse is hiding out because of his involvement in the deaths of two of the dealers employed by the calculating Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Walt continues to cook meth for Gus, but it has become clear to him that the boss was only using him to train a replacement before having his henchman Mike (Jonathan Banks) dispose of him and Pinkman.
Saul isn't heavily featured in the episode, but one prominent scene is our first glimpse into his good nature. When Mike shows up at his office and demands to know Jesse's whereabouts, Goodman acts surprisingly ethically – even when he's threatened to be beaten until his legs don't work. He puts on a good act for Mike, even giving up a fake address across the country to buy Pinkman some extra time.
“Crawl Space” (Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 11)
One of the most intense episodes of Breaking Bad is “Crawl Space” from Season 4. Although Goodman doesn't have any one specific moment or line that stands out, he's interwoven into two of the most important subplots of the season and both come to a head in this episode. He attempts to fix a problem for Skyler (Anna Gunn), sending his “A-team” – Patrick (Bill Burr) and Huell (Lavell Crawford) – to ensure that a former lover and loose-end pays his taxes and avoids any potential blow-back on the Whites.
Saul also handles Walt at the very end of the episode, walking him through the process of contacting the “disappearer.” Simply order a new dust filter for a Hoover Max Pressure Pro model 60. This may also be the moment where Goodman finally realizes that the criminal empire built around him is starting to crumble, as he noticeably panics throughout the final scene.
“Live Free or Die” (Breaking Bad Season 5, Episode 1)
After the events of Season 4, the fifth season of Breaking Bad leads off with one of the best scenes of the series between Walt and Saul. In the final moments of “Live Free or Die,” Mr. White arrives in Goodman's law office to discuss how $600,000 and change of his money ended up being paid to his wife's former lover. Eventually, the truth comes out about Walt poisoning Jesse's girlfriend's son to manipulate him, concluding with Saul taking a stand and declaring them “done.”
White stands up from his seat and meticulously backs Goodman into a corner, uttering a cold “we're done when I say we're done” to the cowering attorney. Although their relationship was always tumultuous, this is the first time in which Walt truly feels menacing toward Saul.
“Mijo” (Better Call Saul Season 1, Episode 2)
It took until only the second episode of the critically acclaimed prequel Better Call Saul to see an early glimpse of Saul Goodman breaking through the Jimmy McGill facade. Having been kidnapped by Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) and dragged into the desert with two skateboarding scammers, McGill flaunts his negotiating skills by convincing him to go easy on the teens. The scene is 13 minutes long and contains zero musical interludes, leaving just the tension in the dialogue and the sounds of the desert to set the mood.
The end result is excruciating. The camera slowly zooms in on McGill's face to show his painful reaction to the sound of the boys' screams as their legs are broken by Tuco. There is contemplation in his eyes, maybe as he ponders whether this lifestyle is worth pursuing.
“Fifi” (Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 8)
He's still Jimmy McGill, but he does some awful things in Season 2. In “Fifi,” Jimmy starts out by scamming the United States Air Force with a fake veteran in a wheelchair so that he can shoot a commercial in front of a fighter jet. But that's not the worst thing he does by a long-shot. His brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), has taken over a client that Jimmy's girlfriend, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), worked tremendously hard to bring to his law firm prior to going out on her own.
One night, when Chuck is incapacitated due to his psychosomatic “allergy” to electricity, he hatches a devious plan. Jimmy expertly edits several documents, swapping two numbers in the address with the use of a precision knife and a copy machine. He replaces the edited papers with Chuck none-the-wiser, which leads to the embarrassing meltdown in court that pushes Mesa Verde back to Kim.
“Chicanery” (Better Call Saul Season 3, Episode 5)
Speaking of embarrassing meltdowns in court, the final moments of Season 3's “Chicanery” is one of the best. Chuck submits testimony to the state bar committee to determine Jimmy's fate for having broken into Chuck's home and destroyed a cassette tape containing his confession to the address-swapping crime. Kim is Jimmy's defense, and the pair work together on another underhanded scheme that sees the first chronological appearance of Huell in the Breaking Bad universe.
Jimmy cross-examines Chuck, having already built a solid case that his confession was a lie told out of concern for his mentally ill brother. But once again, Saul Goodman takes over. He invites Chuck's ex-wife, Rebecca (Ann Cusack), to the hearing to get into his brother's head. Then he sends him into a downward spiral by having Huell plant a fully-charged cell phone battery in Chuck's coat pocket, which he fails to realize for nearly two hours. Chuck is made to look like a lunatic on the witness stand, forcing the panel to side with Jimmy and ultimately leading to his suicide in the season finale.
“Winner” (Better Call Saul Season 4, Episode 10)
On the one-year anniversary of Chuck's death, Jimmy is preparing to make his pitch to the state bar association to get his law license back. He does his best to drum up sympathy in the legal community, hoping that word would get back to the board that had previously felt he was insincere. The plan was to read a letter Chuck left him in his will. But just a few sentences into the letter, he begins to get emotional and stops reading.
Instead, he breaks into an impromptu monologue about the way he had looked up to his brother, and how he only became a lawyer because he wanted to make Chuck proud. Jimmy promises to make himself worthy of the McGill name. The scene is moving for Kim, who is later horrified to find that it was all an act put on by Saul Goodman.
“Wexler v. Goodman” (Better Call Saul Season 5, Episode 6)
In Season 5, Jimmy McGill the attorney is no more. He is practicing law once again, now under the Goodman name. Kim continues to slide down a slippery slope behind him, concocting a plot of her own to manipulate her client, Mesa Verde, into a settlement with a stubborn property owner creating a problem for their newest bank location. The man's new legal counsel? Saul Goodman.
Jimmy goes off script in the negotiation with Kim and Mesa Verde, however, and demands $4 million for the land. This stuns Kim, and the situation only gets worse when he plays a video commercial that paints Mesa Verde in a very poor light. The end result is the settlement that Kim wanted, but she's understandably furious for being made into another “sucker” for Saul Goodman.