If you've been reading Collider for awhile, you'll know that I pulled something of a 180 with Better Call Saul. While I thought Season 1 was well-acted and finely directed, it never had the punch or energy of Breaking Bad. But in Season 2, the show became much more confident in its own storytelling, and thus became much more than just a spin-off. It allowed Bob Odenkirk's outstanding performance to be matched by co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Jonathan Banks, the latter of whom got a story arc that kept the showed tied to Breaking Bad in more subtle ways than before. Thanks to these changes and adjustments, Season 2 proved to be one of the best seasons on television, and has set up huge expectations for Season 3.
But one of the storylines that has proved to be the most fascinating -- and most depressing -- is that of Gene. In Breaking Bad, we knew Odenkirk as Saul Goodman, but Better Call Saul backs that up to his origins as Jimmy McGill, an attorney still walking a line between playing by the rules and not. Is he a good guy, or a scam artist? Ultimately maybe he's a little bit of both. The Saul persona has, post-Breaking Bad, given way to that of Gene, who now works at a Cinnabon in Omaha (based on an off-handed line Saul throws out in that earlier series). Better Call Saul explores that in brief, showing this reality as having come to pass, and a much more timid and subdued Gene taking the place of the brash and bold Jimmy that we see in the rest of the series.
Better Call Saul has sought to expand the story of a character that could have easily just been a one-note comic relief, but thanks to Odenkirk's immensely nuanced performance, the transition of Jimmy/Saul/Gene has been absolutely engrossing. In new images released by EW, we're getting a glimpse now of what is to come in Season 3, with Odenkirk in his Gene makeup (sitting with show creator Vince Gilligan), as well as an image of Jimmy with his brother Chuck (Michael McKean), which reminds us of the devastating events of the Season 2 finale where Chuck trapped Jimmy with a secret taping of his confession, viciously betraying him. Where do things go from there? Well, we have some idea -- we just don't know what happens after the Cinnabon. Check out the new images below:
