“If we don't win the Nobel Prize for this, I'm gonna be very disappointed,” joked Better Call Saul co-creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan during a TCA press conference in advance of the series finale debuting on AMC and AMC+ tonight. “I can't wait to see how people are gonna react to this. I'm so proud of it. Peter [Gould] did a fantastic job.”
(Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)
Showrunner, executive producer, and co-creator Peter Gould helmed the finale, both as a writer and a director. “Those of us on the show are very happy with where it ended,” he explained. “I hope everybody else agrees 'cause I think the thing that I'm most proud of is I think the show is true to itself. And we're playing in the same court that we started with, and I think that's an accomplishment.” With a break in the sixth and final season, Peter was also able to talk about one of the recent reveals, the fact that Kim Wexler is still alive. “If somebody's going to die on the show, you want to let them know that they're going to be available for other work. And I remember calling [Rhea Seehorn] and saying we don’t know how many episodes, but we think we're going to have you offstage for a little bit… The relationship between Jimmy and Kim is at the heart of the show. And so to take that away, take that off the board for a little bit I think was dramatically the right decision.”
Rhea Seehorn was in on the secret that she’d be back. “We normally get our scripts one at a time with some overlap so that you can be learning the next one you're going to do,” Rhea revealed. “That's all your ramp space can handle to play the present moment that you're being asked to play. But because this took some doing with wig fittings and a very different look, I was made aware of it conceptually a little sooner, but I didn’t have the actual script.” While saying goodbye is hard after six seasons, Rhea Seehorn expressed her pride in not only the final product, but also her desire to work with everyone again. “This quality of writing, this quality of cast, this quality of showrunners and directors. I know Bob [Odernkirk], and I intend to work together, and I'm just going to make him write things for me. And working with Vince and Peter and our whole murderer's row of writers is something that I really hope to manifest.”
“I feel wonderful and excited and thrilled about what the writers came up with regarding the finale,” said Bob Odenkirk, who stars as Saul Goodman. “The audience has been amazing, just amazing. And they are dialed into what this show is about. Breaking Bad is such a huge monster show, and it is a cornerstone of television I was always concerned about that show casting the wrong dimension onto our show as we found our feet but I don’t think it's happened. I think we've been allowed to find our own place to live and our own what matters to this show, the place this show lives in. I think this ending goes right to the heart of where this show found itself.”
You can say goodbye in the final episode of Better Call Saul, titled “Saul Gone,” airing tonight at 9/8c on AMC and streaming on AMC+.