Breaking Bad’s Walter White made his much-anticipated cameo on Better Call Saul in the season six penultimate episodes after a five and half seasons wait.
Better Call Saul was the sequel-prequel to Breaking Bad. Premised on, “The trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill before his fateful run-in with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman,” according to IMDb.
It was made clear that the appearance of Walter and Jesse in the series was less likely.
But that did not stop fans of the Breaking Bad universe from holding out hope that sometime in the series run, the two beloved characters would make a cameo.
Season six finally realised the hopes of fans as Walter not only appeared on Better Call Saul once, but twice during the sixth and final season of the series.
What did Walter change his name to?
Breaking Bad was the AMC series which premiered in 2008, focussing on high school teacher, Walter White, who turned into a meth drug dealer upon discovering that he had terminal cancer and looked for ways to ensure his family’s financial future.
As Walter got more entrenched in the drug dealing world, he started to create an alias to protect his real identity. Sporting what would become his signature look of a pork pie hat and dark sunglasses, he decided that his alias would be Heisenberg.
Better Call Saul: When does Walter White appear?
The creators of Better Call Saul were apprehensive about including Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul’s Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively, on the sequel-prequel.
This is because they were aware that the fans of the Breaking Bad universe were looking forward to their cameos on the show. As such, the show avoided including the characters in Better Call Saul’s run right until the end of the series.
Therefore, Walter made his first appearance on Better Call Saul in the eleventh episode of season six, which was aptly titled “Breaking Bad.”
This title was a homage to Bob Odenkirk’s first appearance on Breaking Bad in season two, episode eight, which was titled “Better Call Saul.”
Walter’s cameo in the episode is alongside fellow Breaking Bad lead co-star, Aaron Paul who played Jesse. The scene is a flashback exposing how Jimmy was first hired to work for Walter.
In the flashback, Saul remembered being in the RV just moments before he was kidnapped by Walter and Jesse, and he was seen poking around the meth-making equipment before he discovered that this was where the “blue drug” that was rampant in Albuquerque was made, and who it was made by.
Moreover, the flashback was poignant as it established the moment that Jimmy turned Saul would agree to deal, which resulted in his ultimate misfortune as this was the moment that led to his eventual demise and imprisonment.
Walter White’s return to Better Call Saul
Walter White made another cameo appearance on the series finale of Better Call Saul on the episode titled “Saul Gone.”
His cameo came as part of the most poignant flashback that Saul Goodman had, which resulted in the return to Jimmy McGill as the identity that Jimmy chose to be addressed by.
The flashback is of when Walter and Jimmy were receiving their new identities and Walter had lambasted Saul for only thinking about money.
This flashback was aimed at highlighting that what mattered the most to Saul was Kim Wexler, hence his decision to take the full blame instead of his initial plea bargain, which would have seen Kim facing prosecution for her past crimes as well.
Walter White makes Breaking Bad history
Bryan Cranston, in the role of Walter White, is the anchor of the Breaking Bad universe. As such, he has a number of history-making achievements.
Firstly, he is one of five characters to appear in every spin-off of Breaking Bad, including the original series. The other four include the characters of Jesse Pinkman, Mike Ehrmantraut, Edward “Ed” Galbraith and Austin Ramey.
However, Walter makes history as the only character to appear on the first episode from the Breaking Bad universe, titled “Pilot” from January 2008, and the last episode, which was Better Call Saul’s “Saul Gone.”
What’s next in the Breaking Bad universe?
For co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, the Breaking Bad universe has been a 14-year journey that started when Breaking Bad premiered in 2008.
Since then, there have been additions to the franchise, including the film El Camino and most recently, Better Call Saul.
However, as Better Call Saul has concluded, Gilligan and Gould have been clear that there will not be any other additions to the universe, with Gilligan stating, “I feel like we probably pushed it doing a spinoff to Breaking Bad [but] I could not be more happy with the results.”