Why did Peter Gould want 'Better Call Saul' to end differently than 'Breaking Bad'?
The sixth and final season of ‘Better Call Saul’ has come to an end and it was one of the most satisfying conclusions of a TV series. With Saul being taken into custody and Kim telling Howard’s widow that she and Saul orchestrated everything, the AMC series bid adieu with utter chaos. However, Saul’s sensibility kicked in at the right moment and he went on to save the person that he loved the most. The ending of ‘BCS’ was way different than its mother series, ‘Breaking Bad’. The Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul-starrer didn’t shy away from having an ending that saw a lot of deaths whereas no one died in the finale of ‘Better Call Saul’ and had some really dramatic moments all through the episode.
Was that the plan all along? Well, there’s no one better than Peter Gould to answer that question.
In a recent interview, the show’s creator Peter Gould opened up about the relatively subtle ending of ‘Better Call Saul’ and why he didn’t think of ending the show in a bombastic way, just like ‘Breaking Bad’. While speaking in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the screenwriter-turned-producer revealed that there was a lot of difference between the lead character and how they think, so it was appropriate that they were given contrasting endings.
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“In a weird way, Walt went out the way he wanted to. Walt dies despised by the world and despised by his family, but he achieves the goals that he had from the beginning, or he seems to. Saul has something different in mind and it’s not as clear. He’s more like a lot of people I know. He’s searching. He’s searching for meaning. He doesn’t have that fire lit under him by his own mortality knocking on his door the way Walt does. So it felt like we wanted something a little different,” Gould said.
Gould also stated that Walter White had the experience of picking up guns and killing people whereas Saul never picked up any gun throughout the series, so he can’t possibly have the same “violent” ending as White’s. He added, “We did that ending already on ‘Breaking Bad’. We did the big, bloody explosion that was the end of ‘Breaking Bad’. He [Walt] ultimately was picking up guns and shooting them. Saul never picks up a gun in the whole run of the show. His ending is not going to be violent in the same way. He’s a man of words, so of course, the ending is gonna have words.”
The ending did see Saul using his quality of speaking magnificently inside the courtroom and revealed that he is responsible for everything that has happened, including Howard Hamlin and Chuck McGill’s death. He also admitted that he helped Walter White set up his drug syndicate and it couldn’t have become this big if Saul was not with him. He did that to save his ex-wife Kim Wexler. So, Gould is right in saying that Saul had to use his wit and talking prowess to make the end of this riveting journey.
The ‘Breaking Bad’ universe has finally ended and it has concluded with a bang.