Season 6, Episode 13, “Saul Gone”

When asked to give a hint about how Better Call Saul would wrap up during a Tribeca Festival panel in June, Bob Odenkirk offered two words: “second life.” That clue turned out to be much pithier and more perfect than anyone might have guessed. And it was a kind of perfect ending—and a new beginning for Jimmy McGill. 

Jimmy gave way to Saul who briefly gave way to Gene Takovic who gave way back to Saul who claimed a redemption for himself as Jimmy. That redemption came in the form of trading a seven-year prison sentence for an 86-year one to prove that, despite what people like Mike Ehrmantraut, Walter White, and his brother Chuck told him, he wasn’t all about slick, Slippin’ Jimmy trickery in the end.

Busted Gene was done in by Marion, the gutsy Ask-Jeeves-searching lady who used her LifeAlert to notify the cops, complete with car description and license plate number, about Saul Goodman’s location. He tried to get away on foot after retrieving his bandage tin full of diamonds, but the jewels slipped out of Slippin’ Jimmy’s hands when he was hiding in a dumpster, and Omaha police officers led him off to the hoosegow. Showrunner and episode writer and director Peter Gould’s storyline sent Saul to jail early in the finale, which amped the excitement about all that awaited us.

One of the biggest surprise appearances of the episode was Saul’s attorney, or rather, “advisory counsel,” Bill Oakley, the former Albuquerque district attorney who has taken Saul’s place on a bus bench, advertising his new position as defense attorney. No longer in awe of Jimmy’s success after he learned of his association with the Salamancas, Bill nonetheless took Saul’s call and agreed to represent him after Saul assured him it would do wonders for his legal street cred. And from the modest automobile he’s driving, we’re guessing he could use the high-profile work. Not that Saul is doing Bill any favors. Bill is there to help Saul have a little local street cred of his own, someone without a boatload of pending criminal charges to help Saul muscle the government into a very generous seven-year sentence at a cushy Club Fed-type prison (in Butner, North Carolina, the one Bernie Madoff died in), with golf privileges, and a weekly pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. That last perk is Saul’s way to prove that he can get the upper hand, even in his situation, and defeat the prosecutor who he is told has never lost a case. He can totally own his opponent, even when he should be looking at decades in prison.

But then, a twist: When Saul tries to play one more card, offering up what he thinks is fresh, juicy info about the death of Howard Hamlin, he learns Kim already dished that dirt as part of the package of confessions she served up to the Albuquerque D.A. and Howard’s widow, Cheryl. He’s shocked Kim actually did what he told her to do during their recent tense phone call, telling all about her role in the circumstances surrounding Howard’s murder.

At first, we think Saul is angry that Kim got the better of him and has limited what he may be able to get out of the government. He really wants that weekly Blue Bell ice cream, and he tells Bill, in front of an marshal shepherding him to an Albuquerque courtroom, that he has one more bit of information he’s sure Kim didn’t share, intimating that it is something that will be used against her, perhaps causing her a devastating civil action by Cheryl Hamlin. Saul seems eager to make this happen, and when Kim is tipped off by Albuquerque assistant district attorney Suzanne Ericsen that Saul plans to introduce new testimony involving her, Kim shows up in the courtroom to witness his latest shenanigans herself.

But then there’s another twist, one that explains both Bob Odenkirk’s hint about the finale and the finale’s title, “Saul Gone.” With a brilliant shot of a courtroom exit sign brightly lit above Saul’s head, he interrupts the proceedings to stress to the judge that Walter White’s criminal enterprise earned him millions of dollars and that without his legal maneuverings on Walt’s behalf, Walt would have ended up in jail in a month. Saul gets emotional as he tries to talk about what happened to Howard, but then, when he sees Kim at the back of the room and sees that she’s really listening to him, he finally reveals what he did to Chuck, ruining his ability to practice law, to purposefully hurt him, after which Chuck killed himself. “And I’ll live with that,” Saul says. And just to make sure everyone knows, officially, what Kim realized when he turned around and locked eyes with her, Saul corrects the judge when she tells Mr. Goodman to take his seat. “The name’s McGill. I’m James McGill,” he says, pointing to himself, unbuttoning the jacket of his very shiny Saul suit.