‘Better Call Saul’ Howard Hamlin Actor Patrick Fabian Reacts to Midseason Finale
Patrick Fabian has portrayed Howard Hamlin on Better Call Saul for six seasons. A partner at HHM, Hamlin is the nemesis of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn). Fabian also spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet at the beginning of Better Call Saul Season 6, but we hadn’t seen the midseason finale back then. Now, Fabian is sharing his thoughts on it.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the midseason finale of Better Call Saul Season 6.]
Fabian spoke with Vanity Fair and the AMC Blog about the midseason finale of Better Call Saul Season 6. They got his reaction to the major Howard episode. Better Call Saul returns July 11 on AMC.
Patrick Fabian had a dramatic reaction to Howard Hamlin’s ‘Better Call Saul’ midseason finale fate
If you’re reading this far you know that Howard didn’t make it to the end of the Better Call Saul midseason finale. He came over to confront Jimmy and Kim about their setup to make him look incompetent in the Sandpiper case. But, Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) showed up and wasn’t going to leave any witnesses.
“Honestly, after it happened, I physically put my hands on my knees and bent over,” Fabian told Vanity Fair. “The wind was sort of taken out of me. I think I’ve been shot before, or I’ve been killed before onscreen. But there’s a finality to it, character-wise and job-wise and life-wise. I know my mother’s going to be so mad at these guys.”
Howard Hamlin was in the wrong place at the wrong time
Fabian agreed Howard was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but also allowed Lalo to raise the stakes for Kim and Jimmy.
“Oh, I’m just in the way,” Fabian said. “At this point, Lalo’s singular focus is about Fring, as far as I can tell. He already sees that I’m a problem, no matter what. So I’m just disposable. I’m a fly. He needs to talk to Jimmy and Kim right now. Who’s this guy? Get out of the way. And I think it probably also works as an intimidation factor.”
However, Fabian understood why Howard wasn’t phased by a third party entering Jimmy and Kim’s home.
“At this point, Howard thinks that Kim and Jimmy live in a circus of chaos because they do,” Fabian told AMC. “So the idea that somebody’s walking in doesn’t surprise Howard at all. First of all, he’s never been to their apartment and so second of all, I think he thinks, ‘Right, it’s like this all the time. Characters in and out.’”
‘Better Call Saul’ co-star Rhea Seehorn texted Patrick Fabian when they got the script
Fabian said Better Call Saul creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, and Melissa Bernstein warned Fabian that Howard would die in episode 7. It was still a shock.
“Just like everything else in Better Call Saul, it’s unfolded one script at a time,” Fabian told Vanity Fair. “So I didn’t know until I read seven. Rhea [Seehorn] texted me and said, ‘Seven’s dropped. Have you read it yet?’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ I have to say, as much as it plays out on the screen, on the page it also is very abrupt. There’s that weird finality where you go, ‘Did I just read what I read?’ It’s supposed to linger and have that impact. I bet there’ll be a lot of people screaming at the television.”
