‘Better Call Saul’ Pays Tribute to ‘Breaking Bad’ in a Subtle Tequila-Related Name Drop
It takes a lot of time to scope out all the details placed into Breaking Bad and its spinoff series Better Call Saul. The latter series now references many things from its predecessor, something likely to go on for a few more years as the show continues on AMC.
A few of the references seen so far are so subtle, only the most keen-eyed viewers would catch them. In many cases, those Breaking Bad nods have some fun, dark twists. Some of them even might give some foreshadowing about what the fate of the main characters may be when Better Call Saul finally does end.
One of the most intriguing involves a particular tequila brand.
Tequila is seen often through ‘Breaking Bad’
A strong association with tequila is seen off and on through Breaking Bad, if ever so darkly in one connection. Some fans may remember the use of Zafiro Añejo tequila, a fictional brand used by Gus Fring to kill off an entire drug cartel.
Fring does this by poisoning the tequila, something sounding like a classic demise plot for Breaking Bad. Really, it was a wonder others never did the same thing as a recurring theme considering how much other tequila was seen in the series.
Zafiro Añejo was the most famous brand of tequila in the world, though, except it was completely fictional. It certainly brought a lot of curiosity from viewers who ended up searching it out as if real.
In the show, it was a very rare tequila brand, made from the blue agave plant. The makers of the tequila also aged it for at least a year, making it all the more expensive.
Using Zafiro Añejo to kill off drug cartels almost backfired
The original plot of the tequila poisoning was to have Gus Fring take a pill that would make him immune to the poison. As all fans remember, the scene of the Mexican cartels sipping the tequila only occurred when Gus Fring took a swig himself.
Unfortunately, the pill he took to ward off the poison did not work completely, making him vomit in the bathroom. He managed to pull through while the cartels all collapsed to their deaths.
A dangerous game like this using tequila is why any reference to it later would inevitably have to be bleak. There was no reference to it again in Breaking Bad, if Better Call Saul having pivotal flashback scenes involving the same brand of tequila.
Most of these scenes involved Saul Goodman and Kim Wexler.
Which three episodes did the tequila appear in ‘Better Call Saul’?
In Switch, Saul (or Jimmy McGill) and Kim Wexler manage to con a stock broker (Ken) into thinking the former couple are getting an inheritance. Jimmy and Kim order up a round of Zafiro Añejo, which the investor agrees to pay for on the tab.
Yes, this was another example of how Saul/Jimmy was able to get people to believe anything, yet ironic it involved a tequila used to kill later.
A couple more episodes of Better Call Saul used the tequila. One could see it in Fall where Jimmy buys a bottle of Zafiro Añejo due to settling a particular long-standing case. In Smoke, Jimmy and Kim are seeing finishing the bottle he bought when they find out Chuck McGill committed suicide.
Are all these scenes a harbinger for what might happen to Saul down the line? Everyone imagines he will have some kind of comeuppance when the series ends. Will it involve Zafiro Añejo as an ironic turn of events? After three references, it makes one wonder.
