‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6: Vince Gilligan Admits 1 Mistake in Penultimate Episode
As Better Call Saul Season 6 nears the finale, all the pieces are coming together. The penultimate episode “Waterworks” explained what Kim (Rhea Seehorn) said to Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) on the phone. Kim also returned to Albuquerque to resolve issues, and Jimmy spiraled further into his latest crime plan. Yet, Vince Gilligan, who wrote and directed “Waterworks” feels he made a mistake.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Better Call Episode “Waterworks”.]
Gilligan was on a Television Critics Association panel with co-creator Peter Gould and stars Odenkirk and Seehorn on Aug. 10. Looking back on the series, Gilligan’s biggest regret was from his most recent episode. The Better Call Saul series finale airs Aug. 15 at 9 p.m on AMC.
Vince Gilligan wishes he’d finished ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 with 1 detail
The end of “Waterworks” saw Jimmy orchestrate a plan to get Jeff (Pat Healy)’s mother (Carol Burnett) to bail him out of jail. Jeff had been the getaway driver for Jimmy but drove off in a panic and had an accident in front of a police cruiser. That call should not have been on a landline.
“In this last episode, which I’m very pleased with and it was a group effort as they all are, I realized Gene should’ve been talking at the very end in the final act, he should’ve been talking to Jeff on his bluetooth earpiece,” Gilligan said. “Because we had made a point in the previous episode that he was back to being Saul with the earpiece. I dropped the ball when I wrote the episode.”
Gould’s regret was simpler.
“I would’ve had Rhea Seehorn and Giancarlo Esposito direct episodes a lot sooner,” Gould said.
Vince Gilligan had a big ‘Breaking Bad’ regret before ‘Better Call Saul’
Aaron Paul also appeared as Jesse Pinkman in “Waterworks,” meeting Kim outside Jimmy’s Saul Goodman office. That speaks to another regret Gilligan had before Better Call Saul.
“In Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul’s teeth were too perfect,” Gilligan said. “This poor guy just got the living sh** kicked out of him time and time again storywise, and also he smoked a lot of meth and his teeth were just like Cary Grant perfect. Maybe I’d change that a little.”
However, Gilligan said he’s not going to make a special edition of Breaking Bad with worse teeth.
“I’m not going to do that George Lucas stuff,” Gilligan said.
‘The X-Files’ contains a major regret too
Gilligan got his start writing for The X-Files. There’s one episode he looks back on with regret.
“The thing that bugs me from The X-Files tops those other two,” Gilligan said. “I wrote an episode called ‘Folie a Deux’ and I had Mulder, who’s a really smart guy, say, ‘It’s not Helsinki Syndrome.’ It’s Stockholm Syndrome and I realized I was quoting Die Hard where the idiot reporter says Helsinki syndrome. That one bugs me.”
In Die Hard, news anchor Harvey Johnson (David Ursin) tries to look smart on TV discussing the Nakatomi hostage crisis. An author describes the Helsinki Syndrome and Johnson mistakenly says Helsinki is in Sweden.
“Later, David Duchovny who is a really smart guy said, ‘Was that a riff on Die Hard?’” Gilligan said. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Helsinki Syndrome. It’s Stockholm Syndrome’. I’m like oh sh**. Still, every time I see that episode, which is not often, but it makes me just cringe.”
