Better Call Saul co-creator Vince Gilligan explains the surprise appearance from a Breaking Bad character during season 6, episode 12, “Waterworks.” Before the Breaking Bad spinoff show returned to AMC this past April for its sixth and final season, co-creator Peter Gould made the shocking announcement that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) would be making appearances at some point. However, it wasn’t until several months later that audiences finally got to experience their returns.
Walt and Jesse made their highly-anticipated returns during season 6, episode 11, “Breaking Bad,” which, given the Gould’s prior announcement and the episode’s title, wasn’t much of a surprise. Soon after the episode aired, it became clear audiences hadn’t seen the last of Walt and Jesse in the Breaking Bad prequel show, with Bob Odenkirk teasing more appearances from the pair which are more “powerful.” During the recently aired episode 12, “Waterworks,” Better Call Saul delivered on that promise with an unexpected cameo from Jesse Pinkman who, waiting outside Saul Goodman’s office for his original meth-making partner Emilio, bums a cigarette off Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) after she just finished signing her divorce papers.
Talking to EW after the penultimate episode’s premiere, Better Call Saul co-creator and the writer/director behind “Waterworks,” Gilligan explained the decision to include Kim’s chance encounter with Jesse. Though he can’t remember who in the writers’ room came up with the idea for the scene, Gilligan simply wanted to spend more time with the two Emmy-nominated performers and pair them together on screen. Read what he shared below:
It was just delightful! And listen, anytime I spend time with Aaron Paul, I’m gonna do it. And anytime I can spend time with Rhea Seehorn, I’m gonna do it. And then I figure, “Gosh, if I love both of them individually so much, what would it be like to put the peanut butter together with the chocolate?” [Laughs] It’d be even better still. It was really just a delightful scene to write and to direct. And it’s not strictly necessary in terms of plot, I would guess, but it just felt like something we would be poorer for if we didn’t do. And I can’t even remember who came up with it in the writers’ room. But Peter and the writers, and certainly I were all very excited at the prospect to have these two worlds collide and seeing these two characters together.
Better Call Saul‘s Kim and Jesse scene could charitably be described as fan service as Gilligan himself even admits it wasn’t “strictly necessary in terms of plot.” Nevertheless, the scene still serves as an exciting collision between the worlds of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad and adds to their expansive mythology. During their interaction, it is revealed that Jesse already recognizes Kim since she once represented his friend, Combo, in court after he was arrested as a juvenile for stealing a baby Jesus from a nativity scene.
The scene also brilliantly juxtaposes the two Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad deuteragonists as Kim is escaping her world of trauma, while Jesse is just on the precipice of entering his. There’s good chance audiences have seen Aaron Paul’s final portrayal of Jesse Pinkman, though they still have one more cameo from Bryan Cranston’s Walter White to look forward to in the upcoming Better Call Saul finale. Considering Jesse’s recent cameo, Walt’s final appearance will likely be another excellent example of fan service done well.
