When AMC premiered its Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul, one of the pilot episode’s most surprising turns was its title character’s identity. The eponymous antihero of Better Call Saul, previously seen in Breaking Bad, wasn’t reintroduced as Saul Goodman in the prequel. Instead, he was introduced under his real name, Jimmy McGill. In season 1, Jimmy is an up-and-coming lawyer trying to build up a client base despite lacking the flair and resources of larger firms like HHM.
Ever since the title character of Better Call Saul was reintroduced to audiences as Jimmy McGill, his inevitable transformation into the unscrupulous Saul Goodman has been the show’s most talked-about story thread. Better Call Saul’s early seasons revealed the vulnerable human being he used to be before he fully regressed into his flashy, colorful-suit-wearing, morally ambiguous alter ego. The question on every Breaking Bad fan’s mind was simple: when does Jimmy transform into Saul?
The character was never known as Jimmy in Breaking Bad. It was hinted that “Saul Goodman” was an alias (and it was also pretty obvious, because it’s a pun), but it was never spelled out. In all his Breaking Bad scenes, Jimmy fully embodied the Saul persona – there’s no evidence left of the person he once was. Throughout six seasons of Better Call Saul, fans have been waiting for the definitive turn from Jimmy to Saul.
The Transformation Has Unfolded In Stages
Jimmy’s transformation into Saul has been gradually revealed in stages throughout the spin-off’s six-season run. The name was introduced as an alias in Slippin’ Jimmy’s Sting-style cons. He later used it for the name of his low-rent ad agency, Saul Goodman Productions, which he used to generate quick cash when his law license was suspended. In the season 4 finale, after his license is reinstated, Jimmy applies to practise law under a new name and tells Kim, “S’all good, man!”
In the season 5 premiere, Jimmy starts practising law under the name Saul Goodman, taking on shady clientele from the underworld he traversed as a burner cell phone salesman. But even then, he still hadn’t fully abandoned morality and turned into the familiar *criminal* lawyer from Breaking Bad. The writers have saved that part for the sixth and final season. Jimmy/Saul’s definitive turn from a criminal lawyer to a *criminal* lawyer finally happened in the fourth episode of season 6, “Hit and Run.”
Jimmy’s “Lalo” Slip-Up Has Doomed (And Saved) His Career
In the season 6 premiere, Jimmy is confronted at the courthouse by a couple of prosecutors who ask him about the “Jorge De Guzman” case. In the ensuing tirade, Jimmy mistakenly calls his client by his real name, Lalo, revealing that he knowingly defended a drug lord. He shrugs off the slip-up, but the prosecutors have already taken notice. In that moment, Jimmy accidentally gave away that De Guzman was an alias and he scammed the court to get a Salamanca exonerated and released from prison. Over the next couple of episodes, this Freudian slip has unfolded to reveal Jimmy’s true transformation into Saul.
In “Hit and Run,” Jimmy is confused to find that he’s shunned at the courthouse, ignored by his fellow attorneys, and treated like a stranger by legal clerks and security guards that he’s known for years. He eats lunch alone and gets the silent treatment from almost everybody he encounters. Finally, rival attorney Bill Oakley explains why everyone now hates Jimmy as much as he does: word got out that he represented the Salamancas. Oakley bluntly tells Jimmy that what he did was “wrong.”
So, Jimmy has been cast out of his own community. None of the other lawyers will even talk to him, let alone let him back into their good graces – he was already hanging by a thread. But, at the same time, his phone is blowing up. Every criminal in Albuquerque wants to be represented by the lawyer who freed the infamous Lalo Salamanca. He’s been deified in the criminal underworld.
Jimmy’s Biggest Weakness Is Saul’s Greatest Strength
Jimmy’s weakness has always been doubling down on people’s low expectations of him. From Howard’s condescension to Chuck’s lack of love and respect, Jimmy has always responded to the negative influences in his life by crawling further into the rabbit hole of immorality. His attitude has always been: “If that’s what they think of me, that’s what I’ll give ‘em.”
When Kristy Esposito is denied a scholarship at HHM due to her similarly shady past, Jimmy inspires her with an impassioned speech that he needs to hear just as much as she does: “You don’t need them. They’re not gonna give it to you? So what? You’re gonna take it.” Now that the rest of the law community sees him as a criminal (and so does the criminal community), Jimmy will likely heed his own advice and truly become the *criminal* lawyer Saul Goodman.