Actually, Marie had the most important cameo in Better Call Saul’s finale
A dressed-in-black Mrs. Schrader was the perfect callback for Saul's send-off
TV Features Better Call Saul
Better Call Saul never shied away from bringing in characters from its predecessor. In its very first episode, the show saw the return of Tuco Salamanca and then went on to host drop-ins from the likes of Hank and Gomie, Gale, Huell, Lydia, Wendy, and many others from Breaking Bad. It saved the best blasts from the pasts for last, however, with a monumental series finale that treated audiences to more throwbacks than they probably anticipated—namely, key scenes with Walt, Chuck, and Marie.
But let’s start a little earlier in the last season. The much-publicized return of Walt and his on-again, off-again partner Jesse was always going to be held to impossible standards. You just can’t go back to iconic characters like that after so many years, with all of their baggage, and pretend you’d never left them behind. The consequence of this was that, in moments, the return of the duo in the episode “Breaking Bad” bordered on caricature.
Which is not to say that it was bad. And there is something equally funny and endearing about watching Aaron Paul, now 42, play Jesse Pinkman. It just wasn’t exactly a blazing send off to these characters. But it didn’t need to be. This was a story, of course, about Jimmy McGill.
That said, even with all the spectacle and nostalgia that came with it, the scene that the trio shared, back in the RV, was more than just fan service. It wasn’t about advancing the plot so much as drawing attention to the parallel that Gene was also getting in too deep, just like Saul did. And just like before, it wasn’t going to end well. This moment, as well as the next episode’s exchange between Kim and Jesse, and especially Saul and Walt’s time-travel “debate” in the finale were all fine, although they all could have used a touch more subtlety.
The reappearance of Chuck McGill, in the final minutes of the final season, was different. During the past three seasons of Better Call Saul, thanks to Michael McKean’s titanic portrayal of the character, Chuck has always been conspicuous through his absence. As the show reached its midpoint, Chuck’s continual withering criticism of Jimmy, his astounding collapse in court, and, of course, his rendition of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” cemented him as perhaps the show’s defining supporting character.
Yet, while it was undoubtedly moving to see him again, his presence was felt in the finale long before his cameo. The moment when Saul finally admitted to having guilt about his brother’s death and the lingering shot of the electric exit sign (a callback to season three’s “Chicanery”) would have been perfect on its own. Even before the return of Michael McKean, Chuck was already in the room.
None of this can be said for the return of Marie Schrader. Where do you even begin with this fiercely loyal, purple-clad kleptomaniac who was always sincere, loving, and, yes, flawed. Throughout Breaking Bad, Betsy Brandt’s performance could be genuinely scene-stealing though criminally underrated. While she was never the main event in a TV series about cartels, cops, and Nazis, Marie was always on the sidelines, ensuring that the show was tethered to a “normal life” reality.
That moment, as Saul (and he is, at that point, Saul Goodman) is being escorted down the corridor, when we catch a glimpse of Mrs. Schrader looking back, was as close as you can get to a genuinely gasp-worthy reveal: Jaws, undoubtedly, dropped.
Marie was the last person that anyone expected to see. Assuming that Saul would end up in a court was a decent bet, but we were still thrown. And Betsy Brandt slipped straight back into the role, as if it were still 2013, seamlessly picking the character up from exactly where she’d been left off. She was still raw, still vulnerable, and still filled with seething anger. This was never more evident than in her incredulity at the final con that Saul was going to try and pull and in her crushing disappointment at the fact that he was going to get a deal (a measly seven-year sentence). In a final sucker punch, Peter Gould also revealed that Marie isn’t wearing purple. Like Saul’s life in the aftermath of his involvement with Walter White, her own world had been sapped of color. Now, she wears black.
But above all, Marie’s appearance helps us remember exactly why Saul was there, in court, and the devastation that he helped bring about. It’s all too easy to forget that this charismatic character, who the audience has come to sympathize with over the past six seasons, has done some of the worst things imaginable. He couldn’t just get away with it; he didn’t deserve a happy ending. As he admitted himself, Walt would have taken a bullet to the head or would be behind bars without his help, and Hank (along with many others) would never have been murdered.
And it had to be Marie. Because, ultimately, she had suffered the most, had the most ripped away from her: She lost her relationship with her sister, and the most important person in her life was killed and left to rot in a ditch in the desert. With this reminder, the audience can see that Jimmy/Saul/Gene finally owning up to his actions was the bravest thing he could do. Marie’s cameo facilitated that and, at last, we could cheer for Saul Goodman and not feel guilty about it.
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I don’t know, I think I would’ve far preferred the return of BCS characters rather than Marie given Hank’s death is one of the few Saul had fuck all to do with (the most he did was introduce the bug killing firm).Someone like Clifford Main or Rebecca Bois to cap off the fact it wasn’t just Jimmy and Kim who had to live with the legacy of their actions.
They show a man in a suit walking down the hallway, we don’t see his face. He sits down at the table and we pan up to reveal: The Squat Cobbler!He proceeds to give an emotional speech about how Jimmy ruined his life by introducing him to the concept of sitting on pies for sexual purposes. He can’t even look at the Entenmanns display in the supermarket without relapsing.
Pryce as the new Walt.Sobchak as the new Mike.Who’d be the new Jesse?
Maybe one of the “50% off!” doofuses? Or can it be Betsy Kettleman somehow? She’s the best.
Fifty Per-Cent OOOOOOFFFFF!!And Betsy can be the new Lydia.
So Betsy’s role is getting ingredients for the pies and then distributing the videos in eastern Europe?
All the while skimming half the supposed tax receipts.
The Squat Cobbler was perhaps the best comic scene in the whole series. I still remember the look on the cops’ faces as they slowly started buying the shit Jimmy was shoveling.
The only scene that maybe challenges it is the toilet buddy. “Fill me up, chandler! You’re so big!” If they released the audio files I’d seriously consider building my own.
Everything Walt and Jesse did seasons 3 onwards is on Saul. He was the main one that transformed Heisenberg into a meth kingpin through his contacts. They explicitly state this in the episode.
There is something equally funny and endearing about watching Aaron Paul, now 42, play a pre-Breaking Bad Jesse Pinkman. The actor is, after all, only a handful of years younger than Bryan Cranston was when he took on the role of Walter White.Cranston was 52 when BB started, making Paul 10 years younger. That’s more than just “a handful.”
Semantics, it’s TWO handfuls.
*Twos handful
Two hands full.
I don’t know why people are fixated on Paul’s age; it’s certainly no more farfetched than 59yo Odenkirk playing (presumably 35-40?) Saul.
Really agree; Marie was there to hammer home that Saul was complicit in Hank’s death; Saul does not deserve a happy ending. I’m basically in awe of this finale, they did such an amazing job with it, answering the two driving questions of the series firmly and elegantly. What happened to Kim that would make her not worth a mention in BB, and how did Jimmy turn into Saul? Well, Jimmy didn’t talk about her during BB because Jimmy didn’t exist during BB. Jimmy ran toward Saul in order to deal/not deal with his guilt over Chuck and then became Saul completely to deal/not deal with the loss of Kim. And Jimmy was buried deep under that shell throughout the BB years and most of Gene’s time. But Kim saying “turn yourself in” woke him up enough for Gene to start sabotaging himself, and almost killing a sweet old lady brought him out almost completely, allowing Saul one more con (arguing his sentence down to seven cushy years) before Jimmy fully took over and did exactly what Kim did when she left him. Just as she recognized that their relationship was toxic and, together, they hurt people, Jimmy acknowledged that, out in the world, he’s toxic, so he has to leave the free world in order to protect it. Saul’s gone; Jimmy’s back, in the happiest sad ending that this show could have ever served up for us. A masterpiece.
Could a moderator of this website please explain to me why I have left 10 or so comments on IO9 and AV Club posts over the last few years and none of them have ever been approved? I am a polite person and my comments are always on topic.
Counterpoint: Huge asshole. Gaping.
How was it revealed that she wasn’t wearing purple?
I thought I read somewhere that we were supposed to see Skyler in the finale too.
I have a feeling Anna Gunn was happy not to be back considering the way the usual suspects reacted to her character.
Yeah, I can’t see her ever returning to the series after her terrible experience.
It would be extremely weird for an actor to make career decisions based on what a handful of incels on Reddit thought about it.
Peter Gould was asked about people he wanted in the finale. “Anna Gunn would have been great if it fit in the story.”
That would have made a lot less sense. Her husband’s dead and she’s presumably trying to put as much mileage between them as possible. I doubt she cares one iota about what happens to Saul. Marie meanwhile had her life wrecked in large part because of Saul propping up Walt.
Especially since she knows what Walt was capable of and what he did. She more than most. So she hasn’t been wasting any energy being mad at Saul for Walt’s behavior.
I am just enjoying the fact that my mind is savouring the whole of the series as opposed to feeling sad it’s over. I’m still thinking about it. I absolutely loved it. It was monumental. For me, it absolutely surpassed its parent series and that was clear early on. I’ve yet to watch any episode twice, but I will be able to watch the whole thing again, sometime in the future, without year-long breaks. The two leads were amazing throughout, as was just about everyone. Michael McKean was utterly brilliant… there aren’t enough superlatives for the acting, writing and production. It just, was great.
There was a season that BCS aired the same time as The Americans, so in a week I could watch eps of the two best shows in the history of TV.In both cases I can remember how great they are without being sad or disappointed they are over (or overstayed their welcome).BCS was more satisfying than BB because Jimmy never became the decaying center of the show. Walt is an amazing creation, but he was evil (despite why he started cooking meth, or his ‘sacrifice’ at the end). Jimmy’s sacrifice is much more real and debilitating.
I love that they found a way to showcase McKean’s singing voice with the “Winner Takes It All” routine. Fans of his know he’s a talented musician but I bet much of the BCS audience was as surprised as Chuck’s colleagues were.
It was a better choice than “Big Bottom”
Debatable.
There is something equally funny and endearing about watching Aaron Paul, now 42, play a pre-Breaking Bad Jesse Pinkman.
It seems silly to complain about that when we’ve already had Odenkirk playing twenty something Jimmy in flashback with barely any effort at making him look younger.
Not to mention Todd apparently gained and lost fifty pounds while Jessie was in captivity.
Some people camouflage better than others. Todd’s weight and Jane’s age were two things that just stuck out like a sore thumb for me in El Camino, and made my suspension of disbelief just evaporate. (Even though Krysten Ritter had aged precisely as much as the other actors, she came across as way younger when she was on BB than Aaron Paul did.)
Speaking as someone who usually finds these kinds of drop-ins from the parent series to be pointless fan service (Jesse just kind of being there to chat with Kim in the previous ep is a good example), I thought Cranston was incredibly well used here. The biggest complaint about the last episode was that some people didn’t think that Jimmy’s final confession makes sense in character, but I the flashbacks do a decent job of establishing Jimmy as a man haunted by his regrets even as he can’t quite bring himself to admit what they are. We’ve seen this throughout the series as Jimmy responds to major traumatic events that he’s partially or wholly responsible for by retreating further into a cartoonish grifter persona — Saul is born out of the death of Chuck, and Kim leaving him leads him to jettison almost all of his remaining ethical principles and emotional ties.
Walt comes closest to spelling this out explicitly, and his last line “So you’ve always been like this?” is the key to the series. He both has and hasn’t: he’s been running from himself forever, but that journey has eroded his humanity to the point where he’s almost unrecognizable. The final episode is his reckoning, a moment of clarity where he realizes that the life this has left him with isn’t really worth having, and he’d rather go to prison without his illusions and/or with Kim’s respect than continue to fight, scam, and lie for an increasingly empty existence.
Marie never stopped being an asshole
Marie did nothing wrong.
The black & white conceit deprived us of a final opportunity to witness Marie in all her violet glory!
Saul and Walt’s time-travel “debate”It wasn’t a time travel debate, cause THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS TIME TRAVEL!!!It was a discussion about regrets.
I really disagree with the general consensus about that scene from critics and a whole swath of fans. I’ve seen so many people claim that it shows how crappy and arrogant Walt is that he won’t even indulge Jimmy in a thought experiment, and use it to complain about Walt as an awful person one more time. But I saw it as Walt immediately seeing through the BS of what Jimmy is saying, and Walt complaining about the science of it is just him getting to the rub of what Jimmy is really asking. Jimmy wants to talk about regrets, without saying the word regret, or giving anything of himself to the conversation.Walt is honest about his regrets about Grey Matter. We know from “Breaking Bad” that it’s something that fuels his resentments. People can argue those resentments are misplaced or wrong, but it’s honest to the character that he regrets those decisions. And it’s not until “Felina” that Walt can be totally honest with himself about what those resentments have wrought.To me both the scene with Walt and Mike show that Jimmy can never face up to his regrets until he does it in court.
well said
But I saw it as Walt immediately seeing through the BS of what Jimmy is saying, and Walt complaining about the science of it is just him getting to the rub of what Jimmy is really asking.“You’re not wrong, Walt, you’re just an asshole.” Yes, obviously it’s a way for Jimmy to obliquely talk about regrets, but throwing that in his face is a dick move. And Walt’s a dick.
Agreed. As has been pointed out in reviews for the show, Jimmy is world-class at compartmentalizing, rationalizing and self-delusion. Him even broaching the subject was a major turn.
In a final sucker punch, Peter Gould also revealed that Marie isn’t wearing purple.Wait, that’s not how it works. You have to live with your choices.Revealing a gut punch that you left out of the show doesn’t count.
I don’t know what to think. I was told there were going to be dragons. And to be fair, I missed the first 7 minutes or so, so maybe that’s when they had the dragons.
Jesus Christ Marie was, and continues to be, the best. That scene with the talking stick and Walt not wanting to carry on with his treatment is just glorious.
Talking pillow, but yes that was a really great scene.
Yeah as soon as I posted it I thought stick was wrong!
It’s funnier with a stick though. Imagine being able to whack anyone who interrupts you
My wife’s name is Maggie, so I sometimes say (jokingly) “Jesus Christ, Maggie!” (same emphasis on the second syllable of the name) in an awful impression of Grumpy Hank.
I very much support this action!
I disagree that Marie was “the most important” seeing as Saul was the furthest thing responsible for what happened to Hank. Her involvement was really nothing more than showing how the FBI is pinning EVERYTHING on Jimmy because Skylar plead out, Walt, Mike, and Gustavo are dead, and Jessie is lost to the wind. That only leaves Jimmy and if there’s one thing we know for certain from law enforcement, they WILL get their blood and it doesn’t matter who they have to squeeze it from.
You don’t think Marie would view Saul as Walt’s accomplice/enabler?
She probably blames everyone. You think she’s still talking to Skylar? Hell no! Her sister’s husband is literally the reason HER husband is dead. My point was from a narrative point of view, bringing Marie in served no purpose except to point out how everything Walter did is being dumped at Jimmy’s feet. Which we already knew.
Fair point. But it also makes sense to have the full weight of Jimmy’s actions dumped on him in that way after he managed to ignore them for so long. It’s like the Seinfeld finale.
WTF. One of the Nazi’s shot and killed Hank. Fight me.
The BB/BCS universe consistently ignored the side effects of their entreprenuership on the people who destroyed their lives with the drugs Walt and Jesse made and the lives they destroyed. It wasn’t the focus of the show but the greatest loss in the show was Marie losing Hank? Really? What about the kid whose parents died in the ATM episode? Or, worse yet, all the kids whose parents kept on raising them as tweakers and people who destroyed themselves or who were murdered by the cartels?
If you want to say, eh, they were on drugs anyway, let them rot, that’s a perspective but it doesn’t really make for credible moralizing about what is and is not tragic.
Interestingly Jesse was the only one who really got a close look at what meth did to the community. The ATM situation, the parties at his house, Wendy, etc. To Walt it was all an abstraction and I’m sure he justified it to himself the very way you described – tweakers are gonna tweak no matter what I do and I need a bunch of cash, fast. He also packed an unearned sense of moral superiority so anyone involved with a cartel who came to a bad end deserved it by default.
It’s a TV show and we’re allowed to only care about characters the show immediately focuses on… hence the Marie sympathy. Get off your high horse, nobody was saying junkies deserve to rot.
Has any assertion that starts with “actually” ever been worth hearing?