Walter White (Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”) got to go out with a bang. The same cannot be said for his crooked lawyer Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk, “W/ Bob and David”). While the former Heisenberg died at the end of “Breaking Bad” blasting away neo-Nazis, embracing his infamy and earning some semblance of redemption, Saul resigned himself to a life of hiding, toil and anonymity to avoid arrest.
Like the opening of its first season, “Better Call Saul” ’s season two premiere reacquaints us with Saul in his monochromatic purgatory as “Gene,” the manager of a Nebraska Cinnabon. There’s an inherent sadness in the mediocrity of Saul’s new life, with Odenkirk bearing the world-weary weight of Gene. When Gene gets stuck in a dumpster room, with one door locked and the other set to alert police if opened, he becomes the man trapped in his own life, resigned to waiting for someone else to open the door.
This is the end for the man. And in that fact lies the ultimate tragedy of “Better Call Saul” — the inevitability of Jimmy McGill’s transformation into Saul Goodman and Saul eventually wearing the mask of Gene. It’s an endpoint the audience knows will inevitably come, but it doesn’t make the series any less intriguing.
“There’s no reward at the end of this game,” Jimmy muses to love interest Kim (Rhea Seehorn, “Whitney”) as the pair sits in the bar of the resort that Jimmy is staying in after turning down a position at a prestigious law firm. Jimmy is caught at a crossroads; it’s entirely possible to see the con man living the rest of his life scamming blowhards like Ken Wins (Kyle Bornheimer reprising his one-off role from “Breaking Bad”), but the decision has already been made. Every step Jimmy takes leads him towards Saul; there may be detours like the resort, but the destination is set. “Better Call Saul” is a tragicomedy. Sure, the characters are verbosely hilarious as creators Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad” ’s showrunner) and Peter Gould (“Too Big to Fail”) along with their writers insert amusing specificity and charm into every member of the cast. Underneath it all, though, is the sobering inevitability that, for at least some of these characters, the end will be far worse than where they began.
While the thoughtlessness of prescription drug dealer Daniel Warmolt (Mark Proksch, “The Office”) with his flame decaled Hummer H2 and obsession with baseball cards is amusing, foreboding danger lurks right around the corner. Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks, “Community”) may have walked away from being the fool’s hired muscle, but, as the audience knows, he can’t stay away forever. Like fellow “Breaking Bad” alum Odenkirk, Banks’s character’s future is firmly set in stone, no matter what he does.
Often framed within wide shots, the characters of “Better Call Saul” are made insignificant by the world around them and their own encroaching fate. Written and directed by Thomas Schnauz (“Reaper”), “Switch” may be offering a brief stoppage on the way to the endpoint, but the signs pointing towards it are there — whether it’s in the form of a minor “Breaking Bad” character like Ken or the literal signs that Jimmy often ignores in one life but cautiously obeys in the next.
When Jimmy finally accepts the position at the law firm of Davis and Main, it’s a continuation down the path that will end in tragedy. Davis and Main, with their company cars and cocobolo desks, will turn into a strip mall law firm with faux pillars and a blown up copy of the Constitution, which will also fade away. All roads lead to a dead-end Cinnabon in Nebraska — enjoy the ride while you can.