‘Better Call Saul’s Best Sequel Is Hidden in Its Most Ambitious Episode

Published Sep 27, 2026, 3:41 PM EDT

Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.

For now, the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul television universe appears to be over. Honestly, with how powerfully the prequel series concluded in 2022, it would be foolish to return after leaving on such a high note. Still, because the worlds created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould are so rich and populated by indelible characters, the possibilities for spin-offs and revivals are endless. In a just world, audiences would not be oversaturated with IP cash grabs that overstay their welcome.

However, in a hypothetical world where AMC was looking to get back in the Heisenberg-verse, its potential next sequel was already set in motion in Better Call Saul's riskiest episode. Shot entirely in black-and-white and featuring no principal characters aside from Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) in his third iteration, Gene Takavic, Season 6's "Nippy" rewarded dedicated viewers with a highly ambitious, melancholic character deconstruction that nonetheless offered the caper thrills of the two shows.

'Better Call Saul' Enters a New World in "Nippy"

The differences between Season 6, Episode 9, "Fun and Games" and "Nippy" are quite literally night and day. Following the shocking murder of Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) and the prolonged clean-up and moral reckoning for Jimmy and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), gone are the picturesque settings and beautiful vistas of the show we once knew. The days of Jimmy and Kim taking romantic pleasure in their cons and feeling invincible from the law and the cartel are over. "Nippy," written by Alison Tatlock and directed by Michelle MacLaren, is set in a cold and dreary winter in Omaha, Nebraska, and Odenkirk is the only credited principal cast member. Removed from the world and story arc of Better Call Saul's previous six seasons, the episode's alternate intro and black-and-white photography drop viewers into the bleak void where Jimmy would be stuck while on the run from the law for running a drug empire with Walter White (Bryan Cranston).

Despite the jarring changes, "Nippy" thrives as a familiar and satisfying Better Call Saul episode. When Gene, working at a Cinnabon inside a mall, is confronted by Jeff (Pat Healy, replacing Gary Cole from the previous seasons' preludes), the cab driver who recognizes him as Saul Goodman, he befriends Jeff's mother, Marion (a special appearance by Carol Burnett), and offers Jeff a chance at a lucrative score inside the mall. The heist is predicated on Gene establishing a tradition of meeting up with a security guard, Frank (Jim O'Heir), so he can be distracted by chowing down on a cinnamon roll while the job is underway. Although the stakes of this con are minimal, "Nippy" is perhaps Better Call Saul's most ambitious hour. Walking away from Season 6's intense dramatic stakes and a subdued, mellow version of Jimmy/Saul while retaining the show's spirit is the writing team's most impressive creative stroke.

A Potential 'Better Call Saul' Sequel Could Follow the Life of Gene Takavic

"Nippy" is the first episode in either series to break free from the confines of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Despite the daunting task, Alison Tatlock, during an AMC Q&A, found the process liberating. "It felt a little bit wide open, which is cool and also a different kind of challenge for us," the writer stated, citing the exciting "paradigm shift" of treating an episode of a prequel series as a sequel. If Gilligan and Gould managed to turn Breaking Bad's ostensible comic relief into a dark, complex, and multi-layered antihero with more Shakespearean dramatic arcs than Heisenberg, they'd have no problem turning the Gene Takavic story into a compelling story of guilt, remorse, and hanging on to one's last threads of life.

Although it's deprived of the lore of Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, "Nippy" still retains both shows' pitch-black humor, cunning construction of genre set pieces, and careful psychological studies of morally grey outsiders. The opening of each season, a slice of Gene's banal days at the Cinnabon, looks punishingly bleak from afar, but this Gene-exclusive episode proves there is plenty of room for exciting Slippin' Jimmy schemes. The flashes of the old Saul Goodman in this repressive setting create a brilliant dynamic in "Nippy," forcing the audience to reckon with our love for the character stemming from his criminal pathology. When a show is as immaculately crafted as Better Call Saul, the possibilities for sequels are endless.