‘Better Call Saul’ Series Finale Review: A Touching Time Machine

After six scintillating seasons, Better Call Saul‘s final episode, “Saul Gone,” masterfully connected timelines, loose ends, and estranged characters in poignant, fulfilling ways. The series finale tackled a lot of ground in a short period of time, but the writers pulled it off by carefully clinging to one common theme: a time machine.
The episode kicks off with a flashback. Without warning, we’re transported to Season 5’s “Bagman,” where Saul (Bob Odenkirk) tells Mike (Jonathan Banks) they should take Lalo’s $7 million and run. “First thing we do? Take $6 million bucks and build a time machine,” he says, asking Mike where he’d travel to first. Mike says he’d go back to March 1984 when he took his first bribe, and Saul explains he’d hop to 1965 (when Warren Buffett took over at Berkshire Hathaway) and invest to become a billionaire.
Saul asks the question again to Walt (Bryan Cranston) in a Breaking Bad flashback and tells the chem teacher-turned-drug lord he’d bounce back to age 22 to stop himself from pulling the slip-and-fall con that cracked his knee. The inquiry doesn’t seem much deeper than a regret-fueled icebreaker, until another flashback shows Chuck (Michael McKean) telling Jimmy, “If you don’t like where you’re heading, there’s no shame in going back and changing your path.” As Jimmy leaves the room, we see Chuck grab his copy of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and everything starts to click.
The episode’s theme is born from Chuck’s book and the advice he gave that night, but Jimmy also uses time travel as a means to examine his regrets. Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that The Time Machine appears repeatedly throughout the series, and it’s shown in the first two episodes of Season 6 to remind us that Jimmy never let Chuck go, nor has he forgiven himself for his demise. The series finale brilliantly ties each act back to the book while embodying a time machine itself through stirring episode structure, cameos, and callbacks.

The finale’s flashbacks act as a form of time travel, bringing viewers back to the days of Breaking Bad and earlier seasons of Better Call Saul. The return of characters like Walt and his brother-in-law Hank Schrader’s wife Marie (Betsy Brandt), Chuck, and Bill Oakley (Peter Diseth) flood fans with memories, while intricate details in the script ensure a sentimental sendoff for the entire Breaking Bad Universe.

When Saul negotiates his Friday prison pint of Blue Bell mint chocolate chip ice cream, we mentally travel back to Season 5, Episode 2 and see him drop a mint chip cone on the street so he can hop in the car with Nacho. When Saul asks Walt if he has any regrets and Walt looks down at his watch, we’re back in Season 5 of Breaking Bad when Jesse (Aaron Paul) gifts him the ticker for his birthday. As the exit sign buzzes above Saul in court, a time machine takes us to Season 3’s “Chicanery,” where we see Chuck glance at one overhead. The sheer sight of a dough mixer churning in the prison’s kitchen transports us to Gene’s Cinnabon days. And Kim and Jimmy’s final cigarette scene brings us right back to the pilot. An orange flame even burns color through their black and white world to commemorate the throwback.

Just as fans travel to earlier times while watching the episode, Saul remembers his brother’s words: “If you don’t like where you’re heading, there’s no shame in going back and changing your path.” He knows that nothing can undo his crimes, but he can channel his inner time machine to go back and change course, ultimately rewriting his future in a way that would make both Chuck and Kim proud.
Throughout the series, and especially during the course of this episode, it’s hard not to wonder what single thing Saul would go back and change about his journey. Would he stop Howard (Patrick Fabian) from getting shot or pump the brakes long before he ever messed with him? Would he have represented Lalo or gone to fetch that bail money? Would he have simply skipped the phone call to Kim? The regrets seem endless, but if he could go back, perhaps he’d make amends with Chuck, effectively changing everything that followed.
The closest thing Saul has to a time machine is his ability to change his statement, so he uses it. He takes the stand to get Kim off the hook and holds himself accountable for everything — not just his involvement with Walter White, but the role he played in Howard and Chuck’s deaths. When the judge asks Saul to settle down, he replies, “The name’s McGill. I’m James McGill,” and just like that he’s back to his roots.
With moments to spare in the finale, Jimmy flashes finger guns to Kim, taking everyone back to the start of Saul Goodman one last time and ending Better Call Saul‘s momentous run. Though Jimmy can’t change his past, by owning up to his crimes, gracefully accepting his 86-year prison sentence, and making up with Kim, he’s molding his future into something mildly hopeful. Even if it ultimately cost far, far more than $6 million.