With the third season of Better Call Saul coming exclusively to Lightbox in April, we looked back at some of the subtle* Breaking Bad nods you might have missed the first time around.
You should all know about Better Call Saul by now. Set in the same shonky universe as Breaking Bad, but unfolding in the years prior to Walter White’s meth-y reign, Better Call Saul tells the origin story of his criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (known in this era as Jimmy McGill). Watching as he creates his slippery strip-mall law empire in Albuquerque, the series drops in Breaking Bad references as delicious as a hearty bag of funyuns. Here are some that you might have missed, ranging from real to definitely real.
This evolving mug confidence
In Better Call Saul, Jimmy languishes in a cramped office and sports a ‘world’s second best lawyer’ travel mug. By the time he’s reached the dizzying delusions of Breaking Bad, he’s upgraded his chinaware and levelled-up in the world. Truly, in this case, the mug maketh the man.
This chicken bucket
Looks like a perfectly normal family dinner? LOOK AGAIN! It’s very clear on close inspection that this chicken side meal is one purchased from Los Pollos Hermanos, the cover business for drug lord Gus Fring.
This hospital fly
There is no denying that this is exactly the same fly from the seminal Breaking Bad bottle episode, ‘The Fly’, that would take place years later. Don’t @ us about how flies only live for 30 days.
This necklace
Mike rips it off Tuco’s scarily pulsing neck in Better Call Saul in a stoush, but that is not the last we see of this boxing-themed bling. Years later in season one of Breaking Bad, Tuco can be seen wearing the same necklace whilst threatening Jesse Pinkman. Did Tuco get the old necklace back or did he buy a new one? Does he own them in bulk or does he have a good insurance policy? So many questions, so little time.
This teddy
Yonks before he would end up doing laps in Walt’s pool, the pink teddy bear can be found practicing his deep dives all over Albuquerque. Move over Danyon Loader.
This fake business
It’s a great name for a fake business, as demonstrated when Kim and Jimmy rope in some poor sucker in a bar to invest their life savings in it, but it’s also the name of a 1968 movie that the pair watched long before their first heist together in Better Call Saul. Oh yeah, AND Walt uses the same fake company to launder money under in Breaking Bad.
This humble background actor
Taking a break out from his teaching, Walt can clearly be seen sitting in on a court session in the background of this scene. Wow, talk about chills.
Catch up on Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad on Lightbox below
