Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 1 and 2 review: Lalo Salamanca's hot on the heels of ‘traitor’ Nacho

3.5/5

Story: Nacho Varga is on the run after the hit orchestrated by Fring on Lalo Salamanca and family. But he’s still in Salamanca territory, with a bounty on his head. Can he find a way out? Meanwhile, as Jimmy navigates his transformation into Saul Goodman with some trepidation, Kim is charging into territory that could have serious repercussions on her moral compass.

Review: Season 6 of Better Call Saul has, perhaps, been the most anticipated one of the Bob Odenkirk-led show. This is where it finally leads into the events that we’ve already been privy to in Bryan Cranston’s Breaking Bad; where we first met sleazy slimeball Saul Goodman. We are not there yet, but that moment, dearies, is not far off. Better Call Saul has returned for its sixth and final season, which will have a 13-episode run. This, we are told, will be split into two parts, with the first comprising 7 episodes running till the end of May with weekly outings, and the rest to drop only sometime in July this year.

Exciting as it seems to throw Walter White (Cranston) and Jessie Pinkman (Aaron Paul) also into the mix, one cannot but help feel sad for one character in particular – Kim Wexler. Rhea Seehorn, without doubt, has been the standout performer of the show and given that Kim gets no mention whatsoever in Breaking Bad, there is a sense of foreboding. It’s even more sad because Kim is in killer form in the season 6 opener.

Determined to get Jimmy/Saul (Odenkirk) his fair share from the Sandpiper lawsuit, she hatches a plan to discredit Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), for which she enlists the ‘help’ of former clients with a carrot-and-stick approach. Who would have thought that she’d be the one holding the stick?

Season 6 comes with no time jump and is set in the immediate aftermath of the blood bath at Lalo Salamanca’s (Tony Dalton) home. Working on behalf of Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) had let a bunch of assailants creep into the Salamanca compound and makes a quick escape. Lalo is believed dead in the attack, after a charred body with matching dental records is found, but that, it turns out was a decoy he had set up. Convinced that the attack was Fring’s doing, Lalo wants to retaliate, but is warned by his uncle, Hector, to get proof first. And for that, he needs to get hold of Nacho and, more importantly, get him to talk, an eventuality that Gus wants to avoid. Gus is prepared to take Nacho out, but Mike (Jonathan Banks) thinks they ought to reward his loyalty and get him out of this sticky situation. Considering that both Lalo and Nacho don’t make it to Breaking Bad, while the rest do, it remains to be seen how their confrontation plays out.

Verdict: There weren’t any big pay-offs in the first two episodes, setting the stage for more explosive stuff to follow. Until next week, then, folks!