Entertainment Extra

2 ENTERTAINMENT EXTRA By Dana Simpson TV Media S ome know him as Jimmy McGill, but everyone remembers him as Saul Goodman. "Breaking Bad" actor Bob Odenkirk returns to his complicated triple role as Jimmy, Saul and Gene Takovic in a much-anticipated new sea- son of "Better Call Saul." The show's sixth and final season, premiering Monday, April 18, on AMC and streaming service AMC+, offers new insight into the formative years of the seediest criminal lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Saul Goodman, as he defends the guilty and commits crimes of his own before meeting up with his most famous client yet, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) of "Breaking Bad." While "Bad" fans have yet to catch a glimpse of the origi- nal series' meth-cooking char- acter and his equally guilty partner, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul, "BoJack Horseman"), the past five seasons of "Saul" have given viewers plenty of background information to take in. As last season began, Jimmy was still struggling to process the death of his brother, Chuck (Michael McKean, "Laverne & Shirley"), from the previous season, and had just managed to get his law license back with help from his on-again, off-again partner — both pro- fessionally and romantically — Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn, "Things Heard & Seen," 2021). Having officially adopted the name Saul Goodman on the job so as not to further tarnish his already damaged given name, Jimmy gets deeper into crime on both sides of the border while trying to separate himself from his pain and grief. At the beginning of Season 5, Jimmy managed to get several new clients by selling burner phones to criminals. Upon rebuilding his client base under the Goodman name, Jimmy soon becomes the go-to man for crimi- nal defense. While defending oth- ers, however, he becomes involved in another underhanded operation of his own when he agrees to help Kim settle a stick- ing point in her case with Mesa Verde Bank and Trust. Despite Jimmy and Kim's plan eventually blowing up in their faces, it does lead them toward a new plan: get married. Now legally bound to one another and having signed a full- disclosure honesty pact before the union, Kim and Jimmy have agreed to back each other up and share everything, no matter how dark things may get. Perhaps not surprisingly, howev- er, those plans fail as soon as Jimmy is tasked with the danger- ous job of collecting $7 million in cash for Lalo Salamanca's (Tony Dalton, "Mr. Avila") bail. Juárez cartel member Lalo was arrested in Season 5, thanks to Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks, "Community"), who was out for vengeance after being forced to kill his friend, Werner Ziegler (Rainer Bock, "Wonder Woman," 2017), last season. By getting Lalo arrested for Season 4's murder of a TravelWire employee, Mike set up a series of events that ultimately leads into Season 6. Of course, the man behind the scenes throughout the entire series is Pollos Hermanos owner and "Breaking Bad" favorite Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Due to Lalo's constant attack on his businesses, Gus plans to have Lalo released on bail so that he can enlist Nacho (Michael Mando, "Orphan Black") to lead him to Mexico, have him killed and settle his cartel problem once and for all. But like most things in the Breaking Bad Universe, his plan didn't exactly go off without a hitch. When Season 5 wrapped up in April 2020, Lalo had managed to escape his own assassination and have one of the dying assas- sins call to confirm his death. This means that heading into Season 6, Gus, Nacho, Jimmy and Kim all think they're safe from Lalo, who they assume is dead. This false safety, however, appears to crum- ble rather quickly for Kim, who in the Season 6 trailer asks, "Do you ever feel like you're being followed?" And while Kim has spent most of the series as the voice of reason and a defender of good (with some exceptions, of course — no one is perfect), she spent the end of Season 5 with Jimmy, dreaming up ways to crush fellow lawyer Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian, "Veronica Mars"). Jimmy, how- ever, despite formerly wreaking havoc on Howard with every- thing from bowling balls to poorly timed prostitutes, expresses concern for Kim's serious intention to sabotage Howard's career. Assuming that Kim wouldn't want to sacrifice her own career to ruin Howard's — even though it would mean a settle- ment in the Sandpiper lawsuit and approximately $2 million for Kim and Jimmy — Jimmy says, "Kim, doing this, it's not you. You would not be OK with it, not in the cold light of day." Schwering Realty 2 x 2" Pear Tree Gallery 3 x 2" On the Cover Rhea Seehorn stars in "Better Call Saul" Final season of 'Better Call Saul' begins on AMC Chase Center 3 x 2" American Legion Post 60 2 x 3" Thrifty Muffler 2 x 2.5"

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