Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 10 review: How long can Saul stay in the shadows and keep his Gene avatar on?

3.5/5

Story: After he’s recognized from his days as Saul Goodman, Gene Takavic makes it his mission to track down the man and strike a deal that will be worth enough to keep his mouth shut. The plan is to get the man – Jeff – to rob a departmental store that sells high-end clothes and shoes. He should, however, take only a bare minimum of each item, so as not to arouse any immediate suspicion. By the time they take inventory and realize they have missing stock, there would be no way to track it down because the security tapes get taped over every 72 hours.

There’s a catch, though, Jeff has all of three minutes to run up and down the store and take as many items as possible. Obviously, he’s not convinced, but all it takes is a story of a certain Chemistry teacher who went from no money to helluva lot of piles of cash to get him onboard.

Review: After a series of explosive episodes, it was time to step back and take a breather. Yes, we are all waiting for the moment Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) meets Walter White (Bryan Cranston), but this is a show about the former and we also need to know what becomes of him eventually. He can’t rot away as the Cinnabon store manager forever, right? That’s just not in Jimmy/Saul’s DNA. He’s got to be in the game to really feel like himself again. And going by today’s episode, looks like all that is changing is his name. As Gene Takavic, he’s back to doing what he does best – cons.

At first, it may feel that his elaborate plan is out of sheer desperation to ensure that Jeff (Pat Healy) doesn’t talk about his Saul Goodman days. But as he goes about planning everything to the last detail, it becomes immensely clear how much he is enjoying it and, maybe, even missing running scams. He misses his flashy outfits, the ties, but what he has got back is the thrill of the game.

One scene that really stood out was when Gene has to distract the mall security just enough to keep him from looking at the camera feed monitors, where Jeff lay sprawled out after taking a nasty tumble on the freshly polished floor. Gene talks about being all alone – he’s got absolutely no one and if he were to die that very moment, no one would care. Every word ringing true, but said with no true emotion.

Verdict: Gene has put out one fire – if he goes down, so will Jeff. But is this how his story ends, or is there more to Gene’s final evolution? Only three more episodes to go on this final season of Better Call Saul. Now that Netflix has announced that Breaking Bad will leave the streaming platform (in 2025), perhaps it is a good time to watch it again. What say?