Better Call Saul just teased the crossover we’ve all been waiting for, with the third-to-last episode of the series getting a very familiar title – 'Breaking Bad'.
According to AV Club, broadcaster AMC has confirmed that Better Call Saul’s next episode will bear the title, teasing the appearance of the original show's Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
It’s been on the cards for a while. After all, Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould confirmed that we would finally see the Breaking Bad duo in the show’s final season.
“I don’t want to spoil things for the audience, but I will say the first question we had when we started the show was, ‘Are we gonna see Walt and Jesse on the show?’” he said. “Instead of evading, I’ll just say yeah.”
But is this just a clever bit of misdirection? The episode synopsis reads: “The partners escalate their enterprise to new levels.” Clearly, this is supposed to make us think that Walt and Jesse will appear in the episode. But could it just be a little cat and mouse before revealing the pair later?
However, fans have pointed out that Saul Goodman’s first appearance in Breaking Bad was similarly in an episode titled “Better Call Saul”. If Walt and Jesse do appear in the next episode, it would be a neat, rather circular, call back to Saul’s first TV appearance.
Breaking Bad has an episode called Better Call Saul, and Better Call Saul will have an episode called Breaking Bad. Exquisite.
— Chucho Salamanca (@ChuckWilbury) July 27, 2022
Interestingly, the following episode – the penultimate of the entire series – is written and directed by Breaking Bad creator, Vince Gilligan. Hopefully that's a hint that we still have a little more time with our favorite meth kingpins.
At the very least, it looks as though Better Call Saul might catch up with Walt at the height of Heisenberg’s criminal empire. After those black and white flashforwards to Gene the Cinnabon Manager, it’s about time we got a glimpse of what puts him there.
Want to read more about Better Call Saul? Check out what Better Call Saul gets right about prequels, and find out which Emmy’s the show is up for this year.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.