‘It was not a foregone conclusion that Dean would do the show,’ says Peter Gould.
And in the ABQ, whenever someone says DEA, you say… ASAC Schrader.
It certainly elevated the chess game between Lalo and his intra-cartel rival Gus (Giancarlo Esposito).
Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul.AMC
How long have you been waiting to bring Dean and Steven in and, specifically, why now?
PETER GOULD: Oh my god, what a thrill it was.
Look, we love Dean.
But those characters had a perfect, devastating end onBreaking Bad.
And as soon as you say the letters D-E-A in our world, that means Hank Schrader.
But it was not a foregone conclusion that Dean would do the show.
But we had to call him.
So I roped Vince [Gilligan, creator ofBreaking Badand co-creator ofBetter Call Saul] into the call.
So Vince and I got on the phone with Dean, and we were a little bit nervous.
And we started pitching what would happen.
I think we did that character and I don’t want to open that up again.
He pretty much interrupted us as we were pitching and said, Guys, I love it!
It was wonderful to have him back, and he and Steve Quezada both really just brought it.
That scene is a special favorite of mine.
If you look at page count, that’s a very long scene for a television show.
And in this case, everyone was enjoying these characters so much.
I couldn’t be happier to have Dean back in our world.
We actually went to some trouble to hide him from public, while he was in Albuquerque.
And he’s just a wonderful guy.
There were private jets involved.
For Dean, we just kept the profile very low.
And Dean is known to occasionally visit Albuquerque.
Somehow, we managed to slip him under the radar.
What hints can you drop about the next episode, as the game heats up with Hank involved?
Once Hank picks up a trail, he’s not going to give up.
You’re going to see Hank Schrader on the hunt.
One thinks about the previous episode where she says, I don’t want to lie to my clients.
Not that this guy is a client, but you get the sense that she strives to be honorable.
That scene works in different ways, whether or not you think she was telling the truth.
Was that story true?
And it is an interesting thing that sometimes we open up to people who we barely know.
Is she starting to cross the line that she’s been dangerously blurring?
Weve talked about Slippin Kimmy before, but that just felt a little ominous.
Is she now in a F it!
Boy, I love the way you put that.
She is so frustrated.
She feels boxed in by her role as an attorney.
So I think that she’s torn.
She’s torn between her consummate professionalism and her sense of what’s right and what’s wrong.
But for me, it is a F it moment.
It’s a moment of release.
Saul’s life seems to change forever when Lalo informs him that he’s essentially on retainer.
He wasn’t really involved in anything that felt dangerous or violent.
And the knowledge that he’s stepped into that world is going to change him.
And it certainly changes his view of the world.
I think maybe he could back out now.
He could change his mind about being Saul Goodman.
I don’t know if he’s going to do that, though.
It’s alarming to watch that sequence.
Are we entering a dark night of the soul for him before we see him as theBreaking Bad-era Mike?
Does the murder of Werner [Rainer Bock] begat the Dawn of Killer Mike?
Werner is certainly on his mind.
I think his son is on his mind.
He loses his cool with his granddaughter.
He seems like he’s a little bit out of control now.
You mentioned that Hank is on the hunt next week.
What else awaits in that episode?
Jimmy is tested in a whole different way.
