11 Wild 'Better Call Saul' Fan Theories

Better Call Saul is going off to that great big Cinnabon in the sky. The critically acclaimed Breaking Bad spinoff is back for its final season after a two-year hiatus—two years that gave fans plenty of time to theorize about the fates of their favorite characters and the hidden meanings behind their actions.

Better Call Saul is working off five previous seasons of backstory across multiple timelines (the colorful early to mid-aughts world of lawyer Jimmy McGill, as well as the future black-and-white existence of his alter ego/cinnamon roll seller Gene Takavic), not to mention the wider mythology of Breaking Bad and its feature film El Camino, so plenty could happen. But will there be a heist—or a tearful encounter at a mall kiosk? Here are some of the most intriguing Better Call Saul fan theories.

BEWARE: Spoilers for key plot points in the first five seasons of Better Call Saul follow.

1. Kim Wexler is not who she says she is.

Over seven years, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) has become the runaway fan favorite character. The talented, tireless attorney at law provides a foil to Jimmy McGill's (Bob Odenkirk) more crooked pursuit of justice, but what if Kim isn’t as noble as we’ve been led to believe? As one Redditor notes, we know very little about Kim’s past, except that she’s not from Albuquerque, and no one in town knew her before she arrived. She has a weirdly good time pulling cons with Jimmy and according to the judge who married them, she has no middle name. Does that mean there’s something fishy with her current name? Could she have been up to something shady under a different alias before she crossed Jimmy’s path? Considering how much Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad love a dual identity, it almost makes too much sense.

2. Mike Ehrmantraut saves Gus Fring from Lalo Salamanca (or vice versa).

When we last saw Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), he was still alive—and pissed. After surviving a botched hit job, Lalo is bound to seek revenge, and one of his targets is likely the fried chicken king of New Mexico, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Some fans believe Mike (Jonathan Banks) will save Gus from Lalo’s bullets, making him Fring’s permanent right-hand man, while others think it’s Gus who will do the saving, explaining why Mike is so loyal to his boss.

3. Jimmy is preparing to pull off a major diamond heist.

Remember that Band-Aid box of diamonds that Gene (a.k.a. Jimmy) pulls out of a shoebox in the season 5 premiere “Magic Man”? We never got a real backstory on those gems, and they might just set the stage for the show’s own “Dead Freight” episode: a diamond heist. That’s Redditor lunch77’s take, at least—and if it means Jimmy cracking safes and/or dodging lasers, sign us up.

4. Kim is Jimmy’s shadow partner, and hiding in the background of Breaking Bad.

Better Call Saul has lots of loose ends to resolve before it can walk off into the southwestern sunset, but the biggest question on everyone’s mind is: What happens to Kim? She doesn’t exist in the Breaking Bad universe, which could spell doom for Slippin’ Kimmy, but what if she was actually in the background the entire time? According to a massively popular fan theory, Kim becomes Jimmy’s shadow partner in Ice Station Zebra Associates, the holding company he uses to do business as Saul Goodman. As Screen Rant notes, Saul name drops the company in season 2 of Breaking Bad when he tells Walt his check should be “made out to Ice Station Zebra Associates”—and that’s the same company Kim convinces a stranger to invest in on a whim in Better Call Saul. Add in the fact that Jimmy and Kim clearly named this company together (they’re seen watching the 1968 spy thriller Ice Station Zebra in season 2), and you’ve got a perfect exit strategy for Jimmy’s better half.

5. Lalo will kill Nacho Varga’s dad (or Nacho will die for him).

Gus may not be the only person on Lalo’s chopping block. His pointed glance at Nacho’s drink in the season 5 finale means Lalo knows Nacho (Michael Mando) was involved in his hit. While Lalo could just come after Nacho, going after Nacho’s dad would really hit the man where it hurts. Nacho has worked so hard to save his honest father from a grisly end, which would make Manuel Varga’s (Juan Carlos Cantu) ultimate death in the final season all the more devastating. As some Redditors argue, this could also lead to Nacho sacrificing himself, as his death would render his father’s murder pointless.

6. Howard Hamlin is about to be framed for tax evasion.

Kim has been cooking up some sort of trap for her one-time boss and current nemesis Howard Hamlin—the only question is just how far she’ll go. And according to one Redditor, the answer is pretty far. The fan theory posits that Kim will nail Howard for tax evasion by hiring the hacker who boosted savewalterwhite.com to funnel his money into an illegal offshore account in Belize. The news breaks, Howard’s reputation takes a hit, but just when he goes to Belize to clear his name, things get worse: Kim has the money funneled from the offshore account into a true career killer, like porn or drugs. Howard loses his job, but Kim gains a new phrase for burying an enemy, in the professional sense: “sending him to Belize.”

7. Kim will need to utilize The Disappearer's services.

What’s the point in having a character called “The Disappearer” if he never makes anyone disappear? Ed Galbraith (the late Robert Forster, who passed away in 2019), the vacuum repairman who helps people start over, was introduced in Breaking Bad and also appeared in El Camino, but he has yet to flex his skills on Better Call Saul. Jimmy McGill clearly knows him, though—as he (or, technically, Saul) was the one who suggested that Walt and Jesse call Ed in Breaking Bad. We also see Jimmy place a call to The Disappearer as Gene Takavic. If Kim used his services to get herself out of a messy legal situation following the Howard debacle, that would explain how Jimmy even knows the guy, and why Kim is absent from the Breaking Bad universe.

8. Jimmy will end up turning himself in—possibly to save Kim.

Many fans believe Jimmy McGill will wind up in jail by the series’ end, but there’s plenty of debate over how he'll get there. Some theorize that Kim’s plan to screw over Howard will backfire and end with her arrest, and Jimmy will offer himself up to the feds to save her. Others think Jimmy will succumb to guilt and give up his sad Cinnabon life as Gene for another depressing fate in prison.

9. Nacho meets Water White at A1A Car Wash.

Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould let it slip at a PaleyFest panel that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will guest star in season 6, but exactly how Walter White and Jesse Pinkman will return is still a mystery. Here’s one theory on Walt, courtesy of Reddit: After Lalo goes on a killing spree, Mike convinces Nacho to skip town. Only Nacho doesn’t want to use his actual car, since Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) can spot it, so he chooses a dusty old beater. While at the car wash, Nacho notices the owner berating the middle-aged guy who just cleaned his car. Walter White comes over to apologize, explaining he had a rough day with his family. “Never be sorry,” Nacho tells him before speeding away.

10. Jesse Pinkman tracks down Gus in Omaha.

If Walt shows up in the 2004 timeline, where does that leave Jesse? Some fans believe he’ll track down Gene Takavic in Omaha and pressure him into a new scheme. For what it’s worth, Bob Odenkirk is totally on board. “I like that theory,” he said in a Late Late Show interview. “I don’t know ... I can’t say that won’t happen.”

11. Kim works at the Claire’s next to Cinnabon.

Speaking of Nebraska malls: What if Kim doesn’t disappear or become a shadow partner so much as start a new career? In a 2020 interview, Rhea Seehorn joked, “There’s people that are sure [Kim] works at Claire’s Accessories right next to the Cinnabon when they go to the Gene years. And I always say. 'Yeah, but I have to have my own comb-over.'”