One of the first times viewers met Saul Goodman on “Breaking Bad,” Walter White and Jesse Pinkman are forcing him to kneel down in front of a pit with a gun to his head. Saul is panicking. He is pleading for his life, practically begging them. He immediately blurts out, “It wasn’t me! It was Ignacio, he’s the one!” and then assumes the duo are Spanish and rattles off a few of the only phrases he knows how to say. When Jesse tells him to shut up, Saul asks, “Lalo didn’t send you? No Lalo?” and when the realization that these two men have no clue what he is talking about, he is relieved. He is so happy to not be at the hands of whoever “Lalo” is that his first instinct is to now approach this other gun to his head as a deal waiting to be made: “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

That scene is from the eighth episode of the second season of “Breaking Bad.” The episode’s title is “Better Call Saul,” and who would have thought in the fourth season of the spin-off/prequel Lalo would finally be entering the picture?

OK, let us slow down. As much fun as it is to connect all the “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” dots and predict where these characters go on their respective journeys to the inevitable, Jimmy McGill (the man Saul Goodman once was) is the show’s heartbeat, even if it is a cold, slow one.

Without getting bogged down by specifics and spoilers, let us examine Jimmy. Jimmy, brilliantly played by Bob Odenkirk, is a con man. There is no way around it; he is. Some viewers are so eager to see Saul Goodman but do not realize that when day finally comes, it will come with a price. The day Saul is born is the day Jimmy has to die, metaphorically.

As opposed to Saul, there is good in Jimmy. For all the ways he uses people as disposable and for his own benefit, there are times where his moral compass is shown. He wants to help the elderly, he cares about Kim, he has had close friends, and, as complicated as his relationship with his now-deceased brother Chuck was, there were moments of genuine love between them. The opening scene of the season finale subtly showcases this, as the two brothers sing ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” while celebrating Jimmy passing the BAR exam.

For every one of these positive moments, there is a gang of negative ones eagerly waiting to beat that positivity out of Jimmy. This season especially shows how every backstab, bad comment or time ignored affected Jimmy and made him more accepting and comfortable with owning who he is: a con man. Chuck’s death especially forces Jimmy to toy with doing the right thing and acting on his own worst impulses.

It is nearly impossible to pinpoint when Jimmy McGill dies (He arguably does at the very end of the finale). But that is one of the things the show does masterfully. “Better Call Saul” is a slow-burn drama/crime thriller inside of a character study. We all know who Saul Goodman is in “Breaking Bad,” but to see him travel down the path to get there is heartbreaking. They have taken somebody that is the definition of a secondary character and crafted a show around him that is arguably better than its predecessor. It is more refined, it uses every beat and moment to marinate the emotions, the visuals and narrative structure are just as captivating, and the emotional peaks are more debilitating.

The era of “Breaking Bad” is slowly fading away, and even Kim seems to know a change is coming. She and Jimmy fought hard and used a lot of their resources to get his law license back, and as she thinks he has done this to better himself and his future, she realizes she may have been a part of his latest con. Jimmy does not even realize how much and how quickly he has just upset her – he is too selfish, as well – but this relationship is his last line left to stay connected to society. Society never cared about Jimmy. He has been labeled and boxed away from people that only looked down on him, so why stick around? Why try to stay in their good graces? He is going to prove them right by reaching down and putting on a mask he has always wanted to wear. Jimmy knows this, and this season’s exploration of him has cemented these facts. But who cares? S’all good, man.

Image from AMC via YouTube