Better Call Saul Co-Creator Promises Even Bigger Surprises Than The Return Of Walter And Jesse

Last night's two-episode premiere of "Better Call Saul" season 6 would have to be considered a resounding success, throwing viewers right back into the thick of things in Albuquerque, New Mexico as if we'd never even missed a beat. Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) continues his precipitous slide towards becoming the Saul Goodman that we all loved to hate, and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) might even be outpacing him in terms of unleashing her dark side. Those are the two emotional pillars serving as the foundation to this upcoming final season (which will be split into two separate halves, "Breaking Bad"-style), but it wouldn't be a show from creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould if that was all it had going for it. Mike Ehrmantraut's (Jonathan Banks) conflicted association with drug lord Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) continues to have ripple effects on other characters like Michael Mando's Nacho Varga, who in turn remains on the run from Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) after last season's failed hit.

The sheer amount of spinning plates in the air (from a plot point of view) balanced against the character-centric need to bring Jimmy full-circle with the monstrous criminal lawyer he's doomed to turn into would probably feel like an insurmountable challenge to most writers, but this isn't the first rodeo for the "Breaking Bad" veterans. As densely packed as the premiere turned out to be, Gould is promising that the rest of the season will contain far more surprises. In fact, fans can expect that there'll be even bigger ones than Gilligan and Gould's previous admission that Bryan Cranston's Walter White and Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman will be making their long-awaited return later this season.

Fans have wondered whether the rapidly converging timelines of "Better Call Saul" and its parent series, "Breaking Bad," would mean even more cameos and appearances by characters we've previously known. High up on that list, of course, were the destructive duo of meth cook Walter White and his partner in crime, Jesse Pinkman. Many viewers were surprised by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould's boldly frank admission that the pair of characters would appear at some point in season 6, perhaps leading some to worry that the co-creators had given a little too much away about what's to come. But in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that ran in the immediate aftermath of the season premiere last night, Gould reassured audiences that there are bigger and better things in store than the crowd-pleasing returns of such well-established characters. When asked about their thought process in revealing such huge information so far ahead of time, Gould had this to say.

"I'm gonna be incredibly frank with you. Vince and I talked about it and I think we both thought that we'd been cagey for long enough. Don't forget that Aaron and Bryan also have to keep this under their lid and everybody asks them about it, and it just felt like the right moment to let the cat out of the bag, because for better or for worse, I have to say that there are so many other surprises and left turns this season that I kinda wanted to take that one off the table."

Honestly, given how off-the-rails the discourse surrounding "spoilers" has become in recent years, it's incredibly refreshing to see artists throw caution to the wind and allow fans to bask in the anticipation of a really neat development on the horizon ... rather than playing dumb and insulting the intelligence of their own viewers by pretending that fairly obvious character appearances aren't actually going to happen. After commenting on how "petty" it would be to outright lie about it, Gould goes on to further explain:

"But also, I have to say, if I thought that that was the biggest surprise or the biggest spoiler, I probably wouldn't have said it."

Here's to honesty and treating viewers like reasonable adults! "Better Call Saul" airs every Monday on AMC.