Fan anticipation for Better Call Saul Season 5 reached new heights recently when creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould revealed that next year's Season 6 would indeed mark the final 13 episodes of the AMC drama's highly acclaimed run. Thankfully, we still have a whole cameo-heavy Season 5 to get through first, and AMC has been promoting the upcoming season not only with pulse-pounding trailers and teasers, but also with a series of instructional videos showing viewers how to do everyday tasks that they might not be so skilled at.
The videos light up computer and TV screens with bright, popping colors, and the advice given therein is cheerful and amusingly delivered. In that sense, nearly every single second stands in opposition to the dark and brooding nature of Better Call Saul's drug-fueled drama. So while these promos could have each been made merely for amusement's sake, with an eye permanently winking at audiences, I think their TRUE purpose is foreshadowing some of the (assumedly) deadly mayhem coming in the highly lauded Season 5. Let's break things down.
Gus Fring's Iron
The most recent Better Call Saul Season 5 instructional video is from Giancarlo Esposito's fan-favorite villain Gus Fring, who dons his warmest public-service smile in order to show off the best way to iron a dress shirt. As the leader and face of the fast food empire Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus knows that the most important element of any confrontation is looking one's best and selling that look with efficiency. Thus, just about every time Gus is shown, he's rocking a crisp button-down shirt, and we can assume he uses sweat pants and T-shirts as toilet paper.
But is this video really just Better Call Saul's marquee antagonist giving fans tips on flattening out collars and double layers sleeves, or should we be reading deeper into the more menacing moments, such as his "razor sharp" quote? OF COURSE that's what we should be reading into. This is Gus muthafuckin' Fring, people. He may not be as far over the line as he got by the end of his Breaking Bad run, but it's all bubbling under the surface. I specifically think this video is hinting at Gus eventually beating someone to death with an iron. Or, if they wanted to get creative, maybe he'll use an entire ironing board to kill someone.
Lalo Salamanca's Tacos
Who is anyone fooling here? For one, I think the only reason Lalo Salamanca would show someone how to make a meal is just so he could eat the entire meal in front of the other person without offering them anything. Lalo is kind of the king of all douchebags within the Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad universe, and Tony Dalton is spectacular at embodying the character's heightened sense of bravado and self-importance. So no, I can't in good faith stand here and think that Lalo's taco video is solely meant to educate.
Take into account that his very first sentence references drowning one's brother over how savory and spicy a taco is. Sure, he said he was only fooling, but I imagine Lalo thinks the joke there is that someone would even need the taco as an excuse to drown a family memeber. So when it comes to Hector Salamanca's maelstrom of a nephew, I think this video foreshadows Lalo utilizing food as a method of hurting or killing someone else. I can't say if he'll be poisoning someone's avocado, or perhaps squashing someone beneath a pallet of tortillas, or perhaps even both of those, but people should just run anytime Lalo steps into the kitchen. Especially Nacho.
Saul Goodman's Tie
Part of the joy of having Jimmy McGill finally tip the scales over to his Saul Goodman persona comes from all the eye-popping fashion that Saul became known for during the Breaking Bad days. The bright orange and purple suits are the gold standard for the morally stagnant lawyer, so this "how to tie a tie" video is merely just him trying to get fans on the same level when it comes to dressing up, right? THINK AGAIN!
In the history of the character, I'm not sure that we've ever seen Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy or Saul do anything for anyone that didn't have at least a ream of strings attached. So if he's got your attention showing you how to tie a tie, that probably means he's got someone else breaking into your house and rifling through your shit in the meantime. But as far as how this particular video will relate to upcoming events in Season 5, I think it's within the realm of possibility that someone will end up trying to strangle Saul with his own tie. (Perhaps Kim?) Or maybe it will get caught in a paper shredder or another dangerous piece of machinery.
Obviously, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould are more than capable of coming up with jaw-dropping story beats and plot twists that fans (including myself) are unable to see coming. So perhaps all of my guesses above will be proven wrong, or maybe they'll all be proven 100% correct, and maybe Gus Fring will go out to pay some visits if anyone says otherwise.
The most important thing to know is that fans everywhere will get a chance to experience the tension for themselves when Better Call Saul returns to AMC for Season 5 starting on the special night of Sunday, February 23, at 10:00 p.m. before moving to its regular weekly time slot on Monday nights.
