The fifth season of Better Call Saul lies tantalizingly just over the horizon, with audiences having waiting intently for ages to see how things will shake out for the newly monikered Saul Goodman and other characters destined for Breaking Bad's timeline. In the meantime, AMC has given fans another insightful peek into this dark world with a new video featuring everyone's favorite child-murdering neo-Nazi, Todd.
The video, likely a deleted scene from the feature-length El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story, is a bite-sized look at a blithely infatuated Todd putting together his creepy Lydia snow globe, complete with an awkward phone call. Grab a tarantula-sized snack and check it out!
As it always goes with a Todd scene, almost all of my reactions from beginning to end amounted to uncomfortable chuckles. Something Breaking Bad has in common with the recently ended BoJack Horseman, perhaps, beyond sharing Aaron Paul as a co-star.
Todd's more-than-fondness for Laura Fraser's Lydia was evident in Breaking Bad, despite the fact that Lydia was pretty much all business any time she dealt with anyone from the drug world. Considering it's Todd, he probably enjoyed how hard she was to woo, as it were. After all, his unwarranted attraction to her led him to the point of putting a snow globe together with the two of them inside. And it's only presumed that the tiny Lydia is in there consensually.
El Camino viewers will probably remember seeing that snow globe show up whenever Scott Shepherd's Casey was poking around Todd's home. It wasn't fully confirmed within that moment that it was a Lydia figure sitting in that hat, but her blue coat made it pretty easy to assume, even if the real Lydia's neck isn't as thick as her entire head.
The Snow Globe: A Breaking Bad Short clip drives that confirmation home, though, with the snow globe inspiring (the exceedingly crafty) Todd to give Lydia a call. He says that he was calling to confirm a meeting, as well as to sweet-talk her by agreeing with her suggestion to produce more product. But what he REALLY wanted to was to ask her on a date to watch an orchestra that he heard about on the radio, although he'd be perfectly fine with leaving after a few songs if she wasn't impressed. That Todd really hits all the angles, doesn't he?
As any normal-ish human being would do in a situation where Todd is leaving a long-ass message, Lydia first assumed something was very wrong, and then ended the call as soon as she understood Todd was trying for a more personal connection. There isn't a time or place in the universe where it makes sense to have small talk with a psychopath.
Not that her instant dismissal reaches its proper mark. Todd brushes that aside and assumes she ended the call because someone could always be listening in on their phone calls. Even though things didn't go all that smoothly for Lydia, at least Todd got strangled to death before he had a chance to advance on her further. Unless, of course, another video shows up later that says otherwise, but I really hope not.
Snow Globe: A Breaking Bad Short was released to coincide with the linear TV premiere of El Camino, which hit AMC on Sunday, months after making its big debut on Netflix. Here's hoping there's a Blu-ray and DVD release coming soon that has even more of these one-off scenes that wouldn't have a home elsewhere.
Check out the Breaking Bad stars that are returning for Better Call Saul Season 5, which will premiere on AMC on Sunday, February 23, before moving to its normal Monday night time slot at 9:00 p.m. ET.
