“I Definitely Thought She Could…”: Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Expectation Makes Her Better Call Saul Ending Even Better

However, it wasn’t just Saul’s fate that hung in the balance in Better Call Saul’s ending. The character of Kim was one of the show’s biggest mysteries; she never appeared in Breaking Bad, which immediately made fans suspect that she was going to die in the prequel. However, Better Call Saul did an amazing job of giving her an ending that both fits perfectly with her character arc while explaining why she’d never been seen before. It certainly wasn’t an easy conclusion to predict, and even lead star Rhea Seehorn didn’t expect it.
Rhea Seehorn Thought Kim Might Die In Better Call Saul – And So Did Everyone

Like most of the show’s viewers, Seehorn had considered the possibility that her character would be dead by the end of the show. The actress confirmed that she didn’t know Kim and Saul’s fate when she signed on to play the character, and her journey only became clear during the final seasons of the show. Seehorn was convinced that Kim would die because she wasn’t in Breaking Bad and her death would be the final straw that pushed Saul over the edge. Speaking to Empire, Seahorn shared:
I definitely thought she could die. At some point, I started having storylines that weren’t just ancillary to Jimmy, and I was thrilled, but I honestly didn’t dare to dream. Patrick [Fabian] and I would laugh and flip through the scripts immediately and be like, “I’m not dead!”
Going into Better Call Saul’s final episodes, Kim’s death was the leading theory that fans had stuck with. It seemed like the most logical way for her character to pay for the sins that she’d inherited from Jimmy, and it also wrapped the continuity in a neat bow. If Kim lived, it didn’t make sense for Jimmy to leave her behind and become Saul Goodman full-time in Breaking Bad. But thankfully, the show’s writers managed to come up with a perfect compromise that made both things possible.
Better Call Saul Used Kim’s Absence From Breaking Bad To Its Advantage

From the character’s introduction in the first episode of the show, fans took it for granted that Kim wouldn’t make it to the end. But as she became increasingly important and took on a more central role in the story, Better Call Saul’s writers used this uncertainty to their advantage. She was a complete wildcard; while audiences knew what would happen to Jimmy, she was a much more unpredictable character who facilitated much of the show’s narrative tension.
Kim’s Better Call Saul Ending Was So Much Better Than Her Dying

The ending of Better Call Saul could have been a complete disaster. There was so much emotional payoff riding on this one episode, and if the writers had even slightly misunderstood these characters’ journeys, fans would have been endlessly disappointed. However, the show struck a perfect balance between hope and tragedy in the final episode; the characters paid for their crimes, but didn’t have to die in the process.
They couldn’t be together, but they also cared about each other too much to be apart.

