Better Call Saul Season 6 Finale’s Smoking Scene Explained By Kim Actor Rhea Seehorn
Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn reflects on filming the series finale’s full-circle Jimmy and Kim moment with the two sharing a cigarette.
Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn reflects on filming the series finale’s full-circle moment with Jimmy and Kim. Concluding last August, the Breaking Bad prequel followed lawyer Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, before and after the events of its predecessor alongside his love interest and eventual partner in crime, Kim Wexler, played by the Emmy-nominated Seehorn. The first and one of the last moments involving Jimmy and Kim see the two silently sharing a cigarette while leaning against a wall.
During a recent interview with Gold Derby in anticipation for the upcoming 2023 Emmy Awards, Seehorn was asked about the Better Call Saul season 6 ending, which brought the show full circle with Kim visiting Jimmy in jail. The Better Call Saul star reflected on filming the two scenes alongside Bob Odenkirk and how were different on the first versus the last day of shooting. Read what she shared below:
Well, I knew Bob so much better by then, not just as a friend, but also Kim and Jimmy and also as a scene partner. Technically there were a lot of similarities too. He and I innately trusted each other as scene partners from day one and came to set very prepared, but also thrilled to see where the other person throws the ball, so that you had to alter your performance. And that made this tether between us that reads as chemistry, which is a wonderful thing that of nothing can be said the exact same way until you find out the way the other person is going to deliver their line to you or what they’re physically doing or not speaking. To know each other that much more, even by the end, there was a lot of weight in saying, “Hi, Jimmy,” as Kim. It’s her saying, “I see you and I know you see me.”
Which I think is the profound connection that they always had, was that they felt seen by each other to their depths. And she’s letting them know, I see the person you really are and I always knew that you were still in there. There’s still love there, there’s pain, there’s tragedy, it’s hello, it’s goodbye to at least a chapter of their lives. And for me, I was playing that scene on the very last day and the weight of that, of like holy, what we’ve been through Bob for the last seven years, and here we are. It was all there. It was nice to be able to draw upon it, but you have to limit it because it’s also not supposed to be Rhea just crying in there.
The Better Call Saul Finale’s Cigarette Scene Was The Perfect Full-Circle Moment
The Better Call Saul series premiere, which aired in 2015, featured the first on-screen meeting between Jimmy and Kim. At the time, Jimmy was a struggling public defender, and after seeing his prospective clients, the Kettlemans, opting instead for the large law firm HHM, he angrily and repeatedly kicks a trashcan. Afterward, he goes out into the parking garage and silently shares a cigarette with Kim, who then goes and cleans up the trashcan. With minimal dialogue, the scene was a great way of showing and not telling the audience about Jimmy and Kim’s profound connection.
In the Better Call Saul series finale, Jimmy receives an 86-year prison sentence after admitting his involvement in Walter White’s criminal empire. Despite being behind bars, Jimmy gets one last warm moment with Kim as the two share a cigarette while leaning against a wall, mirroring the exact same moment from the series premiere. Their final on-screen moment is a subtle reminder that, even after all they’ve been through, there still is and always was a profound connection between Jimmy and Kim, which is why their relationship acted as the heart of Better Call Saul.
