Breaking Bad’s Walter White built an entire criminal empire and was seemingly unstoppable… But where would he have ended up without Saul Goodman, his very own corrupt lawyer?
At first glance, Walter White achieved everything on his own.
After learning that he’d developed cancer, he took the most radical approach to an issue as simple as paying the bills: instead of just finding a better place to work, Walter became a drug dealer and eventually turned into a king of the criminal world.
But that was what we saw in Breaking Bad, way back in the day. Since then, we learned more thanks to Better Call Saul.
The prequel series revealed how Saul Goodman influenced Walter White’s future, and it allows us to look at Walter’s ascent from a different perspective: he would have never gotten as high as he did without the corrupt lawyer’s schemes.
If not for Goodman taking down Salamanca in Better Call Saul, Walter wouldn’t have gotten the slightest chance to succeed as his tiny initial enterprise would’ve been crushed.
The big dog Hector was wouldn’t have tolerated such a fledgling on his territory, but with him gone thanks to Saul Goodman, White had free space to fill.
It’s safe to say that Goodman set up everything perfectly for Walter in Better Call Saul, but what about Breaking Bad’s plot itself?
Even if we ignore the fact that White’s empire would’ve never risen without Saul’s help, he still would not have gone that far without the lawyer who did his best to protect Walter from a real prison sentence.
Bob Odenkirk, the actor who played Saul Goodman, thinks so, too.
While he claims in an interview with Deadline that “Walter White would’ve still been Walter White without Saul”, he can’t help but admit that the devilish drug lord would’ve had a much shorter run — and wouldn’t have lived as long, either.
Goodman’s presence, according to him, was not essential, but it definitely was much needed to keep Walter afloat and ensure a much longer Breaking Bad series for all of us to enjoy.
Both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are available for streaming on Netflix.
