Fans could not have imagined such an end for this character in their worst nightmares.
The show introduced viewers to many amazing heroes and villains. Fans were familiar with Gus Fring or the Salamanca brothers from Breaking Bad, but some prequel characters never appeared in the show about Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
The audience realized that many of the characters in Better Call Saul were unlikely to live to see the events of the rise and terrible fate of the Heisenberg drug empire.
Viewers note that Nacho Varga’s death was one of the saddest moments of the entire series, but it was expected. Varga was a pretty good guy with a moral compass, but he was still a member of the cartel, where almost nobody has a happy ending.
However, the murder of Howard Hamlin, one of the founders of HHM and a good friend of Jimmy McGill’s older brother Chuck, was the one that hit fans the hardest.
Howard was originally introduced as a successful and influential attorney and a formidable adversary to the future Saul Goodman. Throughout the series, Hamlin’s character underwent several transformations, evolving from an arrogant antagonist to a more complex and sympathetic figure.
But when HHM’s founder tries to help Jimmy, the younger McGill refuses, creating impossible conditions for Howard to get the money from the Sandpiper Crossing class-action lawsuit out of him as quickly as possible.
Saul sets Hamlin up in every way possible. He also brings in Kim Wexler, even though Howard helped her throughout her career and paid for her law school education. But unexpectedly, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the attorney becomes a victim of circumstance and takes a bullet to the head.
This moment came as a complete shock to fans, as Howard had become an integral part of the show’s narrative, and his absence left a void that was impossible to fill.
The beauty of Better Call Saul lies in the series’ ability to subvert expectations and push the boundaries of traditional storytelling. Killing off a key character like Howard demonstrates the fearlessness and risk-taking of the show’s creators.
