Writer / director Tom Schnauz tells IndieWire how a simpler approach and respect for everyone’s intelligence have led to two chilling and memorable clashes to end the episode.
[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for “Better Call Saul” Season 6, Episode 7, “Plan and Execution.”]
Of all the things in “Better Call Saul” that happen by accident, “a person who directs two episodes in consecutive seasons that present a largely dangerous confrontation in the living room of an apartment” does not seem a d ‘them. However, two years after “Bad Choice Road” found Kim (Rhea Seehorn), Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Lalo (Tony Dalton) converging on the same Albuquerque unit, the trio had an unexpected reunion in the middle. season 6 of the show. final.
This time, this convergence of destinies had a much bloodier ending, with Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) finding a premature end using Lalo’s patiently mounted silencer. However, with these similarities, it was far from predetermined that Tom Schnauz, who wrote and directed “Bad Choice Road,” would return to both roles in “Plan and Execution.”
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“It was absolutely a total coincidence. Because I do most of the worksheets written in the room, instead of leaving and being on set at the beginning of the season, which would happen before the COVID and the stop. Normally, we start at shooting around episode 7, 8, 9. But things didn’t overlap. We ended up breaking up all season and then we just pulled through all the delays we had, ”Schnauz said.
This small part of fate led Schnauz to another creepy final sequence, but the episode itself is much more than death in the final seconds that gives the title its double meaning. Schnauz spoke with IndieWire about fulfilling the promise of “D-Day,” the intelligence of the characters, and what it took to achieve the great significance of the final showdown.
IndieWire: This episode is a true balancing act between success and failure. How do you make sure you don’t lean too much in either direction on either side?
Tom Schnauz: We knew Jimmy and Kim’s plan would work. But that would not be a satisfactory narrative for them to win and move away from. And as “Breaking Bad” when we did the train robbery episode, we knew Walt and Jesse would be successful in stealing that methylamine. I remember in the writers’ room, Sam Catlin, a writer on that show, said, “Well, what if a kid gets shot?” He just tossed it from somewhere in his brain, talking to George Mastras on one side of the table. I felt like, come on, this is crazy.
So it was just stealing our past from successful scams. It just so happened that it seemed like it was time for the two different worlds to come together, the world of cartels and the world of scams to come together and something really, really horrible to happen. It could have been lengthened and Lalo could have tortured Howard. But she doesn’t know this guy, and just out of simplicity and God-fearing Jimmy and Kim, she shoots him in the head.
“It’s worth calling Saul”
Greg Lewis / AMC / Sony Pictures Television
Aside from the revelation of Jimmy the man inside HHM, most of this episode is not really based on surprises. It’s more like following what previous episodes have been meticulously kicking off.
We don’t tend to make too many turns. One of the things we talked about a lot was “When will we reveal the fact that Jimmy placed this private investigator in Howard’s circle?” We had seen in season 3, Chuck had a private investigator ready for him when Jimmy burst through his door. Jimmy knew this would be on the cards, so they came up with the idea of changing the phone number on the system. I found it a funny surprise to have in this episode.
Obviously, season 6 split into two parts. Did you know that this would be the end of mid-season?
We didn’t know that. We wrote and broke all season and started writing and filming without knowing there would be a breakup.
It must be nice to know that it still worked that way.
We really tend to write it all down as a “cliffhanger.” Last week’s episode with Kim spinning on the road. Surely, if we ended up there, people would ask, “What the hell is Kim going to do?” And the episode after this one, we hope it all ends so people want to come back and see the next one. This one just ended up in a very brutal cliffhanger, which we don’t do much about. It is not just a show where there are a large number of bodies. So when someone dies, especially an important character like that, it has more impact.
Especially considering this is his last episode, there’s something about Howard that makes it clear that he knows exactly what’s going on at every step of the way. Except for the photo sharing, it’s not in the dark here.
We always come from a place where “these characters aren’t stupid.” They are very, very smart. And Howard is hard to beat. They did it perfectly. But they knew he was going to find out. So they had to build that plan that even if he finds out and tells Cliff the whole truth that when he gets it, he has ruined the negotiation process. That’s how they built their whole plan. One of my favorite lines I have to write about is when Howard says to Schweikart, “I know it all sounds a little baroque.” And it is! It’s so weird and complex.
This is a show that tends to be reflected. I wonder if people were subconsciously recognizing that this is another apartment clash. And if the last one ended with Lalo leaving and everyone’s salvation, maybe they’ll assume the same thing will happen to Howard.
No doubt this was part of the idea of making Howard’s death so sudden and shocking. When Lalo comes in, we probably think it will be another epic session of psychological torture, the long 18-minute scene of [Episode] 509. Instead, he no longer has time for that. It only resorts to brute force. He doesn’t know who he is, he just needs to catch this guy.
“It’s worth calling Saul”
Greg Lewis / AMC / Sony Pictures Television
There’s a moment in Howard’s monologue when he’s grabbing his glasses from the closet when he accidentally drops the nickname “Howie”. It’s such a soft touch of writing and acting that it says a lot about Howard’s motivations and what else is driving him, in addition to his fragmented life.
I can’t say enough about the work Patrick Fabian did in this episode. What a cast we have between Bob and Rhea and Michael Mando and Tony and Jon[athan] Banks. Everyone is so good. It’s a show about Jimmy McGill and Mike Ehrmantraut. They are the two main characters. And, no doubt, there have been many times when we wish we had used more Patrick. We were very happy to really give Patrick a lot of good scenes this season and in this episode. It’s one of the first times he’s done an entire act, in that scene in the boardroom, that it’s about getting ready for the meeting and then realizing the truth. So it was good to be able to work with Patrick in that scene and let him show his stuff.
This boardroom scene really looks like Howard has become this interesting synthesis of Jimmy and Gus. Many of the main actors in this story are so focused and detail-oriented that you can see how attracted they are to each other.
It is a merit for our actors. When we started this series, Howard Hamlin would be the bad guy. We didn’t know about Chuck’s double cross. We didn’t have any of that planned when we started season 1. And just like with Rhea Seehorn and what she brought to the character, all of those characters developed thanks to the actors we had and what they brought to them. So if it weren’t for Patrick, I don’t think Howard would be the character he is.
Jimmy and Kim in the last few seconds is what really sells the real horror of what’s going on, especially when they’re processing everything that’s going on out loud. How did you talk about the kind of reactions you were looking for from them and was there any rank you played with?
Lalo’s entry was the hardest time because they have different sets of information. Kim knows Lalo Salamanca is alive and out. Jimmy sees a ghost coming through the door. He’s totally in shock, so I touched Jimmy’s face harder. We made a number of plans for this post. I tried to be very elegant and made all these close-ups of Bob’s eye and his dilated pupil. If you remember 509, the juicer scene, I did these intercuts. I did the same. I placed two cameras on Bob’s face, thinking he was going to cut between the two and make all this shocking visual explosion by the time Lalo walks in the door. My editor Skip Macdonald and I edited it in six ways until Sunday, and none of them were right.
In the end, we sent the version to AMC and Sony with the most striking eyeball. They give very few notes, but they say, “Do we really need Hitchcock’s student?” I looked at it again and thought that simpler is better for that moment, just that dark shadow coming behind Patrick. Having Bob’s big reaction was the way to go. When it came to Howard getting shot in the head, I just let Bob and Rhea do what they did, reacting when that person got shot in front of them. I gave them no indication. I just let them do their thing. And they did it amazingly.
“Better Call Saul” will return for the final episodes of Season 6 starting July 11th. All previous season …