Warning! SPOILERS for Better Call Saul ahead.The storytelling of Better Call Saul made it difficult for audiences to place its events in the Breaking Bad timeline, at least until the last season finally revealed the truth. Before Better Call Saul season 6 clarified that the black and white scenes with Gene were taking place in the year 2010, viewers had no idea that they were actually happening so close to the ending of Breaking Bad. Here's everything viewers need to know about Better Call Saul's timeline and why fan theories were way off.
Saul Goodman first requested an identity change in Breaking Bad season 5's penultimate episode, "Granite State." With the help of Ed Galbraith, also known as "The Disappearer," Saul became Gene Takavic, the manager of the Cinnabon in an Omaha shopping mall. While a pre-Saul Goodman Jimmy McGill took on bigger and bigger scams, Gene was mostly concerned with keeping a low profile, even when he finally went back to being Saul. The first Gene scene was featured in the Better Call Saul pilot, which showed the man watching old Saul Goodman commercials in color as he seemingly grieved his past. For the first 59 episodes of the Breaking Bad spinoff, the exact year of the Gene timeline remained largely a mystery, which prompted viewers to come up with their own theories. In an interview with Better Call Saul co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould [via The Wrap], the timeline of the Gene sequences were made deliberately unclear. While Gould called it an "open question," Gilligan added that "it's one that will have to be answered at some point, like a lot of these things." Thankfully, the answer finally came in one of the show's very last episodes.
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As Better Call Saul eventually converged the stories of Jimmy McGill, Gene Takavic, and Saul Goodman, Better Call Saul season 6, episode 10, "Nippy," finally revealed that Gene's Better Call Saul timeline was happening in 2010 - just months after the Breaking Bad finale. This naturally caught audiences by surprise. By putting together what little clues the show gave audiences regarding when the Gene scenes were actually taking place, even sharp-eyed viewers were off by years.
A fan [via Reddit] did some deep-diving into the Better Call Saul timeline to find specific details regarding the time span in which Gene Takavic's flash-forwards take place. Based on a shift calendar shown on-screen, the viewer theorized that Gene was shown working at Cinnabon in either the spring of 2011 or the winter of 2013. The fan then went on to alter the prediction to July 2014 due to Cinnabon flavor releases. Granted, others suggested that the company's marketing more likely corresponded with when the scenes were filmed, not when they were intended to take place. While this analysis ended up being wrong, like any Better Call Saul fan theory, it reveals how detail-oriented the show's viewers have become, fully aware that the tiniest details could lead to the biggest reveals.
Knowing how keenly audiences have been watching for clues about the Better Call Saul timeline, the show went out of the way to show Gene living in Omaha while it was snowing, which suggested a winter or early spring timeframe. In one particular scene, Gene was driving a car with a 2012 license plate. Before the prequel confirmed exactly when the Gene sequences were set, the consensus was that they were at least within three years of Breaking Bad's conclusion. This is exactly why Gilligan and Gould kept the truth about the Better Call Saul timeline hidden from audiences for so long.
The Better Call Saul timeline reveal not only succeeded in surprising even the most meticulous audiences, but it also perfectly set up Jimmy McGill's final courtroom testimony. Indeed, no one really guessed that Gene Takavic's exploits were actually happening so close to the final moments of Breaking Bad. Most viewers were tricked into believing that Gene could actually spend years without breaking the law and going back to the only thing that ever made him feel alive. This is the real reason why the gorgeous black and white scenes with Gene are set in 2010: it illustrates that Slippin' Jimmy, regardless of the circumstances, can never keep his hands clean for too long. The authorities just needed to wait for a couple of months before Jimmy compromised himself.
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Gene's downfall happening in the same year as the Breaking Bad finale reveals how Saul Goodman's strength - his love of the game - was also his worst weakness. This was essentially why he couldn't fully become Gene. In real life, the slick and finger gun-toting Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman did things and wore suits that were practically unimaginable in Gene's Cinnabon timeline.
Better Call Saul is a perfect example of how the use of different timelines can enhance a character's journey and even justify a one-episode redemption arc. With the events of Breaking Bad and the Gene timeline being so close, no wonder Saul Goodman was still at the top of his game. When Jimmy finally confessed to all his crimes in front of Kim Wexler, state prosecutors, and the victims of Walter White's drug empire, he used the game to finally kill Breaking Bad's Saul Goodman in hopes of securing redemption for Better Call Saul's Jimmy McGill. Setting the Gene timeline so close to Breaking Bad was just one piece of the puzzle in how the show pulled off Jimmy's secretly happy ending in Better Call Saul.