What exactly is the significance of that watch?
The final season of Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould's Better Call Saul brought about the highly anticipated return of Breaking Bad's iconic, beloved duo, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Cranston and Paul reprised their roles for the first time in Season 6, Episode 11, appropriately titled "Breaking Bad," a perfect callback to Bob Odenkirk's first appearance in Breaking Bad as Saul Goodman in the Season 2 episode titled "Better Call Saul."
Cranston's final cameo appears about 30 minutes into the Better Call Saul series finale, and there is one brief, but pivotal moment during the 7-minute cameo that Breaking Bad fans certainly did not miss. Let's break down Cranston's last cameo, Saul's time-travel question, and most importantly, the significance of that watch.
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After Saul manages to whittle down his 30-year sentence to a miraculous 7 years in the present timeline, we are shown a flashback of a conversation between Saul and Walt in Ed "The Disappearer" Galbraith's (Robert Forster) hideout as they wait for him to set up their new identities. In the Breaking Bad timeline, this scene takes place during the events of Breaking Bad Season 5, Episode 15, "Granite State," the series penultimate episode.
The bunker scene in the Better Call Saul finale opens with the flip of a light switch and a persistent clicking sound as Saul wakes up to Walt tinkering around (as per usual, with the heaping patience of a single teaspoon) with a broken water heater. Now wide awake, Saul casually asks Walt what he would do, "from a scientist's point of view," if he had a time machine. The question clearly holds a deeper meaning, as we see Jimmy asked this same hypothetical question to Mike (Jonathan Banks) in the episode's opening flashback to their long trek through the desert in Season 5.
Walt, of course, scoffs in disgust, personally offended that he would ask him such a "meaningless question" and snaps at him to stay in his lane. Saul, however, persists, and tells him it's just a simple thought experiment: if he had a time machine, would he go back and change anything? "You are not talking about a time machine, which is both a real and theoretical impossibility," Walt says with a disgruntled sigh. "You are talking about regrets. So if you want to ask about regrets, just ask about regrets. And leave all this time-travel nonsense out of it." He then glances down at the watch sitting on the bedside table.
Breaking Bad fans will recognize the Tag Heuer Monaco wristwatch, which Jesse gave to Walt for his 51st birthday in Season 5, Episode 4, "Fifty-One." The close-up of the watch is brief, but it is pivotal. Although Walt proceeds to tell Saul his greatest regret is walking away from Gray Matter Technologies, his lingering glance down at the watch clearly suggests that Walt's biggest regret is not in fact his messy history with Gretchen (Jessica Hecht) and Elliott Schwartz (Adam Godley), but his abusive treatment of his former business partner. In the Gilligan-verse timeline, we know that 6 months later during the Breaking Bad series finale, Walt leaves his hideout spot in his remote New Hampshire cabin and frees Jesse from his imprisonment under Jack (Michael Bowen), psychotic Todd (Jesse Plemons), and the neo-Nazis. This quick shot in the Better Call Saul finale of Walt glancing down at the watch is more than a simple Easter egg, but a crucial indication that Walt harbors guilt over what happened to Jesse, which eventually leads him to the events of the Breaking Bad finale.
Walt's acknowledgment of the watch, and in turn his silent admission of guilt for how he treated Jesse, stands in stark contrast to Saul's response when Walt turns the question back over to him. Despite all the suffering that Saul has caused at this point in the timeline – to Chuck (Michael McKean), to Hank (Dean Norris), to Marie (Betsy Brandt), to Howard (Patrick Fabian), just to name a few – Saul's biggest regret, he tells Walt, is a good ol' "slip and fall" from when he was younger, which caused him to permanently injure his knee. Even though we don't know it yet at this point in the episode, it's clear that Saul is not telling the truth. Despite asking Walt and Mike (to whom he also feeds a shallow answer) about their regrets, Saul clearly is not ready to admit to his own. It isn't until later in the episode that it is heavily implied that his deepest regret is his relationship with his brother Chuck, particularly his actions which led to Chuck taking his own life in Season 3.
After he gives Walt his clearly-bullshit answer, Walt stands up and looks at him with barely disguised disgust and says, "So, you were always like this." Walt may not have been entirely truthful with Saul when he spoke of his regrets, but his glance down at Jesse's watch is a clear indication to viewers that deep down, Walt – despite being an almost completely unapologetic villain by the end of Breaking Bad – can admit to making some major mistakes. Perhaps at this point, he is even secretly planning how he can rescue Jesse. If not, we know that he is at least grappling with deep-seated guilt about how he left him. The moment is a heartbreaking callback to Jesse's suffering at the hands of Walter White, and it adds another layer of understanding to the complicated dynamic that is Heisenberg and his long-suffering partner.
Rae Torres is a Senior TV/Movie Feature Writer and an 8th grade English Language Arts teacher. When she isn't in the classroom, you can find her hanging out with her husband, stepson, and their three cats, Raisin, Gollum, and Smeagol. Interests include reading all Cosmere-related content from fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, watching anything and everything Jon Bernthal appears in, and aggressively defending Taylor Swift.
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