Better Call Saul is the crime drama that chronicles the life of Jimmy McGill and his transformation into criminal attorney Saul Goodman. The successful show is a prequel to Breaking Bad that from its first season brought back several characters from the original series to develop the story. But not only have they been on screen all this time, some props also make subtle references to the original AMC series. (Spoilers for Season 6 Episode 2)
With the long-awaited premiere of Better Call Saul season 6 approaching, fans of AMC’s crime drama were surprised by the return of a pair of characters not seen since the series’ first installment. The Kettlemans, a pair of con artists named Craig (Jeremy Shamos) and Betsy Kettleman (Julie Ann Emery), in episode 2 were visited by Saul Goodman, who initially made them an offer that later turned into an act of extortion.
It turns out that the Kettlemans run their fraud business out of a trailer located in the middle of the desert. When Saul Goodman disembarked from his vehicle, before entering the establishment he first bowed to a conspicuously large fixture installed in the parking lot. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan confirmed that this is the same prop that appeared in the original series, an inflatable Statue of Liberty balloon.
Gilligan was a guest on the Better Call Saul Insider podcast on April 19, the day after the second episode of the Better Call Saul season 6 premiere aired. The creator of Breaking Bad, was in charge of directing this installment and shared, along with co-writer Thomas Schnauz, how and why they brought back both the Kettlemans and this important article.
It turns out that this Statue of Liberty balloon that appeared in Better Call Saul season 6 episode 2 is the same one that Saul Goodman has in his office at the mall in Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan confirmed during his speech when asked. he asked if this was true.
“It’s the same Lady Liberty, sure she is,” Gilligan said on Better Call Saul Insider. “It’s so damn big. This is so weird. I recorded this, I was present even when I wasn’t directing Breaking Bad. I would be on the roof of the mall. And it didn’t seem that big up there. When you’re standing at the base of this thing, it’s as tall as a telephone pole. It’s huge. It’s 30 feet tall.”
“It didn’t take long to go looking for it because we had it,” Gilligan said. “What required a lot of thought and a lot of meetings and discussions was that it was very windy. We were shooting in a Native Land area on a reservation northwest of downtown Albuquerque and it was very windy in that area. The fear was that this is the only balloon we have. This is the only Lady Liberty we have. It was impossible to find a duplicate.”
Considering this is the same article, you have to wonder what Saul Goodman did in Better Call Saul to appropriate the Kettlemans’ remarkable balloon. Recall that in episode 2 broadcast on Monday, April 18, the character of Bob Odenkirk and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) is extorting Craig and Betsy to achieve his goal against Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), which means that the statue that first appeared in Breaking bad did not come out of nowhere.
