Bad-Der Call Saul

Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul returns for season 4 (premiering Aug. 6 at 9 p.m.), and as the two worlds start to merge, new sides of Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill emerge.

- Dan Snierson

IT’S MONDAY MORNING IN ALBUQUERQUE, AND Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn are playing Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler, who are playing a dopey brother–frazzled sister team, who are playing an employee in a local-government office: Their elaborate ruse involves crutches, a leaking container of breast milk, and stealth document swapping. “It’s the classic breast-milk con,” deadpans Odenkirk during a break. “It’s been done for so long—since they discovered breast milk.” “Same as the shell game, really,” adds Seehorn. Surveying the shady scene, co-creator Vince Gilligan coyly offers: “It’s one small slip for Jimmy, one big one for Kim.”

The next day, the scheming has been replaced by screaming. Jimmy leaps out of his beat-up Esteem on a parking-garage roof and drops some life-altering news on Kim. When Kim’s reaction falls short of expectations, he lashes out, and things are said by both that may forever change this intriguing, important, and ill-defined relationship. “If they’re on a roller-coaster ride this season, this is that last terrifying drop,” teases Gilligan. “You’re not sure if the wheels are going to come off or not.”