SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen episode 6 of Better Call Saul Season 6 entitled Ax and Grind.
Giancarlo Esposito didn’t appear in the latest episode of Better Call Saul, but that was because he was busy behind the camera directing this pivotal episode, the penultimate entry in the first half of Season 6.
“Ax and Grind” covered a lot, set in Albuquerque, Germany, a long highway to Santa Fe and even a flashback to Kim Wexler’s (Rhea Seehorn) childhood. The episode began and ended with Kim reaching her heartbreaking “moment of doom,” according to Esposito. In the final moments, Kim drives to Santa Fe to apply for an important job at a legal foundation, but Saul (Bob Odenkirk) frantically calls her and warns her that her “D-Day” scam Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian ) has encountered difficulties. Rather than delay her plot any longer, Kim makes a U-turn in the middle of the street, gives up her career opportunity, and returns to Albuquerque to finish the job.
Elsewhere, Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) continues his reign of terror in Germany and finds Casper (Stefan Kapičić), one of the workers who built Gus’ meth super lab. He searches for dirt on Gus, but is briefly knocked out by an ax in the side. However, Lalo gains the upper hand by slashing Casper’s face with a hidden razor blade and hacking through one of his legs.
The episode also introduces one of the most important but rarely seen characters in the world of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”: the vacuum cleaner. dr Caldera, the seedy vet who’s been patching Saul and Mike (Jonathan Banks) throughout the series, reveals he keeps an encrypted notebook of illegal contacts. Inside the book is a map for Ed Galbraith (Robert Forster), who specializes in fixing vacuum cleaners and making people disappear when they’re in trouble.
Esposito, who has directed three feature films alongside his roles as Gus in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, speaks to Variety about his directorial debut on the AMC series, finding a German barn in Albuquerque, and why he believes in it Kim is actually a good person.
How did you come to direct this particular episode?
When I was working on Breaking Bad, I gave Vince Gilligan my second film. Years later, when we were getting ready to do 401 of Breaking Bad, that infamous episode “Box Cutter,” I asked him if he’d watched it, and he said, “No, I haven’t had a chance.” I said, “Well, you’ve been a busy bee.” I never asked again; That was almost 10 years ago, but I watched and watched what was going on. The summer before we started filming, I got a call from Vince and I thought something had happened to one of the cast members: “Oh what happened, did Jonathan Banks pass out?” It was Vince, Melissa Bernstein and Peter Gould: ” We’d like to invite you to direct one episode in Season 6.” They didn’t know which one and I just screamed. Good things come to those who wait. Through their conversations, they thought that 606 would best suit my personality.
What elements of the episode matched your personality?
My particular episode has some edgy violence in it. I haven’t made many violent films; My films are more intellectual, more about social awareness. I think they wanted to give me a chance to shoot a very tricky scene that took place in Germany with Lalo Salamanca and Casper. I think that might have been part of it. It was also an episode that was very complicated in their planning, what Kim and Jimmy were going to do, how they were going to implement that whole plan on Howard. However, there were moments with Howard’s story, which is lovely, that could have some softness and a desire for Howard and his wife to get back together, and that doesn’t really happen. I think everyone knew I had been through marriage, was very close on the other end with my ex-wife, and had kids, but we’re not dating. Maybe they were looking at the sensitive side of me to direct some of it. Nobody knows I had this side, so don’t tell anyone.
Where did you film the Lalo scene in Germany? The show is usually held in Albuquerque, how did you give this area a new look?
Our wonderful decorator found an old barn in the valley in Albuquerque. I went to the studio where they had an old set of something else. They said we could do the inside here and the outside there. We ended up going into the barn owned by a 90 year old woman out in the valley. It had the nice feel of what would be in a German barn. It was a horse stable and we wanted it to be a stable that looks like it has Casper’s machines – he’s an engineer. Hay was already there; It was the perfect interior.
The exterior was across from Sandia, NM. It really resembles Germany. But we didn’t have enough green; it wasn’t the season. I said, ‘Can we just get someone to come here with a water truck and water every day? Every day for the next two weeks before we had to shoot, just soak the soil.” We got the Greens guys out there and planted a few extra trees. It worked flawlessly thanks to the creativity of so many great artists.
Kim doing the U-turn at the very end is a perfect symbol of choosing the Sandpiper scam over her own career. Is this the turning point for Kim?
It’s a heartbreaking moment for me in this episode, and I wanted it to reflect a very important decision in Kim’s life and her life with Jimmy. She has this opportunity that she has wanted her entire career; She’s going to walk into this room and make it happen. Is it out of love that she makes this decision, or is it the excitement of the hilt? Whatever that is, this about-face is a perfect analogy for it. It’s a turning point in her life.
She’s going to Santa Fe and has to go back to Albuquerque. We had this one street, and we wanted it to look like it was closer to its destination than its exit zone. That was difficult which mountains to use. We found the right road and it was perfect because it had two lanes on each side with a split where we could actually do the stunt. We had a lucky accident where we went a little too far over our cone route. Clouds formed in the passenger window as we spot Kim from the driver’s side just as she hangs up and makes that decision. We probably had it all in a take or two, maybe a take and a half. It was enough to create that moment of doom in her psyche.
There aren’t many flashbacks used on the show, but they’re always very intentional. What does this opening with young Kim and her mother hint at about her future?
We all have moments that we remember with our parents. We remember how it affected us negatively or positively. This moment for me is a reflection of Kim’s whole life and who she actually becomes. I firmly believe that Kim is a good person and probably has deeper legal skills than Jimmy. And yet she succumbs to the other life; how long we don’t know.
In this scene you can see some connections through the episode if you look closely. The earrings are important because Kim wears the same earrings practically her whole life. You see her again in the vet’s office; If you notice these are the same earrings. They meant something to her. She needed a slap on the hand: “No, we won’t do that.” But it was all theater. She was probably content to be reprimanded by her mother for doing something wrong, needed that parental guidance, and then is blown away when her mother comes out and says, “Look what I have for you.” It was all on Trick. This is heartbreaking. I think it breaks her in a way that relates to the decision she makes at the end of the episode.
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