Ominous citrus has returned to the Breaking Bad universe.
*Spoilers for Better Call Saul Season 5 follow*
As you may have spotted in the most recent Better Call Saul entry "Bad Choice Road," presuming you're all caught up on the spinoff that's somehow managed to be just as brilliant as its predecessor, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) is seen in the penultimate episode of Season 5 whipping up some fresh-squeezed orange juice and making a bit of a mess while doing so.
As episode director/writer Thomas Schnauz has since explained via the Breaking Bad Insider podcast, this was intentionally designed to sew anxiety among viewers who were worried about Kim’s fate. Furthermore, the Breaking Bad universe—like The Godfather before it—has put foreboding oranges to good use before.
"Kim with the oranges, everybody likes to find these things that mean oh, a character is going to die," Schnauz said, per Showbiz Cheat Sheet. "The oranges are from The Godfather. We did that with Ted Beneke in Breaking Bad. He runs and trips and knocks over a bowl of oranges and basically breaks his neck and he’s put out of commission. So have the oranges."
Walter White's ominous reappearance at his Albuquerque home in the final season of Breaking Bad was also greeted by a spillage of oranges.
Other moments in the episode, as Uproxx and other viewers pointed out and as confirmed by Schnauz, are also tucked into the tense Saul entry for similar intended effect. When Kim looks through Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk)'s bag, for example, a certain shot in that sequence is clearly crafted to make the viewer feel as though she's looking—per Schnauz—"through the mug with the bullet hole almost like a sight directed on her."
Later in the episode, during its most tense moments, Kim (alongside Jimmy and Lalo) is seen from [redacted]'s sniper perspective.
The finale for the penultimate season of Better Call Saul hits on 4/20, and if the citrus and everything we know about BrBa-era Saul's life are to be believed, fans can likely expect some artful fuckery of the most heartbreaking sort.
