'Better Call Saul' charts 'darker' path to Saul Goodman

With Breaking Bad in the rear-view mirror, Better Call Saul is cruising into Season 2.

In the final moments of the Bad prequel's first season, scrappy attorney Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) drove off into the New Mexico sunset. Still reeling from his brother's betrayal, and allowing $1.6 million to slip through his fingers, he vowed to never let his moral compass steer him wrong again.

But when AMC's comedic drama picks up Feb. 15 (10 p.m. ET/PT), Jimmy hasn't yet adopted his seedy alter ego Saul Goodman: an accomplice to drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) for four seasons of the critically adored Bad.

'Breaking Bad': Where are they now?

Set six years before the events of Bad, Saul arrived last February on a wave of expectations ranging from cautious excitement to deep skepticism among those who loved the hit drama, which ended in 2013 with series-high ratings and a shelf full of Emmy Awards. But while Cranston's cancer-stricken teacher-turned-meth-kingpin was an instantly compelling antihero, Odenkirk's smooth-talking lawyer was less obviously so, and mostly served as Bad's comic relief.

The challenge for co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould was to figure out how the well-intentioned Jimmy could convincingly transition into the corruptible sleazebag viewers saw in Bad, all the while making him a tragic, sympathetic protagonist. It's a gamble that ultimately paid off with strong ratings, Emmy Award nominations for best drama series and actor (Odenkirk), and a loyal fan base of Saul's own.

"The only question we got before the premiere, and maybe even after the first episode aired, was: 'When are we going to see Walt and Jesse (Aaron Paul)? Are we going to see Walt at the car wash?' " Gould says. "There was a lot of focus, understandably, on the two characters from Breaking Bad, but then after a few episodes aired, people started asking about characters that are new on this show. That's when we felt the show was starting to stand on its own."

But Jimmy's slippery descent into Saul isn't immediate in Season 2, although we do get another glimpse of his dire fate: managing a Cinnabon in Omaha with an assumed name, Gene.

'Saul' fans can get sweet deal at Cinnabon

Writing the new episodes, "we started out with that intention: 'OK, now he's going to go off and really break bad,' to use a familiar expression," Gilligan says. "But then we said to ourselves, 'Is that too much, too soon?' "

Says Gould: "In Season 1, we really expected that by episode 10, he would be in that ridiculous office, wearing those suits and calling himself Saul Goodman. But what we found was the character wasn't ready for any of those things. We're not trying to slow things down necessarily, but we're also not feeling this pressure that we hadn't done our jobs if he hadn't arrived at Saul Goodman by the end of the season."

That said, "he takes some detours that I wasn't expecting," Gould says. "Sometimes it seems like he's moving toward the light, when we know that eventually, the only light he's moving toward is the light of one of those crazy ties."

Tracking Jimmy's evolution meant pinpointing who matters most to him, specifically: Chuck (Michael McKean), his older brother, who prevented Jimmy from getting a lucrative job at his law firm; and Jimmy's litigator girlfriend and cheerleader, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).

"The first season was so painful for this character and he got so deeply hurt," Odenkirk says. But Season 2 finds Jimmy more confident and newly employed, although he still has plenty of baggage to unpack with Chuck. "These guys are still brothers, even after what happened last season. They're connected, and those feelings are going to have to sort themselves out."

His relationship with Kim also becomes more complicated, as she playfully carries out a scam with Jimmy in the season opener and, later, begrudgingly ignores his shady dealings involving Bad's Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks). Her wild side "makes Jimmy feel even more accepted and that he has a real, long-term shot with this great girl who can enjoy that side of him," Odenkirk says. At the same time, "she's trying to live by society's rules and find Jimmy's place in her life."

'Saul' puts Odenkirk 'through the wringer'

Kim inspires Jimmy to be his best self, but Seehorn doesn't see her as his savior.

"She just wants to warn him of the consequences of his actions," she says. "A lot of people are like, 'What's her attraction to him?' But I find them both to be loners and people who put on the right costume for the right environment. And yet, with each other, there's a bit of a mask-off thing. He's my confidant as much as she is his, and she's struggling with the black and white of morals and ethics as well."

Overall, "I find Season 2 darker in a really fun way," Seehorn adds. "From even darker comedy and humor, to darker criminal elements, to the internal and external character stuff, everything got racheted up. There are more plates spinning and more parallel trains running toward the wall."

New-to-Saul characters, such as the fan-favorite Kettleman couple, may return in Season 2, Gould says, and so, potentially, will some major players from the Bad universe.

"If you watch Season 2, you're going to see a lot of faces you didn't think you'd ever see again, except at a Breaking Bad reunion," Odenkirk says. "In a weird way, it's a bigger thrill than you'd expect when it happens, because you forgot."

By the end of the season, viewers may also see a more fully realized transformation by Jimmy into Saul Goodman, although "I don't feel it's ultimately as incremental as you might think," Odenkirk says. "Every move is earned. That character Saul Goodman is a big choice that Jimmy makes after a big event in his life. I can't say any more about that."

Why it takes Vince Gilligan so long to make each season of 'Better Call Saul'

As for how much gas is left in Saul's tank, Gilligan says he has no end game in mind, nor do producers know just how far in Bad's timeline the show will travel.

"It seemed like a no-brainer when we started," Gilligan says. "We know the guy turns into Saul Goodman, but the exact path that he takes is still very much a mystery to us. Generally speaking, for a show to show profits and be economically rewarding for everyone involved, you want at least about five seasons. But is that one season too many? Is that two or three seasons too few? It's hard to tell at this point."

If Saul is renewed for a third season (which it likely will be), he and Gould can then map out a clearer path for Jimmy.

"At this point, the headlights on this car only reach so far into the night," Gould says. "I'm hoping if we go down the road a little further, we'll get a sense of how much further the road goes."