Better Call Saul Season 5 Sneak Peek Clip

Better Call Saul, which has been missing in action since 2018’s Season 4, makes a long-awaited return on AMC this Sunday with Season 5, which will stand as the show’s penultimate season. Den of Geek has you covered on the series centered on Breaking Bad’s spun-off sleazy solicitor, including an advance spoiler-free review of the first handful of episodes.

In the meantime, here’s a new sneak peek clip from Better Call Saul Season 5.

The setting of said scene – a madcap makeshift carnival tent law office – will undoubtedly be familiar to anyone who’s been keeping up with the trailers and TV spots for the upcoming frame. However, this clip shows the apparent full realization of the perpetually-teased metamorphosis of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into his titular nom de guerre, Saul Goodman, dealing out advice that’s dubious in the ideally ethical sphere of legal counseling, and revisiting the now-signature dongle of his illicit agency, burner phones, this time conveniently preconfigured with his number on speed dial.

Further Reading: Better Call Saul: Giancarlo Esposito On Gus’s Vulnerability in Season 5

Indeed, Jimmy/Saul has embraced his newfound modus operandi of helping out folks like “fellas who occasionally, through no fault of their own, find themselves in a donnybrook or two – a knuckleduster, a fist fight,” to those “who partake in the herb of the Earth” to wandering women of the night who are “popular with the fellas,” dealing with “a misunderstanding with the boys in blue.” – It’s the kind of clientele we saw occupying the waiting room of Saul’s eventual strip mall location seen on Breaking Bad. Yet, the clip’s tent setting is also symbolic of his status as a carny, if you will, of the legal world, having left behind the conceit of legitimacy he nursed in the prequel-spinoff’s early seasons; an aspect of himself that died with his tortured-but-respectably-austere brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), upon learning of his death at the beginning of Season 4.

Further Reading: Better Call Saul Season 5: Bob Odenkirk Puts on His Saul Goodman Game Face

However, while Jimmy’s fate-designated transformation is seemingly complete here, the raised stakes of Season 5 are designed to set up Better Call Saul’s endgame with a series finale in Season 6. In the meantime, the literal circus that is Jimmy’s legal career is clearly designed to facilitate a (most likely tragic) climax for his relationship with girlfriend Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), whose own journey on the series has been defined by a personal ethical quandary about her own lawyerly practices after being led down several primrose paths by Jimmy. However, the latest such path, one with Jimmy as Saul Goodman, might be the one she finally refuses.

Better Call Saul Season 5 premieres on AMC on Sunday, February 23. It will be immediately followed up with the second episode on the next night for its timeslot debut on Monday, February 24.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.