Every Breaking Bad Reference You Missed in Monday's Better Call Saul
Editor's Note: Need a will? Call McGill. Need spoilers for Breaking Bad and Episodes 1-6 of Better Call Saul? Read this, plus everything else in our Better Call Saul Recap hub.
Since you're only watching Better Call Saul so you can be all "DUDE, THE BENCH IN THE TITLE SEQUENCE OF THE FIFTH EPISODE OF BETTER CALL SAUL IS THE SAME BENCH BADGER SITS ON IN THE INTRO TO THE EIGHTH EPISODE OF SEASON TWO OF BREAKING BAD!!!!!!!!," you're gonna want to read this: six Breaking Bad references you totally missed in Better Call Saul's "Five-O."
1. No, that's not the train from Breaking Bad, but it is running on the same tracks
The train we see in the opening sequence of Better Call Saul's "Five-O" is a New Mexico Rail Runner Express (you can see it scrawled in tiny letters across the front of the locomotive), which runs along the Santa Fe Southern Railway -- a railway that carries passenger trains and also... FREIGHT TRAINS WITH 300-GALLON METHYLAMINE TANKERS. Yup, this is the same rail line that appears in "Dead Freight" in Season 5 of Breaking Bad. Shazam.
2. Mike takes a bullet like a champ
In the opening sequence we see him dressing a gunshot wound (with a maxi-pad he gets in a train station women's restroom!) that he took while murdering a couple Philly cops who gunned down his kid. In Breaking Bad's "Madrigal" in Season 5, we see him checking a gunshot wound he took while Gus was murdering 80 gazillion cartel dudes. Both times he takes the bullets like a freaking champ. Both times he also gets shot on the left side of his torso.
3. The cab driver's name is Francisco Fernandez. Now where have you seen that name before?
Try the Breaking Bad credits. Francisco Fernandez was an assistant to the executive producers for 35 episodes. Hat. Tip.
4. Mike's son did a pretty good job hiding his dirty money (OMG, just like Walt!!!)
His daughter-in-law tells us she found a suitcase with money sewn into the lining, which we find out contained the same amount of money Mike convinced Matty to take from Hoffman and Finsky. And while Walt doesn't hide his in any suitcase linings, he does in 1) a heating vent, 2) a vacuum cleaner, 3) a crawl space, 4) a storage unit, and 5) barrels in the middle of the desert.
5. Mike's a whiskey drinker, but especially when someone gets killed
In Breaking Bad's "Thirty-Eight Snub" in Season 4, Mike is drinking whiskey at a bar, and Walt shows up and buys him a second round. Mike's on this bender right after Victor has his throat box-cutted. In Better Call Saul's flashback in Philly, he's again drinking whiskey, and this time it's right after Matty's killed.
6. That tarantula reference by the Philly bartender? Yeah, it was on purpose.
"Tarantulas they got, that's a big minus in my book," the bartender tells Mike. "Well, I will be on the lookout," Ehrmantraut responds. In Breaking Bad's "Dead Freight" -- right before the methylamine train heist, which Mike watches from afar with binoculars (ON THE LOOKOUT!) -- the boy on the dirt bike (who Friday Night Lights Landry kills) traps a tarantula in a jar. The tarantula later reemerges in Todd's possession. PLUS, there's also a toy tarantula in the ATM-stealing junkie couple's kid's room in Season 2 of Breaking Bad.
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Grant Marek is a Senior Editor at Thrillist and has definitely never seen a tarantula before on a hike, screamed, and hid behind his wife. Definitely. Follow his manly ways on Twitter: @grant_marek.