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Better Call Saul’s Vet Cameo Explains A Season 6 Easter Egg
A season 6 cameo from Better Call Saul's resident criminal vet explains a strange Easter egg that appeared earlier this season. What does it mean?

Better Call Saul’s Vet Cameo Explains A Season 6 Easter Egg

Thanks to a Better Call Saul season 6 cameo, we now know the meaning behind one more Easter egg from Saul Goodman’s home. Replacing the traditional black-and-white Gene sequence, Better Call Saul‘s season 6 premier opened with a clearance of Saul Goodman’s house sometime in the future, and as workers rifled through the lawyer’s belongings, Easter eggs aplenty were unearthed. Many were already familiar – the CC Mobile ping pong balls, the LWYRUP Cadillac, the electric guitar, etc. Others have surfaced over the course of Better Call Saul season 6 – the cuddly owl toy Jimmy tried bribing the courthouse administrator with, for instance.

In “Axe & Grind,” Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler find themselves calling upon Dr. Caldera. First appearing in Better Call Saul season 1, Caldera is a vet by day, criminal gateway by night. Whether it be drugs, crooks, or a quick escape, Caldera can make it happen and treat your dog’s flea problem while he’s at it. Finishing up his latest deal with Jimmy, Caldera expresses a desire to leave criminal moonlighting behind and focus solely on animals. He reveals the source of his power is a little black book filled with criminal contacts (such as Ed Galbraith) written in a complex cipher illegible to the untrained eye. Caldera plans to start a new life elsewhere by selling this phone book for a hefty price.

Caldera’s black book can be spotted among Saul Goodman’s possessions in Better Call Saul season 6’s hypnotic opening house clearing sequence. One clearance worker hands it to another, who then opens the cover to reveal Caldera’s unmistakable coded scrawls and tosses the book into a box alongside the CC Mobile balls and the Mesa Verde horse photo. The way Better Call Saul‘s roving camera lingers upon Saul Goodman’s clandestine contact list immediately signified its importance, but since this item’s backstory wouldn’t become clear until episode 6, the meaning flew entirely over audience heads. Caldera’s cameo in “Axe & Grind” neatly fills that gap. 

The big question now is how Dr. Caldera’s black book of baddies winds up in Saul Goodman’s possession. The most obvious explanation is Jimmy and Kim use their cartel money (or perhaps even their Sandpiper winnings) to make Caldera’s dreams come true. They pay him for the book, the vet spends the remainder of his days rescuing cats, and Saul effectively takes Caldera’s place as Albuquerque’s go-to man for mischief. On the other hand, Jimmy and Kim’s future is looking increasingly dark as their Howard Hamlin scam tiptoes into more morally murky territory than ever before. Now they know Caldera’s big secret (showing them the book does feel like a major goof), will Better Call Saul‘s Bonnie & Clyde hatch a plan to take that black notepad by any means necessary? Or perhaps there’s a middle ground between those two theories – some disgruntled third party offs Dr. Caldera, then Jimmy swoops in to nab the treasure trove left behind.

However he gets hold of it, Better Call Saul‘s black book reveal helps explain Jimmy McGill’s future role in Breaking Bad. Saul Goodman is the man Walter White and Jesse Pinkman will one day rely upon for criminal underworld contacts. Very rarely does Saul not “know a guy” for any given situation. Jimmy hasn’t quite reached that status as of Better Call Saul season 6’s midway point, but buying/stealing Caldera’s book and inheriting the vet’s fix-it gig bridges the gap between Jimmy’s prequel present and what Saul eventually becomes in Breaking Bad.