This article contains spoilers for Better Call Saul season 6 episode 12.

The first time a character on Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul kills someone intentionally on-screen, it’s always a tipping point in the series. Walter White (Bryan Cranston) spent an entire episode mulling his first murder, complete with composing a pros and cons list, to ultimately settle on killing Krazy-8 (Max Arciniega) with a bike lock. Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) stands distraught in front of Gale Boetticher’s (David Costabile) door before he pulls the trigger on Gus Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) main meth cook.

Jimmy McGill a.k.a. Saul Goodman a.k.a. Gene Takovic (Bob Odenkirk) has never become violent in this manner. However, there is a point in the show’s penultimate episode, “Waterworks,” in which it felt like this moment of truth was tantalizingly palpable. When Gene arrives to ask Marion (Carol Burnett) to...