Breaking Bad is a crime drama franchise created by American filmmaker Vince Gilligan. It started with the television series Breaking Bad (2008–13), and was followed by a prequel/sequel series, Better Call Saul (2015–22), and a sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). The following is an abridged list of characters appearing across the productions.
Main characters
Cast table
Introduced in Breaking Bad
Walter White
Walter Hartwell White (also known by his alias Heisenberg) (played by Bryan Cranston) is an overqualified high school chemistry teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico. After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he starts manufacturing methamphetamine to provide for his family upon his death. Knowing nothing about the drug trade, he enlists the aid of his former student, Jesse Pinkman, to sell the meth he produces. Walter's scientific knowledge and dedication to quality leads him to produce crystal meth that is purer and more potent than any competitors'. To avoid the tedious collection of pseudoephedrine required for production, Walter devises an alternative chemical process utilizing methylamine, giving his product a distinctive blue color. His methamphetamine, which is given the street name "Blue Sky", dominates the market, leading to confrontations with established drug makers and dealers. Walter is initially opposed to the use of violence, but gradually comes to see it as a necessity. He also comes to find his new status as a drug lord psychologically rewarding, leading him to become increasingly willing to resort to criminal acts such as theft, extortion, money laundering, depraved indifference, and murder. Walter's descent, Macbeth-like, into the criminal underworld unearths immense levels of deeply repressed ambition, rage, resentment, vanity, and an increasing ruthlessness which alienates him from his family and colleagues.
Skyler White
Skyler White (née Lambert) (played by Anna Gunn) is Walter's wife. She has had several meager sources of income: writing short stories, selling items on eBay, working as a bookkeeper, and ultimately helping her husband launder money. Skyler and Walter have a son, Walter Jr., and an infant daughter, Holly. Skyler and Walt's marriage becomes increasingly strained due to his unexplained absences and bizarre behavior, ultimately leading to their separation. In season 3, she deduces that Walter is a drug dealer, resolving to divorce him and keep him away from their children. Yet, when Walter implores her to understand his reasons for manufacturing meth, Skyler relents in her opposition to his presence within their home. She also begins getting involved in Walter's criminal life, using his money to pay for her brother-in-law Hank's medical bills following an attack on his life. After meeting Saul Goodman, Skyler concocts a plan to feasibly launder Walter's money through a car wash where he had recently worked part time. The plan is successful, and in seasons 4 and 5, Skyler launders Walter's money through the car wash, though she remains deeply unhappy about their situation. In the final 2 seasons, she becomes increasingly fearful of Walter given that he is slowly becoming more of a hardened criminal. After Walter kills Gus Fring, Skyler's fears are fully realized, and she attempts to distance their children from her and Walter, staging a suicide attempt so that Hank and her sister Marie will temporarily take their children in. She tells Walter that she will be a complicit partner in whatever capacity so long as their children are not living with them. When Walter quits the drug business, he and Skyler begin rebuilding their relationship and their family life until Hank discovers Walt is Heisenberg. When in the episode "Buried", Skyler's DEA brother-in-law Hank tells her he is on to Walt but needs her help to provide sufficient evidence to build a successful case, Skyler replies that she needs a lawyer and later tells Walt they should remain quiet. When Hank is killed, she and Walter fight, and he abducts Holly. Walter uses this as a chance to exonerate Skyler in the eyes of the law, absolving her of any complicity during his drug operations. She is permitted to keep their children; however, she is told that she must find valuable information for the authorities to use against Walter. In the series finale, Walter visits Skyler a final time, admitting to her that his meth business was for him rather than the family; he provides her with the coordinates of Hank and Steve Gomez's whereabouts, imploring her to use them as her escape from his ordeal. In the episode "Breaking Bad" of Better Call Saul, Skyler is mentioned to have gotten a successful plea deal with the prosecutors.
Jesse Pinkman
Jesse Bruce Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul) is a small-time methamphetamine user, manufacturer, and dealer. In high school, he was an indifferent student in Walter White's chemistry class. Now in his mid-20s, Jesse is Walt's business partner in the meth trade. Jesse is impulsive, hedonistic, and uneducated beyond high school, but he is financially ambitious and streetwise. He talks in playful slang, likes to wear garish clothing that follow the latest trends in youth culture, plays video games, listens to rap and rock music, takes recreational drugs, and drives lowriders. Walt treats Jesse like a foolish son in constant need of stern correction. Jesse's own family kicked him out of their house because of his drug use. Despite the friction between them, he and Walt have a deep bond of loyalty. As a result of his relationship with Walt, Jesse becomes an excellent meth cook, ultimately leading others to exploit him. Despite his criminal lifestyle, Jesse is far more empathetic than Walt. He is horrified by the brutality at the higher levels of the drug trade particularly during later seasons, but remains involved with Walt out of necessity and loyalty. He is very protective of children; his desire to keep children out of the violent drug world gives rise to several key events throughout the series. He wrestles with feelings of guilt about the deaths, all drug-related, of people he has been associated with. Towards the end of the fifth season he is overwhelmed by guilt and his "blood money." Realizing how much pain he has caused for money leads him to attempt to give bundles of cash from his final payoff to people he knows and then throw them from his car window onto random lawns and porches. In El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Jesse departs for a new life in Alaska.
Hank Schrader
Henry R. Schrader (played by Dean Norris) is Walt and Skyler's brother-in-law and Marie's husband, who works as a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. He is involved in investigating a meth dealer known as "Heisenberg", unaware for over a year that his prey is actually Walter. Hank has a cavalier exterior, but in reality the dark side of his job affects him more than he cares to admit leading him to suffer from anxiety and post-traumatic stress. In the course of his work, Hank is promoted to El Paso, Texas from Albuquerque for a short time but experiences a traumatic event and moves back to Albuquerque. Despite his brashness, Hank is highly competent at his job and cares deeply about his family. Hank is eventually promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the DEA in Albuquerque but is still determined to solve the "Heisenberg" case, which ultimately leads to his demise. Hank also had guest appearances in the fifth season of Better Call Saul. When Domingo "Krazy-8" Molina is arrested, Jimmy McGill bargains with Hank to make Domingo his confidential informant, which allows Lalo Salamanca to feed information on Gus Fring's operations to the DEA.
Marie Schrader
Marie Schrader (née Lambert) (played by Betsy Brandt) is Skyler's sister, Hank's wife, and Walt's sister-in-law. Marie works as a radiologic technologist. She does not hesitate to offer advice to others but often fails to practice what she preaches. She shoplifts compulsively—apparently a manifest symptom of kleptomania—a behavior for which she sees a therapist. She appears self-centered and shallow but cares deeply for her husband and her sister's family. Nearly all of her household and clothing items are shades of the color purple. In Season 3, Marie becomes a major source of comfort and support for Hank, when The Cousins shoot and nearly kill him. With Walt and Skyler's help, she arranges for Hank to undergo an aggressive physical therapy program their insurance does not cover. When Hank stubbornly decides to stay at the hospital, claiming he is completely disabled, she refuses to give up on him and gives him a handjob to prove he still has feeling below the waist. When he returns home, however, Hank remains cold and brash, despite her attempts to make him comfortable, and Marie spirals back into kleptomania. Once Hank progresses with the case, his relationship with Marie improves again. When Walt and Skyler have marital problems, she takes in their children for a couple of days at Skyler's request while they work things out. In the final season, Hank tells Marie about Walter's criminal activities, and Marie confronts Skyler. When she learns Skyler knew the truth before Hank's shooting, Marie slaps her sister and storms out of the room. She tries to take Holly with her, but Hank commands her to return the baby. She then urges Hank to capture Walter. Marie helps Hank try to stop Walt and Skyler, but Walt foils them when he makes a DVD framing and blackmailing Hank. Marie eagerly offers to help Hank when Jesse agrees to confess about Walt's crimes. She initially does not know that Hank is dead and reconciles with Skyler on the condition that the latter tells Walt Jr. everything. Marie learns that Hank is missing when Walt kidnaps Holly and eventually she receives confirmation he has died. She is later seen two months later in her house, warning Skyler to watch out for Walt. Marie reappears in the series finale of Better Call Saul, present as a witness in the trial of Saul Goodman. Prior to the trial, she castigates Saul for his role in Walt's crimes and the deaths of Hank and Steve, but Saul claims to have been coerced to work for Walt under threat of death. Saul later reverses course during the trial by admitting he willingly helped Walt expand his criminal empire.
Walter White Jr.
Walter Hartwell (Flynn) White Jr. (played by RJ Mitte) is Walter and Skyler's teenage son and Holly's older brother. He has cerebral palsy, as manifested in speech difficulties and impaired motor control, for which he uses crutches (which Mitte, who has a milder variation of cerebral palsy, does not require). Angered by his parents' constant fighting, Walter Jr. tries to establish an independent identity, insisting on being called Flynn and asking his best friend Louis to teach him how to drive. When he discovers that Walt has cancer, Walter Jr. changes his attitude and sets up a website, "www.savewalterwhite.com", which requests and collects donations in an effort to help pay for Walt's cancer treatment. Walt's lawyer, Saul Goodman, arranges for a wave of fictional "donations" drawn from Walter's drug money, in order to launder it and also make Walter Jr.'s efforts appear successful. When Skyler and Walt separate, Walter Jr., given no explanation by either parent, only sees that his mother has (from his point of view) inexplicably thrown his terminally ill father out of the house, and he takes his father's side and stops answering to the name Flynn. Always being "late to the game" (as defined by Mitte on an episode of Talking Bad), Walter Jr. remains oblivious to his father's drug trade life until "Ozymandias", when Marie, confident that Walt is in Hank's custody, forces Skyler to reveal the whole truth to her son. Upon learning of his father's connection with Hank's death, Walter Jr. mistakenly concludes that Walt killed Hank. Feeling betrayed, Jr. calls 911 when Walt fends off Skyler's knife attack, thus forcing Walt to leave and eventually end up on the most wanted list. In "Granite State", Walt attempts to talk to him over the phone and have him retrieve $100,000 that Walt planned to send to Louis's address; however, Walter Jr. (by this time, officially registered in school records as Flynn White) angrily refuses and hangs up. In "Felina", Walt visits Skyler for the final time, and watches from afar as Flynn/Walter Jr. returns to the safe house from school.
Gus Fring
Gustavo Fring (played by Giancarlo Esposito) is the Chilean-born proprietor of Los Pollos Hermanos, a highly successful fried chicken restaurant chain. He is also a public booster for the local DEA office and a member of the hospital board. Despite outward appearances, Gus is a major drug kingpin initially affiliated with the Mexican drug cartel in Ciudad Juárez, who use his restaurants as a front for methamphetamine distribution throughout the American southwest, supported by Los Pollos' corporate owners, Madrigal Electromotive. Like Walter White, Gus is a criminal who "hides in plain sight", using his anti-drug philanthropy to conceal his true nature. As shown in flashback in the Breaking Bad episode "Hermanos", Gus and his business/romantic partner Maximino Arciniega had approached the cartel with the offer to produce and sell meth for the cartel, but Don Eladio had Hector Salamanca kill Max as punishment for going behind Eladio's back, then forced Gus to participate in distributing cartel cocaine. Emigrating to the United States, Gus appeared acquiescent but secretly plotted to exact revenge and eliminate his dependence on the cartel by producing his own meth via a "super lab" hidden beneath an industrial laundry. During the events of Better Call Saul, Gus allies with Mike when Mike finds his own family at risk from the Salamancas, and turns Nacho into a mole within the Salamanca organization after discovering that Nacho caused Hector to have a stroke by secretly replacing Hector's heart medication with fakes. Wanting to be the agent of Hector's death, Gus pays for Hector's recovery but only to the point where he has recovered his mental faculties and can move his right index finger. Gus seizes more of the drug trade from the Salamancas, but when the cartel sends Lalo to replace Hector, Gus is forced to make sacrifices to protect the developing meth lab and Nacho's status as his mole. Gus arranges an assassination attempt on Lalo, but Lalo secretly survives and begins hunting for evidence of Gus's culpability. Gus realizes Lalo is alive and takes extreme security measures to protect himself. He ultimately kills Lalo in a shootout at the lab's construction site, and has him (and Howard Hamlin) buried beneath the lab's foundation. By the events of Breaking Bad, Gus produces and distributes meth instead of cocaine, but still seeks independence from the cartel. He has completed the super lab and plans for Gale to be his cook, but when he discovers the superior quality of Walter's blue meth, he hires Walter and reluctantly allows Jesse to serve as Walter's assistant. This leads to a series of confrontations and fallouts that culminate with Jesse killing Gale at Walter's instigation, saving Walter's life by making him irreplaceable to Gus. The relationship between Jesse and Walter falters as a result of Jesse's guilt, enabling Gus to draw Jesse in as an ally. Gus offers Jesse's services to the cartel as part of a ruse to kill Eladio and eliminate the cartel. Knowing his life is still at risk because Jesse has proved to be nearly as capable as Walter in the lab, Walter goads Jesse into providing information Walter uses to set a trap for Gus. During a visit with Hector at his nursing home, Gus plans to finally end Hector's life, but realizes too late that he has been tricked. Hector rings the bell attached to his wheelchair repeatedly to trigger the bomb Walter planted, which kills Hector, Tyrus, and Gus.
Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman (played by Bob Odenkirk), byname of James Morgan (Jimmy) McGill, is a sleazy and unscrupulous lawyer who acts as Walter and Jesse's attorney and provides some of the series' comic relief. He uses the name "Saul Goodman" because he thinks his clients feel more confident with a Jewish lawyer; this name is also homophonous with the expression "[it]'s all good, man." Dressing in flashy suits, Saul maintains extensive connections within the criminal underworld and serves as a go-between connecting drug distributors, fixers, impersonators, and other criminals-for-hire. Despite his flamboyant appearance and mannerisms—punctuated by his outrageously low-budget TV commercials—Saul is a highly competent lawyer who is able to solve problems and find loopholes in order to protect his clients. He is also reluctant to be associated with violence or murder. Saul's origins are explored in Better Call Saul, the events of which begin about six years before Breaking Bad. Originally a con man nicknamed "Slippin' Jimmy", he is arrested in Chicago after a prank gone wrong, but his older brother Chuck McGill, a partner in an Albuquerque law firm, obtains his release on the condition that Jimmy obtain legitimate employment. Jimmy works in the mailroom of Chuck's firm, and Chuck's legal success inspires Jimmy to become an attorney himself. Chuck does not consider Jimmy a "real" lawyer and surreptitiously conspires to prevent him from joining his firm, relegating Jimmy to low-level cases and public defender work. After Chuck's death and Jimmy's yearlong suspension of his law license, Jimmy returns to practice under the "Saul Goodman" alias, drawing on the criminal clientele he has gained through his side business of selling disposable cell phones. During the period of his law license suspension, Jimmy's side business causes him to inadvertently become involved in the Albuquerque drug business as an associate of Mike and a legal representative for the Salamanca family. By the time of Breaking Bad, Saul has established an office in a strip mall and advertises across the city. When Walter and Jesse begin producing meth, Saul introduces them to Gus as a potential buyer for their product. He subsequently helps Walter and Skyler launder their drug money, and provides legal assistance for Jesse and his drug-dealing friends. After Hank discovers Walter's identity as Heisenberg, Saul uses the "disappearing" services of Ed Galbraith to relocate to Omaha, Nebraska under the name Gene Takavić (as shown in flash-forwards in Better Call Saul), where he runs a Cinnabon store while remaining paranoid that someone from his past might identify him. Gene is eventually identified by a relocated taxi cab driver who remembers his Saul Goodman ads, but Saul keeps the man quiet by offering to make him wealthy using a con scheme. Saul is eventually caught by the authorities and imprisoned for 86 years in a federal prison, but after finally accepting himself as Jimmy McGill and atoning for his role in the deaths of Chuck, Howard, and others.
Mike Ehrmantraut
Michael Ehrmantraut (played by Jonathan Banks) is a former Philadelphia police officer who works for Gus — and, on occasion, Saul — as a private investigator, head of security, cleaner, and hit man. In the Better Call Saul episode "Gloves Off", it is implied Mike is a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War. While in Philadelphia, he married and had a son, Matt, who later had his own family: wife Stacey and daughter Kaylee. Mike got caught up in crooked activities within the Philadelphia police, and, after Matt joined the force, Matt hesitated when two crooked cops approached him, so they killed him. After Matt's funeral, Mike murdered the two cops, then fled to Albuquerque to be near Stacey and Kaylee. He took a job as a parking-lot attendant at the local courthouse and also performed for-hire criminal jobs on the side. In Better Call Saul, Mike becomes Jimmy's associate after Jimmy helps cover for him when Philadelphia officers investigating the deaths of the two cops Mike killed learn of Mike's whereabouts. Through one of his side-jobs, Mike also becomes involved with Nacho. Nacho asks Mike to help eliminate an increasingly unstable Tuco from the Salamanca organization, but Mike instead engineers Tuco's long-term arrest by faking a confrontation in front of police. Hector suspects Mike, so Mike attempts to bring police attention to the Salamanca drug trade. When this effort fails, Mike plans to assassinate Hector but is stopped by Gus, who wants to be the one to decide when Hector dies, and offers Mike a position within his organization. Mike oversees the construction of the "super-lab" led by Werner Ziegler. When Werner escapes and inadvertently reveals some details about the lab to Lalo Salamanca, Gus orders Werner killed to protect the secret, and Mike shoots Werner. Mike is depressed afterwards, until Gus offers him a larger role in helping gain revenge against the Salamancas. Knowing Nacho is operating as Gus's mole in the Salamanca organization, Mike works to keep Lalo off Gus's trail and saves Jimmy from a cartel assassination attempt. Mike remains as Gus's trusted associate by the time of Breaking Bad, helping to keep Walter and Jesse in line after Jesse kills Gale, and coming up with a plan to drive a rift between Walter and Jesse. Eventually, Gus trusts Jesse enough to bring him and Mike to Mexico as part of Gus's plan to kill Don Eladio and other cartel members. Mike is critically wounded and forced to stay in Mexico to heal. During this time, Walter convinces Jesse to help Walter get revenge on Gus, and Jesse's information enables Walter to lure Gus into a fatal trap. Mike hears of Gus's death and races back to Albuquerque to furiously confront Walter and Jesse. Mike reminds them that, to maintain secrecy, Gus had been discreetly paying off several members of Gus's organization. Walter starts a new meth production system with Jesse and Mike as full partners, and Mike uses part of his share to continue to pay off the members of Gus's old organization. After Todd kills a child during a methylamine heist, Mike and Jesse sell their share of the methylamine, but Mike promises to use part of his profit to continue paying off Gus's old crew. The DEA connects Mike to Heisenberg and, before Mike can flee, Walter tries to obtain the names of Gus's old organization from Mike so Walter can have them killed. Mike refuses and chides Walter, leading Walter to shoot him, but before Mike dies Walter says he realized too late he could have gotten the names from Lydia.
Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (played by Laura Fraser) is an executive of Madrigal Electromotive GmbH, working out of the company's office in Houston, Texas. Lydia, portrayed as a very nervous and somewhat troubled character, is a partner in Gus's drug activities, and Gus often works directly through her to secretly secure Madrigal's resources for his needs. During Better Call Saul, she helps Gus arrange for Mike to become a Madrigal security consultant as a cover to launder the money Mike stole from the Salamancas. When Mike takes his job seriously, Lydia complains to Gus, but Gus assures her Mike can be trusted. When Lalo later arrives and interferes in Gus's operations, Gus reports to Lydia and Peter Schuler, the head of Madrigal's food division, about Lalo stalling the construction of his superlab, but assures them he has a plan to deal with Lalo. Within Breaking Bad, Lydia continues to discreetly provide chemicals to Gus for Walt's meth production in Gus's superlab. After Gus's death and the destruction of the lab, Walt establishes a new meth production line with Jesse and Mike, with Lydia providing the chemicals. The DEA links Gus to Madrigal, and nervous that she will be exposed, Lydia asks Mike to kill 11 co-conspirators who were part of Gus's organization. Mike refuses, so Lydia pays one of the co-conspirators to eliminate Mike along with the other 10 on the list, but Mike kills the hitman first, discovers Lydia's role, and blackmails her to continue to provide the methylamine for Walt's operation. The DEA continue to investigate Madrigal, and Lydia discovers they are tracking her methylamine shipments to Walt. She provides Walt with information on a railroad tanker car shipment of methylamine, which would provide Walt with enough material to make millions of dollars' worth of meth for sale to Lydia's contacts in the Czech Republic. Walt, Mike, and Jesse enlist Todd to help steal the methylamine. During the theft, they are observed by a young boy, whom Todd kills. Mike and Jesse then decide to sell their portion of the methylamine to Walt and leave the business, with Mike using a portion of his profits to continue paying the members of Gus's organization for their silence. When the DEA connects Mike to Gus, Walt tries to get Mike to provide the names of the individuals he is paying, but Mike refuses. Walt shoots Mike, then realizes he could have asked Lydia for the names. Mike dies, and Lydia later provides the names to Walt. Walt then pays Jack to eliminate the individuals Mike was paying. Walt eventually sells the remaining methylamine to Declan and leaves the drug business. Todd initially works as Declan's meth cook, but when Declan fires Todd, the replacement is not as good, and Lydia's Czech customers are dissatisfied. Declan refuses to rehire Todd, so Lydia arranges to have Jack kill Declan and his gang and take over the business. After Hank discovers Walt is Heisenberg and uses Jesse to lure Walt to the site of his buried money, Jack's gang arrives, kills Hank and Gomez, takes most of Walt's money, and kidnaps Jesse so they can force him to be their meth cook. Walt is forced into hiding, but a year later returns to Albuquerque to get his revenge before he dies from cancer. He meets Lydia and Todd at a coffee shop and offers them a new method for methylamine-free meth production. Todd declines, but Lydia feigns interest so that Walt will meet with Jack, then tells Todd to make sure Jack kills Walt at the meeting. Walt uses the meeting to kill Jack and his gang with a machine gun hidden in his car, and Jesse kills Todd. An ill Lydia calls Todd's cell phone to ask if Walt is dead. Walt answers and reveals that she will soon be dead because he slipped ricin into her stevia at the coffee shop. In El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Jesse hears a radio news report indicating that a woman from Houston, presumably Lydia, is critically ill after having been poisoned. The report indicates that her suspected ties to Walt are being investigated, and that she is not expected to survive.
Todd Alquist
Todd Alquist (played by Jesse Plemons) is an exterminator for Vamonos Pest, a fumigation company used by Walt, Mike, and Jesse as the front for their meth business after Gus Fring's death. Todd and the other Vamonos employees are also burglars, gathering information from the houses they tent and selling it to outside parties. Todd notices and disables a nanny cam at Walt and Jesse's first post-Gus Fring cook site, attracting their attention as someone they think might be useful in the future. He aids in the heist of methylamine from a freight train, and gives a friendly wave to a boy who stumbles on the crime scene, but then shoots him without warning. The team reluctantly keeps Todd employed after the murder, accepting his explanation that he assumed there could be no witnesses to the crime and they all risked arrest. Todd's explanation, plus his claims that his uncle (Jack Welker) runs a gang with connections that could be valuable to the meth operation, convince Walt and Mike to keep him alive, although Jesse is reluctant. After Jesse and Mike quit, Todd becomes Walt's assistant in the cooking process. Todd respectfully refers to Walter as "Mr. White", and after studying under Walt, he spends his breaks going over his notes, but refuses to accept payment until he satisfies Walt's standards. After Walt kills Mike, Todd helps dispose of Mike's car and body, and Walt uses Jack's prison connections to eliminate Gus's nine living former employees and their lawyer to keep them from exposing Walt. After the gang captures Jesse, Todd convinces his uncle to force Jesse to cook for them instead of killing him. Jesse creates a batch with a level of purity comparable to Walt's. Thinking he deserves a reward for a job well done, Todd brings him ice cream and praises him for his skill. Todd's bad side is again on display when he shoots and kills Jesse's ex-girlfriend Andrea to punish Jesse for an escape attempt, but apologizes before he shoots her. Months later, Walter kills Jack's gang by remotely firing an M60 machine gun installed in the trunk of a car. Todd survives, but Jesse strangles him with the chains of his handcuffs, choking him hard enough to snap his neck. Todd's unpredictable switches between charming politeness and respectful gestures to sudden acts of extreme violence led his character to be called the most dangerous villain on Breaking Bad, and IGN named him 2013's best TV villain. In El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Todd appears in flashbacks that take place after Jesse's failed escape attempt and Andrea's death. Todd, Kenny, and Neil Kandy torment Jesse as Neil builds his new restraints. Todd later enlists Jesse's help to add a canopy to his El Camino and bury the body of Todd's cleaning lady, whom he murdered after she accidentally found his hidden money. After Jesse's escape from the compound, he returns to Todd's apartment and retrieves the cash to use in his escape from Albuquerque, but is forced to contend with two criminals, Neil Kandy and Casey, who want the money for themselves.
Introduced in Better Call Saul
Kim Wexler
Kimberly Wexler (portrayed by Rhea Seehorn) is Jimmy's friend, romantic partner and by the fifth season, his wife. In her youth, she and her mother moved frequently around Nebraska, and she often had to take care of herself due to her mother's drunkenness, leading her to become self-reliant. While attending law school, Kim was an intern at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, where she met Jimmy, who was working in the mail room. Her success at completing law school and becoming an associate at HHM partially inspired Jimmy to become a lawyer. Jimmy's intuition about activity at a local nursing home, Sandpiper Crossing, results in a prolonged lawsuit. Kim attempts to defend Jimmy's unethical legal manipulations to Howard and Chuck, which threatens her career. Even when she is able to secure the large regional bank Mesa Verde as a client for HHM, Howard downplays her contributions. Kim and Jimmy start co-located law offices and Kim brings Mesa Verde with her. Chuck succeeds at persuading Mesa Verde to return to HHM. Jimmy forges paperwork in a Mesa Verde filing, which makes Chuck appear incompetent and causes Mesa Verde to return to Kim. Kim is pleased to have the account but Jimmy's machinations lead to a confrontation with Chuck that results in Jimmy's law license being suspended, Chuck being compelled to retire from HHM, and Chuck committing suicide. Kim becomes bored with banking law and begins taking on pro bono criminal defense cases. She subsequently proposes to Rich Schweikart, the managing partner of the firm defending the Sandpiper chain, that she bring Mesa Verde with her and become a partner in charge of a new banking division. Finding herself drawn in by Jimmy's schemes, Kim later decides to quit Schweikart & Cokely and representing Mesa Verde while continuing to handle pro bono criminal defense cases. Howard suggests that Kim is throwing her career away at Jimmy's instigation; Kim is insulted and scoffs at Howard's belief that she cannot think for herself. After Jimmy regains his law license and begins practicing as Saul Goodman, he becomes increasingly involved with the Salamanca drug cartel. Kim proposes that they marry so they can invoke spousal privilege, enabling Jimmy to speak freely about his clients. Lalo Salamanca is arrested under an assumed name and accused of murder. When Jimmy goes missing after driving to a remote desert location to pick up bail money, Kim unsuccessfully attempts to learn his location by revealing to Lalo that she is Jimmy's wife. While Jimmy is stuck in the desert with Mike Ehrmantraut, he admits that Kim knows about his involvement with the Salamancas, which causes Mike to warn Jimmy that Kim's life is as much at risk as theirs. After posting Lalo's bail, Jimmy conceals Mike's involvement by lying to Lalo. Lalo locates Jimmy's abandoned car near the site of the pickup and finds it riddled with bullets, a detail that contradicts Jimmy's story. Lalo confronts Jimmy and Kim, but Kim berates Lalo for not trusting Jimmy. Lalo appears satisfied with Kim's explanation and departs. Kim and Jimmy check into a hotel so that Lalo will not find them if he returns. Still angry at Howard, Kim suggests to Jimmy that they resolve the Sandpiper lawsuit by intentionally sabotaging him, which will result in Jimmy receiving more than $1 million as his share of the settlement or judgment. Jimmy is unnerved by the callousness of Kim's plan but agrees to participate. The scheme against Howard succeeds after he embarrasses himself at a Sandpiper settlement conference, forcing HHM and Davis & Main to accept a lower amount than they sought. Howard pieces together the con and confronts Kim and Jimmy at their apartment that night, but Lalo arrives and kills Howard. Lalo has Kim drive to Gus's house to shoot him, but she is apprehended by Mike, to whom she explains the situation. When she tells Gus that Jimmy convinced Lalo to send her instead of him, Gus deduces that the assassination attempt was a ruse. Kim is reunited with Jimmy at their apartment the following morning; Mike has Howard's death staged as a suicide and instructs them never to speak of the events of that night. Kim is overwhelmed with guilt, surrenders her law license, and leaves Jimmy soon after Howard's memorial service. Kim relocates to Florida, takes a job at Palm Coast Sprinklers, and lives a simple, mundane life. One day, she receives a call from Jimmy; she tells him to turn himself in, but he reacts angrily and mockingly tells her to do the same. Kim takes his words to heart and flies to Albuquerque, where she submits an affidavit to the district attorney's office detailing Jimmy's and her role in character-assassinating Howard. She also gives a copy to Howard's widow Cheryl, giving Cheryl grounds to file a wrongful death civil suit. Kim returns to Albuquerque after Jimmy's arrest, but Jimmy admits during his trial that he implicated her in his crimes only so she would be present to hear his confession. He admits the extent of his role in Walter White's criminal empire, his part in wrecking Howard's reputation, and his sabotaging of Chuck's career. He receives a sentence of 86 years; Kim visits him in prison to bid him farewell.
Howard Hamlin
Howard G. Hamlin (portrayed by Patrick Fabian) is a name partner of the successful Albuquerque law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. At first glance Howard appears to be one of life's winners. His privileged background, unflappability, sun-kissed good looks that appear unchanged over time, and ample charm prove to be a constant source of frustration for Jimmy, as is his positive relationship with HHM's other name partner, Chuck McGill. After Chuck steps away from the firm due to his claim of electromagnetic hypersensitivity, Howard becomes the managing partner and enables Chuck to work from home while Jimmy takes care of Chuck's personal needs. Unbeknownst to Jimmy, Chuck uses Howard to block Jimmy from advancing in the legal profession. Jimmy believes Howard is the one inhibiting his career progression, causing him to become resentful of Howard. When Kim Wexler quits HHM, Mesa Verde Bank agrees to hire her as outside counsel, but Chuck and Howard succeed at bringing Mesa Verde back to HHM. Jimmy then alters paperwork in one of Chuck's Mesa Verde filings, causing him to appear incompetent, so Mesa Verde returns to Kim. Chuck secretly records Jimmy's admission to tampering with the Mesa Verde documents, then makes Jimmy aware of the recording. When Jimmy breaks in to Chuck's home to destroy it, Howard is present and serves as Chuck's corroborating witness, enabling him to have Jimmy charged with breaking and entering. Instead of a criminal prosecution, Chuck presents the confession to the state bar association in hopes of having Jimmy disbarred, but Jimmy and Kim minimize Chuck's argument by exposing his alleged electromagnetic hypersensitivity as psychosomatic. Jimmy's law license is suspended but he is not disbarred. Howard counsels Chuck to consider Jimmy's suspension a win, but Chuck remains unsatisfied. After Jimmy's suspension, he "accidentally" informs HHM's malpractice insurer of Chuck's condition, causing the insurer to demand that Chuck be constantly supervised by another attorney or that HHM pay a substantial premium increase. Chuck wants to fight the insurance company, but Howard pays Chuck the first of three installments to buy out his share of the firm and forces Chuck into retirement. Chuck subsequently kills himself and Jimmy initially believes himself responsible. When Howard admits that he believes himself responsible because he forced Chuck to retire, Jimmy allows Howard to shoulder the blame. For much of the next year, Howard is emotionally withdrawn and the notoriety around Chuck's death causes HHM to lose clients and go into dire financial straits. By the time Jimmy regains his law license, Howard announces that HHM has recovered and is once again one of Albuquerque's top firms. Howard later offers Jimmy a position at HHM and says the feud was between Chuck and Jimmy, not Jimmy and the firm. Jimmy is upset by the reminder of his past and toys with Howard while claiming to consider his offer. Howard eventually realizes that Jimmy is conducting a harassment campaign against him and rescinds the offer, while Jimmy says that as Saul Goodman, he is too big for the constraints of an HHM job. When Kim tells Howard she quit Schweikart and Cokely and gave up the Mesa Verde account so that she could focus on pro bono criminal defense cases, Howard says she is throwing her career away at Jimmy's instigation. Kim scoffs at the idea that she cannot think for herself and says Howard does not really know Jimmy. Howard angrily tells her that Chuck – who recognized that Jimmy could not stop himself from hurting everyone close to him – was the one who knew Jimmy better than anyone else. Kim later proposes to Jimmy that they obtain Jimmy's share of the multi-million dollar settlement or judgment from the Sandpiper Crossing lawsuit sooner by ruining Howard's reputation. As Kim and Jimmy plan and execute their con, Howard becomes aware of their machinations and tells his wife Cheryl, with whom he has a strained relationship, that he is attempting to solve the problem. Jimmy and Kim's plan succeeds, Howard is humiliated in front of his clients and peers, and HHM and Davis & Main accept a settlement from Sandpiper that is lower than what they wanted. Howard pieces together the whole plot and arrives at Kim's apartment to confront her and Jimmy. Lalo Salamanca arrives soon afterwards, intending to interrogate Jimmy and Kim about their ties to Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus Fring. Howard disregards Jimmy and Kim's entreaties to leave immediately, and Lalo kills Howard with a gunshot to the head. Howard's death is staged to look like a suicide, while he is buried alongside Lalo underneath the floor of Gus Fring's underground meth lab.
Nacho Varga
Ignacio Varga (portrayed by Michael Mando) is a calculating, intelligent career criminal. He is the right-hand man to Tuco Salamanca, heir to Hector Salamanca's organization. While not yet a kingpin himself, Nacho is bright and has the ear of his terrifying boss. Nacho meets Jimmy