From New Mexico to New Hampshire with a quick
stop in Nebraska – and don't forget those trips to Mexico and Germany. The story of
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul reaches far beyond Albuquerque - and we've got the
whole timeline right here. Although both "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call
Saul" take place much later than this, the 1980s set up some important events that take
place later. One of the most important things that happens during this time is the establishment
of the law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. At this time, it is known simply as Hamlin & McGill
after Chuck McGill and George M. Hamlin. George's son Howard has not yet become a partner in
the Albuquerque company. Meanwhile, in the 1980s, Walter White establishes
Gray Matter Technologies with his friend and colleague Elliott Schwartz. The two worked
together in college and set up the company after completing their thesis. The pair are
later joined by Gretchen, who Walter dates for a time. Her family's wealth leads to Walter
feeling inferior, and he breaks off the relationship and sells his share in Gray Matter Technologies
for just $5,000. The company goes on to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, and Walt
forever nurses a grudge against Elliot and Gretchen. "But little did I understand that they were
artfully maneuvering me into leaving my own creation." Around the same time, Gustavo Fring and Max
Arciniega approach the Cartel about forming a potential partnership. Don Eladio has Max
killed by Hector Salamanca after being angered by the two up-and-coming drug dealers giving
meth to his men as a way of manipulating Eladio into meeting them. This is a defining moment
for Gus, who vows to avenge his murdered partner by any means necessary. Jimmy McGill, later known as Saul Goodman,
starts the 1990s by running a series of scams with his friend Marco. The two con men operate
in Cicero, but Jimmy is arrested and later saved by his brother Chuck McGill after facing
possible jail time. Of course, there's a catch: Jimmy has to agree to move to Albuquerque
and get a job at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. "Just tell me what to do. Whatever it is,
I'll do it." Jimmy leaves for New Mexico with Chuck and
begins working in the mail-room of the law firm. For most of this time, he is a model
employee and manages to stay out of trouble. In 1997, Jimmy passes the bar after studying
in his spare time and applies for a position at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. Unbeknownst to
Jimmy at the time, Chuck blocks this, and Jimmy leaves to pursue a career as a lawyer
on his own. Between 1998 and 2002, Jesse Pinkman attends
J. P. Wynne High School. He is a rather uninterested student and draws the ire of Walter White
after he fails his chemistry class. Not long before the start of "Better Call
Saul," Matt Ehrmantraut is murdered by corrupt police officers. He had shown a reluctance
to take dirty money and only accepted the cash after speaking to his father, Mike Ehrmantraut,
a dirty cop himself. Fearing he would turn them in, Matt's fellow officers killed him
in an ambush. This prompts a furious response from Mike,
who quits the Philadelphia Police Department and kills the two men responsible for murdering
his son. He immediately leaves for Albuquerque to be close to his daughter-in-law and granddaughter.
Eventually, Mike starts working as a parking lot attendant at the Albuquerque courthouse. By 2001, Chuck McGill begins experiencing
a purportedly unknown electromagnetic hypersensitivity condition. This seemingly starts after he
and his wife split up and divorce, leading some to believe it may be a psychological
condition rather than a physical one. Soon afterward, Chuck takes an extended sabbatical
from Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill so he can avoid all electronics, living in a home he has gutted
of wiring and devices. The 1st season of "Better Call Saul" begins
in May 2002, with Jimmy McGill attempting to represent the Kettlemans when Craig Kettleman
is accused of embezzlement. The lawyer is tired of being a public defender and wants
to start more lucrative work. His schemes eventually lead to him meeting Nacho Varga
and Tuco Salamanca, thrusting the character into the criminal underworld for the first
time. Jimmy ultimately discovers that Craig Kettleman
did embezzle millions of dollars and takes $30,000 to keep quiet. Around this time, he
also meets Mike Ehrmantraut and begins speaking to him regularly, especially when it becomes
clear that Mike is useful as a fixer and private investigator. After eventually managing to
convince the Kettlemans to accept a plea deal, he returns their money and begins to specialize
in elder law. During this time, he discovers that the nursing
home Sandpiper Crossing is overcharging its residents and starts canvassing for a class
action lawsuit. The campaign is successful, and on the strength of it, he is offered a
position with Davis & Main. However, he doesn't last long in the safe and cushy environment
and chooses to get himself fired. Elsewhere, to help Kim Wexler get back an important bank
client, he breaks into Chuck McGill's house and changes paperwork. Around the same time, Mike begins working
with Nacho to try and get rid of Tuco, which brings Hector Salamanca into the fold. Eventually,
it becomes obvious that it would benefit everyone if Hector is killed, but Mike is stopped by
a mysterious figure when he is about to shoot him with a sniper rifle. In the 3rd season of "Better Call Saul," Gustavo
Fring makes his first appearance. The fast-food owner is actually a huge drug distributor
and is planning on becoming the leading force north of the border. It's revealed he is the
one who stopped Mike from killing Hector, as he has his own plans for the Cartel member.
Seeing exactly how useful Mike can be, Gus offers to hire him full-time. Meanwhile, Nacho
switches out Hector's medication, and he suffers a serious stroke, losing the ability to talk
and move freely. Jimmy, who is now operating on his own once
again, is taken to court by Chuck. The older brother wants to get Jimmy disbarred for his
crimes but only manages to get him suspended as a lawyer by the bar association. However,
during the trial, Jimmy proves that Chuck's illness is mental and causes a deterioration
in his condition. Later, Jimmy manages to get Chuck's malpractice insurance canceled,
leaving Chuck with no opportunity to practice law even if his condition does improve. Chuck
kills himself at the end of Season 3 by burning down his house with a gas lantern. Gus begins his efforts to take over the drug
business north of the border. With Werner Ziegler, he begins constructing a secret meth
lab underneath a laundromat he owns in an attempt to control the drug trade. He also
pays for a doctor to keep Hector alive, though he ensures that the Cartel leader won't recover
and will stay in his debilitated condition. Working with Mike, Gus forces Nacho to act
as a double agent against the Salamancas and to get information on Lalo Salamanca when
he arrives in Albuquerque to oversee his family's business. Mike and Gus agree to remove Lalo
from the equation so they can continue unchallenged and neutralize the Salamancas permanently. On the other hand, Jimmy strikes out on his
own once again and changes his professional name. "Wait, wait. Jimmy, Jimmy, what?" "It's all
good, man." After getting his law license back, he begins
focusing on working directly with criminals and is soon recruited by Lalo to represent
Krazy-8 and work directly with the Salamancas. He later has to help get Lalo out of jail
when he is arrested and travels to the border to get his $7 million bail money. Ambushed
by unknown assailants, Jimmy is almost killed until Mike saves his life, and the two make
it back to Albuquerque safely. Season 5 ends in 2004 with Kim convincing Jimmy that they
need to take down Howard Hamlin. Gus' plot to neutralize Lalo culminates in
a daring late night raid on the charming psychopath's Mexican compound. Nacho sets a fire in the
kitchen as a distraction, then opens the back gate to a squad of armed mercenaries and takes
off into the night. The mercenaries gun down nearly everyone in the compound, but Lalo
is able to escape. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone thinks he's dead, Lalo
sets out to prove that Gus is working against the cartel. Nacho, meanwhile, becomes the most wanted
man on either side of the border, as the Salamancas hunt him for betraying Lalo, and Gus cannot
have him captured and interrogated. Mike arranges for him to be smuggled back stateside, but
Nacho understands that he's between a rock and a hard place. He gets Mike's word that
his father won't be hurt, and allows himself to be turned over to the Salamancas. Rather
than fully acquiesce to Gus' plan, Nacho gets the last word in before shooting himself in
the head. Kim's plan to take down Howard has two goals:
To force a settlement in the Sandpiper Retirement Home lawsuit, which would give Jimmy a hefty
windfall thanks to his finders fee, and to punish Howard for his general attitude over
the course of the show. What follows is an intricate, coordinated plan across summer
2004 to make it appear as if Howard is a drug addict, using planted bags of powder, disguises,
stolen cars, and staged photographs. Their plan works all too well, ruining Howard's
reputation with colleagues like Clifford Main and sending him into an emotional tailspin. Meanwhile, Lalo Salamanca has spent the weeks
since the raid on his compound traveling the world in secret to expose Gus Fring. He knows
that Gus made use of a German engineering team the year before to build something underneath
an industrial laundromat outside of town. He knows that Nacho betrayed him on Fring's
orders, and he suspects that Jimmy, who was introduced to him by Nacho, knows more than
he let on when the last spoke. The legal world and the cartel world mostly existed separate
from each other on "Better Call Saul," but in the Season 6 episode "Plan and Execution,"
these worlds collide, as both Howard and Lalo arrive at Jimmy and Kim's condo seeking answers.
Lalo has no patience for Howard's side of things, however, and shoots him within seconds. "Okay, let's talk." Lalo sends a traumatized Kim on a mission:
Drive to Gus Fring's house, ring the doorbell, and gun down whoever answers. This is, of
course, a suicide mission whose intent is to distract Gus and his men so Lalo can get
inside the laundromat and see what exactly is going on. However, Gus quickly realizes
Lalo's plan and heads to the laundromat himself, only for Lalo to get the drop on him. At gunpoint
he forces Gus to take him into the under-construction super lab, where Gus is able to kill the lights
and reach a gun he had hidden away. The two men fire at each other in the dark, but only
Gus' bullet finds its mark; Lalo dies with a smile on his face. That same night, Mike and his crew remove
Howard's body and clean up Jimmy's condo as if the killing never even happened; Howard
and Lalo are buried together underneath the super lab floor, never to be found again.
And while Jimmy is more than willing to compartmentalize Howard's death and their complicity in it,
Kim is unable to do so. She submits her resignation from the New Mexico Bar Association and leaves
Jimmy. The harm that they cause others when they are together is too great; it can't be
justified by their love for each other. As Kim packs boxes, the episode "Fun and Games"
ends with a devastating flash-forward to 2005, one year later, when we see that without her,
Jimmy has fully embraced the amoral, decadent lifestyle of Saul Goodman. "Breaking Bad" is set in 2008, with the show
starting as Walter White is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the age of 50. This
prompts the high school chemistry teacher to go on a ride-along with his brother-in-law,
DEA agent Hank Schrader. That's when he recognizes his former student Jesse Pinkman, and sees
an opportunity to partner up with his former student to cook meth to pay his medical bills
and leave something for his family. He approaches Jesse, and they both agree to work together
and combine their talents. "Chirality. Mirrored imagery, right? Active,
inactive. Good, bad." While things don't exactly go smoothly at
first, Walter and Jesse do manage to successfully sell meth and soon begin cooking in an old
RV out in the desert. The pair eventually run into Tuco Salamanca and enter a partnership
with him to distribute the drugs. As the relationship worsens, they eventually end up meeting Hector
Salamanca and are set to be killed by Tuco. However, Hank arrives and unknowingly saves
the two rookie cooks and kills Tuco in a shootout. With Tuco Salamanca no longer a problem, Walter
and Jesse have an opportunity to expand and take over the role of distributors. Jesse
teams up with Skinny Pete and Badger to start selling the meth themselves, and they see
a good amount of success, at first. Jesse even develops an undeserved reputation for
being a cold-blooded killer, making it easier for his gang to collect money from dealers.
Yet changes in their personal circumstances make things more difficult for them to continue
cooking meth. Skyler becomes increasingly suspicious of
Walter and what he is doing in his spare time. When she discovers he has a second phone,
she initially suspects he may be having an affair. Eventually, she discovers that he
has been lying about getting money from his former business partners to pay for his medical
bills. Around the same time, Jesse enters a relationship with Jane Margolis, and they
start using drugs regularly. In need of a lawyer to get Badger off the
hook after a sting operation, Walter and Jesse go to Saul Goodman. He is able to help them
get Badger a lighter sentence when he is arrested and comes up with a plan to make their extra
income seem legitimate. After some discussion, he puts them into contact with Gustavo Fring,
and the kingpin agrees to buy a shipment of meth. Skyler leaves Walt, prompting him to try and
quit the drug business in an attempt to fix his marriage. Gus is able to convince him
to work directly for him, giving Walter a private underground lab to work in. Jesse
joins Walter a few weeks later, and the pair continue to cook meth on an industrial scale.
Despite some initial success, the relationship between Gus, Walter, and Jesse soon falls
apart. A series of decisions leads Gus to try and cut them out of his business, but
they kill their potential replacement, saving them for at least a little while. In a moment of triumph, Gus finally succeeds
in getting his revenge on the Cartel. Taking Mike and Jesse south of the border, he poisons
the leading members of the gang, effectively removing all competition in the meth trade
and finally accomplishing his revenge. When he returns to Albuquerque, Gus fires Walt
and warns him to stay away from Jesse. Realizing that his life is in danger, Walt tries to
leave town with his family but doesn't have enough money to pay for everyone. Ultimately,
he resolves to kill Gus as a way of removing the threat. Using Gus' hatred of Hector Salamanca against
him, Walt assassinates Gus using a bomb strapped to the old Cartel member's wheelchair. Along
with Jesse and Mike, Walt takes over what is left of the meth business and becomes incredibly
successful. They discover Lydia Rodarte-Quayle and Gus' involvement with Madrigal. After
Walter has Mike and all of his men killed to protect himself, he works with Lydia to
expand his operations to Europe. Even though Walter's business is thriving,
Hank discovers that he is the elusive Heisenberg and starts working to take him down. Ultimately,
Hank and Steven Gomez are killed in a shootout with the neo-Nazi group that Walter is working
with. The group takes Jesse hostage and forces him to continue making meth for them in captivity.
To avoid being arrested, Walter flees to New Hampshire under a new identity for six months.
With his death imminent from his returning cancer, Walter goes back to Albuquerque, kills
Lydia and the Nazis, and frees Jesse before succumbing to his wounds as police arrive
at the scene. Before "El Camino," the last time viewers
see Jesse is when he's speeding away from the Nazi compound as police close in. The
movie begins almost immediately after this, with Jesse escaping to Skinny Pete's house.
With the help of Badger and Skinny Pete, he manages to safely avoid the police, and he
heads to Todd's old apartment to try and scrape together enough money to purchase a new identity
from Ed the vacuum salesman. He finds himself $1,800 short of the necessary
amount, and Ed is unwilling to do the deal without full payment. Getting the cash together
proves difficult, but Jesse is ultimately able to get the full amount and then some.
Jesse goes back to Ed and chooses to start a new life in Alaska. As part of the "Better Call Saul" series,
each season features a flash-forward, showing Jimmy in the present day living under his
new identity of Gene Takovic. Located in Omaha, he works as a Cinnabon manager and is constantly
nervous about his former life being uncovered or someone recognizing him. Still, the former
lawyer clearly still feels very attached to Saul Goodman, watching old commercials on
VHS. Jimmy's secret identity seems to work perfectly,
and his new Social Security number even holds up when he's taken to hospital after a suspected
heart attack. However, a cab driver recognizes him and later confronts him at the mall, confirming
that he knows he is really Saul Goodman. Jimmy calls Ed to arrange another pickup and then
changes his mind, saying that he will deal with the issue himself. Jimmy handles Jeff the cab driver the only
way he knows how to — with a good old-fashioned con job. Using Jeff's elderly mother Marion
as leverage, Jimmy makes Jeff a proposition, a one-time introduction to the Saul Goodman-style
criminal life via a heist of luxury goods from the department store at the mall where
"Gene Takovic" works. The heist goes off almost perfectly, and the success gives Jimmy a rush
he hasn't felt in months since leaving Albuquerque. After a frustrating phone call to Kim, now
living in Florida, Jimmy finds himself back in the conman lifestyle, running identity
theft scams with Jeff and Jeff's friend Buddy. Everything is going well for weeks, until
a scam gone wrong lands Jeff in jail. Jimmy arranges for Marion to post his bail, but
when he arrives to take her to the courthouse, she confronts him with Saul Goodman commercials
she found on line. "I typed in 'con man' and 'Albuquerque' and
up you popped, big as day." Jimmy flees the house, with the police hot
on his tail. After divorcing Jimmy and leaving New Mexico
in 2005, Kim spends the next several years building a purposely bland, no-opinion kind
of life in central Florida. When Walter White's drug empire finally collapses and makes national
news in early 2010, Kim reaches out to Francesca, Saul's former receptionist, to make sure she's
all right and Jimmy is still alive. When Jimmy finds out about this in November 2010, he
takes it as a sign to reach out to Kim himself. That phone call does not go well. Kim, though
glad he is alive, still wants nothing to do with Jimmy and thinks he should confess everything
and turn himself in. When he petulantly counters that maybe she should be the one to confess,
Kim does exactly that, traveling back to Albuquerque with a notarized confession of the events
that led up to Howard's death in 2004. She delivers one copy to the district attorney's
office and the other to Howard's widow Cheryl, but the fact that there isn't any physical
evidence to back up her confession means that it's unlikely she'll be tried in criminal
court. However, Cheryl implies that there's another path she can take to get revenge. "I could sue you in civil court. I could take
everything you've got." Nevertheless, the act of confession seems
to awaken something in Kim, and when she returns to Florida she begins volunteering at a local
free legal aid office. After fleeing Marion's home, Omaha police
find Gene hiding in a dumpster. Facing a life sentence plus 190 years for his many crimes
as a member of the Heisenberg empire, Jimmy channels Saul Goodman one last time, acting
as his own attorney and claiming that his work for Walter White was made under duress.
The possibility of a hung jury or mistrial prompts the lead prosecutor to pitch a plea
deal in which Jimmy would serve less than eight years at a minimum security prison. At the hearing to finalize the plea deal,
however, Jimmy has one last trick up his sleeve. Inspired by Kim's willingness to confess to
Howard's murder and bear the consequences, he does likewise, admitting to the court his
culpability in Walt's criminal activities, as well as his own culpability in Chuck's
suicide. That eight year sentence becomes 86 instead, but prison life seems to suit
Jimmy just fine. He bakes bread in the prison cafeteria as if he were back at Cinnabon,
and he has the respect of his fellow inmates and guards, who all call him Saul. Kim visits,
pretending to be his lawyer, and the two share a forbidden cigarette, one last time, just
as they did in the first episode of the series.
