Better Call Saul may be a spin-off of Breaking Bad, but it's become clear you don't need to know the original to enjoy the prequel. That said, familiarity with Breaking Bad makes Better Call Saul better by turning it into a treasure hunt for satisfying callbacks. Some of the Saulbacks, as we're calling them, have been obvious, others subtle, and many debatable. For fans of Breaking Bad, they're winks that reward years of commitment. Vince Gilligan has said as much, telling theHollywood Reporter, "We love rewarding the audience that pays strict, close attention. We love little Easter eggs."

Each week of season one we've catalogued these Easter eggs (at least the ones we noticed), and now that we've reached the finale, here are a whole season's worth of 'em. Enjoy your hunting.

Season 1, Episode 10: "Marco"

Rejecting a life-changing offer

As expected, the season finale of Better Call Saul saw Jimmy edge ever closer to slathering himself in slime and becoming Saul Goodman. The pivotal moment came not when he returned to Chicago for a week of scheming with his partner Marco, but when he came back to Albuquerque with what seemed like a plum offer to join a legit law firm. It was what he wanted since the day he passed the bar—and walking away from it signaled Jimmy's end and Saul's beginning. It also recalled events from early on in Breaking Bad, when Walt, offered a chance to steady his financial situation with a job at Gray Matter, turned down the weaselly Elliott. Their reasons were different, but Walt and Jimmy both had a chance to better their situations, financial and otherwise, and both turned them down. Those decisions would set in motion new phases in each of their lives.

The white Caddy is born

For the entirety of BCS's first season, Jimmy drives a lemon-yellow beater that belongs under a monster truck's tires. We know he'll eventually get a white Cadillac and now we know where the idea came from. As Marco says when he learns Jimmy's a lawyer, "You gotta be king of the desert, driving around town in a white Caddy making bank." In due time.

The pinky ring appears

Speaking of Marco, the pinky ring we knew Saul to wear throughout Breaking Bad came from the late conman. It also appears to carry some of his lifeforce. As Jimmy begins to walk into the meeting that would propel his law career, the ring repels him.

The Kevin Costner story

"I once convinced a woman that I was Kevin Costner and it worked because I believed it, all right?" That's Saul talking to Walt in the third season of Breaking Bad. A funny line, but not one we thought would be explained further on BCS. And yet, there Jimmy was in last night's episode, with a confused woman hovering over him yelling about how he's not Kevin Costner. "I was last night," he says. For your reference, here's a side-by-side.

A Georgia O'Keeffe namedrop

This one might be a stretch, but during his Bingo-interrupting rant about about Albuquerque, Jimmy calls the town "a soulless, radioactive Georgia O'Keeffe hellscape." Why's that relevant? Near the end of Breaking Bad's second season, Jane convinces Jesse to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum with her.

Belize!

Same rant, better reference. As Jimmy cycles through a stream of words that start with the letter B during the horrific bingo game, he lands on Belize. "Beautiful place. So I've heard. I would love to go there but let's face it, that's never going to happen." If you're familiar with Breaking Bad, you know that's a good thing. In the show's parlance, sending someone to Belize is a euphemism for killing them. And despite his pessimism about ever getting a chance to visit the tropical nation, Saul was once offered a one-way ticket.

Season 1, Episode 9: "Pimento"

Mike enters the underworld

In sports, players who perform without panache and remain happily under the radar are often compared to blue-collar workers—never mind the six-figure salaries. On his first gig as a freelance member of the Albuquerque underworld, Mike Ehrmantraut is exceedingly workmanlike. Standing between his would-be teammates, he looks like a feeble old man, lacking the overwhelming size of the goateed giant and the bravado of the pistol-toting racist. He's even packed a brown paper bag with a pimento sandwich. As we soon see, though, Mike might look like Uncle Fester but he's as powerful as Lurch. In Better Call Saul, we've already seen Mike show off his brains. In "Pimento" we see the braun, as he disarms camo pants, incapacitates him, and takes on a three-man job by himself. This being Mike, the job goes off without a hitch, not that it required any of the physicality he displayed in the parking garage. Always prepared, Mike knew who he was dealing with before riding out to the desert with the Mr. Bunsen-lookalike who called himself Price. Accordingly, the exchange was uneventful, just as everyone hoped. This is the Mike we would see working for Gus and then alongside Walt and Jesse. No style, all competence.

Mike encounters Nacho

Not only did that exchange give us a peek at Mike as we would know him best in Breaking Bad—calmly protecting a drug dealer in slacks—but it introduced him to Nacho Varga, an associate of Tuco Salamanca's. Tuco is the nephew of Hector Salamanca and Hector is Gus Fring's arch nemesis. Mike, of course, will become Gus's righthand man. Mike and Nacho, on opposite sides in "Pimento," will be on opposite sides forever.

Criminals can be good guys

Most of the "Saulbacks" we've noted are early glimpses at character traits or relationships that would be carried through Breaking Bad, but occasionally there's a thematic similarity. Mike articulates one of those to Price after the desert drug deal with Nacho. As he explains it, there's a difference between a criminal and a bad guy. Once you break the law, you're a criminal. But "Good one, bad one, that's up you." Sound familiar? When Walt, who this pill-slinging nerd quite clearly evokes, began cooking meth, he stood on one side of the dichotomy. He was a criminal, but a good guy, motivated by a desire to help his family and not out to hurt anyone else (except for meth addicts). Over the course of the series, he would slide over to become the most vicious version of a criminal bad guy.

The birth of Saul?

For most of Better Call Saul, it's been clear that something big would eventually happen to the well-meaning Jimmy and turn him into the amoral Saul. I'm pretty sure we saw it in "Pimento." For years Jimmy worked to impress Chuck, rising from mailroom clerk to lawyer. He worked crappy public defender cases, he made out wills, and eventually, he busted his ass to create an enormous class action lawsuit. But that wasn't enough for Chuck, who never looked at his brother without seeing the slimy con artist he used to be. Without Chuck's praise to chase, what is there to keep Jimmy from becoming Saul? Nothing, is my guess.

Season 1, Episode 8: "Rico"

The importance of searching through the trash

Are the connections between Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul that we've been pointing out always intentional? It's doubtful, but it's also not relevant. As fans, it's our job to obsesses and dissect and question. The writers' intentions interest us, but they don't restrict us. Which is my way of introducing a connection that might seem a little silly. But still, give it a chance!

First, go back to season one of Breaking Bad. After coming out on the wrong side of a coin flip, Walt is supposed to kill Krazy-8, the lunatic meth dealer chained up in Jesse's basement. But this is pre-"One who knocks" Walt, so he considers releasing Krazy-8 instead. And he would have if he hadn't decided to reconstruct a broken plate found in the kitchen trash. The plate, you'll recall, was missing a shard, and Krazy-8 was planning to put it in Walt's neck. With this information, Walt was able to save his own life by taking Krazy-8's. It was the first time Walt killed a person with his hands (he previously poisoned Krazy-8's cousin). As far as pivotal moments in the making of the "One who knocks," this is right up there.

Now back to "Rico." Jimmy knows the scam artists at Sandpiper Crossing are defrauding his clients and he knows they've shredded evidence. So, like Walt will one day in the future, he digs through the trash, reassembles the shreds, and is left with something tremendously important—a document suggesting the company's crimes are bigger than he imagined. This, it seems, is his big break, made possible by rifling through the trash.

The cake

Any chance the cake Jimmy got after passing the bar came from the same bakery as the cake Steve Gomez got to honor his departure to El Paso?

Nebraska

One day, after he becomes Saul, Jimmy will flee to Nebraska, where he'll become Gene. It's far enough away from home that he can start over, but, if you remember the Saul pilot, not far enough to eliminate paranoia. In "Rico," though, Nebraska is Jimmy's savior, because the company Sandpiper Crossing is using to help defraud residents is in the Cornhusker state. That's interstate fraud and it make this the racketeering case Jimmy needs to jumpstart his career.

Sitting at the power table

On one side, Jimmy and Chuck. On the other, the lawyers for Sandpiper Crossing. The room was different and the furniture nicer, but the setup felt so similar to a meeting in Gus Fring's sparse office. The established, powerful veteran on one side, the plucky upstart on the other. And in between, loads of tension.

Season 1, Episode 7: "Bingo"

The office that wasn't

One of the fun things about watching a prequel is that we, the viewers, know some details about the character's future, which allows seemingly self-contained storylines to take on a larger meaning. Take Jimmy's would-be office space with chic stainless steel appliances and expansive views of Albuquerque. Given his destruction of that poor door at the end of "Bingo," it seems a safe assumption that Jimmy isn't going to get to move out of the nail salon as quickly as he wanted. In the context of this episode, and Better Call Saul in general, the arc of the office was brief and simple. Jimmy began doing well and decided to upgrade his office. But then he lost a bunch of money, which, to be fair, was stolen, and would no longer be able to upgrade his office. Knowing what we know about Jimmy's future office makes this story even richer. We know Jimmy will never end up in the high rise he dreamt of, but rather, in a slummy strip mall full of vacant storefronts. And we know he won't ever be so tortured about doing the right thing later, as the wrong thing will one day become his specialty.

The scheme to steal the Kettlemans' stolen money/Mike as partner

Initially, it was kind of surprising to see Mike behind the Kettleman ranch about to execute a classic Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman scheme, but before long it felt familiar. Jimmy and Mike working together on the edge of the law, just like old times. Or should that be future times? Either way, it wasn't just the collaboration that recalled Breaking Bad, but the elaborate scheme itself. The way it was shot, the pulsating music ("Tune Down" by Chris Joss), and its ultimate success felt very familiar.

Season 1, Episode 6: "Five-O"

The train tracks to Albuquerque

The sixth episode of Better Call Saul finally gave us the Mike Ehrmantraut backstory we've been pining for since the stone-faced ex-cop appeared in season two of Breaking Bad. Unlike previous episodes of the prequel, though, it didn't provide much in the way of "Saulbacks." It did, however, have a few reference points that reminded us of Breaking Bad, so let's focus on those, starting with the train tracks that brought Mike to Albuquerque. As the camera showed them running through the desert, the tracks brought to mind the tracks that carried the train Walt, Jesse, and Todd ripped off for an "ocean" of methylamine. It was that haul that made the partnerships between Walt, Jesse, and Mike possible. And it was that partnership that ultimately led to Mike's death. In a sense, the same tracks that brought Mike to Albuquerque are what got him killed.

Mike's granddaughter

We first get a glimpse of Kaylee Ehrmantraut, the granddaughter Mike hopes to leave money for in Breaking Bad, at a younger age. Mike's daughter-in-law Stacey also references needing to put her daughter Kaylee to bed. Kaylee apparently still asks about what happened to her dad, Mike's son, a cop who was killed.

Unconventional hospitals

When Mike needs help with a gunshot wound in "Five-O," he doesn't go to a normal hospital; he goes to a vet. And in Breaking Bad, when Mike needs help with a gunshot wound suffered at the hands of a Mexican cartel, he doesn't go to a hospital; he goes to a warehouse in the Mexican desert where a temporary operating room is located. Such is the life of a man living outside the law.

Lifting the cop's notebook

What little bit of Jimmy we see in "Five-O" comes when Mike calls him to the police station. He needs help, but not of the legal variety. Mike asks Jimmy to spill coffee on a Philadelphia cop who's investigating him, then Mike plans to swipe the cop's notebook. It's a simple con, but it seems to have stuck with Jimmy. As you'll recall, there was an important pocket-picking scene in Breaking Bad involving Heull, Jesse, and a cigarette holding a ricin capsule.

Addiction

Obviously, addiction is a big part of Breaking Bad's story. Without meth addicts, there would be no Heisenberg, no Gus Fring, no blue meth. Throughout the series, though, Mike never revealed his history of chemical dependency. As "Five-O" shows us, he has one. Following his son's death, Mike drowned his sorrows in booze. His daughter-in-law references it. His former colleagues reference it. Mike's addiction never seemed to reach the depths of Jesse's and Jane's and it's hard to imagine him opening up in a 12-step program, especially one prattling on about self-acceptance, but we always knew there were demons in Mike—how else does a former cop end up running security for a drug lord?—and his alcoholism is clearly one of them.

Half measures and full measures

At the end of the episode, we see Mike take revenge on the dirty cops who killed his son. He tells them he knows they're responsible, they drive him out and plan to kill him, but he's trapped them and does them in. Mike had told his son to go along with the other cops' scheme, but he died anyway. It's a turn of events that recalls Mike's own later story in Breaking Bad about the ineffectiveness of half measures. In the last and possibly best line of the episode, Mike reveals how his son was killed to Stacey, and she asks who killed the dirty cops. "You know what happened," Mike tells her. "The question is, can you live with it?"

Season 1, Episode 5: "Alpine Shepherd Boy"

The ills of insurance companies

In last week's episode, we saw Jimmy pull off a PR stunt that landed him on the local news and teased the "Better Call Saul" commercials that are still to come. In this week's episode, we see the stunt pay off. Jimmy finally get calls, albeit from a couple of crazies and an old lady who needs help with her will. Still, this is good news for Jimmy, who decides he's got a future in helping those without much of a future. It's not sexy, but old people have money, too. Plus, elder law, he tells Chuck, is noble. It allows him to help those preyed upon by scammers, thieving family members, and a villain that made much of the storyline of Breaking Bad possible: evil insurance companies. As you'll recall, Walter White had insurance at the beginning of Breaking Bad. The money he was hoping to make by selling meth was to build a nest egg for his family, not to cover treatments. Eventually, Walt did need meth money to pay for his treatment, but only because he went out of network to get the best care possible. The treatment worked and Walt found himself cancer-free. To recap: After seeing an in-network doctor, Walt was told he had two years to live. After seeing a doctor too fancy for his insurance, Walt's cancer was successfully treated. Evil seems like a fair description of an insurance company that will pay for the doctor who can't help but not for the doctor who can.

Tweaking

If you weren't paying close attention, you might have missed the first mention of meth on Better Call Saul. After two cops argue with Chuck about opening his door and peek in at his dismantled circuit board and collection of camping stoves, they make what seems like a pretty logical assumption: Dude's a "tweaker." But they probably knew better once they opened the door and saw that Chuck wasn't a greasy, 100-pounder covered in sores. As Breaking Bad taught us, that's what meth users in ABQ look like.

The old folks home

When Albuquerque's newest elder law specialist shows up at a local nursing home dressed like Matlock, anyone who watched Breaking Bad will be taken back to Casa Tranquila. It's unclear if Jimmy's charming the blue hairs at the same nursing home where Hector Salamanca and Gus Fring were blown into thousands of tiny bits, but it sure looks like it!

Mike's will

Jimmy and Mike's burgeoning partnership continues to burn slowly in "Alpine Shepherd Boy." Their most recent interaction at the courthouse toll booth stands out not for any advancement in their relationship, but for what it reminded us about Mike's motives in Breaking Bad. Despite all his flaws, Mike is at least a doting grandfather. So when Jimmy offers to help him write a will, we immediately think of Kaylee Ehrmantraut, his granddaughter who would have been a toddler during his toll booth days. Even though Mike seems to reject Jimmy's offer, along with all of his other entreaties of friendship, we know he's aware of his mortality and concerned with leaving something behind for Kaylee. Recall, he had $2 million stashed in an overseas bank account with her name on it. The mention of a will, and Mike's subsequent stakeout of a woman who looks to be his daughter, suggest the rock-faced former cop broke bad for the same reason Walter White did: to make money for his family.

Season 1, Episode 4: "Hero"

"S'all good, man"

Four episodes into a show called Better Call Saul and we finally meet a character called Saul. It's Jimmy, of course, but nicknamed Saul, as in "S'all good, man," as he says to a mark during a flashback to his days running a dinky scam in a Chicago alleyway. It's no surprise then that Jimmy would reprise the name when he stops fighting the good fight and gives himself over to the dark side of lawyering. The funny thing is that Saul Goodman isn't so much an alter ego as it is the real Jimmy. He's a born scammer who seems far more at ease as the unscrupulous Saul than trying to stay straight as Jimmy, as the rest of this episode makes clear.

The shirts

After accepting a bribe, although somewhat reluctantly, from the loathsome Kettlemans, Jimmy sets out to execute a plan, more of a scheme, really, to drum up business. The first step: buying an expensive suit that looks just like the one worn by his nemesis Howard Hamlin. We're including this scene here because of its obvious nod to the clothes Jimmy would rather be wearing. As the tailor disappears for a moment, Jimmy gravitates toward a bright, tangerine shirt like an ant to a melting Creamsicle. It's the kind of shirt favored by Saul in Breaking Bad and the kind of shirt he'd buy if he weren't shopping with the intention of baiting Hamlin.

The first Jimmy/Saul commercial

At some early age Pablo Picasso made his first painting and Stephen Curry took his first jumpshot. Unfortunately for posterity, cameras were not present. Fortunately, the same isn't true of the first Saul Goodman commercial, which Jimmy makes after Hamlin demands he remove a billboard that apes the Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill colors, logo, and sartorial choices. The video is more publicity stunt than commercial, but it has the feel of the "Better Call Saul" ads that Jimmy will one day broadcast to all of Albuquerque. The production value will increase, the star's name will be different, and there will be no need to make a guy dangle from a billboard—but the objective of Jimmy's PR stunt and the Saul Goodman commercials both remains the same: get people to pick up the phone.

Season 1, Episode 3: "Nacho"

"Legal loopholes"

In the first of what writers are promising will be several flashbacks that illuminate Jimmy McGill's transformation into Saul Goodman, we see our hero in a Chicago jail, desperate for his brother's help. His brother Chuck, who we've only seen as a recluse handicapped by a fear of electronics, has more hair, so we know he's younger. He also carries a Zack Morris cell phone into the jail, so we know what's responsible for his future affliction. But the part of this scene that's of most interest is how Jimmy suggests Chuck help him: by finding "legal loopholes we can dance though." Sound familiar? "Legal loopholes" are Saul Goodman's stock-in-trade. The lawyer Jimmy was after, a man who would find "clever technicalities" to free a client guilty of a Chicago sunroof (we have no idea), is the lawyer he would later become. At some point before his full evolution, though, he would spend time trying to do the right thing, as he did in most of this episode.

Mike gets tough

Those unaware of the power in Mike Ehrmantraut's grandfatherly frame may have been surprised when the trollish parking-lot attendant put Jimmy's face on the pavement in one fluid motion. But those who watched him muscle his way through four seasons of Breaking Bad know the ferocity behind that perma-scowl. His takedown of Jimmy was a tease of what's to come.

That obnoxious answering-machine message

Don't be fooled by their willingness to steal seven-figure sums or their sneaky escape plan—the Kettlemans are a boring, suburban family whose only atypically quality is a sagging moral compass. We know they're a middle-class cliche because of that godawful answering-machine message. It's hard to call this a reference to significant voicemail messages from Breaking Bad because having a voicemail message is not unique. But it's also hard not to think of Jesse's equally obnoxious attempt at a unique answering-machine recording. Which is worse? We can't decide!

"Nobody wants to leave home"

This line, tossed off by Mike to Jimmy as he's explaining his theory for where the Kettlemans are hiding, explains so much of the trouble for the two characters in Breaking Bad. Mike packed his bags, made his plans, and did everything but flee Albuquerque before running afoul of Walt. For his part, Saul was able to leave home, just as he did when he was called Jimmy and he left Illinois. But as we saw in the first few minutes of the premiere, it was a move he certainly didn't look happy to have made.

Season 1, Episode 2: "Mijo"

Another cooking montage
At a certain point, stylistic choices like the method in which Tuco is shown cooking will stop reminding us of Breaking Bad and exist as part of a continuum. That point hasn't yet arrived, so Tuco's pepper chopping and the way it's shown qualifies as a Saulback.

Tuco respects his elders
It's impossible to see the way Tuco treats his abuelita—you think he would scrub a rug for anyone else?—and not think of the respect he had for his diabolical Tio, who, like Tuco's abuelita, really enjoyed TV. Elderly family members are this psychotic drug dealer's only soft spot. Call one of them a "biznatch" and he'll bring fury down on your face with a cane.

No Doze gets mouthy
As Tuco debates his options (murder? maiming? torture?) for dealing with Saul and the idiot twins in the vast emptiness of the desert, his henchman No Doze speaks without being spoken to. That's a mistake. Tuco quickly admonishes No Doze, a reminder of the how the sidekick would eventually meet his demise for popping off to Tuco in a junkyard.

Season 1, Episode 1: "Uno"

The Cinnabon in Omaha
In "Granite State," the table-setting penultimate episode of Breaking Bad, a dejected Saul Goodman speculates about his life after he disappears from New Mexico. "If I'm lucky in a month from now, best-case scenario, I'm managing a Cinnabon in Omaha," he says. Consider Saul lucky, even if his life in Omaha appears bleak and meaningless. Also worth mentioning is the way director Vince Gilligan shows those gooey Cinnabons transforming from disparate parts into a divine, cohesive creation. The close-ups, the detail, the process—it all mirrors scenes showing Walt and Jesse cooking their renowned blue meth, perhaps the only substance more addictive than Cinnabon's 1,000-calorie dough bombs.

Saul's hiding place and the video in it
Just like Walter before him, Saul has taken to hiding his most valuable goods, in this case, remnants of his past life, in a hole under his floorboards. In a moment of weakness during our brief glimpse of Saul in the present day (living as a mustachioed lunk named Gene), he reaches into that hiding place and pulls out a VHS tape with recordings of his cheesy commercials.

Zen Nail Spa
In season three of Breaking Bad, Saul enjoys a manicure at this seemingly unremarkable nail salon as he tries to convince Jesse to use it as a money-laundering operation. In season four, he tries to convince Walt and Skyler to buy it to help them launder their money. Now we know why he was so convinced of its utility: When he was still known as Jimmy McGill, Saul ran his two-bit law office out of a broom closet in the back of the building.

Tuco and Mike show their faces
Maybe the appearances of two characters central to Breaking Bad aren't so much callbacks as indications that Albuquerque is a small town. Given the importance of these two characters, though, we're including them here. When we meet Mike, he's a parking-lot attendant at the local courthouse hassling Saul (then Jimmy) about parking fees. Meanwhile, Tuco is seen only briefly sticking his head out of his grandmother's front door after pulling a gun on Saul (aka Jimmy—let's hope he changes his name on the show soon so this is easier).

Saul's Cadillac DeVille
Throughout Breaking Bad Saul drives a white Cadillac DeVille, similar to the car we briefly glimpse before setting eyes on the piss-yellow Suzuki Esteem Saul drives before becoming the sleaziest lawyer in ABQ.

Windshields break
It was a running joke on Breaking Bad—the windshield on Walt's Pontiac Aztek broke easier than a skateboarder's legs—and if the premiere of Better Call Saul was any indication, the gag will live on. Two windshields broke in this episode, one on Saul's clunker and one on Tuco's abuelita's wagon.

Juan Tabo Avenue
Gale Boetticher lived on Juan Tabo Avenue and the insurance scamming twins followed Tuco's abuelita on Juan Tabo Avenue. Yes, Juan Tabo Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Albuquerque, but when Gilligan needed a street to reference in the Better Call Saul premiere, he surely chose Juan Tabo Avenue as little treat for those watching and listening closely.

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