Warning! SPOILERS for Better Call Saul.
Breaking Bad, the depths of Walt's depravity make Howard look like a knight in shining armor.
Kim and Jimmy's scheme leads to more screen-time for Howard in Better Call Saul season 6. The audience learns of his troubled home life as he tentatively divulges information to his therapist, unaware that Jimmy sports a disguise and steals his car in the meantime. Howard's wife Cheryl makes her first appearance in the series, and instantly the icy divide in their relationship is evident. At the advice of his therapist, Howard tries to build bridges with Cheryl, offering to accompany her to dinner before he is swiftly rebuffed.
The most damning aspect of this scene, however, is how Cheryl casually pours her coffee into a travel mug. Howard delicately makes the coffee for her, crowned with a peace symbol on the foam. Yet, this peace offering is ignored and declined. The frostiness of the scene echoes Breaking Bad when Walt and Skyler's relationship first begins to deteriorate, once Skyler becomes aware of Walt's second cell phone. In order to gloss over his lies and act like a happy family, Walt makes his wife breakfast and offers to go with her to a fiction writer's seminar. Walt's tactics are transparent though, as Skyler demands he make no more "obvious, desperate breakfasts" and tell her the truth of what's really going on. Obviously, Walt does not.
In comparison, Howard is open with Cheryl, telling her that the situation with Jimmy is getting worse but that he's going to "put an end to this, whatever it takes." Like Walt, Better Call Saul's Howard's attempts to appease his wife Cheryl don't go to plan. While Howard does not have to listen to Skyler's justified fury, Cheryl's cold indifference is even worse. The intricacies of Howard and Cheryl's relationship are not disclosed in Better Call Saul, but it's hard not to feel sorry for Howard. Walt deserves Skyler's anger, as he upholds his lie, but Howard's attempts to rekindle his marriage are genuine, and his failure to do so points to the larger picture that all aspects of Howard's life look set to crumble.
In conjunction with Jimmy and Kim's scheme upping the ante, Better Call Saul poses the question of whether Howard deserves what is coming to him or not. Although he is not previously portrayed in a very positive light, Howard is becoming a more relatable and sympathetic character. As a result, similar to how Breaking Bad forced audiences to condemn Walter, Better Call Saul may make audiences consider Jimmy and Kim's morality. This is especially poignant because by making Howard more sympathetic, this makes Howard's inevitable downfall more painful for viewers than it may have been in previous seasons.
Better Call Saul airs every Monday on AMC.