Caution: spoilers ahead for Better Call Saul season 6, episode 7
Howard Hamlin visits Kim Wexler and Jimmy McGill's apartment to sarcastically congratulate them on successfully framing him. The couple remain nonplussed at Howard's righteous anger, clearly predicting a tongue-lashing like this was coming. Alas, Jimmy and Kim did not predict that Lalo Salamanca would appear and shoot Howard in the brain.
The intensity and violence of Better Call Saul's final season is unlike anything Jimmy's spinoff has dared attempt before, featuring two brutal main character deaths in only 7 episodes. Nevertheless, that doesn't extinguish Better Call Saul's signature comedy. Jimmy & Kim's Howard Hamlin con came across like an Italian Job-esque crime caper. Jimmy abusing a parking sign while dressed as Howard, an amateur actor who thinks he's Marlon Brando, the return of the bickering Kettlemans - all fine examples of Better Call Saul's funny bone at work in season 6. Scamming Howard might've been Jimmy & Kim's darkest plot yet, but each step still incorporated the classic Saul Goodman shenanigans.
That stuff simply can't happen anymore in Better Call Saul season 6, part 2. As soon as Howard's limp corpse begins pouring claret onto Kim's apartment floor, an unavoidable shadow is cast over Better Call Saul. With that shadow comes a tonal redirect that's impossible to avoid. Whatever Jimmy and Kim do next - and you can bet there's more antics to come in Better Call Saul, whether to cover up Howard's death or appease Lalo Salamanca - the days of larking around with college students, concocting maverick schemes, and flying by the seat of their pants are over. Jimmy and Kim's next move won't be about making a lawyer embarrass himself or getting rich, it'll be about avoiding jail or quelling the wrath of a notoriously impulsive gun-waving gangster. The time for japes and hi-jinks is over - Better Call Saul season 6, part 2 has become a desperate scrap for survival.
Breaking Bad season 5's train heist had the feeling of a good-time wild west robbery where the cowboys cunningly outsmart their opponents. But there came a moment when the laughter stopped - the death of Hank Schrader. When Walt is forced to watch Hank die, he es a moral boundary. From once enjoying the cut-and-thrust of being Heisenberg, Hank's demise brings reality crashing down for Walter White, and Breaking Bad takes a more morose tone from there. Better Call Saul season 6's Howard Hamlin death serves exactly the same purpose for Jimmy and Kim. The thrills and spills are replaced by an all-consuming aura of sadness and guilt, and what needs to happen next will happen with a heavy heart.
Whereas Hank's Breaking Bad death occurred two episodes from the end, Better Call Saul's Howard cliffhanger comes halfway through the final season. That means the shadow of Howard's murder will linger far longer, covering the entire back end of Better Call Saul season 6. And whereas Walter White ultimately accepted death as payment for his sins, Saul's presence in Breaking Bad proves he eventually gets over Howard - or more accurately represses all grief under the "Saul Goodman" persona, just like he did with Chuck. While we know Jimmy eventually reverts to his wise-cracking, wheeling-dealing ways, expect he and Kim to be swimming in a pool of trauma when Better Call Saul season 6 returns.