The pandemic allowed him to be more present in the final season’s writer’s room, culminating in Monday’s episode “Waterworks,” which Gilligan wrote and directed. Being more hands-on with Better Call Saul “was just great,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It wasn’t necessary for anyone but me, but selfishly it’s just a great, great show and I wanted to take part in it, not just in the final season, but throughout.”
“I didn’t need to be there for anybody but me, but man! I had a great time being around for the final season,” he continues. “I don’t know that it was important for me. It was just fun. I didn’t feel driven to do it. I just wanted to do it for fun and because I love the show. I’m a giant fan of the show and I was very lucky to get to direct three episodes in one season.” Gilligan had never directed more than two episodes in a season of TV, and “Waterworks” was “the first episode of TV I’ve written all by myself since the final episode of Breaking Bad.”
“There’s no need for that and I wouldn’t even call it bragging rights or anything,” he added. “I just realized it was interesting just to get one to myself, but even that’s misleading when I say that. I didn’t have one to myself, because all of these episodes are broken by the writers en masse. It’s very much a group episode. You’re never really alone when you’re writing one of these things or when you’re directing it, which just makes it even better that it’s such a collaborative effort.” And with that, Vince Gilligan’s final bow in the Breaking Bad universe. (At least… for now.)
