Fans across the “Better Call Saul” universe were left picking their jaws up from the floor after [SPOILER ALERT] lawyer Howard Hamlin, played by Patrick Fabian, met his sudden and unfortunate end when he was shot in the head by Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) in the mid-season finale. The episode, titled “Plan and Execution,” centered around Howard being victim to Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) and Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) scheme after such detailed planning, which involved drugging Howard and making him look unreliable at his job. Fabian gave a heralded performance as someone who finally caught on to their ruse too late, and desperately and unsuccessfully tried to salvage his credibility to no avail. It all ended with a gut-wrenching monologue, which may result in Fabian’s first Emmy nomination for Best Drama Supporting Actor.
As the first part of the final season of “Better Call Saul” came to an end on May 23, viewers finally got closer to Jimmy McGill’s transition into the criminal lawyer Saul Goodman in “Breaking Bad,” and Howard has never been more at the center of the story. The entirety of the first half revolved around Kim and Jimmy’s immaculate plan to make their former boss look like a drug addict, such as putting what looked like a bag of cocaine in his locker, conning former clients to spread rumors about him, and Jimmy dressing up like him, while stealing his car and throwing out a prostitute.
It all culminated in the last episode when Jimmy used Howard’s private investigator, who was secretly working for Jimmy, to fake photos of Jimmy bribing the judge who would be mediating the lengthy Sandpiper case. This led to Howard being drugged while touching the photos, making his pupils dilate while confronting the judge and being blindsided when he realized the photos were switched, resulting in the case abruptly settled and his reputation tarnished.
With no hope of being trustworthy, Howard visited Jimmy and Kim and delivered a passionate soliloquy about his struggles and wondering the whole point of the scam, making viewers empathize with his character and deplore Jimmy and Kim for their actions. This was further solidified when, at the conclusion of Howard’s speech vowing to bring them down, Lalo unexpectedly showed up and killed Howard with a gun, despite Howard trying to mediate the situation.
The mid-season finale has received unanimous acclaim with the episode being the highest-rated of the series on IMDb with a score of 9.9/10. Kimberly Potts of the A.V. Club called it “the most shocking, jarring Gilligan universe death,” while Steve Greene from IndieWire highlighted the hour’s “masterful strokes … not built on mistakes.” A large portion of that praise goes to Fabian for his magnificent performance.
As it currently stands, Fabian’s co-stars and perennial nominees Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks are predicted to be nominated by Gold Derby in the Best Drama Supporting Actor category, sitting at 6th place and 7th place with 21/2 and 16/1 odds, respectively. However, with the category known to be very fluid (Banks missed out on a nomination last season), Fabian has a shot of sneaking in if voters recognize his character’s arc on the season, especially knowing that it is the final opportunity to acknowledge him. The nomination would be long overdue and much deserved, and would show a sign of massive strength for “Better Call Saul,” which will air its final six episodes beginning July 11, right before the period of Emmy voting for the winners.
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