‘Better Call Saul’ Writer Ariel Levine Breaks Down “Calm Before the Storm” Ahead of Mid-Season Finale - Hollywood Reporter

Better Call Saul writer Ariel Levine has a rather unique bragging right as she won an Emmy before writing a single episode of television.

Levine earned the award in 2017 for Better Call Saul and AMC’s short-form series Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training, her first professional writing assignment to hit the air.

In 2020, Levine, as the writers’ assistant, co-wrote Better Call Saul’s season five finale before winning yet another short-form Emmy for Ethics Training with Kim Wexler.

Prior to Better Call Saul’s final season, Levine was promoted to the writing staff, and Monday’s Giancarlo Esposito-directed episode, “Axe and Grind,” marked the release of her first solo outing as writer.

Naturally, Levine can’t believe the journey she’s been on since the final days of Breaking Bad.

“I temped on Breaking Bad when they were breaking the last episode, and on the Breaking Bad documentary [No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad], I’m in the background, like a deer in the headlights, as they’re toasting champagne and putting up the last card.

So I started working on Bay State, the longest-running college soap opera, and when I tried out to be a writer on the show, the person who hired me was named [Better Call Saul producer] Jenn Carroll.

And when they needed an extra pair of hands later in the final season, they called me up.

So I temped on Breaking Bad when they were breaking the last episode, and on the Breaking Bad documentary [No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad], I’m in the background, like a deer in the headlights, as they’re toasting champagne and putting up the last card?

And how did the Better Call Saul trajectory start.

And when she got the call to do Better Call Saul, she brought me with her again.

So I started as post PA in season one, moved to writers’ PA in season two, and then was promoted to writers’ assistant in season three [through the end of season five].

As a writers’ assistant, you co-wrote the season five finale with Peter Gould, and you were then promoted to staff writer for the final season.

Yeah, [“Axe and Grind”] is my first solo episode after co-writing 510 last season and 602 this season, but it was pretty by the book.

One day, we were breaking an episode, and Peter and Vince [Gilligan] were like, “By the way, Ariel is writing this one.” So I did a little private dance, and then we all got back to work.

Back when I was the writers’ PA, I found out I was being promoted to writers’ assistant during the Better Call Saul Insider podcast.

He makes it as a kind gesture to Cheryl, but it’s not what Cheryl needs as she’s on her way out the door.

She’s trying to make a respectable law office, and unfortunately, she’s learning that respectable is not really Saul Goodman’s vibe.

At the end of Breaking Bad’s “Sunset,” Saul has Francesca call Hank (Dean Norris) and pretend that Marie (Betsy Brandt) has been in a car accident.

I really loved getting to show Francesca’s evolution from the sweet, earnest Francesca that we saw on Better Call Saul season three to this jaded, sarcastic person who puts up with a lot from Saul on Breaking Bad.

She’s trying to set boundaries in this episode, but Saul is a bit of a bully.

Once she starts to get less precious about things, like the treatment of her decor or even her dignity and her conscience, I imagine it’s in for a penny, in for a pound, for her.

On Better Call Saul, we like to give our characters choices, and that’s something that I also liked about Breaking Bad as a fan.

Gus and Mike are still dialing things in, and their operation has a ways to go before it’s what we see on Breaking Bad.

From Jake Pinkman’s Winston Churchill poster on Breaking Bad to Vince Gilligan’s beloved FIFI, the famed WWII fighter that was featured on Saul season two, can one surmise that Vince contributed the Omaha Beach and D-Day metaphors.

It feels like she’s leading this hobby, and he’s along for the ride?

So it seemed like a fun, nightly thing for them to do

Next week’s episode wasn’t originally designed to be a mid-season finale, but in the same way that season three’s “Chicanery” would’ve worked as a climactic mid-season finale, does 607 also work quite nicely as a temporary stopping point