Better Call Saul's finale was inspired by a holiday classic

According to Gould, who co-created the series with Vince Gilligan and directed "Saul Gone", this climactic moment of confession was inspired in part by a classic story. "We used to talk about the progression of Jimmy McGill, Saul Goodman being kind of like 'A Christmas Carol,'" Gould told AMC Talk.

In Charles Dickens' classic story, heartless miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts, each helping him better understand the error of his way of life. At the end of his long, dark night of the soul, he emerges a changed man, and his ability to gain new insight and compassion after decades of wrongdoing is considered a Christmas miracle.

It's such a familiar story that watching an adaptation on screen or on stage can often feel more like a heartwarming holiday ritual than a heartfelt experience. But with years of commitment to its story, "Better Call Saul" breaks down the raw emotional power of Dickens' structure of atonement and contemplation, recontextualizing it for modern viewers in a way that hits us right in the heart.