Better Call Saul Episode Sunk Costs Proves That Vince Gilligan is the Master of the Cold Open

Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut – Better Call Saul _ Season 3, Episode 3 – Photo Credit: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

The cold open of Better Call Saul episode Sunk Costs was confusing, mysterious, and alluring. It also proves that Vince Gilligan is the master of the form.

Dear Vince Gilligan, Please never stop giving us delightful cold opens. Sincerely, The entire TV watching world.

Ok, so the odds of Gilligan himself reading that are slim, but I’m guessing that the man isn’t going to be doing away with his signature cold opens anytime soon. He’s just too damn good at them. Not too sure what a cold open is? If you’re a fan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, you’ve seen some of the best in the business. The term “cold open” generally refers to the first few minutes of an episode prior to the credit roll. And, in the past decade or so, showrunner Vince Gilligan has turned the thing into something of an art form.

More from AMC

Sure, other TV series have used the format to entice viewers into an episode, but Gilligan somehow does it best. He toys with our notion of perception as he tosses us out into left field and gets our minds churning with possibility.

In Season 2 of Breaking Bad, Gilligan started to play with the form, spreading a series of vague black and white cold opens throughout the season. The montages of death and destruction surrounding the White residence led up to a wholly shocking plane crash that no one saw coming. A few years later, he upped the ante and did it again by sprinkling LOST-like flash forwards of a scruffy and mysterious Walter White throughout Season 5.

And now, on Better Call Saul, Gilligan has been entertaining us with the longest string of unresolved cold opens in TV history. Viewers know that they can count on a brief visit with Gene – Saul’s hangdog post-Breaking Bad persona – at the start of every season, giving tiny glimpses into the life of a man stripped of everything he holds dear.

Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill (as Gene) – Better Call Saul _ Season 3, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

As alluring as these slow burns are, the very best cold opens are the ones that feel like the first random puzzle piece shaken out of a brand new box. Gilligan’s reassurance is that by the end of the episode, the puzzle will shift together, and the opening moment will have an indelible place in the history of the narrative.

In fact, the opening scene to Better Call Saul episode ‘Sunk Costs’ was reminiscent of one of the most memorable puzzle piece cold opens in Breaking Bad history. The start of Season 5 installment ‘Dead Freight’ focused on a young boy in search of a tarantula in the desert. He motorbikes around the dusty landscape, and finally happens upon his prize, capturing it in a mason jar. This sequence had absolutely zero to do with anything the show had introduced previously but, by the end credits, it had a resonant and shocking meaning that reverberated throughout the remainder of the entire series.

I won’t spoil the reveal for any Better Call Saul fans that have yet to see Breaking Bad (what are you waiting for?!) but suffice to say that the images that opened ‘Sunk Costs’ echoed ‘Dead Freight’ to a tee. In a totally silent montage, the camera focuses on a pair of weather-beaten sneakers strung up on a telephone wire.

Who’s shoes are those? What’s going on with that Pollos truck? Why did the shoes fall at the end of the montage? We get the answer to all of those questions – and so much more – by the conclusion of the episode and feel fulfilled in knowing that the opener was a carefully prepared tantalizing appetizer for things to come.

‘Sunk Costs’ was an episode directed by Breaking Bad alum John Shiban, who, curiously enough, also directed the Better Call Saul episode ‘Rebecca’, which showcases the only unresolved cold open (aside from Gene’s epic slow burn) in the series thus far. As per BrBa tradition, Shiban utilizes the stark beauty of the New Mexico desert to frame every peculiarity in the scene, clicking curious minds into overdrive.

And that’s exactly what a good cold open should do – foster curiosity and unadulterated excitement for the remainder of the episode. Vince Gilligan’s cold opens are simply the best because they’re never an afterthought; they’re carefully constructed nuggets of goodness that never dare to underestimate the viewers intelligence.

‘Better Call Saul’ airs Monday nights at 10/9c on AMC.

Home/AMC

Vince Gilligan is the Undisputed Master of the Cold Open

By Erin Qualey | Apr 25, 2017

The cold open of Better Call Saul episode Sunk Costs was confusing, mysterious, and alluring. It also proves that Vince Gilligan is the master of the form.