[Warning: this article contains spoilers for episode 11 of Better Call Saul season 6.]

Last week’s episode ended with Gene Takavic hanging up the colorful Saul Goodman dress shirt and tie on a department store rack, possibly symbolizing the end of his scheming ways. But boy were we completely wrong. Not only did he get a taste of how good it used to be after a successful mall caper, Gene realizes this is who he really is, and has once again embraced his old con man persona, doubling down with an identity theft scam.

Titled “Breaking Bad,” this week’s episode serves as a fascinating callback to a Breaking Bad episode from season two, called “Better Call Saul,” and features the highly publicized cameos of Walt and Jesse. But as we’ve learned from watching this show, Better Call Saul is not one to pander to fan service. Each scene has a purpose, and the cameos shed some new light on Saul’s actions from the other show (as we’ll learn later on in the episode).

After the episode kicks off with a tease to Walt and Jesse’s first meeting with Saul, the show immediately switches back to black-and-white for an update on some characters post-Breaking Bad through Francesca. No longer Saul’s secretary, Francesca is now a landlord with problem tenants who clog up their sink with weed stems and seeds. She has dealt with far worse considering Saul’s nature of clientele, so obviously she doesn’t tolerate any excuses from mere stoners. We then follow her to a phone booth out of town to answer a call from Gene, in exchange for the location of a hidden money stash. Francesca reveals that she’s still being followed by the feds, a reminder that yes, while everyone else is dead or incarcerated, Saul Goodman is still at large and wanted by the DEA. The rest of his funds set-up in several business fronts (nail salons, laser tag, etc.) are all gone as well.

Other characters whose fates were mentioned include Kuby and Huell, with the latter apparently going back to New Orleans. Francesca also confirms the events in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, in which Jesse Pinkman successfully escapes to Alaska. But one particular update about a certain someone has piqued Gene’s curiosity the most: Kim Wexler, who phoned in to check on her and Saul after everything went down. It’s quite reassuring, especially for us fans, to know that Kim is alive during the entirety of Breaking Bad. After learning about this, Gene reluctantly decides to call Kim, who now works at a place called Palm Coast Spinklers in Titusville, Florida. While we can clearly see that Gene has reached Kim, the sound of passing trucks obscures their conversation. Instead, we see Gene getting angry by what’s being said on the other line, and ends up smashing the phone receiver and the booth’s glass. Although much time has passed since their breakup, it’s clear that he still has not moved on from the pain. And this sends Gene further into a darker place.

With nothing to lose, Gene’s first order of business afterwards is reuniting with Jeff and Buddy to execute a far bigger scheme: an identity theft scam. Gene chats up a mark at random bars, gets them intoxicated, and calls up a taxi ride home. The taxi is, of course, driven by Jeff, who offers a spiked bottled water. With the mark knocked out, this allows Buddy to break in their homes and make copies of their credits cards and other personal assets. The scam continues through another captivating montage – which has become a signature of both Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, showing a bunch of suckers falling for it. Gene buys the same foot massager he used in his law office as Saul Goodman, as a sign that he’s really slipping back into his former persona.

Things are going smoothly for the group when they hit a snag with their latest mark who’s terminally ill with pancreatic cancer. Better Call Saul has taught us that Jimmy McGill has a soft spot for people who’ve been dealt with a bad hand, and a little bit of that creeps out, but this is Saul Goodman after the events of Breaking Bad, and so he continues on. Buddy, however, refuses to scam the guy, so Gene flips out and fires him on the spot. Insisting on finishing the job, Gene decides to do the break-in himself. The next scenes are intertwined with flashbacks to the Breaking Bad era, conveying that history is repeating itself again. As Gene breaks in to the guy’s home, Saul Goodman approaches Walt’s school even after Mike advising him to just ignore Walt and Jesse as they are not worth it, a decision that would change several lives for the worse.

The Breaking Bad tie-in could not have come at a better time. Gene has completely succumbed to his scheming ways and… broke again. With only two episodes left, it seems like things do not bode well for our guy.