“Did I just read what I read?”: When Better Call Saul star Patrick Fabian revealed how he felt about Howard’s death in the show

Howard Hamlin’s death marked a turning point in Better Call Saul. While audiences initially hated the HHM managing partner due to his hostility towards Jimmy, they eventually felt sorry for him when his real intentions came out.

In the seventh episode of the sixth season, Howard met with his end. However, his death was not his fault as he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The plot twist was so sudden that it left the audience shocked.

When the episode aired in 2022, actor Patrick Fabian, who played Howard, revealed that he was as surprised by his character’s death as the audience when he read the script of Better Call Saul Season 6. He said in an interview with Vanity Fair:

“I have to say, as much as it plays out on the screen, on the page it also is very abrupt. There’s that weird finality where you go, “Did I just read what I read?” It’s supposed to linger and have that impact. I bet there’ll be a lot of people screaming at the television.”

Better Call Saul star Patrick Fabian once talked about Howard’s death

In the first season of Better Call Saul, Howard is seen as a man born with a silver spoon who despises Jimmy and does not let him work at his firm. Meanwhile, he also gives Kim Wexler a hard time at the office. Hence, he does not come across as likable at first glance.

However, as the series progresses, more aspects of his personality come out, and it becomes clear that he is actually a victim who has been tormented by Jimmy’s reckless actions. In Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 7, Howard goes to Jimmy and Kim’s apartment to confront them, but drug lord Lalo Salamanca arrives at the scene and shoots him.

Talking about filming the sequence, Patrick Fabian revealed during his interview that it was actually a disturbing experience, even though it was not the first time he had been killed on screen. He further joked that his mother was going to be furious with the series creators for the way they killed his character:

“Honestly, after it happened, I physically put my hands on my knees and bent over. The wind was sort of taken out of me. I think I’ve been shot before, or I’ve been killed before onscreen. But there’s a finality to it, character-wise and job-wise and life-wise. I know my mother’s going to be so mad at these guys.”

Patrick added that while Howard was shot by Tony Dalton, who played Lalo, onscreen, he is actually great friends with him in real life. The two have even gone on hiking trips together, so it was weird to be killed by his dear friend:

“I love Tony Dalton. We get along great. We’ve been hiking and all that stuff. You read it on the script, but it is that weird thing that all of a sudden, okay, we’re rehearsing. They bring in the rubber gun and all that stuff. And you’re like, ‘Oh, oh. Oh, Tony, are you going to kill me? Really?’ And Tony says something like, ‘Sorry, man. That’s what they say I have to do.’”

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Better Call Saul serves as a prequel to Breaking Bad and chronicles Jimmy McGill's transformation into Saul Goodman, a criminal lawyer involved with the drug mafia. Apart from Patrick and Tony, the show stars Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill, Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, Michael McKean as Chuck McGill, Michael Mando as Nacho Varga, and Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring.

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