In S01E01 in a starting scene, we see Jimmy working in a restaurant. We see similar scenes at the start of many episodes.
How did Jimmy end up working there? and What is the significance of those scenes?
PS: Just FYI, I am in the middle of season 3 (so try to be careful with potential spoilers).
We don't know yet to what point or end the future scenes will have.
(About the Season 4 Opening Future Scene:)
On this week's edition of the Better Call Saul Insider podcast (via The Wrap), a brand new, quite intriguing curveball has been thrown into the mix when it comes to those aforementioned flash-fowards. While speaking on the program, Gilligan, Gould, and Odenkirk suggested that these sequences might be set prior to the events of Breaking Bad's series finale, and that the person "Gene" most fears the wrath of is possibly.
They do however take place before Breaking Bad ends between episodes 5.15 & 5.16.
The general idea here is to realize that there are "3" personas of Jimmy McGill, with "Saul Goodman" really being a kind of mask Jimmy comes to wear. It's unclear what exactly "Gene's" Cinnabon-future (and back at the mall) implies for Jimmy, except to say that he has been living a very isolating and solitary life style in order to stay under the radar and it's hard to imagine Jimmy being able to do this for very long, given his need to constantly talk and socialize with other people.
There are characters still currently alive in Better Call Saul that didn't seem to exist during the events of Breaking Bad, and at least one of those characters, or even a character that isn't alive currently, could be fundamental to where ever these future scenes are going or will land, as Jimmy's brother, Kim, and Nacho are the character's deeper ties to whom he truly is or what he really wants.
How did Jimmy end up working there? and What is the significance of those scenes?
Towards the end of Breaking Bad, after
Hank is killed,
Walt’s involvement in the drug business is exposed, and as a consequence, so is Saul’s. We see Saul and Walt in the basement of the vacuum-repair shop, as their new identities are being created to allow them to escape jail.
As Saul remarks to Walt, the best he can hope for is to be manager of a Cinnabon in Omaha. True to his word, he achieves this glittering dream*, which is what we see in the black-and-white season-opening scenes in Better Call Saul — our lead character, after the events of both shows, living his life as best he can.
As of the season 5 opening scene, we learn that someone has recognised Saul from his Albuquerque days, putting him in danger of being found by the police. He calls the vacuum-repair shop to get yet another new identity set up, but then changes his mind, and says he’ll handle the situation himself.
It seems likely that the last episode or two** of Better Call Saul will show us what Fate, Cinnabon, and Omaha have in store for Gene/Saul/Jimmy.
* We’re not shown how, but from everything else we know about Jimmy, I figure good old-fashioned elbow grease with a sprinkling of expedient lying.
** Turns out it needed the last four!
