Better Call Saul stars reveal what they took from the set

Better Call Saul ended its serpentine, surprising, satisfying six-season run on Monday. Now it's time to cling to your memories or a Netflix rewatch. (Or check out our digital cover, which includes on-the-set coverage of the finale.)

And when the stars of AMC's revered Breaking Bad prequel piled out of Albuquerque, they didn't just leave this thrilling and chilling adventure behind — they took a small part of it with them, somewhat literally. Yes, the cast members grabbed an item of personal value — clothes, talisman, trinket, writing utensil — that will forever remind them of and bind them to what went down on the desert from 2015 to 2022. Here, Rhea Seehorn, Bob Odenkirk, Giancarlo Esposito, and the rest of the cast show us what they stuffed into their pockets. And put on their head. And even left on their face.

AMC/Sony Pictures Television Katie Beth Hall as young Kim and Beth Hoyt as Kim's mother in 'Better Call Saul'

RHEA SEEHORN (Kim)

Seehorn left Albuquerque not just with a love of her character, but a piece of her — in the form of Kim's earrings and necklace that came from a formative shoplifting experience with her mother. Though it would've been rather poetic, Seehorn didn't steal them; she asked the costume department for permission. Those two pieces of jewelry "will always remind me of her," says Seehorn. "The decision to choose them was a part of my journey with [costume designer] Jennifer Bryan and our discussions of the working women that we knew growing up who have to work. Kim trying to fit into a world that probably was more affluent than when she starts in the law firm and she probably thought this was her one nice set of jewelry. And the women that Jennifer and I saw growing up didn't change their purses every day. They had one blue jacket, one black jacket, one blue skirt, one black skirt. You didn't change your earrings. You didn't change your hair. You didn't have time or money."

Seehorn remembers poring over the possibilities for the shape of the jewelry. "Not too feminine. Tiny bit of danger. Probably geometric, probably clean lines," she says. "There was just a lot of thought that went into it and then we never changed them. I think there's two scenes where she dresses up for something and changes them. And then this backstory came up that I never saw coming where they actually showed where this jewelry came from — and why she hangs on to it — so they were important to me."

AMC/Sony Pictures Television Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in 'Better Call Saul'

BOB ODENKIRK (Jimmy/Saul/Gene)

Odenkirk probably could have departed with a loud suit, pinkie ring, chi machine, Band-aid box, and so much more. In in the end, though, he just wanted one thing: the black Panavision hat that Jimmy wears in season 3 as an earlier incarnation of Saul Goodman, back when he fancied himself as a Hollywood director and was making commercials with plenty of star wipes. "It's the time when the character was really happy," explains Odenkirk. "It's really the only time when he was. When he was pulling scams, he was excited, and he was jazzed up, but I wouldn't say he was happy. He was just caught up in his scheme and I'm sure it felt good. But whenever he was doing his directing with that camera crew, he was genuinely having a blast! So I didn't want to take anything else that made me think about him falling short, which is what a lot of his behaviors were. He was falling short of his best self. That was something where it was pure good."

Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television Michael McKean as Chuck McGill in 'Better Call Saul'

MICHAEL MCKEAN (Chuck)

McKean recalls swiping a few tomes from Chuck's great room — "like a Great Mysteries of 1948 or something," says the actor — so he'd have some reading material at home. That said, when he was done, "I think I brought them back." (McKean can also tell you what else rested on the bookshelves of Jimmy's imperious brother: "There was a surprising number of books from the Left Behind series, so it's like, 'S---, on top of all this, Chuck was expecting the Rapture? That's a whole other show!") And what happened to Chuck's portrait that was hanging up at HHM? "They're threatening to send me that gigantic portrait, but they gotta think of something else to do with that," he quips. "That guy's gone."

Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television Michael Mando as Nacho Varga in 'Better Call Saul'

MICHAEL MANDO (Nacho)

On a desert drive in season 3, Mando passed by a Navajo community, and he wound up eyeing something that would be perfect for his character. "I bought a silver ring that had a lion claw on it," he says. "I asked Jennifer Bryan if I could wear it [as] Nacho." He did just that, and when the show ended, "I took that home, and I think it represented sort of that lion heart that Nacho has. And that really shows at the end of his trajectory."

Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin in 'Better Call Saul'

PATRICK FABIAN (Howard)

You're thinking it's one of the suits, right? They let him keep those, right? "The answer is no," says Fabian. "Sony [the studio that produced the show] paid more money for those suits than they paid for me over the life of my contract." Instead, he wound up with a significant pen from Howard's desk. "It's the only HHM pen that they manufactured," he says. "It sat on my desk for six seasons, nobody ever swiped it," he says. "And on my final day in the office, [a crew member] came over and said, 'Hey, put this in your pocket. We love you.' And I took it."

AMC/Sony Pictures Television Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring in 'Better Call Saul'

GIANCARLO ESPOSITO (Gus)

Sure, Esposito has a Los Pollos Hermanos pen and plastic cup to remember his chicken-restaurant empire. And the wardrobe department gave him Gus' shoes and a jacket. But Esposito grabbed something you might not have been expecting on his way out: some pebbles from the ground of the meth lab that his drug lord was building. And specifically, it was from the scene in which he killed Lalo (Tony Dalton). "I realize now I should have just gotten in hindsight a bucket of dirt, because it meant something for Gus, deep down to make that. To create that lab under the laundry is a brilliant idea. And to be able to do it with German engineering is even more fascinating. So that was really special to me."

Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut in 'Better Call Saul'

JONATHAN BANKS (Mike)

Banks chose to leave the set empty-handed. "I look back and it was all so sweet, but walking out of there the last time, I really do try to leave things in the past," he explains. "I want to shut that door and I want to go. But no, come on. I had a love affair with both [Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul]." The fantastic fixer was quite pleased with his official gift, though: Each cast member received a miniature version of a set that was important to his or her character. Banks is the proud owner of Mike's car, miniaturized and Easter-egged. "There's a note on the windshield says DON'T, there's my baseball bat in there, my newspaper with my crossword puzzles. It lights up. It's pretty cool."

AMC/Sony Pictures Television Tony Dalton as Lalo in 'Better Call Saul'

TONY DALTON (Lalo)

Dalton decided not to liberate anything from the set. "I always feel bad about stealing stuff," he shares. "They're like, 'Hey, excuse me, that's supposed to be ours, and it's worth money.'" That said, he did depart town with one keepsake from his time on the show that always remains close to him. Actually, it's right on his face. "I think the only thing that I kept of Lalo, which worked out for me, was the mustache," he says. "I never had one before. Maybe I'll keep it for a little bit."

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