Better Call Saul Theory: Mesa Verde Is In Breaking Bad (With A New Name)
Better Call Saul season 5, episode 5, "Dedicado a Max", sets up a case against Mesa Verde, and might reveal a link to Breaking Bad and Walter White.
In Better Call Saul season 5, episode 5, “Dedicado a Max”, a plan starts to form against Mesa Verde Bank and Trust, which may explain how the company secretly appears in Breaking Bad, and reveal a connection to Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Although Mesa Verde never appears or gets mentioned in Breaking Bad, it has been an increasingly key part of Better Call Saul since being introduced in season 2. It was initially represented by the law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM), but stuck with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) after she left the company, and again when she started working for Schweikart and Cokely.
While Mesa Verde has been there as something of a plot device for the story arcs of Kim, Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk), and Chuck (Michael McKean), the bank has a more active role in Better Call Saul season 5. They’re insistent on building a new call center on a lot where one home occupier is refusing to movie, leaving to a stand-off that now features Jimmy and Kim working against Mesa Verde together. Mesa Verde, and CEO Kevin Wachtell (Rex Linn) in particular, is refusing to budge an inch on the matter, but Kim now has a plan to take them down, perhaps setting up another Breaking Bad connection in Better Call Saul.
Based on what Kim saw in the photos in Better Call Saul season 5, episode 5, it’s likely that she has a plot to make a case of copyright infringement against Mesa Verde. In pictures of Kevin’s office, the Mesa Verde logo looks almost identical to one in another photograph, and the way Kim smiles after seeing it strongly suggests that Mesa Verde never sought permission to use the image. Fast forward to Breaking Bad, meanwhile, and although there’s no Mesa Verde, there is a Mesa Credit Union. This appears in Breaking Bad‘s pilot; it’s Walter White’s credit union, and from where he withdraws the money so Jesse can buy the R.V.
Assuming Kim is successful in the copyright infringement case, then it’s entirely possible Mesa Verde will be forced into a major re-branding. Not only because of the copyright, but to move away from any negative press that comes with it, a fresh start could be better for the company. With that, then, there’s a chance that this copyright case results in Mesa Verde becoming the Mesa Credit Union we see in Breaking Bad, perhaps with a corporate restructure if Kevin ends up having to leave the company.
Mesa isn’t an unusual name to find being used by a company in New Mexico, of course, so it is possible this is just going to be a coincidence, especially as Mesa Verde was unplanned when Breaking Bad was being made. That said, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have shown a great deal of interest in connecting dots that previously didn’t even exist. Them choosing Mesa Verde for the name of a bank in Better Call Saul, when Mesa Credit Union already exists in the Breaking Bad universe, is the kind of small but fun detail they love to add in.
