https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220708-how-better-call-saul-bettered-breaking-bad
Gilligan stepped back from the writers' room of Better Call Saul after season three, leaving Gould as sole showrunner. He returned for the final season however to write the penultimate script and to direct three episodes, including the season six, part two premiere Point and Shoot. It was during the filming of this episode's opening scene in July 2021 that Bob Odenkirk suffered a heart attack.
"It was just terrible," says Gilligan, who struggles to recall the incident without becoming emotional. "I've learned since that most people survive a heart attack. He had full-on cardiac arrest, which most people do not survive. It was awful. He died right in front of us."
He credits the quick actions of various people, including the on-set emergency medical technician, for saving Odenkirk's life. "They saved his life right in front of me," he says. "I'm standing there like an idiot. I don't know what to do. Just completely useless… We were sure he wasn't going to make it." After being rushed to hospital, Odenkirk made a full recovery (possibly, suggests Gilligan, because he was in such good shape from filming action movie Nobody). "We didn't even know at that point if we were ever going to finish the show or not," he says, "but knowing he was going to survive helped an awful lot. Those were some very dark days."
Odenkirk returned to set a few weeks later, to complete the scene that he had left unfinished. "It’s a very dramatic scene near the beginning of the episode," says Gilligan. "Two thirds of it was shot before he had a cardiac arrest, a third of it after. I defy you to notice the difference."