How Better Call Saul’s Worst-Rated Episode Almost Triggered a Jell-O Lawsuit

Here’s a fun little wrinkle from the Better Call Saul vault: the show’s lowest-rated episode on IMDb isn’t actually bad — it’s sitting at an 8.0 — but it does have a weird naming story that got kneecapped by trademark law.

The almost-Jell-O episode

Season 1’s Alpine Shepherd Boy was originally supposed to be called Jell-O. That would’ve kept the season’s running gag of titles ending in the letter O intact. According to Screen Rant, Vince Gilligan and the team pushed hard to keep the name, but Kraft Foods — the Jell-O owner — wouldn’t sign off. Gilligan said the producers 'desperately' wanted to stick with it, and the forced switch 'harshed [their] buzz.'

• Season 1’s O-ending titles: Uno, Mijo, Hero, Nacho, Five-O, Bingo, RICO, Pimento, Marco — and, in a perfect world, Jell-O

Why Jell-O passed

Gilligan didn’t spell out the why, but the logic is pretty obvious: Jell-O is a kid-friendly brand (remember Jigglers?), and Better Call Saul deals with scams, cartel business, and generally shady adult behavior. Screen Rant also floats the possibility that AMC didn’t want to navigate the licensing costs and headaches. Either way, the title changed, the naming bit got dinged, and we all learned you can’t out-lawyer a dessert.

What happens in Alpine Shepherd Boy

This is the episode where Jimmy backslides into his old Slippin’ Jimmy habits at an elder-care facility. He turns on the charm, showers the residents with flattery, and hands out Jell-O cups with his face and contact info hiding at the bottom. He even debuts a corny new pitch line: 'Need a will? Call McGill!'

So why is it the show’s 'worst' rated?

Again, 8.0/10 is hardly a disaster. But compared to the show’s high-water marks, Alpine Shepherd Boy tends to land lower with fans. The big reason: tone. Jimmy’s lighter, scammy energy sits next to Chuck’s escalating mental-health crisis, and the contrast can feel jarring. The episode also eases off the gas — longer, more lingering shots and not a ton of plot movement. That ebb-and-flow is classic Gilligan: slow down, dig in, then pay it off later. Some weeks that lands as rich character work; some weeks it reads as a stall. This one took the hit.

Zooming out: where the show stands

Better Call Saul is a neo-noir legal crime drama from Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, both a spin-off and a prequel to Breaking Bad. Set in early-to-mid 2000s Albuquerque and filmed there, it tracks Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) morphing from struggling lawyer and former con artist into Saul Goodman, cartel-adjacent defense attorney. Along the way: Kim Wexler, Chuck McGill, Howard Hamlin, Gus Fring, and Lalo Salamanca. Six seasons, 63 episodes, and themes that swing between moral erosion, the legal system’s gray areas, family fallout, and the cartel’s very not-gray areas.

Where to watch

Better Call Saul is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S.