Warning: This will contain major spoilers for Better Call Saul Season 6, Episode 8: “Point and Shoot"InBetter Call Saul’s final season, fans have made a big deal about what would be the ultimate fate of the show’s main characters who don’t appear inBreaking Bad. Now, series writer Gordon Smith has shed some light on the stunning events that occurred in the season 6 mid-season finale.
Before its latest episode, theBetter Call Saulwriters had revealed the fates of Nacho Varga and Howard Hamlin. With five episodes to go, the show has already revealed the death of the primary antagonist Lalo Salamanca.
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During an interview with Rolling Stone, Smith explained what went into the process of killing such a charming sociopath like Lalo. In short, they wanted to hammer home that Lalo’s desire for revenge would be his ultimate undoing, especially sinceviewers who had watchedBreaking Badknew that Lalo would not appear in the series. That said, it was hard for them to axe off someone as good as Tony Dalton. “We had no interest in losing Tony Dalton, obviously,” Smith said. “He’s incredible. He’s so much fun on set. We really didn’t want to lose the character, either. But we felt like we had set these forces in motion, and we were having these two titans of our story clash, and unfortunately, we knew Gus had to come out the other side. I suppose there was a world where Lalo limps away and Gus has to chase him down, but that felt like territory we’d already covered. We were happy to give him a big, big, big out. And he gets what he wants. He’s been searching since the end of Season Four for something he thought was going on. He was searching for Werner, chasing down all these leads. So we gave Lalo the gift of getting everything — his heart’s desire — and it destroys him.”
Killing Lalo off to start the latter half of final season was shocking to see at first glance. The show had been building towards a final showdown between Lalo and Gus Fring. In most cases like those, they usually build up such friction between two enemies until the end. However, since viewers know thatGus Fring is alive and wellinBreaking Badwhile Lalo only gets a mere mention, it was inevitable that a showdown between them would end with Gus coming out the other side. They could only build it up for so long before viewers would think that the writers were wasting their time and insulting their intelligence.
Besides, doing so truly subverts expectations for where the show will go next. Now that the conflict between Lalo and Gus that predictably ended in a showdown in which Gus would emerge victorious is over with, it leaves the rest of the show up for interpretation. Now, no one has any faint ideahowBetter Call Saulis going to end. Kim Wexler remains the one loose end, but the one way in which her fate could have potentially been sealed - murdered by Lalo - is no longer in play.
Perhaps what the show will reflect on in its final five episodes - besides the fate of Gene Takovic - is the ramifications of their actions. Not only did Kim and Jimmy almost get killed by Lalo, but they were inadvertently responsible for Howard Hamlin’s death when neither ever intended to go that far. Throughout the course of the show, the characters have gone too far when they try to accomplish their goals, and they suffer the consequences for it. Jimmy and Kim went too far, and now they’re going to have to deal with the fallout from what they’ve done. No matter where they go from here, one thing is for sure -Walter White’s luckiest break inBreaking Badwas never crossing paths with Lalo Salamanca.
Better Call Saulis currently airing its final five episodes on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. EST on AMC.
