[This post contains spoilers for Better Call Saul]
Better Call Saul returned after a two-month break with a nice, quiet episode where nothing happened — except Lalo sending Kim to kill Gus Fring, while Jimmy is tied up inches away from Howard’s corpse, and Mike planting a surveillance sniper across the parking lot from Jimmy and Kim’s apartment, and Lalo holding Gus hostage, and Gus shooting Lalo, who laughs with his final breathe before choking on his own blood.
But other than that, it was basically an episode of Joe Pera Talks to You (RIP).
Speaking of RIP: Lalo Salamanca, the most fascinating character on TV, is no more. In an interview with Rolling Stone, writer Gordon Smith explained why, in a surprise move, he was killed off with five episodes to go in the season. “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,” he said, adding, “We gave Lalo the gift of getting everything — his heart’s desire — and it destroys him.”
Meanwhile, the actor who plays Lalo, future James Bond villain (fingers crossed) Tony Dalton, was not destroyed by his death scene. He thinks it’s “genius” that, in a sense, Lalo is present for many of the biggest moments in Breaking Bad. Dalton was also asked by Variety how Lalo’s death impacts Gus heading into Breaking Bad.
“I talked to Giancarlo about it, the whole part where Gus is worried that Lalo is going to get him — you don’t see an uncertainty in Breaking Bad. You can see it a little bit in here, that weakness and Achilles’ heel. After Lalo dies, that cements Gus into the person that he becomes in Breaking Bad,” he said. “I hope Saul also has nightmares of Lalo.”
We’ll have much more on Better Call Saul throughout the day.
(Via Variety)