Spoilers below for Better Call Saul's Season 5 finale.
Blood pressure was running pretty high for the majority of characters that appeared in Better Call Saul’s Season 5 finale. From the disgruntled Howard to current cartel fugitive Nacho to the bamboozled Jimmy. Of course, things are probably going to get even more stressful in Season 6, considering Tony Dalton’s Lalo Salamanca made it through the attack on his life in one piece. Lalo knows exactly who to blame, but star Giancarlo Esposito doesn’t think his character Gus Fring will be overly upset to learn Lalo is still breathing.
Unlike Kim’s Rhea Seehorn or Nacho’s Michael Mando, Giancarlo Esposito already has the foreknowledge that his crime head Gus Fring won’t be killed of by Lalo, since he necessarily has to live on through the events of Better Call Saul in order to reach the Breaking Bad timeline. As such, Esposito doesn’t need to worry, and is apparently relishing the idea that Fring will possibly be able to hand-deliver Lalo’s farewell in Season 6. Here’s what the Saul star told Variety
I like the fact that Lalo gets away because there’s an opportunity for me to slay, eventually.
To be expected, Giancarlo Esposito was smiling and chuckling a bit while saying this, as opposed to displaying the steely eyes and thin-lipped stare that Gus Fring is known for. The actor is one who definitely likes to get his hands dirty as the future meth kingpin, and fans know that Fring never steps down from a challenge.
One of the key words in Giancarlo Esposito’s answer there is “eventually.” At this point, it’s entirely unknown where co-creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan are in terms of mapping out the endgame-approaching storylines for Season 6, so it’s unclear if Esposito is legitimately aware of the general scope of things. If he is, then he’s seemingly hinting that Lalo won’t be meeting his maker in the earliest chunks of Season 6, which has already been confirmed for 13 episodes, instead of the standard ten.
It would seem that Fring already had an inkling that Lalo might make it through the assassination attempt, but fans probably shouldn’t worry about him heaping all of his blame on Nacho’s shoulders. In Esposito’s words:
I don’t believe he’ll blame it on Nacho, but I do believe this is setting us up for a very explosive Season 6. Gus is very calculating and prepares for success, as well as failure.
Again, the actor probably isn’t entirely aware of all the things that will happen in Season 6. But here’s hoping he’s as clairvoyant as they come, since Fring blaming Nacho for Lalo’s escape would be like blaming clouds for a flood. Just because other people botched things to the point of no return doesn’t mean Nacho deserves the punishment.
A calculating guy like Fring probably gets that, though. He might not have been fully aware that Lalo had an underground tunnel on his property that gave him a distinct advantage over his adversaries, but Fring knew that Lalo was no easy target. And with Nacho also presumably one of Lalo’s key targets, Fring may end up using Nacho as bait to draw Lalo out in order to…slay…as it were.
Better Call Saul Season 5 is now complete, so fans will have to wait until likely next year (or even 2022!) to see what will happen next with Gus Fring, Lalo and Nacho. In the meantime, check out all the other noteworthy TV finales on the way, and take note of all the big Summer 2020 TV premieres as well.
