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Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is a fictional character on the AMC television series Better Call Saul, a prequel of Breaking Bad. Introduced in the fourth season, he is portrayed by Tony Dalton and was created by Peter Gould and screenwriter Gordon Smith. Dialogue that introduces Saul Goodman in the Breaking Bad episode "Better Call Saul" mentions Lalo and Nacho Varga, though neither appear in Breaking Bad.

Lalo Salamanca
Better Call Saul character
Tony Dalton as Lalo in a promotional poster for Better Call Saul's fifth season
First appearance	"Coushatta" (2018)
Last appearance	"Point and Shoot" (2022)
Created by	Peter Gould Gordon Smith
Portrayed by	Tony Dalton
In-universe information
Full name	Eduardo Salamanca
Aliases	Jorge de Guzmán Ben
Occupation	Cartel operator
Relatives	Abuelita Salamanca (grandmother)[1] Hector Salamanca (uncle) Tuco Salamanca (cousin) Leonel Salamanca (cousin) Marco Salamanca (cousin) Joaquin Salamanca (first cousin once removed)[1]
Home	Chihuahua, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican[1]

Lalo is one of many nephews of Hector Salamanca, an enforcer of Don Eladio Vuente's drug cartel. After Hector suffers a stroke, Lalo arrives from Mexico to help run the family drug operation in Albuquerque and takes a greater interest in the day-to-day details than Hector did. Because of the rivalry between Gus Fring and Hector, Lalo becomes dedicated to disrupting Gus' legitimate restaurant business as well as his reputation with the cartel.

Showrunners gave Dalton freedom to diverge from cartel stereotypes and portrayals of the other members of the Salamanca family. Series co-creator Vince Gilligan held himself responsible for delaying Lalo's introduction, as Gould had wanted to introduce Lalo as early as season one. Unlike most other members of his family, Lalo is charismatic and often cheerful; but like them, he can also be brutally and remorselessly vicious. Dalton's portrayal has been critically acclaimed, with some critics deeming Lalo to be one of the best villains on television.

Conception and development

In July 2018, Tony Dalton joined Better Call Saul in the role of Lalo Salamanca,[2] first appearing in the season four episode "Coushatta". The Breaking Bad season two episode "Better Call Saul" mentions Lalo; it also introduces Saul Goodman (Jimmy McGill's business name) and mentions "Ignacio" (Nacho Varga).[3] In an interview before Better Call Saul aired, Vince Gilligan said that the writers had envisioned Lalo as a major character and as with Breaking Bad, must "keep close tabs on what our characters have done in the past and make good use of it here in the present and the future".[4] However, Gilligan and Peter Gould had trouble figuring out how to introduce the character properly. They considered him a bogeyman around the second season of Breaking Bad, but had not figured out his personality or motivations. Gilligan held himself responsible for delaying Lalo's introduction, as Gould had wanted to introduce Lalo as early as season one.[5][6] Gould saw that Lalo needed to be different from the other members of the Salamanca family and a foil equal to Gus Fring.[5] He credited their casting directors Sherry Thomas and Sharon Bialy for selecting Dalton for the role, adding that Dalton had "the charm, and the joy, and the threat" needed for the character and "all the charm of a '40s movie star".[7] Gould said Lalo was named after the composer Lalo Schifrin.[8]^{[time needed]}

The episode "Wiedersehen", written by Gennifer Hutchison, fleshes out Lalo further. Hutchison said that while just as "scary" as the other Salamancas, he is "a little more circumspect about things". She explained that the producers wanted him to be "a little charming", in contrast to the other Salamancas, who have few qualities beyond fearsomeness.[10] Dalton said that the season five finale, "Something Unforgivable", provides a breadth not seen in prior episodes. Lalo first appears as a charismatic person his extended family and cartel leaders welcome but shows a vicious and vengeful side after his family comes under attack.[11] Dalton said that Lalo's unbridled anger in season six is what differentiates him from his laidback personality in season five.[12][13] Michael Mando, who portrays Nacho, described Lalo as "a Salamanca in every way, just like Tuco and Hector had their own flavors to the erratic Salamancas".[14] Gilligan and Gould gave Dalton the freedom to take Lalo's personality as he saw fit, just as they had allowed Jonathan Banks to develop Mike Ehrmantraut during Breaking Bad,[15] though they also told Dalton to think of Lalo as something of a "Prince of the Narcos".[13] Dalton considers Lalo to be in juxtaposition to Gus due to Lalo's laidback attitude and "loose body language" that contrasts with Gus being constantly anxious about decisions and having a "tight body language".[13]

According to Dalton, Lalo was not originally meant to be very charming; he felt the series needed someone "kind of smiling and carefree and a little bit mischievous" like Jimmy but "in the bad guy's part".[16] Dalton took inspiration from Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction to create this "[k]ind of this smart ass, sort of scary but kind of carefree, kind of cool guy",[16] as well as the negative characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson.[13] He also sought to move away from his role in the TV series Sr. Ávila as a hitman with "zero personality" whom he likened to a wall. Dalton toned down Lalo's Mexican accent because of his belief that the character, given his wealth, was educated in a "good school" in the United States.[17] Instead, he went for an accent that he had developed from growing up around Laredo, Texas. Dalton gave Lalo a more upbeat personality to show the character's normally easy take on life and distance him from the typical portrayal of cartel members as serious about their work.[11] Dalton did his own stunt in "Winner": Lalo's jump through the Travelwire store roof before he kills the manager, Fred Whalen. While Dalton wanted to do other stunts, such as jumping onto Jimmy's car in "Bad Choice Road" and from the roof of his house in "Something Unforgivable", the producers insisted on stunt performers.[15] Lalo is killed by Gus in the season six episode "Point and Shoot". Gordon Smith said a shoot-out between Mike and Lalo was considered, but this idea was discarded in order to let the "biggest big bads" in the series – Gus and Lalo – come face to face.[18]

Fictional character biography

Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is one of many nephews of Hector Salamanca, an enforcer of Don Eladio Vuente's drug cartel. After Hector suffers a stroke that confines him to a wheelchair and leaves him unable to speak, Lalo moves from Mexico to Albuquerque to help run the Salamanca family's drug operation. He takes a greater interest in the day-to-day details than Hector did. Nacho Varga, Hector's subordinate, is secretly responsible for Hector's stroke and acts as a mole for Hector's rival Gus Fring, so Lalo's arrival leaves him uneasy.[19] Lalo visits Hector in the nursing home and gives him a front desk call bell, a souvenir from when Hector killed a hotelier and burned down the hotel after its owner disrespected him. Lalo attaches the bell to Hector's wheelchair so Hector can communicate by ringing it with his right index finger, the only body part he can move following his stroke. Lalo arrives at Los Pollos Hermanos (Gus' restaurant front for his drug operation) and introduces himself to Gus. Lalo thanks Gus for giving Hector first aid and paying for his care but surveils Gus' underlings to learn their regular activities.[20]

While staking out Gus' Los Pollos Hermanos chicken farm, Lalo observes activity related to Werner Ziegler's escape. He follows Mike Ehrmantraut as Mike tracks Werner, which leads him to a Travelwire store. Mike updates Gus on Werner's actions and persuades Gus to let him retrieve Werner instead of sending hitmen after him. After Mike and Gus leave, Lalo enters and tries to learn what Mike knows, but the clerk, Fred Whalen, refuses to tell him. Lalo kills Fred, reviews the security footage Mike saw, and sets fire to the store on his way out. Lalo calls resorts until he finds Werner; he then pretends to work for Gus and tricks Werner into revealing some details about the construction of the meth lab under Gus' industrial laundry Lavandería Brillante. Mike arrives at Werner's location and ends the call but realizes Lalo knows some information about the construction. Mike reports to Gus, who realizes Werner will have to be killed to prevent Lalo from learning more; Mike accepts responsibility and kills Werner himself.[21]

Gus draws Lalo to a meeting by "stepping on" the Salamancas' share of the cartel's cocaine. With Juan Bolsa present, Gus tells Lalo that Werner was constructing a chiller and fled after stealing cocaine. He claims he then attempted to cover for the loss by replacing the cocaine with local, inferior meth. Since the cover story explains events Lalo knows about, he accepts Gus' explanation and apology. Bolsa tells Lalo that Gus enjoys Eladio's trust, so Lalo should consider the matter closed. Because of Lalo's presence in Albuquerque, Gus stops work on the meth lab.[22] Lalo tells Hector he does not believe Gus' cover story; Hector confirms that the cartel tolerates Gus only because he earns well.[23]

When Krazy-8 is arrested outside a Salamanca stash house, Nacho climbs over rooftops to sneak in and recover the drugs before police enter. Lalo is impressed and takes Nacho into his confidence. Nacho brings Jimmy to Lalo, who knows of Jimmy from Tuco. Lalo asks Jimmy to free Krazy-8 by using him to feed the DEA information on Gus' dead drops. Nacho informs Gus, who accepts the loss of cash from the dead drops to protect Nacho's role as his informant. Jimmy secures Krazy-8's release and makes him a confidential informant for DEA agent Hank Schrader, giving Lalo a way to feed the DEA more information about Gus' operation. Lalo congratulates Jimmy, but Nacho warns him that once he begins working for drug dealers, there is no turning back.[24]

While posing as a private investigator for Fred's family, Mike persuades a witness to Fred's murder to provide police details about Lalo's car, leading to Lalo's arrest.[25] Lalo, detained under the alias Jorge de Guzmán, is initially denied bail and suspicious of how the police came to pursue his car. While in jail, he instructs Nacho to burn down one of Gus' restaurants. Gus realizes Lalo will continue to be a problem but decides killing him will create tension with the cartel, so Gus and Nacho again protect Nacho's role as Gus' informant by burning down the restaurant. Gus then orchestrates Lalo's release by having Mike provide Jimmy with details of Mike's investigation. Jimmy uses the information to accuse police of witness tampering, and the judge grants bail, which is set at $7 million cash.[26]

Lalo's cousins Leonel and Marco deliver the money to Jimmy at a remote desert location. On his return trip, gunmen stop Jimmy, take the cash, and prepare to kill him. Mike was following Jimmy for Gus and kills all but one gunman. They continue the trip back to Albuquerque with the money, but Jimmy's car breaks down. They push it off the side of the road, take the cash, and walk for two days. On the second day, they kill the remaining gunman,[27] then make their way back to Albuquerque.[28]

Jimmy posts Lalo's bail and hides Mike's involvement by claiming he was alone and walked after his car broke down. Mike reports to Gus, who realizes Bolsa sent the gunmen in the belief that he was protecting Gus' business by keeping Lalo imprisoned. Lalo prepares to return to Mexico to avoid trial, but his suspicions lead him to search for Jimmy's car. He confronts Jimmy and Kim Wexler at her apartment and reveals he found it, and that it had several bullet holes. Kim tells Lalo that a passerby probably shot at it for fun and berates him for not trusting Jimmy. Lalo leaves for Mexico with Nacho.[28]

At Lalo's Chihuahua home, friends and family greet him and Nacho. Lalo introduces Nacho to Eladio, who blesses the plan for Nacho to oversee the Salamanca drug business in Lalo's absence. Gus sends assassins to Lalo's home, and Nacho receives a call instructing him to leave Lalo's back gate open at 3 am. Lalo is still awake at the appointed hour, so Nacho sets a kitchen fire to distract him and opens the gate. Nacho flees as the assassins enter and kill most of Lalo's family and guards. Lalo kills all but one assassin and forces the survivor to report his death to the middleman who arranged the attack. Lalo then realizes that Nacho is missing and angrily strides away from his house.[29]

Lalo murders a man that he had groomed as his body double along with his wife and moves the man's body to his home, leading the police and cartel to assume he is dead. Lalo then intends to cross into the U.S. to get revenge on Gus, but instead follows up on the information from Werner to get the proof he needs related to Gus's yet-completed meth lab.[30] Meanwhile, Gus is suspicious of Lalo's death, and has Mike arrange for around-the-clock guards at his home and nearby decoy home, at the laundry, and at Jimmy and Kim's apartment to stop Lalo.[31] Arriving in Germany, Lalo befriends Werner's widow Margarethe, discovering a Lucite sculpture given to Werner by his crew.[32] He uses the sculpture's crafter to track down Casper, one of Werner's crew, and after attacking him, Lalo coerces Casper for more information, learning of the lab's location under Gus's industrial laundry.[33]

Lalo returns to Albuquerque, discovers Gus's guards, and starts to stake out the laundry from a sewer drain, intending to get video footage to Eladio. Seeing the facility well-guarded, Lalo tricks Gus by calling Hector and claiming he will attack Gus at his home. Mike, overhearing the call, draws men from other targets to Gus's home, but leaves some still to guard the laundry. Still unable to enter, Lalo comes up with another plan, and goes to Jimmy and Kim's apartment on the night of June 24, 2004, just after Howard Hamlin had arrived to accost the two about their scheme to sabotage his reputation. Lalo enters the apartment, and as Howard tries to ask who he is (Lalo introducing himself as "nobody") while Kim futilely implores Howard to leave, Lalo shoots Howard dead.[34]

Lalo instructs Jimmy to go to Gus' home to kill him while he would stay with Kim to assure the job is done, but Jimmy instead convinces Lalo to have Kim go instead. After Kim leaves, Lalo ties up Jimmy and tells him about the attack on his compound, believing that Jimmy had something to do with it due to his prior connections to Nacho. Jimmy strongly denies this claiming he barely knows Nacho and that it was all his doing, but Lalo refuses to listen and returns to the laundry after threatening to interrogate Jimmy upon his return. Kim's failed attempt to kill Gus has drawn the rest of the guards away, leaving the laundry defenseless. Lalo enters and searches for the lab, while Gus, having learned from Kim what happened, goes to the laundry himself. Lalo kills Gus's guards and then forces Gus to show him the unfinished lab while he videotapes it. In the lab, Lalo then prepares to shoot Gus, but Gus knocks out the lights and kills Lalo with a gun he had hidden there earlier. Mike buries Lalo along with Howard in the ground below the lab and tells a very shaken Jimmy and Kim they will not see Lalo again, though Jimmy is not entirely convinced.[35]

Some years later, when Walter White and Jesse Pinkman kidnap and hold Saul at gunpoint before a newly dug grave in the desert to coerce him into representing Badger, who has been arrested for selling meth, a terrified Saul believes Lalo sent them, and says, "It wasn't me, it was Ignacio! He's the one!". Saul is relieved when Walter and Jesse's confusion confirms they have no connection to Lalo.[36] Inside their RV, while waiting for the engine to cool down so they can drive away, Jesse asks Saul who Lalo is, never having heard their name on the street. Unsettled, Saul tells Jesse he is "nobody."[37] After the massacre at Eladio's compound, during which Jesse kills Lalo's cousin Joaquin Salamanca,[lower-alpha 1] Gus tells Hector that all of the other Salamancas are dead, partly referencing Lalo's death at his hands.[38] Lalo's death is later avenged by Hector, who, with the aid of Walter, suicide-bombs Gus and Tyrus Kitt, killing them and himself.[39] By 2010, Saul is still not entirely convinced Lalo is dead.[40]

Reception

The character of Lalo Salamanca and Tony Dalton's performance have received critical acclaim, with some critics deeming him as one of the best villains on television.[41][42] Reviewing the episode that introduces Lalo, Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone said Dalton "makes a solid first impression in the role" and hoped for "more than filling in a blank most viewers had long since forgotten existed".[43] Sepinwall calls the final scene in "Bad Choice Road", in which Lalo confronts Jimmy and Kim, one of the best in the series. He praises the lead actors' performances, particularly Rhea Seehorn as Kim and Dalton as Lalo.[44] Steve Greene of IndieWire, after comparing Lalo to Anton Chigurh, noted he has "the unpredictability of his impulsive, petulant brother combined with the faux geniality of his chicken CEO rival" and praised Dalton's performance: "Dalton makes that poisonous, affected smile work, especially when it's coupled with Lalo's blatant disregard for bodily harm".[45] Brian Grubb of Uproxx wrote in his review of the season five finale, "It is almost unreasonable how good a character Lalo is. To pull this off after five seasons of this show and the full run of Breaking Bad, to just up and introduce someone this charming and evil and perfect, is basically showing off".[46]

Notes

References

External links

• Lalo Salamanca at AMC

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