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The history of the charismatic, yet dangerous Lalo Salamanca from Better Call Saul.
Early life[]
Little is known about Lalo's early life. He was born in Mexico and was raised by his uncle, Hector Salamanca. Years later, he becomes an enforcer of the Cartel just like his cousins. At some point, Lalo assisted Hector in torturing a hotel proprietor for disrespecting them and burned down the hotel, with the proprietor inside. Lalo keeps the desk bell as a souvenir. It's also known he had a good relationship with his cousins Marco and Leonel, calling them "good boys" despite their nature as violent cartel assassins.
Better Call Saul[]
Season 4[]
Lalo is first seen after Hector has a stroke due to Nacho Varga switching his pills. He's found by Nacho cooking food in the restaurant where the Salamancas do their business. He explains that he's come to run Hector's business following his stroke. Lalo and Nacho visit Hector at his nursing home, and give Hector his iconic bell. Following this, the two go to Los Pollos Hermanos to pay a visit to its owner, Gus.
After having a meeting in his office, Lalo first thanks Gus for saving Hector's life, and then proposes that Don Eladio might be enjoying the "bad blood" between Gus and the Salamancas, implying he might be trying to form an alliance against Eladio. Gus claims that he's satisfied with the current arrangement between him and the Cartel, and Lalo leaves the restaurant, taking Nacho with him. Following some spying on Gus' operation, he eventually notices a man and his hunt for a Werner Ziegler, and starts following him. On the way, he kills a TravelWire worker named Fred and burns down the building he was in.
After realizing what hotel Werner is in, he calls him and claims to be one of Gus's men. He asks him about the project he's been working on for Gus, but is interrupted by the man he was following, who caught Werner. Upon realizing he's not talking to Werner, he asks the man on the other side if he's the mysterious Michael he's been hearing about, but Mike hangs up on him.
Season 5[]
In the premiere, Lalo is seen at El Michoacano trying to figure out who Werner Ziegler and Michael are and their connection to Gus' construction project. He also learns about a rumor that a gang has been "stepping on" his family's drug business. He and Nacho investigate and drive to one of his families' drug houses. He also inspects that some of the cocaine from Gus' chicken farm are not all cartel products.
He drives to the chicken farm to have a meeting with Gus and Juan Bolsa over the altered cocaine. Gus falsely admits that he secretly replaced some of the cartel's cocaine with methamphetamine after Werner stole the product. Lalo demands to know what "construction project" Werner was working on, to which Gus shows him and Bolsa a structure being built by Werner's men, claiming it to be an industrial chiller for his chicken business, and introduces them to the crew's supervisor, which happens to be the Michael that Lalo was chasing.
Later, Bolsa goes and confronts Lalo about spying on Gus and his operation and killing Fred the TravelWire employee. Lalo replies that he is looking after his uncle Hector, who believes that Gus is holding a grudge against the cartel after Hector killed Gus' "boyfriend", Max Arciniega. Bolsa claims Gus doesn't take things personally and cares only about business, to which Lalo disagrees, citing an unknown incident in Santiago as an argument. Bolsa replies by saying that Gus will never be one of them, but he keeps Don Eladio happy, which is what matters. Lalo then affirms to Bolsa that he no longer has any issues with Gus before leaving.
Lalo visits Hector and talks to him about Gus's secret project, not buying the explanation given to him by Gus. Later on, Lalo is playing poker at night with his friends, where he gives Domingo Molina the nickname he will keep for the rest of his life, Krazy-8, before Domingo leaves to solve a problem which unfortunately ends with his arrest. Lalo, Nacho, and a few others survey the scene of the crime from a safe distance after Krazy-8's arrest. Nacho, who has been tasked by Gus to gain Lalo's trust, climbs through the roof to the building where the product is kept, steals some of the bags, and escapes seconds before the SWAT team breaks into the building, all of which Lalo watched while eating a snack. Lalo calls Nacho a badass for what he's done.
Later on, Lalo asks Nacho if Krazy-8 has been behind bars before, and how long he's known him. Nacho claims they've been friends "for a long time", and although this is his first time behind bars, he won't snitch. On Lalo's orders, Nacho brings Saul Goodman to Lalo, whom he's heard about due to his past encounter with Tuco. They explain that they need Krazy-8 to report some drug money drops to the police, with said drops belonging to Gus as a way for Lalo to hurt him. Saul later reports to the two that he succeeded, as Krazy-8 released the information to Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez, two DEA agents, and has become their informant, giving Lalo a "direct hotline to the DEA". Lalo congratulates Nacho for finding such a good lawyer.
Nacho, who's secretly been working for Gus unwillingly, reports to him and Mike that Lalo is trying to rat out all of Gus's dealers through Krazy-8 to weaken his position in the Cartel. However, Mike manages to find evidence linking Lalo to the death of Fred from TravelWire, leading to his arrest. Under the fake alias of "Jorge de Guzman", he has Nacho bring Saul to represent him. In court, Saul claims that "Jorge" pleads "not guilty", but the judge denies bail. In prison, Lalo arranges for a smuggled cellphone and calls Nacho, putting him in charge of the Salamanca business and asking to burn down a Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant, aware of Gus being the one responsible for his arrest, but unaware of Nacho working for him.
In court, Saul claims that the prime witness was coached by a private detective (in actuality Mike) and hires actors to play as Jorge's fake family to prove he has community ties to Albuquerque. The judge grants Jorge's bail for seven million dollars in cash, and Lalo says that although he can do it, he needs Saul to get the money from his cousins, Marco and Leonel. Saul does as told, although only if he'll get $100,000 do the job, which Lalo agrees to. After Saul disappears that night, his wife Kim Wexler goes to visit Lalo in jail, claiming to be part of his legal team. After finding out Kim is Saul's wife, he reassures her that Saul didn't run off anywhere, and that he will show up, claiming that he is a cockroach, always finding a way to survive.
In reality, Saul was ambushed by a gang and then stuck on the desert alongside Mike, who saved his life. After eventually managing to get out of the desert, Saul brings Lalo the money needed, although warning him that this will bring suspicion. Lalo reveals that he's going to return to Mexico, but not yet, as he and Saul will do big things together. Along the way, he reveals to Saul that he met Kim, while Gus realizes that the gang which ambushed Saul was sent by Juan Bolsa, who tried to protect the Cartel's and Gus's interests. Lalo visits Hector and tells him that he must return to Mexico, although he will make Don Eladio sick of Gus, and reminds him that with Tuco leaving prison in eleven months, he will run the business north of the border.
Nacho and Lalo go to the same spot where Saul was tasked to pick up the bail money from the Cousins. On the way, Lalo sees Saul's wrecked car with bullet holes in it. Realizing that something happened without his knowledge, he has Nacho drive him back to Albuquerque. Once they're there, he pays a visit to Saul and Kim, and asks the former to tell him what happened. Saul repeats and Lalo keeps demanding him to tell it again, unaware that Mike is listening to the conversation through Saul's phone, ready to shoot Lalo through a sniper rifle. Eventually, Lalo reveals that he found Saul's car and asks for the truth about what happened, to which Kim snaps and starts shouting at him, claiming that the bullet holes are because of some random guy who decided to shoot at it for fun. She guesses that Lalo tasked Saul to do it because he has no one else to trust, and instructs him if that's the case, he has bigger problems to deal with and he shouldn't turn on the one person who went through hell to save him. Lalo then leaves the house and goes back to Nacho's car, telling him that they're going to Mexico.
The two arrive to Lalo's house in Chihuahua, Mexico, where he greets his people and introduces Nacho to them. They then go visit Don Eladio in his hacienda, where he gives him a new car and money as gifts,and introduces him to Nacho. Later that night, back in Lalo's house, Nacho tries to sneak out to the south gate: Unknown to Lalo, Gus has sent several assassins to kill him, and Nacho is working with them. However, he comes across Lalo, who claims that he sleeps for only one-two hours and that he comes up with the best plans while everyone's sleeping. Complimenting Nacho for being halfway to becoming a Salamanca himself once Nacho asks for a stronger drink, Lalo tells him that there are drinks in the kitchen. Nacho uses this to cause a distraction by putting hot oil on a frying pan. The distraction works, as when Nacho returns to Lalo with the drink in hand, he notices the smoke coming from the kitchen and rushes in, believing one of his men was to blame. Meanwhile, Nacho rushes to the south gate, opens it for the assassins, and runs for his life.
While Lalo is berating the one who he thinks is to blame, he notices an assassin and uses the guy he was yelling at as a human shield. Over the next several minutes, Lalo slowly kills off all the assassins, through throwing hot oil from the frying pan at one's face: shooting another one in the head; and takes out two with a sniper rifle. Once only one assassin is left alive, with his face burned, the man claims he doesn't know the man who hired them as there was a middleman. Lalo "reassures" him by saying he already knows who's to blame, and pulls out a phone from the assassin's pocket, telling him to make a call and claim that although it was hard, Lalo Salamanca is dead. Meanwhile, he sees Nacho's drink and realizes that he was working with Gus all along. After killing the remaining assassin, he spots his housemaid Yolanda dead, shot in the chest by the assassins, and angrily walks away.
Season 6[]
Lalo visits a woman named Sylvia Ramos and her husband Mateo. Once the woman takes care of his leg wound, Lalo tells Mateo to shave his beard, but keep the mustache and soul patch. Once Mateo heads to the bathroom, he presumably kills Sylvia by taking apart a pair of scissors and fashioning once of the pieces into a knife. He then visits Mateo, who finished shaving his beard, and compliments him for his looks. In reality, Lalo was secretly planning Mateo to be his body double for a long time, even before the assassination attempt, as Mateo looks just like him without the beard (it was also mentioned by Sylvia that he funded oral surgery for Mateo just so they would have the same dental print). He kills Mateo off-screen, burns his face so that nobody could notice even a single difference, and leaves his corpse in his house where the assassination attempt took place.
Following this, everyone is tricked into thinking Lalo is dead. After finding out Nacho is somehow connected to it, Don Eladio puts a price on his head, with the Cousins searching for him to "avenge" their cousin. Gus, however, has his suspicions as despite Lalo's death, all the assassins died with him. Nacho, meanwhile, runs for his life and hides in a motel. At the same time, Saul finds out that people are starting to raise their doubts about "Jorge de Guzman" being a real individual, as his address was fake, his "family" has not been located, and that Jorge himself vanished without a trace. During an argument, Saul accidentally says Lalo's real name instead of the fake "Jorge de Guzman" identity and tries to save face by claiming he has so many clients he gets them mixed up.
Meanwhile, Lalo is trying to get to the United States through a coyote hay truck, with him and other immigrants inside a hidden compartment. Before he gets in, Lalo makes a call to Hector's nursing home, where he reveals to his uncle that he's alive. He claims that Gus is responsible for the assassination, curses out both Eladio and Bolsa, and claims he will go to New Mexico and kill Gus. However, Hector stops him, and through playing a "game" with him, Lalo finds out that Hector is asking for evidence to prove Gus' disloyalty to the Cartel. He claims that he unfortunately has no evidence to back him up, but after thinking for a minute, decides that he does have one piece of evidence. Lalo says goodbye to his uncle and promises he'll see him soon. Deciding that he's not crossing the border, Lalo kills the two people to get his money back, announces to the immigrants that they'll have to find another way to reach the United States due to both drivers being dead, steals a pickup truck, and returns to Mexico.
While Lalo is out finding proof, his actions have a major effect back in New Mexico. Although originally believing he's dead, Gus and Mike find out Lalo is alive once they meet up with Hector, Gus realizing through his body language that his nephew is alive. Nacho spends several days on the run from the Cousins, until he willingly gives himself up to Gus and Mike for his father's safety, only to shoot himself in the head to spite the Salamancas and stop them from getting their revenge. Once the truth about Jorge de Guzman gets out, Saul is alienated by his fellow lawyers, who are disgusted at him for letting a Cartel don get away. Just like Lalo intended, the whole world believes him to be dead, which originally included both Saul and Kim. However, Gus has his men follow the duo, growing paranoid and trying to make sure Lalo will not get in touch with them. Once Kim finds out about this, Mike visits her, reassures her that the men stalking her mean no harm, and also reveals that Lalo lives. Kim keeps the truth hidden from Saul.
Meanwhile, Lalo has actually gone to Germany in search of Margarethe Ziegler, the widowed wife of the Werner Ziegler he was searching for. Introducing himself as "Ben", he starts a conversation between them. Lalo proves to be charming enough for her to open up about her dead husband and his friends, and almost invites him to her house, but says she unfortunately has to refuse because she has to go to work tomorrow. The next day, Lalo enters her house while she's away at work, in search of evidence. However, Margarethe returns after she realized she forgot her phone. As he's preparing to kill her, he notices a lucite block containing a measuring scale inside. He picks up the block to see the label for the manufacturer, and then escapes the house before Margarethe can see him. At the same time, Gus realizes that Lalo can't strike against him just yet, which means he's safe for now, and starts planning a way to kill him once he inevitably arrives.
Lalo tracks down Casper, one of the men who worked with Werner, in a forest. Lalo introduces himself and, realizing that he is dangerous, Casper escapes to a nearby barn. Lalo follows him there, where he's attacked with an axe. Faking struggling for breath, Lalo reveals to the man who he is, how he learned about Casper, and that he's here because of Fring. Lalo then attacks him with a hidden razor blade and uses the axe to cut off Casper's foot. Complaining about his broken rib, he then tells the man to tie off the bleeding using Lalo's belt, and that the two are going to have a "talk", making it clear he's going to torture the man.
Off-screen, Casper tells Lalo that he and Werner were building "the mother of all meth labs" (as Lalo quoted) for Gus in New Mexico, and that was the true thing Gus was building, not an industrial chiller. Returning to Albuquerque, Lalo starts spying on one of Gus' operations through a manhole. Through a storm drain, he spies on Lavanderia Brilliante, a laundry which Gus uses as a cover for his soon-to-be-made superlab. He then makes a video for Don Eladio, where he reveals that he's alive, what he learned from Casper, and his intentions to storm the laundry, kill all the guards, whom he knows work for Gus, and find the evidence needed to completely debunk any cover-up story made up by Gus. Lalo then tries to call Hector, but when he hears noises on the line, he realizes Gus and Mike had the line to his uncle bugged. Smashing a chair in rage before complimenting Gus for how smart he is, he comes up with a new plan; Knowing that the Chicken Man is listening, Lalo tells Hector that he couldn't find any evidence, and is instead going back to Plan A: killing Gus. Hector rings his bell, trying to make it clear he does not approve, but his nephew simply hangs up. As he watches Mike and his men drive away in a SUV, away from the laundry, Lalo notices a cockroach in the sewers. Reminding himself of how he once called Saul a cockroach, he gets an idea.
His plan works; the Gus empire is tricked into thinking Lalo is coming for them and focus entirely on protecting Gus' house as well as some small bits in the laundry. In reality, the cartel don is paying a visit to Saul and Kim; the former of whom still thinks he's dead. To make matters worse, the duo is currently being visited by Howard Hamlin, one of the show's main characters who didn't get to know Lalo until now. Presenting himself as a nobody who just wants to have a talk with his lawyers, Howard stays oblivious to who he is until he pulls out a gun and puts a silencer on it. Throughout the entire scene, Saul and Kim beg Howard to get out. Finally, Lalo shoots Howard straight in the head, killing him instantly. As the two lawyers scream in horror, Lalo gets them to calm down, claiming he just wants to talk.
Afterwards, Lalo gives Saul an address and a gun, saying that Saul will use Lalo's car to go to the address, knock on a house door, use the gun to shoot the man who will answer the door, and take a photo. Saul manages to convince Lalo to have Kim go shoot the man instead, and she does so. Following this, he ties the lawyer up to a chair, talks about what happened at his house and the fact that Nacho is responsible for it, and how Saul must be connected to it since Nacho introduced him to Lalo. Saul tries to convince the man that he doesn't know anything, but Lalo has none of it. He leaves the apartment, but not before telling Saul he will expect the whole story of what happened in the desert when he gets back, leaving him alone with Howard's corpse.
The address Lalo gave Kim was to Gus' house, but before she can shoot the man, she's stopped and held hostage by Mike and his men. She tells them about how Lalo is in her house, with her husband, and how he has killed a man. Realizing they've been tricked, Mike and a few of his men go to Jimmy's house. This was all part of Lalo's plan, however, as now he can sneak into the laundry to find his evidence against Gus without anyone stopping him. However, what he did not expect was for Gus to go inside the laundry to confront Lalo, having a gut feeling that he went there. He brings in four men with him, all of which Lalo quickly kills. Having Gus at gunpoint, Lalo makes a video for Don Eladio, where he has Gus show him a tour through his hidden superlab, while shooting him in the chest and kicking him to the ground along the way - Due to having a vest on, Gus survives the former, although not without being injured. Facing Lalo and the camera, Gus angrily curses out Eladio, the Salamancas, and the entire cartel, insulting them for being hypocritical "pigs" and "whores" who know nothing about honor despite constantly talking about it, and that despite their "Blood for Blood" motto, they kill for money. He makes a vow to make Hector watch as he kills off the entire cartel, with him being the final victim. Lalo mocks his rant, although Gus uses his foot to disconnect a power cable, thus turning off the light in the superlab. Grabbing a gun he left inside the lab a few episodes later, Gus engages in a quick gunfight with Lalo.
Once the dust settles and everyone runs out of bullets, Gus waits a few seconds and then turns on the light, revealing Lalo has been shot in the throat. He watches the Salamanca choke on his own blood, having his foot on his gun to prevent him from doing anything. Lalo flashes one last smile and laughs the best he can while choking, before finally succumbing to his injuries. Once Mike and his men arrive, realizing that Lalo and Gus are in the superlab, they take an injured Gus to his residence where they treat his gunshot wounds. Following this, they also take Howard's corpse to the superlab, where they dig up a grave. Mike takes off Howard's shoes, wedding ring and wallet (as part of the plan to stage his disappearance as a suicide), before his and Lalo's corpses are thrown into the pit and then buried.
Breaking Bad[]
Lalo is never seen in person during the show, being dead and buried years ago. However, there are both direct and indirect references to him.
In the Season 2 episode "Better Call Saul", set four years after the events of the prequel, the titular character is kidnapped by Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and taken into the desert. During this, he starts pleading for his life, saying that Nacho is the one responsible for an unspecified event, which would be revealed in the prequel to be the assassination attempt at Lalo. Upon realizing that the men who kidnapped him don't know who Lalo is, he expresses relief at the fact. In a scene of the Season 6 episode of Better Call Saul titled "Breaking Bad" set during this kidnapping, Jesse asks Saul who Lalo is, claiming that he has never heard his name on the streets. Jimmy gets a sense of relief and responds that Lalo is "nobody", which also mimics what Lalo said to Howard.
Throughout all of Season 3 and 4, Walt and Jesse work inside Gus' now-finished superlab, unaware that their workplace is built on top of Lalo and Howard's grave.
In the Season 4 episode "Salud", Gus successfully kills off Don Eladio and several other cartel dons (Tuco, Bolsa and the Cousins having been dead for months by now), and then reveal to Hector one episode later that he wiped out both the cartel and the Salamanca bloodline with him being the sole survivor, effectively making his promise to Lalo come true. Shortly afterwards, Gus himself is killed by Hector with help from Walt with a time bomb (ironically rigged to blow using the bell Lalo gave to Hector years earlier), avenging Lalo's death. Later the superlab is blown up which presumably incinerated whatever remained of Lalo and Howard's deaths.
Better Call Saul (Post-Breaking Bad)[]
During a heated argument with Kim over the phone Saul angrily dares her to reveal the true circumstances of Howard's death to the authorities and mentions that Gus, Mike and Lalo are dead. While Saul seems to have finally realized Lalo's death likely because of Jesse's lack of familiarity with his name he still doesn't rule out the possibility he could be alive since he says "apparently" dead to Kim. Ironically Kim, having been haunted with immeasurable guilt over Howard's death and Saul's descent into the criminal lifestyle, decides to confesses the true circumstances of Howard's death at Lalo's hands to the D.A. Before doing so she delivers her confession in writing to Cherryl Hamlin (Howard's widow) revealing Howard's death at Lalo's hands, his attempt to extort her into murdering Gus and Mike's disposal of Howard's body to appear as a suicide. However Kim mentions that the D.A. might not press charges against her since there's no physical evidence since Lalo and Howard's bodies were buried beneath the superlab and everybody who knew their location is now deceased, and Lalo is still believed to have officially died during Nacho's assassination attempt.