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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | You wanna be a friend of the Cartel? Time to get yourself a new motto. "Just Make Money." | „ |
| ~ Lalo Salamanca giving advice to Saul Goodman. |
| “ | Let them keep believing I'm dead. So much the better. It was the chicken man. That coward sat up there in the north while his paramilitaries came into my home... my home, Uncle! Screw Bolsa, screw Eladio. I'm coming north. I'm going to hurt him. Hurt him like you taught me. And then I will kill him. | „ |
| ~ Lalo planning to fake his death so that he could kill Gus Fring. |
Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is one of the main antagonists of the crime drama series Better Call Saul, the prequel to Breaking Bad. He is the nephew of Hector Salamanca and his successor after Hector was crippled for the rest of his life. Suspecting Gus Fring due to his history with the Salamancas and the Cartel, Lalo eventually begins investigating and tries sabotaging Gus's enterprises, coming into conflict with his drug empire.
He was portrayed by Tony Dalton.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- Despite being a high-ranking member of the Cartel and a head of the Salamanca family, Lalo isn't as insane as most of them.
- Lalo is one of the most competent Salamancas in the series. While still being raised by Hector to become ruthless and sadistic, he is a skilled planner and capable strategist with a charismatic, cheerful, and friendly demeanor, unlike the rest of his family who are hot-headed and impulsive.
- He continually shows himself to care for his uncle, including gifting him a souvenir from their past, sneaking him in alcohol, consulting him on almost all his plans, and telling him he is alive (notably being the only one Lalo trusts enough to do so).
- After Hector suffered from a stroke (actually caused by Nacho Varga swapping his heart medicine with sugar tablets), Lalo decided to take over his business while Hector spent the rest of his life in retirement.
- Tried to get into Gus's good grace to let his guard down.
- Understanding Gus's secret contempt towards the Cartel, Lalo decided to investigate his operations to find any weak link.
- After seeing Mike Ehrmantraut at Los Pollos Hermanos and deducing he could lead him to Gus's secret operations, he decided to follow him, eventually learning about Werner Ziegler.
- Skillfully tracked Mike into TravelWire and learned about the hotel Werner is staying in by noticing Mike and Fred Whalen.
- After learning about the hotel, Lalo impersonated Gus's henchman and tried to get Werner to spill about the superlab built beneath the laundromat, only to be stopped by Mike's timely arrival at the hotel.
- While he was bested by Mike, he didn't break down and instead humorously entertained Mike as Werner's secret ally.
- By careful observation, he found out that Gus was investigating drugs other than the cocaine specified by the Cartel.
- While Gus lies that the meth was a precaution against Werner's betrayal and that he is actually building an industrial chiller, Lalo didn't buy it and tried to make Bolsa see reason against Gus's extremely strong motive to betray the Cartel.
- After Nacho erased every proof against Lalo's involvement by infiltrating the compound and stealing the cocaine, Lalo sincerely compliments him on his skill.
- Arranged for Krazy-8 to be released courtesy of Jimmy and become a DEA informant, before using him to rat out some of Gus' dealers.
- He's well aware of when he's outmatched as when he sees a police car arrive, he initially tries to use a gun to escape but when he sees more cars coming and that he's been cornered, he puts the gun down and allows himself to be arrested without a fight.
- Even when imprisoned, he doesn't let it get him down and calmly focuses himself on revenge against Gus. His plan went so well Mike had to sabotage his own earlier plan to let Lalo walk free again, just to stop him from attacking Gus's properties.
- Suspecting that Jimmy was lying to him regarding the full details of the money transaction between him and the Cousins, Lalo investigated the area and found his destroyed car, thus realizing someone was behind Jimmy's transaction in the desert.
- Already suspecting Jimmy to be misleading him, Lalo interrogated him using "Tell me again", expecting Jimmy to either come clean to him regarding what happened in the desert or get caught in the backfoot while repeating his situation. Only Kim's interference prevented Lalo from getting Jimmy to confess about Mike's involvement.
- Single-handedly fended off all the assassins sent after him by using intricate knowledge of his home to his advantage.
- Forced one of the assassins to relay information to Mike that Lalo was killed so that they wouldn't come after him for a while.
- He deduced that Nacho allowed the assassins into his compound by noticing that the liquor glasses were undisturbed.
- Presented himself as a helpful friend to a local couple all the while covertly setting up the husband as a body double so he could fake his death in an attempt to lull Gus into a false sense of security.
- Traveled to Germany under a false identity and befriended Werner's widowed wife Margarethe to learn more about what Werner was building.
- Tracked down one of Werner's employees, Casper, through Margarethe's lucite block which had a label for the manufacturer.
- While he sent Kim to kill Gus, it was all according to plan: despite it being extremely unlikely, if Kim did manage to kill Gus, it would have been a great success, but if not, Gus and his men will be distracted from Lalo's visit to the superlab.
- He nearly exposed Gus as a traitor to the Cartel, managing to capture Gus himself and coming dangerously close to killing him in his superlab, ultimately only losing due to Hector foolishly tipping off Gus he was still alive.
- Even after having been shot in the throat by Gus, he accepts his death with a smile.
- While he dies and isn't able to expose Gus, Lalo ultimately still has the last laugh as it was he who gave Hector his bell, which is what Hector and Walter White would use to trigger the bomb to kill Fring.
- He is overall one of the few characters to ever unnerve the normally composed and calculated Gus, driving him into paranoia over when Lalo would strike.
- While he does have a couple of moments where he has a villainous breakdown, he manages to regain his composure shortly afterward and these moments aren't as prominent to his character.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- Aided the Cartel in their drug-running operations.
- When a hotel owner disrespected Hector, Lalo tortured the owner and burned the hotel down alongside his uncle, even gifting him its bell as a souvenir of their sadism.
- Rear-ends a driver in the parking lot into the tollbooth gate when the ticket machine is jammed by Mike, just to follow Mike's car.
- Bludgeoned Fred to death and burned down the TravelWire building to cover his tracks.
- Was ultimately responsible for Werner's tragic death at the hands of Mike, all because Gus was paranoid that Werner revealed details of his construction project to Lalo.
- Ordered Nacho to burn down Gus's restaurants as revenge for his imprisonment.
- Killed a local couple who thought of him as a friend in cold blood to fake his death.
- Sneaked into Margarethe's house to look for information on her husband's crew.
- Attacked Casper, slashing his face with a razor blade and cutting off his leg, before forcing him to tell him about the superlab. It is also heavily implied that Lalo killed him afterward.
- Killed Howard Hamlin in front of Jimmy and Kim, traumatizing both of them for years.
- Tried to get Kim killed by Gus's men, all as a diversion.
- Threatened Jimmy that he would talk to him after returning, thus leading to massive trauma for him as Jimmy/Saul would live the rest of his life fearing that Lalo will come to kill him.
Trivia[]
- He is the opposite of his cousin Tuco, who is a Pathetic Pinhead.
- He is also the only member of the Salamanca family to be an MB.
External Links[]
- Lalo Salamanca at the Villains wiki
- Lalo Salamanca at the Breaking Bad wiki
- Lalo Salamanca at the Near Pure Evil wiki
[]
 /  Magnificent Baddies
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