Warning: Contains major SPOILERS for Better Call Saul season 6, episode 8.
The death of Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) in Better Call Saul season 6, episode 8, raises the question of why so many key characters are being killed off early. Lalo's death at the hands of Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) swiftly follows the former's shocking murder of Howard Hamlin in the mid-season finale. Lalo and Howard share a grave together by the end of the episode, buried in the foundations of the meth lab to later be operated by Walter White.
While audiences knew from Breaking Bad that Gus would ultimately prevail against the machinations of Lalo, few would have suspected the Salamanca cousin's death so far from . The unknown fates of non-Breaking Bad characters like Howard, Lalo, and Nacho (Michael Mando) have lent Better Call Saul a sense of jeopardy that few prequel stories manage. With so many of these characters now dead, this could be a risky strategy for the final five episodes, given that audiences already know the ultimate fates of Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk), Mike (Jonathan Banks), and Gus.
The early killing of Lalo is particularly risky, given how big a part he plays in Breaking Bad mythology, from a throwaway line during Saul's kidnapping by Walt and Jesse in Breaking Bad to the unbearable tension of his scheming in Better Call Saul season 6. With both Lalo and Nacho now dead, the meaning of Saul Goodman's Breaking Bad line has been fully revealed. Similarly, Gus' killing of Lalo has removed his biggest obstacle in creating the meth lab that will allow him to build his empire. For some, the answers to these lingering Breaking Bad questions have been given far too early. But rather than being a miscalculation on the part of co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, killing off these characters early is a smart move that brings Better Call Saul back to its pre-Breaking Bad roots.
Why Better Call Saul Killed Lalo Off So Early
Like Nacho, Lalo has been living on borrowed time since the attack on his compound in Better Call Saul's season 5 finale. Audiences knew from Breaking Bad that he would fail in his plot to expose Gustavo Fring's dreams of empire to Don Eladio. From the moment he Gus' Breaking Bad backstory but, in turn, enables the larger Better Call Saul narrative to breathe.
Removing the looming threat of Lalo puts the focus back squarely on Jimmy McGill and his transition into his Saul Goodman alter-ego. The clash of Jimmy and Kim's differing approaches to morality and the legal profession with their complicity in Howard's murder will provide the dramatic crux of the final five episodes. The moral clash between Kim and Jimmy, or Jimmy and his brother Chuck, was always the show's core story more than the clash between Gus and Lalo. Removing Lalo from Better Call Saul at this moment enhances that story as, in dealing with the fallout from Lalo Salamanca's actions, Jimmy McGill will complete his transformation into Saul Goodman.
Better Call Saul continues Mondays on AMC.