WARNING: This contains SPOILERS for Better Call Saul season 6, episode 7.
Lalo's death in Better Call Saul season 6 and the circumstances of how it happened make a lot of sense.
For a prequel show, it was always going to be difficult for Better Call Saul to create a sense of stakes – no matter how good the writing was. The solution was to create a lot of original characters, such as Chuck, Nacho, Howard, and Kim, so that audiences could not be sure of what was going to happen to them before Breaking Bad. This same principle was used to create Lalo, Better Call Saul's wild card whose fate was not known by the viewers. Unlike Gus, Lalo was not limited by how Walt and Jesse's story in Breaking Bad played out, allowing actor Tony Dalton to play a menacing and, most importantly, unpredictable villain.
That said, there was only so much Lalo could do in Better Call Saul. The character was introduced at the end of season 4, and with the show set to end in season 6, Lalo's story could not be dragged out too much. Lalo was not a long-term antagonist like Chuck in the early Better Call Saul seasons or Gus in Breaking Bad – he was the unexpected element that served to completely flip Jimmy and Kim's life. Not only that, but Lalo's story was always much more connected with Gus's than with Jimmy's. The war between Gus Fring and Lalo Salamanca indirectly involved Jimmy McGill, but that was never the main storyline of Better Call Saul. On top of the thematic reasons, there were also other details that secretly revealed Lalo would not make it through Better Call Saul.
Lalo Isn't In Breaking Bad - So Something Had To Happen To Him
The first major indication that Lalo was going to die in Better Call Saul is that the character is not in Breaking Bad. Granted, Saul mentions Lalo during Breaking Bad season 2, but other than that, there was no mention of the character – let alone in regards to the Salamanca family. In fact, after the death of the Twins in Breaking Bad, Gus stated that all of the Salamanca but Hector were now dead. It would be difficult to believe that Lalo managed to stay hidden from Gus for years, especially after Tuco's death. The entire Salamanca family operation had been destroyed by Walt and Gus, and after Fring killed Don Eladio and the cartel, it would not make sense for Lalo to remain hidden. The character would at least try to rescue Hector. As such, in order to not create any major Breaking Bad plotholes, Lalo had to die in Better Call Saul.
Gus Planting The Gun At The Superlab Had To Be Paid Off
In fiction, Chekhov's gun refers to an element (physical or not) that may not seem important at first, but that is narratively required to be paid off later. In Better Call Saul season 6, Gus had hidden a literal Chekhov's gun at the superlab. Gus did not know what Lalo's plans for Jimmy and Kim were, but the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul villain is known for always being cautious. Gus could anticipate that, if Lalo was indeed alive, finding out more about the lab would be the top priority for Salamanca. Both in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, even the small of details are paid off in a shocking way. As such, it was difficult to imagine that Gus's Chekhov gun would not be revisited before the end of the show. Given how Gus' only remaining enemy at this point of the story was Lalo, it was easy to predict who the gun was going to be used on.
Lalo's Superlab Obsession Set Up A Showdown With Gus Fring
Obsessions tend to not end well in the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul universe. Lalo knew that the only way to take out Gus was by proving to Don Eladio that Fring was trying to take over the entire operation. As such, he was willing to go to and track down Werner Ziegler's wife only to find out what the engineer had built for Gus. The information Lalo had regarding Gus' secret lab gave Salamanca the upper hand, but it also made his plans predictable. As soon as Kim revealed to Gus that Jimmy had talked Lalo out of a decision, Fring knew that all of it was a distraction so that Lalo could act freely. That led to the Gus and Lalo showdown at the lab, something that had been indirectly teased throughout Better Call Saul season 6. All of those setups could only lead to one thing – Lalo's death in Better Call Saul.
Better Call Saul season 6 releases new episodes Mondays on AMC.