The Full Story of Nacho | Better Call Saul Retrospective

if you were to ask any Better Call Saul fan about nacho Varga they tell you that he's one of the best characters of the show and one of the core pillars to the show that makes it so good even though he's surprisingly in fewer episodes with less screen time than most of the other main characters this is because Michael Mando brings to the screen a level of energy that's perfect for the character making nacho one of the most memorable antagonists in the entire Breaking Bad Universe hey guys kiwi here in this video I'll be giving a full retrospective on the entire full story a nacho warning spoils for all A Better Call Saul and some are breaking bad too with that being said let's first hear a word from today's sponsor this video is brought to you by manscapes.com it's time to throw away that bulky beard trimmer you've been using for years that is dull blades 10 useless guard attachments and a bulky power cord it's time to upgrade to the new manscaped beard hedger trimmer I'm excited to be 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you're already a beard Pro manscaped makes beard care easy go to manscape.com today and get 20 off plus free shipping when you use promo code Vivid kiwi at checkout that's 20 off plus free international shipping with promo code Vivid kiwi at manscape.com join over 7 million men worldwide who trust manscape today thank you so much to manscape for supporting the channel by sponsoring this video and speaking of which let's jump right into it Ignacio Varga was born December 9th 1971 effectively making him 31 years old by the start of Better Call Saul in 2002. not much is known of Nacho's early life aside from the fact that he was a childhood family friend with Crazy Eight nacho was mainly raised by his father Manuel Varga and worked in his father's upholstery shop while getting involved in criminal activities on the side although we only see Nacho's father in the show he is implied to have an extended family in Mexico including his mother's family and an aunt with two twin cousins I'm unsure of how nacho started working alongside tuku exactly but it's clear that they've worked together for at least five six years prior to the events of Better Call Saul occurring we know this because during Better Call Saul episode 204 nacho explains a story about working with Tuka way back in 1996 to 1997. it's also apparent that Nacho's father Manuel knew about Nacho's involvement with the salamancas for years and repeatedly told him to stop to the point that nacho lied about it four years telling Manuel how he stopped working for them when in reality he probably never did Nacho's actor Michael Mando considers nacho to be one of the only characters quote breaking good with him Better Call Saul considering the fact that he starts out as a criminal gangster when the show begins but as time goes on he starts questioning his line of work to the point that he'll do anything to quote get out of the game while keeping his family safe Better Call Saul season 1 which happens in May 13th to July 18 2002. nacho first appears in the second episode of Better Call Saul as tuko's right hand man seemingly even above NoDoz and Gonzo nacho makes his debut as being present during tuko's kidnapping of Jimmy and the two skater twins as they used his van to transport them out into the middle of the desert for interrogation since tuko clearly won't listen to reason when Jimmy tries telling him the truth nacho steps in as the more reasonably calm and collected counterpart Nacho's character is initially meant to be a clear contrast to tuko as nacho is a smart patient and calculated criminal who only speaks when he needs to and will wait for the opportune moment to make his move to further himself not only does nacho believe that Jimmy's telling the truth he is shown to have enough Authority towards tuko for tuko to actually listen to nacho talk him out of believing that Jimmy is an agent investigating them nacho essentially convinces tuko not to kill Jimmy stating how killing a random lawyer is bad for business notcha then threatens Jimmy with the fact that they know how to find him if he ever talks about what happened and they cut him loose then after Jimmy talks took her down from killing the skaters just breaking a leg each notice how nacho is the only one to Stand By and Watch instead of actively taking part in the violence this implies that unlike tuko nodos or Gonzo who seemingly enjoy inflicting violence upon the skaters nacho gets no sort of enjoyment out of the act against setting him apart and making him seem more rational and reasonable instead of just being a one note criminal like NoDoz or Gonzo we later see nacho arrive at Jaime's makeshift office in the back of the nail salon but for information rather than intimidation nacho listened to Jimmy's explanation of his scam out in the desert carefully in regard to the Cattlemens and plans on robbing them of the money that Craig stole as nacho likes to Rob other criminals due to them essentially having no recourse nacho even offers Jimmy a hundred thousand dollars out of void he'll steal from them as a finder's fee essentially giving Jimmy the open invitation to work as an accomplice Jimmy declines the offer but nacho plans on stealing from the kettleman's regardless so he still leaves Jimmy's number in case Jimmy changes his mind but when you figure out you're in the game so nacho starts casing their house but the Cattlemen's become aware of his presence due to Jimmy anonymously calling them to give them a vague warning that they're in danger as he's concerned for their well-being see nacho told Jimmy that if he gives him information that he wants to know that no one will get hurt but since Jimmy didn't agree to work with nacho he fears that nacho will wind up endangering the kettlements so the kettlements get spooked causing them to flee for their lives but staging their disappearance as a kidnapping in the eyes of the law since a neighbor noticed Nacho's van parked outside the kettleman's house for two nights straight right before they went missing he gets detained as the prime suspect even though they disappeared on their own accord before he could even do anything that he was planning to nacho admits this to Jimmy as he got Jimmy called down to represent him as his lawyer since Jimmy's the only one that nacho told his plans about robbing the Cattleman's to he accurately deduces that it's Jimmy's fault that he got arrested however nacho incorrectly figures that Jimmy gave the job to another crew and instead set him up to take him out of the picture regardless of how it happened nacho demands that Jimmy gets him out of there quickly before the cop starts snooping around his cartel business and actually catch on to it this gives Jimmy the motive to track down the kettleman's and bring them back safely which he eventually does causing nacho to be let off scot-free that being said nachos smart enough to realize that the kettlements having their little camping trip just days after he told Jimmy his plans for them is too much of a coincidence correctly deducing that Jimmy somehow warned them nacho threatened Jimmy for routing but Jimmy defends himself by stating how he was worried about their children also Jimmy calls out nacho for being incredibly sloppy while casing their place and that he probably would have gone himself caught anyways due to the neighbor iding him along with the fact that he never cleaned out the blood from the back of his van from the skater Twins and giving the cops all the probable cause that they needed since nacho agrees that things may have gone down worse for himself if Jimmy never intervened he says nothing back to Jimmy and instead walks away cutting his losses we don't actually see nacho again after this until near the end of the first season as his character was benched instead of taking a larger role in it see the creators originally intended for nacho to be a main season 1 antagonist against Jimmy but as they further developed Jimmy's brotherly Dynamic with Chuck they instead decided to make Chuck the true main season 1 antagonist for Jimmy while keeping nacho on the sidelines for future seasons my commando once said how he liked the idea as it does fit Nacho's character in regard to patiently waiting for the right opportunity to make a move to get ahead so instead of more altercations between nacho and Jimmy with nacho actually not speaking to Jimmy again for multiple Seasons nacho was instead shifted to mainly interact with Mike as they're both naturally more on the criminal slash cartel side of the show opposed to Jimmy's lawyer side so in episode 109 we see nacho and Mike meet for the first time as Mike has been hired to help protect Daniel price wormald as he sells pills to Nacho the deal goes down mostly without any problems until the small hiccup of price noticing how Nacho's 20 short when he counts the money price is willing to let it slide but Mike stands up for him stating that either they get the full amount or No Deal nacho tries intimidating Mike over potentially ruining a deal over 20 bucks but Mike throws that accusation right back at nacho nacho accuses Mike of thinking that he's intentionally shorted them but Mike neither confirms or denies this brushing it off as a possible mistake although that could have just been taken at face value as many commenters pointed out during my micro retrospective it's possible that nacho did intentionally short them 20 as a test to see if price was gullible enough to later take advantage of which is why nacho conveniently adds 20 in his wallet even though he's shown to have a lot more as well then not you're dropping the 20 and allowing it to Blow Away In The Wind as price pathetically chased after it could have been his response to the test as he realizes that as long as Mike is involved in protecting price and nacho won't be able to take advantage of him so easily this leads us into Better Call Saul season 2 which happens in July 18th to September 21st 2002. we see nacho meet up with price once more to buy pills off of him but since Mike isn't there this time nacho realizes that now is the perfect time to take advantage of price nacho talks price up about his new Hummer in order to get inside of it and secretly look at the registration in order to find out what prices address is I love how nacho tells price that he trusts him when price hands him the pills in order to give price a false sense of security to trust him back as well not sure then Rob's price of all the money that price is made off of him for the pills along with prices prize possession his baseball cards as you can imagine nacho picked price as a Target as he figured that price would have no recourse due to being a criminal however nacho underestimated how naive and stupid price is as price actually called the cops about his house getting robbed Mike finds out and confronts nacho about it at his father's upholstery store which nacho initially takes as a threat on his family when in reality Mike is just trying to convince nacho to give prices baseball cards back so he'll stop talking to the police in order to convince nacho to do so Mike gives him a carrot and stake ultimatum where either he can give back the cards for a profit of sixty thousand dollars somehow or Mike can inform tuko of his side business which would turn tuko against him nacho reluctantly agree so Mike makes price trade nachos Homer for his baseball cards giving us the hilarious exchange as nacho admits that he's gonna have the Hummer taken apart in order to sell it for parts I'll make sure the boys of the truck shop are real gentle with her wait why no you think I'd be caught dead driving that thing looks like a school bus for six-year-old pimps all right so we move this along it's kind of funny how we've seen nacho attempt to steal from other criminals twice now with both times not working out the way he had intended that being said I do kind of Miss how nacho was in the earlier Seasons before he begun his breaking good character Arc back when he was the Intimidator opposed to being the intimidated but more on that later in the video but real quick I just want to elaborate on that point I do love the character Arc that nacho takes throughout the entirety of the show from start to finish I'm a big fan it's just after seeing him on the defensive for so long from Seasons three to six it's just nice to revisit earlier seasons and go back to when he was more intimidating moving on though nacho eventually starts worrying about tuko's unpredictability while he's on drugs so he hires Mike through Caldera to take him out since nacho knew that Caldera set up the pill exchange between price Mike and himself in the first place we then seen nacho and Micah across the street from the taco shop that nacho and tuko meet their dealers out once a week as nacho plans on this being the spa where he'll have Mike take to go out for good when Mike asks nacho if he's sure that he wants to take out his partner nacho tells Mike the story that I briefly mentioned earlier from around 1997. nacho and tuko would pick up drugs from A supplier named dog who led a biker gang but tuko killed dog after becoming suspicious that dog was trying to cut them out by selling to their competitors when tuko shot dog point blank in the head with a shotgun a piece of dog skull got lodged in Nacho's shoulder due to nachos standing behind dog while he was killed at this rate with how much tuko is using nachos worried that he'll suffer the same fate as dog if two whoever finds out about his side business so he plans on taking out tuko before that can happen this is the first of multiple times in the show where nacho plans to take out his boss slash partner with this time being strictly self-preservation Mike argues the many unpredictable variables that could cause the hit to go wrong but nacho eventually brushes them off telling Mike that the details are what he's hiring him for Mike suggests taking a sniper shot at tuko from a distance but after some thought Mike meets up with nacho again to tell him that although he's decided to not kill tuko for him he's come up with another plan though send tuko away so he's not a problem for a nacho any longer Mike plans on setting up tuko by luring him into a fight outside the Taco Shop so that cops pull up and catch him red-handed doing so Mike manages to do exactly that with nacho leaving the scene as soon as he hears the police sirens closing in but Mike Mages to bait tukos that he'll stay there and beat him up just for a long enough that the cops will see tuko as the aggressor in the situation and arrest him later that night Mike meets back up with nacho to receive his payment which is only half of what the original hit would have paid nacho takes one look at Mike's swollen face and confronts him wondering why Mike went through all that effort and got beat up to receive half the payment when just doing the hit would have been a lot more simple he would have gotten paid more and he would have done the world a favor by not having to go in it anymore Mike knows that nachos technically right so he says nothing and walks away not wanting to admit exactly why he didn't want to pull the trigger I discussed Mike's reasoning more in my full story and Mike video but I will say that this is just one of many examples throughout better call solemn Breaking Bad that emphasizes how difficult it is to actually take a human life opposed to other shows or action movies where you just see people dying left and right like it's nothing the next time we see nacho is when he lets Mike into Hector's ice cream store to speak to Hector about tuko sentencing long story short Hector wanted Mike to admit how tuko's gun was his in order for tuko to get out of prison sooner Mike declined resulting in salamancas threatening both him and his family Hector's initially reluctant but gives and due to laughing off the balls on Mike for demanding such a thing later that night nacho goes to Mike's house to give him the fifty thousand dollars as an excuse to be able to speak to him privately Mike gives nacho back half of the money essentially refunding him for the twenty five thousand dollars that nacho paid him for getting to go sent away since Tuka will now return much sooner than they initially thought then a few episodes later nacho requests to meet with Mike as he wants to confront Mike over the fact that he thinks it was Mike who robbed Hector's truck since Mike left the truck driver alive nacho put two and two together as Mike is the only person that he can think of who wouldn't pull the trigger instead actually leaving a witness behind nacho mentions how they're going to drag the truck driver into the desert for questioning and that if he blabs about Mike it'll be bad for both of them but Mike assures nacho that the truck driver never saw his face or hurt his voice nacho initially thinks that the truck driver was in on the heist with Mike which reminds me a lot of Nacho accusing Jimmy of setting him up and giving the Cattlemen score to another crew in season one but just like how nacho is wrong about Jimmy setting him up he's also wrong about Mike involving the truck driver in the heist nacho goes to leave but stops when Mike implies that he wanted the cops to find the robbed truck meaning that he wanted to stick the cops on Hector as well nacho becomes enraged at the idea as cops having eyes on Hector also means that cops would be on to nacho by association nacho even reaches for his gun but Mike manages to calm him down by stating that he's done with Hector when Mike insists on knowing how they cleaned up the truck heist without the cops becoming aware nacho admits to him that a Good Samaritan found the truck driver and cut him loose allowing the truck driver to call them to come clean up the scene which included killing the Good Samaritan as he was a witness in a way this is not to implying to Mike that's sometimes not pulling the trigger can cause an unintended domino effect with consequences that are worse than if he had just pulled the trigger in the first place but again I discussed that more during my mic retrospective so although Mike initially said that he was done with Hector killing the Good Samaritan robbed him the wrong way causing him to want to take out Hector for doing so so Mike tells nacho and Arturo bringing the truck drive around to the desert where Mike plans on sniping Hector from a distance Mike almost manages to get a clean shot but is body blocked by nacho unknowingly standing right in front of his line of sight and of course Mike gets distracted by his car horn going off and then the whole don't note and that all happens but moving on although that's the end of season 2 for nacho I'd like to take a moment to compare notcher to Mike throughout Better Call Saul nacho is essentially in the same position towards the salamancas as Mike is for Gus and Breaking Bad by this I mean that they both play the role of the criminal right-hand man in such a way where although they're both in certain scenes alongside the salamancas or Gus with Mike they usually aren't the main focus and instead are just there as backup or Side characters for Mike he was mainly a henchman for gustering Breaking Bad seasons 3 and 4 and doesn't really get time to shine as his own character until season 5 after Gus is killed likewise nacho is usually there as a partner or henchman for the salamancas however it seems like the creators learn from their experience with Mike from Breaking Bad and started developing nacho by himself a lot earlier on in Better Call Saul than they did with Mike and Breaking Bad since they had originally intended for Naja to be included in later seasons and get elaborated on so although half of Nacho's scenes in Better Call Saul are just him backing up tuko Hector and eventually Lalo they still give nachos own motives and arcs even from the earlier Seasons allowing his character to become more fleshed out with his own motives which feels like the perfect balance between the two positions in my opinion onto Better Call Saul season 3 which is September 21st 2002 to March 22nd 2003. we first see nacho in season 3 as he backs up Hector harassing customers and employees at Los poyos in order to get to Gus nachos once again shown to be the more reasonable one of the group as he applies to Arturo to let customers leave the restaurant instead of holding them there against their will now this may just be due to notcher trying to avoid the potential crime of false imprisonment but it does show that nacho is somewhat sympathetic to innocent civilians not in the game we then see that nacho has essentially taken over tuko's position working under Hector at the Taco Shop but when he lets Domingo off with a warning for being light on cash Hector mocks him for not having the backbone that he should as his enforcer who works for who however clearly affects nacho negatively as he's so shaken up by beating up a childhood friend that he zones out thinking about it at his father's store to the point that he accidentally stitches his hand while using the sewing machine this implies that although nacho does what he needs to in order it affects him more than it would others due to him you know actually having a heart this is again one of the first instances where the show is trying to imply that nacho realizes that the criminal business probably isn't for him and that he's starting to change his mind about working for the salamancas at all as it turns out his father was right about how he shouldn't be working with them but this realization is too little too late as nachos in too deep to just simply quit so since Mike has ruined Hector's own distribution routes by having cops shut down the ice cream store Hector is now forcing us to smug this product for him as well this brings us to the scene of Nacho and Arturo picking up drugs from Tyrus and Victor Gus plays nice and allows nacha to take six but as nacho leaves he reveals to the camera that he's far more shaken up by Victor holding him at gunpoint than he initially LED on again implying how nachos in too deep and doesn't enjoy the work that he's doing for the salamancas nacho later informs Hector what happened causing Hector to become upset at the outcome Hector realized is that pushing Gus around isn't a permanent solution to his problem so he tries talking nacho up to allow his father to smuggle drugs across the border for him nacho can instantly tell where Hector's intentions are so he tries beating around the bush and avoiding it but when Hector comes right out and says it nacho insists how his father is old-fashioned and pleads not to get him involved in the game nacho knows that his father will want nothing to do with Hector's dirty money but Hector is either completely oblivious to it or just doesn't care thinking that anyone could be won over and bought with enough money then Arturo comes back inside and admits how tuko knife to guy in prison meaning that he'll be stuck in there for a lot longer than initially intended this infuriates Hector especially after everything he just went through with Mike to try and get tuko out sooner Hector starts suffering from hard problems due to getting worked up causing nacho to think of a way to take out Hector before Hector tries getting his father involved in a criminal business it's kind of ironic how nacho originally wanted to take tuko out due to his own self-preservation but now that tuko is out of the picture dealing with hectors proving to become even more of a problem them as now Nacho's father is also potentially at risk considering nacho knows that his father won't play ball with Hector also it's possible that Mike unintentionally endangered Nacho's father due to the whole domino effect of it all because nacho ruined Hector's supply line so that's why Hector is even trying to get Nacho's father involved in the first place so if Mike would have never messed with Hector's ice cream store Hector may have never asked nacho to get his father involved in the business in the first place so nacho plans on swapping Hector's heart pills with fake ones but in order to do so he needs price to get him empty capsules prices initially reluctant especially after finding nacho in his house considering his new security system and all the locks that he now has on his door after the first time nacho broke in but price eventually agrees after nacho offers him twenty thousand dollars so when nacho goes to meet up with price to pick up the capsules Mike confronts him on his plan to take out Hector as Mike has already figured out his plan nacho admits that Hector wants to involve his father and his business but that his father won't bite and will instead go to the police although Mike understands this he once again States how things get a lot worse if nachos caught in the act since Mike is aware of the fact that Gus doesn't want Hector dead he meets with nacho to vaguely warn him that there's more dangerous people other than the salamancas to worry about along with checking Nacho's gas cap to make sure that Gus isn't already on to him by confirming that they aren't already tracking Nacho's vehicle to the way that they did to Mike Mike warns notcher to be careful if he's gonna go through his plan and to switch the pills back afterwards if he does so in order to cover his tracks the scene then ends with Mike requesting the location of the good Samaritan's body as he feels guilty about what happened to him absolutely love this Montage of Nacho practicing the switch as it not only foreshadows how he plans to do so but also builds a ton of tension regard to nacho actually being able to pull it off when the time comes as he's repeatedly missing the toss during his practice so the night slash morning before he makes the switch we see nacho climbing on top of the taco shop in order to sabotage the AC in order to make sure that Hector takes his jacket off and rests it on the back of his seat just like nacho planned I assume that the creators realized that chalking Hector removing his jacket up to chance would have been far too convenient so they probably threw in this little AC scene in order to explain it away anyways as nachos sitting at the Taco Shop accepting payment from their dealers he sneakily steals Hector's pills out of his jacket pocket under the ruse of getting Hector to check to see if a bill is fake followed by him dropping the stack of cash on the floor then in between meeting with more dealers nacho carefully swaps Hector's real pills for the phony ones and as he does so you can tell how nervous nacho is due the fact that he's shaking so much to the point that he actually drops a pill in his lap with an out being the Moment of Truth we get an epic slow-mo of Nacho successfully making the pill toss into Hector's jacket while walking to the back of the store to get Hector more espresso this is an incredibly tense scene most likely causing the viewers to be just as nervous as nacho I know I was when I saw it the first time as nacho still shown to be shaking once he gets to the back of the store after successfully taking the shot I also just wanted to State as a side point that for at least Breaking Bad viewers watching this show as it was coming out it became very apparent that we were watching the origin story for how Hector wound up in a wheelchair which was really exciting to see happen we see Hector survive an episode while still taking the phony heart medication nacho was hoping for Hector to just die immediately before he could get his father involved but since that isn't gonna happen nacho is forced to warn his father about how he's still working for the salamancas along with how Hector wants to use his father for his business nacho tells his father that he can get mad at him all he wants but that he has to let Hector do what he wants and that he can't go to the cops since nacho knows that Hector will die soon due to swapping his heart pills he assures his father that it'll all go away in a few weeks although he can't tell his father why he knows this nacho tries getting his father to promise that he won't do anything stupid which his father understandably takes offense to as it was stupid for nacho to continue working for the salamancas in the first place to get them into this situation as I mentioned at the beginning of the video it's implied that his father had told them to stop working with them before something that nacho definitely lied about at one point or another so his father tells him to get out of his house and nacho silently respects this and leaves we then see nacho bringing Hector to his father's shop where he tries giving Hector the rundown of the place by himself while trying to avoid having Hector speak to his father at all this obviously doesn't work as Hector instantly wants to know where his father is and makes a v-line straight to him once he sees him where's the puppy here's puppy Hector instantly tries bribing Nacho's father with a few stacks of dirty cash as Hector believes that anyone he wants to work with can just be bought off Nacho's father initially tries to politely tell Hector to leave his store which is the one and only red flag that Hector needs to realize that he won't play ball nacho does manage to convince his father to take Hector's dirty money but only after mentioning their extended family implying that the cartel will have them killed if they don't play along it's honestly kind of messed up to see nacho pull this as he knows that it's the only thing that'll convince his father to reluctantly play along this is because nacho is playing ball to protect his father's life just like how his father is playing ball to protect the rest of their families well now after Nacho's father takes the money Hector leaves without saying another word nacho tries catching up to him to try and undo any problems but the damage is already done with Hector telling nachos I don't trust him which may be code for I'm going to kill him for not cooperating see when it comes to the cartel they always seem to have two options for first to bribe their way out of whatever situation or to get whatever they want but if that doesn't work the second option usually results in them instantly falling back and relying on violence nacho clearly doesn't want this so with Hector's phony harp pills not killing him fast enough not to decides to put the situation into his own hands again and actually try and kill Hector himself by shooting him we then see nacho tailing Hector to a warehouse where he plans to kill him but as nacho takes aim to wait for Hector to walk out Arturo shows up as there's apparently a cartel meeting that's about to go down Arturo informs nacho this by stating how nacho must have gotten his message to show up which nacho obviously had no idea about but he plays it off as if he did with NC Gus and Bolsa show up to make sure that Hector's on the same page as them in regard to Donald audio wanting to only use Gus's Chicken trucks to smuggle their drugs from now on as Hector was clearly reluctant to the news when he was told this over the phone in an earlier scene Hector feels incredibly disrespected over this as this is actually what previously worked him up to have the episode with his heart problems that he survived as I just mentioned a bit ago so as you can expect with Hector getting confronted about this in person he starts freaking out again causing himself to get so worked up that he again has an episode this time it's one that he won't be walking away from Hector goes down but Gus starts instantly giving him CPR to save his life while telling Bolsa to leave before the ambulance arrives during this commotion nacho tries to casually pick up all the pills to swap them back before the ambulance arrives but when nacho gives the pills to the paramedics God stares at him implying that he's on to nacho being the culprit in regard to Hector's harp pills not helping him this is a wild Cliffhanger to leave off for season three as it continues to create even more of a domino effect that snowball is completely out of control throughout future Seasons so on to Better Call Saul season 4 which happens for March 22nd 2003 at April 1st 2004. season 4 picks up right where the season 3 Cliffhanger left off with nacho trying to discard the phony pills while Gus is busy taking a phone call but nacho gets interrupted before he can and successfully do so dude guys telling him that Bolsa wants to speak to both Arturo and himself nacho introduces himself to Bolsa who tells the both of them that they need to essentially take over the Salamanca business temporarily by continuing to pick up and distribute drugs like they always have and that if they do this properly things could go very well for them this opportunity for them ranks Hollow in retrospect however as we'll soon see they haven't and won't play by the rules after nacho leaves he goes to finally get rid of the phony pills that he used on Hector unaware that Gus now has Victor tracking him so Victor Witnesses this confirming Gus's suspicions from the season 3 finale that nacho was involved in Hector's stroke but more on that in a moment first we see nacho arrive at his father's story to tell him the good news that Hector won't be bothering him anymore so his father takes out the dirty money that Hector gave him as he wants nothing to do with it nacho tries talking to his father but he's still so upset and ashamed at nacho working for the salamancas and getting him involved with them that he just stays silent wanting nacho to just take the dirty money and leave as nacho goes to leave his father finally does speak asking him when things with the salamancas will be over with him as well to which nacho says soon even though he's unknowingly about to get neck deep in all of it see Bolsa telling Arturo and nacho to take over the business temporarily gives Arturo and ego boost who thinks that they're truly in charge when in reality he's just a total joke it is first shown by them surprisingly seeing the Salamanca twins as they go to visit Hector at the hospital Arturo reassures nacho that they're still in charge but once they're left alone in the hospital room with the twins you can tell how easily intimidated they are by them as the twins practically force them to speak to Hector in order to jog his brain as the doctor suggested this is also incredibly awkward for nacho considering he's the one who put Hector in the hospital nacho of course hoped that Hector would have died but since Gus saved him nachos essentially failed again to take out his boss Percy wanted to kill tuko then agreed that Mike would have him sent to prison for a long time but now that sentence has been shortened then nacho wanted to take out Hector permanently as well but that only resulted in Hector being put temporarily in hospital and eventually in a wheelchair put a pin in that as it's a trend that I will return to later on in the video and on their way in Arturo insists to nacho that they should take six bricks again when they're only supposed to take five this is another example of Arturo having a little ego trip over temporarily taking over the business as he tells nacho to back him up who reluctantly agrees due to feeling pressured into doing so even though he knows it's a bad idea so Tyrus and Victor obviously first tell them that they're not getting six but when nacho takes out his gun and asks if they're really going to cause a problem they're reluctantly give in Gus and his men come out from around the corner and suffocate Arturo to death while holding nacho at gunpoint forcing nacho to watch what might happen to him too if he doesn't cooperate From This Moment forward they essentially gave up so early and gave them six as it was a trap to give them a valid excuse to take out Arturo in order to single out nacho for Gus to confront him Gus informs nacho that he knows what he did to Hector essentially blackmailing him by implying that he'll tell the entire cartel what nacho did if nacho doesn't do what he says from now on on this a version of expectation here as the show set up not just seemed like he was getting promoted within the cartel also potentially actually being able to get out of the game soon like he told his father however that was all just a facade as the show's been dropping hints ever since the season 3 finale Cliffhanger that Gus has been on to what nacho did with it finally now all blowing up in his face and solidifying the fact that not only will nacho not be getting out of the game anytime soon but that he's now in even deeper trouble than he's ever been it's incredibly ironic how every time nacho tries to solve his immediate Problems by taking out a partner or boss it always backfires one way or another causing an even worse situation for himself than before when you compare working with tuko to being blackmailed by Gus suddenly what he and tuko had going on doesn't seem so bad anymore so Gus forces nacho to go along with Tyrus and Victor the next morning to Stage a drive-by shootout as a cover-up story for Arturo's murder but nacho being told to instead blame it on a rival gang although Gus wanted to keep nacho alive for future use tires and Victor couldn't care less if nacho bled to death out in the desert almost as revenge for not outro and Arturo repeatedly pushing them around for six bricks of drugs instead of five so nacho manages to call the twins you take forever to show up and even when they do they take forever to examine the crime scene and find nacho because they're too cool to run or rush I suppose kind of funny how nachos literally bleeding out over there in the desert but the twins take forever to get to him as they're too busy looking all badass and intimidating still but I digress they cover up the crime scene by blowing up Arturo's car and they take nacho to calderas to get them patched up Caldera understandably freaks out at this telling them that they need to drive somewhere else if they want him to save Nacho's life as he's not doing it at his office we see all this from Nacho's perspective as he's fading in and out of Consciousness as Caldera tries working on him in the back of the vehicle while the twins drive him to an empty Warehouse we then finally seen nacho wake up with Caldera having successfully saved his life at least the best of his abilities there's still some potential risk that the gut shot punctured something but luckily for nacho he turns out to be okay as Caldera leaves he whispers to Nacho how he never wants to see his face again as the cartel is too hot for him which is a smart and understandable statement to make with natural now in recovery the twins waste no time wanting to exact revenge on the game that supposedly did this they stake out a gang with Nacho iding the vehicle as being the target but instead of waiting things out and coming back later with more men as nacho suggests the twin's just going guns ablazing and practically take out the entire gang by themselves due to his injuries he's not able to help much and eventually gets pinned down too one of the twins comes up behind him and saves him from this after the gang is taken out nacho sits at a different Warehouse to wait to inform Gus of how his plan worked nacho tells Gus that the twins took out the gang and that they fled South back to Mexico until the heat from the shootout dies down nacho realizes the 4D chest that Gus is playing here because since tuko's in prison Hector's in the hospital and Arturo's dead and he controls nacho Gus is essentially completely in control of the opposition at this point also Gus wanted to use Arturo's cover-up to trick the twins into taking out that gang resulting in Gus being able to take over that gang's territory due to the cartel not wanting to give the territory to the Salamanca since they were the ones who took the gang out Gus tells nacho to heal and rest up as he still has a lot in store for him to do in the future so we see nacho go to his father's house to rest with his father becoming incredibly worried for him understandably he goes to call for an ambulance but nacho convinces him not to as nacho can't go to the hospital for his injuries as it'll raise red flags although his father is extremely mad at him over recent events he still cares for nacho and so he allows nacho to rest up at his place meanwhile Gus confronts Mike over the fact that Mike knew about nachos plans to take out Hector Gus's angry and Mike for not preventing this but Mike States how although he agreed to not take out Hector himself he never agreed to be Hector's bodyguard this shows that although Mike could have warned Gus about Nacho's plans beforehand which would have prevented Hector's stroke Mike isn't against the idea of a loophole of not standing in front of someone else's way who may want to take Hector out themselves it's at this point in season 4 that we get a nine month time skip from Spring 2003 to early 2004 with nacho now fully recovered he's shown to have taken over Hector's role observing cash exchanges at the Taco Shop while Domingo has taken over his old spot in front of him accepting payments from their dealers we then see nacho arrive at his house practically ignoring his girlfriends as he instead goes to a safe revealing that he has a fake ID for both his father and himself this shows that since the heat has seemingly died down over the past nine months nachos planning a potential exit strategy for both his father and himself side note I love how Nacho's shown in a red tank top here just gives huge Vos Far Cry 3 Vibes but I digress so although nacho would like to run away from all of this by changing his identity he knows that'll be next to impossible to convince his father to completely uproot his entire life to do the same plus the next time nacho arrives at the Taco Shop he gets a surprise in the form of a new Salamanca who will be helping him with the business that's right it's finally time to introduce the Lalo salamanke into the mix who will essentially become Nacho's new threat first tuko then Hector now Lalo no matter what nacho tries to do to get rid of his Salamanca problem they just get replaced with an even worse Salamanca taking their spot and not even to mention the fact that Gus is blackmailing him too now Mike even warned nacho back in season three without taking out tuko would bring salamancas to the business swarming like flies which is exactly what we see here I do love the Lalo introduction as he casually Cooks up food while charismatically introducing himself to nacho stating how he's not going to be a problem at all when in reality this means the exact opposite plus we get some not so subtle foreshadowing for Nacho's fate when Lalo offers him his food stating how he's going to die of course Lalo means his food is so good it's to die for but not your declines due to worrying that the food is actually poisoned or something which Lawler respects calling nacho smart I'll be getting more into the whole it wasn't Mia was Ignacio Lalo didn't send you situation later on but needless to say since both nacho and Lalo are characters created from that Breaking Bad throwaway line their characters have been linked together since their Inception long before Better Call Saul was even created so having Lalo's introductory scene be with nacho really stirs the pot in that regard for the remainder season 4 nachos essentially demoted to just following Lalo around reverting nacho back to the familiar right-hand ban role that he was first introduced as nacho brings Lala to speak to Hector where Lala gives Hector's Belle and then nacho brings Lala to Los poyos as Lala wants to speak to Gus about their business and introduce himself to Gus as well of the moment where after Lalu gets up to speak privately in Gus's office Gus stares at nacho wondering what the heck they're doing there but not to just comedically shrugs as he's unsure with this clearly not being his idea as they leave Los Pollos Lalo then gets nacho to drive him to Gus's chicken factory in order for Lala to stake out the place which is actually the last we see of Nacho in season four Better Call Saul season 5 which happens from April 1st to May 14 2004. season 5 is where nacho technically gets the most screen time out of any season because although his appearances are tied with season 2 in regard to a appearing in seven episodes from both seasons respectively the scenes in season 5 that include nacho are much longer and much more important so season 5 picks up right after the whole Werner Ziegler Arc from the season 4 finale with Lala wondering what exactly Gus was doing with him a lot of questions nacho about Werner and Mike sorry Michael but nacho states that the only people that he knows from Gus's crew are Victor and Tyrus nacho then admits that one of their dealers is getting complaints that their product isn't up to par so Lalo gets nacho to drive him over to go check things out Lalo seemingly just barges himself into the Dealer's place with a nacho confirming that it's okay as the dealers don't yet know how lolos technically their boss recognizes that half of the drugs are not their stuff episode 2 is season 5 starts with the nacho being kidnapped out of his bed and brought to his father's store where Gus steps in the vehicle and implies that he's gonna have Victor kill Nacho's father right in front of him not only does it initially already seem like Victor will kill Nacho's father right in front of him but since the this also clearly parallels Andrea's fate and Breaking Bad in regard to Jack's gang forcing Jesse to watch what happens to her from a vehicle as well it causes veteran fans of the franchise to become just as worried for Nacho's father as nacho is since the creators have been known to do this exact thing before nachos understandably confused why they're doing this as he's done everything that they've asked of him this turns out to be a threat of what could happen if nacho doesn't continue doing what Gus wants as Gus essentially wants nacho on an incredibly short leash to the point that when Gus says jump nacho says how high Gus uses fear as a motivator here to get notcher to gain Lalo's trust by any means necessary as Gus wants to know everything that there is to know about what Lawler's planning we later see the Albuquerque Salamanca crew playing poker together with nacho Lalo Domingo and others all crowded around a table nacho tries talking of Lalo about the business but Lala brushes off nacho to not talk business while he's playing a hand long story short Domingo leaves to go help out an issue that the dealers from earlier are having with some customers but since Domingo gets caught red-handed by the police while doing so it results in nacho and Lalo staking out the place after the fact the dealers managed to make it out of there without getting arrested but they had to leave their stash of drugs in the building and they're worried that the cops will find it nacho sees this as an opportunity to gain Lalo's trust and respect so he leaps into action literally leaping across rooftops and sneaking his way into the building to snatch up the drugs and Escape just moments before the cops break in Lalo initially thinks that nacho is crazy for attempting to do so as he just comedically laughs at what Nacho's doing while watching him as he casually munches down on some snacks as if this is a form of entertainment for him however when nacho returns with the drug successfully Lalo shown to be clearly impressed making nachos plan to do this to gain Lalo's trust a success not only does Lalo call Nacho a badass the next day he lets nacho make the call on whether or not to allow their dealers back on the streets showing how Lalo is starting to put a little faith and trust into him Lalo then sits nacho down to eat some tacos Within I'm showing how Lalo is open to developing camaraderie between them Lalo however uses this to his Advantage by questioning nacho about Domingo or Crazy 8 I suppose considering he's gained that nickname now nacho admits how he's known Crazy 8 for a long time due to their families knowing each other which was foreshadowed way back in season 2 due to nacho vouching form towards tuko after who saw tuko give him his famous lie detector test along within season 3 due to Crazy 8 making small talk to nacho about how they know each other's families Lalo asked nacho of Crazy 8 getting arrested is something I need to be worried about due to it being his first time nacho states that he'll keep his mouth shut Lalo agrees but is seemingly unconvinced to which nacho asks if alala wants him to take care Crazy 8 implying that although nacho is friends with him he's instead showing so much loyalty towards the Salamanca business that he'll even kill his childhood best friend if he needs to both Lalo and the audience can tell that nacho is hesitant when He suggests this balalo appreciates the Loyalty Lalo tells nacho how that won't be necessary as he has better plans for Crazy 8 so Lalo definitely just baited nacho to see where his loyalty lies and as far as Lalo's concerned nacho passed with flying colors so since Lalo has heard of Jimmy through tuko due to the events that transpired at the beginning of the show Lalo gets nacho to literally snatch Jimmy off the street and bring him to him as a Lalo plans to use Jimmy's Big Mouth in order to help crazy Aid out since this is the first time that Jimmy or Saul rather has seen nacho in Five Seasons he instantly reverts back to their previous experience together recapping and how he got nacho out of police custody during the whole Kettleman situation nacho again pretty much just stands there while Lala does all the Talking explain to Saul how they're going to hire him in order to send him in to give Crazy 8 specific information to rat on in order to make himself a deal to get out of police custody this of course leads into the whole backstory of how crazy it became a confidential informant for Hank and gomi but more importantly for Lalo he's playing 40 chess as he's using this opportunity to get crazy to rat out Gus's dead drops in order to disrupt the business after meeting back up with Lalo and nacho Saul informs them that the DEA is involved which nacho seems happy about considering how it's just essentially icing on the cake for him as that means even more heat towards Gus and his business after Lala leaves Saul asks nacho who he just set up but not sure just brushes it off saying how he doesn't want to know and that this isn't about what Saul wants telling him that once he's in the game he's in for good not only does this call back to the first season when nacho left Jimmy his number for when he realizes that he's in the game nacho is also speaking from personal experience here we've seen nacho try to find an exit to get out of the game time and time again but every time he does his efforts fail pushing him back into the game even deeper than he originally was this is why there's no one better than nacho to be the one to tell Saul when you're in you're in as a nacho personally knows this better than anybody that exit the game along with the fact that no one cares about what he truly wants and that people just use him for their benefit until they've completely squeezed him dry for Ollie's worth so nacho then goes to warn Gus about Lalo selling out his dead drops but Gus allows it to happen since if he prevents it Lala would know that someone talk to blowing Nacho's cover being a double agent for Gus nacho of course wants to prevent this due to self-preservation but Gus only does this due to nachos still being a valuable Pawn for him to controlled opposition with also meanwhile during this whole Crazy Eight situation nacho gets an unexpected visit from his father at his house which is somewhat embarrassing for nacho due to his father saying the state of his house along with his junky girlfriends Manuel confronts nacho about how a family friend offered to buy Manuel's upholstery shop from him for a very generous amount causing Manuel to put two and two together and realize that it was nacho who sent the friend to buy the business with his dirty money this offends Manuel for multiple reasons first off he cherishes his business as its way he's built his life around to make an honest living to the point that he even hoped that he'd one day leave the business for nacho to take over so nacho wanting to trick his father into selling the business as hurtful and offensive as it goes against everything Manuel has been working towards plus since Nacho's father is a straight arrow that despises Dirty Money it feels like insult to injury that nacho tried indirectly buying the business with his Dirty Money Nacho's father can tell that nacho is trying to set up a situation where they can flee and run away due to no longer having any strings attached to tie them down such as Manuel's business but Manuel puts his foot down stating how he's not going to operate his life as it feels like he's being forced to pay for the consequences of Nacho's actions this proves to nacho that he'll never be able to convince his father to have their identities changed and relocate in order to become safe from the salamancas in that if nacho has put himself and his family in danger he has no one to blame but himself as Manuel isn't going to allow Nacho's actions to ruin his life too the point here is that this makes nacho feel trapped as there's no escaping or running away from his problems since his father won't run away with him nacho then meets up with Gus again to continue relaying information about Lalo's plans but he's surprised to see that Mike has arrived alongside Gus revealing to nacho that Mike has been working with Gus this whole time I'm unsure if nacho had a hunch that Mike was already working for Gus due to Lalo bringing up the fact that some bald white guy named Michael was working for Gus as that info may have went over Nacho's head due to Lalo calling him Michael instead of Mike since Lala learned Mike's name through Verner who would always call Mike by his full name Michael regardless this confirms any suspicions that nacho has who states that it'll be trouble if this solomonkers connect the dots Mike assures how that won't be a problem so nacho goes on to explain the multiple angles that all of plans to take in order to mess with Gus's business until the cartel doesn't think that he's worth the hassle anymore Gus tells nacho to report to Mike from now on as he knows that they have history this of course Works in Nacho's favor as he's able to confide in Mike alone once Gus and Victor have left nacho admits how he's surprised that Mike is working for Gus and tries to emphasize using how horrible of a person Gus is by explaining how Gus almost had him killed just to cover up Arturo's death to further his own interest since Mike warned nacho that there were people other than the salamancas to worry about in Mike's eyes nacho jumped into the storm with both eyes open although Mike probably could have emphasized how big of a deal this mysterious figure is that isn't the salamancas but I digress however Mike does become more sympathetic towards nacho due to nacho admitting that Gus has a gandu's father's head and is forcing nacho to work as a double agent Forum against the salamancas essentially blackmailing him with not only his own life but his father's as well this clearly doesn't sit right with Mike as Mike has a soft spot for innocent civilians not in the game being in danger due to affiliation with someone who is but Mike tells nacho that he can't do anything about it until Lalo's taking care of first so it seems like nacho needs to help take down his boss again in the hopes that unlike with tuko or Hector Lala will be the final time that he has to do so and that after his father and himself will hopefully be set free so Mike sets up various events to unfold that result in Lalo being arrested with the final piece of the puzzle including calling nacho to learn of Lalo's whereabouts so Mike can use a police radio to call on his location so he'll be arrested Gus initially thinks that getting Lalo arrested will effectively take care of him but when Lalo is able to have a phone smuggled into prison Gus realizes that he's still a problem as he's able to call shots from the inside we see Lalo call up nacho with a job for him to do so nacho meets up with Mike to reveal that Lala wants nacho to burn down a Los poyos Lalo's orders are not only to continue the trend of ruining Gus's businesses like he originally planned but also possibly in retaliation due to Lalo assuming that Gus is the one who orchestrated him to get arrested in the first place so when nacho meets up with Mike he initially starts making demands about wanting out of the game and to be set loose from having Gus's leash around his neck nacho does this under the false pretense that Lala being locked up takes him out of the picture but when he admits to Mike that Wallace still wants him to burn down on those poyos Mike implies that Lalo is obviously still a problem that still needs to be taken care of so just like with the dead drops Gus allows nacho to vandalize and burn down a Los poyos in order not below Nacho's cover of being a double agent Gus even joins nacho for the destruction of those Pollos as I guess he figures if it has to be done he wants to be the one who does it himself correctly Gus realizes that he has to kill Lalo but if Lalo dies in the USA the cartel instantly assume it was Gus so in order to take out Lalo without the cartel becoming suspicious of him he has to first get a wallow out of prison on bail so Lala will flee South of the Border back to Mexico where Gus will be able to kill him without raising suspicion on himself so nacho calls Saul to defend Lalo along with Mike giving him the information that he needs to help get Lalo out on bail after an iconic and traumatizing situation Saul manages to retrieve wallow's bail money with nacho picking him up once he gets out meanwhile Mike and Gus discuss how they plan to take out Lalo once he reaches Mexico but with a wall of seemingly on the way out Mike figures that it's time to vouch for notcher like he had previously asked although Gus thinks that nacho should stay as he still wants to control the salamancas through nacho even after Lalo's gone Mike calls Gus out for using fear as a motivator by having a gun to the head of Nacho's father and how that doesn't sit right with him Gus thing calls out nacho by giving an analogy about how he's a dog who's been in the hand of every owner that he's ever had which is true to some extent I guess Gus is referencing how nacho has gone against tuko Hector and now Lalo all the fact that he'd probably go against Gus too if he had the chance even though nacho has only done this out of self-preservation for himself and his father Gus use his nachos previous actions of betraying his bosses to justify using fear as a motivator by stating how since he's just a dog that bites the hand of every owner that he's had he can only be disciplined with a firm hand or put down although Gus seems so sure of his decision here it does end up backfiring on him in season six which we may discuss briefly later on in the video but if not I'm sure I'll be discussing it in depth whenever I get around to doing a full story of Gus video in the future as well so nacho gets a call from Tyrus and tells him if Lalo's plan to have nacho drive him halfway to Mexico and then have someone else pick him up not been driving the rest of the way since nachos under the impression that he'll be potentially set loose once Lalo's taken care of he implies this towards tires but Tyrus neither confirms or denies this as Gus still intends to use nacha to control the salamancas afterwards meaning that nacho is essentially trapped for life so after nacho drives Lala to Hector to say his goodbyes nacho brings Lalo down the same road that Saul went down to get the bail money as Lalo plans to meet the Salamanca twins at the same well that Saul did in order for the twins to drive and the rest of the way to Mexico however once Lalo and nacho get to the meeting spot Lalo starts thinking about how Saul's story didn't add up so he tells nacho to drive him back down the road in search of Saul's car which had apparently broken down Lala finds the Suzuki Esteem in a ditch and realizes that there's gunshots in it implying that someone tried to stop sulfur and bringing him his bail money Lala then tells nacho that there's been a change of plans into driving back to Albuquerque so he can question Saul about this after Lalo questions Saul and Kim he then tells nacho to drive him the entire way to Mexico as he now plans on introducing nacho to Donald audio giving Nacho the opportunity for a potential promotion within the cartel side note I just find it funny how I'm essentially brushing off the events of Bag Man and bad choice Road since this video is mainly focusing on the events of the show through Nacho's perspective although nacho is adjacent to all that crazy stuff he's only indirectly related and essentially a bystander to it all as it doesn't directly affect him at all at least until Kim tells Lalo to get his house in order which gives Lalo the idea to promote nacho as his trusted right hand man little does Lalo know that this will stab him in the back as the one man that he thinks he can trust nacho is being blackmailed and forced to work against him so nacho arrives at Lalo's compound with him and gets introduced to all of his workers nachos instantly looking for a way out but as the doors close there appears to be none especially considering the fact that there's no cell service where they are meanwhile Mike and Gus discuss what to do with halalu and nacho and when Gus mentions that he has a squad of Hitmen that he's hired to take out Lalo Mike once again vouches for notch shown that they should save his life Goss however he doesn't want to tip their hand by Saving Nacho's life but although no one's told nacho about the assassination attempt on Lalo that they're planning Mike States how he can make a pretty good guess so Gus twists this into thinking of a way that nacho is still useful for him which includes letting the Hitman into the compound to go through the assassination along with later using nachos as a scapegoat for the cartel to blame the hit-on as we'll discuss momentarily for season six as Gus implied to Mike last time that Mike tried vouching for nacho Gus only wants to keep nacho alive as long as he has a use for him and that once his usefulness has run out he'd rather have nacho taken out than to have him set free as a loose end so as Lalo coaches nacho on how to speak to Donald audio when Lalo introduces them nacho gets a phone call which is odd considering there's no cell service implying that whoever's trying to contact him set up a temporary signal in order to do so nacho goes to the bathroom to accept the call and gets told that he needs to open the back door for the Hitman that night nacho tries pleading with them not to kill the innocent civilians there once a again showing how nacho has a heart for innocent people being killed due to affiliation or just innocent people in general this however just naive wishful thinking as the man on the phone hangs up on nacho implying that everyone there will be killed in order to leave no Witnesses behind so after Lalo gives Eladio some welcoming gifts he introduces Eladio to nacho as their new man up north he's been taking care of things since Hector got sick when Lalo informs all audio that although he's not a solomonka himself he's a trusted friend at tukos Eladio makes fun of Nacho considering how crazy the head tuko has always been which makes it feel like a real shame that we never got a scene between tuku and Eladio but I digress Eladio then sits down with nacho for a drink in such a way that this is technically set up like a job interview but for the cartel Eladio asked nacho how he plans on making him money and nacho States how he'll take over New Territory Eladio constantly twists nachos and tensions as a test to see how he'll answer such as twisting opening up new territory into who are you taking territory from along with notcher's responsive taking territory from biker gangs to starting a war with them however nacho was calm and collected enough to prove to Eladio that he has the smarts to run the business by explaining how instead of openly starting a war with the bikers he'll pin them against each other in order for them to take themselves out without the cartel having to do much of the Dirty Work themselves this wins overall audio who then asked nacho what he wants personally nacho actually answers honestly here stating how he wants respect to make his own decisions to go his own way without anyone playing him or controlling him in such a way where he won't have to be constantly looking over his shoulders although this conversation is in the context of having aspirations to become a huge drug lord nacho stating how he wants to make his own decisions speaks volumes since nacho essentially hasn't done so since the shows began he's either working for tuko Hector Lalo or Gus doing what they want and what they say in order to keep himself and his father alive nacho isn't truly able to make any of his own decisions throughout the entire show as he's constantly controlled by one side or the other nachos actually speaking about how he wishes that he could get out of the game and quit being a criminal without any consequences and that his true wishes to be able to live the rest of his life without being constantly worried and looking over his shoulder for someone coming after him for what he's been involved in so with this double meaning of Nacho's words in mind eladio's response perfectly wraps it all up in a nice bow as Eladio tells nacho that if he doesn't want to worry about constantly looking over his own shoulders then he's in the wrong business which duh although eladio's just joking around being light-hearted his words are incredibly true as nacho being involved in the criminal or cartel business is obviously what's caused all of these problems that he can't run away from to begin with so though nacho never ends up working for Eladio long term due to what's about to happen next it's still incredibly interesting to see them discuss the what if hypothetical of Nacho getting promoted within the cartel also as I just explained there's a lot of good stuff to take away from this conversation even if nacho never ends up climbing the cartel ladder so to speak so back at Lalo's place later that night nacho Waits until the crack time to sneak out back and let the Hitman in it's kind of funny how he tries sneaking around the building so he doesn't get caught doing so but when one of Lalo's guards spots him they just clearly think nothing of it once nacho gets outside he thinks that he's home free that is until he turns the corner to see that Lalo sitting by a fire right in front of the back gate that nacho is supposed to open to let the Hitman in when Lalo sees nacho he doesn't think anything of it instead just assuming that Notch of the Night Owl just like him when he asks nacho about not being able to get any sleep nacho vaguely replies not tonight which goes over Lalo's head at first as he's unaware the assassination attempt that's about to occur nacho thinks quickly of a way to distract Lalo and get him away from the backyard long enough to open the gate and let the Hitman in so he asks LOL if he has any stronger alcohol in order to go inside and set up a distraction once inside nacho sets up a grease fire on the stove adds a distraction so when he comes back outside with the alcohol Lalo barely has time to pour them each a glass and take a sip before noticing smoke billowing out of the kitchen nacho takes his opening to lock pick a back gate open and let the Hitman in he instantly raises his hands as the Hitman walk past him allowing him to leave freely as they go in to attempt to kill Lalo this is where season 5 ends for nacho as the last we see of him is fleeing Lalo's compound right before everything hits the fan so on to better cross All Season 6 which is May 14th to May 25th 2004 which yeah big yikes red flags so season 6 picks up Rey where season 5 left off with a nacho fleeing for his life after letting in the Hitman nacho continuously runs away until morning when he has to Duck and Cover in a ditch to avoid being detected by some random civilians Tyrus calls nacho for them to update each other but Nacho's phone ringing almost causes the civilians to notice him tyerson forms nacho that both the cartel and the federalis are now after him due to Donald audio putting out a bounty for him as he's suspected of being the rat that helped orchestrate Lalo's assassination due to his body being the only one missing from the crime scene when nacho asks if the Hitman spared any of the civilians at Lalo's compound he doesn't get an answer implying that everyone there was in fact killed nacho makes his way to a motel safe room that Tyrus is set up for him with the lady at the front desk even expecting him and giving him a room key without saying a word to him inside Nacho's room he finds an envelope with a handgun and some cash nacho calls tires who informs him that there will be someone to extract him from the motel into safety in a few days and that he just has to sit tight in the meantime but to shoot on sight if anyone bursts into his room nacho tries calling Mike but Mike ignores his calls even though he seemingly wishes that he could answer them Mike already knows what nacho is about to find out which is the fact that Gus is double crossing him in episode 2 is season 6 we see Mike break open replace nachos safe with a brand new one at his house except this time with information that incriminates nacho to make it look like he's been taking payments from a rival gang that Gus is blaming for setting up the assassination attempt against Lalo along with leaving the phone number to the motel that Nacho's staying at Gus is essentially setting up nacho to be a scapegoat for the assassination killing two birds with one stone literally early information in nacho safe will lead the cartel right to him and with tires telling nacho to shoot anyone who comes through his door gusa seems that nacho will die in a gunfight against the cartel at the motel due to being outnumbered although Mike is against double crossing nacho he knows that what Gus says is final and that he already tried the best he could to vouch for nacho just like with many other decisions that Gus makes which Mike may not agree with he knows to stay loyal to Gus in that when it comes down to it it's not his call meanwhile as nacho waits in his Motel he's understandably uneasy due to currently hiding as a wanted man in cartel territory so he's constantly peeking out his window to see if anyone's watching his room the following morning he becomes spooked when there's a knock on his door just to realize that it's free room service sent by tires to keep him fed until he waits for his supposed extraction while eating nacho Peaks outside again and notices alone building across the parking lot with a running air conditioner attached to it implying that someone's inside nacho notices a perfect peep-sized hole in the building that would be a perfect spot to spy on him so he puts it to the test the next time nacho gets room service he peeks through his window at the other building and notices movement confirming his suspicions that he's being watched nacho initially becomes enraged that his suspicions were cracked but then he starts thinking about it most likely wondering why someone has been hired to spy on him at the motel if it were the cartel they would have just busted down Nacho's Door Guns of Blazing which makes him suspect that it's actually Gus's doing now the only reason why Gus would have a man watching him would be to make sure that he doesn't leave the motel with the only reason why Gus would want him to stay there is if it's all a setup so nacho forces out the air conditioner in his room in order to slip out the back and sneak around to get the upper hand on this spot as nacho confronts them he questions who hired him the Spy states that he doesn't know so nacho decides to find out himself by calling tires and stating that he spooked at the motel so he's gonna flee Tyrus insists that he stays but nacho hangs up on him now the true test has begun since if the spy's phone rings that means that he was hired by Gus's men sure enough the spies phone rings radon Q with it probably being tires calling the Spy to see if not nacho found out about him and or if you can see where Nacho's going so now that nacho knows the truth instead of killing the Spy he just knocks him out and takes his leave now knowing that Gus has in fact it double-crossed him however as nacho goes to steal a truck to leave the Salamanca cartel inconveniently arrives as they're searching the motel to find nacho due to Bolsa finding the information that Mike planted in his seat Gus most likely assumed that nacho would be killed in the gunfight so I'm unsure why he never considered that the cartel would want to take him alive to torture the truth out of him either Gus made a mistake assuming that the solomonkers would just want a flat out kill nacho or he hoped that nacho might accidentally get killed during the gunfight which is quite a huge risk to leave up to chance as it's very possible that they could have taken him alive regardless it appears that Gus using fear is a motivator towards nacho may have been his downfall since if Gus would have taken a more reasonable approach somehow I don't know how but somehow nacho may have trusted him more and so he may have not become so suspicious of being watched or double-crossed in a way Gus treating nachos so poorly time and time again may have caused nacho to get the upper hand of the situation by managing to figure out about the spine that he's being portrayed by gusts through tires before the salomonkers arrived but that's just all speculation as the show never gives us an exact answer so let me know what you think in the comments below since I will most likely be retreading the same ground in more detail once I do the full story of Gus video as I mentioned earlier due to the fact that the truck nacho stole took heavy fire it breaks down on him causing him to get out and make a final stand however nacho quickly realizes how that's a stupid idea once he notices that the cartel is much further behind him than he initially thought so he takes this extra time to make a run for it he Sprints across a field and makes it to an oil tanker in time for the twins to arrive at the shot up truck that he was driving nacho manages to climb inside the old oil tanker and hide in the gross murky oil still inside in order to hide from the twins as one of them even pokes their head into the tanker to take a look after that intense scene nacho makes his way to a random mechanic shop to clean himself off but becomes spooked when the mechanic approaches him the mechanic proves just be a Good Samaritan wanting to give nacho a rag to clean off with and some fresh clothes to change into nacho offers him money but the mechanic refuses the metaphorical and literal dirty oil-covered money as he doesn't want to be involved in whatever criminal situation Nacho's currently in as he could be killed by association due to being a witness that knows too much so nacho uses the mechanic's phone with us thinking that he's going to call Mike when in reality he first calls his father this is Nacho's final conversation with his father which is pretty obvious to tell even during your first time watching the episode before you know for certain if Nacho's gonna die or not nacho makes Small Talk due to being unable to tell his father the situation that he's in but he still wants to talk to his dad to hear his voice and make sure that he's okay it's really sad the way that Manuel brushes off nacho during this conversation as he's obviously unaware that it's the last time they'll ever speak just goes to show that you should always appreciate what you have because you never know when you might lose someone or something that you love anyways Manuel can tell that Nacho's acting off and assumes that he's in some sort of cartel situation but at this point it's probably the millionth time and that Manuel has experienced nacho in trouble due to his criminal lifestyle so he's just become jaded to it at this point and simply tells nacho to do what he always says which is to call the police if he's in trouble my commando does such a great job portraying a wide range of emotions with nacho here as he's happy to hear his father's voice while also being scared of the situation that he's in but he's forced to bottle it all up due to needing to pretend like everything's A-Okay it's quite a tragic roller coaster that Mando just completely nails so Manuel goes to hang up stating that he has to go back to work causing nacho to Now call up Mike like we originally expected see we all initially expected Mike to be the one that nacho called first as it links up with the Cliffhanger from the end of episode 2 where Mike is being held at gunpoint by Tyrus Rey does nacho tries calling him it's all happens because although Mike reluctantly accepted Gus's decision to betray nacho and allow him to get killed after nacho successfully gets away from the motel Mike puts his foot down when Gus then insists on kidnapping Nacho's father to make sure that natural do what he wants as we know Mike has a soft spot for people not in the game getting killed in the crossfire so he denies Gus's request to kidnap Manuel this causes Tyrus to pull a gun on Mike but right as he does this Mike's phone starts ringing revealing that it's nacho Gus allows Mike to answer it causing nacho to call out Mike for knowing that he was meant to die in Mexico Mike coldly and calmly States how it's not his call to which nacho redirects the conversation towards wanting to speak to Gus nacho seems to have a sixth sense here as he calls Mike to speak to Gus about keeping his father safe raida's Gus was about to order his father he got kidnapped nacho of course called his father first to make sure that he was currently okay and now he calls Mike slash Gus to make sure that he stays that way this works in tandem with Mike sticking up for Nacho's father since Mike removing the fake IDs that nacho had of himself and his father from Nacho safe in episode 2 when Mike planted the information for the cartel to find is the only reason why the cartel isn't currently after Manuel since the IDS would have incriminated him as being involved even though he wasn't so nacho tells Gus that he'll back up Gus's cover-up story in whatever way he wants as long as he agrees to leave his father alone nacho doesn't trust Gus though so Mike vouches for them making sure that Nacho's father stays safe as Mike states that anyone who wants to get to his father will have to go through him first which we as the audience know is true as Mike was literally just doing that considering Tyrus was holding him at gunpoint for denying Gus's orders to kidnap Manuel so Gus smuggles nacho back into Albuquerque in one of his Los Pollos trucks which must have been an incredibly uncomfortable ride considering that tiny secret space is originally meant for drugs Mike helps him up and gives him one final meal but it's cut short by Victor showing up to say how Gus wants nacho to look beaten up in order for Gus's capture of him to look believable until that mic is pissed off by this especially considering that Victor seems to get enjoyment out of the idea so Mike's Shoes Victor away stating that he'll do it himself so if not you're just wanting to get it over with Mike first pours them both a drain to take the edge off and help numb the pain and the scene ends with the implication that Mike will beat up nacho we then see nacho brought to Gus's portable meeting room in order to reconfirm the plan which consists of Nacho telling the cover-up story that guy swans followed by nacho making a break for it resulting in Victor shooting him in the back of the head killing him as Gus leaves Mike privately speaks to him outside to convince him to allow Mike to be there when it happens to provide cover fire with his sniper in case anything goes wrong even though Mike may just be doing this to make sure that Nacho's death is quick and painless while nachos alone in the portable he drinks a glass of water but then he notices shards of broken glass in the trash can which is actually from Gus knocking over a glass in the prior episode again I'll discuss some more when I mainly focus on a full Gus video but the gist of it is that Gus has never had a plan go so wrong before causing him to become more panicked and shaken up than ever before so when he breaks the glass due to this it's clear symbolism for Gus's plan literally falling apart ever since the season 5 finale also if Gus was in his right state of mind he probably would have thought to clean out the trash can of broken glass before leaving nacho alone in the portable but since he's so preoccupied trying to pick up the pieces of his plan he must have forgotten about the literal pieces of glass so the next day Gus tires of Victor nacho and Mike all drive out to the desert to meet up with the sound monkas but they let Mike out early so he can go to his sniper perch nacho and Mike give each other what you think is one final look and Mike leaves as it turns out nachos brought to the same lone desert Shack that he and the salamancas once brought their truck driver out to in the season 2 finale with Mike sniper perch even being on the same rock as the season 2 finale when he was originally planning on taking out Hector nacho gets brought out in front of Hector the Twins and Bolsa as Bolsa interrogates nacho to tell him the truth Bolsa states that Nacho's gonna die but that it's up to him whether he wants a quick death or slow and painful one as Bolsa asked nacho who paid him to let the Hitman into a lot of those compound nacho first hesitates seemingly to make his confession more believable but also while he does so he looks at Gus implying his hatred towards Gus and reluctance of the situation that Gus has put him in although nacho hates Gus's guts he goes along with Gus's cover-up story in order to protect his own father he blames the rival gang named Alvarez but when Hector dams his Bell to accuse gusa being involved nacho doubles down on however it has been paying him for years not belittles him as a joke who wouldn't have orchestrated it then nacho explains his hatred for Gus as nacho admits that he tried to kill Hector by swapping his heart pills but then had to watch as Gus revived him not only does this prove to the cartel that nacho apparently has no affiliation with Gus but also paints Gus in a positive light due to bringing up how God saved Hector making the idea of him killing Lalo that much more unlikely however I'd like to focus on how Nacho's final monologue redirects towards his hatred to Hector in the salamancas in general as it gives the cartel all the plausible cause that they need as to why nacho would help take out Lalo nacho admits his hatred towards Hector by bringing up how he swapped Hector's pills back in season 3 which is a great callback that's so satisfying to see as Hector becomes enraged to find out that Notch is the reason why he's in a wheelchair which is also the reason why Gus was able to start controlling nacho in the first place right as nacho finishes telling off Hector you twisted [ __ ] he breaks his restraints loose with a glass Shard that he stole from the portable and uses the shark glass to stab both in the leg and take his gun taking him hostage nacho looks at Gus's crew and then the salamancas crew and then Mike himself before taking his own life after nacho dies the twins lift Hector's chair over to Nacho's body so Hector can pathetically shoot rounds into him out of anger I guess of Nacho essentially taking away his revenge due to taking his own life before they could it's incredibly ominous seeing nacho die for many reasons with one being the fact that he's surrounded by Dead Man Walking as he has his final moments from all the salamancas Bolsa Gus's entire crew even including Mike everyone at this meeting actually dies in Breaking Bad making nacho only the first Domino to fall out of all of them we can assume that nacho was buried in an unmarked grave similar to the truck driver from season 2. however even though Nacho's grave is initially unmarked a beautiful blue flower blossoms over what is implied to be Nacho's final resting place out of all the mysterious cold opens that Better Call Saul does in its final season the blue flower has to be my favorite out of all of them it's just such a beautiful symbol AS them as the blue flowers the only innocent and beautiful thing among the vast dry desert which represents nacho as a diamond in the rough as he was the only criminal with a pure soul and a good heart trapped among ruthless murderers and criminals or I suppose you could say trapped between a rock and a hard place which is what Nacho's final episode is named so even though nacho dies we do get closure that it wasn't in vain as we see Mike visiting Nacho's father in episode 9 of season 6 which implies that Nacho's father will safely live the rest of his life without ever becoming in danger from the cartel again even if it's not happily ever after considering he lost his son Mike tries giving Manuel closure for what happened to nacho but Manuel gives Mike some tough love in regard to Revenge not being Justice along with the fact that Mike is no better than the people who caused Nacho's death as Mike was there but didn't do anything to stop it also I'd be remiss to not briefly mention the whole it wasn't me it was Ignacio of it all as that Breaking Bad throwaway line is what inspired the creation of both Nacho's character and Lalo's character in Better Call Saul I do plan on doing one final definitive it wasn't me it was Ignacio video eventually with updates now that the show's concluded in retrospect so I'll keep this long story short for now essentially the line from Breaking Bad season to episode 8 where Saul mentions Ignacio and Lalo was a completely meaningless throwaway line at the time however even before Better Call Saul was announced Breaking Bad fans speculated who this Ignacio and Lalo actually were Peter Gould then ran with this idea going into Better Call Saul and created nacho Vargo with the premise that nacho is in fact the Ignacio that Saul speaks of briefly and Breaking Bad then after three seasons Lala was officially confirmed and introduced in Better Call Saul season 4 as well which is why his appearance in 408 was so incredibly hyped up so a mix of hype from The Better Call Saul throwaway line theories combined with how amazingly Nacho's character was written by the creators and acted out by Michael Mando nacho was perfectly set up to be a lesser main character that we'd all grow to love setting him up to be a perfect sacrifice during the final season to completely tear us all up this may be obvious by this point especially for veterans of the channel but it goes without saying that nacho is my favorite Better Call Saul original character and he has been for years I'm incredibly happy to have been able to watch Nacho's story unfold throughout the years and as tragic as his death was I think it fits the character in an incredibly poetic perfect way now that both shows have concluded it's great being able to entirely tell the full story in nacho with some of my opinions sprinkled about here and there of course but I think I've talked for long enough let me know your opinions about nacho in the comments Below in regard to anything I may have mentioned in this video or something I may have neglected or missed I'm all ears for having an open discussion about nacho in the comments since as you can probably tell I could talk about him for hours also let me know which character from the Breaking Bad Better Call Saul Universe actually created a full story video for her next with that being said these videos take a really long time to make so I'd appreciate a like on the video if you've enjoyed anything I've said today and subscribe to the channel for more Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul retrospectives in the near future but most importantly I I thank you all so much for watching especially until the end of the video until next time I'll talk to you all later peace out you are [ __ ] me I crossed the line

Channel: TheVividKiWi

Views: 262,857

Keywords: better call saul, breaking bad, better call saul retrospective, breaking bad retrospective, nacho varga, it wasn't me it was ignacio, breaking bad vs better call saul, better call saul nacho, better call saul mike, better call saul easter eggs, breaking bad timeline, better call saul timeline, mike and gus, gus fring, full story of nacho, nacho retrospective, character analysis, character spotlight, nacho, best of nacho, naho and lalo, tuco and nacho, better call saul tuco

Id: qZd2_bGCd-Q

Length: 75min 21sec (4521 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023