The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul has barely started, but the show is already wrapping up many loose ends so that Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) can become the leader of the shady law practice we get to know in Breaking Bad. While Episode 3, “Rock and Hard Place,” sees Saul and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) planning their next step to destroy Howard Hamlin’s (Patrick Fabian) reputation, the whole episode is primarily focused on Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), who ended Episode 2 in a pretty tough position.
After following every order from Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), Nacho is still being hunted by the Salamanca family with little hope of ever coming home. Season 6’s Episode 3 shows the confrontation between Nacho and Gus, and in the end, it’s easy to see who’s the better man. But it’s not only Nacho who’s trapped between a rock and a hard place, as Saul also has his own tough choice to make. So, while we're still processing that brutal ending, let’s discuss what happened in Season 6’s third episode.
The King of the Con Men
When we first see Saul and Kim in Episode 3, they are discussing the next mysterious step in their plan, which apparently involves Howard’s car. Their initial idea is to buy a vehicle of the same model, repaint it, get a fake license plate, and use it for their con. However, Saul is worried about the tight schedule they’d have to follow. Kim then suggests stealing Howard’s car, a dangerous move that Saul doesn’t want to follow. Even so, the brainstorming gets to a happy conclusion, as Saul decides to enlist Huell (Lavell Crawford) to help him make a copy of Howard’s car keys.
After Howard leaves his car with a valet, Huell uses his pickpocket mastery to grab the keys and deliver them to a key master who can make a fast copy. The key master rushes to falsify a key connected to a chip that can emit the same radio signals, allowing anyone to use Howard’s car without the owner ever knowing. After the fast job, Huell leaves Howard's original keys on the ground so that the young valet can find them and blame it all on an honest mistake. It’s a clever plan, and we are all very curious to see what Kim and Saul will do in the following episode. Be that as it may, Howard probably won’t like it.
When Huell grabs his payment and delivers Saul his copy of the car keys, the pickpocket also asks the crooked lawyer why he does what he does. Saul can get paid good money by making a clean job as a lawyer and is married to another lawyer even more competent than he is. So why risk it all for a con? Saul says that it’s all part of a big picture where many people will have their lives improved once the Sandpiper deal is signed. However, Huell is not entirely convinced. Like the audience, the criminal seems to know there’s a part of Saul that enjoys tricking other people and feeling smart about it. That’s what will ultimately lead Saul to become the king of con men when the events of Breaking Bad unfold.
While both Saul and Kim thought their relationship with the cartel was in the past, District Attorney Suzanne Ericsen (Julie Pearl) finds out that Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) was killed in Mexico. We know that Lalo survived Gus’ attack and is looking for revenge, but for U.S. authorities, one of the prominent leaders of the Salamanca family was killed in a drug dispute. Suzanne knows Saul defended Lalo when he was arrested under the name de Guzman. She also knows Saul had previous business relations with the Salamanca family, including Tuco (Raymond Cruz). Nevertheless, she doesn’t think that Saul would be willingly helping the cartel. Instead, Suzanne believes that Saul just got dragged into something he didn’t understand, and now he can’t get out. She’s not wrong.
Suzanne warns Kim that some people might take a closer look at Saul’s involvement with the Salamanca, and that it would be better if he came clean and helped police officers to find Lalo’s associates. Also, the attorney also underlines that Saul would be forgiven for any transgressions he could have done under the service of the Salamancas. Kim delivers the message to Saul and informs him of Lalo's apparent demise, but warns him he’ll have to choose between becoming a rat or becoming a friend of the cartel. There’s no easy road ahead, and Saul will need to be careful about how he plays his cards.
Choose Your Way Out
On the other side of the frontier, we watch how Nacho escapes the Salamanca Twins (Daniel Moncada and Luis Moncada) after their confrontation at the motel. Nacho abandons his vehicle, whose tires were shot by the Twins, and hides inside an abandoned oil tanker. Holding his breath and diving deep into the oil, Nacho gets the Twins off his scent. The poor man then finds a garage where he rinses himself off and uses a phone. First, Nacho calls his dad to make sure he’s still safe. When he realizes Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) was also faithful to his promise, keeping Nacho’s father out of this nasty business, Nacho decides to call the old henchman.
Season 6’s Episode 2 gave us Mike’s reaction to Nacho's call without being able to hear the other half of that conversation. Now, Episode 3 reveals what they talked about. Nacho knows he was betrayed by Gus, who sent him to die in Mexico just to cover his tracks. He also knows that he needs to die to convince the Salamancas that Gus was not involved in Lalo’s death. Mike underlines how betraying Nacho was not his decision, and Nacho understands that the henchman had his hands tied. Even so, Nacho asks Mike to promise once more that his father would never get involved. And right there, in front of Gus, Mike says that anyone aiming for Nacho’s father would have to come through him. Mike is a good soldier, but he’s also a man of his word, and he wouldn’t betray his honor, not even for his boss. Reassured of his father's safety, Nacho agrees to die.
Mike brings Nacho back to the U.S. and roughens him up a little bit to pretend he was caught against his will. Then, Gus sets a meeting with the Twins, Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis), and Bolsa (Javier Grajeda), a member of the Juárez drug cartel who outranks everyone present. Mike instructs Nacho to run away once he lies and tells the Salamancas the Peruvian cartel hired him. With Nacho on the run, Gus’ men can shoot him and give him a quick death, a fate better than being tortured by the Twins.
When the decisive moment arrives, Nacho plays his part. Even though he could have revealed that Gus was behind everything, he blames the Peruvians for Lalo’s death. He also enrages the Salamancas by offending their whole family and even admits that he was responsible for putting Hector into a wheelchair. Nacho knows he will die, but he chooses to go his own way. Grabbing a piece of glass in the desert, Nacho cuts his zipties, stabs Bolsa, and uses Bolsa’s gun to hold the cartel leader hostage. Nacho then shoots himself, making sure Gus' secrets are safe and that his father can finally be free.
In his final moments, Nacho showed who he was. Even though he was blackmailed, abused, and sent to death by Gus, Nacho is a man of his word, just like Mike. And just like Mike, Nacho is also a family man, ready to kill himself just so his father could be safe. Mike’s and Gus' relationship will probably be shaken to the core by these sad events. As for Gus, he got his final proof that loyalty is the most valuable trade in the crime business and that he threw away the life of a good man because of his greed and carelessness. Let’s hope that remains a lesson to Gus, because it looks like he's well on his way to becoming the crime lord we came to respect and fear in Breaking Bad.