Gus Fring's Biggest Mistake Ever On Better Call Saul

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https://www.looper.com/932033/gus-fr...ter-call-saul/

Going after Lalo Salamanca alone nearly got Gus killed

The feud between Gus and the Salamanca cartel rages during the events of "Breaking Bad," but "Better Call Saul" shows us just how far back their beef goes. In the Season 5 finale, Gus sends a kill squad to cartel boss Lalo Salamanca's (Tony Dalton) compound in Mexico. The assassins slaughter everyone there, including Lalo's elderly family members and his hired help, but Lalo himself manages to escape and vows revenge.

Upon finding out that Lalo survived the attack, Gus and his men go on the defensive, hiding Gus away in a safe house with elaborate security measures. But Lalo manages to stay one step ahead, using Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) as distractions to peel a security team away from the laundromat where Gus is building his super-lab. At the last second, Gus realizes what his enemy is up to, and although Mike (Jonathan Banks) warns him to stay put, he leaves his house to scope out the laundromat.

It's a terrible miscalculation of the kind we've never seen Gus make before. When Gus arrives at the laundromat, Lalo gets the jump on him, killing his bodyguards and holding the chicken man at gunpoint. When Gus initially refuses to show Lalo the lab, Lalo shoots him in the chest. Though a bulletproof vest softens the impact, he's still badly injured. And although he ultimately manages to stall for time long enough to distract Lalo and take him out with a gun hidden in the lab, he would never have been in danger had he followed Mike's plan and stayed at home.

His near-death experience likely explains why it's so much harder for Walter White to put Gus in a vulnerable position during the events of "Breaking Bad." After all, once burned, twice shy.