‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 on AMC: Writer Gordon Smith explains Lalo's death, 'we gave him the gift of getting everything'

"I suppose there was a world where Lalo limps away and Gus has to chase him down, but that felt like territory we’d already covered," Smith said
Tony Dalton as Lalo Salamanca in 'Better Call Saul' Season 6 (AMC)
Tony Dalton as Lalo Salamanca in 'Better Call Saul' Season 6 (AMC)

As 'Better Call Saul' Season 6 hurtles to an end, there have been questions about who makes it out alive. The AMC drama's midseason premiere opened with a bang with the death of Lalo Salamanca. While the character's death was presumed early on, it was the manner in which it was done. Shedding light about it was the show's writer Gordon Smith who also scripted the Mike Ehrmantraut flashback episode.

"We had no interest in losing Tony Dalton, obviously. He’s incredible," Smith told Rolling Stone. "He’s so much fun on set (Lalo). We really didn’t want to lose the character, either. But we felt like we had set these forces in motion, and we were having these two titans of our story clash, and unfortunately, we knew Gus had to come out the other side.

ALSO READ

'I am fully aware of their size': Florence Pugh blasts 'VULGAR' trolling over see-through dress

IS THIS WHEN IT BEGAN? James Webb telescope releases stunning image nearly 13 BILLION years old

"I suppose there was a world where Lalo limps away and Gus has to chase him down, but that felt like territory we’d already covered. We were happy to give him a big, big, big out. And he gets what he wants. He’s been searching since the end of Season Four for something he thought was going on. He was searching for Werner, chasing down all these leads. So we gave Lalo the gift of getting everything — his heart’s desire — and it destroys him."

TOP STORIES

Who is Melody Maldonado? Superhero mom clings to SUV after carjacker drives off with her children

Internet fumes as bodega worker Jose Alba is charged while victim's GF who stabbed him walks FREE

The showdown between Gus and Lalo ends with the latter dying and that marks the start of the body count with five episodes remaining. When asked whether burying Lalo and Howard together felt symbolic of the idea of those two separate shows being permanently joined. "I love the way you put that. I don’t know what the burial was. But certainly, the fact of bringing all these things together was our way of saying, “No, no, this is why we’ve been doing these two things, because there was going to be a point where we brought these two things together.”

'Better Call Saul' airs Mondays at 9 pm ET on AMC

GET THE BIGGEST ENTERTAINMENT STORIES
STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX.

MORE STORIES

Sean Harmon will play a brand-new role in ‘NCIS: Origins’ Season 3, Episode 2, titled ‘My Own Worst Enemy’
11 minutes ago
Dario Scardapane is leaving ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ mid post production ahead of its final season
31 minutes ago
Nicole Kidman opens up about the future of 'Lioness' and what she wants to see next for Kaitlyn and Joe.
7 hours ago
Nina’s arrest over Jack Brennan’s disappearance puts her future under scrutiny, with plenty of fans wondering if she is leaving the show.
7 hours ago
The Jon Snow actor explains why the proposed 'Game of Thrones' sequel stalled and what has changed since HBO shelved the project.
9 hours ago
Megan Park teases what awaits Annie, Ellis and the others when ‘Sterling Point’ returns for Season 2.
11 hours ago
Peter Krause leads NBC’s ‘Line of Fire,’ a crime drama about a federal law enforcement family targeted by a mysterious assassin.
13 hours ago
HBO emerges as the winner for ‘The Spread,’ a drama created by Bill Dubuque and Sean Sansiveri
16 hours ago
Season 15 of ‘Chicago Fire’ will premiere on Wednesday, October 7, at 9/8c on NBC.
17 hours ago
Alan Ritchson’s comment on a social media platform points to a very specific reason the plan fell apart
19 hours ago