The Worst Thing Gus Ever Did On Better Call Saul
Several characters from "Breaking Bad" get a second life of sorts on the spin-off series "Better Call Saul," which fleshes out the relationships between Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) in the years before "Breaking Bad" kicks off. Much like in "Breaking Bad," Gus isn't introduced until the series is already in motion. Once he finds his way into Jimmy and Mike's lives, though, he remains an impactful force in Albuquerque's criminal underbelly.
Gus' storyline in "Better Call Saul” sees him plotting against the Salamancas, a competing drug-smuggling family, as well as constructing the methamphetamine mega-lab that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) go to work in years later. While Gus never operates as a direct antagonist to Jimmy or Mike, he still receives plenty of opportunities to show off why he's undoubtedly one of the best television villains in recent years.
In anticipation of the upcoming final season of "Better Call Saul," the show's fans have taken to Reddit to discuss Gus' most disturbing actions.
Better Call Saul fans call Gus' Season 4 murder his scariest yet
Redditor u/rapanui suggested in the "Better Call Saul" fan community that a murder Gus Fring commits early in Season 4 is his scariest moment in the prequel show, and potentially, across the larger "Breaking Bad" franchise, as well.
In the Season 4 episode "Breathe," Gus springs an ambush on Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) and his Salamanca-aligned colleague, Arturo (Vincent Fuentes). Gus pulls a plastic bag over Arturo's head and zip ties it shut, brutally suffocating the drug dealer. Gus uses the moment to reveal to Nacho that he knows Nacho caused Hector Salamanca's (Mark Margolis) stroke, which forces Nacho to fall in line as a Gus-aligned double agent.
Responding to u/rapanui's thread, u/ihaveamethlab_2 called the scene "terrifying." They elaborated by writing, "The writers mentioned before that Gus is the hardest character to write because you never really know what he's thinking. In here he shows what he's really about and how dangerous he really is."
"I remember being both terrified and impressed that Gus threw the bag over the guy's head himself," u/BlueZ4 wrote in the comments. "I thought it was a really good choice in writing/directing for him to do it himself. Put serious fear in Nacho."
While fans appeared to generally agree that this murder was among Gus' scariest "Better Call Saul" moments, others still thought that it couldn't top an infamous on-screen dispatching that chilled audiences when it aired on all the way back in Season 4 of "Breaking Bad."
"Nah," u/Strong_Formal_5848 wrote. "Box cutter for me."