The Ending Of Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 2 Explained
Contains spoilers for "Better Call Saul" Season 6, Episode 2, "Carrot and Stick."
The first episode of "Better Call Saul" Season 6 is like a slow-burning wick steadily inching toward dynamite. We don't see a ton of the consequences from the Season 5 finale just yet, but it's clear explosions are imminent, what with Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) setting up their plan for revenge against Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) by planting drugs in his country club locker.
There's also the matter of Nacho (Michael Mando) going on the run from the cartel as well as Lalo (Tony Dalton) tracking Nacho down while allowing everyone to believe he's dead after the events of the Season 5 finale. Everyone's lives and livelihoods hang in the balance in "Carrot and Stick," and an explosive final season is well underway. It's a good thing AMC saw fit to provide us the season's first two hours back to back.
Revenge has been a common theme throughout "Better Call Saul," and Season 6, Episode 1 really goes all in on that idea. Saul and Kim want revenge against Howard while Lalo seeks retribution against those who tried to kill him. The question remains: Where will their quests for revenge leave them? After all, we have no idea what the fates of Kim, Nacho, and Lalo will be, so they may very well end up paying the ultimate price just to get back at people who wronged them.
Now, let's see where "Better Call Saul" Season 6, Episode 2 leaves our band of antiheroes and villains.
Saul and Kim lay the groundwork to take down Howard
"Better Call Saul" fans are in for a blast from the past in "Carrot and Stick." Saul pays a visit to Craig (Jeremy Shamos) and Betsy Kettleman (Julie Ann Emery), who have not been seen since the show's first season when they were accused of embezzlement. The plotline ultimately ended with Craig taking the fall and going to jail. Apparently, he's now out, and him and his wife are running a tax prep outfit.
Saul uses the Kettlemans and a false promise that they can clear Craig's name by telling them a story detailing how Howard Hamlin was under the influence of drugs when he represented Craig. They go around town spreading the rumor that Howard's on drugs, but without any concrete evidence, no lawyer will take the case. Still, Saul's done his job. The rumor's out there, and as a famous character once said, "Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing."
Saul and Kim return to the Kettlemans by the episode's end, and they're understandably angry. Saul offers them cash to get them to drop the case, but they don't go down quietly. It's at this point that Kim calls an associate who can take the Kettlemans down once again for tax fraud. Not wanting to go down that route again, they give it up.
Surprisingly, the episode implies that Kim has broken bad even more than Saul at this point. Saul was more than happy to offer them hush money, but Kim threatens their very livelihoods. Even Saul's taken aback by the move, and he still winds up giving them the cash. If Kim was willing to threaten the Kettlemans, how far might she be willing to go to enact her revenge on Howard?
Nacho escapes
Nacho thinks he's safe when he checks into the motel in the first episode of Season 6. All he has to do is hide and wait, but in a world where everyone is looking for him, his discovery is inevitable. It doesn't take long for the Salamanca cousins and their crew to locate him after they retrieved his whereabouts from the duplicate safe Don Juan Bolsa's men broke into. The result is an all-out shootout in the vicinity of the motel.
At first, it appears that a lot of the crew members don't care if they bring him in dead or alive. But one of the cousins is quick to shoot one of their own accomplices, telling another crew member, "vivo," meaning they want him alive. After his perceived slight against the Salamanca family, why would they want him back alive?
It all goes back to the Season 6 premiere episode. Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) told Lalo that if he was going to adequately avenge his honor by attacking Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), he needed proof that Gus was actually behind the attack. The only person they have at their disposal who could feasibly turn on Gus would be Nacho, so they need him alive ... at least for the time being.
They're going to have to try a little harder to get him next time, though. He drove right through them to make his grand escape, so Nacho's all right ... for now. Fortunately, he has a little help from a trusted source.
An ominous phone call
After we see Nacho barely escape from the Salamancas, there's a scene involving a meeting between Gus, Tyrus (Ray Campbell), and Mike. Gus is now aware that Lalo is still alive, so they need to go on the defensive to make it out alive. As usual, Mike's cool, calm, and collected; he knows the game better than anyone, and he explains that Lalo isn't going to come after him unless he has a good reason to. Naturally, if Nacho squeals, that'd be all the evidence Lalo needs to pin the assassination attempt on Gus and go after him. It could start an all-out turf war between the cartels, or as Mike calls it, "Tuesday."
Gus thinks strategically, so Mike's the only one actually looking out for Nacho's well being. And when Gus brings up getting Nacho's father, Mike is adamantly against it. He doesn't want to bring innocents into their twisted game, and it almost causes Mike to lose his head. Fortunately, Nacho calls him right then and there. It's unclear what conversation will unfold from the call, but one possibility is that Nacho will turn to Gus to bail him out of this Kafka-esque nightmare and bring him home.
It's a deadly game of cat and mouse, and things won't stay so quiet for long.
Who's in the car?
There's one final massive tease at the end of "Carrot and Stick" that's worth fans' attention. Going back to Saul and Kim, as they drive away from the Kettlemans' business, we see them go off in the distance. A few moments later, another car emerges and begins going in the same direction. We don't know who's driving the car, but it's clear they want to see what the two are up to.
As of right now, it's anyone's guess who the mysterious driver could be. It could theoretically be someone working for Howard Hamlin, wanting to keep an eye on his old partners. After all, Howard saw the baggie of drugs in his locker from the first episode, knowing full well they weren't his. It wouldn't take long for him to figure out who would want to sabotage him, so he may have hired someone to trail his former colleagues.
It's our best guess at this point, but anything could happen now that we're in the final act before "Better Call Saul" turns into "Breaking Bad."