SPOILERS ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen the third episode of “Better Call Saul” Season 6, entitled “Rock and Hard Place”.
As the title of Monday night’s episode suggests, Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) found himself between a rock and a hard place – Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) – and he paid the ultimate price. As one of the key Better Call Saul characters not to appear in Breaking Bad, fans have been wondering where Nacho would end up, and they finally have an answer. After playing double agent for Gus against the Salamancas and helping in the botched assassination of Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), Nacho was ready to meet a violent end at the hands of the Salamanca Cartel, but instead turned his gun on himself.
However, Nacho didn’t go down without a fight. He narrowly dodged the Salamancas’ killers, including the Terminator-like twins (Daniel and Luis Moncada), and he thought quickly until the end. In the vibrant opening scene, Nacho held his breath and dove into an abandoned oil tanker to avoid his pursuers. And in the closing minutes, as he waits to be executed by the Salamancas, Nacho breaks free and delivers a vicious final monologue, revealing to Hector that he was the one who put him in a wheelchair.
“So when you’re sitting in your crappy nursing home sucking on your jelly night after night for the rest of your life, think about me, you twisted ass,” Nacho growled.
He snatched Juan Bolsa’s (Javier Grajeda) gun and held him at gunpoint, but instead of taking Hector, Gus, or any of the other high-ranking cartel members with him, he died by suicide. He also protected Gus’ reputation and cleared up (for the time being) any suspicion that Gus was involved in the failed attempt on Lalo.
Mando explained to Variety that Nacho’s final act was a sacrifice, thereby guaranteeing that Gus would protect his father, who would never approve of Nacho’s reluctant life of crime. The actor also discussed Nacho’s last meal, the episode’s symbolism, and these (now-debunked) theories about Nacho’s life in Breaking Bad.
When did you find out Nacho was going to die?
I found out in the winter before we started filming. Peter [Gould]vince [Gilligan] and Melissa [Bernstein] called me and they told me it was going to be an opera, larger than life and it was going to destroy the internet. I immediately felt an enormous amount of gratitude and was called upon to ensure that this character sacrificed himself for the virtue and morality he aspired to.
How was the day you shot your death scene?
It was an incredible experience. The day we shot this scene, as we turned the cameras on Nacho, a huge sandstorm hit us immediately and we had to run home before our cars got stuck in the mud. When I got home, lightning struck the tree in front of my house and fell on my driveway; I couldn’t enter the house. There were all these weird things that were happening. The crew wore nacho shirts and teardrop tattoos and I couldn’t believe how much this character meant to so many people.
We know that all of the characters in that final scene, like Gus, Hector, and the Salamanca twins, are going to have another day in Breaking Bad, but was there a reason Nacho didn’t take anyone?
Every single one of them is dead when you think about it. There’s something ominous about this scene where it’s all dead men walking around watching the first man die. But they’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet. The image of Nacho is the image of sacrifice, true love and bravery. It’s not the picture of revenge. The ultimate act that defines character is the act of sacrifice, and not anger but love.
What was it like filming that last emotional call between Nacho and his dad?
At that moment, Nacho can run. he can walk But he’s staring into the eyes of the sunset, and he’s looking back at his father and he says, “Come with me.” And his father says no. At that moment, Nacho knows he will go back to hell and sacrifice himself for his father’s love.
Before Mike (Jonathan Banks) beats him up, we see Nacho get one last meal before confronting the Salamancas. Did you have any influence on what Nacho would eat?
It was very important to me that he used a knife and fork and salt and pepper his food. It was not about food at that time, but about a man going out with a lot of love for life. And if you love life, you enjoy life. So Nacho didn’t lose his appetite for life, if anything, he was full of love and life at that point because he knew he was doing the right thing. It was a celebration of life, it was Nacho telling himself and the world not to cry for him. He believed in it and he did it with all his heart.
The episode begins with Nacho on the run from the Salamanca twins, and he dives into an oil tanker to hide from them. How was filming this messy scene?
It was an incredible episode, beautifully written and directed by Gordon Smith, full of symbolism. The last meal, the last goodbye, the test of a man’s heart, like the ancient Egyptians weighing your heart against the weight of a feather and finding out what you stand for. Writing had given me such an incredible opportunity to play a character who was going through something incredible physically, psychologically, emotionally but also spiritually. It was amazing to seep my actual body into that darkness and come out of that tanker in the middle of the night with the star-studded sky, literally washing myself up and ridding myself of all that darkness at that abandoned gas station on the side of a freeway. Standing there in front of all these future dead men and looking up at the sky and screaming out what I believe in and sacrificing my life for that morality and virtue makes me feel like a really lucky actor to have been given this dream role. I am eternally grateful that it will live on in pop culture forever.
This episode is, in a strange way, simultaneously Nacho’s lowest and highest point. That’s when life treats him most unfairly, but oddly enough, that’s when he feels most complete because he has no doubts about who he is right now.
In “Breaking Bad” Season 2 Episode 8, Saul briefly mentions an Ignacio and a Lalo in one scene. People had theorized that they were still alive later in “Breaking Bad” because of that little bit of dialogue. Have you ever discussed if this Ignacio and your Nacho are the same person?
I think in Season 1 Vince and Peter said Ignacio was the Nacho because Nacho is short for Ignacio. So we knew since Season 1 that there would be some kind of connection, but then again, there could be another Ignacio. But I think now we’re pretty sure we’re talking about these two characters.
So does this mean that Saul will never find out that Nacho is dead as he believes he is alive in Breaking Bad?
You’re trying to trick me with a spoiler here!
This interview has been edited and abridged.
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