Better Call Saul: Giancarlo Esposito explained premieres grisly scene to kids – Insider

  • Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the season six premiere of “Better Call Saul.”
  • A moment near the episode’s start involving Lalo may have left you confused until a second watch.
  • Giancarlo Esposito told Insider he had to explain it to his daughters, who “were mortified.”

The season six premiere of “Better Call Saul” contains a grisly detail you may overlook the first time you watch. 

When Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) visits a couple at the episode’s start, the man tells Lalo he’ll clean up and shave his overgrown beard.

Lalo tells him to keep the mustache and soul patch, something you may not think twice about at first.

As the wife prepares coffee for Lalo, he removes a blade from a pair of scissors and heads to the bathroom where the man is shaving with the intent to kill him.

BCS 601 Lalo scissors

Lalo executes a plan on the season six premiere of “Better Call Saul.”

AMC


But why?

If the moment confused you, you weren’t alone. Even star Giancarlo Esposito’s adult daughters, Kale and Ruby, needed the scene explained to them.

“They were confused at a moment where Lalo gets the knife and he’s in that beautiful Mexican casita with people that are his friends. And I said, ‘Well, you know what happens to them,'” Esposito told Insider over


Zoom

earlier this month.

On the season five finale, which aired about two years ago, Gus Fring (Esposito) sent a group of assassins to Mexico to kill Lalo. They failed, but Lalo cleverly faked his own death. 

Needing a body to make his death look believable to Gus and the world, Lalo finds a man who closely resembles himself. He then encourages this man to shave his facial hair in a way that makes him look like Lalo’s double.

Moments before Lalo kills the man off-screen, there’s a shot where the man looks up at Lalo and you’re supposed to notice that the two look very similar.

BCS 601 Better Call Saul Lalo's double

The man’s reflection in the mirror shows that he resembles Lalo after a quick shave.

AMC, composite by Kirsten Acuna/Insider


When Esposito’s daughters put two and two together, he said they were shocked.

“They hadn’t put that together,” Esposito said, recounting how he explained the scene to them. “And I said, ‘When the guy shaved, who did he look like?’ They were mortified. They thought it was horrible.”

“They’re so galvanized to this show and in such wonder,” Esposito added of his daughters, who accompanied their father to the show’s season six premiere on April 7. 

Better Call Saul Kale Esposito, Giancarlo Esposito, and Ruby Esposito

Kale (left) and Ruby (right) Esposito are seen with their father, Giancarlo Esposito, at the season six premiere of “Better Call Saul” in Hollywood on April 7.

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic


The star, who plays the fearsome and calculating restaurateur on the “Breaking Bad” prequel series, added that Kale, one of Esposito’s four daughters, is a huge fan of both series. As a result, they try and get spoilers about the final season out of him.

“Mainly, they’re teasing me. They really wanna know specifically what I’m gonna do to Lalo,” Esposito said, hinting that things may not go as fans expect.

He added: “It’s gonna be a surprise to the audience what Lalo does to me and it’s gonna be a surprise to the audience what Gus’s final endgame in this particular season is.”

New episodes of “Better Call Saul” air on AMC on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. The first two episodes are currently streaming on AMC+.