‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 Kills off Major Character

Better Call Saul Season 6 has been nothing if not utterly shocking so far, and not the show has killed off another major character. The hit series returned on Monday, debuting the first episode of Part 2 of the series’ final season. Please note: Spoilers lie below for Better Call Saul.

During the premiere, Lalo (Tony Dalton) took Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) hostage, attempting to force one of them to murder Gus (Giancarlo Esposito). However, the tables eventually turned on Lalo, and he was killed when Gus showed up at his lab with henchmen, who Lalo essentially laid waste to before taking a bullet himself. The big death was maybe not unexpected, but still quite a spectacle, with Lalo flashing a sinister, bloody smile as he died.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dalton opened up about Lalo’s death, sharing just how long he knew it would be the end of the road. “I got a call during the height of the pandemic, before they started filming. And it was Vince [Gilligan, creator] and Pete [Gould, co-creator] and it was kind of the death call, where they say, ‘Okay, at [episode] 608, that’s far as you go.’ And I go, ‘How do I die?’ and they didn’t want to tell me. I was like, ‘Come on.’ They’re like, ‘I’m not going to tell you.’ I was like, ‘Tell me something.’ They’re like, ‘All right, you kill a bunch of guys before you die.’ I was like, ‘That’s awesome!’”

Speaking about his initial reaction to Lalo’s death, Dalton explained, “We were filming the episode before that, the one where I kill Howard [Hamilin, played by Patrick Fabian]. I’m in sort of a truck stop, in a shower. It was a night shoot, and I got the episode, and I got a little chair and I took it out. It was, like, one in the morning. I knew I was going to die, but I didn’t know what was going to happen. Also, the episode’s amazing just in general. Everything that happens with Kim going to the house, it was kind of cathartic, you know? I didn’t think I was going to care that much, to be honest with you, because, you know, it’s not real. But it was like, ‘Wow, man, this is it. Gotta go look for a job now. [Laughs] I’m unemployed again!’”

He added, “These [writers] do such a good job with everything. Just the way that everything happened, at the end, taking them down. I mean, just the fact that when you’re watching Breaking Bad from now on, for the rest of your life, they’re walking on top of Howard and Lalo, you know?” The sixth, and final, season of Better Call Saul premiered on April 18 and is set to conclude on August 15, which new episodes on Mondays on AMC.