Throughout Better Call Saul, one of Nacho’s main obstacles was the Salamancas. He had a string
of bad luck in that each time he got rid of one, another appeared, allowing him to never truly feel
safe. In total he had to overcome five different members of the Salamanca family. I thought it’d
be interesting to look at how he approached each. At the start of the series Nacho is the right-hand
man of Tuco. Interestingly with Tuco, Nacho handles him in a very similar way to that
of Walt in Season 2 of Breaking Bad. Walt immediately sees that when Tuco is angry,
he doesn’t react well to people speaking with lack of clarity and he also doesn’t like hearing
from people he doesn’t respect. The first thing Nacho did to overcome Tuco was earn that respect,
seemingly done through playing into his ruthlessness, yet providing a calm
sounding board for Tuco. This is one of the things we see out in the desert in season 1 episode 2,
when Jimmy attempts to lie about being a federal agent. Nacho is a person who talks Tuco down
from situations that might otherwise land him in jail. Early days Nacho was also far more ruthless,
a seeming requirement when being the right-hand of Tuco. Jimmy also quickly catches onto this,
taking a calmer approach, complimenting Tuco, and remaining calm and clear with his words.
To take out the erratic and unpredictable Tuco, Nacho chose the calm and efficient Mike
Ehrmantraut. Nacho’s initial proposal to Mike is that he shoot Tuco after he leaves the restaurant.
Mike then suggests a sniper instead, before finally deciding the whole thing is too risky,
and a softer approach needs to be taken, as to not draw more cartel attention and
potentially make the situation worse for them both. Mike caught on to how Tuco would react
based on Nacho’s story about his erratic behaviour, and his whole lie detector routine. To
take Tuco down they used his unpredictability and temper, but also withheld the calm voice of reason
Tuco was used to having by his side in Nacho. In Mike’s approach he does everything that
typically annoys Tuco. He acts bumbling and appears to lack awareness or intelligence.
He knowingly aggravates, and annoys him, and he turns his back on him multiple times showing as
little possible respect. This leads him to beat Mike bloody. A key turning point is this moment
where Nacho says to Tuco they need to go. If Nacho was still truly attempting to advise Tuco in this
moment, he would have calmly persisted, knowing it would end badly. Instead, he takes the order
right away and leaves. Nacho used his knowledge of what bothers Tuco, angering him with the help
of Mike, then leaving him to stew in his anger, without a calmer voice of reason to guide him.
After, Tuco goes to prison we get the arrival of Hector. Hector being the current leader of the
Salamanca family. Hector was the only Salamanca Nacho arguably didn’t have to win over or play
in any way. Hector is a character who doesn’t really like anyone unless they also have Salamanca
as their name. Even that is questionable. The way Nacho instead seemed to approach Hector,
was to actually downplay his potential and skill. Instead of showing he’s capable, he shows he’s
not as capable as the Salamancas, essentially playing into Hector’s own ego, and suspicions.
In some cases, he doesn’t need to do anything to show this. There’s a moment where Krazy-8 is
short on money for the week, and Nacho lets him go. Hector begrudgingly tells him to go sort it,
clearly seeing Nacho as soft or weak. Nacho’s more passive approach he learned to take with Tuco
isn’t as appropriate here. He’s expected to be the Tuco almost, threatening and
oppressive to those who do wrong by them. However, to take down the person who thinks
so little of him, he requires a complicated plan, where he uses Hector’s low image of him,
to his advantage as to make the plan fly entirely under the radar. Something that is very important
due to what would be the sudden takedown of a second Salamanca, and the head of the Salamanca
family. In reality, Hector’s exit takes the most effort to truly plan out, with Nacho’s complicated
and multi-part plan to switch his heart medication for sugar pills. There’s a lot that could go wrong
here, and the consequences would be dire. Nacho acts almost bumbling and foolish in many parts
to execute this plan, which Hector thinks nothing of, shrugging it off like he expects as much. It’s
also why he loses to Gus at almost every turn, he misjudges the capability of people and generally
thinks very little of anyone aside himself. One of the first steps to the plan is to clumsily drop
the money by Hector’s feet. He looks frustrated but, again, expecting such a thing to happen.
This then allowing Nacho to get close by him and snatch the pill bottle. Again, using Hector’s own
bold lack of care, or expectations of his own men to be anything aside something lesser than him.
This plan is executed successfully but is planned for meticulously over what seems to be weeks.
To defeat Hector as it were, Nacho needed to think intelligently, taking him down as inconspicuously
as possible, using the low respect and view Hector had of him, resulting in Hector and the Salamancas
being none the wiser to Nacho’s plan. Hector especially does not expect as much from Nacho,
and instead immediately becomes suspicious of Gus. Gus finds out however, and Nacho is placed under
the employ of Gus. He’s forced to be his informant and man on the inside. Gus sets up a plan to make
it look like Nacho and Arturo were hit, leaving Nacho bloody, with multiple bullet wounds,
and Arturo dead before the fact. The Twins arrive, and save Nacho with use of Caldera, the vet.
To earn the respect of the Twins was quite simple. Nacho simply had to prove his undying loyalty to
them. When they go to wipe out the gang that the Twins believe shot Nacho and Arturo,
to assert Salamanca dominance, Nacho initially remains in the car. His new role as Gus’ informant
and man on the inside means he realises he has to take a little more action, and so gets out
despite his many fresh wounds, to try and assist in any way he can. He enters a firefight he has
no right being in, because he realises the only way to win over two ruthless murderers,
is to help them murder. He doesn’t get very far, but he does take out one guy. Despite this,
he ultimately wins their respect, because the both of them realise that he’s put his own life on the
line to try and assist them, even if he didn’t do much. He proved to the Twins that he wanted
to exact revenge in the way they wished, in the typical Salamanca way too. This was one of the
riskier plays, but ultimately one of the simpler ones to win the trust of a Salamanca. After this,
the Twins go back to Mexico, and the Salamancas seem comfortable leaving their operation
in the hands of Nacho. As far as the Twins are concerned, Nacho is a solid asset,
able to push through his wounds, to take bloody revenge on those that wronged the Salamanca name.
In one move he clears his own name and any possible suspicion the Twins may have of him, and
further proves his worth to them beyond that, even visible impressing them it seems. This respect
even extends to Nacho’s final moments in season 6. During the shootout at the hotel, they treat with
respect, and they don’t underestimate him. Moments before his death, where he calls them psychos they
also seem kind of genuinely offended by it. It’s worth remembering that in order to save Nacho,
he was given Salamanca blood, making his betrayal from their perspective even more impactful.
Finally, we have the arrival of Lalo, a Salamanca unlike any other. So much so that Nacho doesn’t
even seem to initially realise that he is one. Lalo is a case where the way he was won over,
was by Nacho using the full extent of what he’s learned. By the time Lalo has arrived Nacho is
an incredibly capable and resourceful criminal. In the case of Lalo, to defeat him, he just needs to
get him in the right place for Gus to finish the job. Lalo has a bit of every Salamanca in him,
so Nacho impresses him, by proving he has the same skills that Lalo does, with both
use of his past experiences with Salamancas, but also his own development throughout this
time. He convinces him he’s a worthwhile person to listen to and leave in command in the North,
winning his trust, welcomed into his home, and even being brought directly to Eladio.
He shows his physical capability by retrieving the drugs in the midst of a police raid, leaping
from rooftop to rooftop. Lalo’s own physical capability being seen at different points,
such as his leaping onto the car later on. He proves his intelligence and strategy
through his destruction of the Pollos restaurant and the hiring of Saul as their attorney,
to get Krazy-8 out of prison. Lalo’s own intelligence seen in his calculative mind,
watching and waiting before he makes a move. Finally, Nacho shows Lalo respect, much like
he did with Hector, yet doesn’t dismiss him in the same way. He realises Lalo is too intelligent for
that. He requires the calming voice of reason he gave to Tuco, the slight underplay of his
ability to ego boost, as he did for Hector, and finally, a clear commitment and ruthlessness that
he showed during his brief period with the Twins. All in all, it works. The Salamancas are highly
distrusting it seems when it comes to their men. Hector never trusted anybody, Tuco actively caused
distrust through his rash behaviour, and the Twins are, well, hard to read but equally aren’t as open
to reason. Lalo was proven to feel the same way about his men, exposed through Kim in the episode
‘Bad Choice Road’, revealing to him that he needed people he could trust, which I imagine is in part
why he looked to Nacho after this moment, deciding to take him South to meet Eladio, and embrace
him into his family. He was the one man of the Salamanca operation he felt he could truly trust.
Ultimately, it’s a tragedy that Nacho couldn’t get away in the end. He did everything right.
He played Tuco correctly, dealt with Hector intelligently, proved his loyalty beyond doubt
to the Twins, and finally fully won the trust of Lalo. The times things went wrong were out of
his hands. Hector replaced Tuco after his charge, making things worse. Gus resuscitated Hector after
he switched out his pills. The Twins, arguably nothing really went wrong there, if anything
the fact they left so soon after him winning their trust was more the issue. Then for Lalo,
it was Gus’ mercenaries that realistically messed up. Nacho took the call, let them in,
he did everything he needed to, to rid himself of the Salamancas, but it wasn’t enough.