The story arc of Nacho explained by Michael Mando
by Jaskiran Kaur | Tue, 26 Apr 2022 18:05:24 GMT
Nacho chose to end his life as a final act of sacrifice to save his father; Credits: Screen Rant

Better Call Saul was a little too specific with its title for the part in Monday night's episode if you look at the fate of Nacho Varga, played by Michael Mando. It is sad to see the character find his end just as the episode title predicted, in the middle of a rock and a hard place, the rock being Gus Fring, played by Giancarlo Esposito, and the hard place being Hector Salamanca, played by Mark Margolis

Nacho's fate was always on the minds of the audience since the character does not appear on Breaking Bad, but is mentioned in the series. Now, we finally know why Nacho never got to make an appearance in the sequel series of Better Call Saul. 

Nacho was walking the incredibly thin line as he risked playing the double agent for Gus and working against the Salamacas to help with the assassination attempt of Lalo Salamanca, which failed horribly. Lalo is played by Tony Dalton. Though the character knew what the stakes would be if he failed and knew he would face the bullet end of the Salamancas gun, he chose to take himself out, himself. 

Still, the character showed admirable resilience as he put up one hell of a fight before he was ultimately taken down. The assassin managed to evade the Terminator twins who are the Samancas' hitmen and was almost on the verge of escaping. 

He went on to hold his breath for a long, long time in an oil tanker as he tried outrunning his death. But as he once again had to face the Salamancas at the end of the episode, the character put all his viciousness into his final verbal assault against Hector, letting him know that he was responsible for Hector being stuck in the wheelchair.

After he was done making pulp out of Hector with his cruel words, Nacho made a move for Juan Bolsa's gun, played by Jabier Grajeda. And though he could have taken out anyone including Hector and Gus, he decided to end his life by suicide. 

His last moments were key in clearing any doubt that would have pointed at Gus for the attempted assassination of Lalo. And yet there was more that came into play when he chose to turn the trigger on himself. 

With his suicide, Nacho committed his final act of sacrifice, making it clear to Gus that Nacho would want him to look after his father. Nacho's father was never supportive of his crime-riddled life but would now need protection with him gone. 

Micahel Mando discussed the various symbols the series used when it came to the final moments of Nacho Varga when talking with Variety and shared his theories about the suspected fate of Nach, considering many people think he is alive in Breaking Bad. 

Explaining the ending of his character, Micahel Mando shared that he had no hard feelings about the ending of his character and in fact only felt gratitude for the act of sacrifice that Nacho will go through. He revealed that he had come to know about the death of Nacho a long time before they even began shooting and he was totally on board. 

The series creators, Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, and Melissa Bernstein told Mando that they had a "larger than life" idea for the character and that it would take the audience by a storm. Mando is happy that Nacho got to live up to the moral standing that he aspired to reach. 

Looking back to the day they filmed the final moments of Nacho, the actor shared that a huge sandstorm struck them while on the set and that they had to run to their cars so that they could get back home to safety instead of being stuck there. In another bizarre turn of events, just as the actor reached home, a tree was struck by lightning and fell in front of his house, barring him from entry into his home. 

The actor shared that it was surreal to live through all of that. On the other hand, the series' crew had worn Nacho shirts along with tear tattoos to show how much the character had meant to them. 

Giving a spoiler to Breaking Bad, the actor revealed that though it was only Nacho who died that day when he was faced by the hitmen twins, Lalo and Gus, there is an ominous setting to the scene foreshadowing that soon all of them would be dead men too. In fact, Nacho only happens to be the first one who is taken out and they are all witnessing the first death before they die too. 

Nacho Varga is played by Michael Mando in Better Call Saul; Credits: EW

Contrary to all the others, Nacho got to end his life with dignity and choice as he chose the noble way of sacrifice and died out of his obligation to keep his father and Gus safe. His death was not the result of anger or violence, but pure love.

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