Hector Salamanca’s Breaking Bad Backstory Revealed In Better Call Saul (2023)

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Hector Salamanca’s Breaking Bad Backstory Revealed In Better Call Saul? ›

Through Breaking Bad flashbacks, viewers learned that Hector was a member of the Juárez Cartel. He was working for Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) during the time Gus

Hector is a former drug agent who worked for Don Eladio. His family members are very involved in the drug business. After an unexplained incident, he's left paralyzed in most of his body and can't speak or move on his own. His only means of communication is the bell on his wheelchair.

In Better Call Saul, he serves as one of the two main antagonists (alongside Chuck McGill) of Seasons 2 and 3, a supporting antagonist in Seasons 4 and 6, and a minor antagonist in Season 5.

Aside from the obvious characters like Saul/Jimmy, Mike, and Gus, there were many enjoyable return appearances from Breaking Bad characters in Better Call Saul.

The bell was not a gift from Gus. It was a gift from Lalo Salamanca. Years before, Lalo and Hector thought a hotel owner didn't pay them enough respect, so they burned down his hotel and burned up the owner alive. The bell was a momento of that occasion.

Not looking at Gus is a sign of disrespect. Hector hates Gus but doesn't have a lot of ways of showing it. He's been reduced to a little man in a wheelchair while Gus just keeps growing in power and influence. Since he happily shot Gus' lover, Max, he has to know that Gus revels in his misery.

Marco and Leonel Salamanca, commonly known as The Cousins, are twin brothers, deadly enforcers, and prolific hitmen for Don Eladio Vuente's drug cartel. As members of the Salamanca family, the two cousins are grandsons of Abuelita and the nephews of Hector Salamanca.

A member of the Salamanca family, Lalo is the grandson of Abuelita and one of Don Hector's nephews, having four cousins who are also involved in criminal activities within the Salamanca drug operation in the cartel: his main cousin and fellow distributor Tuco, his hitmen cousins Marco and Leonel, and his first cousin ...

"Better Call Saul" Mijo (TV Episode 2015) - Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca - IMDb.

Lalo is killed by Gus in the season-six episode "Point and Shoot". Gordon Smith said the writers considered having Mike kill Lalo but this idea was discarded to let the "biggest big bads" in the series—Gus and Lalo—confront each other.

Does Skyler appear in Better Call Saul? ›

"Breaking Bad" Better Call Saul (TV Episode 2009) - Anna Gunn as Skyler White - IMDb.

Though Nacho never appears in Breaking Bad, Saul mentions him when Walter White and Jesse Pinkman kidnap and hold Saul at gunpoint to coerce him into representing Badger, who has been arrested for selling drugs. Believing Walt and Jesse were sent by Lalo he says in a panic, "It wasn't me, it was Ignacio!

A furious Tuco punches Mike in the face, and as the altercation gets extremely violent, the police arrive and arrest Tuco for assault. Their plan worked, and Tuco was imprisoned for eight years.

Though the Salamancas didn't uncover the truth of his involvement until Better Call Saul season 6, Gustavo Fring immediately realized Nacho was the man responsible for depriving Hector of his life-saving meds. In fact, this was how Gus blackmailed Nacho into serving as a double agent.

Even in the face of his own demise, Hector still stubbornly clings on to the hope that he is stronger than the forces that control the lives of men and that he can perhaps kill Achilles and save Troy. Thus, his death at the hands of Achilles is the most moving and tragic of all the many deaths that occur in The Iliad.

Hector then finally looks at Gus and dings his bell rapidly but the bell is hollow. Walt planted his car bomb under Hector's chair and the bell was being used as a trigger. As soon as Gus realized this the bomb exploded and Gus walked out with half his face off before he collapses and dies.

Gus and Max's relationship was long implied to be more than business before their confirmation as lovers by showrunner Peter Gould in 2022.

As Gus explains to Mike when Mike attempted to kill Hector: he needed him alive, as in Breaking Bad it's explained that Hector killed Gus' close friend (and possible lover) Max, which caused Gus to have an undying vendetta against Hector.

He raised Tuco as a son, and taught him and his other nephews that family is everything, living by the creed himself.

"Abuelita" (meaning grandma) is the mother of Hector Salamanca, as well as the grandmother of Tuco, Lalo, Marco and Leonel Salamanca and the great-grandmother of Joaquin Salamanca. She is the only member of the Salamanca family to not be affiliated with the Cartel.

Why did Hector drown the kid? ›

Hector believes that family is everything. When the cousins were very young, they got into an argument over a toy and one wished that the other one was dead. Hector says “Oh yeah?” He then sticks the boy's head under water and holds it down as if to grant his wish.

Eladio Vuente, commonly known as Don Eladio, is the boss of the Cartel, a Mexican drug cartel that employs Juan Bolsa, Hector Salamanca, and other Salamanca family members (Tuco, Marco, Leonel, Lalo, and Joaquin).

Lalo died smiling as a nod to the maniacal personality he carried throughout life, but also to stress the satisfaction he derived from having been right about Gus. The familiar, creepy smirk was one final act of rebellion. Even in his most painful moment, he refused to let Gus see a glimmer of defeat on his face.

Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton)

Lalo Salamanca is the evilest man in Better Call Saul, and may even be eviler than Jack Welker of Breaking Bad. Lalo Salamanca is simply a psychopath. His way of thinking is different than most people's.

Up to this point, Gus is portrayed as the smartest person on the show, matched only by Walter White in Breaking Bad. In spite of this, Lalo is able to believably outmaneuver him at nearly every turn.

While the two are cousins and are related through Hector, Tuco and Lalo Salamanca have yet to meet on-screen during the show. A simple explanation is that Lalo only entered the show well after Tuco was sent to prison, and viewers have never got a chance to see a flashback Salamanca family scene with Lalo present.

He first encountered Jimmy McGill (aka Saul Goodman) after the lawyer set up a scam with a pair of skateboarders who targeted the wrong elderly woman. Instead, they scammed Tuco's grandmother, so he took Jimmy and the skateboarders out into the desert to kill them.

With Tuco distracted, Jesse overpowers him and wounds him with his pistol. When they see a vehicle approaching in the distance, Walt and Jesse quickly crawl into hiding. Hank arrives at the hideout and gets into a shootout with the wounded Tuco, whom he kills in self-defense.

The ultracompetent attorney who married Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), the man most likely to bring out the shadier side of her character, never appears in Breaking Bad, which led some viewers to assume she would die before Saul finished its run. But as Monday's series finale confirmed, Kim Wexler lives on.

Lalo killed Howard so he could have facetime with his lawyers and hatch a new plan to destroy Gus Fring. This puts Jimmy McGill, and especially Kim, in a precarious position against a man with nothing to lose.

Does Lalo know Nacho set him up? ›

Early on in "Point and Shoot," as Lalo is tying Jimmy up to a chair, he tells his lawyer about the assassination attempt from the end of Better Call Saul season 5. Lalo mentions it was Nacho who let the assailants into his house, and points out Nacho was the one who introduced Jimmy to Lalo.

Norris, who portrayed Hank in all five seasons of “Breaking Bad,” made his grand “Better Call Saul” entrance in the fifth season's third episode, where he interrogated drug dealer Domingo “Krazy-8” Molina and met Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) for the first time.

It is revealed that Skyler is eventually forced to move into an apartment and takes a job as a taxi dispatcher, having all their assets seized. She still maintains custody of the children, however ("Granite State").

After Breaking Bad

In an interview, show creator Vince Gilligan confirmed that Walter Jr. eventually received his father's drug money through Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz, which he had arranged beforehand.

This brutal introduction and their use as hitmen by the Cartel may explain their lack of talking, both as a tool for intimidation and as a way to avoid being bugged by the police or the DEA.

Nacho, Tuco's partner in drug dealing, wants him dead because Tuco is a homicidal loon — a fact that will not come as news to anyone familiar with his history.

It was a stroke. This was revealed in the 2nd season when he and Jesse are reunited after Hank shot Tuco.

Nacho took complete control of the situation by not only riling everyone up, but by killing himself to rob everyone of the satisfaction of getting to do it, yet Better Call Saul's Hector still felt the need to shoot his corpse in order to inanely feel as though he'd gotten his own back.

Everything Mike Changed In Nacho's Safe

On the bottom was the phone number to Nacho's motel, so when Juan Bolsa called it, he knew exactly where his target was hiding.

Yes, Nacho hates them because he knows they would kill his dad for his principled rejection of their illegal activity, but when Don Hector went down, that seemed to be the end of their plans to use his shop to transfer drugs. The plan is never mentioned again after Hector's stroke, and Lalo never brings it up.

Why did Hector's body not decompose? ›

During and after Patroclus' funeral Achilles dragged Hector's body around his pyre. The gods Aphrodite and Apollo protected his body from the dogs, disfigurement, and decomposition.

Near death, Hector pleads with Achilles to return his body to the Trojans for burial, but Achilles resolves to let the dogs and scavenger birds maul the Trojan hero. The other Achaeans gather round and exultantly stab Hector's corpse. Achilles ties Hector's body to the back of his chariot and drags it through the dirt.

Pietro Testa (1611–1650), Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy. Etching, 1648–50. Achilles, with his lust for revenge still not satisfied, deliberately mistreats the body of Hector, tying him to his chariot and dragging him behind in the dirt as he drives back to the Greek camp.

Hector hates Jesse and Walt for their involvement in Tuco's death and attempted poisoning of him, but he hates the feds more, and so refuses to rat out Jesse. This also means that Jesse is free and outside prison for the rest of Hector's family to take cartel-style vengeance on him and Walt for Tuco.

After Walter White has gotten Hector to agree to his plan to kill Gustavo Fring, Hector asks the Caregiver for the DEA by spelling out "Need DEA".

Having suffered a stroke, the old man could only communicate by ringing a bell equipped to his wheelchair. Walt tried to poison Tuco's burrito but Hector repeatedly hit his bell to warn his nephew, revealing that his mind was still sharp.

Hector Salamanca was born in Mexico in 1939 and was one of the founding members of the Cartel and was referred to, even in his infirmity, as "Don Hector" by contemporary cartel leaders like Juan Bolsa.

While he cries at hearing of the fates of Don Eladio and the other members of the Cartel, given his hatred of Eladio in Better Call Saul, it's possible he is only enraged at the thought of Gustavo Fring winning than his care for the Cartel, though it also could be that he developed some care/respect for Eladio over the ...

Hector is angry with Paris because men are fighting for him and he is not out fighting among them. Paris says he will go fight when he has on his armor, and tells Hector to go on ahead. Hector wanders through the city until he finds his wife Andromache and son, Astyanax.

A member of the Salamanca family, Lalo is the grandson of Abuelita and one of Don Hector's nephews, having four cousins who are also involved in criminal activities within the Salamanca drug operation in the cartel: his main cousin and fellow distributor Tuco, his hitmen cousins Marco and Leonel, and his first cousin ...

Is Hector Salamanca Tuco's uncle? ›

A member of the Salamanca family, Hector is the son of Abuelita, the uncle of twins Marco and Leonel, Lalo, and Tuco, and is the grandfather of Joaquin.

Bruckner dismisses Hector knocking over a water glass as involuntary, but Gus sees that Hector did it purposely so he could ogle the nurse who cleaned it up. Gus tells Bruckner to end treatment, in effect trapping Hector's healed mind inside his unhealed body.

Hector suffered a stroke but Gus saved him by using CPR. In Better Call Saul season 4, Gus hired a specialist from Johns Hopkins to care for Hector. After learning that Hector could potentially walk and speak again, he discontinued Hector's therapy to trap him in his current state.

The short answer: The Cartel murdered his lover. He wanted revenge. The overly long rambling answer: Well… Gus was originally part of the cartel.

There are a number of reasons that Gus might decide to burn down his restaurant, but they all boil down to the same thing: playing the long game to avenge Max's death, and more specifically getting revenge on the Salamancas.

During the war, the Trojan Prince Hector kills Patroclus, a friend of the Achaean hero Achilles. This enrages the Achaean hero, who begins to pursue Hector to get revenge. Hector decides to stand and face Achilles after the goddess of strategy, Athena, tricks him. After a hard one-on-one fight, Achilles kills Hector.

Overcome with guilt and shame, Achilles agrees to a twelve-day truce in order to facilitate Hector's funeral rites. He acknowledges Hector's tactical brilliance on the battlefield and deems him as a worthy opponent.

Hector wants to battle Achilles to avenge his country and defend it against future Greek attacks. In An Iliad, he considers reasoning with Achilles, but his pride overcomes him. Similarly, instead of letting bygones be bygones, Achilles swears vengeance on Hector and goes after him and his armies.