Gus Fring

Gus maintains a positive public image: he is a booster for Albuquerque civic causes, including the local DEA office. In addition to befriending the special agent in charge, Gus makes large donations to the office's charitable events. Underneath this outwardly pleasant front, he is ruthlessly cruel and Machiavellian in managing his vast drug empire. He employs a number of enforcers and has personally killed both rivals and allies.

Hector is rushed to the hospital, while Gus alongside both Nacho and Arturo are summoned to a meeting with Bolsa at the Los Pollos distribution plant. It is there Bolsa declares that, until further notice, the Salamanca operation will continue with Nacho and Arturo in charge. Thereupon Tuco's twin cousins, Leonel and Marco. arrive to watch over Hector.

Gus hires a doctor to oversee Hector's recovery. While reviewing Hector's medical records, Gus realizes there is no nitroglycerin in Hector's system, meaning Nacho tried to kill him. When Nacho and Arturo arrive at the chicken farm to pick up their next shipment, Gus ambushes the pair and kills Arturo in front of Nacho as the latter is held at gunpoint. Gus tells Nacho he knows about the attempt on Hector's life and declares that from now on Nacho belongs to Gus, who threatens to inform the Salamancas of what Nacho did unless he follows Gus' orders. Tyrus and his companion Victor make Arturo's death and a violent attack on Nacho look like the work of the Espinosa Gang, while Victor sells the drugs from Nacho's car to them. Nacho falsely identifies the Espinosas to the Cousins, who massacre the Espinosas to recover the "stolen" drugs before returning to Mexico to avoid the authorities. Gus orders Hector's treatment halted after he has regained movement in his right index finger, leaving his recovered mind trapped in his unhealed body.

Gus works with Mike to plan the construction of an underground meth "superlab" under Lavandería Brillante, an industrial laundry he owns, using a design provided by chemist Gale Boetticher. Mike escorts engineers through the laundry and questions them about their ability to construct the lab as Gus secretly listens in. Gus offers the job to Werner Ziegler after being impressed by Werner's forthright description of the difficulty and risk. Gus provides long-term housing and amenities for Werner's crew, while Mike provides security and transportation designed to keep their presence a secret. Werner inadvertently provides details of underground concrete construction to patrons during an outing at a bar and Mike ends the conversation. The next day, Mike makes a veiled warning to Werner that Gus will have him killed if he makes the same mistake again, and Werner acknowledges that he understands.

Soon enough Hector's remaining nephew, Lalo, arrives to oversee the Salamanca drug business. He is immediately suspicious of Gus and surveils his restaurant and chicken farm. With construction behind schedule, Werner misses his wife and effects an escape to rendezvous with her. Mike convinces Gus to let Mike find Werner and bring him back instead of killing him. Mike tracks Werner to a money wire store and then to a nearby resort. Lalo follows Mike, kills Fred the money wire clerk to obtain the information Mike discovered, then calls resorts until he finds Werner. By pretending to work for Gus, Lalo discovers from Werner some of the details of the lab's construction before Mike arrives and ends the call. When Gus finds out about this, he realizes that Lalo can track Werner's actions back to him and concludes that Werner must be killed. Gus offers to send men to do it, but Mike accepts responsibility because Werner escaped on his watch, so he reluctantly kills Werner himself.

Gus arranges for Nacho to take cocaine of inferior quality when picking up the Salamancas' drugs at Los Pollos Hermanos. Rumors of the "stepped on" product reach Nacho and fellow gang member Domingo Molina, who report them to Lalo. Lalo confirms the impurity of the cocaine during a visit to Salamanca street dealers. In a meeting with Lalo and Juan Bolsa, Gus falsely claims that Werner Ziegler was working under Mike's supervision to construct a chilling system for Gus's chicken farm and that Werner fled after stealing cocaine. Gus goes on to claim that in an effort to hide the loss, he replaced the stolen cocaine with locally produced methamphetamine. The story explains events of which Lalo is aware, including Werner's departure from Albuquerque, pursuit by Mike, and subsequent death. Lalo accepts Gus's cover story and apology but remains suspicious. Juan reminds Lalo that Gus enjoys the trust of Don Eladio, and indicates that Lalo should let the matter drop. Because Lalo remains suspicious, Gus shuts down construction of the underground meth lab and has Mike send Werner's workers home. Gus offers to continue paying Mike during the delay, but Mike declines out of frustration over Gus's seeming lack of compassion for Werner.

Gus coerces Nacho into providing inside information on the Salamancas. Nacho gains Lalo's trust, especially when Domingo is later arrested; both Nacho and Lalo respond by hiring lawyer Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman to secure Domingo's release from jail in exchange for the location of several of Gus's dead drops. Nacho reports the plan to Gus, who plans to cancel the drops, but Nacho advises that this will reveal a mole within the Salamanca organization. Gus agrees and on the night of the transfer he tensely waits as Victor and Diego make sure that the DEA and local police seize nearly a million dollars but find no leads to Gus.

In the meantime, Mike spends several weeks feeling depressed over Werner's death and drinks to excess. After he is injured by a local gang, Gus has him taken to a pueblo Gus owns just inside the Mexican border, which includes a fountain dedicated to Max. Dr. Barry Goodman tends to Mike's wounds and Mike stays to heal. Gus visits and asks Mike to join his organization, saying that he wants Mike with him because Mike understands his need for revenge.

Gus arranges for Nacho to report to Mike about his activities to undermine the Salamanca organization. Mike works under an assumed name to secretly point the police toward Lalo for the murder of Fred the money wire store clerk. Lalo is surrounded by police and arrested. In jail under an assumed name, Lalo contacts Nacho and says he wants Nacho to burn down one of Gus's Los Pollos Hermanos restaurants. Gus and other subsidiary owners provide status reports to Peter Schuler, Madrigal's CEO. Afterward, Gus briefs Peter and Lydia on the status of the meth lab, and Gus assures Peter he will get the plan back on track. When Gus returns home, he and Nacho preserve Nacho's role as the mole in the Salamanca organization by destroying the restaurant. Gus soon wants Lalo released, knowing that Lalo still poses a threat against his legitimate activities even when imprisoned, so he has Mike provide Jimmy with the details of his investigation into Lalo. Jimmy uses the information to accuse police of witness tampering, enabling him to win a motion to release Lalo on bail.

Jimmy drives to a remote desert location to pick up the bail money from The Cousins. As he starts his return trip, he is cut off by several gunmen who take the money and prepare to kill him. The gunmen are suddenly attacked by an unknown shooter. All but one are killed, and the survivor gets away in the only attacker's vehicle that is still drivable. The unseen shooter was Mike, who was tracking Jimmy for Gus. Mike's truck was also damaged, so Jimmy and he recover the money and begin the drive back to Albuquerque in Jimmy's car. When the car breaks down, Jimmy and Mike take the money and walk cross-country to avoid the surviving gunman. After a night in the desert, Mike kills the surviving gunman and they resume walking.

Jimmy and Mike eventually make their way to a truck stop, where Tyrus and Victor pick them up. Mike and Jimmy agree on a cover story for Jimmy to tell Lalo after Jimmy posts his bail. Jimmy tells Lalo he was alone and walked after his car broke down so that he would not put the money at risk. Lalo says he intends to return to Mexico in order to avoid the scrutiny of police and prosecutors. Mike briefs Gus on the events in the desert, and Gus realizes the attack was ordered by Juan Bolsa to protect Gus's business. Mike tells Gus that Nacho wants to end his work as an informant on the Salamancas, but Gus refuses to part with a valuable asset. When Mike voices his concern about threatening Nacho with his father, Gus states that Nacho has "bitten the hands of his previous masters" and thus needs to be dealt with firmly.

As Gus oversees the cleanup and rebuilding of the Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant that was burned down, Mike informs him that Lalo has returned to his home in Chihuahua, and that Nacho is with him. Gus says he has sent gunmen to kill Lalo, and that Nacho may be able to help. Nacho receives a call instructing him to leave Lalo's back gate open at 3 a.m. Nacho asks for Lalo's family to be spared. Lalo is awake at 3 a.m. so Nacho sets a kitchen fire as a distraction. When Lalo goes to investigate, Nacho opens the gate and flees. The gunmen enter, wound Lalo, and kill all the occupants in his house. Lalo escapes the house through a hidden tunnel, then sneaks back in and kills all but one gunman. He then forces the survivor to call the middleman who arranged the killing and report that Lalo is dead, before then killing the survivor off-screen.

In the aftermath of the firefight at Lalo's home, Lalo kills a local farmer to use as a body double and the Cousins report that Lalo is dead. Gus is skeptical, wondering how all the hitmen died, but succeeded in killing Lalo. Gus arranges for Nacho to hide at a motel while he awaits transport to the U.S. Gus and Juan Bolsa meet with Hector Salamanca to offer condolences and promise revenge, but Hector's demeanor convinces Gus that Lalo is still alive. Mike and Gus's men break into Nacho's safe and remove his cash and the fake Canadian IDs he had made for himself and his father. Victor delivers a duplicate safe, into which Mike places the cash, Nacho's fake ID, and an envelope. Juan Bolsa and his men break into the duplicate safe and find the envelope containing the motel's phone number and details of an offshore bank account. Nacho believes he is being observed, confronts the watcher, and confirms he is working for Gus; this causes Nacho to realize that Gus has betrayed him to the cartel. Nacho prepares to flee, but the Cousins arrive to search for him.

Nacho escapes the ambush and hides from the Cousins. After making a farewell call to his father, he calls Mike and asks to speak to Gus. Nacho offers to give himself up as long as his father is protected. Gus arranges to smuggle Nacho into the U.S., and Mike and Nacho review Gus's plan for Nacho to absolve Gus of blame for Lalo's death. Nacho will say he was working for a rival drug family, then attempt to flee. Victor will then kill him, ensuring that he is not tortured by the Salamancas. As Mike takes up a firing position with his rifle, Gus, Victor, and Tyrus hand Nacho over to Juan Bolsa, Hector Salamanca, and the Cousins. Nacho claims he was working for the rival Alvarez family when he killed Lalo, and backs up his story by revealing that he attempted to kill Hector, but that Gus saved him. Rather than attempt to flee so Victor can kill him, Nacho uses a piece of broken glass to free himself from his restraints, seize Juan's gun, and kill himself.

Convinced that Lalo is alive, Gus takes precautions including wearing a bulletproof vest under his clothes and carrying a gun. While a body double takes his place in his home, Gus uses a tunnel system to enter a nearby house, which is revealed to be an operations center from which he oversees vast surveillance activities that scour Albuquerque for signs of Lalo. His belief that Lalo is alive causes Gus sleeplessness and distractions while working at his restaurant. Gus visits the construction site of his planned meth lab and inspects it carefully before hiding a handgun in the track of an excavator.

Later that night, Lalo ambushes Jimmy and his wife Kim Wexler in their apartment - killing their acquaintance Howard Hamlin in the process and provides Jimmy the address and description of a man he wants Jimmy to shoot: Gus himself. Jimmy convinces Lalo to send Kim instead. Mike apprehends her at the front door of Gus's house, and she points out Gus's body double as the man Lalo wanted killed. Mike and his men leave for Jimmy and Kim's apartment, but when Kim tells Gus that Lalo agreed to send her instead of Jimmy, Gus recognizes the shooting is a distraction. He drives to Lavandería Brillante, where Lalo ambushes him and kills his bodyguards. Lalo forces Gus at gunpoint to lead him to the site while using a video camera to obtain evidence of Gus's planned meth lab for Don Eladio, which will thus prove Gus's disloyalty to the cartel. Gus then insults Eladio and the Salamancas as Lalo videotapes him, but Gus's speech is a diversion that enables him to cause a power outage which turns off the lights. In the darkness, he reaches the handgun he had hid previously and fires at Lalo as the latter tries shooting him. After turning the lights back on, Gus finds that he is wounded, but has also shot Lalo multiple times; Lalo dies in front of Gus, who then collapses in exhaustion. Gus is later treated back at his home, while Mike supervises the burial of Lalo and Howard beneath the meth lab.

Hector contacts Don Eladio with information about Lalo's survival and subsequent disappearance, before claiming that Gus killed Lalo for real this time. Gus is then summoned by Eladio to a meeting with him alongside both Bolsa and Hector, as well as The Cousins, at his pool in Mexico. Gus refuses to respond to Hector's allegations and, since there is no proof that Lalo survived, Eladio accepts that he was killed in the first assassination attempt. To keep peace between Hector and Gus themselves, Eladio divides between them the drug territory around Albuquerque. When he returns to the U.S. and Mike informs him that the burial of Lalo and Howard was successful, Gus tells Mike to immediately re-start work on the planned meth lab. Gus later patronizes a restaurant where he converses pleasantly with David, his favorite sommelier. David excuses himself to retrieve a rare bottle to show Gus, but then Gus suddenly cuts his visit short and leaves the restaurant.

Furious upon learning of Gale's murder, Gus arrives at the lab, where Walt and Jesse have been secured by Victor and Mike. Knowing he was recognized at Gale's apartment, Victor fears for his life and attempts to show his usefulness to Gus by beginning to cook meth, which he learned how to do while guarding Walt and Jesse. Walt begs for Gus to spare them, but they are shocked when Gus slices open Victor's neck and lets him bleed to death in front of them. Gus calmly tells Walt and Jesse to get back to work and increases oversight in the lab by installing security cameras and having Mike and Tyrus watch them while they work. Mike suggests to Gus that they may be able to drive a wedge between Walt and Jesse. Mike takes Jesse out of the lab to help pick up dead drops and carry out other tasks and arranges for Jesse to foil a planned attack on him, which boosts Jesse's confidence and increases his sense of loyalty to Mike and Gus. Gus is impressed by Jesse's mettle and has Mike involve him in more work outside the lab. Worried about their safety, Walt gives Jesse a cigarette with a capsule of ricin hidden inside and tells him to poison Gus when he gets the chance, but Jesse does not follow through.

Gus arranges to meet with Don Eladio and the other cartel leaders to work out the differences that have caused the cartel to disrupt Gus's business and he brings Mike and Jesse with him. Jesse cooks a superior batch of meth and Gus offers to have him stay in Mexico and work for the cartel. Jesse is apprehensive but the offer is a ruse. During the party at Eladio's house to celebrate their rapprochement, Gus tricks Eladio and most of the other cartel leaders into drinking from a poisoned bottle of tequila. Gus takes the first drink to alleviate suspicion but forces himself to vomit afterwards. During the fight that ensues after cartel leaders begin dying, Jesse helps the ill Gus and wounded Mike escape, killing Hector's last known living grandson, Joaquin Salamanca, in the process. He brings them to Dr. Goodman at a makeshift hospital Gus had arranged at his villa. After recovering, Gus returns to Albuquerque and taunts Hector, telling him the cartel leaders are all dead, and that because of Joaquin's death, the Salamanca family line ends with Hector. Jesse is no longer loyal to Walt and refuses to serve as his protector. With the DEA beginning to connect Gale's death to Gus, Gus fires Walt and starts planning to kill Hank, threatening to kill Walt's family if he retaliates or informs.

After failing to enlist Jesse's help in killing Gus, Walt poisons Andrea's son Brock and convinces Jesse that Gus is responsible. Jesse agrees to help Walt, who tries to kill Gus with a pipe bomb attached to his car; Gus senses something amiss and walks away. Walt recovers the bomb and Jesse tells him about Gus's routine, including visits to Hector at the nursing home. Persuaded by Walt's promise of final revenge against Gus, Hector pretends to be a DEA informant and allows the bomb to be strapped to the underside of his wheelchair. Gus visits Hector and prepares to kill him with a lethal injection, but Hector begins ringing the bell on his wheelchair, which activates the bomb. Gus tries to flee but the bomb explodes, killing Hector and Tyrus; Gus appears unharmed at first, but the camera pans to reveal that the blast has torn off the right side of his face. He reflexively adjusts his tie before collapsing to the floor, dead.

Gus's death has numerous consequences. The investigation into his death reaches his restaurant business and the destroyed superlab, which Walt and Jesse burned after Gus died. Knowing the security camera recordings stored on Gus's laptop can incriminate them, Walt, Jesse, and Mike use an electromagnet outside the police station to destroy the computer and its hard drive while it is in the police evidence room. The police recover the account numbers and access codes for the offshore accounts Gus previously set up to pay his employees for their silence and seize the accounts. Mike, Walt, and Jesse partner in a new meth business, with Mike continuing to pay Gus's former employees out of his share of the profits in order to assure their continued silence. When police successfully interdict these payments, Walt fears his identity will be exposed and attempts to obtain the employees' names from Mike so he can have them killed. When Mike refuses, Walt kills him. Walt then obtains the names from Lydia Rodarte-Quayle and has Gus's former employees killed in prison before they can reveal Walt's identity, effectively bringing an end to Gus's drug distribution empire.