Gus Fring

In 2003, Mike Ehrmantraut sabotages Hector Salamanca's trucks and ends up face to face with Gus. Gus warns that Hector can't die: he has other plans for the old man. He hires Mike for small jobs and watches every move the Salamancas make, sharing business with them grudgingly on orders from cartel boss Don Eladio.

Nacho Varga swaps Hector's pills, and Hector has a stroke during a meeting at Los Pollos Hermanos. Gus gives him first aid and saves his life.

Gus pays for the best care for Hector, who ends up in a wheelchair, able to communicate only with a bell. Meanwhile he learns that Nacho caused the stroke and forces him to spy on the Salamancas. He has a huge lab built under an industrial laundry, led by the German engineer Werner Ziegler. Werner runs off because he misses his wife, and Mike has to kill him.

Lalo Salamanca arrives from Mexico, suspicious of Gus. Gus uses Nacho to open the gate of Lalo's house to hitmen, but Lalo kills almost all of them and survives, without Gus knowing.

Gus realizes Lalo is alive and braces for an attack. Nacho, cornered, confesses to the hit in front of the cartel's men exactly as Gus told him to and takes his own life. Lalo gathers proof to show Don Eladio the secret lab.

One night Lalo forces his way into the construction site with Gus. Gus cuts the lights, grabs a hidden gun and kills Lalo. The bodies of Lalo and Howard Hamlin end up buried under the lab. Later, alone at a wine bar, Gus chats with David, a sommelier he likes, and leaves.

Saul brings Walt and Jesse to Gus, who at first turns them down because Jesse is a user. Walt delivers 38 pounds in under an hour, and Gus changes his mind. Later he offers $3 million for three months in the superlab and puts the chemist Gale Boetticher in as assistant.

The Salamanca cousins want Walt dead over Tuco. Gus points them at Hank instead, tips Hank off a minute before, and gets rid of the cousins and Juan Bolsa. Once he sees Walt could be replaced by Gale, he starts closing in.

Gus kills his henchman Victor with a box cutter in front of Walt and Jesse. He tries to pull Jesse away from Walt and threatens to kill Walt's family. A flashback shows the past: years ago, Hector killed Max, Gus's partner, by Don Eladio's pool.

Gus travels to Mexico and poisons Don Eladio and the cartel bosses with tequila, after drinking the poison himself and throwing it up in time. Back home, he goes to the nursing home to kill Hector, who rings his bell and sets off Walt's bomb. Gus walks out of the room straightening his tie and drops dead.

Esposito used yoga techniques to find Gus's calm. Vince Gilligan left the character's origins vague on purpose, comparing them to the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Esposito earned Emmy nominations for the role on Breaking Bad and on Better Call Saul.