Better Call Saul Director Talks about the Devastating Last Episode

[SPOILERS FOR BETTER CALL SAUL’S ‘ROCK AND HARD PLACE’]

Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould are certainly not pulling any punches with the last season of Better Call Saul. The third episode Rock and Hard Place actually saw the end of one of the show’s main characters Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), and director Gordon Smith talks about how they decided to have his death so early in the season.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Smith explained Nacho’s decision to off himself early into the season, saying, “It felt like his luck had run out, and this gave him a chance to go out on his own terms. So this just made sense for the story and for the character to not feel like he’s vamping. I think you would get tired of just seeing him on the run and getting out of jams. It just wouldn’t have done the character any justice. He was no longer playing both ends against the middle; both ends were now coming after him. So how long could he manage that and keep his head above water and keep his dad alive? So it felt like we’d serve the character better by sending him off earlier.”

While Nacho did have to take his own life, the show tries to make peace with his death, in that we see a blue flower bloom in the spot where it’s implied that he was buried. After watching Nacho anxiously hiding since the season started, this does feel like the way for him to go—rather than just having him run throughout the rest of the season.

Ever since the show premiered, there has been special attention to Nacho as a character, seeing that he’s mentioned by Saul in his very first episode in Breaking Bad. With Nacho meeting his end, we only have the other character that Saul mentions—Lalo, who is now out for blood. With Nacho gone, he’ll be going after Gus, but who does he mow down along the way?

Catch Better Call Saul now on AMC and AMC+.