Even though he snuck into the show late in its second season and he wouldn’t make it out of the season four finale alive, when you think “Breaking Bad villain,” you think Gustavo ‘Gus’ Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Like any iconic big bad from the small screen, his charm and charisma may have made him a great character, but Gus was much more than your run-of-the-mill TV bad guy.
Gus Fring stood apart from the drug-saturated world filled with frantic, impulsive decisions by playing the long game. As a reasoned and pragmatic businessman, Gus rarely took risks. Instead, he calmly hid in plain sight and went out of his way to develop a reputation as a respected member of the Albuquerque business community. But behind that polished veneer was a cold, calculating mastermind, a man who spent years building a vast criminal empire just below the surface.
Earlier this month, Gus popped up in a trailer for the third season of Better Call Saul, and while we were shown that warm, welcoming smile of his, it was impossible to not think back to all the horrifying, violent, seemingly erratic acts that he was responsible for. Looking at his time on Breaking Bad, however, you start to see how everything he said, and everything he did was a small cog in a much larger machine. To help tide us over until Better Call Saul returns in April, here’s a look at Gus Fring’s most unexpected moments, and how that all fit into his master plan.
His Cordial Introduction
The first time Gus is introduced, no one even knows his name. All that Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) know is they are to meet him one afternoon at local fast food shop Los Pollos Hermanos. The first time we actually see Gus, he’s faded into the background, clad in a short-sleeve collared shirt and tie and coaching an employee on the importance of wrapping silverware. He even ends up meeting both Walt and Jesse, though it goes unnoticed by both of them, as he was playing his role as an unassuming fast food manager and breezed by their table to ask if everything’s alright.
After hearing they’d blown their chance, Walt — who is just starting to get comfortable pushing his limits in the underworld — returns to Pollos Hermanos determined to find out exactly who was vetting him from afar. Walt spends hours lurking in a corner booth, only to look up and catch a glimpse of Gus’s reflection staring back at him, noticing a brief, but conspicuous change in his expression. At this point, Walt still doesn’t know his name, but he’s willing to go out on a limb by asking for a refill of Diet Coke and five minutes of his time. Then, even sitting face to face with Walt, clad in his bright yellow shirt-and-tie, Gus pleasantly denies who he is. That is, until Walt compares himself to him.
Suddenly, Gus’s tone shifts abruptly from the welcoming demeanor of a service-industry professional to the unfeeling frankness of a businessman rejecting a proposal. His wide-eyed smile is now a blank expression as he explains to Walt why the two are not alike at all. It isn’t until Walt continues to persist about his meth’s unprecedented quality that Gus softens his tone a bit and tentatively agrees to at least consider his proposal.
With these two brief interactions, we see Gus’s chameleon-like ability to blend into his surroundings, and how quickly he can shake off his friendly exterior to reveal a glimpse of the terrifying criminal that he really is. We also see his extreme use of caution, from denying who he was to his skepticism about working with Walt over the fact that his partner, Jesse, uses drugs. Still, Gus is only human, and he gives a slight inclination of his willingness to go back against his instincts only after Walt mentions the 38 pounds of product they have on-hand. While Gus eventually agrees, it’s a mistake that will end up costing him dearly.
His Utter Ruthlessness
What’s remembered as one of his most unpredictable acts turns out to have some pretty solid reasoning behind it. After the death of Gus’s personally groomed lab assistant, Gale (David Costabile) — ordered by Walt but committed by Jesse — Mike keeps watch over the two of them while Victor (Jeremiah Bitsui) starts to cook a batch of crystal meth on his own. By the time Gus enters, his silence is deafening. He changes out of his suit into a lab coat while Walt and Jesse brace for the worst.
Then, while walking behind Victor, Gus takes a box cutter and slices his throat. It’s a ruthless, unapologetic reminder to everyone just what he’s capable of, even killing a reliable and trusted employee. Afterward, Gus washes the blood off his face, changes back into his suit, and leaves only after uttering one single command: “Get back to work.”
There were only three people capable of running Gus’s lab, and the only one he trusted was now dead. At the same time, Victor’s eagerness to impress wasn’t taken well at all, and considering that he failed to stop the killing of Gale and managed to get spotted at the crime scene, it’s no wonder that he was in Gus’s crosshairs. At the same time, it serves as a reminder to Walt and Jesse how disposable human lives are to him, which helps keep them in line while they maintain production.
His Unsettling Eloquence
Whether as a restaurant owner or a drug kingpin, Gus’s ability to articulate is second-to-none. Regardless of his situation, he uses his sharp, surgically precise diction to make his point clear under no uncertain terms. You hear it in his interactions with customers, as well as with his associates. The only one who seems to push back with him (besides the Cartel) is Walt. That is, until one memorable moment out in the desert.
Prior to all this, when Gus was interested in learning more about him, specifically about how his cancer was affecting him, and how long he was going to go on living. “I do not believe fear to be an effective motivator,” Gus tells Mike, explaining that he’s looking for the kind of cook he can invest in for at least “the foreseeable future.”
Of course, with Walt being an ego-driven loose cannon, once he’s back working at Gus’s lab he starts to fear that Jesse is taking his place (a legitimate concern, for what it’s worth). After repeatedly harassing Jesse at his home, Gus brings a desperate, panicked Walt out to the middle of the desert, his wrists bound and black bag over his head. Honoring Jesse’s request to spare Walt’s life, Gus tells him that under no uncertain terms, he’s fired, and he’s to leave Jesse alone “or else.”
Now, despite being tased, bound, and kidnapped, Walt’s still a little too comfortable pushing his limits, and after a quivering “Or else what?,” Gus unleashed some intricately phrased hellfire, promising to kill his wife, his son, and even his infant daughter. It seems that it took a man with the irritating tenacity of Walter White to have Gus rethink his motivational approach while reminding him of the lengths he’ll go to stop anyone who opposes him. And he does it all without so much as raising his voice.
His Ability To Construct An Ornate Revenge Plot
One of his most ambitious plays comes with the escalating conflict between Gus’s operation and the Mexican Cartel. Already known for both his etiquette as well as his generosity, Gus shows up to Don Eladio’s (Steven Bauer) house with a bottle of Zafiro Anejo tequila as a gift (which has its own Better Call Saul cameo). As members of the Cartel gathered around the pool, Don Eladio thanks him for the gift, and as he pours shots for his men, he never stops eyeing Gus to take the first shot.
While the mood was celebratory, there’s still substantial mistrust between Gus and Don Julio — so much so that Don Eladio won’t even let Gus use the restroom without sending one of his men after him. It’s here, surrounded by the Cartel, at the home of the Don, watched like a hawk, and only two people on his side, that Gus springs his most elaborate trap while trying to purge the poisoned tequila he’d already drank, as Don Eladio and his men collapse one-by-one around the pool, dying.
If that moment was Gus at his most fearless, having a secret hospital hidden inside a nondescript, rusted out building in the north Mexico desert — complete with medical records, a salaried staff, and an ample supply of the antidote to the poison, is Gus at his most prepared and his most malevolent. After all, the man spent two decades doing business with the very organization that he was planning to destroy in a single moment of perfectly orchestrated revenge.
His Surprising Empathy
It’s probably the most unexpected outcome of Gus Fring’s character arc his how often it was easy to admire him. Here’s a guy so dedicated to his cover story as a fast food franchise owner that he spends countless hours actually working at his restaurant, in addition to the whole running a criminal empire thing. He had dinner with the local head of the DEA. He brought food to the cops in the hospital waiting for Hank to recover. He served on the board of local hospitals. Really, he just seemed like a pretty likable, hardworking guy.
By the time we get his backstory late in season four, during a flashback to 20 years prior, when a young Gus Fring sits nervously while awaiting his chance to impress the Mexican Cartel. We see his partner murdered while Gus is forced to stare into his eyes while they drain of all life that we start to feel bad for him, and he becomes a tragic figure in his own right. Hell, even if you stack his sins against those of Walt or Jesse, the lines of who you’re supposed to root for start to blur. And really, there’s not much more terrifying than someone who’s able to get you on their side in spite of who they are and what they’ve done, which is how Gus managed to accomplish all he did in the first place.