Better Call Saul
While Lalo Salamanca ( Tony Dalton ) is arrested and put on trial run for the murder of Fred Whalen ( James Austin Johnson ) during season 5 ofBetter Call Saul , it ’s easy to block exactly who did Lalo kill and why , given that Whalen only appeared in a individual episode from time of year 4 . Introduced in the episode " Winner , " Fred Whalen was an free bystander and TravelWire agent who happened to get caught in the middle of the warfare between the Salamanca drug imperium and Gustavo Fring ( Giancarlo Esposito ) . Despite have got a minor theatrical role in season 4 , Whalen create an opportunity for Fring to remove Lalo from his leading role in the Salamanca drug empire .
In time of year 5 ofBetter Call Saul , Fring has Mike Ehrmantraut ( Jonathan Banks ) implicate Lalo in Whalen ’s murder during the episode " Wexler v. Goodman , " place Lalo in jail where he can no longer interfere with the expansion of Fring ’s drug empire . By posing as both a private investigator and a investigator , Mike indirectly provides the constabulary with enough grounds , including a attestor statement and a hit - and - run police report , to place Lalo ’s railcar within range of the scene of the crime on the day of Whalen ’s murder . While his death may haveled to foresighted - term consequences for Lalo , his face-off with Whalen was entirely coincidental .
Who Is Fred Whalen & How Did Lalo Kill Him?
In the season 4 instalment “ Winner , ” Lalo belt down Fred Whalen because he happen to do work at the TravelWire position Werner Ziegler ( Rainer Bock ) visited . After Ziegler fled Fring ’s warehouse , Mike dog his movements to the TravelWire office where he picked up a money carry-over from his married woman in Germany . Pretending that Ziegler was a lost family member afflicted with dementia , Mike convinced Whalen to show him the surveillance tape of Ziegler ’s sojourn , which revealed that Ziegler contrive to fill his wife at a hotel .
tag Mike to the TravelWire office , Lalo also question Whalen , but is ineffectual to convince him to share the same information . When Whalen is unhinge , Lalo breaks into the front desk by creep through the cap . While the viewing audience never in reality seeLalo vote down Whalen , his feet can be seen lying motionless on the flooring , insinuating that Lalo shot him with his shooter in short after enter the enclosure . When it came to who did Lalo pour down , the execution was tragic because Whalen was n’t take with the cartel . Lalo only killed Whalen because he was an obstruction that continue him from uncover Fring ’s movements .
Fred Whalen’s Tragic Death Due To Lalo Salamanca Explained
When Whalen became suspect of Lalo and refuse to disclose any further details about Mike or Ziegler ’s visit , the nefarious Laloopted to take the information by force-out , hold Whalen ’s living insignificant in comparison to the opportunity to gain an advantage over Fring . Despite meeting Fring for the first time in the installment “ Wiedersehen , ” he already hated Fring due to the bad blood between him and Hector Salamanca ( Mark Margolis ) , his uncle whom he greatly look up to . Since Whalen was the only thing preventing Lalo from potentially gain information that could oust Fring from the Juárez Cartel , Whalen ’s life was a small price to pay in Holy Order to take down the man .
Since the scene involving Whalen ’s last bears some similarity to the incident at Hotel Tulipan , a story Lalo and Hector reminisce about at Casa Tranquila , the upshot at TravelWire also hint that Lalo ’s action are motivated by respect for his uncle and the power he wields under the Salamanca name . During the incident at Hotel Tulipan , Hector tortured the hotel possessor and burn down his business because the military personnel was awless to him . likewise , after Whalen disrespected him by turning him away from the TravelWire berth , Lalo killed him and burned down the organization , subtly paying court to his uncle ’s legacy .
How Fred Whalen’s Death Had A Surprising Impact On Better Call Saul’s Story
While Fred Whalen may have appeared to be a minor character whose life was disconnected from the Juárez Cartel and Jimmy McGill ’s ( Bob Odenkirk ) law practice , his expiry was actually the accelerator for Jimmy ’s transformation into the criminal lawyer Saul Goodman in season 5 ofBetter Call Saul . While Jimmy antecedently represented modest - story members of the cartel in the past , act as Lalo ’s attorney and commercial traveler formally made Jimmy a " friend of the cartel . " It was getting capture up in Lalo ’s murder trial and the events that followed which cement Jimmy ’s position as more than a sideline participant .
The domino range of events that started when Lalo embark that TravelWire led Jimmy down a much darker path than helping belittled - clock time felon shave time off their sentences ever would . Fred Whalen ’s death seemed more significant as the show wear out on . Representing Lalo Salamanca did n’t just take Jimmy closer to the Albuquerque deplorable netherworld in a professional horse sense . It made him query his own moral unity , and the distance he was willing to go to protect his own involvement . The response he see throughout season 6 are part of what propelled him from theJimmy McGill ofBetter Call Saulinto the Saul Goodmanwho met Walter White inBreaking Bad .
