Gus is certainly a special case. We know that his mother taught him to cook. We know the coati story. We know that the coati unknowingly did Gus a genuine disservice. As far as I know, we don’t know with any absolute certainty that Gus’ family was rich or poor, but the coati story makes me think that they may have been very poor indeed.
Poverty is one of the most popular reasons for joining the military. If this was true of Gus, the fact of his apparent success rising through the ranks suggests that he already had his drive and ruthlessness well established. I find it unsurprising that he ultimately sought revenge upon Don Eladio. I am surprised that it took him so long. I wonder why he left the military life behind him … maybe for political reasons that were outside of his control.
At the beginning of the coati story Gus says “I grew up quite poor.” He says his family lived in a shack that his brothers built out of stuff they scrounged, and they were always hungry.
There’s no direct evidence he was ever in the military. All we know is that Don Eladio doesn’t kill him because he "knows who he is, " (but reminds him “You are not in Chile any more.”) So Gus has some protection, but it’s not that strong.
One could infer from this that Gus had some connection to the Pinochet regime, but he wasn’t necessarily military. (It’s also obscure why Mexican narcos would care that much about the Pinochet regime. Unlike other South American dictators, Pinochet didn’t have a reputation for being involved in the drug trade, although there have been recent claims that he was.)
Chile had conscription at the time. 24 months. It is very possible that Gus was posted into military intelligence, once they identified his cleverness. In exchange for better conditions and terms of service. This was pretty common in conscript based armies.
Nor does he need to have worked with the narcs. Just used them when he needed to run. A former intelligence officer would be fairly useful.
FWIW, according to this timeline Don Eladio killed Max and threatened Gus in 1989. The Pinochet regime was already on its way out at that time (having lost a referendum on the return of democracy in 1988), although Pinochet didn’t step down until 1990 and the military still maintained its independence for some time. By the time of BCS any protection Gus would originally have had would be long gone.
That the restaurant was clean and successful without getting into drugs was actually never shown - their business could have been some kind of front for money laundering, it could have been spying for Gus’s contacts for Chile (and actually making money from there), it could be working with whatever Max had in his history. Gus or Max could have owed a large sum of money, or have someone after one or both of them for whatever they did in their past, and need the money or cartel connections to fight that off. They could already be under pressure from the Cartel (like Nacho’s dad or the ice cream driver) and the meth was their attempt to set their own terms.
We actually don’t see that the way that we do with the others - the chicken restaurant in only mentioned in passing, and Gus’s history is dark and mysterious enough that it’s quite possible that he had a much more pressing need than just a desire for more money or power. It’s not impossible that the picture you’re seeing is the right one, but I don’t think the show makes it clear that it Gus definitely had a clean option the way Gray Matter or Elder Law was for Walt or Jimmy.
Gus was a very smart and capable guy who had enough money to finance Max’s education many years ago. Max had advanced degrees in degrees in biochemistry and chemical engineering. They both certainly had the wherewithal to have a successful straight careers if they had chosen to. Even if Gus had a criminal past, so did both Mike and Jimmy. If they could have gotten beyond that and gone straight, so could Gus. So none of these arguments make Gus that different from the others.
True enough.
As for Gus’s moral arc, if we might call it that–as it compares with the moral arcs traveled by Walt and by Jimmy–what the three have in common is that they are all unusually intelligent and resourceful.
We’ve been shown the ‘straight and narrow paths’ rejected by Walt and by Jimmy, and have not been clearly shown such a path for Gus. But it’s reasonable to infer that Gus, like Walt and like Jimmy, had the mental resources and capabilities to succeed without resorting to crime. For Gus, there was the added complication of growing up in a part of the world where corruption was endemic, so his ‘chance to succeed’ might not have arrived until he entered the US.
But the point is, it did arrive. Gus clearly could have earned a good living as a legitimate US businessman—had he wished to.
Gilligan once said that he purposely left Gus’s origin ambiguous, but still teased us in a flashback when Hector Salamanca mockingly referred to Gus as “Grand Generalissimo.” Implying connections to the Pinochet regime?
I had forgotten that one. Maybe that does indicate he was military.
In any case, if he was well situated with the Pinochet regime, one wonders why he would move to Mexico to set up a chicken restaurant/drug manufacturing facility. If he were a high-ranking military officer in a dictatorship, there should have been less risky ways to make money. (Maybe he had a falling out in Chile, but he was still under protection.)
Another Gus mystery is how he got back into the good graces of the cartel. I can understand why Gus wanted to work with them in order to avenge Max’s murder, but why they trusted him after that is a puzzle. Maybe Don Eladio forced him to use the Pollos restaurant in Mexico as a cover for distributing cocaine as additional punishment, and Gus went along with it and expanded it as a long-range plan to get back at him.
He does not have to be high ranking military. If he is say a Major or a Colonel*, that gives him enough experience and contacts to get away when he needs to. Nor does he have to have run after the return of democracy, he just needs to have had a need to disappear, which can happen whenever, maybe the Pinochet regime was pissed at him for some Operation gone bad or because he fucked the wrong guys wife.
*Giancarlo Esposito was in his early fifties when he appeared on Breaking Bad. If “Gus” really did run in 1986, them he would have been in his say mid thirties, and that would be the appropriate rank for him. Major Fringe could easily have come into a situation where he was too senior to avoid responsibility, too junior to have the ability to make it go away.
There’s going to be a great big ‘Better Call Saul’ - shaped hole in my life tonight at 9 p.m. It was the only show on tv my husband and I made sure we watched together every Monday night. Will it be a year until it comes back?
The timing would have been before Pinochet lost the referendum in 1988 to extend his Presidential term. In Gus’s case, given the straight-laced nature of the Pinochet regime (and Chile in general), the most likely reason to run would be due to homophobia if his relationship with Max were discovered.*
*If Gus isn’t gay, Hector at least thought he was. When Gus and Max come to Don Eladio’s place, Hector pisses in the pool in front of them (before Don Eladio arrives) and says to Juan Bolsa (in Spanish) “They won’t say anything. They like what they see” and makes kissing noises at them. Also, the intensity of Gus’s thirst for revenge suggests that Max might have been more than just a friend.
Since it’s going to be a year until the next thread, any suggestions of Saul-like shows to watch in the meantime? I have heard The Wire is good, though a bit more BB-like than BCS-like.
The Wire is incredible. But it’s not like either BB or BCS in tone or style in my opinion, more cops and robbers, more politics, way less interpersonal drama and way less quirkiness. Watch it.
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are both really tough to replicate, they have a really unique vibe.
Lalo will work against Mike and Gus, and Nacho will be caught in the middle. Saul will also get involved with this tangle, bringing the Mike/Jimmy story lines back together again. Likely Nacho will do whatever makes Lalo send people in the BB time frame this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if he then leans on Saul to try to escape or mitigate the damage, though the ‘escape’ part might wait until S6.
We’ll see Jimmy set up the Saul office and acquire his clientele. Probably will have some courtroom appearances again, which will be a good contrast with the S1 public defender stuff. Francesca will come back as a permanent character. We’ll also see Jimmy expanding his circle of criminal and shady contacts, and more appearances by the film students.
Kim and Jimmy will drift apart. I don’t think they’ll split right after the finale reveal, but I don’t think they’ll end S5 living together. Might still have some level of working relationship. If there’s fallout from any of their old scams it will happen this season, though I think the show is basically saying that they got away with them all.
Howard will either only make a ‘for old times’ appearance or will be a major antagonist Saul in some way. The dispostion of the Sandpiper case will happen, this might be where Howard gets involved.
We’ll see some DEA people investigating whatever trouble Lalo stirs up. Probably see Crazy 8 get turned, might get an appearance from Hank, Gomez, or their boss. Also might see some of Jesse’s crew getting their start.
Mike will still not have dinner at Cracker Barrel.
I’m in the process of re-watching BB. In S3:E5 “Mas” Gus shows the lab to Walt for the first time. Some of the machine are indeed still shrink wrapped.
Gus is trying to tempt Walt, so it’s conceivable that he re-wrapped a few things to make it look like a “virgin” lab, but I don’t have that impression. It looks truly untouched.
I’m thinking S5 will center mostly around Kim & Jimmy’s resolution. Not sure if Kim ends up getting stung by the various scams or if she just gets disillusioned by Jimmy going full-Saul or what. I am betting the Saul/Mike/Gus timelines won’t really come together until either very late in the season or the season following. That said, I don’t have perfect recall on when all this seasons new faces showed up in the BB timeline.
