Who was Gus Fring (Breaking Bad Character)?

Cafe Society
1

In the episode, “Hermanos” (S4 E8), we see the cartel leader, Don Eladio, spare Gus’ life because, “I know who you are”. “But understand,” he warns “You are not in Chile anymore.”

In the episode, “One Minute” (S3 E7), we hear cartel captain, Hector Salamanca, say, “I don’t care who he knows.” The implication being that he is being asked his opinion of the cartel doing business with Gus. He votes no. The other members of the leadership want to go forward because of who Gus knows. Ultimately, Hector is overruled. The cartel & Gus Fring establish a business relationship.

In the episode, “I See You” (S3 E8), we see the Mexican police raid the home of Juan Bolsa, another cartel member, while he is one the phone with Mr. Fring. The implication here is that Mr. Fring somehow arranged the raid.

In the episode, “Bug” (S4 E9), we see cartel hitman, Gaff, sniping at members of Fring’s organization. Gus walks straight out to him, out in the open, essentially daring Gaff to shoot him. To do that, you’d have to being either crazy or very certain that you’re not going to get shot. This, again, underscores how important Gus is to the cartel. He is untouchable, even in open defiance.

The fact that this hidden past was not more fully developed is my only major disappointment with the series. I think that there must have been a decision to spend more time on Walt & Jesse’s family issues - that Gus’ storyline took the series away from it’s main path. But, there is so much hinting around that it’s a shame that it never went anywhere.

My guess is that Gus was connected to Special Agent in Charge Ramey. SAC Ramey was the head of the southwestern US DEA. In other words, a person perfectly positioned to protect Gus’ empire. He would be someone that Gus could call to arrange a raid in Mexico. This would also be an alternate reason why Hank’s bosses always tried to move him away from the Fring investigation. This relationship, if true, would’ve been a powerful, unspoken, element in the balance of power between Gus & the cartel.

But, hey, maybe I’m wrong. Would anyone else care to speculate about where Vince Gilligan intended to take us in Mr. Fring’s past?

2

My memory is quickly getting hazy here so I may be wrong on some of this.

The person he killed, the cook, was Gus’ boyfriend. Gus is gay. That’s who he was. Why he wasn’t killed at the same time, I don’t recall. He probably should have been. He was a nobody. Another thing, that comment could have been meant to mean “We’re not all that civilized here (in Mexico) and I’ll remember you, mess with me and I’ll kill you too…have a nice day”

I need some more context here, I’m not sure what you’re asking. Are you asking who he knows? Maybe it was that he (somehow) knows the cousins.

IIRC he did. I want to say he was friends with the Mexican police chief.

Gus is very important to the Cartel. The Cartel wanted Gus’ territory (and recipe), but Gus wouldn’t give it up. If they killed Gus they really wouldn’t get it. It’s like the mafia trying to scare someone into paying up their debt. They can’t actually kill him. Dead people don’t pay. People with broken legs do. They wanted to rattle Gus, kill some of his hench men, steal some of his product, but if they kill him the most they could hope for was to take some of New Mexico over.

Having said all that, I’m sure I’ll get corrected on some of it.

Also, you should probably have a mod change your title to mention that there’s spoilers in this thread.

3

I think the implication is that he was connected with the Pinochet regime. That’s what everybody in the BB threads here assumed. I don’t think there were any hints that he had ties to anyone in the DEA besides his well-known friendship with Hank’s boss, and Hank’s boss was clearly in the dark there.

4

Vince Gilligan has said that Gus Fring was somehow involved with the Pinochet regime. Details don’t really matter. The worst part about modern American cinema is how everything needs to be spelled out for the daffos.

5

“A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria”?

6

It was never going to go anywhere because it ultimately wasn’t important to the course of the show. Anyway I think this is a great example of background that would have been ruined by explanation. The specifics wouldn’t have been good as whatever you came up with in your imagination. ‘Someone connected to the Pinochet regime’ is good enough for me.

7

That’s fan speculation, never confirmed in the show.

8

I think you missed the largest hint that Gus Fring is Someone Else - IIRC, there’s a scene where Fring is talking with Mike, and Mike talks about how “if I can’t find any record of you prior to 1989, no one else can” or something similar. Hank also mentions during his investigation of Fring that he can’t find anything on him before he appears in 1989.

But yeah, I think Marley23 has it right - it’s just intended to be background information that the viewer can fill in themselves. The idea is probably just that he was someone powerful in the Pinochet regime.

I don’t think there’s anything to support that Ramey was in on it.

9

Hector Salamanca refers to Gus as “Grand Generalissimo,” and Don Eladio tells Gus that he is “not in Chile anymore” but spares his life because he knows who Gus really is.

Pinochet regime, doubtlessly.

“Thisparticular line referred back to Vince [Gilligan’s] idea that Gustavo had very deep ties to the Pinochet government, and somewhere around episode 4.03, Vince stared to explain to me some of the things that could happen in the fourth season. Gus was probably a guy who was a General at some point or a Lieutenant and had probably killed a lot of people — or maybe was a hero in the army. I had all these thoughts that we’d get a chance to find out more about that, and who knows, we still might.” – Giancarlo Esposito

10

++.
My sister, knowing I’m a huge Casablanca fan, once sent me a book of someone’s reconstruction of Rick’s life before and after the events of the movie. :confused: :smack: :smack:

11

Wasn’t it at least implied in the show? IIRC he only called him his ‘partner’ never his ‘business partner’. Also, in this clip she said “Gus loves this man very very much”. That’s not something you often hear someone saying about a business partner or even a good friend. I don’t want to derail the thread, but it takes me to my next question.

Did he say “I know who you are” or “I know who you really are” There’s a big difference there. “I know who you are” could simply mean that I’ll remember your face going forward if you mess with me. “I know who you really are” implies that he’s not killing him simply because he’s a bigger player in the narcotics game then just some lowly cook and Don Eladio knows it.

12

Vince Gilligan has confirmed that that’s how he saw it, but since none of it was confirmed on the show you can take a different interpretation if you prefer.

Right. Gus Fring is an identity he started using when he arrived in Mexico in 1989.

I think that’s reasonable. My view was that Gus had to have done something unpopular - a massacre or involvement with state torture or something like that - that would have made it urgent for him to leave Chile around the time Pinochet surrendered the presidency.

13

It was, to me, heavily implied by the scene where Hector is pissing in the pool. He mocks Fring and Pal stating, “And these two? They like what they see” and makes kissy faces at them. Gus’s partner talks about how Gus saved him from the slums and brought him up. So they’re definately closer than just business partners.

14

I’m not sure why everyone is so interested in Gus’s backstory. He’s just a simple tailor.

15

He says, “The only reason why you are alive and he is not is because I know who you are. But understand, you are not in Chile anymore.” Couldn’t be anymore clear that he knows of Gus’s murky (to us), well connected past.

My interpretation was that because of Gus’ connections in South America, harming him would put the cartel’s cocaine trade in jeopardy (during the flash back with Don Eladio we’re reminded that when it comes to cocaine, the cartel act mostly as middlemen for the Colombian’s).

16

Ah! That’s the missing piece for me! I never quite got why being part of the Pinochet regime would make him completely untouchable now. He must have had lots of connections still, but that didn’t explain being able to walk up to a cartel hitman with his arms open and know he wouldn’t get shot. It wasn’t like anyone expected a bunch of Chileans to come after Heisenberg when Fring did go down, so it had to be something else.

17

I really want to thank you all for giving me so much to ponder…

 If Gus was someone of significance in the Pinochet government, he must've been a "rising star".  He would've had to have left Chile while still in his 20s.  He spent some time in Mexico, then spent at least 20 years in New Mexico.  He didn't look a day over 50 when we first met him.

 Gus as a homosexual...  That thought had not crossed my mind.  Hector's comment while urinating into the swimming pool, I just put off as "locker room" talk.   Also, the name of the restaurant chain, "Pollos Hermanos" means, "Chicken Brothers".  I never saw a reason to doubt that they were literal brothers.  Maybe they were half brothers, I thought, which is why their skin tones were so different.  Another thought that came to me towards the start of the 4th season was that there really is no reason to assume there are only two brothers.  I wondered if a third brother might appear - with an interesting agenda of his own.  We know that Gus has children, because he mentions them to Walt during their dinner.  Maybe he would best be described as bisexual - if you want to head down that road.

  Also unexplained is how he managed to get TWO senior manager level people at Madrigal involved in his operation.

  As you watch the series in the future, count how many times Hank's bosses try to get him to turn away from the Fring Investigation.  Then, wonder if it's always because they are sincerely acting in what they believe to be the best interest of their agency and agent - or - if there's a different motivation.
18

That’s nothing new. We went back and forth over the concept of a mole in the DEA quite a bit. I argued that someone (Merkert maybe?) may have been one. If you use Google to search the boards for Breaking Bad threads that have the word mole in them you’ll come up with quite a few threads.
We were either wrong, they abandoned the storyline or there was a mole but it was never revealed to us.

Even if there wasn’t a mole, Fring did donate a lot of money and time to the DEA so it’s very possible they didn’t want Hank investigating him and stopping the flow of money.

19

A mole in the DEA? I didn’t follow any of the BB threads on here, but I don’t think there is any support for that idea whatsoever beyond SDMB posters’ feverish imaginations.

20

And these 1.2 million Google hits for Breaking Bad DEA Mole

It’s not just us. With how hard they tried to get Hank to let up not just on Fring but on the entire blue meth investigation, something seemed odd. They even attempted to transfer him (twice). Why wouldn’t the Drug Enforcement Agency want to investigate one of the largest drug rings the South West has ever seen? The higher ups were perfectly happy to just leave it be like it was just a couple of stoners trading some dime bags of schwag*.
*In other news, I can’t believe I remembered that word.