Gus Fring
Encyclopedia
Gustavo 'Gus' Fring is a fictional character
in the American television drama series Breaking Bad
on AMC. He is portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito
and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan
. Gus is one of the most prominent methamphetamine
distributors in the southwest. He owns and operates several legitimate businesses, including a chain of fast food restaurants (called Los Pollos Hermanos) and an industrial laundry facility, as fronts for a vast and sophisticated drug operation. Gus maintains a friendly and low-key exterior; he takes an active role in managing his front businesses and personally supervises employees and serves customers at his fast food restaurants. In order to keep up appearances, Gus is a booster
for the DEA
and has made large donations to the agency's Albuquerque office. However, Gus is ruthless and machiavellian in managing his vast drug empire. He employs a number of enforcers and has personally killed rivals and associates.
and emigrated to Mexico
in 1989, shortly before the fall of Augusto Pinochet
. With his longtime friend and partner, Maximino Arciniega ("Max"), Gus started a chicken restaurant called Los Pollos Hermanos. Max was murdered by the Juárez cartel
, leading Gus to emigrate to the United States
and re-establish Los Pollos Hermanos as a chain of fast-food restaurants in New Mexico
. Using his restaurants' supply chain as a front, Gus began distributing drugs in the American southwest on behalf of the cartel, an operation that eventually grew to encompass methamphetamine
.
Gus claims to have children, yet they have never been seen and little else about his family life has been revealed. It is implied that Fring may be using an alias; neither Hank nor Mike can find any record of his existence before his arrival to Mexico. Don Eladio mentions that he has spared Gus's life only because he knows who Gus is, and warns him that he "isn't in Chile anymore"; in a flashback scene, Hector Salamanca mockingly refers to him as "Grand Generalissimo
". Gilligan has stated that he purposely left Gus's origin ambiguous, comparing it to the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
seeks a buyer for his chemically pure meth, his lawyer, Saul Goodman, puts him in contact with Gus. Walter and his partner, Jesse Pinkman
, arrange a meeting with the seldom-seen Gus at a Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant, but Gus seemingly never shows up. Walter later realizes that Gus is the restaurant proprietor, and that he had purposely scheduled the meeting at his own restaurant in order to observe Walter and Jesse. Upon being confronted by Walter, Gus tells him that he is not interested in conducting business since Jesse was late and high during the meeting, and thus potentially unreliable.
Walter persuades Gus to reconsider his decision, promising that he will never have to deal with Jesse and that their product will earn him enormous returns. Gus eventually buys thirty-eight pounds of Walter's meth for $1.2 million; the timing of the transaction forces Walter to miss the birth of his daughter, Holly. Shortly afterwards, Gus is given a tour of the DEA's Albuquerque field office, along with other local boosters
. While there, he discovers that Walter is dying of lung cancer
and that his brother-in-law, Hank Schraeder, is a DEA agent.
Gus's protection of Walter puts him at odds with the cartel, which holds him responsible for the death of Tuco Salamanca, Hector's nephew. Gus promises one of his superiors, Juan Bolsa, that the cartel will have free rein to kill Walter once his cooking tenure has been completed. When Leonel and Marco Salamanca, Hector's twin nephews, push back against this agreement, Gus attempts to appease them by offering his permission to kill Hank. However, Hank manages to survive the hit, killing Marco and critically injuring Leonel. Gus later sends his enforcer, Mike Ehrmantraut, to poison Leonel in his hospital bed.
The attempted assassination of Hank causes the U.S. and Mexican governments to launch a crackdown on the cartel. The Mexican Federales kill Bolsa, who realizes all too late that Gus engineered the entire fiasco in order to seize control of the methamphetamine market. After learning that Hank was contacted before the hit, Walter makes the same conclusion. He requests a meeting with him to discuss the future of their arrangement. Gus offers to extend their agreement to a long-term, $15 million-a-year deal, which Walter accepts. Gus reluctantly lets Walter keep Jesse as his cooking partner, but makes it clear that he dislikes Jesse and only tolerates him because he respects Walter's abilities.
Walter's relationship with Gus is jeopardized when Walter kills two of Gus's dealers to protect Jesse. Gus, along with Mike and Victor, meets Walt in the desert and demands that he explain himself. Walt implies that he suspects Gus of having ordered the dealers to kill 11 year old Tomas, which infuriates Gus. Gus seemingly accepts Walter's plea to regard the episode as a "hiccup" and allow him to continue cooking meth, but re-appoints Gale as Walter's assistant. Gus visits Gale at his apartment and surreptitiously instructs him to learn Walter's formula so as to be able to replace Walter (telling the clueless Gale that Walt has cancer and could die any day). Walter again deduces Gus's true intentions and plots with Jesse to kill Gale. Walter surmises that any delay in production would weaken Gus's position and that without Gale, Gus would be forced to retain Walter as the only cook capable of producing the high-quality meth needed to sustain his operations. Walter sets out to kill Gale, but is intercepted by Victor and brought to the lab where Mike is waiting for him. Under the pretext of luring Jesse to the lab to betray him to Mike, Walter convinces Mike to allow him to call Jesse. Instead, Walter instructs Jesse to kill Gale. Victor rushes to Gale's apartment but arrives too late to stop Jesse from killing Gale.
suit and, in a gruesome show of force, slits Victor's throat with a box cutter in front of the horrified duo. Walter and Jesse are spared a similar punishment, although Walter knows that he has fallen out of favor with Gus and fears that he will eventually be killed. Walter decides to pre-emptively do away with Gus, illegally purchasing a snubnosed revolver
for the task.
Jesse, guilt-ridden over Gale's murder, descends into a drug-fueled depression and begins inviting strangers into his home for all-night parties. In response to Mike's concerns about Jesse's behavior, Gus instructs him to take Jesse with him on pick-up runs as an apprentice. To test Jesse's fortitude, Gus has his henchmen stage an attempted robbery during one of the runs. Jesse thwarts the robbery attempt and escapes with Mike. Later, Jesse helps Mike retrieve stolen meth from a pair of junkies. Impressed with Jesse's capabilities, Gus deems him ready to take on a greater role in the operation.
Meanwhile, Gus's conflict with the cartel escalates. The cartel sends several men to kidnap Gus's chemical supplier, but the operation is foiled by Mike. The cartel also attacks Gus's delivery trucks and distributes the meth to local junkies. Gus arranges a meeting with the cartel where he offers a one-time payment of $50 million in exchange for a settlement of grievances and a complete severance of their partnership. The cartel refuses and reiterates its demand that Gus hand over Walter. In a flashback scene, the origin of Gus's animosity toward the cartel is revealed: twenty years earlier, during a meeting in which Gus and Max sought to enter the meth business with the cartel, Hector shot Max in the head as Gus was forced to watch.
Hank is asked for help in deciphering what appears to be information about a meth lab written Gale's notebook. He begins to suspect that Gus is involved in "blue sky" when he finds a Los Pollos Hermanos napkin among the evidence collected from Gale's apartment, despite Gale being a vegan. Hank retrieves Gus's fingerprints during a visit to Los Pollos Hermanos and matches them with prints found in Gale's apartment. Gus is questioned, but his explanation satisfies both the DEA and the police. Hank remains suspicious, however, and investigates Gus on his own. He obliviously asks for Walter's help in attaching a tracking device to Gus's car; Gus is warned by Walter and later removes the device.
In an attempt to diffuse tensions with the cartel, Gus agrees to share Walter's formula with them. Because he does not trust Walter, Gus and Mike take Jesse to Mexico, where Jesse cooks a batch of Walter's formula in the cartel's own superlab. To Jesse's alarm, Gus seemingly agrees to have Jesse work for the cartel on a permanent basis. However, during a party celebrating the agreement, Gus kills the cartel's leader, Don Eladio, and the other partygoers with a poisoned bottle of tequila
. Gus himself is poisoned, having been forced to drink the tequila by a suspicious Don Eladio. Gus, Jesse, and Mike flee Don Eladio's compound and make their way to a makeshift clinic. There, Gus is treated and quickly recovers.
Gus deems Jesse fit to cook Walter's formula and run the superlab on his own. However, Jesse insists that he will not cook for Gus if Walter is killed, offering Gus the option of firing himinstead. Gus's henchmen kidnap Walter and take him out to the desert, where Gus fires him, tells him that he plans to deal with Hank, and threatens to kill his entire family if he attempts to interfere. Afterwards, Gus visits Hector in his nursing home and tauntingly informs him of the deaths of his family members and the end of the cartel.
Walter frantically searches for a way to kill Gus. After Gus evades a bomb that Walter had planted in Gus's car, Walter consults with Saul and learns of Gus's visits to Hector's nursing home. Realizing that Gus and Hector are enemies, Walter visits Hector and offers him an opportunity to exact revenge on Gus. Walter and Hector hatch a plot to lure Gus back to Hector's nursing home. Hector asks to be taken to speak with Hank at the DEA. Tyrus sees Hector leaving the DEA office and informs Gus, who decides that Hector must be eliminated. Against Tyrus' advice, Gus insists that he take care of Hector personally. Gus and Tyrus visit Hector in his room, where Tyrus prepares a syringe to inject Hector with a lethal poison. As Gus takes the syringe and taunts Hector for the last time, Hector rings his bell frantically, activating a homemade bomb Walter had attached to his wheelchair. Gus exclaims but is too late. A dazed and horribly disfigured Gus walks out of the room, calmly adjusts his tie, and collapses dead outside the doorway.
was offered to play a character that was described to him as "very admirable, very polite", and he decided to play that character as if he had "some kind of a secret". Without knowing what that secret was, Esposito understood the potential Gus had as a growing character, therefore rejecting offers for guest appearances and insisting on becoming a series regular. In order to achieve Gus's trademark calmness, Esposito utilized yoga
classes he had been taking regardless of the series, which allowed him to convey the character by "being a good listener". The humanity of Gus's personality played an integral role in his development, especially the very deep relationship with Max, which was interpreted by some viewers – and even Esposito himself – as possibly homosexual. The loss of Max is partially what turned Gus into a ruthless villain, who is not above anything when it comes to avenging Max's death, including the murder of children and the gradual killing of Hector Salamanca's entire family. However, the loss of Max is also what cultivated Gus's desire to create a new "family" by empowering his meth empire, as well as the chicken restaurants.
Even moments before dying, Gus manages to calmly adjust his tie after having half his face blown off. Giancarlo Esposito saw it as an important gesture of "when a person goes to what they’ve always done", in order "to be complete in his leaving this world." Gus's death scene has made an impact on fans of the series, who compared his face to that of Two Face as seen in the film The Dark Knight
; some proceeded to create Halloween
masks and T-shirts. His popularity, as well as his importance to the series' development, made room for possible "flashback" type appearances in future episodes.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the American television drama series Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
on AMC. He is portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan is an American writer, director and producer. He is the creator of the highly acclaimed television series Breaking Bad. Gilligan has also worked on the hit series The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. He is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University...
. Gus is one of the most prominent methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
distributors in the southwest. He owns and operates several legitimate businesses, including a chain of fast food restaurants (called Los Pollos Hermanos) and an industrial laundry facility, as fronts for a vast and sophisticated drug operation. Gus maintains a friendly and low-key exterior; he takes an active role in managing his front businesses and personally supervises employees and serves customers at his fast food restaurants. In order to keep up appearances, Gus is a booster
Boosterism
Boosterism is the act of "boosting," or promoting, one's town, city, or organization, with the goal of improving public perception of it. Boosting can be as simple as "talking up" the entity at a party or as elaborate as establishing a visitors' bureau. It is somewhat associated with American small...
for the DEA
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
and has made large donations to the agency's Albuquerque office. However, Gus is ruthless and machiavellian in managing his vast drug empire. He employs a number of enforcers and has personally killed rivals and associates.
Character biography
Little is known about Fring's past. He was born in ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and emigrated to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 1989, shortly before the fall of Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
. With his longtime friend and partner, Maximino Arciniega ("Max"), Gus started a chicken restaurant called Los Pollos Hermanos. Max was murdered by the Juárez cartel
Juárez Cartel
The Juárez Cartel , also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas...
, leading Gus to emigrate to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and re-establish Los Pollos Hermanos as a chain of fast-food restaurants in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. Using his restaurants' supply chain as a front, Gus began distributing drugs in the American southwest on behalf of the cartel, an operation that eventually grew to encompass methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
.
Gus claims to have children, yet they have never been seen and little else about his family life has been revealed. It is implied that Fring may be using an alias; neither Hank nor Mike can find any record of his existence before his arrival to Mexico. Don Eladio mentions that he has spared Gus's life only because he knows who Gus is, and warns him that he "isn't in Chile anymore"; in a flashback scene, Hector Salamanca mockingly refers to him as "Grand Generalissimo
Generalissimo
Generalissimo and Generalissimus are military ranks of the highest degree, superior to Field Marshal and other five-star ranks.-Usage:...
". Gilligan has stated that he purposely left Gus's origin ambiguous, comparing it to the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
Season Two
When Walter WhiteWalter White (Breaking Bad)
Walter Hartwell "Walt" White is a fictional character and the antihero of the American television drama series Breaking Bad on AMC. He is portrayed by Bryan Cranston and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan...
seeks a buyer for his chemically pure meth, his lawyer, Saul Goodman, puts him in contact with Gus. Walter and his partner, Jesse Pinkman
Jesse Pinkman
Jesse Bruce Pinkman is a fictional character of the American television drama series Breaking Bad on AMC. He is portrayed by Aaron Paul and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan.-Background:...
, arrange a meeting with the seldom-seen Gus at a Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant, but Gus seemingly never shows up. Walter later realizes that Gus is the restaurant proprietor, and that he had purposely scheduled the meeting at his own restaurant in order to observe Walter and Jesse. Upon being confronted by Walter, Gus tells him that he is not interested in conducting business since Jesse was late and high during the meeting, and thus potentially unreliable.
Walter persuades Gus to reconsider his decision, promising that he will never have to deal with Jesse and that their product will earn him enormous returns. Gus eventually buys thirty-eight pounds of Walter's meth for $1.2 million; the timing of the transaction forces Walter to miss the birth of his daughter, Holly. Shortly afterwards, Gus is given a tour of the DEA's Albuquerque field office, along with other local boosters
Boosterism
Boosterism is the act of "boosting," or promoting, one's town, city, or organization, with the goal of improving public perception of it. Boosting can be as simple as "talking up" the entity at a party or as elaborate as establishing a visitors' bureau. It is somewhat associated with American small...
. While there, he discovers that Walter is dying of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
and that his brother-in-law, Hank Schraeder, is a DEA agent.
Season Three
Pleased with how well Walter's product has sold, Gus offers him $3 million for three months of his time. Walter, whose family life is in a shambles and who has no desire to continue cooking, respectfully declines the offer. Later, Gus learns of a plot by the cartel to kill Walter, and intervenes at the last moment to narrowly save his life. Gus eventually persuades Walter to accept his offer after showing him a large-scale "superlab" housed under an industrial laundry facility that he owns, outfitted with top-of-the-line equipment and capable of producing at least two-hundred pounds of meth a week. He partners Walter with Gale Boetticher, the talented chemist who set up the superlab.Gus's protection of Walter puts him at odds with the cartel, which holds him responsible for the death of Tuco Salamanca, Hector's nephew. Gus promises one of his superiors, Juan Bolsa, that the cartel will have free rein to kill Walter once his cooking tenure has been completed. When Leonel and Marco Salamanca, Hector's twin nephews, push back against this agreement, Gus attempts to appease them by offering his permission to kill Hank. However, Hank manages to survive the hit, killing Marco and critically injuring Leonel. Gus later sends his enforcer, Mike Ehrmantraut, to poison Leonel in his hospital bed.
The attempted assassination of Hank causes the U.S. and Mexican governments to launch a crackdown on the cartel. The Mexican Federales kill Bolsa, who realizes all too late that Gus engineered the entire fiasco in order to seize control of the methamphetamine market. After learning that Hank was contacted before the hit, Walter makes the same conclusion. He requests a meeting with him to discuss the future of their arrangement. Gus offers to extend their agreement to a long-term, $15 million-a-year deal, which Walter accepts. Gus reluctantly lets Walter keep Jesse as his cooking partner, but makes it clear that he dislikes Jesse and only tolerates him because he respects Walter's abilities.
Walter's relationship with Gus is jeopardized when Walter kills two of Gus's dealers to protect Jesse. Gus, along with Mike and Victor, meets Walt in the desert and demands that he explain himself. Walt implies that he suspects Gus of having ordered the dealers to kill 11 year old Tomas, which infuriates Gus. Gus seemingly accepts Walter's plea to regard the episode as a "hiccup" and allow him to continue cooking meth, but re-appoints Gale as Walter's assistant. Gus visits Gale at his apartment and surreptitiously instructs him to learn Walter's formula so as to be able to replace Walter (telling the clueless Gale that Walt has cancer and could die any day). Walter again deduces Gus's true intentions and plots with Jesse to kill Gale. Walter surmises that any delay in production would weaken Gus's position and that without Gale, Gus would be forced to retain Walter as the only cook capable of producing the high-quality meth needed to sustain his operations. Walter sets out to kill Gale, but is intercepted by Victor and brought to the lab where Mike is waiting for him. Under the pretext of luring Jesse to the lab to betray him to Mike, Walter convinces Mike to allow him to call Jesse. Instead, Walter instructs Jesse to kill Gale. Victor rushes to Gale's apartment but arrives too late to stop Jesse from killing Gale.
Season Four
In the aftermath of Gale's murder, Walter and Jesse are taken before Gus at the laundry. Gus calmy changes into a hazmatHazmat
Hazmat, HazMat and similar terms can refer to:* Hazardous materials and items—see Dangerous goods** Hazchem—a system of hazardous chemical classification and firefighting modes** A hazmat suit is a type of protective clothing...
suit and, in a gruesome show of force, slits Victor's throat with a box cutter in front of the horrified duo. Walter and Jesse are spared a similar punishment, although Walter knows that he has fallen out of favor with Gus and fears that he will eventually be killed. Walter decides to pre-emptively do away with Gus, illegally purchasing a snubnosed revolver
Snubnosed revolver
A snubnosed revolver has a barrel length of less than three inches. It was a popular type of firearm with undercover police officers due to its compact size and ease of handling...
for the task.
Jesse, guilt-ridden over Gale's murder, descends into a drug-fueled depression and begins inviting strangers into his home for all-night parties. In response to Mike's concerns about Jesse's behavior, Gus instructs him to take Jesse with him on pick-up runs as an apprentice. To test Jesse's fortitude, Gus has his henchmen stage an attempted robbery during one of the runs. Jesse thwarts the robbery attempt and escapes with Mike. Later, Jesse helps Mike retrieve stolen meth from a pair of junkies. Impressed with Jesse's capabilities, Gus deems him ready to take on a greater role in the operation.
Meanwhile, Gus's conflict with the cartel escalates. The cartel sends several men to kidnap Gus's chemical supplier, but the operation is foiled by Mike. The cartel also attacks Gus's delivery trucks and distributes the meth to local junkies. Gus arranges a meeting with the cartel where he offers a one-time payment of $50 million in exchange for a settlement of grievances and a complete severance of their partnership. The cartel refuses and reiterates its demand that Gus hand over Walter. In a flashback scene, the origin of Gus's animosity toward the cartel is revealed: twenty years earlier, during a meeting in which Gus and Max sought to enter the meth business with the cartel, Hector shot Max in the head as Gus was forced to watch.
Hank is asked for help in deciphering what appears to be information about a meth lab written Gale's notebook. He begins to suspect that Gus is involved in "blue sky" when he finds a Los Pollos Hermanos napkin among the evidence collected from Gale's apartment, despite Gale being a vegan. Hank retrieves Gus's fingerprints during a visit to Los Pollos Hermanos and matches them with prints found in Gale's apartment. Gus is questioned, but his explanation satisfies both the DEA and the police. Hank remains suspicious, however, and investigates Gus on his own. He obliviously asks for Walter's help in attaching a tracking device to Gus's car; Gus is warned by Walter and later removes the device.
In an attempt to diffuse tensions with the cartel, Gus agrees to share Walter's formula with them. Because he does not trust Walter, Gus and Mike take Jesse to Mexico, where Jesse cooks a batch of Walter's formula in the cartel's own superlab. To Jesse's alarm, Gus seemingly agrees to have Jesse work for the cartel on a permanent basis. However, during a party celebrating the agreement, Gus kills the cartel's leader, Don Eladio, and the other partygoers with a poisoned bottle of tequila
Tequila
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
. Gus himself is poisoned, having been forced to drink the tequila by a suspicious Don Eladio. Gus, Jesse, and Mike flee Don Eladio's compound and make their way to a makeshift clinic. There, Gus is treated and quickly recovers.
Gus deems Jesse fit to cook Walter's formula and run the superlab on his own. However, Jesse insists that he will not cook for Gus if Walter is killed, offering Gus the option of firing himinstead. Gus's henchmen kidnap Walter and take him out to the desert, where Gus fires him, tells him that he plans to deal with Hank, and threatens to kill his entire family if he attempts to interfere. Afterwards, Gus visits Hector in his nursing home and tauntingly informs him of the deaths of his family members and the end of the cartel.
Walter frantically searches for a way to kill Gus. After Gus evades a bomb that Walter had planted in Gus's car, Walter consults with Saul and learns of Gus's visits to Hector's nursing home. Realizing that Gus and Hector are enemies, Walter visits Hector and offers him an opportunity to exact revenge on Gus. Walter and Hector hatch a plot to lure Gus back to Hector's nursing home. Hector asks to be taken to speak with Hank at the DEA. Tyrus sees Hector leaving the DEA office and informs Gus, who decides that Hector must be eliminated. Against Tyrus' advice, Gus insists that he take care of Hector personally. Gus and Tyrus visit Hector in his room, where Tyrus prepares a syringe to inject Hector with a lethal poison. As Gus takes the syringe and taunts Hector for the last time, Hector rings his bell frantically, activating a homemade bomb Walter had attached to his wheelchair. Gus exclaims but is too late. A dazed and horribly disfigured Gus walks out of the room, calmly adjusts his tie, and collapses dead outside the doorway.
Character development
Initially, Giancarlo EspositoGiancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
was offered to play a character that was described to him as "very admirable, very polite", and he decided to play that character as if he had "some kind of a secret". Without knowing what that secret was, Esposito understood the potential Gus had as a growing character, therefore rejecting offers for guest appearances and insisting on becoming a series regular. In order to achieve Gus's trademark calmness, Esposito utilized yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
classes he had been taking regardless of the series, which allowed him to convey the character by "being a good listener". The humanity of Gus's personality played an integral role in his development, especially the very deep relationship with Max, which was interpreted by some viewers – and even Esposito himself – as possibly homosexual. The loss of Max is partially what turned Gus into a ruthless villain, who is not above anything when it comes to avenging Max's death, including the murder of children and the gradual killing of Hector Salamanca's entire family. However, the loss of Max is also what cultivated Gus's desire to create a new "family" by empowering his meth empire, as well as the chicken restaurants.
Even moments before dying, Gus manages to calmly adjust his tie after having half his face blown off. Giancarlo Esposito saw it as an important gesture of "when a person goes to what they’ve always done", in order "to be complete in his leaving this world." Gus's death scene has made an impact on fans of the series, who compared his face to that of Two Face as seen in the film The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
; some proceeded to create Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
masks and T-shirts. His popularity, as well as his importance to the series' development, made room for possible "flashback" type appearances in future episodes.