Breaking Bad S4E10: Gus Fring is a Stone-Cold Killer
Yes, it's been a while since I've journaled about watching Breaking Bad. And yes, I've skipped ahead over a dozen episodes. There's hasn't really been that much to write about. But one thing that's been building over Season 4 is just how much of a stone-cold killer Gus Fring, played by actor Giancarlo Esposito, is.
We first met Esposito's character back in S2E11. He's the mild-mannered manager of a local fast-food chicken restaurant, Pollos Hermanos. Except no, he's actually the owner. Of the whole chains of about a dozen restaurants. Except no, he's also a drug kingpin. He dresses fastidiously, speaks softly, and works through intermediaries. He's a big enough gangster that he casually buys several pounds of drugs from Walt for $1.2 million.
I remarked at the time that I initially didn't recognize it was Giancarlo Esposito playing Gus Fring. Compared to the last TV show I saw him cast in, The Mandalorian, where he was a charismatic, snarling villain as Moff Gideon, he was totally different here as the very under-played villain Gus Fring. But it's that careful underplaying that makes Fring more sinister than Gideon.
You think Fring's all low-key business-guy who prefers intelligence to violence. Unlike the Mexican cartel members who are gun-toting cowboys, Fring hides in plain sight. He's a respected member of the city's community. He sponsors police events and is on various boards. Then in the season 4 opener you see him calmly murder in cold blood one of his crew who screws up. It's not even just that he murders the guy in cold blood; it's how he prepares for it and cleans up after. He's in the meth lab, where he changes out of his suit jacked into a bunny suit. After the murder, he changes out of the blood lab gear and back into his business clothes. He's calm the whole time. He's like a business executive... for whom dispassionately murdering someone is just another day at the office.
Fring's ability to kill people and do it calmly and with genteel manner comes to a head in S4E10. Fring has been pressed into folding his US operation back into a Mexican drug cartel led by Don Eladio. Fring, his fixer Mike, and young drug-maker Jesse are flown to Mexico to prove to the cartel that Jesse is capable of making high-grade drugs and teach the cartel's chemists Walt's secret recipe. But Fring has a secret. Not only is he angry about being pressed into this cartel in the present day after escaping them, he carries a desire for revenge over being pressed into their service 20 years ago- and watching Don Eladio's henchman murder his partner in front of him. (We see this murder in a flashback scene in S4E9.)
Long story short, Fring poisons Eladio and all his capos at a party with tainted bottle of tequila. Fring drinks the poison, too. But it's part of an elaborate plan he's developed in advance. He knew he'd have to drink the poison because Eladio would be suspicious and want to see him drink a shot of the gifted tequila to prove its safety. Minutes after drinking Fring excuses himself to the bathroom to force himself to throw up the tequila.
But it's not just the fact he risked poisoning himself that makes Fring so spooky as a villain; it's how carefully he arranges things in the bathroom of Eladio's opulent home. First he takes off his suit jacket and folds it on the counter. Then he takes off his glasses and sets them down atop the coat. Then he folds a towel to kneel on in front of the toilet. When I saw him folding that towel, BTW, that was when I knew, "Oh, shit, he poisoned the tequila and now he's going to throw it up." I've folded a towel the same way enough times when preparing to throw up in a bathroom with a hard tile floor. 🤢 Then he goes about his business, washes up, and puts back on glasses and suit jacket. As he opens the door to leave the bathroom the thug of Eladio's who was standard guard outside falls into the bathroom, dead. Fring steps around him and heads outside.
We first met Esposito's character back in S2E11. He's the mild-mannered manager of a local fast-food chicken restaurant, Pollos Hermanos. Except no, he's actually the owner. Of the whole chains of about a dozen restaurants. Except no, he's also a drug kingpin. He dresses fastidiously, speaks softly, and works through intermediaries. He's a big enough gangster that he casually buys several pounds of drugs from Walt for $1.2 million.
I remarked at the time that I initially didn't recognize it was Giancarlo Esposito playing Gus Fring. Compared to the last TV show I saw him cast in, The Mandalorian, where he was a charismatic, snarling villain as Moff Gideon, he was totally different here as the very under-played villain Gus Fring. But it's that careful underplaying that makes Fring more sinister than Gideon.
You think Fring's all low-key business-guy who prefers intelligence to violence. Unlike the Mexican cartel members who are gun-toting cowboys, Fring hides in plain sight. He's a respected member of the city's community. He sponsors police events and is on various boards. Then in the season 4 opener you see him calmly murder in cold blood one of his crew who screws up. It's not even just that he murders the guy in cold blood; it's how he prepares for it and cleans up after. He's in the meth lab, where he changes out of his suit jacked into a bunny suit. After the murder, he changes out of the blood lab gear and back into his business clothes. He's calm the whole time. He's like a business executive... for whom dispassionately murdering someone is just another day at the office.
Fring's ability to kill people and do it calmly and with genteel manner comes to a head in S4E10. Fring has been pressed into folding his US operation back into a Mexican drug cartel led by Don Eladio. Fring, his fixer Mike, and young drug-maker Jesse are flown to Mexico to prove to the cartel that Jesse is capable of making high-grade drugs and teach the cartel's chemists Walt's secret recipe. But Fring has a secret. Not only is he angry about being pressed into this cartel in the present day after escaping them, he carries a desire for revenge over being pressed into their service 20 years ago- and watching Don Eladio's henchman murder his partner in front of him. (We see this murder in a flashback scene in S4E9.)
Long story short, Fring poisons Eladio and all his capos at a party with tainted bottle of tequila. Fring drinks the poison, too. But it's part of an elaborate plan he's developed in advance. He knew he'd have to drink the poison because Eladio would be suspicious and want to see him drink a shot of the gifted tequila to prove its safety. Minutes after drinking Fring excuses himself to the bathroom to force himself to throw up the tequila.
But it's not just the fact he risked poisoning himself that makes Fring so spooky as a villain; it's how carefully he arranges things in the bathroom of Eladio's opulent home. First he takes off his suit jacket and folds it on the counter. Then he takes off his glasses and sets them down atop the coat. Then he folds a towel to kneel on in front of the toilet. When I saw him folding that towel, BTW, that was when I knew, "Oh, shit, he poisoned the tequila and now he's going to throw it up." I've folded a towel the same way enough times when preparing to throw up in a bathroom with a hard tile floor. 🤢 Then he goes about his business, washes up, and puts back on glasses and suit jacket. As he opens the door to leave the bathroom the thug of Eladio's who was standard guard outside falls into the bathroom, dead. Fring steps around him and heads outside.