TL;DR:
Better Call Saul Season 6 recently bid farewell to Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), a character who’s played a pivotal role in the AMC prequel since its beginning. Nacho’s journey is no doubt one of the series’ more devastating ones. But despite his character arc ending in tragedy, Michael Mando believes his story is also “romantic” and “heroic.”
Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 3 brought Nacho Varga’s storyline to a close, killing the character in a surprising scene that will go down as one of the prequel’s greatest.
After helping Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) with his assassination attempt on Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), Nacho finds himself in a sticky situation. The Salamancas know he was involved with the attempt on Lalo’s life. And Gus and Mike (Jonathan Banks) can’t do much to help him. The two agree to protect his father from retaliation, but even that comes with a price: Nacho’s life.
In exchange for his father’s protection, Nacho agrees to take the fall for what happened to Lalo — and shift the blame away from Gus. Mando’s character plays his part well, but he doesn’t do exactly what Mike and Gus tell him. After giving an impressive speech, Nacho finds a way to go out on his own terms. And that resolve speaks to Michael Mando’s interpretation of his character.
During the Better Call Saul Season 6 premiere, Michael Mando reflected on his time playing Nacho Varga. Speaking with Variety on the red carpet, the actor admitted there’s no other role he’d want. He also emphasized what a “heroic” storyline his character has:
“Nacho’s my dream role. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Especially [with] the way it ends, it’s just such a romantic character. And I love that he’s trying to do the right thing, that he refuses to give into the dark side as much as he can. He’s trying to save his father’s life. His father represents sort of like a saint to his eyes. I just find that so romantic and heroic. And I think we need more characters like that, you know?”
He’s right that Nacho is one of the more compelling characters from Better Call Saul. He manages to stay true to himself and his values, even when it would benefit him not to. And Mando broke down his character’s final moments further, explaining why he chose to die rather than fight the Salamancas.
Following Nacho’s final moments in Better Call Saul Season 6, Michael Mando spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his character’s decision. He explained Nacho’s thought process as he decides to take the fall for Gus, emphasizing once again what an important role his father plays in his story:
“Nacho has made the decision to die during the phone call with his father. I believe it is in that moment that he understood his father wasn’t going to escape with him and that his father didn’t understand the severity [of the situation] in which his son was in. And I think in that moment, Nacho understood that I am going to secure my father’s life by sacrificing mine.”
The actor’s analysis will no doubt make rewatching Nacho’s last scene that much more emotional. His character will certainly be missed as Better Call Saul‘s final season continues.
New episodes of Better Call Saul Season 6 premiere on AMC on Mondays at 9 p.m.