Better Call Saul "Rock and Hard Place" Review: Nacho Is The Hero We Have Been Waiting For

Ignacio “Nacho” Varga

Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist

The following review assumes you have watched Episode 3, Season 6 of Better Call Saul “Rock and Hard Place”. If you have not seen it, do not proceed further unless you want major spoilers.

“Do you want to be a friend to the cartel, or do you want to be a rat?”

This was a line uttered in the Better Call Saul episode “Rock and Hard Place” by Kim Wexler, referring to the choice Jimmy (or as Kim would correct us, Saul) has in whether he cooperates with the DA office when it comes to Lalo, but it really describes the choice Nacho had before him not just in this appropriately titled episode “Rock and Hard Place”, but in the entire series run.

This choice, “being a friend of the cartel, or a rat”, is the choice we’ve been dreading for Saul as we head ever closer into Breaking Bad territory, but also for Nacho and, while we’re at it, Mike and Kim herself.

We know what Saul ultimately chooses; we just haven’t seen all the particulars revealed yet. We already have seen Mike make his choice. Kim has been less entangled in the cartel up to this point, but, as Lalo made clear last season, she’s as much of friend of the cartel as Saul is.

That leads us to Nacho Varga, who has in some sense struggled with this choice since the 1st season. It was clear that while Nacho played the part of enforcer effectively to his customers, he was always conflicted with the responsibilities of being part of the cartel. As seasons progressed, it was clear that he had moral disgust with Salamanca methods, but couldn’t just submit resignation papers the way normal employees can due to fear for concerns over his safety and most importantly his father’s safety.

Like Jimmy and Kim, Nacho devised clever plans to rid himself of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, like killing Hector Salamanca with sugar pills instead of his real medicine, only to find himself with a bigger rock and a bigger hard place being Gus’s pawn in his war with the Salamancas.

Unlike Jimmy and Kim, Nacho had no control over his life due to his unwavering loyalty to his father. Contrast this with Jimmy, who had no issues destroying his brother’s good name and no regrets about being the ignition that led to his suicide, Nacho protected his father’s good name with everything he had.

Unfortunately, the ties that bind Nacho to his family entrenched him between the rock and the hard place, leading up to the tense final scene of this episode, with Nacho facing certain death with his tormentors Salamancas and Gus Fring as witnesses; it was just being a manner of how he will die.

For those who love Star Trek like me, this was Nacho’s Kobayashi Maru test, aka the no win scenario. In Star Trek lore, the Kobayashi Maru test was given to all prospective fleet captains to see how they will react to a scenario where they face certain death. It was not a test of battle tactics, but of character, as there was no way to avoid death. It was all about whether the captains act honorably, for the Federation, as well as their crew.

For Nacho, if he followed Fring’s orders, he could ensure his father’s safety (as long as Mike is alive), but allow the man who put him in this predicament ultimate victory. If he wanted revenge against Fring, he could bring him down by confessing to Juan Bolsa and the Salamancas, but almost certainly doom his father.

Instead, for the first time in many seasons, Nacho leveraged control of the situation. He insulted Gus to his face, revealed his plot to kill Hector, further cementing his role as the actual perpetrator of victories against the Salamancas. This was more clever than the plan Gus thought of, which further concealed Gus’s involvement. Furthermore, he was able to take Juan Bolsa’s gun, and be master of his fate instead of giving the pleasure to Fring’s cronies.

He will be remembered as the man who took down Hector and Lalo (for now), while metaphorically spitting on Gus.

He passed the Kobayashi Maru test, with flying colors.

I think that’s why we will remember him fondly, with many tears shed at his demise. Nacho, Jimmy, Kim, and Mike face similar dilemmas in ‘Better Call Saul’.

 At his lowest moment, Nacho rose to the challenge, and passed.

We know Jimmy McGill would not pass the Kobayashi Maru test (I wager he would do the exact same thing as Captain Kirk), and it is increasingly evident that neither will Kim.

A friend of the cartel, or a rat.

It’s a false choice, as Nacho proved.

Nacho showed how you can still be a hero in a no-win scenario.

If only Jimmy and Kim were a bit like Nacho.