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idyllphile · 1 day ago

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I don't know exactly what traits/behaviors someone has to display to qualify as a sadist or as having Antisocial Personality Disorder; it's fully possible that he isn't either of those

the more that I think about it, the more I start to find that Lalo's personal feelings on violence may be more neutral than positive; he may even be the most neutral towards it out of all the cousins! Tuco clearly enjoys it (laughing and cheering when he breaks the skateboard twins' legs and when he beats No-Doze), and while Marco and Leonel have very flat affects it's worth noting that Leonel wants Hank killed more than he wants help after this legs are crushed, and Marco chooses to retrieve the axe because shooting Hank would be 'too easy,' something that wastes time he could've spent getting himself and his brother to safety and evading arrest. both Tuco and the twins are shown taking pleasure in causing pain/death, but Lalo...

I've posted before about my interpretation of Lalo's facial expressions during various tense pre-violence scenes:

I still hold this view. rather than any hint that he's enjoying the fear he's putting into Jimmy, the injured assassin, and Fred, it really seems to me like TD played him as if he's feeling something similar to sympathy for these people who he knows (or at least expects, in Jimmy's case) he's going to kill. not genuine sympathy, but... I don't know, it's hard to find a word for it. I think how I described it in the original post may be the best way I can put it

to bring up a more easy-to-understand expression, the only time we ever see him smile while committing violence is when he shoots Gus's men in the laundry, but it's clear that his darkly gleeful expression is from having captured Gus, not from having killed those guys. in all other instances, like I mentioned before, we either don't see the killing/torturing on-screen or don't see any indication of Lalo taking pleasure in it

now, as for the Hotel Tulipan and Fred Whalen... I'm gonna put the rest of this under a cut, because once again I chattered way too much lol

here's the transcript for what Lalo says during that scene (the English subtitles for it, that is):

Uncle Hector. You know what I was thinking about this morning? The smell of burning leather and horsehair stuffing. Do you remember? Hotel Tulipan. You were so polite to that guy. And he turns his back on you? Makes that big deal to show he's not scared. He was a professor before he opened that place, remember? He'd always bring that up. The big college professor. You took your time with him. And his wife listening from the side. That asshole was so proud of his beautiful Spanish, his books, his antiques. But when it burned, it all smelled like shit. I never told you this, but... I went back inside. I went through the flames, the smoke. It was so hot the rubber on my shoes melted a little. Yes, I know it was very stupid, but... I'm sentimental. I wanted a souvenir. I kept it all these years. I brought it. Do you want to see it? Brings back memories, yes? Remember that guy hitting this, calling for his bellboy? And you? Teaching the teacher!

our headcanons differ on Lalo's age at the time; my imagined Salamanca Family History & Timeline has Hector being released from his 17-year long prison sentence in 1982, when Lalo would've been 22, so that would be the youngest he could've been at Hotel Tulipan in my personal view of pre-canon events. regardless of his age, it's completely possible that Lalo did not actively participate in the torture and murder. his word choice - "you took your time with him," rather than 'we took our time with him' - makes me inclined to believe that, honestly. but given how he talks about it, and the facts of the situation, I find it unlikely that Lalo didn't at least see everything that happened. if the wife was "listening from the side" while Hector was doing the torture, Lalo must have been the one making sure she didn't attack or try to run for help; either he physically restrained her or he held a gun on her. the bellboy may have also been there, or not; Lalo recalls that the owner used the bell to call his employee, but says nothing to indicate that he was a third victim in this situation

Lalo could have tortured the wife while Hector tortured the hotel owner, but there's no other mention of her beyond her simple presence; I feel like that would've been something Lalo at least referenced if it had happened (though it's very likely she was also killed, as Hector and Lalo would probably not want to leave a witness, and if the bellboy was there then the same would be true for him)

him telling this story when he comes to visit Hector was most definitely an attempt to make him feel better; when he first walks into Casa Tranquila and sees Hector for the first time since before his stroke disabled him, he says, "Oh God" and visibly steels himself before approaching. he's upset about Hector's situation, knows Hector is miserable, and is here with both his presence and a present in hopes of cheering Hector up

we see him take a breath and then deliberately plaster on a smile on in preparation for going over to talk to Hector; that's one instance of him, in this scene, 'putting on a happy face.' so the idea that him laughing and smiling as he tells the story is just another 'happy face' moment, rather than an example of him looking back fondly on torture and murder, isn't without evidence!

however, there's still the bell to consider. Lalo said it himself; he wanted a souvenir. he clearly considered the events of Hotel Tulipan a positive experience, something he enjoyed so much that he was willing to risk dying in the fire just to grab a keepsake to remember it by. whether he participated directly or just watched and kept the wife from interfering, he liked what happened

if one wanted to argue that, over time, he stopped viewing that memory as a good one, there's some room to do so, especially if one believes that his cheerfulness while retelling the story was purely for Hector's benefit. though, there's some interesting contrast here between Lalo with the bell and Hank with Tuco's grill; Hank, despite originally receiving the souvenir of his kill with gladness, grows to dislike it and the memory attached to it. Lalo, on the other hand, is proactive in securing his souvenir and then "kept it for all these years." if the memory of Hotel Tulipan did turn unpleasant for him at some point, he clearly didn't feel bad enough to get rid of the bell like Hank got rid of Tuco's grill

that's off-topic, though. moving on to Fred Whalen... I see three options for why Lalo chose to beat him to death rather than just shoot him

option one: The Rage Theory. he had a fit of anger similar to the one we see him experience in "Plan and Execution." I think this is the most unlikely explanation. Fred not showing him the security tapes isn't as big an obstacle to his goals as Gus tapping the line at Casa Tranquila, plus it doesn’t prevent him from freely conversing with a family member for the first time in a month. on top of that, by the time he gets close enough to Fred to beat him, he already knows he'll be able to see the tapes because he's gotten past the security barrier. he's going to get what he wants, and Fred had even been perfectly respectful; he has to die so that he can't report any of this, but there's no cause here for rage from a self-controlled person like Lalo. Tuco, maybe, but not Lalo

option two: The Sadism Theory. he just wanted to kill Fred in a slower, more brutal and physical way for the pleasure/satisfaction of it. there's a good deal of evidence for this! we have Lalo's very clear familiarity with and willingness to use violence, his happy recollection of Hotel Tulipan which can be read as evidence of his sadism, and the simple fact that he does it despite having had a gun that could've gotten the job done much quicker (and we can't forget that time was of the essence for Lalo at this moment, as he was trying to find Werner before Gus's men did). I consider this explanation very plausible

option three: The Logic Theory. he beat Fred because he worried that the sound of a gunshot would cause someone to come investigate or call the police while he was still inside TravelWire. it was done out of caution, not out of anger or the desire to make Fred's death slow and painful. the evidence for this mainly hinges on what my original post was about; the fact that Lalo is never shown to be clearly enjoying himself when he hurts and kills people on-screen. the fact that he was in a hurry can also be used to support this theory, as one can certainly argue that Lalo - who is shown to be calculating and very intelligent - wouldn't waste time satisfying sadistic urges while hot on the tail of a man who can reveal Fring's treachery to him, and so surely there must have been rational reasoning behind the decision. I also find this explanation quite plausible, and I'm torn as to which I believe between it and option number two

wow, I've been rambling for ages and I'm only less certain of what I think Lalo's personal feelings on violence are lmao. but yes, his score on the Adverse Childhood Experiences test is most definitely high, just like his cousins. poor boys. they're fucked up!

I find it really interesting that we never see Lalo take pleasure in hurting and killing other people. it's always business-like, very 'doing what needs to be done'

I'm definitely not saying I think he doesn't enjoy it; he was way more brutal than he needed to be when he murdered Fred Whalen, and of course we have him grinning as he recounts the 'fond memory' of the time he and Hector tortured and murdered a hotel owner, an event that meant so much to him that he risked his own life to go back inside the burning building for a souvenir. I do absolutely believe he gets, at minimum, some satisfaction from killing his enemies/people who get in his way or piss him off

but it's strange, isn't it? how he has the most kills out of every BCS character (seventeen in total) and yet we the audience never get to see him display any delight in the killing. we hear his gleeful recollection of the hotel murder, we hear that he beat Fred Whalen to death despite having a gun he could've used to end his life quickly, we hear about instances of him enjoying torture and murder, but we never see it. it's not that his sadism is being hidden, it's just that the audience is never shown his sadism directly. every time we see him kill or maim, it's all business

like I said, it's very interesting. I wonder why that decision was made for his character

#Better Call Saul #Lalo Salamanca #Hector Salamanca #Salamanca family #it's so fun to think thoughts about these freaks <3 #sparksposts

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