"Carrot and Stick" is the second episode of the sixth season of Better Call Saul, the spin-off television series of Breaking Bad.

In the episode, Nacho Varga comes face-to-face with the cartel while Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler involve Betsy and Craig Kettleman in their plan to ruin Howard Hamlin's life.

"Carrot and Stick" features the return of Julie Ann Emery and Jeremy Shamos as the Kettlemans, who reprise their roles from the first season, along with the first chronological appearance of an inflatable prop from Breaking Bad.

"Carrot and Stick" was met with critical acclaim for Gilligan's direction and Mando's performance as well as its tension, cinematography, and action sequence.

Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus Fring's men enter Nacho Varga's home and pay his girlfriends to leave town.

Juan and his men break into the duplicate safe and find the envelope, which contains the phone number of Nacho's motel and details of an offshore bank account.

[1]: 36:40–36:58  "Carrot and Stick" features the return of Julie Ann Emery and Jeremy Shamos as Betsy and Craig Kettleman, who made their debut in the first season.

[2] The episode marks the first chronological appearance of the inflatable Statue of Liberty that is eventually shown atop Saul's office in Breaking Bad; it is first used to advertise the Kettlemans's tax preparation business.

[5] Actor Michael Mando performed the majority of the stunts for his character, Nacho, except for jumping out of the motel window and driving the truck when it collided with another vehicle.

While filming Nacho's escape from the motel room, Mando and Gilligan would take turns bashing the air conditioning unit.

One moment in the episode has Nacho looking out of his room window and catching a glint of light and a small amount of movement from the watchman.

Club's Kimberly Potts graded the episode with an "A" and said it featured the "most hold-your-breath action sequence" of all time since the shootout in Breaking Bad's "One Minute".

He saw Lalo's absence and the episode's focus on Gus, Jimmy, and Kim as Better Call Saul "shrewdly muddying the waters a little bit."

[10] David Segal of The New York Times described the episode as "superb and stressful" and said it was a "study in damage control, overseen by a man [Gus] who seems uncharacteristically ruffled and uncertain about what to do."

Segal also said the shootout scene was "expertly staged" by Gilligan and that Rhea Seehorn's performance as Kim provided an opportunity for her to "demonstrate an almost thuggish toughness.

"[11] Scott Tobias, writing for Vulture, compared the motel sequences to the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone, including Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).