Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca (/ˈlɑːloʊ ˌsæləˈmɑːŋkə/ LAH-loh SAL-ə-MAHNK-ə, Spanish: [eˈðwaɾðo ˈlalo salaˈmaŋka]) is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists in the AMC television series Better Call Saul, a spinoff of Breaking Bad.

Showrunners gave Dalton freedom to diverge from cartel stereotypes and portrayals of the other members of the Salamanca family.

In July 2018, Tony Dalton joined Better Call Saul in the role of Lalo Salamanca,[2] first appearing in the season four episode "Coushatta".

[5] Gilligan and Peter Gould, however, had difficulty deciding how to properly introduce the character, whom they considered a bogeyman around the second season of Breaking Bad but had not worked out his personality or motivations.

[6][7] Gould realized Lalo needed to be different from the other members of the Salamanca family and a foil equal to Gus Fring.

[15] According to Dalton, Lalo was originally not intended to be charming; he felt the series needed someone "kind of smiling and carefree and a little bit mischievous" like Jimmy but "in the bad guy's part".

[15] Dalton sought to distance himself from his role in the television series Sr. Ávila, in which he played a hitman who he felt had "zero personality".

Dalton toned down Lalo's Mexican accent because of his belief the character, given his wealth, was educated in a "good school" in the United States.

Dalton gave Lalo an upbeat personality to show the character's normally easy-going outlook on life and to distance him from typical portrayals of cartel members as serious about their work.

Gordon Smith said the writers considered having Mike kill Lalo but this idea was discarded to let the "biggest big bads" in the series—Gus and Lalo—confront each other.

[22] While staking out Gus' chicken farm, Lalo observes activity related to Werner Ziegler's escape.

With Juan Bolsa present, Gus tells Lalo that Werner was working on a legitimate project and fled after stealing cocaine.

[25] When Krazy-8 is arrested outside a Salamanca stash house, Nacho gains Lalo's trust by climbing over rooftops to sneak in and recover the drugs before police enter.

Lalo asks Jimmy to free Krazy-8 by using him to feed the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) information on Gus' dead drops.

Lalo congratulates Jimmy but Nacho warns him once he begins working for drug dealers, there is no turning back.

[27] In jail under an alias, Lalo is initially denied bail and is suspicious of how the police came to pursue him, and he instructs Nacho to burn down one of Gus' restaurants.

They continue the return trip to Albuquerque with the money; when Jimmy's car breaks down, they push it off the side of the road, take the cash, and walk for two days.

[29] Jimmy posts Lalo's bail and hides Mike's involvement by claiming he was alone and walked after his car broke down.

Lalo prepares to return to Mexico to avoid trial but his suspicions lead him to search for Jimmy's car.

Lalo is awake at the appointed hour so Nacho sets a kitchen fire to distract him and opens the gate.

[35] He uses the sculptor's label to locate Casper, whom he disables and coerces into revealing details of the project Werner was supervising.

[36] Lalo returns to Albuquerque and stakes out the laundry, intending to get video footage of the meth lab for Eladio.

Lalo arrives at Jimmy and Kim's apartment, where Howard Hamlin is confronting them about their plan to ruin his reputation.

[43][44] Reviewing the episode that introduces Lalo, Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone said Dalton "makes a solid first impression in the role" and that he hoped for "more than filling in a blank most viewers had long since forgotten existed".

[45] Sepinwall called the final scene in "Bad Choice Road", in which Lalo confronts Jimmy and Kim, one of the best in the series.