Disclaimer: I would be shocked if any of the writers/showrunners came out and said they conceived of Lalo as a gay character and intended for him to be seen by the viewers as gay. I would be even more shocked if they wrote him as gay, but then decided to conceal The Truth from the fans for some reason. This is not that kind of trutherism.
Instead, let’s put authorial intention aside and engage solely with the text of the show. In this actual essay I wrote because I’m obsessed with AMC’s hit teevee show Better Call Saul and Eduardo “Lalo” Salamanca in particular, I will prove that a gay Lalo makes way more sense than a straight Lalo.
1) Lalo’s attitude towards women. I’ve already gone into this here, but I want to expand on it a little further. The Latin American drug cartels are steeped in machismo culture, in which men have authority over women. To a typical macho guy, the way Kim speaks to Lalo in 5x09 would be unacceptable - not just insulting, but a threat to his identity as a man. Even if he thought she had a good point, he would not tolerate that kind of disrespect without pushback.
Lalo has all of the power in that situation. There’s no reason for him not to yell at her to shut up at the very least, even if he decides killing her and Jimmy would be too messy (although he’s heading to Mexico as a fugitive already, so what’s another couple of murders to him?) Instead, he quietly listens to her tirade, considers her arguments, decides she probably has a point, and leaves without another word.
This is a baffling reaction if Lalo is a typical heterosexual, macho narco. But what if Lalo is gay? His relationship with machismo culture would be a lot more complicated. He would engage with it to blend in, but he would see it as mask he wears rather than a core part of his identity. You can take a mask off. Kim was talking sense, even if she was being disrespectful about it. He doesn’t feel obligated to put her in her place to defend his masculinity.
2) Where are Lalo’s children? The Salamancas are a family dynasty. It’s hard to keep a family dynasty going if no one is having any kids. Tuco is an unstable drug addict who’s in and out of jail, so it’s understandable that he hasn’t fathered any children. The twins are reptilian weirdos who can’t separate from each other long enough to make it with a woman.
But what’s Lalo’s excuse? He’s handsome, charming, wealthy, and stable (relatively speaking). He’s in his late 40s/early 50s, so he’s had plenty of time to establish himself. He owns a nice home where he could safely tuck away a wife and kids. Or alternately, he could have a bunch of mistresses and father children with all of them.
Instead, he lives the life of a confirmed bachelor, with only his paid staff to keep him company. That’s very weird if Lalo’s straight, but makes perfect sense if he’s gay.
3) The Nacho factor. This one is a little fuzzier and admittedly ship-tainted, but bear with me. Lalo is horny for Nacho. Their first meeting in 4x08 can be seen as a seduction attempt from Lalo (especially if you buy into my Nacho Christ/Lalo Morningstar interpretation). Not a literal seduction like he was trying in that moment to fuck him, but he’s clearly being playful (in a menacing sort of way) and trying to see if he can get some sort of yes from Nacho, even if it’s just yes to food.
But Nacho stonewalls him. Imagine Nacho saying no to Hector about anything. He would be furious at the disrespect. Lalo isn’t. If anything, he seems intrigued. His whole bit about getting Nacho to eat his tacos is not him establishing his authority as Don Eduardo, the narco boss who must be obeyed. He’s trying to a) figure out what kind of guy this Varga fellow is, but also b) see if Nacho will play with him. It’s not ironclad evidence of his horniness since Lalo favors a softer touch with other people, too (Jimmy, for example). But I don’t think it’s a stretch to view this first interaction as flirtatious.
Lots of viewers wonder why Lalo trusted Nacho so completely by the end, especially since we know that Nacho had so much hatred and frustration brewing under the surface. Nacho put in a lot of work to earn Lalo’s trust, as I’ve already talked about, but Lalo’s attraction to Nacho also plays a role in blinding him to Nacho’s true intentions. Lalo’s a smart guy, but his dick is stupid, as dicks tend to be.
Let’s go further and take a closer look at 5x10. Thanks to Kim’s advice, Lalo has decided to trust Nacho and bring him into his home. Lalo is a touchy-feely guy in general (see him schmoozing at Don Eladio’s party)…but he sure is getting extra handsy with Nacho, isn’t he? And then, by the firepit, when they’re all alone and every doubt Lalo had about Nacho has been put to rest, Lalo tells Nacho he’s “halfway to being a Salamanca.” Kind of sounds like a little more than “you’re my most trusted lieutenant,” doesn’t it? How does he plan to get Nacho fullway into being a Salamanca? (I mean, they wouldn’t get married and their relationship would have to be on the DL, but in their hearts Nacho could be a fully fledged Salamanca as his partner.)
And then when Nacho suggests they break out something stronger, Lalo is extremely excited about having their own little party, just the two of them, all alone in the privacy of his home, where neither of them have to worry about prying eyes or cartel gossip. Makes you wonder where he was hoping the night would lead. (The answer is he was hoping to take the Blowjob Express to Pound Town.)
So there you have it. Lalo is a gay homosexual, and good for him. In fairness, let me briefly address potential Lalo-is-straight counterarguments:
1) All characters should be assumed straight unless the writers say otherwise – BOO, this is homophobic and we are doing a dead-author interpretation here so it’s not valid anyway, next argument
2) We haven’t seen Lalo suck a dick, ipso facto he is straight – well, we haven’t seen him eat a pussy either, have we? In fact, he turned down the opportunity in 6x05. IPSO FACTO HE IS GAY.
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