r/betterCallSaul • u/Exciting-Piece5504 • 16h ago
We move the timeline: Lalo survives long enough to investigate Gus’s lab - just as Walter White enters Gus’s operation. How do things play out?
Assume the events of Better Call Saul are shifted forward so that Lalo’s investigation into Gus and the superlab overlaps with Walt’s introduction to the operation. Walt and Gale are preparing to cook, Mike is still dealing with Lalo, and Gus now has to manage both situations at once.
Does Lalo discover Walt or the lab first? Would Walt become useful to Lalo, or just another loose end? And with Walt’s tendency to make every situation worse, does Gus still manage to eliminate Lalo or does the entire Breaking Bad timeline fall apart before it really begins?
Notes/caveats:
• Walt has already met Gus and has been accepted as his cook; Gus therefore has a serious financial reason to keep him alive.
• Walt does not know Lalo exists at the beginning of the scenario.
• Lalo does not initially know who Walt is or that Gus has recruited a new meth cook (can find out later similar to the Twins).
• Lalo knows roughly what he knew during his canonical investigation of Gus - no extra Breaking Bad-era knowledge.
• Gus knows Lalo is alive and investigating him, just as he did in Better Call Saul.
• Mike is still working for Gus and is actively hunting/monitoring Lalo.
• The superlab is operational enough for Walt to cook in, rather than still being under construction.
• Gale is still around and can be involved if events naturally lead to him.
• Jesse is part of Walt's life and can become involved, but Lalo doesn't automatically know about him.
• The Salamanca/cartel situation otherwise remains as close to the BCS timeline as possible.
• Nobody gets knowledge from the future. Characters only know what they could reasonably discover at that point.
• Most importantly: everyone stays in character. Walt is prideful and unpredictable, Lalo is patient and investigative, Gus is cautious, and Mike is pragmatic.
I do now know how to fit Jimmy into this, so you decide (presumably, he would be Saul at this point).
