Better Call Saul: Why Mike Switched The Safe & Planted The Motel Number
What's the real meaning behind Better Call Saul's Mike Ehrmantraut switching the safe in Nacho's house, and planting a motel phone number in the replacement? Michael Mando's Nacho is having a rough time as Better Call Saul season 6 begins. The Salamancas know he betrayed them by facilitating an assassination attempt on Lalo, and the crime family are not known for their cool temperaments. With Nacho on the run, Mike (Jonathan Banks) tells Gus Fring's secret mole to burrow up in a motel room they've organized and await pickup.
While Nacho sits tight, Mike spends the opening sequence of Better Call Saul season 6, episode 2 ("Carrot & Stick") breaking into the runaway's house. Ejecting two scantily-clad addicts, he instructs a lackey to crack Nacho's safe while barking its measurements through a cellphone. Once cracking is complete, Mike solemnly bags the items within (stacks of cash and fake IDs for both Nacho and his father) before Victor arrives with a brand new safe, which is wheeled into the exact position the old one previously stood. Mike then puts Nacho's cash into the new safe (not all of it, of course...) and adds an envelope that wasn't there before... When Juan Bolsa arrives at Nacho's house later in the episode, he cracks the new safe and opens this envelope to discover a motel phone number.
The overriding intention behind Mike's Better Call Saul safe-swapping track is ensuring Nacho's death without casting suspicion over Gus Fring. At this point in Better Call Saul season 6, Nacho represents the only concrete link between Gus and the attempted assassination of Lalo Salamanca, and that's a loose end Fring wants tied as soon as humanly possible. One of Gus' men could kill Nacho easily enough, but that'd scream guilt almost as loudly as a confession. Instead, Gus is attempting to orchestrate a scenario whereby the Salamancas kill Nacho themselves. The plan begins when Mike sends Nacho to a specific motel. Fring must then point the Salamancas toward Nacho's location without drawing attention to himself as the true culprit.
He achieves this by having Mike plant the envelope in Nacho's safe. Inside is a bank statement detailing payments from a mysterious source - falsified transactions implying Nacho was paid to betray the Salamancas by someone other than Gus. On the bottom is the phone number to Nacho's motel, so when Juan Bolsa calls it, he knows exactly where his target is hiding. Better Call Saul season 6's safe-swap con is Mike's only foolproof way of getting this envelope inside without Juan Bolsa noticing. Leaving the envelope merely laying on a coffee table would look too suspicious, but if Bolsa found these documents inside Nacho's safe, he'd surely be convinced of their legitimacy. Another problem then arises - a cracked safe is pretty easy to spot by virtue of a massive hole drilled next to the mechanism. Since Mike can't plant the envelope inside Nacho's original safe without leaving obvious signs behind, he imports a safe identical to Nacho's and places the phone number there instead, alongside some cash stacks to make the setup look believable.
Gus Fring's masterplan simultaneously succeeds and backfires. As the Chicken Man predicted, Juan Bolsa raids Nacho's house for clues, cracks the safe, and finds the planted envelope. Bolsa falls for the ruse and, as per Gus' plan, sends the dreaded Salamanca Twins after Nacho. Even though a huge firefight erupts, however, Nacho survives and escapes. By this point, Gus has also learned Lalo Salamanca is actually alive, and Mike points out how big a problem they'd have if Nacho was captured and interrogated. Gus finally agrees to bring Nacho in unharmed. Should he have tried this from the very beginning? Probably. And that's why you should always listen to Mike Ehrmantraut in Better Call Saul.
Better Call Saul continues Mondays on AMC.