MovieChat Forums > Better Call Saul (2015) Discussion > Why not keep the guy alive until he fini...

Why not keep the guy alive until he finishes the project?


Seemed dumb to just kill him and have to get rid of every one of the workers and stop the construction, when Gus could have easily let him live long enough to finish the project then kill him. All they had to do was just keep eyes on him at all times and make sure he doesn't run again.

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Too risky. Werner already knew the location of the lab, so Gus couldn't take any risk of having the other German workers find out. If Werner was kept alive, he'd probably figure out that they were plotting to kill him and his workers, so it would be a huge mess.

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They all knew the location of the lab though... The truck Mike used to move the crew to the laundromat had the laundromat's name and logo on the truck, and the truck had New Mexico license plate, all this being visible to the crew.

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I agree. It's a massive risk to off him like that. Even if they can provide a believable story for his wife. They'll always be some doubt in her mind. The sudden abandoning of the meetup like that. Very questionable.

There's too many people kind of exposed to the situation. The car crash at the parking lot, maybe the victim remembers some details about Mike's car, or the car that hit him. The (assumed death) of the guy at the money wiring place, big red flag. Are call logs kept? Some guy phoning up asking about the details of the money wiring branch. The staff at the spas. Either they might just remember a call about someone asking for the whereabouts of a German guy (probably not too common). Or perhaps even remember seeing him talking with Mike at the spa. Staff at the strip club. People at the bar. Perhaps I'm giving local law enforcement too much credit but there's a lot of pieces to put together if they start digging if the wife doesn't let it go. What happens with visas? The crew are there legally right? They weren't smuggled in I don't think. 6 months on a B2 visa. If they don't leave before that, are they flagged in some way?

If the crew continue without their boss and are not killed, would they be scared enough to not cause a problem once back in Germany as payback for killing their boss. Would there be stories for their deaths too? If they're disposed of, you get visa expiry issues. Suddenly a group of Germans that (I assume) entered the country at a similar time, have gone awol. Oh, and they're all engineers. Pretty suspect.

Would have been a lot cleaner to let him come back finish the job. Hell, don't pay him like he suggested. Just put the fear of god in him. We know where your family live etc.

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Fingerprints! I don’t remember Mike or Lalo wearing gloves, and Werner definitely wasn’t. DNA! Werner was having a drink by the pool. The same security tape, along with those from neighboring businesses, that showed Werner and Mike at the money wire place would also show Lalo. The guy whose car Lalo rammed had plenty of time to get his license plate. Werner used his real name at the resort, was seen leaving with Mike (who is very distinctive looking), then disappeared. Is his body ever found? I thought they were going to make the excuse of an accident at the work site to tell his wife. If so, they would then have to come up with a body. Werner’s crew, who I’m sure Margarethe also knows, would remember that last day, or are they all dead too? The work site is abandoned, after all. Killing them all wouldn’t be a smart move, unless their story about the work accident includes the crew too. Werner’s last minute phone call to Margarethe, after all the planning, and with the very out of character angry growling to her, would prompt any wife to do her damnedest to get an investigation going, no matter how many fake or compromised (read: dirty and unethical) German lawyers Fring can rustle up to lie to her.
Yeah, too many details left unattended to. While the Jimmy-Kim-Chuck storyline went well, in my opinion the Mike-Werner-Lalo one was sloppily written...or was that intended? Guess we’ll know next season.

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Agreed. Very sloppy. But who knows. Come next season, maybe we'll all be going 'ahhhhhhhh, I see now'.

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Mike knows there will be questions. He told Werner those questions will be answered.

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Well yeah, but what we're saying is, we doubt those questions will be answered sufficiently.

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i'm assuming the germans were smuggled in.

the crooks are viewing it as an issue of containment. werner has broken out of the lab - if brought back, would contaminate the crew with information they shouldn't have. it would also indicate to the others that escape was possible, without dire repercussions.

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I don't know. When the crew first arrive, one of them says something like 'you should have eaten on the plane'. I can't see a smuggling plane serving food. I suppose they could have flown to Mexico and then transported the rest of the way by another means.

Also, Werner would be shitting himself. I really can't see him spilling any beans.

The threat of not being paid would be enough I reckon. How long is the project for? At least a year? All that time with nothing to show for it. I don't think the rest of the team would want to try and escape.

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you are probably right about the smuggling.

thing is, gus will not be content to risk all these people keeping their mouth shut. he doesnt work that way. we just saw that.

maybe his code is that if he is not betrayed, he does no harm. we'll have to see.

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Too risky. Werner already knew the location of the lab, so Gus couldn't take any risk of having the other German workers find out. If Werner was kept alive, he'd probably figure out that they were plotting to kill him and his workers, so it would be a huge mess.


While the other poster above had this good point, your point is also a good one to consider:

"I agree. It's a massive risk to off him like that. Even if they can provide a believable story for his wife. They'll always be some doubt in her mind. The sudden abandoning of the meetup like that. Very questionable."

It seems both Options A and B are terrible, and Gus had to pick one. I could see it being a problem if Werner lived. Personally, I believed Werner when he said he wouldn't do something like that again, but when trust is broken once like that and so much of a mess is created, I can see why Gus made that decision. It's awful to see Werner taken out like that, but from Gus' perspective it's rather in line with his character.

But if Werner is offed, there's still a lot more potential problems ahead. Mutiny (or sabotage) from the crew could be one, and German investigators aren't going to take too kindly to one of their citizens doing "secret work" over in America where the husband can't even tell the wife what it is.

Season 5 is going to get really interesting!

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I guess Gus could have tried to convince Werner that everything was ok and that they were going back to business as usual but then what if Werner figured out what was really going on(much like Walt did) and he escaped and went to the cops? Too risky they had to kill him then

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