‘Better Call Saul’: We Were Wrong About Krazy-8 Being Hank Schrader’s Snitch All Along
When we’re first introduced to Krazy-8 in Breaking Bad, we know he’s a DEA informant working for Agent Schrader and his partner Agent Gomez. In fact, it’s partly Krazy-8’s fault that Walter White ever broke bad in the first place. It was his tip that led to Schrader finding the cook house where Walt sees his former student Jesse Pinkman sneaking out a window. Without all those events, we wouldn’t have Breaking Bad.
But Better Call Saul is filling in the bits of the backstory we’ve been missing all along. Besides just finding out how Jimmy McGill transforms into Saul Goodman, we also get to see how other major players in the Breaking Bad world turned out the way they did. One surprising thing we find out in Season 5 is that Krazy-8 isn’t really a snitch after all — at least not how we thought he was.
[Spoiler Alert: Spoilers ahead for Better Call Saul, Season 5, Episode 3 “The Guy for This”]
Who is Krazy-8, also known as Domingo?
Domingo Gallardo Molina is a meth distributor working for the Salamanca family along with Jesse Pinkman. Fans first meet Krazy-8 in the first season of Breaking Bad, but they learn his backstory in Better Call Saul.
Krazy-8, who got his nickname from Lalo while playing poker in the beginning of Season 5, is a trusted drug distributor and employee. But Breaking Bad fans know that eventually he’ll become an informant for the DEA, though it’s never explained why he flipped.
Here’s the craziest thing about Krazy-8: He’s only a snitch because Lalo told him to be one.
Lalo uses Krazy-8 to help him bring down Gus Fring
It’s no secret that Lalo Salamanca is not a fan of Gus Fring. It’s unclear exactly what his strategy is, but fans think that Hector was trying to tell Lalo to cut off Fring’s income because that’s what’s keeping him in Don Eladio’s good graces. A well-placed informant is the perfect way to do that.
In Episode 3, “The Guy for This,” Lalo instructs Jimmy to visit Krazy-8 in jail and gives him a script of what to say. “We need our friend to tell the cops some things. Some important things,” Lalo says to Jimmy. “We want him to say exactly what we tell him. No more, no less.”
Before Jimmy’s visit, we learn that Krazy-8 has been in jail two days and wasn’t willing to talk. This proves that he never planned on snitching to get himself a lighter sentence — he only talks because Lalo (through Jimmy) tells him to.
Fring is going to retaliate against Lalo
The controversy between Lalo and Fring is fraught with tension because both are working for the same boss and have to pretend to get along with each other. When Fring finds out from the DEA knows the location of the dead drops, his enforcer Tyrus pulls out a phone to shut down the operation. But Fring stops him.
Thanks to his inaction, it’s assumed that the DEA is going to get Fring’s money and potentially even make an arrest. But it’s clear that Fring is willing to play the long game against Lalo.
Krazy-8 isn’t really a snitch
Depending on who you’re dealing with, they say that snitches either get stitches or ditches. If Krazy-8 really was snitching on the Salamancas it’s guaranteed he’d be killed. But since we know that Lalo orchestrated the betrayal, it makes sense why he’s still alive to see the beginning of Breaking Bad.
After feeding Krazy-8 the script Lalo prepared, Jimmy reports back that he’s officially been accepted as a criminal informant. “What do you mean, like a rat?” Lalo asks. “No, he’s not a rat,” Jimmy clarifies. “Well, he’s a rat, he’s your rat.”
He’s a rat, it’s true. But Krazy-8 never snitched like we thought he did.
