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In Better Call Saul S06E01 ("Wine and Roses"), Gus arranges a motel for Nacho to hide and orders him to stay put. In S06E02 ("Stick and Carrot"),

Mike leaves the telephone number of the motel in Nacho's apartment for the cartel to find,

thus leading them to his location.

This doesn't make sense to me. The cartel wants to find out who Nacho was working for. Gus shouldn't want the cartel to find out that Nacho was working for him. In my view, Gus has only two options:

  1. Help Nacho vanish.
  2. Send Nacho to Belize.

What is his plan?

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    Why not just watch the show and find out along the way? Or read some of the many articles recapping and analyzing this show? Or Reddit threads etc.? Because until the show reveals his plan, any answer will be speculation.
    – BCdotWEB
    Commented Apr 22, 2022 at 6:13
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    @BCdotWEB I don't understand your comment. What is this site for if not exactly for questions like mine?
    – xehpuk
    Commented Apr 22, 2022 at 10:17
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    @xehpuk The problem seems to be however, that this is supposedly left open to be explained later in the season. Thus it would really just come down to empty speculation because the show deliberately wants you to not know and not be able to tell what Gus's motives are. While explaing characters' motivations is indeed one of the core puposes of this site, empty speculation on what will happen next episode isn't. (Or I assume that's the supposed problem with the question, I wouldn't really know since I haven't seen it.)
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    Commented Apr 22, 2022 at 16:58
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    @NapoleonWilson I thought we had full information about his motives and I'm just missing something – that the answer could be free of speculation, but maybe I'm wrong.
    – xehpuk
    Commented Apr 22, 2022 at 18:39

3 Answers 3

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The cartel has orders to bring Nacho in alive for information on who he works for. If he is killed by someone else it may look suspicious, Nacho being silenced while Gus is the prime suspect for the attack on Lalo doesn't look good for Gus. However, if Nacho is killed during a shootout with the cartel, the cartel leaders will likely come to the conclusion that their men were too aggressive and made a mistake by accidentally killing Nacho. This way it doesn't look like Nacho was silenced by anyone.

There was a guy hired to watch Nacho and kill him whenever the cartel showed up to make this happen. Nacho spots him and ruins Gus' plan. Notice how the guy watching him gets a call right after Nacho tells Tyrus he's leaving. Calling Tyrus was Nacho's test, so he can find out whether the guy watching him works for Gus and has been hired to kill Nacho, but only after the cartel arrive.

Nacho keeps trying to call Mike because he trusts Mike, not Gus. He knows Mike wouldn't approve of killing him, but that Gus wouldn't hesitate to do so. Mike wouldn't answer Nacho's call because he was told not to interfere with Gus' plan.

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To establish that, Nacho did stuff on his own rather than on the orders of Gus(who is his employer). By doing so...it would look like he's in the clear.

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    – Community Bot
    Commented Apr 27, 2022 at 12:55
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Gus wanted the Cartel / Salamancas to kill Nacho, so that Gus wouldn’t be the prime suspect of orchestrating Lalo’s assassination.

Gus planned to frame Nacho as the rat who betrayed Lalo to a rival Peruvian cartel, called “Los Odios”. Gus had Mike plant fake bank transfer documents and the phone number of the motel where Nacho was hiding, in Nacho’s safe. The documents implied that Nacho was on the payroll of Los Odios.

Gus’ original plan was to lure the Cartel / Salamancas to Nacho’s location (using the planted evidence in the safe) and then have Nacho die in the ensuing shootout. To ensure that Nacho would fight back and get killed, he was given a gun and ordered to stay in his room and shoot anyone that walked in. Gus also hired someone to watch over Nacho and prevent him from escaping. Gus just didn't count on Nacho being smart enough to figure out that he's being set up.

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