Obvious spoiler alert for Breaking Bad, I'm not quite finished with Better Call Saul (spoiler up to season 3 (although I've seen billboards advertising this character's appearance so not sure if much of a spoiler)) so I'm not sure if future scenes with Gus and Tyrus prove or disprove my theory, but their longstanding relationship is a factor in it.
There were many reasons presented to rationalize Gus killing Victor with a boxcutter such as his face being spotted at Gale's murder, Victor spoiling the batch, proving a point, testing to if Jesse and Mike could handle the more grisly aspects of his business before starting his cartel war, ect. I think there's a deeper connection that ties in with Gus' relationship with Maximino, Hector, Bolsa, and Eladio however.
Victor's murder in Season 4, Episode 1 sits between Gus' coordination of Bolsa's murder in Season 3 Episode 8, and his poisoning of Eladio and takeover of the cartel in Season 4 Episode 10. In Season 4 Episode 8, we learn that Gus' drive to seek revenge against the cartel comes from the murder Maximino (heavily hinted to be Gus' former lover). Irregardless of their relationship, Maximino and Gus experience intense homophobia and racism at the hands of Hector and Eladio (but importantly not Bolsa) .
Under the assumption that Victor is cartel-connected or at least Mexican-American, I think Gus' murder of him and replacement with the black, seemingly queer, Tyrus serves as a red hearing for the motivations for his revenge drive, as well as a power play against Eladio/the cartel. I think the timing of the box cutting and replacement with Tyrus after Gus' arrangement of Bolsa's murder is meant to highlight the risk that Gus has calculated, and accepted, by not only standing on his own against Eladio and the Salamanca family, but doing so while waving his dick in the air. I initially thought Tyrus was Haitian because of the character's military demeanor, the actor's accent, and because of the last name 'Kitt,' but on this latest view I think the scenes of him speaking Spanish are meant to show he's from a Spanish speaking country like the Dominican Republic or possible also Chile like Gus (I'm not sure if further episodes of Better Call Saul better explain his background).
My two biggest supports for this theory is that by the time Gus attempts his takeover of Eladio in Season 4 Episode 10, Mexican-Americans are almost entirely absent from Gus' operations both north and south of the border, which seems like a purposeful casting decision. My other piece of support is that scenes where Tyrus is present with Gus in the company of Hector Salamanca, Hector seemingly directs an equal amount of angry body language at Tyrus as he does towards Gus. Unless something is revealed about Tyrus' backstory in Better Call Saul, it doesn't make sense for Hector to be equally as angry with Tyrus as he does with Gus, who has almost single-highhandedly wiped out his entirely family. The only justification I can come up with for Hector displaying such hatred toward Tyrus as he does towards Gus would be that because Tyrus was visibly more black and queer-passing than Gus, Hector viewed that as equivalently as offensive as he does murdering his family (I think that Hector's flashbacks killing Maximino and nearly drowning his nephew shows that his homophobia/racism is willing to go that intense of an extent). Gus smiles when he notices Hector's uncomfortably with Tyrus, which I think is meant to show he's aware of Tyrus' effect, and in a way needs it as a reminder and justification to be so heartless towards Hector.
I would love to know other peoples thoughts on this theory! I apologize if this is in fact a common theory or is seemingly depicted obviously in the narrative, I could not find reference to this theory anywhere online. This ties in with another theory I have that the narrative of the show gradually enters a more unreliable-narrator narrative (where the viewer isn't presented the full side of a situation as it did in earlier seasons) to reflect that Walt and Jesse are out-of-their-depths and becoming more unaware of the nuances of their surroundings (and as straight white men they wouldn't pick up on the nuances on the very present racial and LGBT-discriminatory around them, much like Walt was unaware of Gale's affection for him).
Submitted August 26, 2020 at 12:25AM by JesusNipplez https://ift.tt/2EzU3ba
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