Carrot and Stick

Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus Fring's men enter Nacho Varga's home and pay his girlfriends to leave town. They break into Nacho's safe, from which Mike removes the cash and the fake Canadian IDs Nacho had made for himself and his father Manuel.[lower-alpha 1] Victor delivers a duplicate safe, into which Mike places the cash, Nacho's fake ID, and an envelope.

Jimmy McGill meets with the Kettlemans, now proprietors of a shady tax preparation service, and cons them into believing they have grounds to sue Howard Hamlin. As Jimmy and Kim Wexler intended, the Kettlemans ask Clifford Main to represent them in a lawsuit claiming ineffective counsel because Howard supposedly used cocaine when representing Craig during his embezzlement case.[lower-alpha 2] Cliff refuses because his firm's work with Howard's on the Sandpiper case[lower-alpha 3] poses a conflict of interest but he lapses into pensive silence after they leave.

Juan Bolsa and Gus meet with Hector Salamanca at the nursing home. They promise to avenge Lalo Salamanca's death, but Hector's demeanor convinces Gus that Lalo is alive. Juan and his men break into the duplicate safe and find the envelope, which Juan discovers contains the phone number of Nacho's motel and details of an offshore bank account.

Nacho becomes restless while hiding at the motel and believes he is being surveilled. He sneaks out of his room and confronts his watcher. Nacho confirms the watcher is reporting to Gus and realizes Gus betrayed him to the cartel. A cartel hit team led by the Cousins arrives and a firefight breaks out. One assassin nearly shoots Nacho, but the Cousins kill him and indicate that Nacho should be taken alive. Nacho escapes in a stolen truck.

Mike engages in a standoff with Tyrus Kitt and Gus because Mike wants to lead a team to Mexico to find Nacho, but Gus wants to force Nacho to reveal himself by holding Manuel hostage. Mike receives a call from Nacho, who asks to speak to Gus.

Jimmy attempts to bribe the Kettlemans to keep silent about their role in smearing Howard. When they do not accept the money, Kim coerces them by threatening to reveal their tax preparation scam to the IRS. Jimmy disappoints Kim by giving the Kettlemans the cash before he leaves. Someone follows Jimmy and Kim as they drive away.

"Carrot and Stick" was directed by Better Call Saul co-creator Vince Gilligan.

The episode was directed by series co-creator Vince Gilligan and written by Thomas Schnauz and Ariel Levine. Schnauz wrote the cold open and scenes that took place after Gus learns that Lalo is alive while Levine wrote everything in between.[1]^{: 36:40–36:58} "Carrot and Stick" features the return of Julie Ann Emery and Jeremy Shamos as Betsy and Craig Kettleman, who first appeared in the first season.[2] Though "Bingo" marked their last series appearance, the two had appeared in character in the canonically linked short film No Picnic in 2017, which was released after the third season, the Inside the Gilliverse podcast in 2020, and the short film American Greed: James McGill in 2022, which was released prior to the sixth season.[3][4] The idea to bring the characters back was discussed for a long time before "Carrot and Stick". Emery said co-creator Peter Gould had told them several times that they were working on a sensible way to have them reprise their roles.[5] Gould elaborated, "You know, we have this corkboard in the writers' room with the names of all the characters we'd like to bring back. And, boy, we really would've not felt good about finishing the show if we hadn't seen the Kettlemans again." The tax preparation scam in the episode was inspired by Gould's wife, who was the victim of fraud when someone filed a tax return in her name to claim a refund.[2] The episode marks the first chronological appearance of the inflatable Statue of Liberty that is eventually shown atop Saul's office in Breaking Bad; it is first used to advertise the Kettlemans's tax preparation business.[6] One risk during filming was the possibility that the strong winds would destroy the inflatable, which Gilligan said was the only one available in the entire United States. As a result, balloon handlers were hired to maintain it on set.[1]^{: 50:19–52:14} "Carrot and Stick" also features the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" playing inside the Kettlemans's office; the patriotic song is played in Saul's office in the fifth season of Breaking Bad.[lower-alpha 4][5]

Actor Michael Mando performed a majority of the stunts for his character, Nacho, except for jumping out of the motel window and driving the truck when it collided with another vehicle. The window jump was performed by stuntman Victor Lopez. It required two takes, something Gilligan rarely does to minimize the risk of injury. Gilligan thought the first take was too perfect and looked like a "superhero landing", so he asked Lopez to do it again and "make it look not so good". Lopez agreed and even suggested adding a limp, which Gilligan thought was a great choice.[1]^{: 32:52–36:14} Mando called the work "incredibly physical. It's excruciatingly emotional, and psychologically, you're just hitting every note on the piano. It was just such an amazing rollercoaster ride." The motel sequences were shot in two locations. The scenes in the interior of Nacho's room were shot in a studio while the exterior scenes were filmed on location. While filming Nacho's escape from the motel room, Mando and Gilligan would take turns bashing the air conditioning unit.[7] A shot during the shootout, where the camera seemingly goes through the windshield of Nacho's truck, was the idea of cinematographer Paul Donachie. Gilligan was initially hesitant in shooting it but accepted the fact that the sequence needed a lot of shots from various angles. The shot was done practically; the crew spent some time figuring out the logistics and used a windshield that was sawed in half. The shootout took two to three days to film.[1]^{: 41:28–47:14}

Gilligan said it was difficult to convey information visually when trying to minimize the dialogue, especially during Nacho's scenes. He wanted the observer to be smart in concealing his location. One moment in the episode has Nacho looking out of his room window and catching a glint of light and a small amount of movement from the observer. A young production assistant was hired to double as the observer and create the subtle movement. Since he was not able to see what the camera was recording, the shot was difficult to film. At one point, due to frustration, Gilligan replaced the young man and tried to do it himself with the help of a wireless "Lollipop" screen that allowed him to see the camera's point-of-view. He, however, was not able to get it right either. The shot ultimately took over 200 takes to capture.[1]^{: 25:55–29:58}

• Official website at AMC
• "Carrot and Stick" at IMDb