Now, Nacho finds himself at a point where he realizes, look: I probably will end up dead by Tuco, whether it’s accidentally by Tuco doing something harsh, or Tuco doing something that will get us put in jail for life. Worse than that, I could put my family in jeopardy. Finally, there’s this ambition in him that we haven’t really tapped into yet. Here’s this peasant that wants to be a king. He has the desire to take the hard work that his father has done and go beyond that. So it’s definitely the story of someone who realizes they need to take control of their own life.

On the other side of things, This episode is kind of a gold mine for Breaking Bad cameos between Jim Beaver’s gun dealer and even Krazy-8 and Tuco returning. The earlier episodes in the season have also been kind of indulgent in this area. You mentioned before getting a kick out of these Easter eggs, but has it been fun seeing the show really embrace it this season and show how small these worlds are?

Absolutely. I think part of what made Breaking Bad so great was the involvement of Raymond Cruz, and Max–who plays Krazy-8–I mean these guys are all apart of the mythology of the show. They’re the walls. They’re part of the walls that makes Breaking Bad such an amazing experience. And having them come back is just as exciting as doing a prequel. I have to say, Raymond, Max, and I are all really good friends, so it was just a blast to have them on. I hope we get to see more of them. I mean, this is a prequel. It would be completely illogical to not see some of these people. Albuquerque is a very small city. If you and I decided to go out to dinner tonight, we would bump into at least one of the same people.

The gun dealer’s a good example. Albuquerque is only so big that it makes sense that Walter and Mike would end up calling upon the same person, especially since they’re both perfectionists. This episode also really wisely shows Walter and Chuck at their worst in their relationship, just as Nacho and Tuco are kind of going through the same thing. Playing these two relationships parallel to each other works really well as you see these “Brothers at War” on both sides. It’s one of the stronger episodes thematically.