Jesse finds Krazy-8 in his home training his enormous rottweiler to attack. Before Jesse can fully even comprehend what’s happening, Krazy-8 reveals that his cousin and Jesse’s former business partner, Emilio, believes that Jesse flipped on him to the DEA. That’s how within moments of the audience “meeting” Krazy-8, he has already taken our second lead hostage.

In hindsight, we know that Krazy-8 is not long for this world. In two episodes he will be strangled to death via bike lock by a cancer-ridden 50-year-old man. But when he first arrives in the desert to essentially take Walter as a meth-making slave, it’s not hard to empathize with Walt’s fear. Walt will go on to become the meth kingpin of the American Southwest and he will eventually come into contact with far more dangerous individuals from Tuco, to the Cousins, to Gus Fring. For now, however, Krazy-8 represents the entirety of the New Mexican criminal underworld in the viewers’ eyes…and he fills out the role surprisingly well!

It’s surprising, of course, because Breaking Bad will go on to humanize Krazy-8 before it kills him. After Walt successfully kills Emilio and subdues Krazy-8 via a chemical attack, he is forced to lock Krazy-8 in the basement of Jesse’s house. There Krazy-8 reveals that he’s not the big bad wolf…because no one is in the reality of this show. He’s simply a guy who found himself adept in the drug trade. He has a degree in Business Administration from the University of New Mexico. He used to work at his father’s business, Tampico Furniture on Menaul Boulevard. Walt and Domingo could have crossed paths dozens of times and never realized it.

In this instance, Krazy-8 is the Breaking Bad universe’s first great lesson for change – or at the very least, the appearance of change. Think of all the New Mexican citizens years from now who can have the same observation that they could have crossed paths with the great Heisenberg without realizing it. The chemistry of common life is changing all around us all the time. This lesson is further hammered home by Krazy-8’s appearances in Better Call Saul.

The Krazy-8 of Better Call Saul is a radically different person from the cold-blooded killer of Breaking Bad. In fact, for much of the series, Krazy-8 is simply Domingo. It’s not until season 5’s second episode “50% Off,” that Krazy-8 even gets his nickname. Domingo is playing Texas Hold ‘Em with some criminal coworkers and, intimidated by his boss Lalo, decides to fold a set of 8s, which would have easily beaten Lalo’s bluff. Lalo laughs and calls Domingo “Ocho-Loco” or “Krazy-8.” The concept of a criminal underling not wanting to beat his boss in poker is a tried and true trope in crime dramas. And Krazy-8 is just the latest victim. But the scene also speaks to a larger trend for Krazy-8 in Better Call Saul.