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In The Breaking Bad episode 'Face-Off', Walter White attaches a bomb to Hector's wheelchair with the bell acting as trigger. But how was he so sure that Gus himself would come to kill Hector?

The facts have been established that Gus hates Hector for killing Max. But a guy like Gus who has been so accurate and secretive for many years, suddenly risks to come out and kill; that too when he had gained attention of the DEA.

Was Walter gambling on chances that Gus would personally come to kill Hector?

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Let's review the background: season 4 before the alliance with Hector was Walt trying scheme after scheme to get to Gus and none of them worked. Was he sure the Hector plan would work? I'd say no. It was just the best idea available at the time.

So you could say he was lucky, but it's not like he came up with this one great plan and eliminated Gus on the first try.

After a string of failures (mostly caused by Jesse not being fully cooperative), he finally got Jesse back on his side and then what happened? Even then the first attempt was a failure, because Gus guessed the existence of the car bomb based on nothing but Jesse's assertion that Brock was poisoned!

The next plan, the one that worked, was formed after Walt learned that Gus had personally visited Hector to gloat about the death of the last of Hector's relatives. That was a clue that Hector brings out a different side of Gus - different from the calm, careful, practical Gus that Walt could not defeat. Hector made Gus a little bit crazy. It wasn't a big leap to assume that Gus might want to be present at Hector's death.

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  • Also we can say that Hector's death was extremely important for Gus and hence it became more probable that he would ensure his death by being there himself or by doing it himself. Gus would not have liked to take any chances about Hector's death.
    – Ankit
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:24
  • "Was he sure the Hector plan would work? I'd say no. It was just the best idea available at the time" — and when he says to Skyler "I won", he does sound a little surprised.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Sep 21, 2022 at 22:38
  • I think what is great about this episode is that typically in film, if a plan fails the first time, the character abandons that plan. You see this in The Roadrunner cartoons and elsewhere -- sure his idea failed, but all The Coyote needed to do was tweak it. In BB, Walt did not give up on the bomb -- he realized that he just needed to place it somewhere that Gus, used to Hector's harmlessness, would not expect danger. Perhaps his best idea. The magnet, the battery, and the train idea all originated at least with Jesse -- they needed Walt to work things out. But the bomb -- that was all Walt.
    – releseabe
    Mar 9 at 7:15

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