Better Call Saul revealed the origin behind Domingo “Krazy-8” Molina’s nickname, and it’s a little more silly than Breaking Bad fans might’ve expected. The Breaking Bad prequel/spinoff series Better Call Saul made its return for season 5 after a two-year hiatus, and the season shot off to a strong start with the two-night premiere. Better Call Saul has been praised for its attention to detail and seamless merging of past and present storylines in a way that adds more depth to Breaking Bad while still maintaining its own identity and storylines. One of several ways that Better Call Saul connects itself to Breaking Bad is by featuring smaller characters from the original show and revealing how exactly they ended up crossing paths with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
One such character is Domingo. He’s the drug dealer Walt choked to death with a bike lock early in Breaking Bad season 1, but Better Call Saul has developed Krazy-8’s backstory, making him a childhood friend of Nacho Varga. The most recent episode, “50% off”, provided an explanation for one of the key aspects of Domingo’s character - his nickname. Breaking Bad introduced drug dealers with all sorts of street names - there’s No-Doze, Tortuga, and of course, Jesse Pinkman’s former alias, “Captain Cook”. Domingo is better known to most fans as “Krazy-8”, but why he had that nickname was unknown - until now.
During a poker game with Nacho and members of the Salamanca gang, Domingo ends up facing off against Lalo Salamanca, a key figure in the Salamanca crime family and one of the most dangerous characters on Better Call Saul. Domingo, intimidated by Lalo’s presence at the table, folds when Lalo calls. However, once Lalo wins the hand, he asks Domingo to reveal his hand, and the viewer finds out that he had a pair of 8s - cards that would easily have beaten Lalo’s bluffed hand. The table laughs it off but Domingo soon gets a phone call about urgent business and Lalo dismisses him from the table cheerily saying “Off you go Ocho Loco!” Of course, ‘Ocho Loco’ is Spanish for ‘Crazy Eight’, and thus the nickname is born.
Looking back, it may surprise Breaking Bad fans to find out that the street name of a cartel drug dealer came from a joke during a friendly game of poker, but Better Call Saul is full of small details and deconstructions that help flesh both shows out. Revealing how Krazy-8 got his nickname in this way is in keeping with how creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould like to link the two series together.
As it happens, the problem that Krazy-8 had to rush off and deal with during the poker game ends up landing him in jail, which could be the start of the other major aspect of his character as featured in Breaking Bad - his time as an informant on the cartel for the DEA, especially with the imminent arrival of Hank Schrader. However, there are still more than a few years to go before the Better Call Saul timeline catches up with the Breaking Bad one, so only time will tell if this incident is what results in the newly-named Krazy-8 becoming a snitch.
Next: Better Call Saul May Have Tied Into El Camino (& Revealed Gene’s Ending)
