Quote Originally Posted by the illustrious mr. kenway View Post
I thought Gus legitimately underestimated the Salamancas. He thought they were just gonna kill him without a second thought. What changed was he realized Lalo was still alive. Compared to the other Salamancas, Lalo is harder to predict and less rash.

To answer the second part, I figured Gus wanted to be appear uninvolved and behind the curb. He wanted to avoid suspicion so Nacho dying mysteriously wouldn't help.
Okay. Although at the beginning of the episode when he was on the phone and being told about Nacho's betrayal, the guy said, "We'll soon find out who he works for." So I guess that motivated him to get Mike to plant the evidence - to answer the question of who he works for, then figured they'd kill him after being satisfied by the planted evidence, plus giving Nacho a loaded gun and being told shoot anyone who comes through the door. I guess that makes sense even if Gus obviously misplayed his hand.