- "You know Walter, sometimes it doesn't hurt to have someone watching your back."
- ―Mike Ehrmantraut warning Walter about the incoming danger
Leonel and Marco Salamanca (commonly known as "The Cousins") were twin brothers and hitmen for the Juárez Cartel, a Mexican drug cartel. Despite an austere, mechanical physicality and virtually non-verbal interaction, they were a fearsome presence who killed without hesitation or emotion.
They were nephews of Don Hector Salamanca, who taught them early on that family is everything - proving so by nearly drowning one until the other fought back against him. They were also the grandsons of Abuelita and they had two cousins connected to criminal actions: Tuco and Joaquin Salamanca. They were typically dressed in well-cut sharkskin suits and distinctive cowboy boots tipped with silver skulls, and appeared to worship the Mexican deity of death Santa Muerte, making offerings to a shrine when undertaking an assassination. They were the main antagonists for the first half of Season 3.
History
Background information
The Cousins were raised by their uncle, Hector Salamanca. Since their early days, Hector teaches them hard lessons about life and how they should always put family in front of everything. One of these lessons are shown through flashback, when the Cousins were only kids playing in the backyard of Hector's house. Marco breaks one of Leonel's toys, prompting him to approach his Tio and tell him how much he hates his twin brother, wishing he was dead. Hector calls Marco and tricks him into getting a cold beer inside a tub of icy water, only to push his head in it. As Marco is slowly drowning, Hector coldly asks Leonel if this is what he wants. Leonel eventually punches his Tio in the face to make him stop. Hector releases Marco and then gets up, "family is all," he tells the twins ("One Minute").
Season 2
The Cousins' mugshots.
The Cousins are briefly mentioned when Tuco Salamanca kidnaps Walter White and Jesse Pinkman following a police crackdown on his operations. His plan was to take Walt across the border to cook for him full-time, mentioning that his cousins would be arriving to help them across, but before the Cousins were able to arrive, Walt and Jesse escaped and Tuco was shot dead ("Grilled").
It is revealed via flashback that the Cousins had an off-screen participation in this point of the story. Their boss, Juan Bolsa, finds out that one of his drug runners, Tortuga, was working as a DEA informant. Juan Bolsa visits Tortuga in a bar and tricks him into going to the back to show him a gift. When they get there, Tortuga is assaulted by the Cousins. They proceed to use a machete to decapitate Tortuga as punishment for him betraying the cartel ("I.F.T."). Later on, Tortuga's head was placed on a tortoise's back with C4 as a trap to kill the agents that Tortuga was working for ("Negro y Azul").
Season 3
The Cousins' dramatic arrival in the U.S. ("No Más")
The Cousins arrive in an expensive Mercedes at a small village in the Mexican desert where they find men and women crawling on their bellies up a dusty, adobe-lined desert road. The Cousins join them, leading up to a path toward a candlelit shrine to Santa Muerte. The two men rise to their feet. One makes an offering; the other pins something to the shrine: a sketch of "Heisenberg." Later on, they drive to a dilapidated desert farmhouse, where they leave their car and approach a clothesline. They change their clothes, keeping only their boots and their guns as the family who lives in the farmhouse watches the scene in fear (they probably know who the Cousins are). Marco then leaves the Mercedes keys to the family and the two continue their trip up north on foot.
They manage to get a lift, hidden amid a farm truck's bales of straw, sitting with others sneaking across the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. A young man brags to the Cousins about painting cars for Michoacan gangsters, but clams up when he notices the silver skulls on their boots. As the Cousins realize that they have been recognized, they pull their guns out and kill everyone inside the truck; the driver stops the truck to investigate, then flees when he notices the situation. The Cousins emerge from the bales and Leonel shoots the driver dead. The two set the truck and its murdered passengers ablaze. They walk away as the vehicle is engulfed in flames ("No Más").
The Cousins waiting to kill Walter ("Caballo Sin Nombre")
After crossing the border into the States, they track down their uncle, Hector Salamanca, in a nursing home located in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Familiar with the routine, they procure a Ouija board from a pile of board games and Hector uses his bell to spell out the letters of the real name of the meth cook the cartel knows only as Heisenberg, the man that killed their cousin Tuco: Walter White. The pair soon after show up at Walt's house with an axe where, coincidentally, after living away for two weeks, Walt had returned and broken into his own home. The Cousins let themselves in while Walt is, unsuspectingly, taking a shower. They enter his room and sit on his bed, but before they can take any action, one of them receives a text message that reads: "POLLOS." The two exchange a look, and once Walt exits the shower, his room is empty ("Caballo Sin Nombre").
Juan Bolsa sets up a meeting between Gus Fring, the Cousins, Hector and himself. Bolsa, who speaks on their behalf and that of Tio, explains to Gus that their cousin, Tuco, was betrayed by Walter and they have a family right to execute him, a claim backed by the entire cartel. Gus, who controls all of the drug trafficking north of the border into New Mexico, tells them that they cannot kill Walt as he is still valuable to his business. Gus, however, says that they may kill him whenever he is finished with Walt. After the meeting, Juan Bolsa calls Gus aside and explain to him how he may control the Cousins for now, but eventually they will go after Walter even against Gus' orders. The Salamancas never forgive the death of one of their own ("I.F.T."). As they are waiting, the Cousins take residence on a reservation outside of Albuquerque after killing the elderly woman who lived there. A few days later, a tribal police officer who is investigating her disappearance shows up at the house and finds the woman's corpse in the backyard, the officer stumbles upon Leonel and surrenders him with his shotgun, but Marco approaches the officer from behind with his axe and strikes him in the head, killing him instantly.
The Cousins talking to Gus in the desert ("Sunset")
The Cousins become impatient and visit Gus at Los Pollos, sitting silently in a booth for the duration of the restaurant's hours. After they return again the next day, Gus grows tired of their intimidation tactics and sets up a meeting with them in the desert. There, he questions why they want to kill Walter so badly, noting that although he may have "betrayed" their cousin, he wasn't the one who murdered him. Marco says that the man who killed Tuco is a DEA agent and Juan Bolsa strictly forbids them from targeting any law enforcement. Gus tells them that it is he who controls the territory north of the border, not Bolsa, so it should be his decision to make. He gives them the name of the DEA agent in question, Hank Schrader, and tells them that he hopes his death may satisfy them ("Sunset").
Similiar to the previous event, the Cousins visit a shrine of Santa Muerte somewhere in the New Mexico desert. They follow the same procedures of before, only that this time they pin a picture of Hank to the shrine. Later on the same day, the Cousins meet with an arms dealer to buy vests. The dealer leads them inside his truck where he tries to sell them hollow-point bullets, even giving Marco one free sample, but the Cousins refuse. After giving them two vests, they ask him if the vests are good, the dealer says that he never leaves his house without one. Marco pulls out his gun and shoots the dealer point blank in the chest, when he survives, the Cousins decide to buy the vests.
Marco's demise ("One Minute")
The Cousins track Hank down to a store parking lot. Hank, who has just been suspended and forced to surrender his weapon after beating Jesse up, is unarmed when he receives a mysterious phone call. The voice on the other end, distorted by a modifier, warns Hank that he has one minute before the Cousins arrive to kill him. Seeing Leonel approaching him in the rear, he backs his car up rapidly, pinning Leonel against another car forcefully and crushing his legs. Marco opens fire on Hank and forces him to run, then frees his brother Leonel who whispers, "Finish him." Marco pursues Hank, killing a passerby in the parking lot, he stops to reload his gun and accidentally drops the hollow-point bullet sample to the ground. Hank managed to take Leonel's gun and surprises Marco by shooting him multiple times in the chest, but the bullets end up being absorbed by his Kevlar vest, Marco then shoots Hank twice, one shot in the chest and the other in the abdomen. Hank falls to the ground helpless and with no bullets. Marco prepares to shoot him in the face, but he then decides that it is "too easy" and goes back to the car to retrieve his signature axe. In the meantime, Hank manages to reach the hollow-point bullet Marco dropped earlier and loads it into his empty gun, when Marco returns ready to strike Hank dead with his axe, Hank shoots him in the face. The hollow-point blows out the back of Marco's head, killing him instantly ("One Minute").
Leonel's demise ("I See You")
After the shooting, both Hank and Leonel are rushed by ambulance to the hospital. While Hank is in surgery and in critical condition, Leonel is conscious fairly early much to the disgust of Hank's friends and family, although both of Leonel's legs are amputated as a result of Hank's attack. After recognizing Walter White amongst a group of Albuquerque police officers who were watching him through the room window, Leonel rips off his IV lines and monitors and attempts to crawl to the door, trailing blood from his stumps until he is restrained. He later dies after going into cardiac arrest. It is revealed that Mike Ehrmantraut gave Leonel a fatal injection under orders from Gus to prevent him from revealing to Bolsa that it was Gus who sanctioned the hit on Hank ("I See You").
Murders committed by The Cousins
- Tortuga: Decapitated on Juan Bolsa's orders.
- DEA Field Agent: Blown to pieces by a bomb strapped to a tortoise.
- Olive Oil: Shot to death after recognizing the Cousins.
- Nine Mexican Stowaways: All shot in the back of the truck.
- Unnamed Coyote Driver: Shot in the back by Leonel while trying to escape.
- Mrs. Peyketewa: Killed in an unknown way.
- Bobby Kee: Struck in the back with an axe by Marco.
- Unnamed Man: Shot to death by Marco.
Quotes
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Template:Dialogue a-b-a-b-a
Appearances
Marco Salamanca
Breaking Bad
- "No Más"
- "Caballo Sin Nombre"
- "I.F.T."
- "Sunset"
- "One Minute"
- "Face Off" (Photograph)
Leonel Salamanca
Breaking Bad
- "No Más"
- "Caballo Sin Nombre"
- "I.F.T."
- "Sunset"
- "One Minute"
- "I See You"
- "Face Off" (Photograph)
Trivia
- Director of Photography Michael Slovis chose to film all the Season 3 exterior scenes of The Cousins with a strong yellow-brown coloration.
- They are the second and third people of Hector "Tio" Salamanca's family to be killed, following Tuco Salamanca's death. Many more Salamancas die following these two.
- In the scene where they blow up the truck, they filmed it using a camera that makes one object look closer than what it actually is to another object, and they literally blew up the truck, with only one take available.
- The actors which plays the cousins, Daniel Moncada and Luis Moncada, are real life brothers, though they were born 3 years apart.
- The cousins are shown driving several cars including: