The final stretch opener felt about as forced as I feared, though to some extent what bothered me about it can be reframed as a strength
Perhaps the most glaring head-scratcher is how Lalo's master plan hinged heavily on knowing Fring's psychology from a behaviorist standpoint, and was overly confident in assuming that both Fring would personally go check out his lab with limited detail, and that Mike would take the incredibly-obvious bait in order to force Fring into that dilemma and/or position. On top of that, he's assuming he'll get the drop on Fring, as if he's a sheep mindlessly entering a trap with armed men, having proved himself to be savvy with safeguarded plans, completely discounting that knowledge of his behavior. It seems like an uncharacteristically risky, impulsive, and presumptuous triple-parlay gamble for a man who is typically so meticulous in taking his time to craft safe passages that he can control the outcomes of, and the same inverted-character traits can be attributed to the responses of both Fring and Mike.
Like, okay Lalo, you're really going to stack your cards on assuming that Mike et al. are going to hastily chase the breadcrumbs without stopping to think about it, thinking you're still at Jimmy and Kim's twiddling your thumbs, and that you would send Kim after hiding away establishing a time to strike, without a sneaky backup plan? That's just a dumb assumption from a smart character, and what's worse, other smart characters made similarly dumb assumptions on the same wavelength. It's just incredibly poor writing, and reminded me of the cop-out finale of endless fan-service coincidences that stained Breaking Bad's last chapter. But, on top of that, you're also going to assume that Fring will leave himself vulnerable and walk into a trap on impulse when his lab is threatened, after locking himself up and living in fear for a while? I get why Fring would be done and say 'enough is enough' when given the opportunity to face his rival with pride, but that's an 'imperfectly human' spontaneous choice, and should be treated as such rather than in accordance with the master plan's execution. For Lalo to assume multiple bets contingent on elements outside of his control will align is not only supernaturally perceptive from a psychological level, but runs counter to the patient and controlled decisions of the character.
However, this messy exchange -culminating in a sloppy anti-cathartic gunfight that could have gone either way- was powerful and effective if we see it as such, which I believe is how it's meant to be presented (that this all occurs under entirely-dark conditions kind of overstates how 'chance' the result of who dies and who doesn't is, deflating the fantastical expectations we've built from the prodigious battle of wits we've been tracing). Regardless of the providential set-up and implementation of variables in motion, Gilligan and co. are demonstrating how, when it comes down to it, these are not super men but fallible human beings, with impulsivity, emotional investment, hubris, etc. blocking their capabilities to exhibit entirely measured and logical responses. Mike is right that it didn't have to go down that way, and I have a feeling he'll have the chance to prove his dependably leveled behavior as a resource to Fring by the season's end. Also, Kim's cry to Mike asking where he was when he promised to be protecting them must be foreshadowing whatever will come between him and his daughter-in-law...
I hope the remaining five episodes aren't quite so rushed, at least not in a manner that is disrespectful to the characters' intelligences who we've been following, and thus to the audience's intelligence.