You would not expect humor in a series about dope, gangsters, and robbery, but that is precisely what makes Apple TV’s Dope Thief memorable. After two intense episodes, Ray’s search for his best buddy Manny continues. He was afraid that the biker gangsters had got to him, and thought he was probably already dead. Ray held himself responsible for the trouble Manny was in; after all, his friend had always warned him of the worst possible outcome, yet the hustle was too profitable to let go. If not dead, Ray guessed that Manny might have relapsed and given up on the life he was trying to build. So, did the best friends reunite? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Did Ray find Manny?
Ray was haunted by the thought that his best friend might have been killed without him there to protect him. He searched for Manny everywhere he could think of, and he also figured out during the process that the biker gangsters were desperately searching for him too. They were showing up at every place Ray frequented, and clearly staying in the city was not a good idea. But Ray didn’t care; he refused to leave without Manny. Som also advised Ray to leave, and he warned Ray not to get him entangled in his mess. While they’d been business associates for a long time, he could not risk losing his life, his business, and his family to protect Ray.
Ray finally found a lead at a pawn shop. The owner, Malik, mentioned that Manny had been to his store and had bought something worth a thousand dollars. Ray assumed the worst, especially after Malik mentioned that Manny was not his usual self; he was hyperactive. He was convinced that Manny had bought a gun and was skipping town, but Malik refused to disclose the item Manny had purchased because he’d promised not to tell anyone about it. Ray went back to Manny’s house to find some clue about his whereabouts, and that was when he stumbled upon the wedding ring his best friend had bought from the pawn shop. Ray’s assumption turned out to be unfounded, but then again, where was Manny?
Just when Ray thought things couldn’t get any worse for him, Theresa called to inform him that she was heading home. She refused to stay at Atlantic City anymore, and nothing could convince her otherwise. Before Theresa returned home, Ray made sure that her house was safe. It was the most obvious place for the gangsters to find him, but he had to take the chances to protect his mother. Theresa expressed her disappointment in Ray when she returned home. She assumed he was either taking drugs or selling drugs and that that had landed him in some trouble. Ray realized there was no point in hiding the truth from her anymore, and he ended up explaining how he and Manny had posed as DEA agents to steal drugs and cash. Theresa’s first instinct was to slap Ray, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Ray had stored all the drugs at her house. Before things turned uglier, Ray went to his room upstairs, and all of a sudden he heard his clothes rack move. He was convinced there was someone waiting to kill him, but as it turned out, it was Manny hiding behind the clothes.
After getting high, Manny didn’t know where to go and what to do, so he ended up hiding at Ray’s place. Ray was relieved to see Manny, and he advised him to always go to the storage place if they ever got separated. While Ray handled Theresa, he begged Manny never to disappear again.
How did the investigators end up with a sketch of Ray?
The state honored undercover agent Jack Cross, even though he was clearly not well liked and had possibly shifted his loyalties during his mission. But death brought him honor, unlike Mina, who had to deal with the consequences. Mina disclosed to detective Mark Nader that their buyer was a gang who Jack called ‘The Alliance,’ but she didn’t know the identity of the gang leader. All she had learned during her time working closely with Jack was that the clients were members of the Aryan Nation, a neo-Nazi, white supremacist group from the North. Later on, Nader discovered that, when a soybean farmer called in a brush fire from Eagleville, a van was discovered by firefighters that had been completely burned out. Even though the plates were gone, as luck would have it, a woman discovered them after a suspicious-looking man was found littering the river, and divers had also found a .38 caliber gun underwater. The same one that was suspected to have been used at the Ottsville lab. The gun was registered under Alice Shirley, and since she was dead, the police tracked her grandson, Jerome.
Meanwhile, the white supremacist bikers were desperately searching for Ray, and they attacked Bart and used him as bait. Their plan worked; Theresa convinced Ray to drop her off at the prison. She was still in love with Bart, and given his condition, she was in a hurry to meet him. Ray wanted to stay in his car, but when he noticed three bikers waiting for him outside, he realized that he couldn’t afford to stay alone. He believed the men would not mess with him if he was with Michelle, Bart’s lawyer. They went to a pub nearby, and while initially she had no idea what was going on, she eventually figured out Ray was in danger. She advised him to follow her and leave with the prison guards who were also at the pub. Ray managed to exit the spot safely, and Michelle accompanied him to the prison, where Ray once again met his father. He again pressured Bart to remember if he’d discussed his son’s affair with anyone in prison, but Bart didn’t have anything new to add.
Towards the end of Dope Thief episode 3, Ray had made peace with his reality; he knew that the minute he stepped outside the prison, he would be killed by the gangsters. He hugged Theresa and left before she did, so that she didn’t have to watch him die right before her eyes. To Ray’s surprise, just when he thought he would be shot dead by the gangsters, police arrived at the scene and handcuffed them. Maybe a gang waiting outside prison was enough to trigger a reaction from the police force, and since the detectives working on the case had already deduced that a biker gang was involved in the Loebsack killing, the police were already on the lookout. Perhaps the gangsters knew that it was a risky move, but they wanted Ray to know that they were not afraid and would go to any extent to seek revenge on him.
Mina advised Nader to check the prison visitor list because clearly the gang’s target was someone from the list. They decided to dig into the purpose of Michelle’s visit. Meanwhile, Jerome had provided the police with a sketch of the man he’d sold the gun to. Mina recognized Ray from the sketch, and she confirmed that he was one of the three men who had posed as DEA agents.
Is Ray still in trouble?
While Ray thanked his stars for keeping him alive, he was not yet completely out of danger. The detectives were close to nabbing him, and the man operating ‘the Alliance’ still had his eyes on Ray. The third episode ends on a bittersweet note. The good part was that Ray saved Manny’s relationship. His girlfriend, Sherry, could sense that he’d once again gotten into trouble, and she demanded to know what was going on. Ray showed her the ring Manny had bought for her, and he encouraged Manny to propose to his girl. Manny finally gathered the courage to ask Sherry to marry him. Even though she was annoyed with the risky moves Manny always made, she loved him, and she happily said yes.
The bad part was that just when Ray thought miracles were real and things were finally looking a little better than before, he noticed a box left outside Sherry’s place. A note attached to it said, “Give us our shit, or more heads.” Ray opened the box to discover the dismembered head of Malik. He’d been tortured and murdered when he failed to answer the biker gang after they inquired about Ray. Even though Malik didn’t have anything to do with Ray, he ended up paying the price for his one bad decision. Race surely has a role to play, and it was perhaps all the more reason why Ray was targeted. Ray would be lucky if the detectives got to him before the cold-blooded gangster did. He was simply waiting for the right opportunity, and considering how close he got this time, Ray has to find a solution immediately, or as the gangster said, his loved ones will be taken away from him one by one.
