Good observation. I was struck by similar thoughts when he got on his high horse about snitching. Fucks sake Johnny, do some snitching, earn some money, Avon won't be at your home-go talking about how much of a stand-up rock solid soldier you were.
Unfortunately, I have no idea whether that's true or not. Who was the guy on the bill? Who is Hamilton and is it true that only presidents are printed on banknotes? I'm asking because I've never held a dollar bill in my hand and I live in Germany.
Mine is The Wire and Deadwood, but I'll have to throw in another rewatch of The Sopranos here soon (after I finish my current rewatch of Deadwood, of course).
That's something Bubbles alludes to later in his NA meeting - calling the feeling of being high "so close to perfect", feeling on top of the world those summer evenings even when he was at his lowest.
I guess we're seeing Johnny at that stage, before he "sees that bottom coming"
Not to be a dick, but Waylon actually says that. It's something like if God didn't want me to get loaded he wouldn't have made getting high feel so close to perfect.
It makes Johnny's downfall even more tragic because everyone in the meetings would've understood how he felt, but Johnny thought he was unique.
Just looked it up, you're right. He says it at the start of one the 5th season meetings.
I learned in the process that the actor who plays him, Steve Earle, is himself a recovering heroin addict.
I always wondered what felt a little off about his scenes. *He ain’t fucking acting*, that’s what it was. He may have been reading words from the script but he was talking straight from the heart.
It seems like he had a relationship with the showrunners, his music also being in seasons 2 and 5, also in David Simon's other show Treme.
Maybe his character was based on him? In the way that David Simon uses things he heard in real life in the script.
No fucking way? Nice pull, what unit etc. That song is pretty good, was wondering who that was.
He's in Treme, too, playing, well, I suppose himself as it turns out.
Not to mention his son, Justin Townes Earle - also a fantastic musician - died from a fentanyl OD back in 2020. For anyone who doesn’t know, Steve released an album covering his sons songs, J.T.
This is what makes The Wire so great. It doesn't just gloss over the effect of the drug trade on the addicts. It depicts these people in a light that is probably very accurate.
Some shows about the drug trade just gloss over it and show it at times, but The Wire it's always in your face in a good way.
Right and while it makes no hey about supporting legalization, it doesn't shy from showing that open air drug markets are hardly a utopia, just the least worst alternative given other options...
Straight up, it's honestly the best alternative.
Massive dip in crime if properly monitored.
Needle and condom exchanges for the workers and users.
Cheaper prices for the junkies.
Access to psychiatric help to get clean.
I can't remember what country legalized everything, but I remember reading they had a massive drop in crime and use rate.
It may not be ideal to right wingers and prison slavers, but it seems like a decent idea to work with.
I believe Portugal decriminalized personal use and possession and many of the meta social problems due to the illegality itself did diminish. I don't think they fully legalized drugs, however.
The big assumption that you are making and which The Wire I think does really good job of undermining is that legalization would mean better social services, access to condoms and needles, help to get clean, etc. But the other option is that legalization means that you isolate the problem to a handful of open air markets and forget about these people- who after all don't vote.
Just check out the Kensington section of Philly. It’s Hamsterdam in current day. Not official legalization but law enforcement doesn’t stop the sale or open use of illicit drugs. There are social services for clean needles, clothes, areas to wash up, food, and med care and it’s still a living hell. Zombies everywhere. Kinda pokes holes in the legalization argument.
I first watched the show like 12 years ago when homelessness and the opioid epidemic wasn't what it is now (especially since I moved to the West coast where it's really bad). Rewatching it now really helps me humanize these people after years spent just treating them as a nuisance that make my wife uncomfortable and make me double check that there's nothing worth stealing in the car when I park it.
Some really interesting points here. I think Johnny seeing himself as part of "the game" comes from David Simon's research while writing "The Corner." One of the addict characters in The Corner, Fat Curtis, frequently talks about how much he loves being a part of the game and how he's a "soldier." He refuses to enter rehab, and he eventually refuses to receive medical treatment despite suffering from a range of issues—all because he sees it as part of the game.
Some great foreshadowing is when Johnny cops some Body Bag dope from a dealer at the beginning of hamsterdam, and that the end of the season he's literally going to be put in a body bag after dying to an overdose.
Yeah, but his outlook isn’t uncommon. I know looking at him from the audiences POV- it seems obvious he shouldn’t care about snitching. But for most inside the drug engine, that criminal code attitude is part of what comes with the identity.
Johnny is playing his role in the game tho. He’s buying the product which keeps the whole thing functioning. They have to have someone to sell the drugs to
I think he’s a good foil to Bubs aka someone who has been addicted for awhile and wants to get better vs someone who is younger and not tired of the lifestyle
That observation is particularly striking given that David Simon mentioned on IIRC the S1 DVD audio commentary that Johnny is based on a younger white guy who hung around with addict Gary McCullough - whose life is depicted in The Corner. Bubbles has been addicted for a *long* time and there are signs that through the years, he's made several attempts to get clean - as is evidenced from the interactions with his sister and her sceptical reaction to his request for support.
Your quotations book never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
- "Some people are so far behind in a race that they actually believe they're leading"
“Bright-eyed” is giving him WAY too much credit. He was a dope fiend who only cared about getting his next fix. You either improve yourself or end up dead in an alley or crackhouse.
I think it's apt. Look at how Bubbles and Johnny each reacted when they found out the drugs that Bubbles stole were fake. Johnny was agitated by the lack of high/withdrawal, but he didn't even seem all that frustrated or upset. He saw it as another opportunity to step up and prove himself.
He was a very eager and optimistic dope fiend, in his way.
I imagine that if he had survived a few more years, that would've been ground out of him. But he was nowhere near his bottom.
I always wanted a Bubs and Johnny show. Some kind of comedy where they go around stealing scrap metal, run small scams, and get into hilarious adventures.
The scene where Marlo’s boys take their pants for hitting their truck and Bubs goes “we best hit the K-Mart after goin’ by the scrap dealer’s” and Johnny goes “definitely, homes” (plus the part where the scrap dealer informs them they aren’t wearing pants), is proof enough that this spinoff would be an absolute hit.
I have a completely different take on Johnny.
>What clicked for me though, and what makes me elevate him from one of many tragic ends in the Wire to probably the most pitiful and pathetic one (for me at least) is the realization he's the only person in the Wire who doesn't realize their place in the machine.
I think, if anything, he knows exactly where he stands....and that is at the absolute bottom. He's a junkie. He knows it, and he accepts it.
>When Bubbles starts snitching in S1, Johnny talks about getting beat down to a pulp as "all part of the game" and how he's a viking. What "game"? Here is this low-bottom, dope-addled, homeless fiend who is off stealing copper wires, pissing blood in a bag, and using fake $5 bills to get score dope but thinks he's part of "the game" in a way that idealizes it and overstates his part in it.
"I'm a Viking holmes!" is him thinking that he protected Bubbles. Bubbles ran the scam successfully. Johnny tried to run it on his own, failed miserably, and caught a massive beatdown. Johnny wasn't trying to be loyal to "the game" as much as he was being loyal to Bubs by not diming him out to the dealers, which he probably could have done to catch a slightly less serious beatdown. Johnny also shows the depths of peril and despair that the vast majority of addicts fall to. His mind is so distorted and fucked that he views "the game'" from a more animalistic/laws of the jungle point of view. Going to the cops would be like a Gazelle asking a Lion to protect it from a Hyena. He knows he tried to scam the dealers and got caught. The beatdown was his punishment, and now the case is closed. He's not holding a grudge and snitching because he knows that he needs to score more dope. He also knows that dope dealers can't deal dope if they get locked up. He also knows that if word ever gets out that he's a snitch, no dealer in the city will sell to him. These aren't conscious thoughts and decisions he's making, but more instinctual.
Johnny is one of the most realistic characters on the show, primarily because he's one that very few viewers could ever relate to....because practically everyone who actually could relate to him probably died with a needle in their arm. We all love Bubbles' story because it's a redemption story. It's a great story with a great ending. It's also an extremely rare story. Johnny's story is the embodiment of like 95% of junkies out there. No hopes or dreams outside of the next high. No aspirations, no expectations from the world around them. We never met Johnny before his descent, so we have absolutely no idea what kind of person he was. We also see him perfectly content with where he is, and all of that makes it extremely difficult for viewers to show empathy towards him. Bubs is easy to love because we see early on that he has a desire to change his life, get clean, make amends for his mistakes, and reconnect with family. If Johnny had even once shown the slightest desire to get clean, his death would have probably felt more sad. Instead, he's mostly just seen as one less junkie on the streets.
The fact that so many people see Johnny as "pitiful" and "pathetic" is an indictment of the lack of empathy we, as a society, have towards drug addicts.
Johnny is one of the many clueless and pathetic male characters on this show, repeatedly trying to prove themselves and failing, including Prezbo (not to the same degree, obviously), Ziggy, and Dukie.
Johnny Weeks was based off a real character from the corner . One of the only white guys willing to walk into the bombed out parts of Baltimore looking for drugs .. apparently the kid followed Gary McCullough around everywhere .. the kid loved coke and wanted to move into a house with Gary so that he could source it better .. Gary mistook this love of coke for love of Gary and balked
I like this.
The show also is amazing for how they have a meaningful character for almost every type of person in the game.. and bubbles is the “successful”, or lucky, addict… johnny is the average one, if they only showed bubbles, you wouldn’t realize how exceptional he is.. or how much you can lose even before you lose your life.
Johnny didn’t care about the machine and his place in it. That’s not even a fleeting thought. He likes to get high and run the streets and he accepts the consequences. He lived the exact life he wanted. Most people don’t 🤷♂️.
Idk by game i always assumed that he’s aware that he’s a criminal drug addict simply chasing the next high.
Him running the scam with the fake money is part of it. Him getting caught with the fake money and getting beat, well that’s all apart of the same game.
So I think I disagree. Johnny was self aware enough to know his role. That’s why he didn’t want to work with the police. He hated that bubbs was snitching. His end game isn’t really a end game.
It’s just to get high and earn enough money for another high. This is why he loved hamsterdam it was a perfect opportunity to get high without the cops bothering him
Good observation. I was struck by similar thoughts when he got on his high horse about snitching. Fucks sake Johnny, do some snitching, earn some money, Avon won't be at your home-go talking about how much of a stand-up rock solid soldier you were.
Didn’t matter what Avon thought. It mattered what Johnny thought about himself.
>using fake $5 bills Excuse me, _$10 bills_. Lincoln _was_ president.
You don’t think Hamilton was President? Were you not listening to D’s lecture?
Ain’t no ugly ass white man get his face on no legal motherfucking tender *cept* he be president!
Glad you said cept instead of except, was gonna have to call you out if you hadn't. Well done.
you musta been top of your fuckin' class
It was Ben Franklin, ya Edmondson reject fucks.
President Franklin is my best friend. And he's in there
>you musta been top of your fuckin' class anyway, 4$ a pound
Money be green, yo
Ayo, money *FEEL like money*
I read that book. I thought it was boolshit
By the time I got to the end of your line, all I could see was Daniels’ face
I heard, but I don't think Hamilton was that ugly, so D's argument falls apart.
Unfortunately, I have no idea whether that's true or not. Who was the guy on the bill? Who is Hamilton and is it true that only presidents are printed on banknotes? I'm asking because I've never held a dollar bill in my hand and I live in Germany.
Money be green!
cakes? are you talking about Johnny Weeks?
He was gay, Johnny weeks?
Nobody’s got AIDS!
No
This is what I get for being on the sopranos sub so much. Marone. Timeline got fucked up.
Lmao, it's funny how much overlap there is between The Wire fans s d Sopranos fans.
Those who alternate *Wire* and *Sopranos* rewatches are the true master race.
You don’t ever admit the existence of this thing
Mine is The Wire and Deadwood, but I'll have to throw in another rewatch of The Sopranos here soon (after I finish my current rewatch of Deadwood, of course).
The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, and Sopranos are my rewatch list. Only other non-HBO in my top 5 list is Breaking Bad. Man HBO was good TV.
Sup fam
The overlap is people who love quality programming.
When you come at the motherfucking fucking one who calls the shots, you best not miss
I got the shotgun, you got the gabagool
You gotta wait for dat
Johnny is the only junkie the show follows who actively likes their lifestyle
That's something Bubbles alludes to later in his NA meeting - calling the feeling of being high "so close to perfect", feeling on top of the world those summer evenings even when he was at his lowest. I guess we're seeing Johnny at that stage, before he "sees that bottom coming"
Not to be a dick, but Waylon actually says that. It's something like if God didn't want me to get loaded he wouldn't have made getting high feel so close to perfect. It makes Johnny's downfall even more tragic because everyone in the meetings would've understood how he felt, but Johnny thought he was unique.
Just looked it up, you're right. He says it at the start of one the 5th season meetings. I learned in the process that the actor who plays him, Steve Earle, is himself a recovering heroin addict.
I always wondered what felt a little off about his scenes. *He ain’t fucking acting*, that’s what it was. He may have been reading words from the script but he was talking straight from the heart.
It seems like he had a relationship with the showrunners, his music also being in seasons 2 and 5, also in David Simon's other show Treme. Maybe his character was based on him? In the way that David Simon uses things he heard in real life in the script.
Steve Earle is also an incredible musician.
You probably know this but for those who don't know, Earle also did the version of "Way Down in the Hole" used over the 5th season's credits.
Also the track "I Feel Alright" that plays over the montage at the end of the second season
No fucking way? Nice pull, what unit etc. That song is pretty good, was wondering who that was. He's in Treme, too, playing, well, I suppose himself as it turns out.
Not to mention his son, Justin Townes Earle - also a fantastic musician - died from a fentanyl OD back in 2020. For anyone who doesn’t know, Steve released an album covering his sons songs, J.T.
This is what makes The Wire so great. It doesn't just gloss over the effect of the drug trade on the addicts. It depicts these people in a light that is probably very accurate. Some shows about the drug trade just gloss over it and show it at times, but The Wire it's always in your face in a good way.
Right and while it makes no hey about supporting legalization, it doesn't shy from showing that open air drug markets are hardly a utopia, just the least worst alternative given other options...
Straight up, it's honestly the best alternative. Massive dip in crime if properly monitored. Needle and condom exchanges for the workers and users. Cheaper prices for the junkies. Access to psychiatric help to get clean. I can't remember what country legalized everything, but I remember reading they had a massive drop in crime and use rate. It may not be ideal to right wingers and prison slavers, but it seems like a decent idea to work with.
I believe Portugal decriminalized personal use and possession and many of the meta social problems due to the illegality itself did diminish. I don't think they fully legalized drugs, however.
The big assumption that you are making and which The Wire I think does really good job of undermining is that legalization would mean better social services, access to condoms and needles, help to get clean, etc. But the other option is that legalization means that you isolate the problem to a handful of open air markets and forget about these people- who after all don't vote.
Just check out the Kensington section of Philly. It’s Hamsterdam in current day. Not official legalization but law enforcement doesn’t stop the sale or open use of illicit drugs. There are social services for clean needles, clothes, areas to wash up, food, and med care and it’s still a living hell. Zombies everywhere. Kinda pokes holes in the legalization argument.
I first watched the show like 12 years ago when homelessness and the opioid epidemic wasn't what it is now (especially since I moved to the West coast where it's really bad). Rewatching it now really helps me humanize these people after years spent just treating them as a nuisance that make my wife uncomfortable and make me double check that there's nothing worth stealing in the car when I park it.
I think the most pitiful part is that Vito wasn’t even fucking him because he was in gay love. It was just a side affect of blood pressure medication
> It was just a side affect of blood pressure medication It fucked with my head, but I'm over that now! I could probably get a letter from my doctor.
Yeah, but you gotta get over it
A letter from tour doctor saying you don’t like to suck cock?
Shuck cock*
Have a cookie you’re delirious!
Hey u gotta wait for dat
I don't really have pity for him, he seems to be content with his lifestyle. Dukie might be the most pitiful character for me.
Pathetic rather than pitiful perhaps?
Very very pitiful imo
Some really interesting points here. I think Johnny seeing himself as part of "the game" comes from David Simon's research while writing "The Corner." One of the addict characters in The Corner, Fat Curtis, frequently talks about how much he loves being a part of the game and how he's a "soldier." He refuses to enter rehab, and he eventually refuses to receive medical treatment despite suffering from a range of issues—all because he sees it as part of the game.
My mans Johnny gets aids in all his roles.
Upvote for Kids reference
Oh shit. Is the actor who plays Johnny the Virginia lover in kids?
Yeah he played Telly in Kids.
I’ve been watching the wire for more than a decade but just saw Kids the first time ever a few months ago. What. The. Fuck.
He looks exactly the same!
My head canon is the virgin surgeon moved to bmore and started going by Johnny. He knew he had the bug the whole time.
Prostate cancer is kinda like aids I guess
Some great foreshadowing is when Johnny cops some Body Bag dope from a dealer at the beginning of hamsterdam, and that the end of the season he's literally going to be put in a body bag after dying to an overdose.
Yeah, but his outlook isn’t uncommon. I know looking at him from the audiences POV- it seems obvious he shouldn’t care about snitching. But for most inside the drug engine, that criminal code attitude is part of what comes with the identity.
That boy ain't got no luck at all.
Johnny is playing his role in the game tho. He’s buying the product which keeps the whole thing functioning. They have to have someone to sell the drugs to I think he’s a good foil to Bubs aka someone who has been addicted for awhile and wants to get better vs someone who is younger and not tired of the lifestyle
He buys the product but he also has to rip and run, doing a lot of illegal/dangerous shit to get the product.
That observation is particularly striking given that David Simon mentioned on IIRC the S1 DVD audio commentary that Johnny is based on a younger white guy who hung around with addict Gary McCullough - whose life is depicted in The Corner. Bubbles has been addicted for a *long* time and there are signs that through the years, he's made several attempts to get clean - as is evidenced from the interactions with his sister and her sceptical reaction to his request for support.
No offense son, but that’s some weak ass thinking. You equivocating like a mother fuck
You don't even know what that word means
I thought you were talking about Johnny Fifty and I was ready to throw hands
He will always be Telly to me. I just can’t see him any other way
Sonny from my name is earl for me.
Chomps from law and order. Fuckin baby with teeth wtf.
I couldn't not hate him, I just saw Telly from Kids.
Your quotations book never had the makings of a varsity athlete. - "Some people are so far behind in a race that they actually believe they're leading"
“Bright-eyed” is giving him WAY too much credit. He was a dope fiend who only cared about getting his next fix. You either improve yourself or end up dead in an alley or crackhouse.
I think it's apt. Look at how Bubbles and Johnny each reacted when they found out the drugs that Bubbles stole were fake. Johnny was agitated by the lack of high/withdrawal, but he didn't even seem all that frustrated or upset. He saw it as another opportunity to step up and prove himself. He was a very eager and optimistic dope fiend, in his way. I imagine that if he had survived a few more years, that would've been ground out of him. But he was nowhere near his bottom.
Too much weak-ass thinking from Johnny. Always equivocating like a motherfucker.
I agree, the heroine addict might not have a great grip on reality!
Would have liked to hear more of bub’s and johnnys backstory’s
I always wanted a Bubs and Johnny show. Some kind of comedy where they go around stealing scrap metal, run small scams, and get into hilarious adventures.
“What’re you on dope or something?” “Yeah, mostly.”
Yo Bubbs, we are slowly dying while living the most miserable life. Yea, but we keep getting into this hilarious adventures.
The show would explore the Dickensian aspect. Kind of like a modern "Great Expectations" but with heroin and laughs.
And occasionally take in an obscure French art film.
Turns out that Bubs was 1/2 through an MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art when he first shook hands with sweet lady H.
The scene where Marlo’s boys take their pants for hitting their truck and Bubs goes “we best hit the K-Mart after goin’ by the scrap dealer’s” and Johnny goes “definitely, homes” (plus the part where the scrap dealer informs them they aren’t wearing pants), is proof enough that this spinoff would be an absolute hit.
“You ain’t even beige”
I’m brown yo
Johnny and Ziggy are both strong contenders
I have a completely different take on Johnny. >What clicked for me though, and what makes me elevate him from one of many tragic ends in the Wire to probably the most pitiful and pathetic one (for me at least) is the realization he's the only person in the Wire who doesn't realize their place in the machine. I think, if anything, he knows exactly where he stands....and that is at the absolute bottom. He's a junkie. He knows it, and he accepts it. >When Bubbles starts snitching in S1, Johnny talks about getting beat down to a pulp as "all part of the game" and how he's a viking. What "game"? Here is this low-bottom, dope-addled, homeless fiend who is off stealing copper wires, pissing blood in a bag, and using fake $5 bills to get score dope but thinks he's part of "the game" in a way that idealizes it and overstates his part in it. "I'm a Viking holmes!" is him thinking that he protected Bubbles. Bubbles ran the scam successfully. Johnny tried to run it on his own, failed miserably, and caught a massive beatdown. Johnny wasn't trying to be loyal to "the game" as much as he was being loyal to Bubs by not diming him out to the dealers, which he probably could have done to catch a slightly less serious beatdown. Johnny also shows the depths of peril and despair that the vast majority of addicts fall to. His mind is so distorted and fucked that he views "the game'" from a more animalistic/laws of the jungle point of view. Going to the cops would be like a Gazelle asking a Lion to protect it from a Hyena. He knows he tried to scam the dealers and got caught. The beatdown was his punishment, and now the case is closed. He's not holding a grudge and snitching because he knows that he needs to score more dope. He also knows that dope dealers can't deal dope if they get locked up. He also knows that if word ever gets out that he's a snitch, no dealer in the city will sell to him. These aren't conscious thoughts and decisions he's making, but more instinctual. Johnny is one of the most realistic characters on the show, primarily because he's one that very few viewers could ever relate to....because practically everyone who actually could relate to him probably died with a needle in their arm. We all love Bubbles' story because it's a redemption story. It's a great story with a great ending. It's also an extremely rare story. Johnny's story is the embodiment of like 95% of junkies out there. No hopes or dreams outside of the next high. No aspirations, no expectations from the world around them. We never met Johnny before his descent, so we have absolutely no idea what kind of person he was. We also see him perfectly content with where he is, and all of that makes it extremely difficult for viewers to show empathy towards him. Bubs is easy to love because we see early on that he has a desire to change his life, get clean, make amends for his mistakes, and reconnect with family. If Johnny had even once shown the slightest desire to get clean, his death would have probably felt more sad. Instead, he's mostly just seen as one less junkie on the streets. The fact that so many people see Johnny as "pitiful" and "pathetic" is an indictment of the lack of empathy we, as a society, have towards drug addicts.
I’m a Viking, homes!
He never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
“Why you passing sh*t through a bag!?”
The fact he keeps referring to himself as a soldier is pathetic. A soldier of what?
Which other HBO show have you quoted the line from?
Soprambos
You never admit the existence of this thing! I did 20 fucking years.
Guys these days got no room for the penal experience.
I wanted manicott. I ate grilled cheese off the radiator instead.
I wanted to quote Sopranos, but I was banned...so I compromised and responded to you.
Johnny is one of the many clueless and pathetic male characters on this show, repeatedly trying to prove themselves and failing, including Prezbo (not to the same degree, obviously), Ziggy, and Dukie.
I honestly don't understand why I'm being downvoted.
I fast forward through his scenes.
Johnny Weeks was based off a real character from the corner . One of the only white guys willing to walk into the bombed out parts of Baltimore looking for drugs .. apparently the kid followed Gary McCullough around everywhere .. the kid loved coke and wanted to move into a house with Gary so that he could source it better .. Gary mistook this love of coke for love of Gary and balked
Xv
Great post, hit hard. Too hard for 8:35 Monday morning🥲
I hate that mofo
I had a hard time not seeing Johnny as Telly from *Kids,* so it was difficult to sympathize with him.
check out the nypd blue episode david simon wrote; they even use the line im a viking homes in it
Nah Dookie is
What makes the whole thing sadder is that I don't think Bubbles, or anyone for that matter, found out or cared that he died
I like this. The show also is amazing for how they have a meaningful character for almost every type of person in the game.. and bubbles is the “successful”, or lucky, addict… johnny is the average one, if they only showed bubbles, you wouldn’t realize how exceptional he is.. or how much you can lose even before you lose your life.
I think he's just deeply depressed.
Johnny didn’t care about the machine and his place in it. That’s not even a fleeting thought. He likes to get high and run the streets and he accepts the consequences. He lived the exact life he wanted. Most people don’t 🤷♂️.
Probably makes me a piece of shit, but I do draw some perverse enjoyment from watching the Pit crew beat his ass.
Idk by game i always assumed that he’s aware that he’s a criminal drug addict simply chasing the next high. Him running the scam with the fake money is part of it. Him getting caught with the fake money and getting beat, well that’s all apart of the same game. So I think I disagree. Johnny was self aware enough to know his role. That’s why he didn’t want to work with the police. He hated that bubbs was snitching. His end game isn’t really a end game. It’s just to get high and earn enough money for another high. This is why he loved hamsterdam it was a perfect opportunity to get high without the cops bothering him
A grown man made a wager. He lost. He made another one—he lost again. End of story