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Hard Cases (The Wire episode)
Encyclopedia
"Hard Cases" is the fourth episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire
. The episode was written by Joy Lusco
from a story by David Simon
& Joy Lusco and was directed by Elodie Keene
. It originally aired on June 22, 2003.
A "hard case" is also defined as "a person who is persistently insolent or difficult to control", and may refer to the repeated issues McNulty, Greggs, and Daniels have with being kept from real police work. Along this same line, the title could also apply to Ziggy Sobotka
as well as Horseface, who stubbornly refused to go downtown for questioning in connection with the Jane Does, reinforcing the front the Stevedores have against the Police.
, Deirdre Lovejoy
and Seth Gilliam
do not appear in this episode.
and Lester Freamon
meet with Colonel William Rawls
to discuss their progress. They tell him they need to look into how goods move through the port to understand what was happening with the container. Rawls tells them they should have held the ship in the docks and that they are his scapegoats if their investigation is not fruitful.
The detectives make their way to the docks anyway and try to get Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa to tell them more about the container. He hides behind his union representation and refuses to accompany them to their offices. Later, Beadie Russell
shows them Delores's bar and they hassle both Horseface and Frank Sobotka
. Frank is terrified of this new attention from law enforcement and vomits in the bathroom after learning the deaths were not accidental but homicidal.
Officer Jimmy McNulty
continues to try to identify the girls. He uses the photo he matched to the girl he pulled from the harbor to identify her clothes in the evidence. He discovers a letter amongst them and has a foreign national translate it for him. He learns the girl's first name and a little about her family, and a vague reference to a priest at a church in her home country.
meets with Lieutenant Cedric Daniels
and offers him the command of the detail to stay with the department. Burrell appears anxious to appease Valchek, and attempts to talk Daniels into putting off his retirement from the department for a year, promising him a promotion in a few months that would boost his pension to a higher level. Daniels sees through Burrell's bluster about needing a capable investigator and gets Burrell to confirm that Major Valchek
has asked for him by name. Seeing he is in a superior bargaining position, Daniels demands his own major case unit if the investigation is successful, and the chance to pick his own people. Burrell agrees.
Daniels meets with Kima Greggs
and persuades her to join the detail despite Cheryl's desire for her to work a desk job. Kima jokes, "I'll tell your wife if you tell mine," referring to the protest that their partners will have regarding the investigation. Cheryl and Kima's differences are brought to the fore when they are stuck behind a car of drunken frat boys and Kima cannot fight her impulse to arrest one of them. Daniels and Marla also have different outlooks on the detail's merits, and she storms out of dinner after he tells her about it. Kima gets the same reaction from Cheryl.
Colonel Rawls allows Daniels to take all of his choices except for McNulty. Rawls is still vengeful due to McNulty's acts of disloyal and insubordinate behavior during the Barksdale investigation, declaring that McNulty must drown or quit in order to leave the marine unit. Rawls comments that Daniels must be desperate to get out of evidence control to take a case involving the rivalry between Valchek and Sobotka. Daniels later meets with Valchek and he explains his premise for the investigation and drives him to the facility. Valchek also thanks Daniels for his mentoring of Prez and then describes the I.B.S. workers they are investigating as dishonest thieves. Thomas "Herc" Hauk and Greggs accompany them and are reunited with Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski. Valchek offers anyone from the Southeastern to Daniels and Herc reminds him that Carver is now there, but Daniels silently ignores Herc's implied suggestion that he recruit Carver. Daniels states that the detail needs to accrue at least a few drug busts by the harbor before adding to its number.
as a witness for the Marquis "Bird" Hilton trial. He spends a day cruising the West Baltimore streets, but the best he can come up with is Bubbles
and Johnny shoplifting. He then gives them an ultimatum to either find Omar or go to jail on shoplifting charges.
Bubbles and Johnny later get stoned in a crack house and ask around about Omar. Kimmy, one of Omar's new crew, is also there asking about their next target and overhears Bubbles' inquiries. Omar sets a small trap for Bubbles with a scrap radiator and asks why he is asking for him.
meets with Cherry, the manager of his cut house. They discuss the poor quality of their latest package from Atlanta and Stringer orders Cherry to dilute it regardless.
tries to convince D'Angelo
to use the situation to their advantage and reduce their sentences. D'Angelo refuses to believe that Avon had nothing to do with the deaths of the inmates and tells his uncle that he no longer wants anything to do with his business.
Avon works with Maurice Levy
, his attorney, to negotiate a reduction of his time until his first parole hearing to one year in exchange for information about the deaths. Despite the investigator's suspicion that Avon was directly involved and responsible for the bad package, the assistant district attorney bluntly tells him and the warden to take the deal they have in front of them. Once the deal is in place, Levy fingers Tilghman. The investigators discover the narcotics that Stringer had planted in Tilghman's car and arrest the CO as he protests that he'd been set up.
meets with his uncle Frank at the harbor at his behest. Frank knows that Nick stole the truck-load of cameras. Frank demands that Nick return the cameras, but Nick cannot because they have already been fenced. Frank and Nick argue about Frank's own illegal activities and Frank reminds his nephew that he is using the money he makes to save the dock industry.
Nick delivers his cousin Ziggy Sobotka
's share to him at Delores's bar. He warns him not to flash the money around and lets Ziggy know that his father (Frank) knows they stole the truck. Nick spends the night with Aimee, but asks her to leave through the back so that his "decent" parents do not find out.
Ziggy cannot control his spending and buys a two thousand dollar leather coat. Nick and Ziggy meet with George "Double G" Glekas again and he asks them to acquire chemicals for him. Ziggy takes the list to Johnny "Fifty" Spamanto, their connection in the checkers, and he points them to a contact in another area. As Ziggy leaves, he is accosted by Maui, another checker, who intentionally spills coffee on Ziggy's new leather jacket and mocks him for stealing from the docks. Ziggy later gets his revenge by littering Maui's computer monitor with photographs of his genitals. Frank catches up with his son, cuffs him on the head, threatens to pull his card and sends him home.
To Aimee's surprise, Nick tells her that he has come into "some back pay" and suggests they look to buy a property in the neighborhood. He also talks to his mother having had a successful day's employment at the docks and goes to bring his father home for dinner. His father retired from the shipyards when they closed, and now spends much of his time drinking at the local pub and playing the horses. Nick asks his father if he misses the docks, to which he replies, "Wouldn't matter if I did." After a brief moment of levity, they head home to "tuna surprise" for dinner.
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
. The episode was written by Joy Lusco
Joy Lusco
Joy Lusco, also known as Joy Kecken and Joy Lusco Kecken, is an American film and television director and writer. She often works with her husband, Scott Kecken. She has worked on the HBO drama series The Wire as a writer on the show's first three seasons....
from a story by David Simon
David Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...
& Joy Lusco and was directed by Elodie Keene
Elodie Keene
Elodie Keene is an American film/television director, producer and editor. As a television director her credits include ER, NYPD Blue, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Charmed, Felicity, The Wire, House, M.D., The Closer, Nip/Tuck and among other series.She has won three Primetime Emmy Awards, two for...
. It originally aired on June 22, 2003.
Title reference
The title refers to the seeming impossibility of the cases the police have taken up: the fourteen homicides for Bunk, Beadie and Freamon as well as McNulty's attempt to identify one of the dead women.A "hard case" is also defined as "a person who is persistently insolent or difficult to control", and may refer to the repeated issues McNulty, Greggs, and Daniels have with being kept from real police work. Along this same line, the title could also apply to Ziggy Sobotka
Ziggy Sobotka
Chester Karol "Ziggy" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor James Ransone. Though his father Frank Sobotka was a well-respected stevedore union leader, Ziggy's often reckless and juvenile behavior gained him little respect among other members of the union and...
as well as Horseface, who stubbornly refused to go downtown for questioning in connection with the Jane Does, reinforcing the front the Stevedores have against the Police.
Epigraph
Greggs makes this statement about her inability to return to investigative work without becoming fully involved.Starring cast
Although credited, Paul Ben-VictorPaul Ben-Victor
Paul Ben-Victor is an American actor.Ben-Victor was born Paul Friedman, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Leah Kornfeld, a playwright, and Victor Friedman. Ben-Victor debuted on the small screen in 1987 in the made-for-TV movie Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife and on an episode of Cagney &...
, Deirdre Lovejoy
Deirdre Lovejoy
Deirdre Lovejoy is an American actress. She is most notable for her role on the HBO television series The Wire as Rhonda Pearlman. She graduated from the University of Evansville with an undergraduate degree in theatre....
and Seth Gilliam
Seth Gilliam
Seth Gilliam is an American actor. He is known for his HBO television roles, first as corrections officer-turned-prisoner Clayton Hughes on Oz, and later as Baltimore police detective promoted to sergeant Ellis Carver on The Wire. On both of these series, he co-starred with Lance Reddick and J.D....
do not appear in this episode.
Guest stars
- Seth GilliamSeth GilliamSeth Gilliam is an American actor. He is known for his HBO television roles, first as corrections officer-turned-prisoner Clayton Hughes on Oz, and later as Baltimore police detective promoted to sergeant Ellis Carver on The Wire. On both of these series, he co-starred with Lance Reddick and J.D....
as Detective Ellis CarverEllis CarverEllis Carver is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Seth Gilliam. Carver is an African American lieutenant and formerly in command of the Baltimore Police Department's Western District Drug Enforcement Unit... - Domenick LombardozziDomenick LombardozziDomenico "Domenick" Lombardozzi is an American actor best known for his role as Thomas "Herc" Hauk on The Wire. Lombardozzi was inspired to act by the film State of Grace.-Filmography:...
as Detective Thomas "Herc" Hauk - Jim True-FrostJim True-FrostJim True-Frost, born Jim True, is an American stage, television and screen actor. He is most known for his portrayal of Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski on all five seasons of the HBO program The Wire.-Biography:...
as Detective Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski - James RansoneJames RansoneJames Ransone is an American actor and former musician from Baltimore, Maryland. He is best known for his roles as Ziggy Sobotka in the second season of HBO's The Wire, and Corporal Josh Ray Person in the Iraq War-based mini-series Generation Kill...
as Ziggy SobotkaZiggy SobotkaChester Karol "Ziggy" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor James Ransone. Though his father Frank Sobotka was a well-respected stevedore union leader, Ziggy's often reckless and juvenile behavior gained him little respect among other members of the union and... - Pablo SchreiberPablo SchreiberPablo Tell Schreiber is an American actor known for his dramatic stage work and for his portrayal of the Polish-American character Nick Sobotka on HBO's Baltimore drug-related crime drama The Wire. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Awake and Sing! on Broadway...
as Nick SobotkaNick SobotkaNickolas Andrew "Nick" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Pablo Schreiber. the character of Nick is cousin to, Ziggy Sobotka, the wayward and rebellious son to his uncle Frank Sobotka... - Melanie Nicholls-King as Cheryl
- Callie ThorneCallie ThorneCalliope "Callie" Thorne is an American actress known for her current role as Dr. Dani Santino on the USA Network series Necessary Roughness...
as Elena McNulty - Michael K. WilliamsMichael K. WilliamsMichael Kenneth Williams is an American actor known for his portrayal of Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, and of Albert "Chalky" White on HBO's Boardwalk Empire.-Early life and career:...
as Omar LittleOmar LittleOmar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game".... - Leo FitzpatrickLeo FitzpatrickLeonardo Aurellio Randy "Leo" Fitzpatrick is an American actor.-Biography:Leo Fitzpatrick was born in West Orange, New Jersey. He was discovered at age 14 by director Larry Clark at Washington Square Park in New York City, skateboarding. Fitzpatrick was trying to perform certain skating tricks,...
as Johnny - Robert HoganRobert J. HoganRobert J. Hogan is an American actor. While not a stranger to the big screen or the stage, Hogan is best known to audiences for his highly prolific career in American television which began in 1961...
as Louis Sobotka - Michael KostroffMichael KostroffMichael Kostroff is an American actor. He appeared on the HBO program The Wire as defense attorney Maurice Levy. Kostroff starred in the fifth season of the series and appeared in all four earlier seasons as a guest star.- Biography :...
as Maurice LevyMaurice Levy (The Wire)Maurice "Maury" Levy is a fictional lawyer on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Michael Kostroff. He is a skilled defense attorney and was kept on retainer by the drug-trafficking Barksdale Organization, representing the organization's members at trials and advising Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell... - Kristin ProctorKristin ProctorKristin Proctor is a Norwegian-American actress. She is the daughter of actor Phil Proctor and Television producer Barbro Semmingsen....
as Aimee - Al Brown as Major Stan ValchekStanislaus ValchekStanislaus "Stan" Valchek is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Al Brown.-Biography:Valchek is the Polish-American commander of the Southeastern district, home to many of the remaining white ethnic neighborhoods in Baltimore...
- Richard Burton as Shaun "Shamrock" McGinty
- Lance Irwin as Maui
- Delaney WilliamsDelaney WilliamsDelaney Williams is an American actor from Washington, D.C. He appears on the HBO drama The Wire as a recurring guest star playing homicide sergeant Jay Landsman. He also had a small role on HBO's mini-series The Corner which brought him to the attention of the producers, who worked on The prior to...
as Sergeant Jay LandsmanJay Landsman (The Wire)Jay Landsman is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Delaney Williams.-Policing method:Landsman's role in the police department is that of a supervisory detective sergeant who doesn't participate in much investigation work... - Antonio Charity as CO Dwight Tilghman
- Ted Feldman as George "Double G" Glekas
- Elisabeth Noone as Joan Sobotka
- Charley ScaliesCharley ScaliesCharlie Scalies is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa, one of the stevedores and union members on the second season of HBO's The Wire. He has also appeared in TV shows Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, and The Sopranos.- External links :...
as Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa
Uncredited appearances
- Jeffrey Pratt Gordon as Johnny "Fifty" Spamanto
- Kelli R. Brown as Kimmy
- Stanley "Scoogie" Boyd as Cherry
- Leslie Elliard as Officer Kevin Reynolds
- Unknown as Prison Warden
The Jane Does
Detectives Bunk MorelandBunk Moreland
William "Bunk" Moreland is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Wendell Pierce. Bunk's character is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer and nicknamed "the Bunk", an officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who...
and Lester Freamon
Lester Freamon
Lester Freamon is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Clarke Peters. Freamon is a detective in the Baltimore Police Department's Major Crimes Unit...
meet with Colonel William Rawls
William Rawls
William A. "Bill" Rawls is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor John Doman. Over the course of the series he ascends to the rank of Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.-Season 1:...
to discuss their progress. They tell him they need to look into how goods move through the port to understand what was happening with the container. Rawls tells them they should have held the ship in the docks and that they are his scapegoats if their investigation is not fruitful.
The detectives make their way to the docks anyway and try to get Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa to tell them more about the container. He hides behind his union representation and refuses to accompany them to their offices. Later, Beadie Russell
Beadie Russell
Beatrice "Beadie" Russell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Amy Ryan. She was featured prominently in the second season, after she discovered thirteen corpses in a container on the Baltimore docks....
shows them Delores's bar and they hassle both Horseface and Frank Sobotka
Frank Sobotka
Francis "Frank" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Chris Bauer.-Biography:Frank is a respected Polish-American secretary treasurer for the International Brotherhood of Stevedores at the Baltimore docks...
. Frank is terrified of this new attention from law enforcement and vomits in the bathroom after learning the deaths were not accidental but homicidal.
Officer Jimmy McNulty
Jimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...
continues to try to identify the girls. He uses the photo he matched to the girl he pulled from the harbor to identify her clothes in the evidence. He discovers a letter amongst them and has a foreign national translate it for him. He learns the girl's first name and a little about her family, and a vague reference to a priest at a church in her home country.
Sobotka detail
Acting Commissioner Ervin BurrellErvin Burrell
Ervin Burrell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Frankie Faison. Burrell was an officer in the Baltimore Police Department who ascended from Deputy Commissioner of Operations to Commissioner over the course of the show...
meets with Lieutenant Cedric Daniels
Cedric Daniels
Cedric Daniels is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Lance Reddick. He is a well regarded officer in the department whose focus is on good police work and quality arrests...
and offers him the command of the detail to stay with the department. Burrell appears anxious to appease Valchek, and attempts to talk Daniels into putting off his retirement from the department for a year, promising him a promotion in a few months that would boost his pension to a higher level. Daniels sees through Burrell's bluster about needing a capable investigator and gets Burrell to confirm that Major Valchek
Stanislaus Valchek
Stanislaus "Stan" Valchek is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Al Brown.-Biography:Valchek is the Polish-American commander of the Southeastern district, home to many of the remaining white ethnic neighborhoods in Baltimore...
has asked for him by name. Seeing he is in a superior bargaining position, Daniels demands his own major case unit if the investigation is successful, and the chance to pick his own people. Burrell agrees.
Daniels meets with Kima Greggs
Kima Greggs
Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Sonja Sohn. Greggs is a police detective in the Baltimore Police Department who is a dedicated officer and capable detective with some off-the-job issues. Openly lesbian, she has had problems...
and persuades her to join the detail despite Cheryl's desire for her to work a desk job. Kima jokes, "I'll tell your wife if you tell mine," referring to the protest that their partners will have regarding the investigation. Cheryl and Kima's differences are brought to the fore when they are stuck behind a car of drunken frat boys and Kima cannot fight her impulse to arrest one of them. Daniels and Marla also have different outlooks on the detail's merits, and she storms out of dinner after he tells her about it. Kima gets the same reaction from Cheryl.
Colonel Rawls allows Daniels to take all of his choices except for McNulty. Rawls is still vengeful due to McNulty's acts of disloyal and insubordinate behavior during the Barksdale investigation, declaring that McNulty must drown or quit in order to leave the marine unit. Rawls comments that Daniels must be desperate to get out of evidence control to take a case involving the rivalry between Valchek and Sobotka. Daniels later meets with Valchek and he explains his premise for the investigation and drives him to the facility. Valchek also thanks Daniels for his mentoring of Prez and then describes the I.B.S. workers they are investigating as dishonest thieves. Thomas "Herc" Hauk and Greggs accompany them and are reunited with Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski. Valchek offers anyone from the Southeastern to Daniels and Herc reminds him that Carver is now there, but Daniels silently ignores Herc's implied suggestion that he recruit Carver. Daniels states that the detail needs to accrue at least a few drug busts by the harbor before adding to its number.
Omar
McNulty is still getting pressure from Bunk and ASA Ilene Nathan to find Omar LittleOmar Little
Omar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game"....
as a witness for the Marquis "Bird" Hilton trial. He spends a day cruising the West Baltimore streets, but the best he can come up with is Bubbles
Bubbles (The Wire)
Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Andre Royo. Bubbles is a recovering heroin addict. His real name is not revealed until a fourth-season episode when he is called "Mr. Cousins" and in the fifth-season premiere when he is called "Reginald"...
and Johnny shoplifting. He then gives them an ultimatum to either find Omar or go to jail on shoplifting charges.
Bubbles and Johnny later get stoned in a crack house and ask around about Omar. Kimmy, one of Omar's new crew, is also there asking about their next target and overhears Bubbles' inquiries. Omar sets a small trap for Bubbles with a scrap radiator and asks why he is asking for him.
Barksdale organization
Stringer BellStringer Bell
Russell "Stringer" Bell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by English actor Idris Elba. Bell served as drug kingpin Avon Barksdale's second in command, assuming direct control of the Barksdale Organization during Avon's imprisonment...
meets with Cherry, the manager of his cut house. They discuss the poor quality of their latest package from Atlanta and Stringer orders Cherry to dilute it regardless.
Prison Blues
The aftermath of the deaths from CO Tilghman's bad package sparks an investigation in the prison. Officer Reynolds suggests that they will likely get informants if they offer to shave years from prisoners' sentences. Avon BarksdaleAvon Barksdale
Avon Randolph Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire portrayed by actor Wood Harris. Avon is the dominant drug dealer of Baltimore's West Side, running the Barksdale Organization...
tries to convince D'Angelo
D'Angelo Barksdale
D'Angelo "D" Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire played by actor Larry Gilliard Jr. D'Angelo is the nephew of Avon Barksdale and a lieutenant in his drug dealing organization which controls most of the trade in West Baltimore...
to use the situation to their advantage and reduce their sentences. D'Angelo refuses to believe that Avon had nothing to do with the deaths of the inmates and tells his uncle that he no longer wants anything to do with his business.
Avon works with Maurice Levy
Maurice Levy (The Wire)
Maurice "Maury" Levy is a fictional lawyer on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Michael Kostroff. He is a skilled defense attorney and was kept on retainer by the drug-trafficking Barksdale Organization, representing the organization's members at trials and advising Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell...
, his attorney, to negotiate a reduction of his time until his first parole hearing to one year in exchange for information about the deaths. Despite the investigator's suspicion that Avon was directly involved and responsible for the bad package, the assistant district attorney bluntly tells him and the warden to take the deal they have in front of them. Once the deal is in place, Levy fingers Tilghman. The investigators discover the narcotics that Stringer had planted in Tilghman's car and arrest the CO as he protests that he'd been set up.
Nick's money troubles
Nick SobotkaNick Sobotka
Nickolas Andrew "Nick" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Pablo Schreiber. the character of Nick is cousin to, Ziggy Sobotka, the wayward and rebellious son to his uncle Frank Sobotka...
meets with his uncle Frank at the harbor at his behest. Frank knows that Nick stole the truck-load of cameras. Frank demands that Nick return the cameras, but Nick cannot because they have already been fenced. Frank and Nick argue about Frank's own illegal activities and Frank reminds his nephew that he is using the money he makes to save the dock industry.
Nick delivers his cousin Ziggy Sobotka
Ziggy Sobotka
Chester Karol "Ziggy" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor James Ransone. Though his father Frank Sobotka was a well-respected stevedore union leader, Ziggy's often reckless and juvenile behavior gained him little respect among other members of the union and...
's share to him at Delores's bar. He warns him not to flash the money around and lets Ziggy know that his father (Frank) knows they stole the truck. Nick spends the night with Aimee, but asks her to leave through the back so that his "decent" parents do not find out.
Ziggy cannot control his spending and buys a two thousand dollar leather coat. Nick and Ziggy meet with George "Double G" Glekas again and he asks them to acquire chemicals for him. Ziggy takes the list to Johnny "Fifty" Spamanto, their connection in the checkers, and he points them to a contact in another area. As Ziggy leaves, he is accosted by Maui, another checker, who intentionally spills coffee on Ziggy's new leather jacket and mocks him for stealing from the docks. Ziggy later gets his revenge by littering Maui's computer monitor with photographs of his genitals. Frank catches up with his son, cuffs him on the head, threatens to pull his card and sends him home.
To Aimee's surprise, Nick tells her that he has come into "some back pay" and suggests they look to buy a property in the neighborhood. He also talks to his mother having had a successful day's employment at the docks and goes to bring his father home for dinner. His father retired from the shipyards when they closed, and now spends much of his time drinking at the local pub and playing the horses. Nick asks his father if he misses the docks, to which he replies, "Wouldn't matter if I did." After a brief moment of levity, they head home to "tuna surprise" for dinner.
First appearances
- Maui: a checker at the docks with animosity towards Ziggy Sobotka.
- Louis Sobotka: Brother of Frank Sobotka, husband to Joan Sobotka and father of Nick Sobotka. A retired shipyard worker who spends his days drinking and watching horse races.