Dope Thief Episode 4 Recap: Philadelphia Lawyer

The fourth episode of Apple TV+’s ‘Dope Thief’ explores the shifting grounds beneath Ray and Manny’s feet. No matter how they try to control the situation, it only seems to get worse. With each step they take, a new lesson awaits them, teaching them that they have meddled in some very dangerous business. While Ray tries to find a way out, no matter what, Manny’s mental health spirals to the point where one only way seems available to him. The episode presents some levity in the form of absurd characters, but the comedy turns dark pretty quickly. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Ray Goes on the Offensive Against His Enemies

In the previous episode, Ray and Manny received the head of a pawn shop owner with whom they used to trade frequently. The man was killed after giving up info about Ray’s father in prison. And the delivery of his head in a box confirms that the same fate is coming for anyone who is close to the duo. Since the enemy knows their addresses, they decide to hole up in a motel for a while. Ray takes his mother and her dog but struggles to keep them inside. Meanwhile, his father seems to be back on his feet and has a video call with Theresa, who keeps it a secret from Ray. Apart from hiding, he also keeps an eye on their house. Before leaving, he placed several cameras around the neighborhood to keep an eye on the activity and see if anyone came looking for him there. After a while, he notices a car cruising around the street.

He recognizes it as the same car that had chased him a few days ago when he narrowly escaped, thanks to a huge truck in a small alley. He knows that the only way to fight back is to figure out who the enemy is, so he sneaks up on the car and places a tracker on it. The tracker leads him to their base, which seems to be an easy target. He is shocked to discover how open the base is to attack with no security in sight. He immediately calls Son to let him know that they can attack the site and get rid of their enemy once and for all. Son puts him in touch with a man who can help him do that. Meanwhile, he himself has some problems to attend to. It seems that the mysterious man on the phone has found Son, too, and he sends a message by killing his dogs and hanging them in his backyard.

Ray meets up with Son’s contact, accompanied by Manny, but interestingly, Son doesn’t show up. Ray offers to share the site’s location, but the man is done casing places over Zoom videos and wants to see it in person. Despite their unwillingness to do so, Manny and Ray are dragged to the place. Moreover, they are horrified to discover that the man has brought reinforcements and plans to attack the base immediately. Gunfire erupts as Ray and Manny try to find a way to escape, and it turns out that the base isn’t unprotected after all. There are snipers hiding in the forest cover, who easily take out anyone who tries to attack the base. While all the others are killed, Ray and Manny barely make it out alive.

Manny’s Guilty Conscience Pushes Him Towards Drugs and Death

Despite wanting to get back to normal life, Ray and Manny repeatedly find themselves in the middle of flying bullets and dead bodies. While Ray is fazed, he tries to come up with a solution because he knows that it’s not just him that’s at stake. It is his loved ones who will have to pay the price for his sins. Manny, on the other hand, seems to have given up. He spends his days in bed and is back on heroin. Ray desperately tries to pull him out of this, but Manny cannot stop guilt-tripping himself. At the same time, he is heartbroken about leaving behind his fiancee, who keeps texting him about his whereabouts.

When Ray notices that Sherry is too active on social media and is constantly sharing her location, he decides to give her a reality check. He meets with her and tells her how dangerous the situation is right now and why it would be best for her to keep a distance from Manny for a while and be a bit more conscious about what she shares on social media. During their conversation, Manny texts her, asking her to meet him at the church where he is ready to confess his sins. Ray tells her to leave and goes to the church, where he talks Manny out of his confession, saying that it would lead to nothing but trouble.

When Manny realizes that Ray has talked to Sherry and prevented him from seeing her, he loses his mind. Then, the whole scene with the gunfire happens, and this pushes Manny to do something very bad. While fleeing the scene, he notices a grenade in the car. When he and Ray finally stop at a secluded place, he tells Ray to get out of the car and leave. It takes a while for Ray to realize what Manny is trying to do, but even when he sees a grenade in his hand, he refuses to leave him like that. He talks Manny out of killing himself, takes the bomb from him, and throws it into a bin before it explodes. While they are both rattled and Ray is a little angry, he also realizes how desperate Manny is and how dangerous he is to himself at the moment.

The DEA Lays a Trap for Ray

Before Ray and Manny walked in with their fake badges to raid the drug operation, it was being monitored by the DEA. Mina and Jack had found their way in and were working their way up to figure out who the head of the operation was. A flashback at the beginning of the episode reveals that their relationship had been more intimate and how they found the drug network that would eventually put them in the same place as Ray and Manny, leading to Jack’s tragic death. At present, Mina still has her cover, and she wants to continue working on the case to figure out what the Alliance really is. She wants to finish what she started with Jack, but at the same time, she also wants to find Ray.

The DEA knows that Ray’s father is in prison and is being represented by Michelle Taylor, who was, at one time, also Rick’s lawyer. Because Ray has been so elusive, Nader decides to reach out to Michelle. She is told about Rick’s death, which she was entirely unaware of. At the same time, she is also given more information about Ray’s criminal past. All of this is to convince her to set up a meeting with Ray so the agency can finally arrest him. Michelle places the call, and a meeting is set up. Ray is excited to meet her, but when he shows up at the place, he notices several agents lying in wait for him. When Michelle sees him, she, too, warns him about the agents nearby, but by this time, Ray’s trust in her is already broken, and his disappointment about her betrayal is clearly reflected in his eyes.