Dope Thief Episode 6 Recap: Love Songs from Mars

In its sixth episode, Apple TV+’s ‘Dope Thief’ dials the tension all the way up, delivering chaos within Ray’s household as everyone who loves him tries to save him while clashing with each other as well as him. The previous episode ended with Ray getting shot right outside his house before being saved by his father, Bart, who kills the shooter. This episode begins with Bart examining the shooter’s dead body and discovering that he was sent by the cartel, which means that Ray has landed himself in some very bad things. For now, however, his concern is the danger right outside their door, which is preventing them from taking Ray to the hospital, and with each minute, his chances of survival decrease abysmally. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Ray’s Family and Friends Try to Save Him Without Taking Him to the Hospital

When Ray gets shot, Theresa’s first thought is to get him to the hospital, but Bart knows that there is a storm brewing outside, and the minute they step out of the house, they will be killed. To prove his theory right, cards and bikes are seen circling the house. Moreover, Bart believes that they are being listened to, so he keeps the music on the radio loud to drown out whatever conversation they have while discussing how to treat Ray. With the hospital out of the question, Bart uses his home remedies, like glue, to stitch his son back in shape, but with each minute, his condition worsens. Soon after, Manny arrives to help his friend, but there is only so much he can do. What’s worse is that his arrival is not welcomed by Bart, who accuses him of being a junkie and pulling his son into the mess they are currently in. Manny reverts by calling him a bad father in so many words and refusing to give the reins of the situation to him.

When the situation doesn’t get any better, and Ray only seems to get worse by the minute, Manny decides to call for help. A delirious Ray tries to stop him by telling him that Son is in on the whole thing, but his friend dismisses it as a part of his paranoia and tells Son to bring a doctor, which, in this case, is his mother, Xuan. It turns out that she used to be a medic during the Vietnam War, and Son’s father used to work with the CIA until he died. Xuan, whose name means springtime, quickly takes control of the situation. She gives him a drug to anesthetize him and immediately counters it by putting pressure on the wound on his leg. While she successfully deals with this one, she also discovers that the leg wound is the least of their problems. She finds another older wound in Ray’s chest, which he did not get treated, leading pus to form inside it, which is now in his bloodstream and poisoning him from the inside.

When it becomes clear that antibiotics are not going to save him, everyone has to agree that this is the time to take a risk and get Ray to a hospital. Prior to this, Son, his guy, and Manny walk out of the house to find the cartel guys but instead find Sherry driving up to the house. She and Manny are ecstatic at their reunion, but their celebration is short-lived as Sherry rushes inside the house to keep her safe, where she finds a wounded Ray. To avoid losing any more time, Bart decides to drive Ray to the hospital while Son, his guy, and Manny follow them in the car. As they drive away from the house towards the hospital, they find the streets eerily empty and prepare themselves for the worst.

The Lines Between Reality and Hallucination Blur for Ray

The pain of the bullet wound in his leg and the poison of infection running in his veins puts Ray in a state where reality bends for him such that past and present meld in a kaleidoscopic nightmare. Even though his father saved him from dying and pulled him into the house, he is not ready to immediately forget everything that has gone wrong between them so far. At the same time, he is haunted by the ghost of Marletta, who keeps telling him to let her go. He also visits the memory of when he was a child and found his overdosed mother in the house’s bathroom. The guilt of their deaths swirls inside his brain, mixing with the anger for his father.

Even with all these hallucinations, Ray finds a weird sense of clarity where some things start to make sense to him. Like his father, he believes that they are being watched and heard and tells people around him to be more cautious with their words and actions. In a strange moment, he looks at the numbers on the two-dollar bills and realizes that they add up to become a code, though he has yet to figure out what that code is. In any case, he knows that this is what the bad guys are after, not the value of the money itself. He asks Manny about the money, and interestingly, the camera pans to Son, who is highly attentive to the exchange. Manny assures Ray, but he doesn’t reveal the location of the money.

With each minute, Ray’s mind starts to break further, and in the end, he locks himself in the attic with a gun and the mixtape from Marletta that he kept safe all these years. As he listens to the songs, she speaks to him until he cannot listen anymore and shoots the tape recorder. Outside the room, everyone thinks he has shot himself, which leads Manny to break the door and barge in to find his friend still alive. However, the sound of the bullet alerts the vultures-in-wait outside, and a sniper shoots in the attic but doesn’t hit anyone. The neighbors also become concerned and call the cops, but they never show up.

Bart Drops Major Truth Bombs on Ray Before Meeting an End

While the chaotic series of events is underway in Ray’s house, the DEA is listening to the whole thing. At the end of the episode, as Bart drives Ray to the hospital, he confesses that he was brought out of the prison by the Feds under the condition that his ankle monitor would serve as a listening device for their operation. He also reveals that a corrupt Fed (Jack) had been dealing with the drug people, and Ray was directed to the barn to kill him. This means that someone used Ray and Manny to have Jack killed without drawing any suspicion on them. This proves that Rick, the third guy they’d brought into the fold, joined their operation simply for this purpose and knew exactly what mess he was getting them into.

Dialing back a bit, we see Nader, Marchetti, and their team, including Mina, listening to everything that is being said in the house. Their job is to look for any detail that will implicate Ray as a cartel man, which would allow them to wrap up the whole case quickly. They also seem to be aware that Ray is not well, but Nader refuses to send in help or intervene in any way. If it takes Ray bleeding to death to get what he wants, where’s the harm in that? Mina, on the other hand, doesn’t want justice to be served this way. She implores Nader to help Ray, but all he does is sit back and watch. Marchetti, however, supports her stand, especially after she reveals that her daughter also died of a fentanyl overdose, which she believed was Percocet. At the end of the day, when they discover that Ray is being taken to a hospital, Mina immediately warns of an ambush and tells Nader to send a team to the hospital.

Whatever help is sent along by the DEA does not arrive in time. A gunfight ensues the moment Bart stops outside the hospital gate. Eventually, Manny steps out while the bullets are flying around and helps Ray into the hospital building while he cries for his father to accompany him. On the stretcher and rushed to help, he sees Marletta’s ghost letting go of him, which is immediately replaced by Mina’s ghost, who tells him that they are not done yet. Outside, Bart, Son, and his guy succeed in shooting down all the cartel people, and it should have meant a happy ending. But in the final scene, Bart has a gun pulled to his face and is shot down. While we only see the shooter’s hand holding the gun, it is clear enough to tell that the shooter is Son. He has been a pretty shady guy since the beginning of the series, but it remains to be seen what exactly motivated him to kill Bart, with whom he has had no apparant connection so far.