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The Wire

Nickolas Andrew Sobotka is a former cargo handler for IBS Local 47.

Biography[]

Background[]

He attended Southern High School with Michael McArdle. ("Stray Rounds")

Season 2[]

Nick is Frank Sobotka's nephew a dock worker in his uncle's union. He often had to keep his cousin Ziggy out of trouble. Nick was much more cautious and level-headed than Ziggy, a fact his uncle appreciated. He was involved in his uncle's smuggling operation and often served as Frank's go-between in meetings with Spiros Vondas. He would meet with Vondas at the diner which served as the Greek's "office." Vondas would give him the serial numbers of the cargo containers The Greek was bringing into the port, and Nick would convey this information to his uncle.

Nick had a girlfriend, Aimee, with whom he had a daughter, Ashley. They wanted to move in together, but they were unable to afford a place of their own; Nick lived with his parents, and when she spent the night with him, she had to hide from them. Though Nick very much wanted to settle down with her, his lack of steady income led to tensions between them.

Since Nick was one of the younger stevedores, seniority prevented him from getting enough work at the docks. Desperate for cash, he and Ziggy stole a trailer full of cameras, which they sold to the Greek's front man, Glekas. This brought Nick to the attention of Vondas, who asked him if he could procure large quantities of certain chemicals. Ziggy was immediately interested, but Nick was more conscientious, fearing that the chemicals would be used to make bombs. After some research on the internet, he discovered that they would be used to process drugs, and he agreed to the deal.

Ziggy was into drug dealing and invited Nick to join in, but at first Nick angrily refused. Later, when Ziggy's ineptitude nearly cost him his life at the hands of Proposition Joe's nephew Cheese, Nick asked Vondas to intervene. Vondas sent Sergei "Serge" Malatov, who forced Cheese to back off at gunpoint. Sergei then helped Nick negotiate a settlement with Prop Joe himself.

When the two cousins brought Vondas the chemicals he had requested, Nick asked for payment half in cash, half in heroin. Since Ziggy had proved incompetent, he began selling the drugs to local dealers, with much more success than his cousin. He was spotted meeting with the dealer Frog by Herc and Carver, who were doing surveillance of drug dealers near the port. When the drugs he'd received for the chemicals ran out, Vondas put him in contact with "White Mike" McArdle, who became his new supplier of heroin.

Eventually a warrant was issued for Nick's arrest. The police raided his parents' house, shortly after Ziggy was arrested for the murder of Glekas. Though Nick was not home, his parents were aghast when the police found drugs and cash in his bedroom.

Later that day Vondas approached Nick with an offer to help Ziggy, in exchange for his and Frank's silence. The young Sobotka eagerly conveyed the offer to his uncle. Frank told Nick he would go see the Greek alone. Just before the meeting, the Greek learned that Frank had offered to testify against him, and he had the elder Sobotka killed. A grieving Nick turned himself in to the police, agreeing to become a witness against the Greek and his gang. As his uncle had, he refused to incriminate members of his union. When Daniels' detail interrogated him he identified the Greek in a photograph, giving the detail its first picture of its main target.

Nick, Aimee, and Ashley entered federal witness protection. Nick looked at the decaying shipping industry from behind a chain-link fence. After shedding a few tears, he walks away on a sidewalk leading uphill. ("Port in a Storm")

Season 5[]

NIck is last seen in Season Five, Episode Six (“The Dickensian Aspect”). He appears as a member of the crowd attending Mayor Thomas Carcetti’s dedication speech for “New Westport”, a commercial waterfront development. At the end of the mayor’s speech, Nick yells out to insult and disparage Andy Krawczyk, the corrupt property developer responsible for the dissolution of the grain pier project towards the end of Season Two. As Nick is escorted away by two Baltimore City police officers, Mayor Carcetti asks, “Who the hell’s that?”, to which Krawczyk replies, “Oh, that’s nobody Mr. Mayor. It’s nobody at all.”

Nick is then bent over the trunk of the officers’ patrol car as they cuff him, this being his final appearance in the show.


Production[]

Appearances[]

Season 2
"Ebb Tide" "Collateral Damage" "Hot Shots" "Hard Cases" "Undertow"
"All Prologue" "Backwash" "Duck and Cover" "Stray Rounds" "Storm Warnings"
"Bad Dreams" "Port in a Storm"
Season 5
"More with Less" "Unconfirmed Reports" "Not for Attribution" "Transitions" "React Quotes"
"The Dickensian Aspect" "Took" "Clarifications" "Late Editions" "-30-"

References[]

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