Bubbles
From The Wire
| Reginald Cousins | |
|---|---|
| |
| First appearance | "The Target" (episode 1.01) |
| Last appearance | "–30–" (episode 5.10) |
| Details | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 30s
|
| Occupation | Recovering drug addict |
| Children | KeyShawn (son) |
| Portrayed by | Andre Royo |
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Season one
Bubbles was first seen seeking out his living as a homeless addict and best friend and mentor to Johnny Weeks. The two ran a scam creating counterfeit money using a photocopier and coffee staining. Bubbles was successful in using the money to purchase drugs from a crew of drug dealers working for the Barksdale organization. However when the money was passed on to the crew boss it was recognized as fake. The next time they tried the scam Johnny was severely beaten by the Barksdale hoppers when he panicked and ran after trying to pass them the counterfeit bills.
Bubbles offered to inform on the Barksdale gang for Detective Kima Greggs, to get some measure of revenge for Johnny's beating. Bubbles' knowledge of the street proved to be invaluable to Lieutenant Cedric Daniels' unit as they investigated the Barksdale organization. He helped to identify the members of the crew that ran the Barksdale pit and those that worked in the high rise towers. When Omar robbed the Barksdale stash, Bubbles was there, and gave the license plate number of Omar Little's van to Greggs, which helped the detail track down the stick-up man.
After he was nearly killed trying to steal some drugs, he tried to get off the needle, but reverted to his old habits when Greggs was shot. He paged Greggs after she had promised to help him with money and stay clean, not realizing that she had been hospitalized with a life-threatening injury after a buy-and-bust went bad. As the police were looking for murder suspects, he was mistaken as a suspect and then was brutally beaten by Detective Vernon Holley in the interrogation room. He was beaten until Seargent Jay Landsman and other officers restrained Holley calling in Jimmy McNulty to clear things up.
[edit] Season two
McNulty recruited Bubbles to find Omar Little, whom Bunk needed as a witness in the William Gant murder. Bubbles grudgingly agreed, and in a nervous encounter with a shotgun-wielding Omar, delivered McNulty's message. At the end of season two, he was arrested by Officer Santangelo while trying to steal needles and morphine from an ambulance; in exchange for his release, he tipped off Greggs and McNulty to the new alliance between Proposition Joe and Stringer Bell.
[edit] Season three
Season three saw Bubbles assist the major case unit once again. Bubbles was a former associate of Squeak, then Bernard's girlfriend. Bubbles put them in touch with an undercover Lester Freamon, allowing the unit's plan to wire tap the phones to proceed. Later, Johnny died by overdose in one of Major Colvin's "Hamsterdam" zones. By season's end, Bubbles was selling white t-shirts to young drug dealers. It was in doing so that he met a young homeless boy, whom Bubbles took on as his new friend and protégé.
[edit] Season four
In season four, Bubbles has replaced his season 3 protégé with another young boy named Sherrod. Bubbles and Sherrod were peddling small goods from a shopping cart to support themselves. Sherrod had trouble with the math involved and asked Bubbles to help re-enroll him in school. Sherrod never makes it to school, however, and after a brief fall-out with Bubbles he returns to help him sell goods from the shopping carts. In Sherrod's absence, however, Bubbles has become the daily victim of another street addict, who constantly robs him and beats him up. In an effort to get rid of this daily assault, Bubbles concocts a "hot shot" of heroin and sodium cyanide that he supposes will be stolen from him by the vagrant and then consumed by him. However on the day after he prepares the "hot shot" he does not see the vagrant and falls asleep. Sherrod uses the tainted drugs while Bubbles sleeps and Bubbles awakes to find that Sherrod has died. Consumed by guilt and grief, Bubbles confesses his actions to the police, and unsuccessfully attempts suicide in the Homicide Interrogation room. Sergeant Landsman sees that the death was unintentional and decides with the climbing homicide rate to rather send Bubbles to a psychiatric facility at a state hospital than charge Bubbles with Homicide.[2]
[edit] Season five
When the fifth season begins Bubbles has been clean for over a year. He is living in his sisters basement and selling The Baltimore Sun to make money. His Narcotics Anonymous sponsor is Walon.[1]
[edit] Response
Royo was once approached by a real drug addict and given a package of heroin while filming as he appeared to "need a fix more than" the addict.[3] Royo calls this his "street oscar."[3]
[edit] References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "More with Less". Joe Chappelle, Writ. David Simon (story and teleplay), Ed Burns (story). The Wire. HBO. 2008-01-06. No. 1, season 5.
- ↑ Character profile - Bubbles. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Margaret Talbot (2007). Stealing Life. The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
