The Flawed but Satisfying Ending of Apple TV+'s 'Dope Thief' Explained

I cannot say enough about how riveting and intense the first two episodes of Apple TV+’s Dope Thief are, and how well the series — an adaptation of the 2009 Dennis Tafoya novel — ultimately wraps up. There’s a great beginning and a satisfying conclusion. It’s everything in between that falters. The eight-episode season too often spins its wheels between episodes three and seven. It would’ve made a hell of a movie, or an even better four- or five-episode series. That said, even when bogged down by filler, Brian Tyree Henry and Marin Ireland deliver such strong performances that they make the bloat worth sitting through.

The series kicks off like a bat out of hell. Ray Driscoll (Henry) and his best friend, Manny (Wagner Moura), run a scam posing as DEA agents, robbing drug dealers, pocketing the cash, and handing off the drugs to a third partner, Son Pham (Dustin Nguyen), a sort of princely figure who lives in a mansion on a hill. Things unravel after a newly released ex-con convinces them to rob a meth house in the boonies, operated by a powerful cartel under DEA surveillance. During the botched heist, their new partner, the ex-con, is killed, a DEA agent named Jack is shot dead, and another agent, Marin Ireland’s Mina, is badly injured.

The fallout is brutal. The cartel, known as The Alliance, begins systematically hunting Ray and Manny, killing anyone in their way. It’s soon clear they’re not just after the stolen $440,000; there’s something much deeper going on. The real DEA is also after the duo, and much of the series follows Ray and Manny as they try to evade both the authorities and The Alliance while protecting their loved ones, including Manny’s fiancée, Sherry (Liz Caribel Sierra), and Theresa (Kate Mulgrew), the woman who raised Ray.

The middle episodes slow down considerably, dragging in subplots that implicate Ray’s estranged, recently paroled father, Bart (Ving Rhames), who’s eventually killed in a shootout. Ray also begins a romance with Michelle (Nesta Cooper), the lawyer who helped Bart gain his release and somehow sees the best in Ray.

Unfortunately, the midsection operates on the Netflix Bloat Model™: Long stretches of narrative inertia broken up only by late-episode twists or shootouts designed to keep the binge going. But I’m ultimately glad I stuck with it because the finale delivers.

Spoilers

After Bart’s death, Ray and Manny are apprehended by the DEA just before The Alliance, led by a white nationalist faction, can get to them. In prison, Alliance-friendly guards nearly succeed in killing Manny. Seeing the writing on the wall, he takes his own life with an overdose. Ray, recovering from bullet wounds in the hospital, is pursued by The Alliance’s mysterious leader, known only as The Voice.

Mina, still recovering herself, breaks protocol to confront Ray, blaming him for everything, including her partner Jack’s death and her injuries (Mina, it’s worth noting, is nursing her own trauma after she lost her daughter to addiction). But after hearing Ray’s tearful apology (Brian Tyree Henry crushes the scene), she realizes he was as much a pawn as anyone else.

Teaming up, Mina and Ray start connecting the dots. Clues penned on $2 bills lead them to a specific set of coordinates. The DEA sets up a sting at the location to lure out The Voice, who wants to meet with Ray and Son (now also in DEA custody). Ray and Son agree to cooperate.

The sting, however, is a trap. The Alliance is being run from inside the DEA itself, led by Agent Bill McKinty (Peter McRobbie), a.k.a. The Voice. The coordinates lead to a grave where Jack had buried cash and documents that could expose The Alliance, though it’s unclear whether Jack was working with them, against them, or both. What is clear is that the meth lab robbery that kicked off the series wasn’t random: Son — working with The Alliance — orchestrated it, using Ray as a pawn. But Son couldn’t bring himself to have Ray killed because he considers him family.

In the chaotic finale, Son escapes, as guys like that tend to do, but he’ll be on the run forever. McKinty and his corrupt crew also kill the DEA agents involved in the sting.

Ray and Mina end up trapped in a camper loaded with evidence. The Alliance sets it ablaze, but Ray and Mina drive the flaming vehicle straight into McKinty, killing him and escaping with some of the evidence. Burned and exhausted, the final scene sees the two of them eating cheeseburgers with smoke-blackened faces, their future uncertain. The show is billed as a limited series, but I wouldn’t say no to a second season with Brian Tyree Henry and Marin Ireland as partners. They work phenomenally together.

In the end, some of the logic doesn’t entirely hold up, and the pacing sags in the middle, but the destination is worth the journey, as they say. Dope Thief is a flawed but ultimately satisfying series that honestly might work better as a binge.