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The Wire

Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins is a recovering heroin addict and a former confidential informant for the Baltimore Police Department.

Biography[]

Background[]

Bubbles has a son named KeyShawn who lives with his mother. ("The Cost") He was a Confidential Informant for Detective Greggs. He was incarcerated for an unknown reason and released three months before the start of the series. ("The Target")

Season 1[]

In 2002, Bubbles was a homeless heroin addict and a mentor to Johnny Weeks. The two ran a scam creating counterfeit money with a photocopier and using coffee to stain and age it, making the fake money look real. Bubbles was successful in using the counterfeit cash to purchase heroin from Barksdale dealer Wallace in the low-rise McCulloh Homes public housing project. Crew chief D'Angelo Barksdale immediately recognized the cash as counterfeit and instructed his dealers to remain alert for potential scammers. The next day, Johnny attempted the scam but was caught and assaulted by Bodie, Poot, and Wallace. Johnny's assault impelled a distraught Bubbles to inform on the Barksdale Organization for Detective Greggs. ("The Target")

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; he'd offer colored hats for sale and would cheerfully place them on the heads of known Barksdale crew chiefs, identifying them to nearby officers who then photographed the suspects. 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, drawing on advice from former addict Walon. He was able to stay in his sister's basement while he dried out and made a go at keeping clean. He paged Greggs after she had promised to help him with money and stay clean, not realizing that she had been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries 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. Seargent Jay Landsman and other officers restrained Holley and called in Jimmy McNulty to clear things up. When McNulty told him what happened to Greggs, he reverted to his old habits to find information on the streets and relapsed.

Season 2[]

McNulty ran into Bubbles and Johnny shoplifting and recruited them to find Omar Little, whom Bunk needed as a witness in the William Gant murder trial. Bubbles grudgingly agreed, and in a nervous encounter with a shotgun-wielding Omar, who baited Bubbs and Johnny with a steam radiator to sell for scrap, delivered McNulty's message. 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.

Season 3[]

Bubbles and Johnny are out collecting scrap metal when they lose control of the shopping cart. The cart smashes into Marlo's parked car and the pair are forced to hand over their pants as retribution and humiliation. Some time later Bubbles is recruited by Greggs and McNulty for intel on on the Barksdale Organization.

After the forming of the "Hamsterdam" zone, Bubbles began selling white t-shirts and other small items to young drug dealers. Bubbles was a former associate of Squeak, who was seeing Bernard. Bubbles puts them in touch with an undercover Lester Freamon, who sells prepaid cellphones that are already tapped by the Squad.

Johnny, having left Bubbles over his informant work, is found dead from an OD in one of the vacant homes. Bubbles however has met a young homeless boy, taking him on as his new friend and protégé.

Season 4[]

Bubbles and Sherrod have continued peddling small goods from their shopping cart store, called "Bubbles Depo", to support themselves. Sherrod has trouble with the math involved in sales and Bubbles decides to re-enroll him in school. Sherrod never makes it to school however, and returns to selling drugs. The two part ways after Bubbles gives Sherrod an ultimatum.

In Sherrod's absence Bubbles has become the daily victim of another street addict, who constantly robs and beats him. After contacting Greggs for help, she hands him off to Herc for information on Marlo Stanfield. Although he keeps up his part of the deal Herc repeatedly fails to protect him Bubbles from his attacker. In a small act of payback Bubbles gives Herc false information leading him to detain and search a minister with powerful friends.

Sherrod returns to Bubbles finding himself deeper into heroin addiction and they renew their partnership. Even though there are two of them now they are no match for the violent addict and both take a severe beating. After discussing his problem with some other addicts they give him an idea and Bubbles concocts a "hot shot" of heroin and sodium cyanide that he will give to his tormentor and solve his problem. However he does not see him while making his rounds and returns home to find Sherrod already asleep and goes to sleep aswell. Bubbles awakes to find that Sherrod has died after taking the tainted drugs.

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, despite the negative impact on the homicide unit's clearance rate, to send Bubbles to a psychiatric facility at a state hospital than charge Bubbles with murder.[1] A few days later Greggs has learned what happened and brings Walon to see a clean and sober Bubbles in the hospital. As Bubbles breaks down in tears to Walon, Greggs leaves unable to face him.

Season 5[]

Bubbles has been clean for over a year. He is living in his sister Rae's basement but is not allowed to stay there when she is not home, which worries him that he will relapse on the streets. He has been selling The Baltimore Sun to drivers in traffic to make money. He regularly attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings and his sponsor is Walon.[2] During the meetings he defers to humor in sharing sessions to keep from admitting that he accidentally killed Sherrod. Walon encourages Bubbs to open up and the hopes it will relieve some of the guilt, but he feels he deserves to feel bad for all that happened while he was an addict. He decides to take an HIV test and Walon accompanies him to the clinic. When the results come back negative, knowing he'd shared needles with Johnny who was positive, he admonishes himself more for escaping punishment again for his prior actions as an addict. Walon tells him he can't dwell on the past, looking for an explanation for his luck or he will get pulled back to his old ways.

Bubbles begins to volunteer at a soup kitchen he often has meals at as a way to make amends. It is at the kitchen he meets Michael Fletcher, a Baltimore Sun reporter, and Bubbs becomes his guide in the homeless community. Later, while in an NA meeting, Bubbles tearfully admits his culpability in Sherrod's death after the group leader asks him to step up and lead the meeting. Fletcher is there and realizes that Bubbles is the story he needs to be writing. After writing the story he brings it to Bubbles for his approval to print it. Bubbles is initially reluctant to let such an honest portrayal of his life be published but after Walon reads it and approves of it, Bubbles allows it to be printed. In his final scene, Bubbles cooks a meal for his sister and niece in their home, her trust in him being seemingly restored.

Production[]

Appearances[]

Season 1
"The Target" "The Detail" "The Buys" "Old Cases" "The Pager"
"The Wire" "One Arrest" "Lessons" "Game Day" "The Cost"
"The Hunt" "Cleaning Up" "Sentencing"
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 3
"Time after Time" "All Due Respect" "Dead Soldiers" "Amsterdam" "Straight and True"
"Homecoming" "Back Burners" "Moral Midgetry" "Slapstick" "Reformation"
"Middle Ground" "Mission Accomplished"
Season 4
"Boys of Summer" "Soft Eyes" "Home Rooms" "Refugees" "Alliances"
"Margin of Error" "Unto Others" "Corner Boys" "Know Your Place" "Misgivings"
"A New Day" "That's Got His Own" "Final Grades"
Season 5
"More with Less" "Unconfirmed Reports" "Not for Attribution" "Transitions" "React Quotes"
"The Dickensian Aspect" "Took" "Clarifications" "Late Editions" "-30-"

Notes[]

  • Royo was once approached by a real drug addict and given heroin while filming as he appeared to "need a fix more than" the addict.[3] Royo dubbed this exchange his "street Oscar."[3]
  • Bubbles's last name was not revealed until a fourth season episode when he was called "Mr. Cousins"; his first name was not revealed until Walon called him "Reginald" in More With Less.[2]

References[]

  1. Character profile - Bubbles. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "More with Less". Joe Chappelle, Writ. David Simon (story and teleplay), Ed Burns (story). The Wire. HBO. 2008-01-06. No. 1, season 5.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Margaret Talbot (2007). Stealing Life. The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
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