in a Vagos bar, I was arrested for assault
with several other gang members.
Even though there was witnesses to confirm
I had nothing to do with the attack,
we were all charged.
I assumed I would get released
once authorities realized their mistake.
Turned out it wasn't so simple.
The danger of infiltrating a biker gang
is nothing compared to the hell of prison.
My name's Charles Falco, and this is my story.
¶
FALCO: Going undercover in the Vagos was a bargain
that I'd struck to stay out of jail.
But look where that got me.
[Indistinct voices]
FALCO: In here, if you're not in a gang, you won't make it.
Augh!
One... two....
It's all about survival of the fittest.
FALCO: Six...
seven...
eight...
nine...
ten.
FALCO: In a place like this, it's eat or be eaten.
Get him.
¶
[Grunting and bashing]
Ah!
¶
FALCO: Thing about prison...
it shows you who you really are.
Who you smiling at?
[Bashing]
[Falco exhaling]
¶
[Indistinct voices]
FALCO: Nothing moves as slow as prison time.
We spend our entire first day waiting to be processed.
FALCO: Oh, man.
FALCO: Four of us never laid a finger on the kid
that Schizo beat to a pulp.
¶
[Thrashing]
But we're all in jail for it.
[Falco taking inhaler]
At least until our next hearing...
in a week.
[Cell door opening]
¶
STASH: What did your lawyer say?
We're screwed. The damn STEP Act.
STASH: The what?
STEP Act, you dumbass.
Means if they can prove that we're in a gang,
we get mandatory extra time.
Dammit, I gotta find some way of hiding this.
So you can't prove I'm a Vago.
FALCO: Come on, Skitz, they know you're a Vago.
We got taken down in our cuts.
Yeah, but they can't prove it.
No, from here on in, I'm not a Vago.
I'm a businessman. I ride with you guys.
I hang out with you guys, but that's it, all right?
Don't worry, you guys are gonna be fine; you're gonna walk.
But you gotta back me up on this.
That's called perjury, Skitz.
That's called loyalty!
Loyalty? You're talking about loyalty?
You wanna sell out your own cuts!
I'm not gonna sell out my patch, you dumbass!
It's for show!
Oh, no. This is America, man.
These colors don't run...
unless you're a punk.
FALCO: Hey, easy, Skitz!
Skitz! Skitz! Just take it easy!
SCHIZO: What the hell are you doing?
SCHIZO: What, are you with him now? What the hell?
SCHIZO: Huh? GUARD: Break it up!
GUARD: Hey! FALCO: I didn't do-- I didn't--
GUARD: All right!
SCHIZO: Hey!
FALCO: Let go of me!
SCHIZO: Hey!
SCHIZO: If you see Suzanna, tell I miss her.
SCHIZO: But we'll always have Reno!
[Cell door slamming]
¶
[Baton clinking on bars]
FALCO: Since we're all members of the same gang,
the prison authorities split us up
and move us to separate units.
[Inmate yelling]
And I meet my new cellmate.
His name's Thor.
He's been inside for two years.
And this guy, he doesn't shut up.
THOR: She's so sweet, so good.
It was real love, man.
We were gonna get married.
What happened?
I stabbed her mom.
In the throat.
Like, 33 times.
Now, why would I do that?
FALCO: Thor tells me how his fiancee's mother
made inappropriate advances on him.
My fiancee's mom!
Right there in the supermarket parking lot.
And I'm like, "Come on, lady, that's not how I was raised."
So I stick her a bunch of times,
and she's like on her knees, and there's blood everywhere
and she's gurgling, "Why, Thor? Why? Why?"
Because I'm a virgin.
And I'm trying to save myself for your daughter!
[Breathing heavily]
What happened to purity, Chuck?
What happened to purity?
Someone tries to defile your love,
you're bound to do the righteous thing.
Am I right?
THOR: Anyway...
When I get outta here...
I'm gonna be a serial killer.
FALCO: At least Koz visits tomorrow.
Hopefully he'll have a plan to get me out of this hellhole.
[Baton clinking on bars]
What do you mean it's been delayed?
KOZ: DA says he needs more time to prepare the case.
So the hearing's been pushed back a ways.
How long?
A month.
[Falco exhaling]
KOZ: Charlie, you want out, you say the word,
we'll pull you out.
But the thing is, when we tell the judge
and the DA you're a federal informant,
local cops will find out too.
And then it'll be leaked back to the gang.
And I'll be dead, along with your case.
[Falco exhaling]
FALCO: If I choose to leave now,
my infiltration of the Vagos will have to end.
But I'm not done collecting evidence
on these guys just yet.
So this is home for the next month.
[Rattling]
[Door slamming]
[Indistinct voices]
FALCO: The only time I see Schizo and Stash
is during exercise in the gym.
[Basketball bouncing]
FALCO: In prison, all the races stick to their own.
And Thor decides to stick to me.
Hey, welcome to the jungle, man.
Let me teach you a few ground rules.
See him?
That's the Rep.
And them two's his Bullets.
We answer to the Bullets, Bullets answer to the Rep,
Rep answers to the Key Holder.
Oh, yeah?
Where's the Key Holder at?
Don't see him just now.
FALCO: The Key Holder is a part of the Aryan Brotherhood,
a feared white supremacist prison gang.
So if I want to stay out of trouble,
I gotta stay on the right side of the Rep
and his Bullets.
Same thing with all the races.
Everyone answers to their own gang.
You wanna stay healthy in here,
you stick with the Woods.
The Woods are white inmates.
And Thor completely believes that he's a Wood.
Now I'm starting to see why others
give him such a wide berth.
There's one last prick you don't want to come down on you.
Oh yeah, who's that?
THOR: El Toro Malo.
If he wasn't a guard, he'd be seeing hard time
for what he does.
Hey.
Yo.
You heard this, man? A month?
Yeah, I heard.
You a Vago?
You with the Woods?
Yeah. I'm fricken' Danish, man.
[Stash snickers]
Hey, can I be a prospect?
STASH AND FALCO: No.
STASH: Listen, you talk to the punk?
FALCO: No. THOR: Who's a punk?
STASH: Hey, do you mind?
Listen, I made a call, all right?
Schizo's done being chapter P.
He can take that to the bank.
Who'd you call?
[Fence rattles]
STASH: What the hell, man?
You got food in your cell?
STASH: I took a banana for breakfast.
Dude, do not do that. El Toro Malo hates that.
Okay, all right, man.
See you later.
¶
FALCO: If Thor is good for one thing,
it's explaining all the rules of this place.
Meals are a minefield.
The slightest mistake can blow up on you.
[Indistinct conversations]
¶
Today's your lucky day. Come on, come on.
[Inmate yelling]
REP: Two... three... four...
Next.
Nine... ten...
Thirteen... fifteen... twenty...
Next.
Twenty-eight... thirty...
Next.
REP: Thirty-five! Thirty-six!
Thirty-seven... thirty-eight...
Thirty-nine...
Forty!
He's done.
Falco, right?
Hear you were a Vago.
Yeah.
¶
My Bullets are moving to federal pens.
You and your local buddy here,
you're my new bullets, startin' tomorrow.
No, I-- I'm good. I just got here, man.
You are what I say you are, Vago.
He gets it, Rep.
Yeah, I get it, yeah.
We're Bullets.
"I'm good"? What the hell, Chuck?
You do what he says.
We're Bullets, yo!
¶
Prison discipline's not much different
to being a prospect in an outlaw biker gang.
Most of the rules in this place
are ones devised by the inmates.
But our Rep, he takes it to a whole new level
of brutality.
[Dropping noise]
Hey!
You prick!
Interrupt my game?
Check this guy.
[Items dropping]
[Thrashing and grunting]
[Yelling]
[Whistle blows]
FALCO: But the Rep, he walks a fine line.
REP: Oh, come on!
GUARD: Come on.
REP: Oh, yeah? GUARD: Yeah.
REP: Yeah?
FALCO: If he takes it too far...
REP: New day, different rules!
...he faces more time.
[Footsteps on stairs]
That was the last I saw of our Rep.
You know what this means? Vacancy at the top.
It's my time.
FALCO: Thor's big dream is to be Rep.
But it's not his choice to make.
[Indistinct voices]
[Door closing]
[Falco exhaling]
FALCO: Hey.
SUZANNA: How you holding up?
I can't complain.
It's kinda hard to wake up hung over in here.
I should be out after the next hearing.
Y'know, there's witnesses that swear I never hit that kid.
You know I'm not like that, right, Suze?
Hey, Charlie...
You wanna explain what this is to me, Charlie?
No?
Is that because you only like to talk
when it's turned on?
There.
Wasn't sure what it was at first.
But this helped.
Thought you were screwing around on me.
Till I called the number for Samantha Kiles
from the Organized Crime Unit.
Well, if you know about that, then you know
why I couldn't tell you.
'Cause you needed to use me to get ahead in the Vagos.
Oh, come on.
All this time I was just your cover.
Suze, it's not like that.
No? Then what is the word for the chick
you've been banging so you could rat out
her closest friends, Charlie?
Her closest friends?
Really?
Just how close are you and Schizo, anyway?
How close of friends were you in Reno, huh?
You wanna tell me about that?
Great, Suze.
What, are you gonna go visit him now too?
SUZANNA: Hey, you have no idea.
You have no idea.
And after all that's come out of your mouth,
I don't owe you anything!
Suze, Suze, Suze, Suze, Suze! Wait!
[Door closing]
¶
[Indistinct voices]
FALCO: If Suzanna tells Schizo's wife Stella about me,
I'm as good as dead.
But there's nothing I can do.
Except worry.
THOR: You know what, Chuck?
You gotta learn to chill in this place.
[Indistinct voices]
What's goin' on out there?
Sounds like they cornered themselves a pedophile.
Don't worry, it'll stop.
[Indistinct voices]
[Man yelling]
[Thudding noise]
Like I said.
Think it was that new guy we beat.
FALCO: A group of inmates forced him off the top mezzanine.
Thirty feet down. Solid concrete.
It's just another night in jail.
¶
FALCO: Inside the American justice system is a shadow system,
with its own primal laws.
And every day reminds me why I did what I did
to stay out of it.
Quick.
FALCO: Hey...
What are you doin' over here?
Key Holder sent me over. He's the guy with the face.
FALCO: Yeah, what'd I do?
SCHIZO: Nothin'.
It's what you're gonna do.
He wants you to be his new Rep.
He said you're either down with that
or you're goin' down. Understand?
Mmm-hmm.
You just climb the ladder wherever you go, don't you?
[Chuckles]
You're the Rep? You?
You haven't even been here two weeks!
It was my time!
FALCO: It's not about seniority. It's about authority.
And the Key Holder seems to think a Vago's
mean enough for the job.
FALCO: You and you. You're my new Bullets.
Why ain't I your Bullet?
Because I don't want you killing someone on my watch.
Now, run along.
FALCO: Just like that...
I'm someone to be feared.
If they only knew that I was more scared than any of them.
KOZ: You know, you realize that anything goes too far,
you get charged, I can't help you.
It's not like I had a choice, man.
Son of a bitch.
Okay, I hate to bring this up...
We got another problem.
You know back when you were busted for meth
you gave up your partner?
Bernard, you remember that?
Yeah, of course I remember Bernard.
So after his arrest, he skipped bail to Mexico.
They finally caught up with him
and his trial's coming up, and this...
This is your subpoena.
Looks like you're the prosecution's star witness.
Are you kiddin' me? When?
Few months. Now, the trial's in LA,
so it shouldn't interfere with your cover.
FALCO: Does Bernard's lawyer know that I've been served
to be a witness?
Does he know that I'm in here awaiting my own trial?
He could.
Well, then Bernard could know where I am.
Yeah.
Koz, if he knows, I'm dead.
¶ the Mexican ma.
If he wants to get rid of someone,
he just has to say the word.
If Suzanna tells Schizo's wife about me...
Boom! Same result.
One...
FALCO: All the while I play the part of the Unit Rep.
The Punisher. Feared by all the Woods.
Except for Thor.
FALCO: Six...
He thinks he deserves to be Rep.
And now he's testing me.
As a Rep, I only have one option.
Ten.
Hey.
[Thrashing and grunting]
Who you smiling at?
[Bashing]
[Falco sighing]
Now what?
KOZ: You might have been right about Bernard.
What do you mean, "might have been"?
KOZ: We have an informant who tells us
he knows you're in here.
Here? Like here, the unit I'm in?
KOZ: Yeah.
And he might have paid someone to put a hit on you.
Well, has he?
Well, we can't prove it till it actually happens, so..
[Falco sighing]
Your hearing's in a week, and then you'll be out.
You know what it's like in here?
You want me to wait a week?
They only need a minute, Koz.
Then we pull you out.
[Falco sighing]
What...
What if you put me in solitary?
Charlie, I don't...
I don't think you know what you're asking.
Solitary is not--
FALCO: Hey, hey, they can't get to me in solitary, right?
I'll be alone.
Look, I'll be safe until the hearing.
And I won't have to be the Rep.
FALCO: Come on.
Okay.
It might take a day or two for me to put it together,
but, um...
You think you can lay low till then?
Thanks, man.
Don't thank me.
¶
FALCO: I gave up Bernard to stay out of prison.
And now... [taking inhaler]
I'm going into solitary to hide from him.
It's like a deal with the devil.
And he's coming to collect.
FALCO: Before Bernard, I was cooking three weeks out of the year.
I'd just stay high, work around the clock,
make, like, a hundred grand.
And then I'd just party for the rest of the year.
¶
[Glasses clink]
I thought I was doin' great.
¶
And then I met Bernard.
I never knew anyone like him.
¶
He was a big time dealer, way up the food chain.
When I told him my game, he just laughed.
He told me I needed to think bigger.
And he promised he'd show me how.
¶
All of a sudden, I go from working
three weeks a year to three weeks a month.
¶
With Bernard as my partner,
I also go from making a hundred grand a year
to a hundred grand a month.
¶
I start living larger than I ever dreamed.
I have this huge house. Cars. Clothes. Friends.
¶
And I owe it all to Bernard.
¶
I also learn that owing Bernard is bad for your health.
[Smacking]
[Indistinct voices]
Bernard thought I owed him for making him rich.
Now he thinks I owe him for giving up his name.
One thing I know for sure:
he collects what he's owed.
Chances are there's someone in here
who's gonna do the collecting.
¶
All right, let's go.
It's hard enough as Rep to keep a low profile.
Thor's decided to make it impossible.
FALCO: Six... seven...
What are you doing?
Get down.
I said get down.
Make me.
[Falco sighing]
FALCO: Let's go, let's go.
¶
[Thrashing and grunting]
¶
Yeah? Had enough?
I see right through you, Chuck.
Right through the biker facade.
[Thor chuckling]
You know what I see?
You don't see, and you don't say anything!
You got that?
You got it!
[Thor gasping]
[Breathing heavily]
Get up.
¶
Let's go.
[Baton clinking on bars]
FALCO: Prison is no place to be isolated...
unless you're undercover with a price on your head.
If I don't get into solitary soon,
I may not make it out of here alive.
¶
FALCO: Two more days go by.
Still no word on solitary.
If it doesn't happen soon, I'm not gonna make it.
¶
Sit.
What are you doing, Thor? Sit.
Didn't you hear? It's "opposite day."
Sit!
¶
FALCO: And that's when Thor decides he's no longer a Wood.
¶
[Tray crashing]
¶
MEXICAN REP: Bring this Wood to my table again...
THOR: I ain't a Wood! My mom's Mestizo, yo!
I'm more than half Mexican!
He's your special case.
You take care of him!
FALCO: Anyway, that's how the riot started.
¶
[Whistle blowing]
¶
[Punching]
¶
[Alarm sounding]
¶
[Yelling]
¶
[Crashing and thumping]
¶
FALCO: Around then it hits me...
This is Bernard's guy.
And this is how he gets it done.
[Thudding]
¶
[Crunching]
¶
[Thudding]
¶
[Falco coughing]
[Distant yelling]
EL TORO MALO: Enjoy the party.
[Door slamming]
[Distant yelling]
[Breathing heavily]
FALCO: Koz came through .
[Breathing heavily]
I'm in solitary.
Oh...
Shoot.
I tell myself everything's okay.
I'm gonna make it... I'm gonna make it.
¶
[Footsteps passing]
[Door sliding open]
¶
FALCO: You know I said nothing passes slower than prison time?
¶
Well, then there's solitary, where time just stops.
¶
I have no idea how long I've been in here.
Food trays come...
I have no idea how often.
Once? Twice a day?
I'm not counting. I'm not eating.
[Water trickling]
I can't tell if it's day or night.
[Lightbulb buzzing]
For all the quiet in solitary, the noise never stops.
[Distant slamming]
And neither do your thoughts.
¶
[Falco exhaling]
¶
Solitary's just you and your memories.
You and your guilt.
There's stuff I try to think about.
And there's stuff I try not to.
¶
I try to think about my time in the Vagos as a ledger.
On the debit side, my twenty-year sentence.
On the credit side, all the evidence that I racked up,
all the charges, all the criminals
who will be off the street because of what I did.
The book's almost balanced.
I've paid my debt.
But I know I'm fooling myself.
And so does Bernard.
¶
FALCO: Hi. Hi.
You don't have a drink.
Uh, I don't have a drink.
Allow me.
Okay.
[Falco taking inhaler]
There's a stain on the ledger that I can't ever erase.
FALCO: And you are?
Her name was Natalie.
I loved her the moment I saw her.
Bernard warned me not to.
It really didn't fit the lifestyle.
But I married her anyway.
FALCO: Come out, come out, wherever you are...
She wasn't like me. She wasn't into drugs.
Maybe at first I thought she'd...
save me or something.
[Inhaling and exhaling]
But in the end, she came my way.
And I was glad...
because I was getting deep into it.
[Sniffing]
The more I cooked, the more money I made,
and the more I thought I was making my new wife happy.
But I was falling behind.
I couldn't afford this new life.
I was high the whole time I cooked,
and I was cooking full time.
Then Bernard had some bad news.
BERNARD: Don't care how.
Find me some more.
FALCO: Our line on the chemicals dried up,
and the money was about to do the same.
But what happened next tore my world apart.
¶
And no way to outrun your past.
¶
The empire I'd built with Bernard came at a cost.
[Natalie moaning]
[Natalie breathing heavily]
[Natalie moaning]
[Crashing]
[Natalie gasps]
¶
FALCO: I shouldn't have been surprised when I found them together.
I should have put up a wall to keep Bernard out.
But I didn't.
And when things went sour, I pretended not to care.
Maybe I didn't.
BERNARD: What did you expect, Charlie?
Hm?
You know your problem?
[Falco inhaling]
You don't fight for what's yours.
[Falco exhaling]
Sure, I do.
Really? Then why are you doing this?
Always lookin' for the easy way out, huh, Charlie?
That's how you end up in a place like this.
¶
BERNARD: You can give up my name and play undercover hero.
Might have kept you out of prison for the long haul.
But in the end, you can't escape who you really are.
Don't you think it's time to stop hiding, Charlie?
[Water dripping]
¶
[Shower water running]
BERNARD: Face it, Charlie.
You know what you did. You know why you're here.
[Shower water running]
[Heartbeat pounding]
[Heartbeat gets faster]
¶
[Shower water running]
FALCO: I've done some bad things.
I've committed crimes.
I've lived life as a bad guy.
[Sighing]
But some of the worst things you can do,
they're technically not crimes.
¶
Like...
How can you love someone so much
and just destroy them anyway?
Because you're so afraid of losing them.
Because you're so afraid of winding up alone.
Because you can't live up there on their level,
so you drag them down to yours.
¶
And you lose them anyway.
NATALIE: Charlie...
FALCO: I'm sorry.
Natalie survived, but she left me not long after.
And now I know the truth.
I'm not here because I was a bystander at a beat-down.
I'm here because I deserve to be.
[Cell door opening]
¶
And just like that, I'm getting out.
¶
FALCO: Koz had met the judge and the DA to plead my case.
When the judge heard how deep I was undercover with the Vagos,
he agreed to help keep my cover safe
by throwing out all the charges against everyone,
except Schizo.
Quick, you believe this?
I told you they didn't have a case.
We're walking free, bro! Ha, ha!
[Falco sighing]
[Stash laughing]
[Cell door opening]
[Stash laughing]
[Door closing]
FALCO: Walking out of there, I should feel relieved.
But I know, I know it's only a matter of time
before the gang starts asking questions.
And when they do, my time is up.
And my reckoning will be at hand.
¶
[Gate opening]
¶
[Gate closing]
FALCO: For now, it's back to the game board.
Hi, Charlie.
Hey.
But I can't see more than a move or two ahead.
¶
FALCO: Two months out of jail, I can't get enough of the road.
¶
Whenever I can, I get on my bike.
¶
Sometimes I think how easy it would be
to just keep on going.
Just never come back.
¶
But that'd just be another kind of prison.
¶
I don't know if we can ever make good on our past mistakes.
But my time is prison made me sure of one thing...
I want to finish my job with the Vagos.
¶
FALCO: Hey.
[Kissing]
Where you been?
Out.
[TV plays in background]
How much longer is this gonna go on for, Charlie?
FALCO: As long as it has to.
What more could they need?
FALCO: They need more.
And there's always more.
They need more on Schizo in particular.
They'll have him for a year or more on that assault charge.
Is there anything else he could be charged with?
Anything at all?
Hey...
Hey, you can tell me.
[TV plays in background]
What's gonna happen to us, Charlie,
when this thing's over?
You even thought about that?
Do we have a future?
This whole time I haven't thought past my next move.
[Motorcycle engine]
That move involves Schizo, who finally made bail.
Somehow, he's the guy I gotta nail.
He calls our first church meeting in months.
Things have changed.
¶
[Schizo playing with knife]
[Knife crashes to floor]
Where the hell is Stash?
You know, I wouldn't expect him back.
SCHIZO: Yeah.
Little bitch scared to show up
after all that he talked about me, right?
[Schizo sighing]
What about Darko, anybody hear anything about Darko?
¶
What is it? You know something?
I hear that he... will be here.
What the hell does that mean?
Maybe you should ask Felix about that.
Why the hell would Felix care about Darko?
Well, 'cause Felix just green-lit Darko
for his own chapter.
His own chapter?
And you didn't think that this was important enough
to tell me about it?
I just did.
[Motorcycle engines outside]
LIZARD: Sounds like you're gonna be able to ask him yourself.
I'll deal with you later.
¶
Looks like you heard.
I see you brought your little runt bitch with you.
[Stash chuckling]
Well, least I'm not a punk.
You come and tell me that to my face.
Whoa, whoa.
You lay a finger on anyone in my chapter,
I'll kill you.
Oh, you're gonna kill me?
¶
[Schizo laughing]
Well, you came to say somethin'.
Say it!
Anyone that doesn't want a punk as their chapter president
is welcome to join me in my new chapter.
It's now or never.
¶
What about it, boys?
I live here, man.
DARKO: Quick?
I hear you manned up in jail. Could use you.
Gonna stuck it out here, Darko.
Your loss, dude.
¶
Any one of you shows your face again,
I'm gonna kill you!
[Crashing]
They're dead weight, right? Yeah.
I sense a little hesitation there?
Hm?
I'm still here, Skitz.
You with me?
What I say next has nothing to do with loyalty.
I'm with you right to the end.
All right.