"The Cleaner" Episode 2: A Study in Naiveté


Submitted By KiKi Vanderhousen

There are so many sides to the drug world, if you viewed it from above, it would look more like an octagon, than a triangle or square.

In the second episode of The Cleaner, viewers got a glimpse of several sides – drug mule, distributor, user/mule.

Websters defines “naiveté” as “the quality or state of being naive.” You could count on both hands the people who fit that profile in the Ragdolls episode.

I would have to say I had more than 2 or 3 views of the drug world in my time. Yet when it came time to figuring out the problems in my relationship, I was more than a little naive. It took me more than a year to finally figure out what was going on right under my nose.

In Ragdolls, the mule was so naive she thought the girl that practically died before her eyes was still alive (and was just missing). She also thought she was fooling everyone around her because she was testing clean. And the biggest mistake, the one teenagers make a lot of the time, she thought she was immune from harm.

Also in this episode, you get a more intimate look into the Banks family – LuLu. Of course it’s a meeting with her teacher, of course William’s late and he’s on his phone. Of course LuLu’s teacher is a built like a full-back battle axe who reports that LuLu’s “perfect” and that the Banks’ need to “beware.”

Sounds like you can tick off 3 people in the Banks family who are naive: mom, dad and big brother. LuLu’s PERFECT. What? But then again all of us knew that if we perused AETV.com and played around with the “cast” area.

For distraction in this episode William is babysitting some rock star that takes him all of about 10 seconds to save from doing dope.

The real lesson, the one the writers want you the viewers to stand up and take notice of, is how easy it is to get caught up in the lure of easy money for nothin’.

And that’s what’s behind The Cleaner. Yeah it’s part Hollywood and yes, it’s based on a real character (but William Banks is not his real name). But as far as I can tell, and based on my multi-faceted experiences with the real world of drugs, the stories they’re portraying could very well be true.

So don’t be naive. Learn your lessons well. Here’s one for you. Do you know why they call it a drug mule?

No … not because they’re haulin’ somethin’ … it’s because they’re stubborn and stupid.