"The game ain't in me no mo'." (Season 3)

Cutty, the 40's-looking bearded dude who absolutely nails this scene, was a legendary gangster who once popped a guy, then dialed 9-1-1 and told the coppers: "I just shot a n---a, come get him." About to be paroled after a 14-year stint in the can, he was approached by Avon and Wee-Bey (all three serving time at the same prison) about a possible job in the Barksdale organization upon his release, and given a package of narcotics as a little homecoming present. After a brief period working as part of a landscaping crew, he eventually decides to take Avon up on his offer and becomes part of an effective soldiering duo along with Barksdale enforcer Slim Charles. Soon, however, it becomes obvious to Cutty that the game is no longer in him. In his jailyard meeting with Avon, he seemed less than enthused about the job tender. At one point in the meeting, after Cutty implies that his fourteen years in the pen have taken their toll, Avon queries, "But you still a soldier, right?" and is met with pure silence from Cutty, causing the drug lord to worry that the joint may have broken the old-timer. The culmination of Cutty's change comes during the botched hit on two of rival Marlo Stanfield's young dealers, in which he had a point-blank shot at the boy but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. But by being man enough to stand in Avon's presence and confess that he blew the shot on the kid, then basically retire from the game right then and there, knowing full and well the risk he was taking (just look at his eyes when Avon lets him know they're all good, he's damn near shocked), he ensured that the respect he had garnered over the years would remain intact. A man in his time, a man today, a man, period.