Dr Wu

"Imagine my surprise when I saw you". Dr. Wu is the last person Fagen expected to see smacked into a trance. Come one, wake up, "Are you with me, Dr?" Now you're "just a shadow of the man that I once knew". I think the "surprise" is because Dr. Wu is a drug dealer who never used to use. Or at least Wu's a very savvy dealer who's also a high-functioning addict. Either way Fagen looked up to Wu as a role model but now turns out Wu's "just an ordinary guy" subject to the same temptations as anyone. Fagen cares about his mentor Wu's sorry state but equally so, being "strung out here all night" Fagen badly wants to know where the stash is.

When Fagen met Wu, Fagen's life had been at a bottom. But it turns around with Wu's help = there's money and Fagen gets his appetite under control, including his appetite for manipulative junkie girlfriend Katy. "The song you used to sing to me": Fagen heads to Biscayne Bay to try to make an `honest' go of dealing himself. But Fagen couldn't keep his own hands off the merchandise after all. So much for "searching for the song you [Wu] used to sing to me". Fagen comes crawling back, has been "strung out here all night", trying to make the connection with Wu, "waiting for the taste you said you'd bring me". But Wu's not the savvy dealer any more, It doesn't matter that much to Fagen that Wu banged Katy, Fagen's over her. What matters is that Fagen needs a fix; and that he'd looked up to Wu, and now here's Wu doped up and maybe dying. That's one tragic bromance, "Are you with me Doctor?"

If (and I say if) Wu had been a shrink or a rehab counselor or like that who helps Fagen get clean, you'd have explain why Wu inspires Fagen to go to Florida - to try to live a wholesome lifestyle? Hard for me to believe. Either way you can feel sorry for Wu but there's nothing to admire about Wu's pathetic, self-inflicted fall from grace.