For those people down there and for us here it's important. If we win this war we can change the course of history. And this war, we can win.
-Teddy McDonald
Theodore 'Teddy' E. McDonald is a CIA officer and one of three main storylines on the show. He is the primary antagonist for Franklin's storyline in Seasons 5 and 6
Biography[]
Season 1[]
At the beginning of the series, Theodore "Teddy" McDonald is pushing papers at an aviation front company. After Logan Miller, a fellow CIA agent, dies from accidental cocaine overdose at a party, his partner Alejandro Usteves approaches Teddy to help clean up the mess. Logan was running covert operations with Alejandro, a Nicaraguan drug dealer, pilot, and member of the Contras (a counterrevolutionary rebel force), to import kilos of cocaine to the United States. Upon this discovery, Teddy convinces his handler, James Ballard, to let him continue the operation and use the drug profits to fund the war in Nicaragua and overthrow their communist government. Though he promises his wife otherwise, Teddy begins to take over the operation, developing relationships with several major drug dealers including Avi and members of the Villanueva family.
After noticing a number of missing flyers, Alejandro confesses to Teddy that there were 3 additional girls at the party who he killed to protect the operation. Teddy traces the number on the flyers to a woman named Victoria Grelli. After searching her apartment, he discovers that she is the sister of Kristen, one of Alejandro's victims. Given the threat that her search poses to the operation, Teddy decides to set up surveillance, tapping Victoria's phone, and having her apartment watched. He then uses the alias Reed Thompson to pretend to be a friend searching for Jess Avon, another one of the missing girls, and gain Victoria's trust. Teddy accompanies Victoria throughout her search as she meets a man who claimed to see Kristen at a local club. This man initially tries to trade this information for money, but relents after Teddy physically threatens him. This leads them to club Glitter and a waitress who had the address of the house that Kristen went to with Logan and Alejandro. Before leaving the club, Teddy calls in a favor with the bureau to have an agent pretend to be the homeowner and mislead Victoria. This initially works, discouraging Victoria's search, but she eventually encounters Rinaldi, the club camera man who captured photos of the men Kristen left with, including Alejandro. She shares this information with Teddy, who asks Alejandro to leave town for a while he finds a way to respond to the situation. Fearing the repercussions of missing a deal with the Colombian Cali Cartel, Alejandro goes against Teddy and and kills Victoria. Teddy arrives to Victoria's apartment while Alejandro is dismembering her body, and kills Alejandro. He then butchers and buries both of their bodies in suitcases.
Season 2[]
Julia divorces Teddy after he shows a pattern of prioritizing his work over his family. Though he initially tries to step back from the operation, praise from James (and, according to James, the President) motivate him to continue. After a series of missed drops and a runaway pilot, Teddy returns to his hometown of Kansas City, Kansas to recruit his brother, Matt, a former pilot during the Vietnam War. Matt was looking after their aging father, and is initially hesitant to take on the role. However, Teddy assures him that it would be a temporary position that would pay well enough to take care of their father. After killing Alejandro, Teddy begins dealing with all the buyers directly, including Diego and Danilo of the Cali Cartel. When Avi was arrested, he learned of Franklin Saint who was being fronted bricks from him at the time as he found out about him after reading an arrest record on Leon Simmons. Teddy eventually found someone to continue the cocaine pipeline. With various issues happening in LA and the DEA hot on them, the deals began tail spinning as the Cali Cartel kidnapped Matt and partied with him in their own way until Teddy was able to resume the drops. He was able to get the DEA pulled after they interfered in his op and brought on Agent Lorena Cardenas, who was none too happy after working hard to bring down the Villanueva's. She agreed to help Teddy fund the Contra war in Nicaragua but only to deal in cocaine. He even requested her to recant her statement, which she, much to her dismay, agreed. Teddy also learned his original handler, James Ballard, was pulled and was replaced with Agent Stephen Havemeyer.
Season 3[]
Teddy made contact with Rigo Vasco, a representative of the Medellín Cartel, and his price for the cocaine drops was for simply to have his own club. His brother, Matt, was suffering from health problems courtesy of Diego and Danilo's so-called cocaine hospitality. He recruited El Oso from a tavern in Tuscon and requested the Villanueva Family routes and his help in smuggling the yeyo. He even sweetened the offer by helping him find Lucia, who disappeared after Conejo almost killed him. He and Gustavo met Mariela Villanueva at the Villanueva Ranch in Mexico and she agreed to help them out. Teddy began experiencing more issues as Gustavo decided to kill Lorena over a recent betrayal, on top of that, Rigo refused to resume the drop until he got his nightclub. He brought on his ex-wife Julia and attempted to reconnect with her, but eventually she began sabotaging his op via giving Andre Wright information about Franklin's home in the hills, giving Mossad Avi's location, and giving the DEA intel on Rigo's business, because she didn't agree with the idea of cocaine flowing into her country. Teddy officially booted her from the op and cut all ties with her.
Season 4[]
Teddy and Oso faced an issue in Tijuana upon meeting Oscar Fuentes, the new chief of police, who demanded an outrageous price, but when Teddy attempted to haggle with him, Fuentes sent his dirty cops to murder Hernan and Nuvia Zapata. Teddy saw that Oso was out for blood and finally decided to reveal that he was CIA and agreed to help him exact revenge, in which they did. He then learned that Irene Abe, a journalist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, was hot on his trail, and had a credible source, Franklin's father, Alton Williams. Back home, he learned from his father that Matt passed away from a heart attack and the relationship between them went downhill. To make matters worse, Teddy learned that Elena Usteves and her rebels in Nicaragua were murdered by the Sandinistas, setting back his war. Havemeyer later cut Teddy loose after he failed to curtail Abe and Alton. Teddy soon decided to drug Irene and later killed her, fixing it to look like an accident and came across Alton, prepared to kill him, but Cissy convinced him otherwise and agreed to leave the States with him. He later tracked down Alton to Havana, Cuba and was seen pointing a weapon at Alton.
Season 5[]
A year down the road, Teddy, still out of the CIA, learned his ex-wife is living with another man and discovered his replacement, Grady Williamson, had been slipping up and revealed this to Havemeyer. He was then given another opportunity, but as a contractor, to continue the operation, while attempting to pull Grady from the game. When Grady refused to go quietly, Teddy killed him and was immediately back to work with Oso and Franklin, making it known that 'Reed Thompson' is no longer the alias he would go by. During a drop, he, Oso, and Franklin were attacked by Kane's men. He was severely wounded in the process and separated from Franklin and Oso. He sought help from an old flame and nurse named Parissa. Eventually he rekindled a flame with her and after a fiasco that nearly got him killed, Teddy plotted to rob Franklin by hiring an accountant, William Cox, bugging his car, and going through files in his home. He even agreed to deal with Louie and Jerome, much to Franklin's dismay. After Franklin chose to walk away from the game, Teddy hijacked his fortune to use not just for the Nicaraguans, but to offer to the boys upstairs, in order to be welcomed back into the fold, however, when Avi disappeared and Parissa was nowhere to be found, his plans hit a wall.
Season 6[]
Teddy managed to find Parissa alive, but Avi was still missing, and to make matters worse, Lior took control of the Israeli mob and chose to cut ties with Teddy as payback for making him go half-deaf in the fourth season. After protecting Avi's final shipment from the Sandinistas, he discovered the KGB were plotting to sabotage his operation. He also discovered the KGB agent, Rubén, and learned some sensitive information about him, including a personal note that the Russian sleeper agent was in fact a homosexual. Franklin then managed to get a hold of him by using his father as leverage and when that failed, Franklin brutally murdered Mac over the phone and torched the farmhouse he was in. Teddy immediately decided he wanted revenge for his father's murder and requested Louie to deliver Franklin to him. After having Franklin in his grasp, he was blindsided by a betrayal from Oso as both him and Rubén were Franklin's prisoners. After the sheer, agonizing tortured he endured, Teddy agreed to turn over half the money to Franklin while revealing to Cissy that he killed Alton and dumped his body. Before he could carry out the transaction, Cissy shot him dead in broad daylight, making it impossible for Franklin to ever reclaim his stolen fortune.
Legacy[]
Teddy was a devil who only served himself and his own initiatives. When he took on the operation Logan started, it consumed him and allowed him assert control over Franklin and those people who became addicted to the drugs he was pushing in the neighborhoods. This operation to fund the Contra war in Nicaragua cost him his marriage; it cost him his brother; it cost him his father; it cost him his job, all by his own decisions. Eventually Teddy became ambitious and driven and would even screw over those who trusted him, one of them being Franklin. After Franklin murdered his father, Teddy sought retribution, disregarding the op he sought to accomplish and used Alton's death to his benefit knowing Cissy wanted retribution. The torture he received from Franklin proved it was not enough, nor has he ever sought to do right by others.
Appearances[]
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Quotes[]
- "Business is only as good as the people you work with."
- — Teddy's advice to Franklin after completing their first deal. (Prometheus Rising)
- "I have what some people might call control issues. And I always have and since I was a kid, really, but the simple truth is that I can't do everything alone. So I have to empower the people that I choose to work with. See, it's not just about being in charge. It's about deciding how you want to be in charge. Look, you wanna walk out of here right now, that's fine. I understand. I'll keep taking your fives and your ones. I don't care. It makes no difference to me. But what you have to decide is just how big you want your business to become. And how much control you are willing to cede to get it there."
- — Teddy attempting to convince Franklin to grow his drug empire. (Jingle Bell Rock)
Victims[]
- Alejandro Usteves (Shooting)
- Irene Abe (Asphyxiation)
- Alton Williams (Shooting)
- Grady Williamson (Poisoning)
Gallery[]
Promotional[]
Scenes[]
