I guess I did what fans do, and imagined that he crossed the wrong person and ended up in a shallow grave somewhere.

Yeah, I thought that too. If you tally up all the loose ends, it doesn't add up (if he is a rising criminal, why are his wife and kid still barely making ends meet? etc etc). I mean, this is just me on one viewing alone scratching me head, so I don't think I'm overthinking it (although definitely looking at it as a writer), but at the same time the show leaves open the question of whether or not what we see is real, a very nice example of an unreliable narrator, so, you know, the plot was not the point. The point is Sam and Sam's personal revelations and discoveries. Don't look over there! Look over here! *g*

er, okay, maybe I am overthinking it. haha.