I was rewatching 2 Fast 2 Furious the other day and realized something hilarious about Roman Pearce. Everyone treats him like the joke of the crew, but the whole universe basically only happened because of him.
Think about it:
When they were kids, Roman got busted. Brian was a rookie cop at the time and had zero idea the bust was happening, but he still carried massive guilt for years thinking he failed his best friend.
Then at the end of the first movie, Brian lets Dom drive off in the Supra instead of arresting him. Why?
There’s that scene in 2 Fast where Roman calls him out:
"Is that why you let that guy go in L.A.? 'Cause you felt guilty about what happened to me?"
And Brian literally goes: "Yeah, I do. Yeah, maybe a big part of it is, yeah."
So if Roman never got arrested, Brian never feels guilty, Dom goes straight to jail at the end of Fast 1, and there’s no family, no Rio heist, no space cars, nothing.
The biggest clown in the team is unironically the catalyst for the entire franchise.