plot explanation - Why does the eye surgeon help Anderton

I just watched Minority Report again and I always wonder about one part of the story.

When Det. Anderton is about to get his eyes transplanted illegaly, the eye surgeon tells him, that he got imprisoned by Anderton in the past, which ended his normal life and made him an illegal eye surgeon in a shabby apartment after a not very nice time in prison.

I wonder though why he then helped Anderton, considering that he already got paid (I think) and Anderton was already about to anesthesize. He could just have left him blind or do whatever to him. But he doesn't do anything bad to him (well, he left the rotten food right next to the good food in the fridge, but I'm not sure if this was intentional besides not being that evil a trick).

He tells Anderton something about learning new things in prison and finding himself, but this sounded a bit sarcastic and I don't really believe he was actually happy to have been imprisoned.

So my question is:

• Was this just a plot device which wasn't thought out that well (raise the tension by implying the eye surgeon is evil, which he then isn't)?


• Was the eye surgeon really happy to have been imprisoned?


• Has he just got over it and forgiven Anderton and now only does his job?


• Or was there indeed something I may have overseen in the story?

Answer

Great sample of the dialog by the way, between Anderton and Dr. Solomon Eddie at IMDB.

While the doctor was describing his experience in prison, his um difficulties in the shower, notice something? Something not in his words, but in his tone. He's dispassionate. He's not angry. I think he actually was reformed. Now he just wants to make a living. He talks as if he's going to mete revenge on Anderton. But never does. He's actually thanking him for turning his life around. I mean, a plastic surgeon who sets his patients on fire for entertainment -- look how far he's come. And he knows it. (This is a better question than I first thought.)

There was also the creepy assistant. Doctor talked at one point as if his assistant saved Anderton, because she had a kind of crush on him. But I don't think that's the real reason the doctor helps Anderton. He's way cynical, to be sure, but he's resigned to a boring life of relatively unremarkable crime. And he's okay with that. So maybe he kinda owes Anderton in the end.

@Shane F. makes an excellent point: the doctor's back-story is a plot device meant to call his trustworthiness [and motives] into question, thereby boosting the suspense about whether he will help or hurt Anderton.

Notice how many other ways this movie tricks you with the good-guy / bad-guy dichotomy. Witwer (Colin Farrell) seems bad but turns out good. Von Sidow's character seems good but turns out bad. Other characters are more nuanced than pure good or pure evil. These surprises strategically support the overall point of the movie: to question your assumptions about criminality.

The eye surgeon is just one more bad guy that wasn't all bad.