Spoiler alert, last warning:
For me it was after finishing the Voodo boys questline and one of my favorite parts in the game, when V just collapsed, Johnny took care of it saving our ass and then gave V his dog tag saying he will go down if the situation ever calls for it.
After saving me, I even told him I would take a bullet for him.
But seeing this scene again in a youtube video made me realize maybe I was a bit naive back then. When V wakes up and the pills are in his hand, I thought the 1st time playing the game “yeah its normal, Johnny took them to bring me to a safe place”. The 2nd time watching the video, I thought “wait a minute… maybe he was trying to continue taking them to stay in control forever?”.
This is why I love this game…
Yeah its hard to say. Certainly initially he is an asshole but you sorta have to live with him and he has his good points. He just becomes a part of your life. They did do real well atlhough I sorta hate the “very limited time” thing they did as it so patently becomes untrue as you play. I think it would have worked if they implied it might happen over the course of a few weeks or it could be a few months depending. I mean even if you raced though content it would be way to long relative to the way vic lays it out.
I’m convinced that the chip isn’t fatal after all. There are at least 2 endings where V goes months without meaningful treatment and doesn’t deteriorate further. I’d be willing to bet That Vs brain and the chip have reached an equilibrium where the chip can’t overwrite V faster than Vs neurons are rearanging themselves into their original configuration through the simple act of being V (which isn’t a magical willpower thing its just the way your brain makes connections)
that would honestly make more sense. Then the occasional episode might be when the two are rewriting the same resource or such.