S1:The Wire S01E03 - S01E04

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- WARNING: THIS THREAD WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET SEEN Season 1 -

Episode Title: S01E01 "The Buys"

Episode Title: S01E01 "Old Cases"

SPOILER WARNING:

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Season 1 Recap

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S01Eo3

HBO wrote:

"The King stays the King." - D'Angelo

Summary

Directed by: Peter Medak
Story by: David Simon & Ed Burns
Teleplay by: David Simon

In the fallout from the ruckus at the Towers — including a looming Grand Jury investigation — Lieutenant Daniels reluctantly covers for his detectives, saying he sent them to the projects in the middle of the night. "If I tell you I knew they were going, I screwed up," he says to Deputy Commissioner Burrell. "If I tell you I didn't, I get my officers in trouble...I screwed up." However, Daniels does insist that Prez be placed on desk duty. Major Valchek, Prez's father-in-law, says he owes Daniels for helping Prez, and promises Daniels two new cars and a surveillance van as well as some recording equipment to further the investigation.

The recorders, however, turn out to be a joke, bulky and out of date. So McNulty calls upon his FBI pal Fitzhugh to ask for better ones.

At a press conference, Burrell, Rawls and Bunk deny that the killing of the witness Gant had anything to do with D'Angelo's murder trial.

Still unable to identify Avon Barksdale, McNulty asks Polk to try and get a picture from the housing project's security office. When Polk returns with a photo of a white man, Freamon recalls that Barksdale used to be a Golden Gloves fighter and wrangles a photo of the drug kingpin on an old boxing poster. McNulty's respect for Freamon grows.

McNulty, complaining about his wife's continuing failure to honor his visitation rights, learns that Greggs is a lesbian, and tells her that the only good female cop he's known was also a lesbian. Greggs responds: "All I know is I just love this job."

D'Angelo visits Orlando's Gentlemen's Club, owned by Stringer and Avon through front man Orlando. When D'Angelo delivers cash from his operation, Stringer is impressed with the haul, commends D'Angelo and gives him a bonus. D'Angelo complains that the quality of the drugs they are selling has gone down and the junkies are unhappy. Stringer's response: "They're fiends. What do we care." D'Angelo is approached by Shardene, a stripper who becomes more interested when D'Angelo brags that Avon is his uncle and that he's "his right hand man."

Detective Sydnor shows up in the Detail Room dressed as a junkie, preparing to go to the projects with Bubbles to buy drugs. Bubbles advises him to take off his wedding ring, yellow his teeth, get some track marks on his hands and lose 20 pounds. Nevertheless, he manages to make a buy from D'Angelo's gang.

Lt. Daniels arrives and says they've been ordered to hit the projects and make arrests in a few days. Greggs protests that they don't even know which doors to hit, but Daniels says to hit the stash houses. "Man upstairs wants to see a circus. In a couple of days, we gotta show them three rings." McNulty refuses to take part, saying he won't help gut the case they are trying to build.

Instead, he visits Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman at home in the evening, ostensibly to ask for instructions on cloning a beeper to monitor calls the Barksdale's gang receives. After explaining how he can do that, they end up in bed together — not for the first time.

Meanwhile, Omar, a legendary Baltimore stick-up artist, stakes out Avon's drug operation with a plan to steal his stash. D'Angelo is off buying sandwiches when the stash is stolen and one of D'Angelo's boys is shot in the process. During the heist, Omar's boyfriend Brandon calls Omar by name. Bubbles, perched nearby, sees the robbery go down.

The next day, the cops — without McNulty — swoop into the projects and round up the drug gang. But they break down the wrong door and are unable to find the stash. During the bust, D'Angelo's boy Bodie hits Detective Mahon in the face and is beaten badly by the other cops, including Greggs.

Later, drinking beer in his car, McNulty meets up with FBI pal Fitzhugh, who tells him that Lt. Daniels is "dirty." "He has a couple hundred thousand more in assets than any police lieutenant should have," says Fitzhugh, whose FBI unit had been asked to do a study on Daniels. It's been more than a year, he says, and "we're waiting for something to happen."

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S01E04

HBO wrote:

"It's a thin line 'tween heaven and here." - Bubbles

Summary

Directed by: Clement Virgo
Story by: David Simon & Ed Burns
Teleplay by: David Simon

Detective Mahon dramatizes his injuries sustained during the unproductive low-rise bust and, resisting Daniels' plea that he continue, says he wants out on a medical disability.

Meanwhile Bodie, who's incarcerated at the Juvenile Services Boys Village, escapes by simply walking out the unattended door to the facility. At about the same time, Carver and Herc, with dreams of glory, head for Boys Village hoping to sweat Bodie until he begins to squeal. "Then we break the case wide open," Herc says.

At police headquarters, Burrell is disappointed to learn that despite all the "hand-to-hand" drug buys the squad has made, none of the project denizens will flip and name names. "In that part of town," McNulty says, "Barksdale carries more weight." Sgt. Landsman brings in an old murder case of a young woman, Diedre Kresson, shot after being visited by someone named "D." That, and a now disconnected phone number for a friend of the victim, are the only evidence that might lead to the Barksdales.

Back home, Omar and his two boys count their money and enjoy the success of their robbery. Omar is mildly perturbed that Brandon called him by name during the robbery, but only because "I don't want them coming down on y'all, baby boy," he says, giving Brandon a kiss. Stringer and Avon are furious that they've been robbed and tell D'Angelo to put the word out that there's a bounty on the heads of Omar and his gang.

Upon Bodie's swaggering return to the low rise, D'Angelo brags that he's tougher. He once killed his uncle's girlfriend after she threatened to drop the dime on him.

Searching for Bodie, Herc and Carver bust in on an elderly woman who is Bodie's grandmother. After searching the place, Herc apologizes to the woman for his profanity and she asks him to sit down, whereupon she describes Bodie's tough upbringing, which included a mother who was a drug addict. Herc leaves his card with her.

Sgt. Landsman meets with Major Rawls and asks him to consider cutting McNulty some slack. "He can't help it," Landsman explains. "He's a good policeman. Last year he gave us eight collars." Rawls responds that if McNulty can wrap up the Barksdale case in two weeks, he can come back with a clean slate.

Lt. Daniels reports to Burrell that the case against Barksdale is progressing slowly, and that McNulty says what the case needs is a wire. Greggs meanwhile tells McNulty that her C.I. Bubbles has named Omar as the one who made off with Barksdale's stash. "And if he knows where the Barksdale stash is, he probably knows a whole lot more."

McNulty makes the case to Daniels that they need to clone the Barksdale pagers — set up duplicate pagers that they can read — if they're going to progress on the case. Detective Freamon impresses McNulty further when he shows him a pager number scrawled on a wall that he discovered during the low-rise bust, a number he says belongs to D'Angelo.

Bunk and McNulty visit the vacant apartment of Diedre Kresson, the young woman killed in the old murder case they've been asked to work, to see if there's a connection to Barksdale. The partners conduct the entire investigation, needing barely a word between them to communicate. They find two bullet casings overlooked in the initial investigation, and are pleased when they learn later that they match the casing in two other murders that may be connected to the Barksdales.

McNulty and Freamon go drinking together. Freamon tells McNulty that he was busted down to the pawnshop unit 13 years ago after he refused to follow the Deputy's orders, and he's been moldering there ever since. Fremon's advice to McNulty: "Do yourself a favor. Keep your mouth shut."