S1:The Wire S01E05 - S01E06

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

Episode Title: S01E01 "The Pager"

Episode Title: S01E01 "The Wire"

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Season 1 Recap

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S01E05

"... a little slow, a little late." - Avon Barksdale

Summary

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

Avon Barksdale is paranoid, and begins to worry that his phones are tapped. Stringer Bell visits D'Angelo and urges him to keep his boys alert in the wake of Omar stealing the stash at the Pit. Stringer also hatches a plan with D'Angelo to smoke out what Stringer and Avon believe is a snitch in D'Angelo's crew. "Don't pay your team," Stringer says. "The ones who don't ask for an advance when their money runs out obviously have another source of income, and those are your snitches."

Judge Phelan signs off on the clones for the beepers. Things remain tense at the Pit. When one of D'Angelo's boys lolls lazily while supposedly on lookout, Bodie throws a beer bottle at him, cutting him. D'Angelo is inclined to object but at that moment gets a page — a page that arrives simultaneously at the Detail Room.

Barksdale's crew is using a code for the pagers that puzzles the cops. Greggs wonders "How complex a code can it be if these knuckleheads are using it?" It is Prez who breaks the code, making his first positive contribution to the squad's work.

Bubbles visits his friend Johnny in the Green Hill Hospice Center, where he's recovering from his beating and his heroin addition. Johnny reveals to Bubbles that they say he has the Bug: AIDS. In one breath Johnny talks recovery lingo but in the next, he's asking Bubbles which neighborhood has the best dope these days. Bubbles brags that he's been working with the police as an informant.

At Police Headquarters, Sgt. Landsman is exuberant over the forensics break in the three murder cases. Bunk tells McNulty he's convinced that whoever killed Diedre Kresson also committed the other two killings, "and those two are straight-up drug executions." Together, they visit the friend, Towanda, and learn that in fact, Avon Barksdale was the dead girl's boyfriend. That was, until she threatened to inform on him when she found out she was being two-timed. Towanda also mentions that Avon and Stringer own not only Orlando's but numerous other companies.

At Orlando's, D'Angelo learns from the bartender that Stinkum is no longer on salary but is working for a percentage since he's opening a new territory for Stringer and Avon. D'Angelo is frustrated at being passed over for promotion, but does manage to put a move on Shardene, the stripper who had come on to him earlier.

Outside the club, McNulty, Daniels and Greggs are on a stakeout to see what goes on there. What kind of gentleman's club has a video camera on the outside, McNulty observes. And not only does Barksdale own the club, he owns a warehouse, an apartment building and a tow-truck company.

Meanwhile, Avon takes D'Angelo to visit his uncle, who is comatose from a bullet wound to the temple. Even though they could afford a fancy nursing home, they have to keep the uncle here so they don't show advertise the fact that they have plenty of money. D'Angelo is uneasy during the visit, but Avon reassures him that it's important. "Cause it's family, that's what it's all about, family" Avon is remorseful of the fate of his brother: "Be a little slow, a little late. Just once."

McNulty and Greggs meet with Omar and explain that they have a common problem: Barksdale. They want him to give up what he knows about Barksdale but Omar is reluctant. "Me snitching?" he says. "I don't think the game should be played that way." McNulty tells Omar that his respects that, but purposely lets it slip that Barksdale killed Bailey, one of Omar's men. Omar then gives them a lead on Avon's boy named Bird, who Omar says killed Gant.

When two of D'Angelo's boys, Wallace and Poot, go to a convenience store and spot Omar's boy Brandon playing the pinball, they phone D'Angelo to tell him. Dee in turn calls Stringer Bell, who takes his crew to the spot. Stringer praises Wallace and asks him to point out Brandon to his thugs. D'Angelo later receives a call from Stringer Bell at the same payphone: "Done. Nice work, cuz." The detail computer tracks the calls, but in a deserted office, without the manpower for nighttime surveillance.

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S01E06

"... and all the pieces matter" - Freamon

Summary

Directed by: Ed Bianchi
Story by: David Simon & Ed Burns
Teleplay by: David Simon

D'Angelo's boy Wallace awakens to a grim scene outside the abandoned rowhouse that he shares with a group of parentless children. The brutalized corpse of Omar's boy Brandon is splayed across the hood of a car. Wallace gets all the kids off to school, handing each of them a juice box on their way out the door. As the police arrive and cordon off the crime scene and Wallace realizes it is Brandon's body, it dawns on him that it was his phone call that set in motion this killing.

D'Angelo has hooked up with Shardene, the stripper from Orlando's, who is in his kitchen preparing breakfast and sees pictures of his son on the fridge. She asks if D'Angelo is friendly with his son's mother. Dee tries to play down their relationship but also manages to offend Shardene with his answer.

The police squad now has taps on the courtyard phone at the projects, but Herc is unhappy to learn that they are allowed to listen only to those calls involving one of the Barksdale suspects. He is told he must continue doing surveillance at the Towers and must notify the cops in the Detail Room who exactly is using the phone, so they know which calls they're allowed to listen to.

Barksdale's attorney Maurice Levy represents Bodie at his court appearance. He assures the Judge that Bodie will straighten up if he's allowed to return home. The Judge buys it and puts Bodie on a home monitoring system.

Omar contacts McNulty for one last look at Brandon in the morgue. He is distraught after McNulty shows him Brandon's tortured body, and reverses his previous refusal to help the cops get Barksdale. When Greggs tells Omar she's looking for an eyeball witness to pin the Gant murder on Bird, he offers his services.

After Johnny's release from rehab and a successful score, Johnny and Bubbles have a drug-fueled celebration. It is short-lived, however, when Johnny is busted. Bubbles mumbles about his luck, but goes to Greggs to help out Johnny once again.

McNulty's plan to score brownie points with Rawls backfires when Rawls reads the report on the link between the three murders and decides he wants warrants issued for D'Angelo Barksdale immediately. McNulty is furious when he learns of Rawl's order, convinced that there isn't sufficient evidence to convict D'Angelo and that the rest of the investigation will be blown if they're forced to bring charges. Avon Barksdale will change his patterns immediately. "And what he don't change up he'll clean up," adds Greggs.

They decide to ask Daniels to appeal the order with Rawls. Daniels does, with great reluctance, and Rawls turns him down. Then Daniels goes over Rawl's head, and in a tense meeting with Rawls and Burrell, Burrell overrules Rawl's order and gives Daniels another month to wrap up the case.

At the projects, Stringer and Avon put in a rare appearance, delivering the bounty money they promised for anyone who brought in Omar or his crew. Wallace gets $500, as does D'Angelo, and Wee-Bey and Bird get money, too, "for doing the muscling up," Avon says. D'Angelo lies to Avon on the matter of who's not asking for cash advances, suspicious that Wallace may be involved. Later, trying to school Wallace in their ways, he explains that if he ratted them out, they'd get a baseball bat in the head.

Rawls is angry again that McNulty has succeeded in stalling his push for arrest warrants in the Barksdale case. He calls Detective Santangelo in and says he wants Santangelo to keep an eye on McNulty. Reluctantly, Santangelo finds himself at Rawls' mercy and forced to snitch on his partner.