Lost in the Movies

The Wire - "The Hunt" (season 1, episode 11)

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on August 18, 2002/written by Joy Lusco, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Steve Shill): Greggs is alive, but in critical condition. A furious but contained Rawls quickly dominates the bustling scene, insisting that everyone not under the direct command of a homicide detective - Narcotics, DEA, state cops, and others - clear the location immediately. He also memorably chews out an agonized McNulty at the hospital, shortly after playing the audiotape of Greggs' last moments of consciousness. "You, McNulty, are a gaping asshole," he growls. "...But fuck if I'm going to stand here and say you did a single fucking thing to get a police shot. You did not do this, you fucking hear me? This is not on you." It's the memorable cap to a tour-de-force extended opening sequence, balances out the negative portrait of Rawls that The Wire has been delivering all season (though I suspect we'll tilt back soon enough).

Daniels' detail is forced to bust up the main stash house so the department can stage a photo op with lots of captured narcotics; with the police so busy this episode, the street perspective takes a back seat. What we do witness is a growing panic: Stringer in particular seems broken, while Little Man (Micaiah Jones) - the shooter - is now marked for death and Wee-Bey is shaken by his own role in the incident (the show finally unveils that infamous Wee-Bey reaction shot, as he realizes Greggs was a cop). The core of the gang scatters to the wind, fleeing to Philadelphia or hiding out locally until the storm blows over (if it's going to). Savino surrenders himself after McNulty pressures the Barksdale lawyer Maurice Levy (Michael Kostroff), but he cops only to a small charge of trying to defraud Orlando rather than to any role in the shooting. He'll get three years which is extremely frustrating to McNulty but there's an even more anxious question hovering in the background. Is this all he and the others who've invested so much in this operation are going to accomplish?

My Response:

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on August 11, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Brad Anderson): Despite Avon's beating and warning a few episodes ago, Orlando carries on with his planned score. But as he gets into the car and exchanges cash for cocaine, something is off. Is Orlando about to be robbed? Is the product he's receiving far worse than expected? Was this a fatal set-up by Avon to test his loyalty? None of the above, as it turns out, though the long-term consequences of this indiscretion will be dire, and widespread. The dealer, Troy Wiggins (Neko Parham), is an undercover state cop. Orlando lands in jail and quickly snitches on Avon, leading Wiggins to the Daniels detail and his old friend and colleague Greggs. It's unclear how much Orlando can really provide the investigation - they've just achieved more important progress in determining the location of the quiet stash house in the suburbs that supplies the low-rises and high-rises in the inner city. However, an impatient Burrell pressures the reluctant detectives to conduct a buy bust. Greggs will go undercover as one of Orlando's squeezes, ostensibly fronting half the money for a major purchase that could expose a higher-up in the organization.

Orlando is one of a growing web of informants in The Wire. This episode alone is thick with them. Wallace is picked up and McNulty easily flips him on Stringer and Wee-Bey, although the boy is hesitant to say anything bad about D'Angelo (outright denying his culpability for the Deidre Kresson case). Daniels drives Wallace, undergoing withdrawal, out to a relative in the countryside where the city kid is perplexed by the sound of crickets. Omar is also going away (to New York City), having established a fragile truce with the Barksdale crew. He wears a wire for a very public parlay in a mall with Stringer (who won't acknowledge his boss' name) and flees after his demand for $5,000 is accepted - at that point he knows they're just trying to lure him into being killed. Shardene attempts to spy for Freamon (in a sly moment after she ignores D'Angelo, he kicks over a stool and a pigeon flies across the screen). And a newly sober Bubbles asks for help from Greggs. The wry detective jokes that a clean informant isn't much use to her but agrees to get him some money.

As it turns out, Bubbles is one of many who will feel the aftermath of what happens that night. The set-up collapes when Avon's enforcer Savino Bartton (Chris Clanton) drives Orlando and Greggs to an unexpected area of town. They are left alone in the parked car and then sprayed with gunfire. By the time Greggs' desperate peers reach the crime scene, Orlando is long dead and a bloodied Greggs is dragged from the car, with McNulty trying to resuscitate her limp body amidst the ensuing chaos.

My Response:

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on August 4, 2002/written by David H. Melnick & Shamit Choksey, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Milčo Mančevski): After several episodes in which The Wire's scope broadened, "Game Day" is tight and focused. The central event is a basketball game between Eastside and Westside, with the suit-clad Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew) representing the east's Avon equivalent. The game - literal for once - provides Daniels' detail the opportunity to physically identify and follow Avon (who mocks their efforts, hiding his car between streets to lure Daniels out and then driving past the lieutenant while dramatically wagging his finger). This plot device also introduces Proposition Joe, who will help Omar out by the end of the episode, exchanging a stash of free drugs for information that lures Avon out of the strip club and nearly leads to his death (as Omar emerges from the shadows near the club, only Wee-Bey's out-of-the-blue intervention saves Avon).

The club is the locus of another subplot, as Freamon and Greggs pick up Shardene and find out she's as compliant and sensitive as they hoped. When they show her Keisha's body and describe how she was found - rolled up inside a rug in a dumpster - Shardene breaks, acknowledging she is D'Angelo's girlfriend and listening (but not yet, it seems, agreeing) to the detectives' request for collaboration. She bonds with Freamon, admiring his dollhouse furniture and even keeping one of the pieces (of a little baby), a sentimental gesture that may hurt her if anyone who has been inside the detail's cavern spots the connection. Herc and Carver, meanwhile, seize another bag of cash, leading Daniels to suspect they're holding out (Herc considered this option at one point, but the missing cash was actually lost inside the trunk of their car). All of the cops' action takes place close to the street; there are no scenes at the police headquarters and interdepartmental drama is mostly offscreen.

Indeed, Bubbles' storyline is the only one to exist entirely outside of the Barksdale investigation or Omar's quest for vengeance. After literally fishing a baggie of heroin (actually baking soda) for himself and Johnny, Bubbles begins to crack. He's already seen Walon down in the pit watching out for a family member and his NA vow is looking more and more enticing. So finally the scraggly user shows up at his skeptical sister's (Eisa Davis') door. She allows him to stay in her basement and try to go clean. Along with D'Angelo, Shardene, and Wallace (who is looking toward drugs rather than away from them), Bubbles is considering a way out of his current life. Some of these characters will undoubtedly be more successful than others but at least Bubbles has a potential mentor in Walon, someone who could actually have his own best interests at heart. I'm not sure we can say that about the others.

My Response:

As we take a break from films in focus the episodes are getting shorter again. This one is particularly slim, just over an hour, which suits its central subject: Part 10 was a surprisingly light "hour" that actually ran only about fifty-four minutes (excluding the longest musical number of the series, the nearly seven-minute "No Stars") . I mean "light" primarily in terms of runtime of course; while this episode does indulge the more comic side of the Mitchums, and effectively introduce the delightfully daffy Candie, Part 10 is a very dark affair - indulging in shocking violence, meditating on loss, grief, and trauma, and taking place largely at night. Suiting that mood, my "Other Topics" section uses a recent Revolutionary Left Radio podcast as a springboard to discuss the Chilean revolution of the early seventies, which ended in a brutal U.S.-backed coup. To close the episode, I finish my twenty-eight-part "Opening the Archive" series which has surveyed my work over ten years (in the future this section will focus on a single piece at a time, usually reading the full text of a written piece or playing the audio track from a video essays that work on those terms as well).

Episode 28: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 10 (+ Chilean Revolution, my spring viewing diaries & more)

The catching-up of the Archive series to the present brings us to the reason that, for the second week in a row, the rewatch series is taking advantage of 2017's two-week break between Parts 9 and 10 to present an episode a week ahead of when it aired. (The break will be observed next week instead, so that when the rewatch resumes with Part 11 July 23 we will be in sync again.)

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on July 28, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Gloria Muzio): Orlando's (Clayton Le Boeuf's) strip club - which is, of course, Orlando's in name only - figures heavily in "Lessons." Orlando's offer to D'Angelo, to do a little dealing on the side, comes back to haunt him when Avon finds out, beating and threatening the owner of his legitimate front business for threatening to taint it with crime. Some of Orlando's employees suffer (or are poised to suffer) even more - one stripper, Keisha (Shaneera Lawson-Smith), overdoses at a party to celebrate Stinkum's (Brandon Price's) promotion; the only one who seems to care is D'Angelo. Later, when his own stripper girlfriend Shardene (Wendy Grantham) worries about Keisha's absence, D'Angelo wonders aloud if this life is really for him. Between Brandon's beating, Keisha's death, and the everyday dishonesty and brutality he's witnessing around him, the game is starting to feel like a trap. Unbeknownst to either of them, Shardene may soon be caught in this trap herself; Freamon and Greggs identify her as the best bet for a future informant based on their impression of her photographic portrait.

Other Orlando's-related photos will cause trouble for the detail. While visiting the police again, Omar spies a snapshot of the business on their corkboard and realizes it must be a front for Avon. When we see him waiting outside the club as Orlando locks up, we can probably guess what he has in mind (actually, there are a few strong options). Omar's already caused immense havoc this episode, killing Stinkum and maiming Wee-Bey before whistling "The Farmer in the Dell" and shouting out from the shadows "Come at the king, you best not miss." When the detail realizes Omar's behind the shooting, McNulty forces Bunk to lie to other homicide detectives, letting them know that the narcotics squad has recorded evidence of who killed Stinkum and will offer it once the investigation is over (they have no intention of doing so). All of the officers involved are slightly uncomfortable with this dynamic: is Omar their informant or an off-the-books assassin? Granted, Stinkum's death actually complicates their case rather than simplifying it (since he was one of their best potential weak links to Avon) but the way they all cover him doesn't quite sit will with any of them. "Are we still cops?" McNulty half-jokingly asks, and when he and Bunk go out to drown their sorrows in booze, Bunk ends up going home with a random woman and forcing McNulty to lie to his wife as a quid pro quo. Later that night, McNulty finds Bunk in a pink bathrobe, burning "the evidence" in a bathtub so that he won't go home smelling like another woman.

In the midst of this other personal and professional drama, the investigation almost comes undone when Greggs and Carver pick up a well-dressed bagman in the projects. Turns out this is the state senator's personal driver whom Daniels met at the party in the previous episode; orders come from the higher-ups to let him go immediately and Daniels is warned that the investigation has a few days to wrap it up and bring whatever charges they can against Avon. Phelan comes to their rescue, warning Deputy Commissioner of Operations Ervin Burrell (Frankie Faison) that he'll be held in contempt of court if he attempts to prematurely close down the wiretaps. McNulty doesn't just have powerful judges on his side in "Lessons"; his own sons assist him early on by tailing Stringer when he randomly walks into a grocery store they're shopping inside. McNulty uses the information they acquire (Stringer's license plate) to tail Avon's right-hand man, although the only thing he discovers is that Stringer is taking macroeconomics courses at a community college. In an episode where Herc and Carver study for the sergeant's exam and McNulty quizzes his kids on police terminology, this proves that the titular lessons aren't just for the police side of the equation...although how much longer Stringer will be able to pursue and apply this knowledge is far more open to question.

My Response:

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on July 21, 2002/written by Rafael Alvarez, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Joe Chappelle): "One Arrest" has a knack for playing characters off of one another in interesting ways. The pathetic Prez and professorial Freamon unexpectedly bond over their shared enthusiasm for codebreaking. Bubbles, accompanying Johnny to an NA meeting for laughs, finds himself profoundly moved by a talk given by Walon (country icon Steve Earle) to the point where he pledges his determination to live (even though he's high at the moment and will shoot up again later in the day). McNulty is eager to impress Judge Phelan with the case he's making, only for Phelan to humiliate him with a grammatical lesson on the difference between "then" and "than" while hitting on Rhonda Pearlman (Deirdre Lovejoy), the legal liaison for the Daniels detail (although it's McNulty who ends up getting invited into her home at episode's end - potentially the second time they've hooked up since he asked her how to clone a beeper in "The Buys"). Daniels accompanies his wife to a tony party where he feels out of place, eventually settling in with the chauffeurs who are watching a baseball game in the kitchen. One of them, Damien "Day-Day" Price (Donnell Rawlings) entertains the police lieutenant by describing how he'd rip off the entire place in great detail before Daniels reveals his actual occupation. Near the end of the episode, one of the most unusual and productive pairings occurs between Omar and Bunk; the thief recognizes the cop as a lacrosse player a few years ahead of him in school. In the midst of this repartee, Omar helps solve yet another cold case.

Omar is in the station because he's already fingered Bird for Gant's killing; Bird, defiant even when confronted with the prospect of capital punishment (the ballistics match on his weapon) is beaten by several officers. A succession of police actions - including the arrest of recent police brutality victim Kevin Johnston (making for an awkward moment with Prez and a failed intervention attempt by Daniels) - has the whole Barksdale gang spooked. Stringer correctly deduces the issue after one too many arrests, and he has the low-rise crew tear all the pay phones out of place and implement a new approach to making calls from now on. That is to say, most of the low-rise crew does this: Wallace is pointedly absent, getting high in his home as he gazes at the spot where Brandon was found. His life seems to be falling to pieces (and this in an episode where Omar has gone out of his way to remind us that Avon strictly prohibits users as dealers). There have essentially been two crucial inciting incidents this season, from which almost everything else has rippled: first, D'Angelo's offscreen slaying that led to his demotion, the killing of Gant and recent arrest of Bird, and of course the whole narcotics detail itself; and second, Omar's robbery of the stash which may have created an even more serious long-term threat for the Barksdale organization than the police themselves. These events initiate but can hardly contain the subsequent blowback. The Wire has been called Dickensian and Shakespearean but its delight in arranging and rearranging many moving pieces, and its enthusiasm for intricate tactical detail alongside its taste for the drama of humanity, also recall War and Peace.

My Response:

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on July 7, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Ed Bianchi): Six episodes in, the series embraces its title, bugging the pay phones on the low-rise apartment buildings near the pit. However, the police need to ensure that the conversations they're listening to are pertinent to the investigation, requiring constant visual surveillance on the rooftops. Right away, they - and particularly Freamon, who is proving himself the brains behind the whole operation - are able to piece together some crucial information from this eavesdropping. They are able to link pager numbers and call times to the time and location of Brandon's murder, or at least the kidnapping that led to his brutal torture and eventual execution. They also have a new informant, willing to testify as a witness against Bird (Fredro Starr) for an earlier shooting as revenge for the Barksdale enforcer's role in killing Brandon. Omar is devastated not just by his boyfriend's demise, but the condition he's found in: an eye gouged out, cigarette burns and knife wounds all over his body, sprawled out over a car in a particularly squalid neighborhood. But he's not frightened by his own potential victimhood ("Omar don't scare") as much as he is determined to fight fire with fire.

The thief's role as a potential thorn in Barksdale's side is so important that McNulty (who has the kids on this particular night, after much frustration in not being able to see them) drives into Omar's area with his sons in tow and makes them wait in the police station as Omar identifies Brandon's body. Omar wails so loudly that the startling sound interrupts one of the boys' chirping handheld video game. It's clear now that this will be Omar's place in the narrative, at least for the time being. Will Bubbles become less necessary to the cops? If so, a diminished role comes at a very bad time for him - he could really use some help for Johnny, who is arrested while scoring more heroin with money earned from a stolen copper wire sale. If the effect of Brandon's death is rippling across many different areas outside of the Barksdale business, it has also created an impact within the gang. This is particularly true for Wallace, who not only placed the call that led to Brandon's capture but was also among the first to see his body outside the apartment where Wallace, Poot, and a whole bunch of early-school-age children are squatting. Wallace is greatly disturbed by the sight of his own action's consequences. D'Angelo tells him to put this out of his mind, but also shows sympathy for the shaken teen.

Even as, unbeknownst to himself, an old killing is attracting growing police attention, D'Angelo remains a calm at the center of the storm. He reassigns pawns rather than allow them to get beaten for some mild thieving on the side, and he even explains the withholding-pay scheme to Wallace, to whom he's becoming something of an impromptu mentor. Opening the season as a rash, foolish young man in over his head, whose savvy uncle intervened to protect him, D'Angelo now looks like the more shrewd, patient, and responsive leader while Avon descends into paranoia and showiness, sauntering into the pit to make an impression but too far removed from the action himself to really get what's going on inside.

My Response:

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 30, 2002/written by Ed Burns, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Clark Johnson): Prez - of all people - cracks the pager code, which involves diagonal/cross-numbers on pay phone keypads. Nonetheless, even if they can now recognize the numbers calling in, the cops still can't hear the actual messages. Freamon stresses this point: without wiretaps on the payphones they're not going to get anywhere. Indeed, as the episode ends Brandon is about to get hit (Bailey already has been) and the police have no way of knowing, even as the computers dutifully log every number and call time. Meanwhile, with Avon's crew taking down the thieves one by one, Omar's position becomes more untenable. Brandon's death in particular is going to sting - he's not just a partner but a lover. How will Omar react? Earlier in the episode, we see McNulty and Greggs gently confront Omar, trying to woo him into becoming a snitch, but he declines as a point of honor - although he drops the name of the witness' killer from the first episode, so that honor may not extend so far. Now that his back's against the wall and he's been hit in a personal way, will he change his mind even further? Since he's not directly part of the drug business, I've wondered what Omar's role would be. Perhaps this will be it: someone not only on the street, but also the police side. While Omar considers his options, Carver and Herc arrest Bodie, beating, threatening, and attempting to bribe him to no avail. By the end of the night, they're all playing pool - they mock the prisoner for thinking he could hustle them...but in a way he already has, hasn't he?

My Response:

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 16, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Peter Medak): The Avon Barksdale investigation hits another low point when the crew is ordered to make a bust, undercutting their larger mission and - as it turns out - yielding nothing (the stash was moved a day or two earlier). Disgusted by this decision, McNulty refuses to participate but it's unclear whether he or Daniels will come out of this situation with the upper hand. As it turns out, the brash renegade cop may have dirt on his superior; an FBI pal tells him that Daniels was once investigated for potential financial improprieties. Nobody in the department comes out well in this episode, as the hangover of the Prez beatdown continues to haunt them (Prez himself barely appears, showing up only to man the shoddy office with McNulty as unexpected company while their peers, even Herc, go on the raid).

In the projects, D'Angelo dispenses and receives wisdom, teaching chess to his young associates by comparing the pieces to members of their organization ("the king stay the king," he informs them when they naively suggest the pawn's ambitions) but also receiving some schooling from them about the disposability of their captive customer base. Stringer chuckles about how the worse their product is, the better it sells, and even Bodie and Poot (Tray Chaney) express contempt for a junkie when he shows up too early. The biggest turn of events may arrive with a player outside of both arenas; Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) is a thief who cases the area for several days before breaking into the safe house one night and robbing the dealers at gunpoint (they, and we, learn his name when an associate stupidly blurts it out). It's a brief but memorable appearance and, circumstances and outside knowledge reveal, far from his last.

My Response:

This week's mellow, meditative episode pairs my analysis of the quiet Part 9, a surprisingly low-key return to Twin Peaks after the revolutionary Part 8, and my reflections on a Bob Dylan music video I discovered on Twitter a while ago. "Pretty Saro" was a Dylan cut so deep it never even appeared as a bootleg (it was recorded for, but excluded from, his 1970 album Self-Portrait). Created for a special release five years ago by the filmmaker Jennifer Lebeau, and tweeted again recently to celebrate the singer's seventy-seventh birthday (which is how I found it), the video uses many midcentury snapshots and home movies from the Library of Congress to paint a powerful portrait of a time just recent enough to feel like part of the collective memory, yet just old enough to feel like a dream that has mostly slipped away. I dissect the history of the song itself, the context of the recording, and the reasons why these images resonate. For reference (and the enjoyment of readers, including those who are not patrons), I've embedded the video beneath the following line-up. If you have comments or impressions you'd like to share, please do and I'll present them on the podcast. For whatever reason, this very random piece struck a chord with me and also gelled with a particularly subdued, vaguely melancholy Twin Peaks episode.

Finally, now that I'm cross-posting on Mondays, biweekly previews will be linked in odd-numbered Patreon updates going forward. This edition continues to outline how I'm approaching Laura's narrative in my future character study, in this case organizing scenes from the first season when she is either mentioned by other characters or present as a corpse or disembodied voice. As these outlines are longer than initially expected, the next preview should conclude this format (an overview of how I'm organizing Cooper's story will follow afterwards).

Telling Laura Palmer's stories, part 2 (June "See the Future" Preview #2 - 2nd tier reward)

Episode 27: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 9 (+ Bob Dylan's Pretty Saro music video & more)

Line-up for Episode 27

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/mostly Patreon: main site cross-posts now go up on Monday (brief X-Files/Wire mention, no work in progress)

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 8

The feel & structure of the episode

Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Hit and run/Jerry/Ben & Beverly/Beverly's marriage/Roadhouse/standalone scenes

FBI in South Dakota - Yankton/Buckhorn

Mr. C

Las Vegas - Dougie at work/Dougie at home/Assassination plot

Spirit World - Zone (mentioned)

Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events

Coffee, pie, and donuts (and cigarettes!)

Lodge lore

Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS: Pretty Saro - Bob Dylan music video

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Podcasting for Patreon" (January - April 2018), this week's highlight: Patreon podcast, episode 11: Connecting Eraserhead & Inland Empire (+ Blue Velvet)

OUTRO

BECOME A PATRON

The Wire - "The Detail" (season 1, episode 2)

Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 9, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Clark Johnson): The whole crew assembles...and it isn't pretty. When Lt. Daniels gathers his detail together in the bleak basement room of some peripheral police-owned building (a solitary phone hilariously rings in the middle of the floor), he is surrounded by embarassments. Augustus Polk (Nat Benchley) and Patrick Mahon (Tom Quinn) are washed-up detectives known more for their boozing than their policing. Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) is an anonymous veteran whose beat is more typically pawn shops than drug dens. And "Prez" (Jim True-Frost), well...what can't you say about the gawky, inordinately-too-confident Roland Pryzbyelewski? You certainly can't say he's good at job. Nor could you claim he knows his own limitations. We first get acquainted with Prez when he accidentally discharges his weapon in the cavernous cellar HQ, and we soon learn that he was nearly fired for shooting at his own car (family connections keep him working in the department, even as various officers try to pass him off onto other ones).

By the end of the episode, Prez has done much worse than that: encouraging a raid that had no reason to occur, beating the teenage Kevin Johnston (Jimmie Jelani Manners) until he's blinded in one eye, and provoking an attack on the police that makes headlines the following morning. The detective is an absolute disaster, although Herc and Ellis are no help either, enthusiastically accompanying him on his mission of brutalization. This is the central thread of "The Detail", but there are other important elements too. McNulty discovers the murdered witness, and manipulates his favorite/least favorite judge to pressure Baltimore PD into allowing him to investigate. Greggs leads a clever undercover op, utilizing Reginald "Bubbles"Cousins (Andre Royo) to identify leading members of the Barksdale gang. And D'Angelo gets played by the cops when they claim to show him a picture of dead witness Gant's kids (Moreland later chuckles, "those were my kids") and cajole him into writing a sympathy letter that stops just this side of being a confession. D'Angelo also takes his girlfriend Donette (Shamyl Brown) to meet his uncle Avon (Wood Harris), the leader of the entire crime syndicate, looking entirely innocuous as he hosts a family gathering for the neighborhood.

My Response:

The Wire - "The Hunt" (season 1, episode 11)

The Wire - "The Cost" (season 1, episode 10)

The Wire - "Game Day" (season 1, episode 9)

Patreon update #28: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 10 (+ Chilean Revolution, my spring viewing diaries & more)

The Wire - "Lessons" (season 1, episode 8)

The Wire - "One Arrest" (season 1, episode 7)

The Wire - "The Wire" (season 1, episode 6)

The Wire - "The Pager" (season 1, episode 5)

The Wire - "Old Cases" (season 1, episode 4)

The Wire - "The Buys" (season 1, episode 3)

Patreon update #27: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 9 (+ Bob Dylan's Pretty Saro music video & more) and description of Laura character study, pt. II

The Wire - "The Detail" (season 1, episode 2)

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