Lester Freamon
Encyclopedia
Lester Freamon is a fictional character
on the HBO drama The Wire
, played by actor Clarke Peters
. Freamon is a detective in the Baltimore Police Department
's Major Crimes Unit. He is a wise, slow and methodical detective who makes major contributions to the series investigations.
called "natural police" for his instincts, tenacity and intelligence. Before joining the force he served in the military. It is revealed in season 2 that he had fought in the Vietnam War. His first major unit was Homicide, but in 1989, acting against the orders of the Deputy Commissioner, he charged a politically-connected fence
to coerce his testimony in a homicide case. Though the case was successfully closed, the Deputy still had Freamon transferred to the Pawnshop unit as a punishment – after being told by Freamon that that was the one place he did not want to go. Freamon eventually spent thirteen years (and four months) in the assignment, until he had been completely forgotten by management. Deskbound for more than a decade, Freamon began making dollhouse furniture, a hobby which provides him with a substantial supplemental income, but also contributes to his eccentric reputation among fellow police. At the end of the series it was revealed that Freamon had joined the department in 1974 or 1975, having worked 32½ years at his retirement. Coincidentally, Freamon had joined the department around the same time as ousted commanders Commissioner Ervin Burrell
and Major Howard "Bunny" Colvin (both of whom joined in 1973) yet had never obtained rank, focusing solely on police work.
, Freamon tracked down a photo of Avon Barksdale
, finally giving the unit a face to put to the name. He further impressed his colleagues when he found D'Angelo Barksdale
's pager number at an abandoned stash house. Impressed by Freamon's capabilities, fellow detective Jimmy McNulty
inquires about him in a conversation with Bunk who tells him Freamon is an ex-homicide detective. Later, while at the bar with Freamon, McNulty finds out that he was sent to the Pawn Shop unit for angering the then-Deputy Ops. Freamon then warns McNulty that he will probably suffer a similar fate at the conclusion of the case.
Freamon proved himself adept at building a case through the use of a wiretap; he recognized patterns of pager messages and telephone calls, which led to several breakthroughs in the Barksdale case, most notably finding the main stash house in Pimlico. He also led the investigation into the Barksdales' financial records and uncovered their various political connections, instructing Sydnor and Pryzbylewski in the mechanics of following the paper trail. He also recruited Shardene Innes, one of the dancers in Barksdale's strip club, as an informant, beginning a romantic relationship with her in the process.
After Detective Greggs is shot, Freamon tracked a page made by Wee-Bey Brice
, one of the shooters, to a pay phone where he found evidence implicating the other shooter, Little Man. He then used a contact from his pawn shop days (now working for a phone company) to trace call patterns and pinpoint Wee-Bey's whereabouts, leading to his arrest and conviction.
Following the dissolution of the detail, Major Rawls
noted Freamon's competence as a detective and transferred him back into Homicide. Rawls had made room for Freamon in Homicide by dumping McNulty to the Marine Unit in the fashion that Freamon had predicted.
, and they were quickly recognized as the best detectives in Homicide. Landsman assigned them a seemingly impossible case involving the deaths of fourteen Jane Does. They were detailed Beatrice "Beadie" Russell
, the officer from the Port Authority who had initially found the bodies in a shipping container
, as a liaison for the investigation. The women had suffocated after the air pipe to the container was deliberately closed off (except for one woman who was murdered and thrown overboard the previous night).
Freamon and Bunk traveled to the Philadelphia port where they held the vessel that had delivered the container to Baltimore. They attempted to question the crew, none of whom would admit to speaking English. They eventually let the ship go after learning that two crewmen had jumped ship after Baltimore. Based on the few facts they had, Freamon and Bunk deduced that the women were prostitutes being smuggled in from overseas, that one of the girls was murdered by a sailor after refusing sex, and that the rest were killed for witnessing the crime. The murderer was one of those who fled, leaving the investigation at a dead end. Freamon and Bunk were severely rebuked by a frustrated Rawls for releasing the ship without getting statements.
Freamon was relieved to be assigned, at Daniel's request, to the detail investigating Frank Sobotka
and the dockworker's union. Though he continued to assist Bunk and Russell in the Homicide investigation, his primary focus became the investigation of smuggling through the Baltimore ports. On Russell's advice, Freamon convinced Daniels to clone the port's computers to track container movements. They were able to follow containers being moved illegally to a warehouse, ultimately linking Sobotka to the criminal activities of The Greek
. The investigation closed with several arrests and, in the process, Freamon identified a dismembered body killed by The Greek's crew as being one of the crewmen who jumped ship. Bunk and Freamon solved the Jane Doe homicides after Sergei, facing a possible death sentence, gave them the details they needed, and Landsman and Rawls were again content with the Homicide unit's clearance rate.
had been able to introduce him. Avon Barksdale himself was caught in a safehouse filled with illegal weapons and returned to prison, though an also-implicated Stringer Bell
was murdered before he could be arrested.
, though Freamon is disappointed that Stanfield's lack of discipline is making the investigation too easy. Meanwhile, he continues to follow the Barksdale money trail, subpoenaing the financial records of state senator Clay Davis
and property developer Andy Krawczyk. Freamon wrongly believes that Mayor Royce
would not risk interfering with a criminal investigation to help them, because of the upcoming election. Feeling pressure from both, Royce angrily goes to Burrell and Rawls and forces them to deal with it. Burrell asks who is responsible for the subpoenas and Rawls correctly assumes Freamon as the lead instigator. In order to appease Mayor Royce, Rawls concludes that "proper supervision" will keep the unit under control and prevent them from moving forward. He installs a new commander, Lieutenant Marimow, aka "The Unit Killer", who immediately butts heads with Freamon by attempting to bring down the wiretap. Freamon is sent to Rawls who correctly assumes Freamon is willing to go to Judge Davis to keep his wiretap running. Rawls, recognizing Freamon's past instances of angering the department's senior commanders, points out Freamon's "gift for martyrdom" and instead subtly threatens his protegés Greggs and Sydnor, whom he claims will be the victim of Freamon's mistakes. Freamon agrees to allow the wiretap to be disconnected, but refuses to work under Marimow.
Out of respect for his shrewd investigative tactics, Rawls transfers Freamon back into the Homicide Unit, where Bunk has been investigating the murder of Stanfield drug dealer Fruit and the disappearance of suspect Curtis "Lex" Anderson. They both recognize that Stanfield likely had Lex killed in retribution, but are unable to find the body anywhere. Freamon further observes that Stanfield is not tied to any murders since the Barksdale Gang War ended, and begins to scour Baltimore for any trace of the bodies he knows must be hidden somewhere.
Herc unwittingly provides Freamon with a key clue, a nail gun he noticed when he pulled over Chris and Snoop. Pryzbylewski (now a teacher) provides second-hand information as to where Lex was killed. While checking abandoned row houses in that immediate area, Freamon notices that one of the doors was nailed in while the others were screwed shut, and realizes that Lex's body must be in that house. He further concludes that the Stanfield Organization
is leaving bodies in row houses all over the City. With the nails identifying which houses are doubling as tombs, more than twenty bodies are found.
Daniels, now a colonel gaining political traction, regains control over the Major Crimes Unit. He offers Freamon carte blanche, including the right to pick his own commander. Freamon assembles his team, and begins investigating Stanfield again, but Stanfield has been mentored by Proposition Joe
, and is no longer as sloppy as he was.
, Kima Greggs
, Leander Sydnor
and Kenneth Dozerman. Initial investigations into the vacant house murders fails to provide enough evidence to bring charges against the Stanfield Organization
. Freamon elects to settle into a long investigation and begins daily surveillance of Marlo Stanfield
. Stanfield becomes aware of the ongoing investigation and curtails his violent activity and limits his discussion to face-to-face meetings. The unit becomes dissatisfied when fiscal problems at city hall lead to the withholding of over-time pay. The unit is eventually closed down to save funds. Freamon is detailed to the State's Attorney's office to continue to prepare a case against corrupt state senator Clay Davis
. Sydnor joins him in the detail and they report to Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman
.
Freamon heralds the Davis investigation as a career case but is unable to let go of the work he has done on Stanfield. Freamon continues surveillance of Stanfield in his own time and is pleased to find that Stanfield is already "dropping his guard" now that he is no longer under observation. Freamon and McNulty meet with FBI agent Terrence Fitzhugh seeking federal support for a renewed Stanfield investigation but have no success.
McNulty decides to secure funding for the Stanfield investigation by creating the illusion of a serial killer to draw media attention to the police department. Bunk Moreland
is outraged that McNulty is interfering with crime scenes and falsifying case notes as part of his plan and enlists Freamon to talk sense into McNulty. McNulty has faked the strangulation of a homeless man who probably died of an overdose. Bunk's involving Freamon backfires when Freamon decides that McNulty hasn't gone far enough and suggests that he should make it more media-friendly by sensationalizing the killer.
Sydnor uncovers evidence that Davis has lied on a mortgage application and Freamon realizes it is significant enough to file federal charges. Rupert Bond decides not to file the new charge as passing the case over to federal prosecutors would cost him the opportunity to raise his political profile. Bond has Pearlman hold a grand jury deposition for Davis and stages a photo opportunity as Davis leaves the court house to mark Davis as his target. McNulty and Freamon collaborate on raising the profile of their fake serial killer, resulting in Freamon adding a sexual motive and supplying a set of dentures to create bite marks on the "victims". They conduct actual canvassing among the homeless as a cover. Freamon also recruits his old patrol partner Oscar Requer to look out for recently-deceased bodies of homeless men. They soon have their next fake victim and McNulty mocks up the crime scene and mutilates the body to imply another murder. When Lester gets a hold of Marlo Stanfield's cell phone (via a loop from Vondas to Marlo to Levy to Herc to Carver to himself), he sets up an illegal wiretap on the phone but is initially surprised to find no conversations are taking place on it. Lester continues to work on the Clay Davis case and provides strong information in court, but it does not help the case's ultimate fate. Lester learns Marlo's cellphone is transmitting pictures of clocks and tries to break the code. When management provides more money for the fake serial-killer investigation, a full-court surveillance is done and Sydnor works out that the clock code is relaying information about different meeting locations in Baltimore. Lester tries to get the U.S. Attorney's office to prosecute Clay Davis for lying on his mortgage application (information Bond did not use in the failed city prosecution); while the office declines because Davis is now a hero in Baltimore, Lester uses the information to blackmail Davis for information about a leak at the courthouse. Lester sees the bust of the re-supply take place and Marlo, Chris, Monk and others are arrested. Lester is upset that Jimmy McNulty told Kima about the fake serial-killer plan. When word of the plan reaches Daniels and Daniels tells Carcetti, Lester's fate is sealed along with McNulty's. Pearlman tells them they will not face jail but will no longer be able to do real "police work", instead being buried in back-room units. Lester laments the loss of tracking Marlo's money trail, but takes the retirement, makes peace with Kima, and is last seen in the end-of-season montage putting together dollhouse furniture in the company of Shardene.
named Freamon one of the five most interesting characters in season four.
Television critic Alan Sepinwall has, on several occasions, stated that Freamon is his favorite character.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the HBO drama The Wire
The Wire (TV series)
The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
, played by actor Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
. Freamon is a detective in the Baltimore Police Department
Baltimore Police Department
The Baltimore Police Department provides police services to the city of Baltimore, Maryland and was officially established by the Maryland Legislature on March 16, 1853...
's Major Crimes Unit. He is a wise, slow and methodical detective who makes major contributions to the series investigations.
Character background and plot relations
Detective Lester Freamon is a veteran of the force who established a reputation as what Bunk MorelandBunk Moreland
William "Bunk" Moreland is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Wendell Pierce. Bunk's character is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer and nicknamed "the Bunk", an officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who...
called "natural police" for his instincts, tenacity and intelligence. Before joining the force he served in the military. It is revealed in season 2 that he had fought in the Vietnam War. His first major unit was Homicide, but in 1989, acting against the orders of the Deputy Commissioner, he charged a politically-connected fence
Fence (criminal)
A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
to coerce his testimony in a homicide case. Though the case was successfully closed, the Deputy still had Freamon transferred to the Pawnshop unit as a punishment – after being told by Freamon that that was the one place he did not want to go. Freamon eventually spent thirteen years (and four months) in the assignment, until he had been completely forgotten by management. Deskbound for more than a decade, Freamon began making dollhouse furniture, a hobby which provides him with a substantial supplemental income, but also contributes to his eccentric reputation among fellow police. At the end of the series it was revealed that Freamon had joined the department in 1974 or 1975, having worked 32½ years at his retirement. Coincidentally, Freamon had joined the department around the same time as ousted commanders Commissioner Ervin Burrell
Ervin Burrell
Ervin Burrell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Frankie Faison. Burrell was an officer in the Baltimore Police Department who ascended from Deputy Commissioner of Operations to Commissioner over the course of the show...
and Major Howard "Bunny" Colvin (both of whom joined in 1973) yet had never obtained rank, focusing solely on police work.
Season 1
When the initial Barksdale detail was formed, Freamon was transferred in because he was viewed as a useless "hump", and the senior management had no intention of providing good detectives who would make a substantial case. After overhearing an offhand comment by Detective GreggsKima Greggs
Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Sonja Sohn. Greggs is a police detective in the Baltimore Police Department who is a dedicated officer and capable detective with some off-the-job issues. Openly lesbian, she has had problems...
, Freamon tracked down a photo of Avon Barksdale
Avon Barksdale
Avon Randolph Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire portrayed by actor Wood Harris. Avon is the dominant drug dealer of Baltimore's West Side, running the Barksdale Organization...
, finally giving the unit a face to put to the name. He further impressed his colleagues when he found D'Angelo Barksdale
D'Angelo Barksdale
D'Angelo "D" Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire played by actor Larry Gilliard Jr. D'Angelo is the nephew of Avon Barksdale and a lieutenant in his drug dealing organization which controls most of the trade in West Baltimore...
's pager number at an abandoned stash house. Impressed by Freamon's capabilities, fellow detective Jimmy McNulty
Jimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...
inquires about him in a conversation with Bunk who tells him Freamon is an ex-homicide detective. Later, while at the bar with Freamon, McNulty finds out that he was sent to the Pawn Shop unit for angering the then-Deputy Ops. Freamon then warns McNulty that he will probably suffer a similar fate at the conclusion of the case.
Freamon proved himself adept at building a case through the use of a wiretap; he recognized patterns of pager messages and telephone calls, which led to several breakthroughs in the Barksdale case, most notably finding the main stash house in Pimlico. He also led the investigation into the Barksdales' financial records and uncovered their various political connections, instructing Sydnor and Pryzbylewski in the mechanics of following the paper trail. He also recruited Shardene Innes, one of the dancers in Barksdale's strip club, as an informant, beginning a romantic relationship with her in the process.
After Detective Greggs is shot, Freamon tracked a page made by Wee-Bey Brice
Wee-Bey Brice
Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Hassan Johnson. Wee-Bey was the Barksdale Organization's most trusted soldier before being sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple homicides....
, one of the shooters, to a pay phone where he found evidence implicating the other shooter, Little Man. He then used a contact from his pawn shop days (now working for a phone company) to trace call patterns and pinpoint Wee-Bey's whereabouts, leading to his arrest and conviction.
Following the dissolution of the detail, Major Rawls
William Rawls
William A. "Bill" Rawls is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor John Doman. Over the course of the series he ascends to the rank of Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.-Season 1:...
noted Freamon's competence as a detective and transferred him back into Homicide. Rawls had made room for Freamon in Homicide by dumping McNulty to the Marine Unit in the fashion that Freamon had predicted.
Season 2
Freamon was partnered with Bunk MorelandBunk Moreland
William "Bunk" Moreland is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Wendell Pierce. Bunk's character is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer and nicknamed "the Bunk", an officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who...
, and they were quickly recognized as the best detectives in Homicide. Landsman assigned them a seemingly impossible case involving the deaths of fourteen Jane Does. They were detailed Beatrice "Beadie" Russell
Beadie Russell
Beatrice "Beadie" Russell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Amy Ryan. She was featured prominently in the second season, after she discovered thirteen corpses in a container on the Baltimore docks....
, the officer from the Port Authority who had initially found the bodies in a shipping container
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
, as a liaison for the investigation. The women had suffocated after the air pipe to the container was deliberately closed off (except for one woman who was murdered and thrown overboard the previous night).
Freamon and Bunk traveled to the Philadelphia port where they held the vessel that had delivered the container to Baltimore. They attempted to question the crew, none of whom would admit to speaking English. They eventually let the ship go after learning that two crewmen had jumped ship after Baltimore. Based on the few facts they had, Freamon and Bunk deduced that the women were prostitutes being smuggled in from overseas, that one of the girls was murdered by a sailor after refusing sex, and that the rest were killed for witnessing the crime. The murderer was one of those who fled, leaving the investigation at a dead end. Freamon and Bunk were severely rebuked by a frustrated Rawls for releasing the ship without getting statements.
Freamon was relieved to be assigned, at Daniel's request, to the detail investigating Frank Sobotka
Frank Sobotka
Francis "Frank" Sobotka is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Chris Bauer.-Biography:Frank is a respected Polish-American secretary treasurer for the International Brotherhood of Stevedores at the Baltimore docks...
and the dockworker's union. Though he continued to assist Bunk and Russell in the Homicide investigation, his primary focus became the investigation of smuggling through the Baltimore ports. On Russell's advice, Freamon convinced Daniels to clone the port's computers to track container movements. They were able to follow containers being moved illegally to a warehouse, ultimately linking Sobotka to the criminal activities of The Greek
The Greek (The Wire)
The Greek is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Bill Raymond. The Greek is the head of an international criminal organization involved in narcotics and human trafficking....
. The investigation closed with several arrests and, in the process, Freamon identified a dismembered body killed by The Greek's crew as being one of the crewmen who jumped ship. Bunk and Freamon solved the Jane Doe homicides after Sergei, facing a possible death sentence, gave them the details they needed, and Landsman and Rawls were again content with the Homicide unit's clearance rate.
Season 3
Freamon stayed with Daniels in the now-permanent Major Crimes Unit, building a case against their assigned target, a drug dealer named Kintel Williamson. Throughout the Season Freamon acted as a mediator between Daniels and McNulty. McNulty clashed with Daniels over the investigative targets and was urged by Freamon not to attempt any insubordinate moves, as Daniels had been the commanding officer who got McNulty out of the marine unit. When the unit's focus returned to the Barksdales, Freamon was stumped by the new strategy of using disposable cellular phones, finishing their pre-paid minutes before a wiretap could be approved. He masterminded a scheme wherein he went undercover as a con artist selling illegally recharged disposable phones (already wiretapped) to a Barksdale underling to whom BubblesBubbles (The Wire)
Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Andre Royo. Bubbles is a recovering heroin addict. His real name is not revealed until a fourth-season episode when he is called "Mr. Cousins" and in the fifth-season premiere when he is called "Reginald"...
had been able to introduce him. Avon Barksdale himself was caught in a safehouse filled with illegal weapons and returned to prison, though an also-implicated Stringer Bell
Stringer Bell
Russell "Stringer" Bell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by English actor Idris Elba. Bell served as drug kingpin Avon Barksdale's second in command, assuming direct control of the Barksdale Organization during Avon's imprisonment...
was murdered before he could be arrested.
Season 4
Since Daniels was promoted to Major, Freamon is now the guiding force behind the Major Crimes Unit. The unit is running a wiretap on the Stanfield OrganizationStanfield Organization
On the fictional television drama The Wire, the Stanfield Organization is a criminal organization led by Marlo Stanfield. The Organization is introduced in Season Three of The Wire as a growing and significantly violent drug syndicate...
, though Freamon is disappointed that Stanfield's lack of discipline is making the investigation too easy. Meanwhile, he continues to follow the Barksdale money trail, subpoenaing the financial records of state senator Clay Davis
Clay Davis
State Senator R. Clayton "Clay" Davis is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Isiah Whitlock, Jr. Davis is a corrupt Maryland State Senator with a reputation for pocketing bribes...
and property developer Andy Krawczyk. Freamon wrongly believes that Mayor Royce
Clarence Royce
Clarence V. Royce is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Glynn Turman-Biography:Mayor of Baltimore Clarence V. Royce is a deft political figure and is fixated on remaining in power. Royce is the incumbent Mayor of Baltimore who was elected into office in 1998 and is in the...
would not risk interfering with a criminal investigation to help them, because of the upcoming election. Feeling pressure from both, Royce angrily goes to Burrell and Rawls and forces them to deal with it. Burrell asks who is responsible for the subpoenas and Rawls correctly assumes Freamon as the lead instigator. In order to appease Mayor Royce, Rawls concludes that "proper supervision" will keep the unit under control and prevent them from moving forward. He installs a new commander, Lieutenant Marimow, aka "The Unit Killer", who immediately butts heads with Freamon by attempting to bring down the wiretap. Freamon is sent to Rawls who correctly assumes Freamon is willing to go to Judge Davis to keep his wiretap running. Rawls, recognizing Freamon's past instances of angering the department's senior commanders, points out Freamon's "gift for martyrdom" and instead subtly threatens his protegés Greggs and Sydnor, whom he claims will be the victim of Freamon's mistakes. Freamon agrees to allow the wiretap to be disconnected, but refuses to work under Marimow.
Out of respect for his shrewd investigative tactics, Rawls transfers Freamon back into the Homicide Unit, where Bunk has been investigating the murder of Stanfield drug dealer Fruit and the disappearance of suspect Curtis "Lex" Anderson. They both recognize that Stanfield likely had Lex killed in retribution, but are unable to find the body anywhere. Freamon further observes that Stanfield is not tied to any murders since the Barksdale Gang War ended, and begins to scour Baltimore for any trace of the bodies he knows must be hidden somewhere.
Herc unwittingly provides Freamon with a key clue, a nail gun he noticed when he pulled over Chris and Snoop. Pryzbylewski (now a teacher) provides second-hand information as to where Lex was killed. While checking abandoned row houses in that immediate area, Freamon notices that one of the doors was nailed in while the others were screwed shut, and realizes that Lex's body must be in that house. He further concludes that the Stanfield Organization
Stanfield Organization
On the fictional television drama The Wire, the Stanfield Organization is a criminal organization led by Marlo Stanfield. The Organization is introduced in Season Three of The Wire as a growing and significantly violent drug syndicate...
is leaving bodies in row houses all over the City. With the nails identifying which houses are doubling as tombs, more than twenty bodies are found.
Daniels, now a colonel gaining political traction, regains control over the Major Crimes Unit. He offers Freamon carte blanche, including the right to pick his own commander. Freamon assembles his team, and begins investigating Stanfield again, but Stanfield has been mentored by Proposition Joe
Proposition Joe
Joseph "Proposition Joe" Stewart is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire played by actor Robert F. Chew. Joe is an Eastside drug kingpin who preferred a peaceful solution to business disputes when possible...
, and is no longer as sloppy as he was.
Season 5
Freamon reconstitutes the Major Crimes Unit under the command of Lieutenant Jimmy Asher. The unit includes detectives Jimmy McNultyJimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...
, Kima Greggs
Kima Greggs
Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Sonja Sohn. Greggs is a police detective in the Baltimore Police Department who is a dedicated officer and capable detective with some off-the-job issues. Openly lesbian, she has had problems...
, Leander Sydnor
Leander Sydnor
Leander Sydnor is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Corey Parker Robinson. Sydnor is a young, married Baltimore Police detective who was a member of the Barksdale detail and later worked in the Major Crimes Unit.-Season 1:...
and Kenneth Dozerman. Initial investigations into the vacant house murders fails to provide enough evidence to bring charges against the Stanfield Organization
Stanfield Organization
On the fictional television drama The Wire, the Stanfield Organization is a criminal organization led by Marlo Stanfield. The Organization is introduced in Season Three of The Wire as a growing and significantly violent drug syndicate...
. Freamon elects to settle into a long investigation and begins daily surveillance of Marlo Stanfield
Marlo Stanfield
Marlo "Black" Stanfield is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Jamie Hector. Stanfield is a young, ruthless and ambitious player in the Baltimore drug trade who gains control of West Baltimore and is the head of his own drug crew.-Character background and plot...
. Stanfield becomes aware of the ongoing investigation and curtails his violent activity and limits his discussion to face-to-face meetings. The unit becomes dissatisfied when fiscal problems at city hall lead to the withholding of over-time pay. The unit is eventually closed down to save funds. Freamon is detailed to the State's Attorney's office to continue to prepare a case against corrupt state senator Clay Davis
Clay Davis
State Senator R. Clayton "Clay" Davis is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Isiah Whitlock, Jr. Davis is a corrupt Maryland State Senator with a reputation for pocketing bribes...
. Sydnor joins him in the detail and they report to Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman
Rhonda Pearlman
Rhonda Pearlman is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Deirdre Lovejoy. Pearlman has been the legal system liaison for all of Lieutenant Cedric Daniels' investigations on the show...
.
Freamon heralds the Davis investigation as a career case but is unable to let go of the work he has done on Stanfield. Freamon continues surveillance of Stanfield in his own time and is pleased to find that Stanfield is already "dropping his guard" now that he is no longer under observation. Freamon and McNulty meet with FBI agent Terrence Fitzhugh seeking federal support for a renewed Stanfield investigation but have no success.
McNulty decides to secure funding for the Stanfield investigation by creating the illusion of a serial killer to draw media attention to the police department. Bunk Moreland
Bunk Moreland
William "Bunk" Moreland is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Wendell Pierce. Bunk's character is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer and nicknamed "the Bunk", an officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who...
is outraged that McNulty is interfering with crime scenes and falsifying case notes as part of his plan and enlists Freamon to talk sense into McNulty. McNulty has faked the strangulation of a homeless man who probably died of an overdose. Bunk's involving Freamon backfires when Freamon decides that McNulty hasn't gone far enough and suggests that he should make it more media-friendly by sensationalizing the killer.
Sydnor uncovers evidence that Davis has lied on a mortgage application and Freamon realizes it is significant enough to file federal charges. Rupert Bond decides not to file the new charge as passing the case over to federal prosecutors would cost him the opportunity to raise his political profile. Bond has Pearlman hold a grand jury deposition for Davis and stages a photo opportunity as Davis leaves the court house to mark Davis as his target. McNulty and Freamon collaborate on raising the profile of their fake serial killer, resulting in Freamon adding a sexual motive and supplying a set of dentures to create bite marks on the "victims". They conduct actual canvassing among the homeless as a cover. Freamon also recruits his old patrol partner Oscar Requer to look out for recently-deceased bodies of homeless men. They soon have their next fake victim and McNulty mocks up the crime scene and mutilates the body to imply another murder. When Lester gets a hold of Marlo Stanfield's cell phone (via a loop from Vondas to Marlo to Levy to Herc to Carver to himself), he sets up an illegal wiretap on the phone but is initially surprised to find no conversations are taking place on it. Lester continues to work on the Clay Davis case and provides strong information in court, but it does not help the case's ultimate fate. Lester learns Marlo's cellphone is transmitting pictures of clocks and tries to break the code. When management provides more money for the fake serial-killer investigation, a full-court surveillance is done and Sydnor works out that the clock code is relaying information about different meeting locations in Baltimore. Lester tries to get the U.S. Attorney's office to prosecute Clay Davis for lying on his mortgage application (information Bond did not use in the failed city prosecution); while the office declines because Davis is now a hero in Baltimore, Lester uses the information to blackmail Davis for information about a leak at the courthouse. Lester sees the bust of the re-supply take place and Marlo, Chris, Monk and others are arrested. Lester is upset that Jimmy McNulty told Kima about the fake serial-killer plan. When word of the plan reaches Daniels and Daniels tells Carcetti, Lester's fate is sealed along with McNulty's. Pearlman tells them they will not face jail but will no longer be able to do real "police work", instead being buried in back-room units. Lester laments the loss of tracking Marlo's money trail, but takes the retirement, makes peace with Kima, and is last seen in the end-of-season montage putting together dollhouse furniture in the company of Shardene.
Critical response
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
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named Freamon one of the five most interesting characters in season four.
Television critic Alan Sepinwall has, on several occasions, stated that Freamon is his favorite character.