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The Wire (The Wire episode)
Encyclopedia
"The Wire" is the sixth episode of the first season of the HBO original series, The Wire
, the titular episode of the series. The episode was written by David Simon
from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns
and was directed by Ed Bianchi
. It originally aired on July 7, 2002.
sequence (also a rarity) featuring Avon, Stringer and Stinkum in the low-rises, a piece called "Wax Music Box" by Lorem Ipsum from the Cytoplastik collective is played. Usually only season finales feature music not emanating from an on-screen source.
The selection playing during the final scene, where Daniels advises McNulty that he has managed to buy them some time, is 'Fleurette Africaine' performed by Duke Ellington
, Charles Mingus
and Max Roach
, which appears on their album Money Jungle
recorded in 1962.
's boyfriend and partner in crime) atop a car. Wallace
wakes up nearby in his squatter apartment
and goes through his routine of readying several children in his charge for school. The police arrive in the neighborhood and as Poot Carr
and Wallace leave the house they recognize Brandon's body. Across town, D'Angelo Barksdale
dresses at home while Shardene makes him breakfast. They discuss their blossoming relationship and D'Angelo reveals that he believes that all women come with a cost, particularly his other girl Donette.
Wallace expresses his anguish at seeing Brandon's corpse to D'Angelo. D'Angelo unsympathetically reminds Wallace that he knew what would happen to Brandon, and reminds him that killing is part of "the game" of drug dealing in Baltimore. Stringer tells D'Angelo they are bringing Bodie home following his recent arrests. At a court hearing, Maurice Levy
lies to defend Bodie's actions and the judge allows Bodie to go free with the condition of twice-weekly phone calls to a probation officer. Herc and Carver later pick up Bodie, believing him to have absconded from custody a second time and are surprised that he managed to get released with a home supervision order.
Avon, Stringer, and Stinkum visit the low rises and deliver reward money to D'Angelo and Wallace for their part in finding Brandon; Avon also tells D'Angelo that Wee-Bey
and Bird killed Brandon. D'Angelo assures Stringer that there are no snitches in his crew. Avon tells D'Angelo that if he keeps working well he will receive "points on the package" soon.
D'Angelo, still withholding payment from the low-rise crew, finds his lookout, a girl named Cassandra, with groceries. She reveals she has been conspiring with Sterling to steal small amounts of drugs and sell them on the side. In order to protect them from punishment, he reassigns them elsewhere and tells nobody, save Wallace.
With Johnny released from medical care, Bubbles
returns to the streets. The pair runs a short con
to steal copper pipes, which they sell to a contractor at "30 cents a foot" to make their next drug purchase. Bubbles and Johnny then plan to steal the same copper pipes back from site the contractor is working on. When Johnny goes out to buy more drugs, he is arrested. Bubbles remarks upon Johnny's bad luck.
meets with Major William Rawls
and Sergeant Jay Landsman
. Rawls tells McNulty he expects him to finish up the detail and be back in the homicide division in a week's time, which McNulty has no intention of doing. Rawls goes through the ballistics link to the old cases McNulty and Bunk had been investigating. Pressured by Rawls, Landsman orders Bunk to charge the cases. McNulty, Greggs and Freamon meet with Bunk to discuss the impact on the Barksdale investigation. They expect it will prompt Avon Barksdale
to change his operations structure and negate all their work. Rawls refuses to shift his position even when Daniels asks him to do it as a favor, but Daniels convinces Deputy Commissioner Burrell
to overrule Rawls. Rawls responds by asking Detective Santangelo to keep him informed of any misdeeds amongst Daniels's detail, particularly from McNulty.
In the detail office, Lester Freamon
notes the high level of pager activity the previous night. The new wire taps on the project pay phones legally require officers to monitor them; Thomas "Herc" Hauk is dismayed that this will mean long hours of surveillance work. Freamon is angry at his co-worker's laziness and asks what they expected when they joined the detail. After Stinkum chastises Bodie for using his name on the phone, Freamon explains to Prez that the call should be marked "pertinent" because it is evidence of conspiracy, even without providing hard evidence of drugs. Polk stumbles in, drunk at 9AM, and Daniels berates him for his poor performance, ordering him to either get to work or check into medical for alcohol abuse. To Daniels' dismay, Polk chooses the latter option.
Detectives Vernon Holley and Ed Norris are working Brandon's murder. McNulty discusses the potential link to the Barksdale organization. The detectives complain about waiting for the crime lab because both available units are investigating the theft of patio furniture from a politically influential city council president. McNulty gets a call from Omar and brings his sons to the police station - they play a handheld video game and with a soccer ball. When Omar identifies his lover's (Brandon's) body he screams; the boys hear the scream and the soccer ball drifts past the CCTV camera. Omar comes with Greggs and McNulty to the detail. Greggs points out that Brandon was tortured before his death. Freamon fits the pattern of pager activity to Omar's description of Brandon's movements. McNulty is angry that they are, as usual, one step behind. Freamon and McNulty interview the arcade owner and Freamon matches the nearby pay phone to the one used the night before. Greggs continues to interview Omar and he offers to act as a witness in the Gant murder case. The episode ends with the police photographs of Brandon's mutilated corpse - the same image that it opened with. One wonders if Daniels is moved by the photos in part because Brandon is missing an eye - which calls to mind the boy whose eye was permanently damaged by Prez earlier in the season.
, there was actually an African-American detective in the Baltimore Police Department homicide division named Vernon Holley.
Also seen for the first time is Sean McNulty, the oldest son of Jimmy and Elena McNulty.
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
, the titular episode of the series. The episode was written by David Simon
David Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...
from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns
Ed Burns
Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
and was directed by Ed Bianchi
Ed Bianchi
Edward Bianchi is an American television director and producer. Bianchi was a producer on the HBO original series, Deadwood.-Career:...
. It originally aired on July 7, 2002.
Title reference
The title repeats the show's own title, indicating that the series has truly begun, and refers to the wiretap devices used to monitor phone calls made by the Barksdale organization.Epigraph
Freamon uses this phrase to describe the importance of the individual calls recorded by their wiretap device to Prez. Simon has also described it as referring to the need for the viewer to concentrate on all aspects of the show to follow the plot.Guest stars
- Seth GilliamSeth GilliamSeth Gilliam is an American actor. He is known for his HBO television roles, first as corrections officer-turned-prisoner Clayton Hughes on Oz, and later as Baltimore police detective promoted to sergeant Ellis Carver on The Wire. On both of these series, he co-starred with Lance Reddick and J.D....
as Detective Ellis CarverEllis CarverEllis Carver is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Seth Gilliam. Carver is an African American lieutenant and formerly in command of the Baltimore Police Department's Western District Drug Enforcement Unit... - Domenick LombardozziDomenick LombardozziDomenico "Domenick" Lombardozzi is an American actor best known for his role as Thomas "Herc" Hauk on The Wire. Lombardozzi was inspired to act by the film State of Grace.-Filmography:...
as Detective Thomas "Herc" Hauk - Clarke PetersClarke PetersClarke 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:...
as Detective Lester FreamonLester FreamonLester 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... - Jim True-FrostJim True-FrostJim True-Frost, born Jim True, is an American stage, television and screen actor. He is most known for his portrayal of Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski on all five seasons of the HBO program The Wire.-Biography:...
as Detective Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski - Leo FitzpatrickLeo FitzpatrickLeonardo Aurellio Randy "Leo" Fitzpatrick is an American actor.-Biography:Leo Fitzpatrick was born in West Orange, New Jersey. He was discovered at age 14 by director Larry Clark at Washington Square Park in New York City, skateboarding. Fitzpatrick was trying to perform certain skating tricks,...
as Johnny - J.D. Williams as Preston "Bodie" BroadusBodie BroadusPreston "Bodie" Broadus is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor J. D. Williams. Bodie is initially a Barksdale organization drug dealer in "The Pit" who slowly rises through the ranks...
- Michael B. JordanMichael B. JordanMichael Bakari Jordan is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as teenage drug dealer Wallace on the HBO drama television series The Wire, for his role as Reggie Montgomery in All My Children, as quarterback Vince Howard on the NBC television series Friday Night Lights, and since...
as WallaceWallace (The Wire)Wallace is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Michael B. Jordan. Wallace is a 16-year-old drug dealer for the Barksdale Organization, who works in the low-rise projects crew known as "The Pit" with his friends and fellow dealers Bodie Broadus and Poot Carr... - Corey Parker-Robinson as Detective Leander SydnorLeander SydnorLeander 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:...
- Michael K. WilliamsMichael K. WilliamsMichael Kenneth Williams is an American actor known for his portrayal of Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, and of Albert "Chalky" White on HBO's Boardwalk Empire.-Early life and career:...
as Omar LittleOmar LittleOmar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game".... - Nat BenchleyNat BenchleyNathaniel Robert "Nat" Benchley is a writer and actor who has performed on stage, television, and film. He is the grandson of humorist Robert Benchley, the son of author Nathaniel G...
as Detective Augustus Polk - Richard DeAngelis as Major Raymond Foerster
- Michael Salconi as Detective Michael Santangelo
- Delaney WilliamsDelaney WilliamsDelaney Williams is an American actor from Washington, D.C. He appears on the HBO drama The Wire as a recurring guest star playing homicide sergeant Jay Landsman. He also had a small role on HBO's mini-series The Corner which brought him to the attention of the producers, who worked on The prior to...
as Sergeant Jay LandsmanJay Landsman (The Wire)Jay Landsman is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Delaney Williams.-Policing method:Landsman's role in the police department is that of a supervisory detective sergeant who doesn't participate in much investigation work... - Michael Kevin Darnall as Brandon
- Wendy GranthamWendy GranthamWendy Grantham is an American actress and singer, best known for her role as the sweet-natured stripper Shardene Innes in the HBO crime series The Wire....
as Shardene Innes - Michael KostroffMichael KostroffMichael Kostroff is an American actor. He appeared on the HBO program The Wire as defense attorney Maurice Levy. Kostroff starred in the fifth season of the series and appeared in all four earlier seasons as a guest star.- Biography :...
as Maurice LevyMaurice Levy (The Wire)Maurice "Maury" Levy is a fictional lawyer on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Michael Kostroff. He is a skilled defense attorney and was kept on retainer by the drug-trafficking Barksdale Organization, representing the organization's members at trials and advising Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell... - Caroline G Pleasant as Bodie's Grandmother
- Antonio Cordova as Michael McNulty
- Ed NorrisEd NorrisEdward T. Norris is an American radio host and former law enforcement officer in Maryland. His talk show, the Ed Norris Show, airs on WJZ-FM in Baltimore, Maryland. Norris, a 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, served as police commissioner for Baltimore from 2000 to late 2002...
as Detective Ed Norris - Eric Ryan as Sean McNulty
- Brian Anthony WilsonBrian Anthony WilsonBrian Anthony Wilson is an American film and television actor. He first appeared in the 1997 film The Postman as Woody....
as Detective Vernon Holley - Tray ChaneyTray ChaneyTray Chaney is an American actor. He appeared on the HBO program The Wire as Poot Carr.Chaney began his entertainment career as a dancer at the age of four winning competitions at the Apollo Theater. He appeared in the 2003 music video "My Baby" by rap artist Bow Wow. He later appeared in The Wire...
as Malik "Poot" CarrPoot CarrMalik "Poot" Carr is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Tray Chaney. Poot is a drug dealer in the Barksdale Organization who slowly rises through the ranks, but ends up serving time in prison as his institution collapses around him... - Gil Deeble as Hucklebuck
- Erik Todd Dellums as Dr. Randall Frazier
- Brandon Price as Anton "Stinkum" Artis
Uncredited appearances
- Robert F. ColesberryRobert F. ColesberryRobert F. "Bob" Colesberry, Jr. was an American film and television producer and first assistant director notable for his work as a producer on the Emmy Award winning miniseries The Corner, the Peabody Award winning television series The Wire for HBO, and the Oscar-nominated movie Mississippi...
as Detective Ray Cole - Bobby J. Brown as Officer Bobby Brown
- Sheena Barksdale as Cass
- Unknown as Juvenile Court Judge
Music
This episode is one of the few in which The Wire breaks the series' own rule of using only diegetic music. In a slow motionSlow motion
Slow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger....
sequence (also a rarity) featuring Avon, Stringer and Stinkum in the low-rises, a piece called "Wax Music Box" by Lorem Ipsum from the Cytoplastik collective is played. Usually only season finales feature music not emanating from an on-screen source.
The selection playing during the final scene, where Daniels advises McNulty that he has managed to buy them some time, is 'Fleurette Africaine' performed by Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
and Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
, which appears on their album Money Jungle
Money Jungle
Money Jungle is a jazz album by Duke Ellington with Charles Mingus and Max Roach recorded on September 17, 1962 and released in February 1963 by United Artists Jazz....
recorded in 1962.
The street
The episode opens on the bloody mutilated corpse of Brandon (Omar LittleOmar Little
Omar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game"....
's boyfriend and partner in crime) atop a car. Wallace
Wallace (The Wire)
Wallace is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Michael B. Jordan. Wallace is a 16-year-old drug dealer for the Barksdale Organization, who works in the low-rise projects crew known as "The Pit" with his friends and fellow dealers Bodie Broadus and Poot Carr...
wakes up nearby in his squatter apartment
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
and goes through his routine of readying several children in his charge for school. The police arrive in the neighborhood and as Poot Carr
Poot Carr
Malik "Poot" Carr is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Tray Chaney. Poot is a drug dealer in the Barksdale Organization who slowly rises through the ranks, but ends up serving time in prison as his institution collapses around him...
and Wallace leave the house they recognize Brandon's body. Across town, 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...
dresses at home while Shardene makes him breakfast. They discuss their blossoming relationship and D'Angelo reveals that he believes that all women come with a cost, particularly his other girl Donette.
Wallace expresses his anguish at seeing Brandon's corpse to D'Angelo. D'Angelo unsympathetically reminds Wallace that he knew what would happen to Brandon, and reminds him that killing is part of "the game" of drug dealing in Baltimore. Stringer tells D'Angelo they are bringing Bodie home following his recent arrests. At a court hearing, Maurice Levy
Maurice Levy (The Wire)
Maurice "Maury" Levy is a fictional lawyer on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Michael Kostroff. He is a skilled defense attorney and was kept on retainer by the drug-trafficking Barksdale Organization, representing the organization's members at trials and advising Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell...
lies to defend Bodie's actions and the judge allows Bodie to go free with the condition of twice-weekly phone calls to a probation officer. Herc and Carver later pick up Bodie, believing him to have absconded from custody a second time and are surprised that he managed to get released with a home supervision order.
Avon, Stringer, and Stinkum visit the low rises and deliver reward money to D'Angelo and Wallace for their part in finding Brandon; Avon also tells D'Angelo that Wee-Bey
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....
and Bird killed Brandon. D'Angelo assures Stringer that there are no snitches in his crew. Avon tells D'Angelo that if he keeps working well he will receive "points on the package" soon.
D'Angelo, still withholding payment from the low-rise crew, finds his lookout, a girl named Cassandra, with groceries. She reveals she has been conspiring with Sterling to steal small amounts of drugs and sell them on the side. In order to protect them from punishment, he reassigns them elsewhere and tells nobody, save Wallace.
With Johnny released from medical care, Bubbles
Bubbles (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"...
returns to the streets. The pair runs a short con
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
to steal copper pipes, which they sell to a contractor at "30 cents a foot" to make their next drug purchase. Bubbles and Johnny then plan to steal the same copper pipes back from site the contractor is working on. When Johnny goes out to buy more drugs, he is arrested. Bubbles remarks upon Johnny's bad luck.
The police
Detective 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...
meets with Major William 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:...
and Sergeant Jay Landsman
Jay Landsman (The Wire)
Jay Landsman is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Delaney Williams.-Policing method:Landsman's role in the police department is that of a supervisory detective sergeant who doesn't participate in much investigation work...
. Rawls tells McNulty he expects him to finish up the detail and be back in the homicide division in a week's time, which McNulty has no intention of doing. Rawls goes through the ballistics link to the old cases McNulty and Bunk had been investigating. Pressured by Rawls, Landsman orders Bunk to charge the cases. McNulty, Greggs and Freamon meet with Bunk to discuss the impact on the Barksdale investigation. They expect it will prompt 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...
to change his operations structure and negate all their work. Rawls refuses to shift his position even when Daniels asks him to do it as a favor, but Daniels convinces Deputy Commissioner 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...
to overrule Rawls. Rawls responds by asking Detective Santangelo to keep him informed of any misdeeds amongst Daniels's detail, particularly from McNulty.
In the detail office, Lester Freamon
Lester Freamon
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...
notes the high level of pager activity the previous night. The new wire taps on the project pay phones legally require officers to monitor them; Thomas "Herc" Hauk is dismayed that this will mean long hours of surveillance work. Freamon is angry at his co-worker's laziness and asks what they expected when they joined the detail. After Stinkum chastises Bodie for using his name on the phone, Freamon explains to Prez that the call should be marked "pertinent" because it is evidence of conspiracy, even without providing hard evidence of drugs. Polk stumbles in, drunk at 9AM, and Daniels berates him for his poor performance, ordering him to either get to work or check into medical for alcohol abuse. To Daniels' dismay, Polk chooses the latter option.
Detectives Vernon Holley and Ed Norris are working Brandon's murder. McNulty discusses the potential link to the Barksdale organization. The detectives complain about waiting for the crime lab because both available units are investigating the theft of patio furniture from a politically influential city council president. McNulty gets a call from Omar and brings his sons to the police station - they play a handheld video game and with a soccer ball. When Omar identifies his lover's (Brandon's) body he screams; the boys hear the scream and the soccer ball drifts past the CCTV camera. Omar comes with Greggs and McNulty to the detail. Greggs points out that Brandon was tortured before his death. Freamon fits the pattern of pager activity to Omar's description of Brandon's movements. McNulty is angry that they are, as usual, one step behind. Freamon and McNulty interview the arcade owner and Freamon matches the nearby pay phone to the one used the night before. Greggs continues to interview Omar and he offers to act as a witness in the Gant murder case. The episode ends with the police photographs of Brandon's mutilated corpse - the same image that it opened with. One wonders if Daniels is moved by the photos in part because Brandon is missing an eye - which calls to mind the boy whose eye was permanently damaged by Prez earlier in the season.
First appearances
This episode marks the first appearance of homicide Detectives Ed Norris and Vernon Holley, seen investigating the death of Brandon. Ed Norris is played by former Baltimore Police Commissioner Ed Norris; the character's personality is based on the real Norris, but his history is entirely different from his portrayor's. According to Homicide: A Year on the Killing StreetsHomicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
, there was actually an African-American detective in the Baltimore Police Department homicide division named Vernon Holley.
Also seen for the first time is Sean McNulty, the oldest son of Jimmy and Elena McNulty.
Deceased
- Brandon Wright: Omar'sOmar LittleOmar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game"....
boyfriend.