Cleaning Up (1 Sep. 2002)

After Barksdale's supply gets confiscated in the bust, Stringer hands down new rules to the crews. Barksdale and Stringer meet with Levy to discuss next steps, which include the elimination... See full summary »

Director:

Clement Virgo

Writers:

David Simon (creator), George Pelecanos (teleplay),

Stars:

Dominic West, John Doman, Idris Elba

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Dominic West	...	Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty
John Doman	...	Maj. William A. Rawls (credit only)
Idris Elba	...	Russell 'Stringer' Bell
Frankie Faison	...	Dep. Comm. for Operations Ervin H. Burrell (as Frankie R. Faison)
Lawrence Gilliard Jr.	...	D'Angelo Barksdale (as Larry Gilliard Jr.)
Wood Harris	...	Avon Barksdale
Deirdre Lovejoy	...	Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman
Wendell Pierce	...	Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland
Lance Reddick	...	Lt. Cedric Daniels
Andre Royo	...	Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins (credit only)
Sonja Sohn	...	Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs (credit only)
Seth Gilliam	...	Det. Ellis Carver
Domenick Lombardozzi	...	Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk
Clarke Peters	...	Det. Lester Freamon
Jim True-Frost	...	Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski

Storyline

After Barksdale's supply gets confiscated in the bust, Stringer hands down new rules to the crews. Barksdale and Stringer meet with Levy to discuss next steps, which include the elimination of any and all persons that can connect Barksdale to the drugs. Wallace returns to the pit and asks to get put back on. However, Stringer has other plans for Wallace and asks Bodie to step up for the job.

---

Plot Keywords:

wiretapping

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

---

Details

Release Date:

1 September 2002 (USA)

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Connections

References 106 & Park Top 10 Live (2000)

User Reviews

RIP Wallace

"Pagers, payphones is dead…the knockos took the main stash", words of Stringer Bell and of course after what the "knockos" did the only move for them is to change everything so in consequence our detectives need to change too (one of the most satisfying scenes is when due to the dead payphones the Deputy wants some people of the detail back and he chooses the old detective from Paw Shop and the brain-dead young one as the ones who will stay with Daniels).

Here Wallace is back, he wanted that, he returned to enter to the game again. Is quite interesting since our detectives know what Avon is doing (here the witness who helped D'Angelo to be declared not guilty during the first episode is found dead) so they know he is cleaning everything so Wallace comes to their heads as Wallace came to Avon's head. So on one hand is Stringer and Avon asking to D'Angelo about Wallace and on the other hand the detectives rushing in order to bring back Wallace save for the grand jury (they need him to charge Stringer and also they need to protect Shardene but Lester has no problem to do that). We have one of the most difficult scenes, resumes everything: if you want to continue being part of the game you have to do what the king say, you have to do anything and of course Bodie and Poot will do the job. The terrible situation with Greggs certainly made that our detectives were not there with Wallace but also Wallace himself was the one who decided to return, "this is me, yo, right here" said to D'Angelo when he returned.

I don't think I have mentioned much about McNulty's personal life. Well McNulty is a divorced man, likes a lot the drink and well, we get to know he was caught by a detective hired by his wife cheating her with Rondha Pearlman, Assistant State's Attorney. In this hour Pearlman's superiors are returning money contributions, you know. Here Shardene helps our detectives to put a bug in Orlando's club and while is a little late, I mean Barksdale is packing and stuff to move, our detectives have something real: Avon orders D'Angelo to drive to NYC in a rental, soon D'Angelo will be in an interrogation room with McNulty and Daniels.is not time for more letters, D'Angelo learned from his errors and he is just asking for well who else but f****** Levy yet before seeing Levy he will hear from McNulty about what happened to Wallace, "that's how y'all take care of your own, right?" says McNulty however D'Angelo don't believe that immediately however when he is finally talking with Levy and Stringer he will ask to Stringer about Wallace, "where's Wallace? That's all I wanna know" (a really magnificent scene, superb acting from Larry Gilliard Jr.), is certainly not the same for D'Angelo, he don't want Levy or anybody, he will want to start over but…

Daniels is also quite memorable in this hour. Near the end is time for Burrell to order the end of the case, "just charge Barksdale with the attempt purchase from NY and bring it all home" but Daniels is "trying to put them down for real, not for some short-time bit". "That all you trying to do?" Burrell says and he adds "how is it you have people pulling campaign records and finance reports", certainly the money is part of Daniels' case (during this hour Senator Clay Davis has a talk with Burrell and Daniels, is another great scene. "If the senator's not involved in anything illegal, he doesn't need to worry" says Daniels and the senator after Daniels leaved the office says to Burrell "you just ain't talking to me now, you talking to the mayor, the city caucus, the State Central Committee. And right now you got your hand in our pocket"). At one point of the next episode, the Season finale, McNulty says to Fitzhugh that Daniels "played this thing out with real heart", certainly they know about Daniels' past just as Burrell. In this episode Daniels says to Burrell "there might have been a time when I was willing to say otherwise to let you and your friends hide some dirt, but not now" and certainly Burrell remarks to Daniels tat he has the FBI reports, that he can f*** him any day, "this case ends or you are done" but Daniels knows, "you wanna pull Avon in here on half a case? You go ahead. You wanna put my s*** in the street? Feel free. But there ain't nothing you fear more than a bad headline, now is here?...you can order warrants and I'll serve them but as long as I have days left on those dead wires this case goes on". Avon's wearing bracelets…