One Arrest (21 Jul. 2002)

Greggs, Carver, Herc, and Sydnor grab the runner holding the re-up stash for the pit. Now that the cops have their stash, a furious Avon questions D'Angelo about a snitch being in the pit. ... See full summary »

Director:

Joe Chappelle

Writers:

David Simon (creator), Rafael Álvarez (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
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
Sonja Sohn	...	Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs
Peter Gerety	...	Judge Daniel Phelan
Seth Gilliam	...	Det. Ellis Carver
Domenick Lombardozzi	...	Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk
Clarke Peters	...	Det. Lester Freamon

Storyline

Greggs, Carver, Herc, and Sydnor grab the runner holding the re-up stash for the pit. Now that the cops have their stash, a furious Avon questions D'Angelo about a snitch being in the pit. D'Angelo denies the allegation but Stringer tells D'Angelo and his crew to use pay phones a block away now, and not to use the same phone twice. Afterwards, they snatch out the existing pit pay phones. This, of course, disconnects the detectives' wiretap.

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Plot Keywords:

wiretapping

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Release Date:

21 July 2002 (USA)

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Trivia

The corner that Greggs gets shot at shows the street signs "Longwood St" and "North Warwick Av". Although both Streets exist in West Baltimore, they never intersect. Although the show stays close to facts concerning the scenery in Baltimore, it might be intended to not give a too specific crime scene.

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Goofs

When Bubbles receives his 24 hour sobriety key chain it is obvious that it is black, in the far shot, which represents 2 or more years of sobriety. Narcotics Anonymous distributes white "chips" for 24 hours; however, in the closeup shot the key chain is now the correct white color.

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Quotes

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Man must have a code.

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Connections

References Batman (1966)

User Reviews

Time for some progress

With basically half the season over, it's reasonable to expect at least some degree of progress in the investigation that constitutes the heart and soul of The Wire's narrative. However, this being a more reality-based series than your average police show, it's also fairly logical to expect a downside as well.

The progress is that thanks to Prez's knowledge of drug-related slang, the team is able to decipher all the essential conversations heard with the wiretap. Additionally, a strategically planned bust goes exactly as Daniels had hoped, and McNulty has no big problems convincing Phelan to extend their warrant for another 30 days. Unfortunately, a sour surprise is waiting around the corner since, after successfully arresting Bird with Omar's help, McNulty finds out Rawls is determined to throw him out of the police department. Furthermore, Stringer tells D'Angelo and the others to destroy the pay-phones in the Pit and change their communication habits as a precaution, which effectively stops a large part of the detail's operation.

One Arrest is a pretty important episode, primarily because it shows how committed to the job these people are. McNulty, in particular, gets to expose his softer side in a scene that would come off as contrived under any other circumstances. That it works is due to the no-nonsense writing and Dominic West's down-to-earth acting. The last section of the show is also a perfect piece of evidence in regards to how accurately The Wire depicts the more controversial aspects of law enforcement: how many TV programs can have a scene where police officers beat up a suspect just for the heck of it and still make us root for the officers? Sure, the fact that the suspect refers to Kima Greggs as a "c*nt-eater" isn't gonna earn him any sympathy points...