"The Wire" The Wire (2002)

Director:

Ed Bianchi

Writers:

David Simon (creator)
David Simon (teleplay)

TV Series:

"The Wire" (2002)

Original Air Date:

7 July 2002 (Season 1, Episode 6)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Brandon's bloodied body is discovered in a lot that's coincidentally located next to Poot and Wallace's house...

Plot Keywords:

Wiretapping | Drugs | Gay Slur | Dockworker | Wiretap

Cast

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)
Larry Gilliard Jr.	...	D'Angelo Barksdale
Wood Harris	...	Avon Barksdale
Deirdre Lovejoy	...	Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman (credit only)
Wendell Pierce	...	Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland
Lance Reddick	...	Lt. Cedric Daniels
Andre Royo	...	Bubbles
Sonja Sohn	...	Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs
Seth Gilliam	...	Det. Ellis Carver
Domenick Lombardozzi	...	Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk
Clarke Peters	...	Det. Lester Freamon
Jim True-Frost	...	Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski

Quotes:

[first lines]
[opening title card]: "... and all the pieces matter." - Freamon
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [on their way to see Major Rawls] What the fuck can I tell him?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Whatever the man wants to hear Jimmy, whatever he wants to hear.

Movie Connections:

References Forrest Gump (1994)

"... and all the pieces matter."

Few teasers are as efficient as the one that opens the sixth episode of The Wire: a bloodied body on a windshield in an underdeveloped neighborhood. It's a brutal reminder of how casual and realistic the violence can get in a series like this, without ever being glorified or anything: it's just the way it is in real life.

The body is that of Brandon, Omar's boyfriend, and the murder affects everyone in different ways: Avon is pleased, and asks Stringer to give some extra cash to the boys who spotted Brandon the previous night and made it easier to kill him; D'Angelo's friend Wallace, who indirectly helped with the hit, feels bad about what happened and just can't get over it; the cops predict the war between Omar and Barksdale's crew will get worse, and they're right, since Omar reconsiders his "no snitching" policy and identifies one of Avon's men, Bird, as the killer Bunk is looking for. It's not just good news, though: upon learning Barksdale's people are linked to at least three murders, Rawls demands that warrants for Avon's arrest be issued immediately, not caring about the fact that this will nullify all the work done so far.

As has been the case with previous episodes, the most interesting person to watch is Omar, whose interaction with the equally layered and human McNulty constitutes some of the finest dialogue ever heard on TV (the writers' first-hand experience with law enforcement and street life is fundamental here). This chapter is also instrumental in showing how real police work differs from what we see on Law & Order or CSI, at least in some cases: as the Rawls/Daniels dispute proves, cooperation between units isn't a given - some people are in it just for the improvement of statistics. And as the silently tragic final scene shows, the outcome won't be as obvious as that of most cop serials.