Watching The Wire is a bit like watching the writers assemble a giant jigsaw puzzle. They have all the pieces and we're looking on as they fill in all of the blanks, starting with square one. I hesitate to say that every season is like this, as some of them come "pre-assembled", if you will. You have the center of the puzzle, which is usually the detail or some faction thereof, and as the season progresses you watch the puzzle fill in from the edges. They take more time here in the first season, as there's world-building to be done, yet episodes five through nine are where we start to see the pieces all fall into their correct places.
First and most importantly, the titular wire is finally up and running and the detail has a line on D'Angelo and later Stringer's pagers, as well as the pit phones. Tied to that, we see Prez start to become an incredibly valuable member of the detail as his natural aptitude for numbers and puzzles becomes crucial in solving the mystery of the Barksdale Organization's pager codes. I love Prez, and his evolution into "good po-lice" is one of my favorite stories of the first season. Kima and McNulty track down and meet with Omar and Brandon, a conversation which reveals both that Omar knows that Barksdale hitman Bird killed William Gant (the "working man" we see dead after testifying against D'Angelo), and that Omar knows that Bubbles is working as the detail's snitch. I adore the look on McNulty's face when Omar says "Shit, Bubbles know Bird!" He's completely bewildered and, against his better judgment, a little impressed.
Back at Homicide, McNulty's partner Bunk Moreland receives some important information from the ballistics lab: the casing from the Kresson case (the same murder D'Angelo bragged about to show up Bodie) matches two other cases already known to be connected to the Barksdale Organization. Bunk and McNulty also come into contact with the only witness who came forth in Deirdre Kresson's murder, her roommate Tywanda. She reveals that not only was D'Angelo there the night Deirdre was killed, but that she had been sleeping with Avon. As their relationship began to disintegrate because of Avon's philandering ways, she became increasingly more agitated and was threatening to write a letter to the State's Attorney's office, informing them of his illegal activities. It is also through this conversation that McNulty and Bunk learn of many of Avon's various fronts, including his strip club, Orlando's.
We also see more evidence of D'Angelo's growing unease with his lifestyle. The first after Bodie throws a bottle at Wallace's head when he sees him playing with toys instead of keeping an eye on pit business, and again when Avon takes him to see Avon's comatose brother, who was shot in the head but not killed while on the streets. He cautions D'Angelo about the messy, dangerous nature of their business, and warns him of the folly of being "a little slow, a little late." While that fear seems to only motivate Avon, D'Angelo is obviously feeling the opposite. He takes the mother of his son, Donette, out to a fancy restaurant on the other side of town. His obvious discomfort in that completely different environment is heartbreaking, and extremely well-played by Larry Gilliard, Jr.
Episode five climaxes with Wallace and his co-worker Poot spotting Omar's partner Brandon in an arcade. They make a call, and we can surmise, through the phone calls coming in over the wire, and also in scenes with D'Angelo on the pit phones, that Wee-Bey, Stinkum, and Bird, on Stringer's orders, have done something horrible to Brandon. Seeing Wee-Bey playing with those handcuffs while talking to Poot and Wallace never fails to give me chills, but it's not as horrifying as the scene that opens the next episode. Brandon's mutilated body is discovered, splayed out on the hood of a car in a courtyard near where Wallace and Poot sleep. Wallace, who is obviously much more sensitive than somebody like Poot, begins to slowly break down as he sees the body and realizes what his actions in placing that phone call have caused. The scenes where he tells D'Angelo that he's done with the drug game, stating "I just don't wanna play. Don't wanna play no more," and later when we see him buying and taking drugs to cope with Brandon's murder, are some of the saddest of the season. Oh, Wallace. Kid breaks my heart, over and over. A 16 year old should never have to live the life he does, taking care of orphaned children, living in an abandoned rowhouse, surrounded by violence and drugs and poverty. The show never flinches away from the reality of growing up in this lifestyle, showing us the truth and pulling no punches. Wallace's story is just the first, and one of the saddest.
As you can imagine, the murder of Brandon is also a turning point for Omar, whose grief and anguish is so well-played by Michael K. Williams that I cannot believe he was never nominated for an Emmy for this role (in fact, the show was ignored almost completely, garnering only two nominations in its entire 60 episode run). Williams' performance is not only heartbreaking, but he also delivers for one of the sixth episodes' best lines when during a confrontation between Daniels and McNulty at the detail office, he looks at Kima and deadpans: "Bad time for y'all?" But this conversation also confirms that Omar will testify in court against Bird for Gant's murder. Of course, Omar being Omar, he's not content with getting back at the Barksdale Organization in only the legal way, and episode eight climaxes with a confrontation between Omar, Wee-Bey, and Stinkum that leaves the latter dead and the two former with gunshot wounds. It also gives Omar this marvelous line after the shootout: "Hey, yo: a lesson here, 'Bey? You come at the king, you best not miss." It's an iconic line, and also a nice callback to the chess game from episode three.
Avon, in retaliation for Stinkum's death, ups the bounty on Omar's head to $10,000. But Stringer, always a seemingly more calm and rational figure, convinces Avon that they need to hang back a little bit. He proposes that they set up a meeting with the stick-up artist to discuss a truce, then attempt to kill him at the meeting. Avon is far too proud and concerned with his street rep to entertain the idea, insisting that they have to kill Omar in retribution for everything he's done. But Omar, still not the least bit interested in ending his war, has other ideas. He stops by Eastside Kingpin Proposition Joe's store and sells him some of the Barksdale's stash in exchange for Avon's pager number. Omar tracks Avon to Orlando's and places a call to him using Wee-Bey's pager code. When Avon steps outside, Wee-Bey drives up and they realize that something is amiss just as Omar ambushes them. In a fantastic little action sequence, Avon dives out of the way just in time as Omar and Wee-Bey exchange gunfire, which ends when Omar, realizing a bad situation when he sees one, flees the scene. Brilliant! Also a great introduction (along with the fantastic setting of the Eastside/Westside basketball game) for one of the coolest characters in the series, Prop Joe.
Bubbles continues to be one of the most sympathetic characters thus far in the show. I really want him to get clean and stay clean, you know? Being a junkie and living on the streets seems to be all he knows, but he's so smart and charming that you just know that he could have a better life, if he could just stay sober. His scenes at the meeting, getting that 24 hour coin, and then with Walon (played by musician Steve Earle) in the pit were just heartbreaking. This ensemble has a lot of wonderful actors, but Andre Royo is one of the best.
McNulty and Daniels continue their back and forth; Daniels trying to be the company man, but slowly realizing that the company is wrong. McNulty is obsessed with making the case, proving how smart he is, and to hell with the bosses because extending the wiretap is the only way they're going to come even close to catching these guys. He's up against the police department and all of the politics that comes with it. We see just how twisted the world of the Baltimore Police Department and Baltimore politics is when Kima and Carver arrest a driver who has just picked up money from a Barksdale stash house. But this isn't any old drug driver: Damien "Day Day" Price works for Maryland State Senator Clay Davis. Upon learning this, Deputy Burrell demands that the detail give Mr. Price the money back and send him on his way.
Lester continues to prove how good he is in these episodes, too. Following the money hadn't occurred to the detail until Lester brought it up following the arrest of Day Day Price, and it's also Lester who recruits Shardene, D'Angelo's girl from the strip club, after her friend and fellow dancer is found dead, her abandoned body rolled into a carpet by Wee-Bey after she overdosed. It's a shame that he was banished to the Pawn Shop Unit for all of that time (13 years, four months), I'm sure Homicide could have used the clearance rates he would have undoubtedly brought in. I've been trying for a while to figure out who Lester reminds me of, and my husband hit the nail on the head: he's reminiscent of Morgan Freeman's character in Se7en. It's been a long while since I've seen that movie, but Lester (and indeed his portrayer, Clarke Peters) have that same sense of gravitas that Freeman carries from role to role as well. Maybe it's no coincidence that Freamon is a few characters difference from Freeman. Or maybe I'm crazy. Probably the latter.
Overall, these four episodes are integral in the first chapter of the story of The Wire. They continue to build every world we see and every character we meet very carefully. By this point I got a very strong sense that absolutely everything that we see was plotted out with extreme care, moment to moment, beat to beat. If you have had the patience to stick it out this long in the ongoing story of Baltimore, you are in for the reward of your life as the season winds to a close.
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