#daniels

-Love Bodie's smile/laugh after he trips Herc in the chase. He's having fun!

-Just want to point out how cute Kima's outfit is:

-I cracked up at Stringer's pissed-off "Why the fuck are you telling me this?" when Stinkum tries to call him about the re-up. Between that and "Well you shouldn't sell drugs," String you are not very good at believable denials!

-Lovely set dressing in this witness's apartment:

In general the set dressers of The Wire absolutely kill it. It's easy to not even notice because it's all so naturalistic, but that natural lived-in feel has to be intentionally created prop by prop.

-Ohhh god just when you were getting to like Prez, here comes Kevin Johnson to remind you how both dangerous and spineless he is :(

-And Daniels with this kid is so embarrassing. We see a bunch of instances of authority figures trying to offer kids a way out to varying degrees of success, but this first one is an utter flop. Dude, your report half-blinded this kid and YOU constructed the lie that protected him from accountability, which Kevin fully knows! Did you seriously think you would win him over with a Reeses and a soda?!

-Obviously for Daniels it's more about assuaging his (genuine!) guilt than actually building any kind of meaningful connection with this kid. Which has got me thinking, I love Daniels and I think he has it in him to be a really genuinely good manager, but I cannot imagine him being much good as a beat cop. He's just too uptight.

Hehehe I guess Burrell has been talking to Bubbs!

CLAY DAVIS???!!! I completely forgot he shows up this early. And Walon too!

-Bubbles at the NA meeting is so heartbreaking. Some especially nice work from Andre Royo here, the slow dawning of interest and then hope and happiness when he takes the keychain for "a sincere desire to live"…It's maybe more powerful on a rewatch; we know he gets there eventually, but we also know how far he is and how much more suffering he (and people he cares about) will go through first.

-Hehehe I'm glad Daniels got a little ego boost after flopping with Kevin.

-Man it took a while for Avon and co to show up this episode. I missed them! And Stringer is still berating Stink about the phone call hahaha

-Very funny to consider the amount of time they've had to spend micromanaging operations at the Pit in all this. And it's not even their main location!

-Freamon playing the clip of Poot talking about Herc and Carver for them is really cute…he has high standards but he isn't above fucking around now and then!

-"Suck my bat dick" and "When it came time for you to fuck me…" in one episode, jeez, did the BPD announce bonuses for homoerotic banter with your partner or what

-MKW absolutely kills it in this car scene with Kima and McNulty. Just every delivery is perfect, plus he gets off a never get high on your own supply and constabulatin'!

-Ok I don’t remember what exactly happens with this Orlando-Dee side business plot (like is at least one of them being insincere? idr), but if either of them is actually genuinely considering dealing behind Avon's back, that has got to go down as one of the all-time STUPIDEST ideas on this show, what the fuck

-Oh no Wallace getting high....noooooo.....

-WAIT HOLD THE HELL ON. So Madame LaRue tells Santangelo to beseech St. Anthony for help with his case, which he does:

Of course, St. Anthony does not respond. This is Baltimore, gentlemen; the gods will not save you. BUT! You know who will?

Seriously, I was not watching The Wire in 2002 but I do remember the era and man it's hard to overstate how bold a move this was, especially for characters in this particular social world. And it's done with such confidence and grace. Omar one of the most important TV characters ever truly.

-Love that the guys all got dressed in their basketball outfits just to stand around, gossip, and take orders:

-And then Avon is shirtless for truly no reason. He stands there and takes like three shots the whole scene, he is NOT working up a sweat.

(Ok I know the real reason he's shirtless is so Wood Harris can show off, which, completely understandable. Congratulations Mr. Harris on your torso)

-Ok so Stringer and Avon are concerned that Omar and the police knew the stash location and they immediately jump to thinking there's a snitch….uhh my dudes, have you considered that you have guys going in and out of the stash house in BROAD DAYLIGHT and anyone can apparently park any car next to the Pit and watch for as long as they want! Maybe that's your problem!

-I think this is Stringer's first ducking-his-head subby moment. Sir put those eyes AWAY.

And this is after he checks Avon out like 4 different times jesus christ it's exhausting.

-There's a really nice touch where, of course, the kids running around on the street where McNulty drops Bubbles off are contrasted with the kids playing soccer in the suburbs, but ALSO the kids playing basketball with a milk crate in the Pit are contrasted with Avon & co at the gym. And the four scenes are all in a row in a chiastic (ABBA) structure! Here they are in order:

"Thin line 'tween heaven and here" is not just about the suburbs vs. the inner city, it's also about the kingpins/top soldiers vs. the projects kids and hoppers.

-Ok I have logistical questions about Bodie's return from Boy's Village which I'm saving for a separate post, but him limping back into the Pit with his face all beat up is pretty badass. Some real cowboy shit. Look at Dee's face, though:

He is NOT happy, he really thought he had Bodie out of his hair and could continue schooling Poot and Wallace in peace. Nope! Bodie is back, and he's more insubordinate than ever!

I mean, he's not wrong.

-You might expect Carver to have this nice scene with Bodie's grandma instead of Herc, since Carv is clearly already being established as the one intended for character development. But I like that it's Herc...Carv is from East Baltimore. He probably knew many families like Bodie's growing up. He knows these stories. We don't really know anything about Herc's background but I think there is more room for him to be affected here.

-McNulty calling Phelan from a payphone like he's a dealer calling for a re-up hehehe

-Daniels' "Let's do it."...the way this show will have you whooping and hollering with excitement over an affidavit to clone a pager! That's the wire, baby!

-Huge shoutout to Clarke Peters for taking what is essentially two minutes of exposition and making it absolutely captivating. Also Lester has excellent taste in bars, this place looks so cool:

-Maybe Kima's hottest look ever oh my lord: