#rawls

-I gained a bunch of respect for Rawls when he shows up at the shooting site and just asks Landsman "What do you need?" I've been the Landsman in that situation (I mean chaotic work situations, not anything with lives at stake, to be clear) and when your boss shows up in the middle of a crisis, the best they can do is to trust that you know how to do your job, and use their power to get you the resources you need to do it.

-Excellent work from Dominic West throughout this episode. He looks so young here:

-Carver jumping into command mode over Herc and Sydnor! That's my boy!! 

-Aww Poot's face when he's talking to Wallace, he's so fond:

And he tries multiple times to be like "I'll come there and hang out with you." I must reiterate that among the Pit boys it's Poot and Wallace who are close :(

-Why is Herc acting like he's doesn't know Bodie's name:

Herc, does your season-long storyline of interactions with him mean NOTHING?? You had a touching moment with his grandma! 😭

-Daniels being the best boss once again:

I love him forever and ever, I don't think there's any trait that endears a character to me more than telling a wallower, There's work to be done, get over yourself and do your fucking job.

-I love this Avon and Stringer debriefing scene, I can't even say exactly why. I guess there aren't many scenes where they are on the same page and making plans together, rather than arguing about strategy, so it's just so fun to watch.

Wait so Stringer knew that Orlando was snitching but believed he was buying $30k worth of drugs with his own money?? When the whole reason all this happened is because Orlando felt he was being underpaid?? Yeah I have no defense for Stringer here, this was straight-up stupid.

-The Bubbles stuff in this episode is just devastating. He tries a few times to tell McNulty that he's trying to get clean but can't quite work himself up to it, and McNulty sends him straight to the projects with cash in his hand. And Bubbles does it, because he cares more about helping Kima (or rather, helping the cops find her shooter) than protecting himself auuugggh.

-It ties back to when he tells Johnny that he's informing: I'm not working FOR 'em, I'm working WITH 'em! Working with Kima was really the only thing in his life besides getting high, so if he's trying to be clean and stay away from Johnny etc, what else does he have?

-OHHH BOY HERE WE GO! Ok, so, sorry if this is obvious to everyone (on the podcast Way Down in the Hole they did a deep dive on Levy in this episode and didn't even mention this aspect, so I guess it's not??), but "twisted little tribe" is 100% intended as an antisemitic insult. Jimmy just barely has plausible deniability where the "tribe" in question is Baltimore lawyers and the "language" is legalese, but let's be real, "Baltimore lawyer" is basically a euphemism for Jew lol. (Also, in case it wasn't clear, the "she" here is Rhonda, who is also Jewish (although it's far less obviously depicted than Levy's Jewishness, and that gap is a whole other can of worms))

Now to be clear, I don't really think that McNulty hates Levy for antisemitic reasons -- he's just trying to piss Levy off as much as he can here -- but he has no problem using that as ammo, and also insulting Rhonda along the way. (And BTW this is the second episode in a row where he's used Rhonda as a lawyer prop!)

It totally backfires, though. Look at Levy's face after Jimmy's speech and after he handily wins the proffer:

That is a look that says, "Oh, you want to go there? Fuck you, I'll come back twice as hard because of it." And he does! Jimmy has this issue where he divides the world into Good Guys and Assholes, and when he's up against an Asshole, he seems to think that if he just points out how much of an Asshole they are, they'll roll over and do what he wants. Nope, Jimmy, the Assholes got where they are because they have an ego and will hit back when insulted, and Levy is no exception.

-Speaking of assholes, Burrell acknowledges that he was partly responsible for Kima getting shot (and IMO he's more responsible than any of the other cops -- the whole setup with Orlando was incredibly stupid, like obviously the Barksdales were going to know something was up, it was honestly irresponsible to put Kima in that car and they only did it because Burrell insisted on an immediate buy-bust). But unlike McNulty he doesn't actually feel guilty, he's just concerned about how it makes him look, thus insisting on the dope-on-the-table response.

-I must admit I'm rooting for Levy and Savino in this proffer scene, and it's not just because of Jimmy's overstep earlier. The cops are all pissed Savino is getting off so easy. But Savino's not the one who shot Kima, and he's not the one who put her and Little Man in that situation! And these are the good cops (at least McNulty and Bunk) who are supposed to be interested in bringing down the kingpins, not going after these low-level guys! Obviously they're upset and just want someone associated to be punished, but I think their anger is getting the better of their judgment here.

-I like Herc's smug little look at catching the location of the Tower stash:

I mean this is not exactly rocket science, but hey, at least he's come around on the value of stakeout work!

-Sooo funny to me that Bodie doesn’t even know who Orlando was. Orlando truly the definition of small name, big ego.

-Of course I have to shout out Bodie's babushka look. I also just love the arrangement of this shot:

-Ok I'm a freak but I really want to know what pill Stringer is taking here:

It's just such an odd bit of business to include. Like why?

-Ahh, who could the rat in the detail be...