The Wire “Game Day”

Any episode that includes a big info dump on how to look up business owners in different Baltimore city agencies as a form of police work and manages to make it interesting says a lot about the quality of The Wire, to say nothing about how good Lester is at his job and how dedicated Prez is to learn to be better.

Good stuff for a stuffy discussion of how business works.

The title of the episode refers to an annual tradition where the East and West sides of the Baltimore projects have a basketball game, where the losing side pays for a big party.  Avon is tired of losing, so he gets a ringer to play against a team fielded by his opposite number on the other side of Baltimore, some guy named Proposition Joe.

Herc and Carver actually find the game and realize Avon is there.  Daniels heads out with most of the detail that’s still in the building to try and tail Avon.  It doesn’t actually work, since Avon runs them around a bit then slow drives past Daniels with a little wave, showing he was aware he was being followed the whole time.

We also get to see more of a difference between Herc and Carver this episode, where Carver is the one who finds Avon on the sidelines while Herc proves pretty useless, and earlier when the two manage to snag some drug money off some of Avon’s guys.  Herc suggests keeping some, but Carver points out they’d get caught.

They almost get caught anyway because the bag ripped and they accidentally left some money in the car.

Point is, Carver is clearly the smarter member of this Dimwitted Duo.

Greggs and Lester manages to flip D’Angelo’s stripper girlfriend, too, by showing her the dead stripper who died at the party D’Angelo attended.  Yeah, it seems tossing a body in a dumpster is not a way to endear yourself with your other employees.  D’Angelo also has to deal with Wallace quitting.  Stuff got too real for that kid.

And Omar is not infallible.  He manages to just use his scary rep to get a bag of Avon’s drugs.  Then he used that to parlay Avon’s beeper number from Proposition Joe.  And he might have gotten Avon had not Wee-Bey come back from a food run faster than expected.  Omar was hit in the crossfire, but Avon lived.  Maybe now Stringer’s suggestion of a fake truce will go through.

And meanwhile, Bubbles decides to go clean when the NA sponsor who touched him is spotted by the Low Rises keeping an eye on his nephew.  Bubbles also manages to steal a bag of stuff from some violent dealers and only a bit of mistaken identity kept him from getting a vicious beating for what turned out to be baking soda.  Bubs has a sister that it seems will let him stay in her basement, though she clearly doesn’t want to and threatened to call the cops if he even tries to come upstairs.  You know, if anyone deserves a better life, it’s Bubbles.  Maybe this time it’ll take.