The Wire “Undertow”

Man, Ziggy is such a pathetic dumbass.

How much of a pathetic dumbass is Ziggy?  Well, he owes some drug dealers money because his own guy may be stiffing him.  He offers his two thousand dollar coat.  They think its ugly.  To be fair, it is.  Instead, they take his Camaro.  And later, when Nick and another union guy try to get it back, they find the dealers have set the car on fire.  Nick, meanwhile, is going house hunting with his girlfriend and daughter and finding the house his aunt used to live in is now in a neighborhood undergoing gentrification, so he can’t afford the place anymore.  As a result, the two young men are seriously looking into helping the Greek steal chemicals that a little Internet research at the local library reveals could be used to mix cocaine.  I’ll give Ziggy this much:  he actually understands how the Internet works.  Nick is amazed by it.  Nick mostly wants to make sure the stuff won’t be used for bombs.

Nick’s a fairly handsome guy.  Hard to believe he’s also Pornstash on Orange Is The New Black.

And with the investigation by the cops into the dead girls, where Bunk and Beadie actually try pulling the guys into to talk to a grand jury (despite the threat of perjury, it still doesn’t work), Frank washes his hands of the Greek.  And since for Frank is was a matter of principal, doubling or tripling the money doesn’t soften his resolve.  The offer of triple looks like he’s tempted, but no, he’s scared and the union matters to the guy.

But the noose is tightening all the same.  Daniels takes Carver back, despite Carver being a spy the last time, mostly because Daniels knows Carver isn’t stupid enough to do it twice.  Since about all they have to so far is maybe drugs, that means sending Carver and Kima out to take photos from nearby rooftops as Herc, for once, has to play buyer.  Herc enjoys the hell out of that since it’s usually him crouching uncomfortably on rooftops.

And about all the new detail has is the dead girls case to maybe work with.  Daniels won’t take the hit of unsolvable murders, but he will allow Bunk and Russell to work with the evidence they have alongside his own people.

And Bubbles did find Omar and get him back to McNulty in time for Bird’s trial.  Omar doesn’t make much of a witness in the eyes of the DA, but she does give Omar a voucher for some court-appropriate attire.  McNulty leaves Omar to find himself a suit and then takes a trip to New Jersey to see if any of a group of detained foreign sex workers can identify any of the women from Baltimore.  No luck there.

As far as the Barksdale Organization goes, D’Angelo tells his (cheating with Stringer) girlfriend that he’s fairly disillusioned with how the whole thing runs.  Stringer is having problems with inferior products, and Poot and Bodie can’t keep the new guys from roughing people up over stupid stuff.  Stringer actually takes some advice from his economics professor on how to sell an inferior product that gets the guys under him thinking.  I’m guessing the econ prof had no idea what Stringer’s product actually is.

I’m also guessing Stringer’s attempts to run a drug empire like a legal business can only be so successful.

I mean, these guys aren’t exactly criminal masterminds like Avon.  Though they do seem to be a step or two above Ziggy.