The Wire “Back Burners”

I said a little while ago that Lt. Daniels is not a stupid man, so it wouldn’t be hard for him to figure out why his Detail got reassigned to Stringer Bell.

Well, he put it together.

There are a lot of small things going on here, like how Cutty is really looking for a place he belongs and Omar has an attack of conscience after Bunk’s lecture and gets that missing cop’s firearm back, but the bigger issues all stem from the Detail focusing on Marlo Stanfield for now while trying to figure out how to get a wire on a temporary phone system that changes out every few days.

The fact that McNulty managed to get what he could by pulling a quick arrest of Bodie and switching his phone for an identical one was a start, but McNulty, Greggs, and Snyder were all fairly shocked that they had to let Bodie and his boys go.  Why?  Well, Herc and Carver knew something but weren’t saying until Colvin showed up to explain Hamsterdam to the Detail.  The higher ups don’t know yet.  McNulty at least appreciates screwing with the superiors.

Besides, Daniels basically told McNulty he was off the Detail as soon as Stringer went down.

Hamsterdam’s getting weird anyway.  Carver is trying to get the top dealers to actually pay their lower level guys a fair wage like they’re a regular business.

Avon wants nothing to do with that stuff anyway.  Marlo seems to be letting Avon take some corners, until a drive by takes out a guy standing next to Poot.

But Herc spotted Avon, and eventually remembered his name.  Guess who the Detail was unaware was back on the streets?

There’s some stuff in this one with Carcetti too, but I’ll cover him later.