Misstify

Yes…love that moment from Bubs. McNulty never really seems to "get" Bubs the way Kima does. That whole scene with Bubs was great, from the bit where he's fondling the grill and muttering about how it's "top of the line" (probably thinking how much he could get for it, if only it wasn't chained down), to the part where he informs McNulty that the "thing" is called a "cleat" and points out that McNulty can't tie a knot.

Okay, this one had some good stuff. Eileen Nathan (is that her name?) going over Omar's testimony. "You suggested a manufacturer…'Australian, or one of those A countries.' " Bodie's brilliant business idea of creating fake competition for their weak drugs, by giving each tower's supply a different name so the fiends think there are two different products being sold. The scene where Ziggy haplessly gets ripped off by Frog, who's supposed to be peddling Ziggy's drugs, and then gets confronted by Cheese, who claims that the amount of money in Ziggy's pocket barely even deserves to be called money. To top it all off, Cheese makes fun of Ziggy's $2K coat, and then takes Ziggy's car. You would almost think things can't get any worse for Ziggy, except for the fact that we're only on episode 5! Honestly, I can't drum up any real feelings for Ziggy, and I watch him sort of as I would watch a natural disaster happening. Nick also pisses me off a bit. I understand his anger about the gentrification of his aunt's neighborhood and the fact that he can't afford to live there. But really--his family SOLD the house--had to have been a few years ago. It's not "Aunt Treesey's" any more. I think he's partly angry at "the man" (embodied by the realtor as well as the prospective buyers), partly embarrassed that he was so wrong about being able to possibly afford the place. His extreme grumpiness combined with his ignorance about search engines makes him practically an 80-year-old in disguise. He does try to get Ziggy's car back for him, though. One thing you can count on in the world of The Wire--nephews, cousins, uncles, all look out for each other and bail each other out, whether it's in the police department, drug world, or labor union.

I feel bad for the state policeman who pegs Avon as being responsible for the hot shots. There is nothing he can do--he has no Judge Phelan, no Valchek demanding a detail. The reason Daniels, McNulty et. al. get to work good cases is because of bigwigs moving the chess pieces around and giving them the opportunity to do real work.

I think if Dee had been a victim of the hot shots, Avon would have told himself it was Dee's fault for 1. ignoring Avon's warning and 2. being weak and using drugs in the first place. And he may have even been a bit relieved if Dee had been gotten out of the picture "accidentally on purpose". I think that's why he doesn't look at all worried.

Yes…Landsman's speech on all of their clothing was priceless. Also: the introduction of Blind Butchie. "Hearin' is believing'!" Was there, in real life, a blind bartender/drug-dealer? I find him slightly larger-than-life in an Omar kind of way. It's been a while since I watched season 2, and I don't remember everything. So I was quite nervous for the puppy in the puppy-vs-rat scene. I think I'll wait till the end of the rewatch to decide whether I think Frank is un-self-interested (at this point--I agree he is not personally enriching himself, but he does now know there's human trafficking going on, and he's willing to let that slide, all in pursuit of preserving a way of life that happens to be his way of life).

Avon is COLD.

Yeah…I think Ziggy's "exposure" was so brief that I always end up blinking and missing it. To be fair, the bar patrons and bartender act as if he does this all the time. Reactions like "Oh no, not again…don't do it Ziggy" kind of thing. I agree that Sepinwall made it sound like WE would be seeing a lot more of Ziggy. It would have been more accurate to say the denizens of the dockworkers' bar got a lot of exposure to him.

I think the worst part of the hot-potato game was, "They're dead, so they're cargo." So much good stuff in this episode. We get to see more of our season 1 people… D'Angelo (and his new drug habit)! Wee-Bey (and his plastic fish)! And…let's not forget Polk ("Who signs the overtime slips?"). Omar is not forgotten, as Bunk continues to harass McNulty to try to get a hold of Omar for the Gant case. Newspapers show up a lot this season. Here, McNulty finds out about the 13 bodies via a newspaper-wrapped crab feast, and makes the possible connection to his floater. (Last episode, it was Stringer and the new lawyer looking at a newspaper article about how their supplier got nabbed by the DEA). McNulty's meddling ends up biting his friends, as Lester and Bunk get stuck with the 14 Jane Does (who wouldn't even be murder cases, if not for McNulty 1. mentioning the defensive wounds on the floater and 2. investigating the top of the can). Why? Because they are good at what they do. A classic situation: the better you are at your job, the more you get stuck with the hard stuff, the stuff no one else wants to do. Cole is mediocre, and gets let off the hook. One wonders how many cases remained unsolved, or not classed as murders, because there wasn't some pain in the ass detective trying to piss off his boss by sticking him with a whodunit.

More on the union guys' scene: I couldn't recall if they mentioned this in ep 1, but they do: Nat, the guy who is arguing about the grain pier, is the union president. Frank is the treasurer. (You can go through the whole season without knowing that, but if you're detail-oriented, there ya go).

If I recall the scene correctly, that was Nat, who is also in the union. He thinks their goal (with the city politicians) should be restoring the grain pier. Frank thinks that won't bring in enough jobs, and instead they should go after people to deepen the channel. Yes, that stuff does get a little boring. You can think of it as Frank wants plan X and the other guy wants plan Y. Thankfully, we still have Bodie and Stringer and their supply problems.

I don't know if it's the actors or the writing for the dockworker characters. I think Pablo Schreiber was great in Orange is the New Black. But Nick, Ziggy, Horseface, et. al. don't have conversations that come close to the "McNugget" dialogue between Wallace, Poot, and D'Angelo. I also find it harder to sympathize with them being trapped in the particular life that they lead. Ziggy is pathetic for sure, but is he as totally stripped of resources as Wallace? Frank is a terrible father, but he's no Wallace's mom. At least he tried to raise his kid. I don't know, it's hard to explain because really they are both trapped, but Ziggy doesn't win my heart like Wallace.

I just started thinking about the stained glass windows. Frank's window has nothing religious about it. It's a picture of some stevedores unloading cargo from a ship. Valchek's is hardly religious either, but at least it has a dove in it, which is a religious symbol. Now, I've never seen a stained glass window in a Catholic church that didn't depict either a saint, a religious scene, or a religious symbol. Often they have a panel that says "donated by so-and-so". But not Frank's window. Not even a pretense--he couldn't come up with a patron saint of dockworkers or some such. I guess this just makes it transparent (ha ha) that the window is a symbol of quid pro quo--Frank makes some substantial donations to the parish in exchange for the window display (promoting his beloved profession) and some face-time with a senator, arranged by Father Lew. I am not exactly sure why Valchek and Frank even need to bring the windows into it--if they are basically donating money in exchange for influence. I guess it's a matter of pride. The window is a display of the glory of (insert one: stevedores or police force), for all the congregation to see.

I'm a sucker for the "see where everyone in the gang is now" type of opening episode. When I first watched season 2, I was dubious about whether I wanted to go on to a new season, new case, and leave behind everyone from season 1. So it was a relief to see Bodie and catch up with that crew as well. As with many characters on the show who are unable to leave their milieu, Bodie has never left Baltimore & doesn't know why anyone would want to. He is surprised to learn that radio stations are different outside Baltimore--but the best part is, after the look of disgust on his face when stumbling upon "Lake Wobegon Days" on the radio, we see him later listening to it again! Of course, we already knew McNulty would be on the boat. And it does not look like a fun place to be in the middle of winter. I kind of love how they leave us hanging when his partner says the bosses did him (McNulty) a favor…and before he can explain, they get a call. Prez probably has the most "explainy" catch-up scene, as he tells his father-in-law what he really wants to be doing (solving cases by following a paper trail). The Bunk is still working the Gant case; the look of horror on his face when he spots Lt. Daniels working the evidence locker tells us all we need to know about what a humiliating assignment this is for the Lt. Another thing I'm a sucker for is the scenes of duality through The Wire. One of my favorites is probably the scene where Daniels & co are ripping through the evidence room looking for the Gant evidence, juxtaposed with Bodie and crew ripping apart the car to try to find the missing drugs. Yup, despite the foreignness of a bunch of white dockworkers and a Polish church, it's still The Wire and I'm sucked into season 2.

I'm in the midst of rewatching season 2 now. Totally up for discussing any parts of season 2.

The first time I watched the show, I never noticed a thing about his accent--probably because I was fully occupied with trying to keep up with the story and the dialogue. Now I'm rewatching the series and the accent is really hard to ignore! He's still a perfect McNulty, though. (Rhonda: "What's the most useless thing on a woman? ...A drunken Irishman!" [cracks herself up]). Avon was sentenced to 7 years for possession of a kilo of heroin with intent to distribute. The 7 years was a result of the lawyer (Levy) bargaining with Ronnie (the Assistant District Attorney), so I assume it would have been higher if Avon had not taken the plea deal. They had enough evidence on him because of the conversations they caught when they wired his office from the vacant building next door. His lawyer couldn't get him off completely.

I never thought the show was "off" in that respect…I thought the show was showing us (accurately) the ignorant things people say. Let's not forget, as far as Healey's concerned, Chang's ethnic group is "Other"! (From season 1)

I think it was a therapy dog. Anxiety or some other emotional issue? ETA: never mind! That's right, she was training the therapy dog.

We saw in an earlier episode that Suzanne had conversations with the mop, whom she named Moppet. I think the whole Red situation really confused her.

Was that a slock, as described by Flaca in a previous episode? "You buy a lock at the commissary, you put it in a sock…"

The poor saps huddling outside the entrance to my office building in any weather would agree…people smoke.

Loved Nicky's impersonation of Alex (that voice!). So...we had Nicky being Alex, Healey parroting his therapist, and Pornstache unwittingly parroting everything Daya wanted Bennet to say.

I think "being reminded that she needed to go to her grandmother's funeral" was after she arrived at Larry's house, and Cal was like, "Um, there's this one thing that we actually have to do..."

I agree; Cindy was depicted as a paragon of irresponsible behavior. I'd assume her teen pregnancy was a result of the same. I actually thought we were going to see her mom drop a dime on her re: the iPad theft, to prevent Cindy from taking the child.

Is there a thematic connection between the anatomical ignorance and Red's discovery of a drainage hole in the floor? The prison administration apparently isn't aware that if you slide back the covering, there's a hole there...