I just finished reading Truth Be Told – thanks for the heads up, commasense. I hope Alvarez or someone does another edition encompassing all five seasons.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the machinations of Avon, Stringer, and Prop Joe that brought Omar and Brother Mouzone together.
Is Blind Butchie Omar’s uncle? The book says Butchie is Omar’s mentor and bank, but I read elsewhere that they’re blood relation.
It’s fairly critical, because it’s the beginning of the split between Avon and Stringer that will play out over the next season and a half.
It arises because Avon, in prison, is unwilling to give up territory in the towers to Prop Joe’s men in exchange for the good dope. Stringer sees that this will be better for business, but Avon is more concerned about the appearance of weakness than just making money. Avon is a warrior, Stringer has become a businessman.
So without Avon’s permission, Stringer makes the deal and lets Prop Joe’s guys sell in a couple of the towers. Avon, in the meantime, hires Brother Mouzone to come down to make sure no east side guys try to get into the towers. Mouzone confronts Cheese (working the towers for Prop Joe with Stringer’s permission) and wounds him with a round of ratshot. Naturally, Prop Joe’s guys have to pull back.
Here’s where it gets complicated. With his deal with Prop Joe about to fall apart, Stringer can’t let it get back to Avon that he made a deal without his permission, so he wants Mouzone out of the way. But no one in his gang, or that he can hire, has a chance of scaring off or killing Mouzone. Omar is the only person strong and daring enough to try.
Stringer arranges the parley with Omar and tells him (falsely) that it was Mouzone who killed and disfigured Omar’s lover (in season 1). Stringer’s nominal motive is to end the bad will between himself and Omar by giving up someone supposedly on his own side. However (and this is my own contribution, not something made explicit in the show) the move can work either of two ways for Stringer. If Omar kills Mouzone, he’s made peace with a bitter enemy and saved the deal with Prop Joe. The best of all possible worlds. If Mouzone kills Omar, at least Omar’s out of Stringer’s way. Not quite as good as plan A, since he still has to do something about Mouzone, but net positive.
What Stringer couldn’t have counted on is exactly what happens: Omar realizes he’s been played before Mouzone is finished off. Naturally, Mouzone figures it out, too, hence the tense scene between him and Stringer in the hospital.
This is the worst possible outcome for Stringer, because now the two most fearsome guys in the world of The Wire are both really pissed at him. And we know how that will turn out.
The only bright side for Stringer (temporarily) is that, since Mouzone has pulled out, Avon must reluctantly agree to share the towers with Prop Joe, not realizing that that’s what had been going on for weeks already.
I hope this helps (and that I’ve gotten it right myself!).
Excellent recap!
What did Prop Joe think about all of this? Didn’t he wonder why Omar went after Brother Mouzone – someone who wasn’t even in the game in Baltimore? Did Prop Joe ever ask what Brother Mouzone was doing in Baltimore?
I think I’ve just given myself an excuse to watch season three again. 
There is a scene with the wounded Cheese and Prop Joe, and it’s my impression that Prop Joe knows that Avon called for Mouzone and that Stringer’s trying to do something about it.
(Desperately trying to keep this thread and The Wire fever going!)
FYI, NPR had a story about The Wire this morning. Here. And you’ll find links to a bunch of other pieces about the show, including a long Fresh Air interview with Ed Burns.
I’m probably going to start a GQ thread about this, but before I do, can anyone explain an apparent anomaly in the chain of command in the Baltimore police department, as seen in The Wire (which I assume is an accurate depiction of the real BPD)?
In the show we see various people in the following ranks:
Patrolmen
Detectives
Detective Sergeant (Landsman)
Lieutenant
Major
Colonel
Deputy Ops
Commissioner
What’s wrong with this picture?
Where are the captains? Why does the chain skip them? Either the position simply doesn’t exist or it is somehow completely outside the normal chain of promotion.
I say this because 1) AFAIK, in four seasons of the show, no one, and I mean absolutely no one, appears with this rank, and 2) in the scene in season 4 when Valchek is advising Herc how he should handle his special knowledge about the Mayor, Valcheck says that Herc could be a lieutenant in two years and major two years after that. Not a word about captain.
What’s the deal?
Good question! The position exists – there’s a website with pictures of BPD badges, and there are badges for captains. I also found a bunch of references to BPD captains in various news articles.
I looked through the cast lists at IMDB and no character is listed as a captain.
Is “detective” actually a rank? Maybe detectives are captains but they’re called detectives?
Question: Does Bubbles have AIDS or is he HIV+ or anything? We know Johnny has it because he’s diagnosed when he’s in the hospital for his beating. Can we assume he and Bubs shared a needle? I don’t think this is ever mentioned, though I might have missed it. Ed Burns said that Bubs was based on a real addict/CI named Bubbles who died of AIDS, which is why I’m wondering.
It sure seems likely that he’s at least HIV+. We’ve never seen him share a needle though.
But it’s hard to imagine someone living like Bubbles without being fairly healthy. His place is unheated, he doesn’t eat right, he walks around all day pushing those carts, gets beat up – could he do that if he was sick?
I need to pay more attention to the shooting up scenes to see if they use separate needles. Could be that he’s been really careful, but he’s also been doing it for like, 20 years or so… I don’t know. I wonder if it’ll ever come up, now that he’s in the hospital. He always had that open sore next to his nose that made me wonder.
Good question. I don’t know enough about being HIV+ to know how quickly or extremely it would affect his health. He is a scrappy guy, but he never seemed all that healthy to me. Scrawny, scarred up, open sores, missing teeth, horrible complexion, all part of the lifestyle I guess, and could be worse considering his age. The weird thing is that Andre Royo is only 38 or so, though Bubs looks a lot older to me. I think they do a lot with his makeup to make him look so bad.
Yeah, that’s outstanding makeup. And yeah too, that we’ll probably know for sure soon, since he’s been hospitalized.
I heard him say that he’d be glad to get his tooth back. Is he really missing a tooth? It sure looks that way. It looks more authentic than something black placed over a good tooth.
I found the site with the badges, too, but they’re almost all really old, like 19th century. I don’t think the position exists now.
Yeah, I know.
I thought of that, too, but no. They answer to a lieutenant, so they rank below captain.
Anyway, my question seems to have been answered over at my thread in General Questions. Short answer: at captain and below the ranks are civil service positions and filled by merit, but above they are political appointments. As Cerberus puts it: “By phasing out captains in favor of majors, chiefs can exercise more political control of their forces.”
As for Ruby’s question, I’m pretty sure that it’s never explicitly said that Bubbles has HIV/AIDS. I’ve never assumed that he does.
BTW, there’s a promo spot for the new season (that I haven’t been able to find at HBO.com) that shows Bubbles’ (the character’s) real name. I don’t remember it now, but AFAIK, it’s the first time we’ve ever seen it. Did anyone else catch it?
I’ve been watching the DVDs on my HDTV, and it’s pretty obvious (at least in Seasons 1-3) that it’s just something black over a real tooth.
I didn’t catch it, but a Wiki article says Bubbles’ name is Reginald Cousins. ::snicker:: Reginald
I’m assuming Bubbles comes from the bubble of spit we saw, when he’d be getting high.
A Wall Street Journal article says that David Simon planned to finish the story in a novel if HBO cancelled the show early. I’d still like to see him do that, especially if it meant we might learn more about these people. Like why is Randy in foster care? What was Bubbles’ early life like?
I love you all.
More later.
MiM
Yea, it was quite revealing in S1 when they were talking about putting out weaker shit to the fiends; Stringer and company seemed to see their customers as subhuman animals who would follow the drugs and not give a shit about the quality or anything else, so long as they got their high. To imagine that a fiend could help bring down the empire would be laughable. The Barksdale-Bell gang were paranoid as all hell about rival gangs, their own dealers, and of course 5-0, but no one gave a shit about the bottom-feeding fiends.
Sounds about right.
Omar knew that Bubbles was a snitch. Remember when he heard Bubbles was asking about him (on McNulty’s behalf for the Bird trial), and when he finds Bubs, he turns the shotgun on him and says, “Snitchin’ Bubs…” Did Omar know this because of his contact with the detail in the basement, or did he figure it out? I know Omar found out about Orlando’s, which enabled him to shoot at Avon, from reading it off the board in the basement office, but was Bubs on there too?
Omar smart, yo.
Bubbs’ picture was never on the board – just players.
Yea Omar a fucking genius compared to all dem corner cats. Think he clued in S1 when he saw Bubbs rollin with Kima in her car. Stick-up boy spend all godmuthafuckindamn day staking corner boys out, ain’t no thang for him to get how Bubbs play da game.
True dat. Feel me?
Mos def.
Another thing I was wondering… what is the deal about Brother Mouzone? He reminds me of The Wolf from Pulp Fiction, the guy the boss calls in to clean up messes, whose real value is somewhat mysterious. He’s apparently this dead scary mofo, the muscle to end all muscle, but why? Omar could have taken him out of the game with one accomplice. Why are all the dealers so scared of him? When he shot Cheese with the ratshot, why did the rest of Cheese’s boys (who had Mouzone outnumbered by quite a bit) just lay Mouzone out? Then he sat on that park bench reading Harper’s, and no one did a damn thing but quiver in fear. I understand he’s smart, relentless, and makes his own very effective bullets, but he’s only one guy. Unless I missed something?