History Recap / TheWireS05E02UnconfirmedReports

* WouldntHurtAChild: When Michael sees a boy running out of the house Chris and Snoop have hit, he raises his gun on instinct due to the sudden noise, but lets the boy go.

Though Lester is now officially working on Clay Davis full time (and Clay [[{{Understatement}} is not happy about this]]), he's also still thinking about Marlo, and following him to his meetings. [=McNulty=], of course, is also thinking about Marlo, and the two of them go to Fitz to try and get the FBI to help them out. Unfortunately, thanks to [[Recap/TheWireS05E01MoreWithLess Carcetti's run-in with the U.S. Attorney]], that ship has already sailed. Pissed, [=McNulty=], to Bunk's horror, decides to do something drastic; having heard from a detective colleague that postmortem marks on a fresh dead body can make a death by natural causes look like a homicide, [=McNulty=] decides to make the natural-seeming death of a homeless man look like the work of a SerialKiller.

Scott is assigned by Klebanow to write the [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Opening Day]] piece. He claims to get an interview with a teen in a wheelchair trying to scalp a ticket, but Gus becomes suspicious when there's no picture of the kid. Whiting and Klebanow, however, overrule Gus.

* ChekhovsGun: [=McNulty=] hearing from a colleague how a postmortem mark on a body can easily look as if it was done before a death if the body's still warm.

* EnemyMine: Avon is willing to temporarily work with Marlo if it means screwing over Proposition Joe, or any of the other eastside drug dealers.

* HardWorkMontage: Scott outside the stadium, trying to get a good story for the Opening Day piece (or course, he gets nothing, so it's implied he made it up instead).

* WouldntHurtAChild: When Michael sees a boy running out of the house Chris and Snoop have hit, he raises his gun, but lets the boy go.

* BuxomIsBetter: Phelps, at least, would like to see more examples of this in the newspaper.

* HighConcept: InUniverse: Whiting wants to make the upcoming series on the schools something that can be reduced to a sentence, which Gus objects to.

* AltumVidetur: Parodied; when [=McNulty=] complains about Rhonda letting Chris and Snoop postpone their [[Recap/TheWireS04E13FinalGrades gun charge]], Rhonda says it's ''pro forma'', which [=McNulty=] translates as Latin for "lawyers jacking each other off".

* CommutingOnABus: [[ContinuityNod Thanks to the cutbacks]] [[Recap/TheWireS05E01MoreWithLess in auto maintenance]], the car [=McNulty=] is supposed to drive to a crime scene has become TheAllegedCar, and he's forced to take the bus.
-->'''Officer Brown:''' Now I've seen everything.

--->'''Gus:''' So we got a poor black kid in a wheelchair with no ticket. He rolls himself from somewhere in West Baltimore to "the shadow of the mighty brick-faced coliseum known as Oriole Park", "listening to the cheers from the crowd, which told the whole tale." We're gonna give good play to a who declines to give his name because he skipped school, he's got no parents, he lives with his aunt. I'm not saying that this kid isn't everything you say he is, but, Scott, damn, as an editor, I need a little more to go on if I'm gonna fly this thing.

* {{Epigraph}}: "This ain't Aruba, bitch," said by Bunk, bitterly saying why no one care's about Marlo's victims.

* GenreSavvy:
** When Lester doesn't want to go over to FBI headquarters, Fitz guesses he and [=McNulty=] have pissed someone off.
** When Chris asks Michael why they're waiting before they go in to kill somebody, Michael guesses they're scoping out the territory first to make sure there aren't any surprises. [[{{Foreshadowing}} This also becomes important later]].

Bubbles is going to meetings, but he's having trouble opening up (to [[TheSponsor Walon's]] dismay, and he also is having trouble dealing with people in general. He does take the small step of volunteering at a soup kitchen.

* CommunitingByBus: [[ContinuityNod Thanks to the cutbacks]] [[Recap/TheWireS05E01MoreWithLess in auto maintenance]], the car [=McNulty=] is supposed to drive to a crime scene has become TheAllegedCar, and he's forced to take the bus.

** Also, thanks to the cutbacks in [[Recap/TheWireS05E01MoreWithLess auto maintenance]], the car [=McNulty=] is supposed to drive to a crime scene has become TheAllegedCar, and he's forced to take the bus.
-->'''Officer Brown:''' Now I've seen everything.

* DescriptionCut: Sydnor wonders what Marlo is up to now the surveillance is off of him, and Lester says, "Celebrating." Cut to Marlo getting the good news from Chris and Snoop that there's no more surveillance on them.

* GenreSavvy: When Lester doesn't want to go over to FBI headquarters, Fitz guesses he and [=McNulty=] have pissed someone off.

* LetMeGetThisStraight: After Sydnor says he'd rather be out on the street than working on the Clay Davis case:
-->'''Lester:''' You'd rather sit in a surveillance van days on end waiting to catch Tater handing Pee Wee a vial? This, Detective, is what you're telling me? A case like this here, where you show who gets paid behind all the tragedy and the fraud, where you show how the money routes itself, how we're all, all of us vested, all of us complicit?
-->'''Sydnor:''' Career case, huh?
-->'''Lester:''' [[TemptingFate Baby, I could die happy.]]

-->'''Gus:''' So we got a poor black kid in a wheelchair with no ticket. He rolls himself from somewhere in West Baltimore to "the shadow of the mighty brick-faced coliseum known as Oriole Park", "listening to the cheers from the crowd, which told the whole tale." We're gonna give good play to a who declines to give his name because he skipped school, he's got no parents, he lives with his aunt. I'm not saying that this kid isn't everything you say he is, but, Scott, damn, as an editor, I need a little more to go on if I'm gonna fly this thing.

** O-Dog suggests doing a drive-by on a rival crew, a la ''Film/BoyzInTheHood''.

Scott is assigned by Klebanow to write the Opening Day piece. He claims to get an interview with a teen in a wheelchair trying to scalp a ticket, but Gus becomes suspicious when there's no picture of the kid. Whiting and Klebanow, however, overrule Gus.

* {{Epigraph}}: "This ain't Aruba, bitch," said by Bunk.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The SerialKiller plotline, Marlo's continued efforts to get in with the Greeks - and to get Omar once and for all - Bubbles' continued struggles, and Gus' suspicions about Scott all become important later.

* ShoutOut: Whiting describes the situation at the schools as "[[Creator/CharlesDickens Dickensian]]".

-->'''Lester:''' [[TemptingFate Baby, I could die happy.]]

Bubbles is going to meetings, but he's having trouble opening up, and he also is having trouble dealing with people in general. He does take the small step of volunteering at a soup kitchen.

* DescriptionCut: Rhonda assures Lester Clay knows an investigation is coming. Cut to Clay yelling at Burrell about it.

* {{Epigraph}}: "This ain't Aruba, bitch," said by Bunk