Season 1, Episode 08
Lessons
"Come at the king, you best not miss."
McNulty is out food shopping with his kids when he spots Stringer; he has his kids follow Stringer, and though he loses track of them briefly, they get the license of the car Stringer drives, which allows McNulty to follow him later. The detail arrests Day-Day with drug money, but Burrell not only forces Daniels to give it back, he threatens to shut the detail down, until Phelan saves the day by reminding Burrell there's still time left, and that he'll be in contempt if it's shut down too early. D'Angelo, Stinkum, Wee-Bey and other Barksdale crew members celebrate Stinkum's earning points on the package by having a party, but it turns badly when one of the dancers ODs. Also, Omar takes his revenge, shooting and killing Stinkum and wounding Wee-Bey, which makes an enraged Avon up the bounty on Omar to $10,000, and the detail upset because they were about to make a drug case against Stinkum. This also ends up upsetting Bunk, because he's forced by McNulty to tell Cole (the primary on Stinkum's murder) he can't make an arrest on the murder, because it'll end up ruining the Gant case. Also, Carver and Herc each take the sergeant's exam.— Omar
This episode contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Economics: A minor example can be heard when McNulty investigates Stringer taking classes at the local college and a professor can be overheard explaining "When a small change in price creates a large change in demand, then demand is said to be elastic. But some products are inelastic, meaning a change in price does not affect demand." This is incorrect. Demand elasticity measures the change in a product's quantity demanded as a result of a change in price, not its demand. Demand and quantity demanded are two related but absolutely distinct concepts, as are supply and quantity supplied.note While "demand" is indeed often used to mean 'quantity demanded' in casual economics discussions, this would nevertheless be quite an unprofessional (although not necessarily narratively implausible) mistake from a professor giving what seems to be an introductory lecture where terms and definitions should be explained very clearly and cleanly.
- Bait-and-Switch: When McNulty shows up at a woman's house to pick up a drunken Bunk, the woman tells him that Bunk has set off her smoke alarm, twice. McNulty comments, "That good, huh?", then finds Bunk asleep upright on the toilet, wearing nothing but his tie and a pink bathrobe, and the remains of his day clothes in the bathtub from him botching an attempt to burn them.
- Call-Back: When Prez tries to get Carver and Herc to do surveillance on the low-rises to see what pay phones the Pit crew are using, they bring up Prez's previous screw-ups.
- Also, when Daniels goes into the interrogation room and greets Day-Day, he brings up the baseball game they were talking about, and asks Day-Day if he got the money from breaking into houses.
- Celebrity Paradox: At one point, Bunk is seen reading a novel by Laura Lippman, a Baltimore crime novelist who's married in real life to The Wire series creator David Simon.
- Continuity Nod: Wallace is still in shock over what happened to Brandon. Also, the woman who's place Omar is staying in while Wee-Bey and others trash his place and his van, and who sees McNulty leaving his card inside the van is the same woman who had asked Omar for some drugs.
- Also, Shardene has now moved in with D'Angelo.
- Drop Dead Gorgeous: The dancer from Stinkum's party gives this impression when D'Angelo finds her, although he later just tells Shardene that she was "sick."
- Drowning My Sorrows: Bunk is upset about McNulty having him tell Cole he can't make a charge on Stinkum's murder, and as a consequence, gets so drunk he ends up setting fire to his own clothes.
- Epigraph: "Come at the king, you best not miss." Omar says this to Wee-Bey (who's wounded and hiding behind his car) after shooting Stinkum.
- Foreshadowing: McNulty having his sons follow Stringer ends up having consequences for him later. Also, we find out later how Carver and Herc do on their sergeant's exam, and we get the first indication Burrell has a mole in the detail. Also, the death of the stripper at Wee-Bey's, and Kima and Lester's decision to press Shardene.
- From the Mouths of Babes: A rare case of it being Played for Drama. Wallace tries to get his younger sister to do a math problem, and she says she doesn't know; he then makes up a problem involving the count, and when she gets that right, and he asks why she got that one right but not the math problem, she responds, "Count be wrong, they'll fuck you up."
- Hidden Depths: Not only is Stringer taking an economics class at a community college, we also see he owns his own printer shop, and wants to run it like a legitimate business.
- Hypocritical Humor: As D'Angelo, Savino, Stinkum and Wee-Bey are out eating lunch, D'Angelo marvels at all the horseradish Wee-Bey puts on his sandwich, and Wee-Bey tells him the trick is not to mind it. Naturally, after taking a bite, Wee-Bey desperately needs a glass of water.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Without admitting he killed Stinkum, Omar uses this to justify Stinkum's murder.McNulty: Lester, are we still cops?
Lester: Technically, I suppose so.
McNulty: Okay, I was just checking. - Insistent Terminology: When McNulty points Stringer out to his kids, he calls Stringer the "tall black man"; his kids complain, "You're supposed to say 'African-American'."
- Noodle Incident: Once again, we get a hint Daniels' past is dirty, though we don't hear what (we do find out Burrell knows).
- Oh, Crap!: Orlando when he realizes how pissed Avon and Stringer are at him.
- Pragmatic Villainy: While Avon wants to go after Omar in a big way, Stringer thinks they should let things lie for a while because of the heat that's on them.
- Shout-Out: When McNulty is out shopping with his sons, he's quizzing them on Baltimore Orioles players.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bunk after McNulty tells him Omar can't be prosecuted for Stinkum's murder.Bunk: You're no good for people, Jimmy.
- McNulty to Daniels too after the latter caves to Burrell.
- Wild Card: The detail are pissed as all hell that Omar capped their suspect and incriminates himself with murder. And he makes no promises he won’t go after Barksdale’s crew in the future.
