Season 1, Episode 9
Game Day
"Maybe we won."
Carver and Herc discover the Pit is deserted, and when they investigate, find the Barksdale crew is playing a basketball game against the east side drug crew (or the teams they each get), coached by "Proposition" Joe Stewart (Robert F. Chew), and they end up losing. Lester has Prez and Sydnor work the paper trail to track where Avon and Stringer have been putting their drug money. The detail finally gets a visual on Avon thanks to the game, but when they try to follow him, Avon manages to shake them off. Kima and Lester press Shardene, and she's upset enough about her friend and colleague not only dying, but having her body put in a dumpster, that she agrees to work for the detail, and breaks up with D'Angelo. Omar hits another Barksdale stash house, and almost shoots Avon, but Avon is able to duck away just in time, and Wee-Bey wounds Omar. After only getting baking soda when he decides to steal drugs, and after running into Waylon again, Bubbles decides to try and get clean, and asks his sister Rae (Eisa Davis) if he can stay with her; she reluctantly complies.— Herc
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Avon recruits a ringer for the game, and when the player's coach asks not only for money for himself, but also the university, Avon, after frowning at first, chuckles at being hustled and gladly agrees to the terms.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Before leaving D'Angelo's house, in response to D'Angelo asking her why she's leaving, Shardene asks if she was someone that could be rolled up in a rug and thrown in the trash. D'Angelo has no answer.
- Badass Boast: Avon wags his finger at Daniels when he drives by.
- Big Damn Heroes: Omar has access to Avon and Wee-Bey's pager numbers and uses that to trick Avon into going outside to a payphone. Just as Omar is about to shoot Avon, Wee-Bey pulls up in his vehicle letting Avon understand that the pager numbers have been compromised and jump out of the way of Omar's bullet. Wee-Bey injures Omar and covers Avon as the latter hides behind a vehicle.
- Break the Cutie: The tactic decided upon to get Shardene to spill the beans. "I think she's a sweetheart," says Freamon, "and we push her hard enough, she'll tumble."
- Brief Accent Imitation: After beeping D'Angelo to see what phone he's going to use, and D'Angelo calls him back, Carver tries to imitate a counterman at a Korean restaurant.Herc: What the fuck was that?
Carver: That was my Korean counterman.
Herc: Sounded Chinese.
Carver: Like you can fucking tell the difference. - Catchphrase: Proposition Joe's "Got a proposition for ya".
- Continuity Nod: Stringer again counsels Avon that they should call a truce with Omar.
- Corrupt Cop: Played with; after they get the stash money from Wee-Bey, Herc tells Carver they should take some of it for themselves, but Carver points out the exact amount they confiscated will be on the wire. However, it turns out part of it is missing, and Daniels accuses them of stealing it anyway, ordering them to come up with it before the next morning or they're screwed. After frantically searching their car, they find the rest under the wheel well.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Avon mocks Prop Joe for carrying around a clipboard despite not being able to read. Prop Joe is later established to be not only a cunning crime boss, but a very knowledgeable man. A prequel short later establishes him as having been a model student.
- Though he clearly meant Prop Joe has no idea how to read a sports playbook for basketball.
- Epigraph: After looking at the empty low-rises, Herc muses, "Maybe we won."
- Establishing Character Moment: Proposition Joe shows himself to be a con artist during the game; after Avon's team gets a big lead in the first half, Proposition Joe proposes they double the bet, which Avon gladly does, at which point Joe brings in a ringer of his own, who ends up winning the game for the east side.
- Foreshadowing: Poot talks on the wire about Wallace still being affected by Brandon's death; this becomes important later.
- Hard-Work Montage: Sydnor going around various places to follow the paper trail.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: After Omar comes to Proposition Joe offering to trade the stash he robbed for a way to get to Avon:Proposition Joe: Let me understand; Avon loses a hundred large to me on a bet, then you bring me some of his shit so that I can put your predatory self on his ass. Not his day, is it?
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After seeing how Wee-Bey so callously treated her friend who OD'd, Shardene agrees to work for the Major Crimes Unit.
- Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Shardene says this when Kima and Lester first pick her up, showing her naivete.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Lampshaded when Carver and Herc run into Bodie and Poot at the game; they each ask each other if they're on the clock.
- Serious Business: The basketball game. Even Carver gets caught up in it.
- Shout-Out:
- When holding up the Barksdale stash, Omar says, "Y'all need to open this door, man, before I huff and puff. Come on, now, by the hairs of your chinny-chin-chin."
- Also, Avon complains about Proposition Joe trying to look like Pat Riley during the game.Proposition Joe: Look the part, be the part, motherfucker!
- Lester references the famous "follow the money" line from All the President's Men:
You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. You start to follow the money and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you. - Worthy Opponent: McNulty has come to feel this way about Avon.You know what they say; stupid criminals make stupid cops. I'm proud to be chasing this guy.
