Season 2, Episode 3
Hot Shots
Bunk and Lester try to interrogate the crew members of the "Atlantic Light" Beadie had been able to have detained, but all of them claim they don't speak English, so it doesn't go well. They are able to figure out what happened, though unlike The Greek, they don't know the exact guilty party. Independently of them, McNulty is also able to work out what happened (thanks in part to Frazier, the ME), though when he visits them, they're unimpressed by that.
Valchek, meanwhile, is upset when he discovers his district's surveillance van has been stolen, and he's even more upset when he finds out from Prez that the detail is a collection of humps doing nothing. He threatens to hold up Burrell's confirmation unless Daniels is put in charge and good people are in the detail.
Nick continues to worry about money, especially when he's being nagged by his girlfriend Aimee (Kristin Proctor) (who's also the mother of their daughter). Ziggy convinces him to go in with him on swiping merchandise from the docks, which they sell to George "Double G" Glekas (Teddy Canez), who runs an appliance store that's one of The Greek's legitimate business fronts.
Omar returns, with a new boyfriend, Dante (Ernest Waddell), and they team up (willingly in Omar's case, reluctantly in Dante's) with Kimmy (Kelli R. Brown) and Tosha (Edwina Findley) to continue sticking up crews for their drug stash.
Finally, Stringer sets his eyes on Officer Tilghman; he discovers Tilghman's been getting drugs through Butchie (S. Robert Morgan), a half-blind bar owner, and smuggles them into prison, where he deals them. Stringer pays Butchie to spike the drugs, and as the episode ends, several prisoners have to be taken to the prison ward because of lethal drugs, or, as they call them, hot shots.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: While Dante is upset Kimmy and Tosha beat he and Omar to robbing a stash house, Omar is impressed, and chuckles.Now there's something you don't see every day.
- Artistic License – Geography: The FBI agent confirms there is "no such address [rue de Rivoli] in Le Havre, nor anywhere in Brittany for that matter". Except Le Havre 1, actually has a street named as such and 2, is located not in Brittany but in the neighbouring
(and long-time rival) region of Normandy. - Battle Couple: Kimmy and Tosha.
- Blackmail: How Valchek gets Burrell to acquiesce to putting "real police" on the Frank Sobotka case: Valchek knows that, all things considered, Burrell has enough votes within the PD to become the new commissioner. But Valchek knows just enough people with votes that are friends with him who can gum up the proceedings, and add to that the mysteriously abrupt end to the Barksdale case that Valchek heavily insinuates was stopped due to political reasons...it's easy to see why Burrell cracks.
- Call-Back: McNulty tells Daniels he hasn't heard from Omar since he put him on a bus to New York. Also, Donette mentions a sweater D'Angelo bought before he was arrested.
- Catchphrase: Sure enough, when McNulty comes to visit Homicide, the first thing Bunk says to him is, "You happy now, bitch?"
- Also, Clay calling someone he's trying to con "partner", which
the real-life person Clay Davis is based on apparently used to do.
- Also, Clay calling someone he's trying to con "partner", which
- Continuity Nod: Frank is still looking for political influence to dredge up the canal, and Clay Davis, once again, has his hand out. Also, McNulty is still looking for Omar, and Daniels is still looking to quit. Also, D'Angelo is still wary around his uncle, even though Avon makes a genuine attempt to reach out for him, and warns him not to use the drugs being smuggled into the prison.
- Exact Words: In an effort to cut Valchek off at the pass (as mentioned in Blackmail above), Burrell points out that the Barksdale operation was "a successful prosecution." Valchek retorts that it was, at least until it started sniffing at where the Barksdales were putting all of their money...
- The Fashionista: Jay Landsman, of all people.Jay: Officer, uh...?
Beadie: Russell.
Jay: I am informed that you are detailed to this case as a liaison with the port police. I also understand that you are the only help that your department is sending.
Beadie: That so?
Jay: Although there is some small charm to a woman in uniform, the fact remains we work plainclothes in Homicide. Which is not to say that the clothes need be plain. For you, I would suggest some pants suits, muted in color. Something to offset Detective Moreland's pinstriped, lawyerly affectations, and the brash, tweedy impertinence of Detective Freamon. (as he walks away, he tells them Rawls is watching)
Lester: "Tweedy impertinence"? I like that.
Bunk: You know what I'm saying? (laughs) - A Father to His Men: This is when we first see the reason why Frank made a Deal with the Devil (so to speak) was to take care of his men; when Ringo (Jon Garcia), one of the stevedores, tells Frank he wants to go to another local because he hasn't been getting any work (which he doesn't blame Frank for), Frank gives him money, tells him to order a shot and a beer from Delores on him, and if Ringo feels the same way after that, he can go to another local with Frank's blessing. Sure enough, that night, when Ringo goes for his shot and his beer, Delores gives him several thousand dollars to tide him over.Delores: Your pop's a good man, Zig.
- Foreshadowing: This is the first appearance of Butchie, and he becomes more significant later. Also, Nick and Ziggy swiping merchandise, and the fallout over the bad drugs inside the prison, all become important next episode.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Avon's idea of how to get back at Tilghman is to pay his supplier to give him tainted drugs.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Dante is jealous of Kimmy and Tosha, even though Omar insists he's not interested in them that way.
- Also, it seems Ziggy feels Frank is more A Father to His Men than a father to him.
- Guilt Complex: Bunk suspects this is why McNulty wants to solve the murder of the floater. "This is that Catholic shit, Jimmy, this is that little altar-boy guilt talking."
- Language Barrier: The sailors on the Atlantic Light all make a big spectacle to try to fool Bunk and Lester that every single one of them doesn't know a word of English on an international freighter that would need some kind of lingua franca. Lester points out that they are aware of this, but none of the interviewees fold. As it turns out, most of them knew about the girls in the can and were thus Obfuscating Stupidity.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Delores picks up on the fact something's going on with Ziggy because he's much quieter than usual.
- Shout-Out: During the Terrible Interviewees Montage, Bunk calls one of them "Kunta Kinte" and also says, "Yabba dabba dabba do", while an impatient Lester yells, "English, motherfucker!".
- McNulty's sons argue about Santa's elves and the elves from The Lord of the Rings.
- Squick: In-universe; McNulty admits, aside from screwing with Rawls, the main reasons he made sure the case of the dead prostitutes was given to Homicide was because if none of them are identified, they become medical cadavers, and he's freaked out by that. Beadie is as well.
- Third-Person Person: "Spread the word, darling. Omar back."
