The Wire: Boys of Summer Rewatch
March 10, 2025 2:58 PM - Season 4, Episode 1 - Subscribe
"Lambs to the slaughter here." -Marcia Donnelly
Bodie's man Curtis "Lex" Anderson kills Fruit over a woman they both slept with. Marlo's dealer "Little" Kevin has Cheese Wagstaff's estranged son Randy lure Lex to a vacant house, where Chris and Snoop Pearson kill him and nail the house shut. McNulty politely rejects Daniels's request that he rejoin major crimes. Carcetti grows disillusioned with his campaign after seeing his low poll numbers. Prez is hired as a math teacher at Edward Tilghman Middle School after the principal learns he was a police officer. Randy's friend Dukie Weems is beaten by a rival group of boys, so he and their friends pelt them with urine-filled water balloons and get in a brawl.
Bodie's man Curtis "Lex" Anderson kills Fruit over a woman they both slept with. Marlo's dealer "Little" Kevin has Cheese Wagstaff's estranged son Randy lure Lex to a vacant house, where Chris and Snoop Pearson kill him and nail the house shut. McNulty politely rejects Daniels's request that he rejoin major crimes. Carcetti grows disillusioned with his campaign after seeing his low poll numbers. Prez is hired as a math teacher at Edward Tilghman Middle School after the principal learns he was a police officer. Randy's friend Dukie Weems is beaten by a rival group of boys, so he and their friends pelt them with urine-filled water balloons and get in a brawl.
Just noticed that my below the fold summary (from Wikipedia) has some incorrect info: Little Kevin is part of Bodie's crew, not one of Marlo's dealers; he sells out Lex after Marlo's people pay him.
Daniels is now Major of the Western, not in charge of Major Crimes. He doesn't ask McNulty to rejoin that unit; he just wants to bump him back up into a detective role rather than beat cop.
Prez has already been hired and assigned to the school as a math teacher, but when he says he used to be "a police in the city," the principal and vice principal clearly light up, hoping that he will have the requisite toughness for dealing with the kids.
Also, I don't think we learn Randy's last name in this first episode; it is at least a few episodes before we learn that he is Cheese's kid. There is a brief hint dropped about Namond's dad, but again I think it is a few episodes before we learn who it is.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:59 PM on March 10
Daniels is now Major of the Western, not in charge of Major Crimes. He doesn't ask McNulty to rejoin that unit; he just wants to bump him back up into a detective role rather than beat cop.
Prez has already been hired and assigned to the school as a math teacher, but when he says he used to be "a police in the city," the principal and vice principal clearly light up, hoping that he will have the requisite toughness for dealing with the kids.
Also, I don't think we learn Randy's last name in this first episode; it is at least a few episodes before we learn that he is Cheese's kid. There is a brief hint dropped about Namond's dad, but again I think it is a few episodes before we learn who it is.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:59 PM on March 10
The cold open is one of the great television scenes of all time. So good.
posted by Cpt. The Mango at 7:09 PM on March 10 [3 favorites]
posted by Cpt. The Mango at 7:09 PM on March 10 [3 favorites]
I spent this entire season reciting the same phrase over and over again in my mind: "Please don't hurt Dukie, please don't hurt Dukie, please don't hurt Dukie..."
posted by Paul Slade at 7:02 AM on March 11 [2 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 7:02 AM on March 11 [2 favorites]
I've got some other things to watch at the moment (Daredevil: Born Again and Andor) but I'm half-tempted to take a whack at starting a rewatch here. I'm pretty amazed that no one had done the last two seasons, unless it's the "disappearing MeFite's posts also disappear" thing that we've seen recently. (Maybe the last season, because it wasn't a favorite of a lot of fans--I liked it fine, but it may have been a little too much David-Simon's-newspaper-inside-baseball for some people--but not this season.) The nailgun shopping scene really is excellent.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 AM on March 11 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 AM on March 11 [1 favorite]
It's not the inside baseball aspect of season 5 that bothered me, it was the McNulty's ludicrous "let's fake a series killer" plot. In a show that had previously been so meticulously rooted in reality, that concession to mainstream TV's dumb sensationalism really grated on me.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:27 AM on March 11 [5 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 8:27 AM on March 11 [5 favorites]
"Please don't hurt Dukie, please don't hurt Dukie, please don't hurt Dukie..."
Oh god, I know. He has a face that makes you want to just pick him up and cuddle him.
McNulty's ludicrous "let's fake a series killer" plot
Yeah, that was... not great. And that Lester just goes along with it. But hey, we'll have time to complain about that soon enough :)
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:29 AM on March 11
Oh god, I know. He has a face that makes you want to just pick him up and cuddle him.
McNulty's ludicrous "let's fake a series killer" plot
Yeah, that was... not great. And that Lester just goes along with it. But hey, we'll have time to complain about that soon enough :)
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:29 AM on March 11
I mean, surely the fourth and fifth seasons had to have been posted on FF previously? If they were and were removed via an account wipe, that’s really unfortunate.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:43 PM on March 13
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:43 PM on March 13
S1-3 were posted from mid-2014 to early 2015. I suspect that it just ran out of steam. Comment numbers dropped a lot from the watch of S1 to S2, and they remained pretty low throughout S3.
How often do account wipes actually happen? I feel like the topic has been coming up a lot lately, but my impression was they were exceedingly rare.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:17 PM on March 16
How often do account wipes actually happen? I feel like the topic has been coming up a lot lately, but my impression was they were exceedingly rare.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:17 PM on March 16
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Season 4 is probably my favorite, and it is certainly the most heart-breaking.
Some moments of note:
Love the way Kima and Lester scam their new Lt -- who is clearly already in retirement mode and does not give a fuck -- into signing off on whatever they want. Kima is hilarious: "just need you to sign off on some vehicle logs, office supplies, department memo (subpoena requests), oh and we need a new fan for the office."
McNulty is finally a functioning human being! Carver is somewhat decent! But Herc is still a meathead doofus.
Prez shows up in his new career, continuing perhaps the most epic character arc in the series, from shitbag abusive cop to caring educator.
Snoop buying the nail gun! "He meant Lexus but he didn't know it."
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:05 PM on March 10 [4 favorites]