Season 1, Episode 13
Sentencing
"All in the game."
— Traditional West Baltimore
Greggs comes out of her coma and manages to identify one of the shooters. She won't play the game of fingering the second shooter, because she didn't see him. The police are rounding up the lower echelons of Barksdale's distribution empire. Bunk and Daniels visit D'Angelo in his New Jersey jail to see what information they might get from him about the murders. He's ready to tell them what he knows but a visit from his mother, Avon's sister, changes his mind. With their investigation coming to an end, McNulty suggests that they take what they have to Feds and Daniels agrees. They don't like what hey hear however. Daniels identifies the snitch in his unit who has been keeping the Deputy Chief informed of their activities. McNulty has a meeting Major Rawls who tells him of his fate.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- Lester and Prez laugh when McNulty first suggests going to the Feds without telling Burrell.
- Also, when McNulty is in Rawls' office later, Rawls says, "Did you actually call the first deputy an empty suit?", and chuckles at that.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Avon is arrested and convicted, yes, but at a lower charge and with lesser prison time than Rhonda and the detail wanted, and Stringer gets away scot-free.
- Bittersweet Ending: Avon and several other members of the Barksdale crew, including D'Angelo and Wee-Bey, are sent to prison, everyone alive responsible for Kima's shooting is in jail, and Lester gets back into Homicide. However, Stringer gets away scot-free, which means the Barksdale crew is still going strong, Kima is still on the long, slow rode to recovery, McNulty's been Reassigned to Antarctica, and the drug war still goes on.
- Call-Back: In addition to what's mentioned above, Rhonda is still pissed at McNulty for what he said to Levy (though of course what D'Angelo says makes her forget all of that), and later, McNulty tries to apologize for that before she kisses him.
- Also, when McNulty brings up Deirdre's murder, Bunk taps three times on the table, and D'Angelo says again, "Tap...tap...tap."
- And when Prez hesitates about going with everyone to arrest Wee-Bey, Daniels gives him his gun back, and says, "I understand the trigger pull used to be light."
- Santangelo mentioned last episode "What can [Rawls] do to me?" Demote him to walking a beat, apparently.
- Chess Motifs: The metaphor about the drug game being a chess game between the cops and the criminals reaches its conclusion when Avon and Stringer (the King and Queen) are the last pieces on the board, waiting for a mass of SWAT units to raid their compound. The criminals are both wearing white, the cops are all either dressed in black or wearing black flack jackets. Avon quietly surrenders when he's faced with a checkmate.
- Comically Small Demand: After being arrested, Wee-bey demands some take-out food to confess all of the murders he's ever committed. Given that he's already facing a life sentence at best for a different crime he's being charged with, he has nothing to lose by confessing, and prison food sucks.
- Death Glare: Stringer turns around in the court to see McNulty several rows away fixing one of these on him. Some early foreshadowing of a festering grudge McNulty has for Stringer "beating" him, which grows into a wild obsession in Season 3.
- Demoted to Extra: We don't see any more of Santangelo until the end of Season 2, and that's a rather brief appearance, as most of his appearances will be from this point forward.
- The Easy Way or the Hard Way: Bunk presents this choice (without saying so much out loud) when he asks Kima to identify Wee-Bey as the second one who shot her. Kima responds, "Sometimes, things just got to play hard." When Bunk tells McNulty this, both of them are impressed.
- Epigraph: "All in the game...", which is credited to "Traditional West Baltimore".
- Foreshadowing: How D'Angelo takes the jail time will become important the next season, as well as Gant's trial.
- Also, we find out next season what happens to Daniels.
- Interservice Rivalry: Averted at first; the Baltimore detail would be perfectly happy to let the FBI take over the case, as they have the manpower and the funds to pursue it. That is, until...
- Ironic Echo: Poot catches one of the crew in the Pit taking money and handing off drugs in the same motion. He chastises them and calls out to everyone, "We gotta tighten things up around here!" just as D'Angelo did at the beginning of the season.
- Stringer leans down to McNulty and says "Nicely done" after the sentencing trial, just as McNulty did to him in the very first episode.
- Let Me Get This Straight...:McNulty: You're talking about turning Barksdale and Bell into cooperators and making the politicians the primary target?
- Mirror Character: Herc and Poot. Both start out the season as knuckleheads, but by the end, both of them have learned enough about the game to be (a little) smarter.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:McNulty: (to the FBI) West Baltimore's dying, and you empty suits are running around trying to pin some politician's pelt to the wall.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Or street name, in this case; when Levy mentions "Mr. Brice", Rhonda doesn't know at first he's talking about Wee-Bey.
- Phrase Catcher: D'Angelo's Catchphrase is "Most def"; when Brianna tells Avon he needs to make it up to D'Angelo, she says the same thing.
- Police Lineup: The police can't do a line-up to identify Kima's shooter because she's still in the hospital, so they use a photo array. Bunk tries to "fat finger" Wee Bey, the man they think is the shooter (Correctly). But Kima can't remember and refuses to lie.
- Rank Up: Carver makes sergeant. Burrell salutes him in the confirmation ceremony.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Jimmy is finally riding the boat. Lester and Bunk come by to salute him and give a bottle of Jameson before he sails away. In an inversion, Lester leaves the Pawnshop unit and fills the vacant left by Jimmy at Homicide.
- Tears of Remorse: McNulty when he goes to visit Kima in the hospital:McNulty: A case like this, it's always you or Sydnor, or some other black cop who ends up going undercover. (Beat) I swear, if I could do it over...if I...
Kima: If I could do it over, you know what I'd do? Put more tape on that fucking gun.
McNulty: (voice breaking) I'm sorry, Kima. I'm sorry. - This Is the Part Where...: As Bunk and Lester are about to leave Brown, he says, "Isn't this supposed to be the time you tell me how all-fired fucking important this is?"
- Worthy Opponent: You can tell Avon and Stringer have come to see McNulty as this.
