Season 2, Episode 7
Backwash
After D'Angelo's death, Stringer throws a funeral, and (pretends to) comfort Avon and Briana, both of whom feel responsible for D'Angelo (supposedly) killing himself. At the funeral, Stringer also gets approached by Proposition Joe with an offer; Stringer will trade territory for better product. Avon turns it down, however, preferring to try another connect.
Rawls and then Lester ultimately manage to convince a stubborn Daniels to fold the murder investigation into his own. As far as the detail goes, they manage to track a case, and Kima follows the truck Sergei's driving all the way to a warehouse, and she also discovers Proposition Joe is in league with Sergei and his bosses. Beadie pretends to have been reassigned to the Fairfield Piers to make Frank and the others feel the police are no longer looking at them for the murders. Kima, along with Prez, also figures out where the prostitutes have stayed in the past. Also, Carver and Herc borrow a bug to help them spy on the drug dealers they've been watching, and they happen to find out Nick (who's dealing out the drugs he received as part of the deal he made with Vondas) is involved. Unfortunately, they plant the bug in a tennis ball that's meant to be inconspicuously placed on the street, but is crushed when Frog unknowingly tosses it into traffic.
Frank says he wants to stay on as head of the union, which Nat opposes, because "it's Ott's turn." And even tragedy doesn't bring them together on this; a crate falls on New Charles' (Stan Stewart) leg, which horrifies everybody, but Nat gets suspicious when Frank gives New Charles' wife a lot of money to tide her over.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Nick realizes Ziggy's "paternity suit" is really a practical joke cooked up by Maui, he laughs.
- Ambition Is Evil: Subverted; Frank wants to stay in charge because he doesn't want anyone else to find out his deal with the Greek.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "Where's the money from, Frank?"
- As You Know: A neat one. Joe approches Stringer to talk shop and prefaces one of his propositions with a summation of the Barksdale dilemma, prime real estate but weak product. Stringer interrupts Joe and asks "when are you gonna tell me something I don't know?", urging Joe to get to the point.
- Black Comedy: The beginning of the episode, when Bodie is buying a wreath for D'Angelo's funeral, and the manager shows him floral arrangements that look like guns. Bodie eventually asks for one to be made so it looks like the Terrace Towers.
- Blatant Lies: Nick explains his new and better income to Aimee by saying he's a foreman at a warehouse.
- Call-Back: Nick makes Frog pay the money he owed Ziggy.
- Continuity Nod: Frank is still pushing to make sure dredging the canal is a priority. Also, Elena continues not to trust McNulty.
- Dartboard of Hate / Take That!: The picture Frank keeps up on his dartboard is of Robert Irsay, the owner who moved the Colts out of Baltimore.
- Epigraph: "Don't worry, kid, you're still on the clock." Horseface says this to New Charles to try and comfort him.
- Job-Stealing Robot: Frank and Nat attend a seminar where they're shown the future of working the docks is robot technology, and they're both horrified at this fact. This makes Frank even more determined to get what he can for his men, and more susceptible to keeping his arrangement with the Greek.
- The Law Firm of Pun, Pun, and Wordplay: The law firm handling the woman supposedly suing Ziggy for paternity is called Shyster, Shyster and Shyster.
- Let Me Get This Straight...:Beadie: You mean you can tap a guy's phone if he's selling drugs, but if he's selling women he's outta bounds?Rhonda: That's the law.
- Oh, Crap!: Carver and Herc when the tennis ball holding their bug is thrown onto the street, and again when a car runs over it.Carver: Fifteen...hundred dollars.Herc: Twelve-fifty with the police discount. (sighs) It just couldn't stand up to the modern urban crime environment, man.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Frog completely embodies this trope, so much so that Nick has to point out to him, "First of all, you happen to be *white*."
- Shout-Out: As Carver observes Herc clowning around with a handgun in a spy store, he cracks, "His name is Head. Dick Head." Also, Carver calls Herc "Beavis" at one point.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: Maui keeps playing The Supremes' "Love Child" on the jukebox as part of the joke of Ziggy's "paternity suit".
- Tempting Fate: Daniels telling Marla he's going to be able to resist taking on the murders so he can get out of the basement.
