Season 2, Episode 9
Stray Rounds
After the beating Bodie, Poot and other Barksdale crew members give a rival crew, the rival crew returns for a shootout, and in the ensuing gun battle, a nine year old boy is killed. Naturally, Stringer is upset because it means they'll have the police all over them. To make matters worse for them, when Bodie and Shamrock try to dispose the guns by stuffing them all in a bag and throwing the bag into the river, the bag instead lands on a barge, and the police recover the bag. However, when Cole and Norris arrest Bodie, they're unable to shake him. Of course, that doesn't make Stringer any happier. He also decides to take the deal with Proposition Joe. Unfortunately when Stringer tries to have Briana go to Avon to explain the deal, she returns with the news Avon's hired Brother Mouzone (Michael Potts), a deadly professional killer from New York City, to enforce Barksdale territory.
The detail realizes Frank and the others are on to them, thanks to the clean can being stopped. However, because they're still on phones, they're figure out they're on the main stash (which hasn't been shipped out yet), and they also are able to get on new phones. McNulty is unsuccessful when he tries for a follow-up call on getting to the brothel, but Lester gets the idea he should pretend to be from Britain, so McNulty pretends to be James Cromwell, and is successful. So successful, in fact, he ends up getting with two prostitutes at once before the police arrest all of them, as well as the madam. However, the detail unknowingly tip their hand in another way; McNulty reaches out to Fitz again, and he contacts Agent Koutris (Tom Mardirosian), who happens to be working with The Greek, and who tells him of the attention (in return, The Greek tips him off about a drug shipment the Colombians have made on the docks, since the Colombians have been late with paying them). Not only that, but when Valchek hears the investigation is now going beyond Frank, and that Burrell and Daniels are okay with that, he blows his stack, and vows to take his case elsewhere.
Ziggy decides once again to work a scheme of his own, this time (with the help of Johnny Fifty) stealing cars and selling them to Glekas.
Major Colvin and Lieutenant Mello inspect the neighborhood, quiet for a day after a deployment in force from the police. Just as they roll out, a man from New York rolls in. Brother Mouzone.
This episode contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Ever since Ziggy bought the duck, he's been feeding it peanuts and whiskey. Three guesses as to what happens to it.Nat: What kind of fool would give a duck whiskey?
- A-Team Firing: A street-corner shootout breaks out between Bodie's crew and a rival gang, with about five or so shooters on each side. Dozens of rounds are fired, none of them aimed carefully, almost all while on the run, and many are simply wild blind fire. It comes off as the precise opposite of the glamorous action gunfight. Both sides scatter as soon as sirens are heard, with the only casualties being some car windows and a young boy in a nearby building.
- Big "NO!": The mother of the seven-year-old boy who catches a stray bullet during the shooting at the beginning of the episode and is killed
- Bluffing the Murderer: Cole and Norris try to do this to Bodie, but Bodie is smart enough that it doesn't work.
- Call-Back:
- When Stringer yells at Bodie about the gunfight, Bodie reminds him about changing the name, and no matter how many times they changed it, the junkies all caught on.
- When Lester suggests McNulty call Fitz, McNulty reminds him their last meeting didn't end well.
- Chekhov's Gun: Literally, the gun Ziggy gets in exchange for the necklace the duck used to wear.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Major Colvin and Lt. Dennis Mello make their debuts in this episode. While they seem to be random members of the police brass at this point, Colvin will be a central figure in seasons 3 and 4.
- Death of a Child: At the beginning of the episode.
- The Dreaded: Brother Mouzone. According to Proposition Joe, he has "more bodies on him than a Chinese cemetery."
- Everyone Has Standards: McNulty may have allowed himself to cross the line by letting the prostitutes, as he puts it, bring him to the point of a sexual act, but he's not going to perjure himself about it.Bunk: You're famous behind this, you know that? As a pervert, this report is gonna make you a BPD legend.
- Fake Brit: In-Universe. McNulty pretends to be James Cromwell, a travelling British businessman, in order to infiltrate the brothel under the guise of a costumer. The fact that Dominic West, the actor who plays McNulty, is actually British, adds some extra funny irony to this.
- Flush the Evidence: joked about with the brothel raid.
- Foreshadowing:
- Colvin's dissatisfaction with how the drug war is fought during the investigation scenes will play into Hamsterdam in season 3.
- Also, Ziggy's new business deal - trading stolen cars to Double G - becomes important, as does Carver and Herc's resentment at being on the low end of the totem pole as far as the detail is concerned. Finally, Lester hears on the wire Sergei denying he had anything to do with a recent murder because the victim still had their hands attached as well as their face, and his investigation into that comes into play later.
- Gallows Humor:
- Naturally, Jay Landsman is the one who says, "You accidentally shoot one nine year old in his bedroom and the whole city gets its undies in a bunch."
- New Charles comes into the Clement Street bar, using crutches and waiting for a prosthetic limb, but otherwise okay. Naturally, the other stevedores tell him he needs a new name, and Ziggy suggests "Tilt", which New Charles likes.
- How's Your British Accent?: Dominic West, an Englishman playing an Irish-American cop doing an atrocious
Fake Brit accent. - Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Cole accuses Bodie of this: "Nobody ever thinks they're stupid; it's part of the stupidity." It's actually Cole who's the ignorant one.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Carver and Herc start to feel this way.
- Loose Lips: Sergei's Blasé Boast about handless and headless bodies will come back to bite him.
- Murphy's Bullet: Two drug gangs squabble over territory. At first it seems laughable
, like the gang version of a Wimp Fight, as the two sides obviously have little to no experience with guns, and most don't even come close to hitting each other due to the fact that they're often firing without properly aiming or even looking at their target. The mood changes quickly when a mother in a nearby building finds her nine-year-old son dead in his room from a stray bullet. - Mock Surprise Reaction: The expression on Bunk and Kima's faces when they catch McNulty with the two prostitutes.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Discussed; Fitz tells McNulty if an FBI agent pisses off his boss, he or she ends up in a "dust-bowl" Indian reservation in Arkansas.
- Refuge in Audacity: When Bunk and Kima catch McNulty with the two prostitutes, his first words to them are, "You're late."
- Running Gag: Once again, the detail has to restrain gung-ho police who just want to bust down doors.Bunk: It ain't like they gonna flush a half dozen whores down the toilet.
- Shout-Out: While waiting for McNulty to give the signal for the police, Bunk asks, "Is it soup yet?", which is a reference to a Lipton soup commercial from the 70's.
- Tempting Fate: Stringer assures Proposition Joe they'll have a week or so before they have to worry about Brother Mouzone. Guess who shows up at the end of the episode.
- Three-Way Sex: When presented with a choice for girls, McNulty ad-libs a little and asks if it would be wrong to have two. When they hear it over the wire, Bunk chuckles while Daniels shakes his head, not that surprised. But McNulty actually seals the deal a moment later. He ends up having to write a report on why he did it, as obviously he wasn't meant to "close the deal" before the raid. He ultimately claims "I was outnumbered." Bunk warns him that his report will make him a Baltimore PD legend.
- Waxing Lyrical: While waiting for his ride to the brothel, McNulty sings, "Some Enchanted Evening".
