The Hunt (The Wire)

Last updated

"The Hunt"
The Wire episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 11
Directed by Steve Shill
Story by David Simon
Ed Burns
Teleplay by Joy Lusco
Original air dateAugust 18, 2002 (2002-08-18)
Running time56 minutes
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Cost"		Next →
"Cleaning Up"
List of episodes

"The Hunt" is the 11th episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire . The episode was written by Joy Lusco from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Steve Shill. It originally aired on August 18, 2002.

Contents

Plot summary

Rawls and Landsman go to the scene where Greggs and Orlando were shot. Bunk finds her weapon and some footprints and clothes belonging to the gunmen. Rawls finds McNulty in a state of shock. Freamon marshals the detail to get back to working the wiretap so any discussion of the shooting can be used as evidence. Carver informs Greggs' family and her girlfriend, Cheryl, about the shooting. At the hospital, Rawls uncharacteristically tells McNulty that Greggs' shooting is in no way McNulty's responsibility. Cheryl and Carver arrive and Burrell misunderstands Cheryl's relationship with Greggs. Burrell asks Commissioner Warren Frazier if he wants to talk to Cheryl, but Frazier declines and leaves Burrell to go alone, disappointing Carver. Cheryl returns home and breaks down in tears.

The next day, Stringer orders Wee-Bey to murder Little Man for supposedly killing Greggs. In the pit, D'Angelo discusses the shooting with Poot and Bodie. They mistakenly believe that the shooting was unrelated to their organization. Observing from a nearby church roof, Santangelo and Herc watch Bodie receiving a resupply of drugs from the towers. Herc notes the window which the stash is being dropped from. Wallace telephones Poot from his grandmother's house, but is simply homesick and has little to say. Bodie notices that Savino is wanted and Little Man has disappeared. They realize that the shooting must be tied to them. Bodie theorizes that someone has made mistakes and Avon will order his death. At Orlando's, Stringer orders D'Angelo to go with Wee-Bey. Neither Stringer nor Wee-Bey will tell him where they are going, leading D'Angelo to assume he will be killed. However, it turns out D'Angelo has been assigned to drive Wee-Bey to Philadelphia. Wallace phones Poot to ask for money to come home.

As warrants are served on Savino, Freamon and Prez find a page made to Stringer from a payphone near the scene of the shooting. Freamon has crime scene technicians dust the payphone and a nearby discarded drink can for fingerprints. McNulty shows up drunk to work, leading to a confrontation with Daniels. At Homicide, Bunk and Landsman suspect that the shooting was either a stick-up or a setup by the Barksdales. Freamon arrives to confirm that the fingerprints match Little Man. Bubbles, unaware of the shooting, is picked up by two uniformed officers after trying to page Greggs. A confused Bubbles is interrogated by Holley, who begins to beat him and has to be restrained by Landsman. McNulty returns Bubbles to Barksdale territory and gives him money to buy drugs, not realizing that he is trying to stay clean. Bubbles realizes that Wee-Bey and Little Man are the likely shooters and reports to McNulty, who passes the information on to Bunk. Bubbles again tries to tell McNulty that he is clean, but is cut off when McNulty has to leave. He is left holding the money that McNulty gave him.

McNulty threatens to investigate Levy's finances if he does not produce Savino. Pearlman berates him, noting that Levy is a powerful figure in Baltimore law. McNulty makes a remark about State's Attorneys that causes Pearlman to say that he will use anyone. Levy brings Savino in and claims that he had planned to defraud Orlando (by selling him baking soda, rather than actual cocaine), and was not involved in the shooting. Burrell tells Rawls, Foerster, and Daniels to organize citywide drug raids. Daniels tells his men that they will offer the cutting house Herc discovered, but will not tell them about the stash house they have uncovered, in order to protect the wire. However, Major Bobby Reed confronts Daniels about withholding targets, making him realize they have a mole in the detail. McNulty visits Phelan at a campaign fundraiser and fails to convince him to help with Burrell, as the judge has been reinstated on the mayor's ticket. Raids are made against the stash house, Savino's home, and the towers. Carver and Herc are alone when they find a pile of cash and again consider keeping some for themselves. Vast quantities of guns, narcotics, and money are seized and Frazier gets his photo opportunity. At the detail, work has all but ceased. Prez monitors light phone traffic (notably, missing Wallace's phone call to Poot requesting to come home, which the officers would have had a keen interest in, since they stashed Wallace with his grandmother in order to protect him), while Greggs remains on life support. [1] [2] [3]

Production

Title reference

The title refers to the knee-jerk police effort to identify the shooter(s) of Detective Greggs and the beginnings of a hunt for a rat in the detail.

Epigraph

Dope on the damn table.

— Daniels

The epigraph refers to the commissioner's desire to seize drug dealers' assets in response to the shooting of a police officer, irrespective of how it will affect larger cases. The episode picture shows the results of this desire - a press conference with plenty of seized drugs to show off in a photo-op. It also serves as a scathing criticism of the progress of the war on drugs.

Music

Masta Ace feat. Strick - Unfriendly Game (during the car ride with D'Angelo and Wee-Bey)

During the scene showing Cheryl's grief over Greggs' grave injury, Nina Simone's "Sugar in My Bowl" is playing.

Credits

Guest stars

Reception

In a 2009 retrospective of The Wire season one for The Guardian , Paul Owen analyzed this episode as exposing McNulty's "unsympathetic characteristics" that disqualify him from being a protagonist. Owen praised the scene where Cheryl cries after seeing the highlighter mark that Greggs left on her sofa as "a lovely, subtle moment" but criticized "the confusing segment where D'Angelo, the inexperienced and conflicted young dealer, thinks Stringer has ordered his enforcer Wee-Bey to murder him." [4]

Legacy

A scene where Wee-Bey reacted to the shooting of Greggs became a popular online GIF many years after this episode was broadcast. Wee-Bey Brice.jpg
A scene where Wee-Bey reacted to the shooting of Greggs became a popular online GIF many years after this episode was broadcast.

The scene where Wee-Bey shows a surprised expression after learning that shooting victim Greggs was a police officer resurfaced as a reaction GIF over 15 years after this episode was originally aired. [5]

Hassan Johnson, the actor who played Wee-Bey, commented about the popularity of that GIF in 2022: "It doesn’t get old. I guess I have an out-of-body experience to be able to see that and understand that." [6]

Related Research Articles

"Game Day" is the ninth episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire (2002–2008). The episode was written by David H. Melnick and Shamit Choksey from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Milčo Mančevski. It originally aired on August 4, 2002.

"The Target" is the series premiere of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Clark Johnson. It originally aired on June 2, 2002. The title refers to Detective Jimmy McNulty setting his sights on Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale's drug-dealing organization as the target of an investigation.

"The Detail" is the second episode of the first season of the HBO original television series, The Wire (2002–2008). The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Clark Johnson. It originally aired on June 9, 2002.

"The Buys" is the third episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Peter Medak. It originally aired on June 16, 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedric Daniels</span> Character from The Wire

Cedric Daniels is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Lance Reddick. Daniels is well-regarded in the Baltimore Police Department for making his subordinates focus on decent police work and quality arrests. He occasionally has disagreements with higher-ranking officers but for the most part performs well, and has thereby gained a reputation as both a reliable commander and an above-average investigator within the force, in stark contrast to some of his superiors and peers, most of whom display varying degrees of corruption and unreliability.

"The Wire" is the sixth episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire, the titular episode of the series. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Ed Bianchi. It originally aired on July 7, 2002.

"Old Cases" is the fourth episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Clement Virgo. It originally aired on June 23, 2002.

"One Arrest" is the seventh episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire (2002–2008). The episode was written by Rafael Alvarez from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Joe Chappelle. It originally aired on July 14, 2002.

"The Pager" is the fifth episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Clark Johnson. It originally aired on June 30, 2002.

"Lessons" is the eighth episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Gloria Muzio. It originally aired on July 21, 2002.

"The Cost" is the tenth episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Brad Anderson. It originally aired on August 11, 2002.

"Cleaning Up" is the twelfth and penultimate episode of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by George Pelecanos from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Clement Virgo. It originally aired on September 1, 2002.

"Sentencing" is the 13th episode and finale of the first season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Tim Van Patten. It originally aired on September 8, 2002.

"Time After Time" is the first episode of the third season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Ed Bianchi. It originally aired on September 19, 2004.

"Back Burners" is the seventh episode of the third season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by Joy Lusco from a story by David Simon & Joy Lusco and was directed by Tim Van Patten. It originally aired on November 7, 2004.

"A New Day" is the 11th episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns, and directed by Brad Anderson, it originally aired on November 26, 2006.

"Final Grades" is the 13th and last episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and directed by Ernest Dickerson, it originally aired on December 10, 2006. With a running time of 78 minutes, it is the second longest episode of the whole series and received critical acclaim.

The Baltimore Police Department plays an integral part in The Wire.

<i>The Wire</i> season 1 Season of television series

The first season of the television series The Wire commenced airing on Sunday, June 2, 2002, at 9:00 pm ET in the United States and concluded on September 8, 2002. The 13 episodes tell the story from the points of view of both the drug-dealing Barksdale organization and the investigating police detail.

References

  1. ↑ "Episode guide - episode 11 The Hunt". HBO. 2004. Retrieved July 26, 2006.
  2. ↑ David Simon, Ed Burns (June 2, 2002). "The Hunt". The Wire. Season 1. Episode 11. HBO.
  3. ↑ Alvarez, Rafael (2004). The Wire: Truth Be Told. New York: Pocket Books.
  4. ↑ Owen, Paul (May 4, 2009). "The Wire re-up: Episode 11, season one: The true McNulty". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 23, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
  5. ↑ Hill, Jemele; Lathan, Van (May 21, 2020). "The Origin of the Wee-Bey GIF in 'The Wire'". The Ringer. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
  6. ↑ Pandya, Hershal (August 17, 2022). "Hassan Johnson Is Television's Funniest Gangster". Vulture. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.