Episode no. Season 2
Episode 1 Story by David Simon
Ed Burns Running time 58 minutes | Directed by Ed Bianchi Teleplay by David Simon | |
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Original air date June 1, 2003 (2003-06-01) | ||
"Ebb Tide" is the first episode of the second season 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 Ed Bianchi. It originally aired on June 1, 2003.
Contents
Title and epigraph
The title alludes to the fact that the fortunes of many of the main characters are at low point at the beginning of this season, with McNulty, Greggs and Daniels all very much where they do not want to be. It also refers to the dead body that drifted from the tide and was picked up by McNulty's police boat.
The episode's epigraph is
Here Little Big Roy refers to the ports and their place in the chain. It also refers to the fortune of heavy industries as a whole, where manpower is replaced by automated machinery, a point alluded to throughout the season. The line could also be applied to the Barksdale crew, as after Avon's arrest his organization never fully regains the power it enjoyed during season one.
Music
Starring cast
Paul Ben Victor, Clarke Peters, Amy Ryan and Chris Bauer are all new additions to the opening credits this season. Despite his credit Clarke Peters does not appear in this episode. Credited stars Frankie Faison, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Deirdre Lovejoy and Andre Royo do not appear in this episode.
McNulty
Officer Jimmy McNulty, who has been demoted and reassigned to the Baltimore police department marine unit, complains to his new partner Claude Diggins about the cold. They are called to a ship with engine trouble that is hosting a party. The party organizer bribes McNulty to tow them out of the shipping lanes but not to shore so that they can continue their festivities.
The next day McNulty discovers a female corpse in the harbor and identifies it as relatively fresh but notes it has broken legs. Ray Cole is the homicide detective who gets the case - he meets McNulty on the shore. McNulty visits his old homicide unit looking for Bunk Moreland. He checks in with Sergeant Landsman and asks if he is to blame for him getting his nightmare assignment in the marine unit. Landsman denies any malicious intent in letting Rawls know about McNulty's aversion to the job. McNulty learns that Cole has missed several key pieces of information about the corpse that he discovered and that homicide commander Colonel Rawls has passed the case off to Baltimore County because it was found east of the bridge. McNulty spends his next few hours studying tides and charts of the harbor as he attempts to prove where the body was dumped into the water; he types up a report and faxes it to the county homicide unit. Rawls and Landsman immediately realize McNulty's involvement when the case is passed back to them.
Southeastern District
Detective Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski meets with Major Valchek, his father-in-law, to discuss his career options. Prez wants to stay in narcotics and work cases like the recently finished Barksdale investigation. Valchek wants him to progress through the ranks and have a career in the department, and quickly dismisses Prez's own plans. Valchek's office is filled with newly delivered stained glass decorations.
Headquarters
In the narcotics unit, Kima Greggs is working at her desk job and Detective Thomas "Herc" Hauk has returned to easier street cases following the dissolution of the Barksdale detail. Herc tells Kima that she is "pussy whipped" because she allows her romantic partner, Cheryl, to control her work life. When Kima returns home to Cheryl, they discuss possible fathers for artificial insemination along with Kima's job dissatisfaction.
Homicide detective Bunk Moreland visits his old partner McNulty at the docks to ask if he can help him locate witness Omar Little for the trial of Barksdale soldier Marquis "Bird" Hilton for the murder of William Gant. Bunk later goes to the storage basement to retrieve his evidence for the trial. He has a chance meeting with the recently dissolved Barksdale detail's commander Lieutenant Daniels, who is now in charge of the evidence room, and they discuss Bird's upcoming trial. Bunk is dismayed to learn that his evidence has been lost. Daniels insists that the entire basement be pulled apart to locate the evidence. That evening, Bunk meets with McNulty in a bar and again asks him for help locating Omar, but to no avail.
Barksdale organization
Bodie Broadus drives out to Central Philadelphia with another Barksdale drug dealer named Shamrock. He collects a car from a parking garage and drives it to another side street garage where it is stripped down. Bodie is enraged when the car is devoid of any narcotics and he worries over calling his superiors to let them know. Stringer Bell, leader of the organization while Avon Barksdale is imprisoned, orders them to return to Baltimore and report to the funeral home. Stringer checks that Bodie and Shamrock stuck to their assigned times and recorded their mileage. He also quizzes them separately to see if there was an opportunity for either one of them to steal anything. Finally, he reveals that he had them followed for the whole trip by Tank and a newly returned soldier called Country. Bodie is later seen running a drug dealing crew on a corner much like D'Angelo Barksdale used to. Bodie checks his count and discusses his resupply from a dealer named Mo Man with his second, Puddin.
Stringer visits Avon in prison and they discuss a delivery connection with New York named Roberto. It is this connection who failed to deliver the product which they sent Bodie to collect. Stringer's surveillance allowed him to check the integrity of his people. In doing so, he also identified the source of the problem as New York. Avon counsels that he must be firm when he demands their product. Stringer asks how he is managing with his sentence and Avon tells him that he really serves only two days: the day that he went in and the day that he is released. Stringer later meets with Roberto's lawyer in New York City, who explains that Roberto Castillan de Silva has been arrested by the DEA and was concerned that Avon's light prison sentence was the result of implicating Roberto to authorities. He is assured that his funds are being returned to him, but the New York suppliers no longer feel safe dealing with him because Avon's arrest and mild sentence raise concerns that he may be a police informant.
Dock business
Stevedores' Union Secretary Treasurer Frank Sobotka meets with another union leader, Nat Coxson, who is angry that the Baltimore grain pier is still in a state of disrepair. Frank is disparaged by his colleagues, including Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa and Ott, for taking the verbal abuse, but he laughs it off. Frank meets with his nephew Nick Sobotka and learns that he is working for the first time in two weeks; Frank tells Nick to see someone named 'The Greek' about a container that they have coming in. He hears from another worker, La La, that his son Ziggy has lost a container. Frank tells Ziggy that he is fired, but this is a regular occurrence.
Frank later visits a church where he has donated a stained glass window imported from Esslingen, Germany. He requests that the priest, Father Lewandowski, set a meeting up with Senator Barbara Mikulski for him to discuss the difficulties at the docks. Major Valchek delivers his own window to the church on behalf of Polish police officers and firefighters, but is angry that the dock union beat him to it.
Later in Delores' bar, the rest of the stevedores drink heavily and the senior members, including Moonshot, Chess, and Little Big Roy, riotously discuss days gone by. Ziggy organizes a rebuke from younger stevedores Nick, Johnny Fifty, and Big Roy. Ziggy is the center of attention, showing off and exposing himself while standing on a table, until the band (guest stars The Nighthawks as themselves) begin to play.
Nick is awoken in his parents' basement by his mother banging on the ceiling. She chastises him for getting up late when a ship is due. Ziggy sleeps on the sofa. Nick walks out to meet with the Greeks and bumps into his friend Johnny Fifty. As Johnny and Nick bemoan the lack of work for younger stevedores, Ziggy catches up with them. Nick reluctantly lets Ziggy drive out to his meeting with "The Greek". Ziggy embarrasses Nick by talking too much and offending Sergei, a Ukrainian driver, by calling him Boris. Nick's meeting is about a container that the Greek wants Sergei to drive away from the docks for him. Nick reports back to Frank and Horseface with the details and informs Frank that their cut will be the same. Just before Nick arrives, the local dock police officer Beadie Russell jovially asks Frank what he is stealing today. Later, Frank and Horseface are dismayed when Sergei leaves the container sitting on the dock for several hours. When they insist that he get on with things, Sergei drives away. Frank orders Pakusa to "lose" the container in the stack, so as to make it less conspicuous.
Later, Officer Russell stumbles across the Greek's container and notices the broken customs seal. She finds the bodies of over a dozen young women in the back of the container and calls for back up. The stevedores gather around as the police arrive. Frank is shocked to learn that there were dead women in the container.