The Wire S01E02 The Detail

Original airing: June 9, 2002

Runtime: 59 minutes

It seems Detective Jimmy McNulty is the only one in the whole Baltimore PD who knows how to do his job. Others want to drink. Still others want to crack skulls.

However, slowly but surely, other people involved in the detail on the Barksdale gang are showing their true colors. These happy few are in it to win it even if know one else is.

Among them are Detective Kima Griggs, who has an undercover drug pusher helping her mark the hierarchy in the gang. Griggs knows how to use her resources to do surveillance. Her undercover man goes down among the gangsters acting like he's selling stolen hats. He puts the red hat on the leadership, the black hats on the pushers, and no hats on the nobodies, and Griggs snaps photos from a nearby rooftop.

Then there's Lieutenant Cedric Daniels. He's a company man, he knows to cover for the many mistakes his crew makes, and yet he cares. Despite his wife urging him to leave the detail alone, he can't. He really wants to upend the whole criminal organization. But at what cost?