-30-

The Wire 5×10

Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: But if we... But how can... Jesus Christ. So this means that...

Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Hey, Norman, this is my ass here.
Norman Wilson: That's true, boss. But it does have a certain charm to it. They manufactured an issue to get paid, we manufactured an issue to get you elected governor. Everybody's getting what they need behind some make-believe.

Chief of Staff Michael Steintorf: Deputy, Counselor... if you two will excuse us, we are going to discuss this first as a matter of public policy. Until we can reason the best way to address this, do nothing and speak to no one about any of this. If this becomes public in the wrong way, a lot of people who were legally responsible for the situation, good people who were, nonetheless, in a supervisory role here... are going to suffer. And that's not the outcome that anyone wants.
Norman Wilson: What Mike is saying is that we need to be very careful about how to proceed.

Norman Wilson: I wish I was still at the newspaper so I could write on this mess. It's too fucking good.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: Motherfucker, you were the one who was all semper fi for this serial killer and now you're fuckin' the dog.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: I'm ready to work the case. But short of any new leads, what the fuck do you want me to do? I can't make shit up, can I? It is what it is.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Shit is like a war, ain't it? Easy to get in, hell to get out.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Deputy.
Deputy Commissioner Cedric Daniels: .............. To be continued.

Walon: Read it.
Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins: "You can hold back from the suffering of the world, you have free permission to do so and it is in accordance with your nature. But perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could have avoided." Fran-zee Kafka. Who's he?
Walon: Some writer.
Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins: You read his books?
Fuck, no.

City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: You ever notice that the guys who do that, the Blairs, the Glasses, the Kelleys, they always start with something small, just a little quote that they clean up. And then it's a whole anecdote, and, pretty soon, they're seeing some amazing shit. They're the lucky ones who just happen to be standing on the right street corner in Tel Aviv when the pizza joint blows up and the human head rolls down the street with the eyes still blinking.
Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow: The pictures were sent to him. The police have confirmed...
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: It always starts with something true, something confirmed. ...

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: How are you not in jail?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: I don't know. The lie's so big, people can't live with it.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Jesus fucking Christ, Jimmy. I told you. I fuckin' told you it was going to come to this. You played with fire, didn't you? And now we're all getting burned...

Commissioner William A. Rawls: Oh, yeah. The mayor knows your name. So this is your last case. Work it. If you're half the detective you think you are, you'll put this one down fast and take us all off the hook. The longer this goes on, the worse the payback's gonna be.

Council President Nerese Campbell: I'm not stuck with anything. Daniels either comes around or he's done.
Chief of Staff Michael Steintorf: We just apointed him. We can't go back on that now. He knows it.
Council President Nerese Campbell: Either he learns his place or he'll be offering to resign. You ain't the only one knows how to play this game.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: He was the black sheep, the permanent pariah. He asked no quarter of the bosses and none was given. He learned no lessons, he acknowledged no mistakes. He was as stubborn a Mick as ever stumbled out of the Northeast parishes to take a patrolman's shield. He brooked no authority. He did what he wanted to do and he said what he wanted to say and, in the end, he gave you the clearances. He was natural police... I don't say that about many people, even when they're here on the felt. I don't give that one up unless it happens to be true. Natural poh-leece.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: But Christ, what an asshole. And I'm not talkin' about the ordinary, gaping orifice that all of us possess. I mean an all-encompassing, all-consuming... out of proportion to every other facet of his humanity chasm. From whose bourn, if I may quote Shakespeare, "No traveler has ever returned."
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: The fuck did I do?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Shut the fuck up. You're dead to us now.

Deputy Commissioner Cedric Daniels: She wants me to juke the stats for Carcetti, this quarter and the next, hide the crime, get him elected as governor and make her the Mayor.
Marla Daniels: So do it. Burrell juked them before you. Warren Frazier before him. And, after you're gone, Rawls or whoever will juke them. So what?
Deputy Commissioner Cedric Daniels: I'll swallow a lie when I have to. I've swallowed a few big ones lately. But the stat games, that lie, it's what ruined this department. Shining up shit and calling it gold, so majors become colonels and mayors become governors. Pretending to do police work while one generation fucking trains the next how not to do the job, and then... I looked Carcetti in the eye. I shook his hand. I asked him if he was for real. This is the lie I can't live with.

Marla Daniels: The tree that doesn't bend breaks, Cedric.
Deputy Commissioner Cedric Daniels: Bend too far, you're already broken.

Ricardo 'Fat Face Rick' Hendrix: Shit, nigger, we was good when your uncle had it. You had to go ahead and put up with Marlo.
Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff: See that? See now, that's just the wrong way to look at it cause Joe had his time and Omar put an end to that. Then Marlo had his time, short as it was, and the police put an end to that. And now, motherfucker, it's our time. Mines and yours. But instead of just shutting up and kicking in, you gonna stand there cryin' that back-in-the-day shit.
Ricardo 'Fat Face Rick' Hendrix: Cheese...
Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff: There ain't no back in the day, nigger. Ain't no nostalgia to this shit here. There's just the street and the game and what happen here today. You right. When it was my uncle, I was with my uncle. When it was Marlo, I was with him. But now, nigger...

—
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The End

Late Editions

The Wire 5×9

Det. Lester Freamon: McNulty. It's on.

Det. Lester Freamon: Drink with me, Jimmy. This is what you wanted, man.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Then why do I feel like shit?
Det. Lester Freamon: Postpartum depression, son. It's the journey, not the destination...

Det. Lester Freamon: Daniels wanted me up there at that press conference. Up there with all the rest of those preening motherfuckers, congratulating themselves on a job well done. Part of the problem, all of them.

Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Seriously, it was a wiretap, right?
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Seriously, I couldn't fuckin' tell you if I knew, Herc.
Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: What're you saying? My phone number wasn't shit?
Sgt. Ellis Carver: What do you want me to fuckin' say, Herc? You're the tits. Without your little contribution, the whole fucking city slips into the Chesapeake Bay. Better?

City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Let me ask you this. Could Terry have exaggerated?
Ex-Marine: Mm-mm.
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Why not? If he got wound up, say.
Ex-Marine: Uh-uh. You lie about combat because you weren't there. And Terry was. Two tours. He's got stories if he wants 'em. Just not on that day. He ain't lie, y'all did, sorry t'say.

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins: Ain't no shame in holdin' on to grief. As long as you make room for other things, too.

Michael Lee: How you all even know if Walter behind everybody gettin' jacked? I mean, ain't y'all ever wonder if he even deserve any of this shit?
Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson: Deserve got nuthin' to do with it. It's his time, that's all.

Michael Lee: Come on, now. A man don't be sheddin' no tears.

—
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Clarifications

The Wire 5×8

Commissioner William A. Rawls: The bad news, gentlemen, is we're actually going to have to catch this motherfucker. The good news is our mayor finally needs a police department more than he needs a school system.

Sgt. Ellis Carver: Why me? Why not somebody from a district where they caught one of your homeless cases?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, there's a hitch...
Sgt. Ellis Carver: This is some fucked-up McNulty shit. I don't want me or any of my guys getting burned.

Scott Templeton: If you're not going to let me tell my side of the story...
TerryHanning: A lie ain't a side of the story, it's just a lie.

FBI Profiler: So what we conclude from a behavioral analysis of the known forensics is the following. The suspect is likely a white male, in his late 20s to late 30s. He likely is not a college graduate, but feels nonetheless superior to those with advanced education, and he is likely employed in a bureaucratic entity, possibly civil service or quasi-public service, from which he feels alienated. He has a problem with authority and a deep-seated resentment of those he feels have impeded his progress professionally. The minimized sexual activity suggests that this is not a primary motive for the killings. In fact, the bite marks in the last found victim lacking the DNA of saliva, indicate to us possible post-mortem staging. The suspect has trouble with relationships and is possibly a high-functioning alcoholic, with alcohol being utilized as a trigger in the commission of these crimes. His resentment of the homeless may stem from a relationship with someone in that cohort, or his victimization of vagrants might merely present an opportunity for him to assert his superiority and intellectual prowess. If you get more, fax it down, and we can update the profile.

Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell: All the guys at the bar, Jimmy, all the girls, they don't show up at your wake. Not because they don't like you but because they never knew your last name. A month later, someone tells 'em, "Oh, Jimmy died." "Jimmy who?" "Jimmy the cop." "Oh," they say. "Him." And all the people on the job, all the people you spent all those hours in the radio car with, the guys with their feet up on their desk telling stories, who shorted you on the food runs, who signed your overtime slips. In the end, they're not gonna be there either. Family. That's it. Family, and if you're lucky, one or two friends who are the same as family. That's all the best of us get. Everything else is just...

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: You start to tell the story, you think you're the hero. And then, when you get done talking, you...

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Took

The Wire 5×7

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Jay, I don't need...
Sgt. Jay Landsman: You are the point man on the motherfucker who's missing. You don't have time to work on the older cases. It goes to Greggs, end of fucking story. Now... what else do you need?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Shame on y'all. I mean it.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: How long?
Det. Lester Freamon: Depends on the code, doesn't it?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Quicker we bring this in and shut it down, the safer we'll all be. Landsman wants me to go to fucking Quantico, let the FBI do a profile.
Det. Lester Freamon: Might learn something about yourself.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: It's not funny, Lester. This shit's bigger than I ever thought it would be.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Good news is they're giving me more manpower than they can waste. Bad news? It's all around the office that I'm giving out hours and money to people to work other cases. I can't help it, Lester. It's the kind of person I am. I give and give.
Det. Lester Freamon: If you're not careful, you're gonna get shit on you, on us.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Who's gonna complain? Guys are working cases and getting paid. So what exactly do you need?

State's Attorney Rupert Bond: What the fuck just happened?
A.S.A. Rhonda Pearlman: Whatever it was, they don't teach it in law school.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Let's say good night to everybody. Good night, moon... Good night, stars... Good night, po-pos... Good night, fiends... Good night, hoppers... Good night, hustlers... Good night, scammers... Good night to everybody... Good night to one and all.

—
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The Dickensian Aspect

The Wire 5×6

Marlo Stanfield: Which one?
Chris Partlow: Don't seem possible.
Marlo Stanfield: It don't. That some Spider-Man shit there.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You happy now, bitch?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: I am content, yes.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You called the reporter?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: No, actually. That asshole's making up his own shit.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You know what, Jimmy? I'm gonna go back to the beginning and work every one of them again. Back to square one. You know why? Because I'm a murder police. I work murders. I don't fuck with no make-believe, I don't jerk shit around. I catch a murder and I work it. Working this shit like I'm supposed to.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, let me know if you need anything, all right? Cars, some OT, some lab work... Anything you need. Because in three or four hours the money's gonna flow on my case. Whatever you need, I'm probably gonna have more of it than even Lester could use.

Executive Editor James C. Whiting III: These murders, the phone call to our reporter. It really opens up the issue.
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Yeah, but...
Executive Editor James C. Whiting III: From now to the end of the year, let's focus not only on covering the murders, but on the nature of homelessness itself.
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: The Dickensian aspect of it. Yeah.

Det. Lester Freamon: When they took us off Marlo this last time, when they said they couldn't pay for further investigation, I regarded that decision as illegitimate.
Det. Leander Sydnor: Illegitimate?
Det. Lester Freamon: And so... I'm responding in kind. I'm going to press a case against Marlo Stanfield without regard to the usual rules. I'm running an illegal wiretap on Marlo Stanfield's cell phone.
Det. Leander Sydnor: Fuck. Lester?
Det. Lester Freamon: If you have a problem with this, I understand completely and I urge you to get as far fucking away from me as you can.

Det. Leander Sydnor: The homeless murders? How does that case tangle in with this?
Det. Lester Freamon: Hard to explain.

Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: You're a natural, kiddo. You had 'em eating out of your hand.
Deputy Commissioner Cedric Daniels: Shit, I was just following the mayor's lead. He wants a full-court press, right?
Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: We can add a detective or two. And you can ask patrol to concentrate on posts where vagrants congregate. But other than that, deputy, the cupboard is bare.
Deputy Commissioner Cedric Daniels: But Carcetti...
Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Make no mistake. He wants us to solve the murders. He just doesn't want it to cost. Don't look so shocked. You're runnin' with the big dogs now. Heh.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: We're afraid to piss them off?
Judge Daniel Phelan: Never pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by the barrelful.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: What now?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: There's more than one way to skin a case.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Already ran them for priors, right?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Priors, yeah. But I'm gonna run every name you guys developed through the entire database. Not just for priors, but for anything at all in the Miles system. Court appearances, parole, probation, gun permits, DOC, open bails.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: You're playing long shots, huh?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Darlin', I'm playin' the hand I've been dealt.

Omar Little: Now you make sure you tell old Marlo I burned the money. Cos it ain't about that paper. It's about me hurtin' his people and messin' with his world. Tell that boy he ain't man enough to come down to the street with Omar. You tell him that!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Pictures?
Det. Lester Freamon: Photographs on cell phones. Now that means new PC to capture the photos and new equipment that could do it.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: How do I write that into my bullshit homeless killer's MO?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: When we started this, you said all we needed were some bugs, a camera or two, and in a couple of weeks, we'd have them. That's what you said. So I cranked up my bullshit to pay for that but no, then you needed a wiretap. So I went along, I got you the wiretap. Then you ask for surveillance teams, but before I can get to that, you came to me with this. I mean, what the fuck? I gotta tell you, Lester, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I can see why Daniels cringed every time you opened your fucking mouth. You're a supervisor's nightmare.
Det. Lester Freamon: I'm just following the thread.

—
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React Quotes

The Wire 5×5

Spiros 'Vondas' Vondopoulos: In business, in life, what you learn to appreciate the most is a dependable man.

Marlo Stanfield: Do it feel like a crown on your head right now?
Chris Partlow: Do it?
Marlo Stanfield: 'Cause that's what I'm wearin' on my head.

Scott Templeton: What's left for me to do?
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: You can go and, er... talk to the homeless.
Scott Templeton: React quotes from the homeless?
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Just 'cause they're in the streets doesn't mean that they lack opinions.
Scott Templeton: Where am I gonna find homeless people?
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Not at home, I imagine.

Dennis 'Cutty' Wise: I guess what I'm tryin' to say is... not everything come down to how you carry it in the street. I mean, it do come down to that if you gonna be in the street. But that ain't the only way to be. ... World is bigger than that, at least, that's what they tell me.
Duquan 'Dukie' Weems: Like... how do you get from here to the rest of the world?
Dennis 'Cutty' Wise: I wish I knew.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Read it and weep.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: I already did. So did the major. So did the colonel. So did our newly christened deputy ops. ... Just 'cause you got some fuckin' reporter to buy your weak shit does not mean everyone else buys it.

Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Every day you look more like a boss.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Fuck you.
Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: I didn't mean it like a bad thing.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Yeah, you did.
Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Yeah, I did.

Michael Lee: You think if you start carryin' ain't nobody gonna try you? Nah. Somebody's always gonna try you. An' if they know that you carryin' they gonna make you come out with it. An' once you come out with it, you gotta be ready to go all the way. You can't bring it out unless you willin' to use it. Can't be no doubt.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: I wish I could tell you it's a shock, but it seems to happen in every city where we get us a place inside the power structure and we become targets... I'm not saying it's a black-white thing. The State's Attorney, Mr. Bond, he's black. But if it serves his purpose - gets his name in the news, ups his profile - he'll do whatever the folks pulling the strings want. Whether it be character assassination, tie the noose in the rope, whatever. But they picked the wrong man this time... I don't run from a fight. The people know... I'm talkin' 'bout the people now. The people know what I've done for West Baltimore and this city. They know the battles I fight in Annapolis every day. They know these charges ain't nothing but BS.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: I gotta hold my tongue, I know. I don't want nobody pullin' y'all's broadcasting license, so I can't say it like I feel it. But I wanted to come here on your show tonight - and thank you so much for the opportunity, my brother - but I wanted your listeners to be the first to hear it from my mouth. I have committed no crime, and I am gonna keep on doing the people's work without breaking stride.

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Transitions

The Wire 5×4

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Have it say, "Butchie. Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil." Sign it, "Your true and loyal friend, Proposition Joe."
Slim Charles: You ain't thinking no kindly note gonna slow Omar coming at us.
Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: It's how I feel. He was a good man.

Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: 30 pieces of silver each, huh?
Council President Nerese Campbell: We'll have your back. I promise you. Full pension and a job on the mayor's criminal justice coordinating council, and from there, something down in Washington with one of the police associations, six figures guaranteed. Go the right way, and attention will be paid. But you go kicking and screaming, and no one - not the caucus, not the ministers, not me - will be there for you. Your choice.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: That there is the sickest idea yet. You know that?
Det. Lester Freamon: I'm just gilding your lily, son.

Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: You deserve it.
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Sure, I deserve it, but not for doing the job. What I got, they gave me for carrying their water all these years. To Carcetti, I'm a hack. Royce was no different. Maybe I am. But every day they send over a new priority. Go after the bad guys. No, change that. Make quality-of-life cases. Get on top of the murders. On second thought, run the whores out of Patterson Park. You think the mayor tells the schools how to teach kids, or the health department how to do its job, or sanitation how to pick up trash? But get elected, and suddenly they know police work. You might think it'll be different... when you sit here... but it won't. You will eat their shit... Daniels, too, when he gets here.

City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Jesus. Remember the good old days when nobody would stage a perp walk without calling a daily newspaper? Nowadays, all they care about is a goddamn video.

Alma Gutierrez: How'd it go in Washington?
Scott Templeton: Buyer's market out there. Baltimore Sun ain't so bad.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Carcetti finally dumps Burrell... Ervin was a year before me at Dunbar.
Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: No shit.
Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: He was in the glee club.
Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: You're killing me. I got to ask.
Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Stone stupid.

Col. Cedric Daniels: Deputy ops... No, this is Daniels. Cedric Daniels... He's now in the commissioner's office... Yes.

Proposition Joe's nephew: What you see in this hole, man? All the money you got?
Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Your great-grandfather, first colored man to own his own house in Johnson Square. That means something, something you young 'uns lost.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Proposition, then. I just step out the way. You never hear from me again. I just disappear.

Marlo Stanfield: Close your eyes. It won't hurt none. There. There, now. Joe, relax. Breathe easy...

—
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Not for Attribution

The Wire 5×3

Det. Michael Crutchfield: He fuck you?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: He tried... but mostly he just fucks himself.

Mike Fletcher: Wrong zip code. They're dead where it doesn't count. If they were white and murdered in Timonium, you'd have had 30 inches off the front.

Norman Wilson: Burrell reads that, he'll shit melons.
Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: I fucking hope so. It's Baltimore. No one lives forever.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: What's the problem?
Marlo Stanfield: I got too much money.
Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Son, believe me, you ain't alone.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: What to do with the shit we sell ain't no thing. In Baltimore, dope and coke sell themselves, but the money that come back? Ain't enough mattresses, is there, now?

Col. Cedric Daniels: You see that quote from somebody about me stabbing Burrell in the back? That's a damn lie.
A.S.A. Rhonda Pearlman: So what? You're going to be named commissioner. This is good news! How is this not good news?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Lester, what the fuck?
Det. Lester Freamon: No. You're onto something. I only need a few weeks to pull down Marlo Stanfield. You fly this mess right, you can give it to me. Who gives a damn if we fake a couple of murders that we're never gonna solve, huh? The dead men don't care. No one cares. But if it's gonna get the bosses to throw down enough coin to do police work...

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: We have to kill again...

—
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Unconfirmed Reports

The Wire 5×2

Marlo Stanfield: The crown ain't worth much if the nigger wearin' it always gettin' his shit took, and Joe oughta know that.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: Doesn't this seem a little thin to you, running for governor two years into a four-year term?
Chief of Staff Michael Steintorf: Everything's thin. The whole world shines shit and calls it gold.

Avon Barksdale: So send my sister a hundred large, and the next time you come to Jessup, it won't be my grill talkin' at you. My word on that.
Marlo Stanfield: A hundred large, huh?
Avon Barksdale: So what's up, man? What's up with you otherwise, you know?
Marlo Stanfield: The game is the game.
Avon Barksdale: Always.

FBI Spec. Agent Terrance 'Fitz' Fitzhugh: You got a pattern?
Det. Lester Freamon: A good one. Two or three weeks with some good FBI cameras and wires, maybe a half-dozen agents...
FBI Spec. Agent Terrance 'Fitz' Fitzhugh: Like we tell you boys when the case broke, we aren't much into ghetto drug shit anymore. Most of our guys are counter-terror and political stuff.

Det. Lester Freamon: Guy leaves two dozen bodies scattered all over the city, no one gives a fuck.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: It's because who he dropped.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: True that.
Det. Lester Freamon: You can go a long way in this country killing black folk. Young males especially. Misdemeanor homicides. If Marlo was killing white women...
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: White children.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Tourists. One white ex-cheerleader tourist missing in Aruba.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Trouble is, this ain't Aruba, bitch.
Det. Lester Freamon: You think that if 300 white people were killed in this city every year, they wouldn't send the 82nd Airborne? Negro, please. There's got to be some way to make them turn on the faucet...
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Come on, Jimmy. You're the smartest boy in the room. You come up with something in this broke-ass city.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson: Why you think we sitting here?
Michael Lee: See who home and who not... who on the block, police and whatnot.
Chris Partlow: That's right. You don't ever want to be the last man to a party. You feel me? That's why I show up to a job an hour before. Sometimes two. I don't want nobody settin' up on me while I'm settin' up on them.
Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson: Mm. 'Cause there ain't no good thing about motherfuckin' surprises in this line of work.

Marlo Stanfield: 'Sup, Boris?... You know who I am? I'm that rich uncle been putting all that money in your canteen account.
Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: In my country, I was in jail four years. In my country, this is not prison. This is nothing. I don't need money. I don't need fucking canteen. I don't need you.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I'm going. I don't want a part of this.

—
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More with Less

The Wire 5×1

Det. Christeson: This shit actually works?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Hell, yeah. Americans are stupid people. We believe what we're told.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: The bigger the lie, the more they believe.

Sgt. Ellis Carver: We're all professionals. And we're about to police the roughest district in one of the roughest cities in the world. Show some pride.

Maj. Dennis Mello: Gave them the professionalism bit?
Sgt. Ellis Carver: In the real world, they pay professionals. That's why we call them pros.

Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow: Just because Chicago tightens its belt, it's no reason for us to fall down. Their cutbacks there shouldn't affect our ability to put out an excellent product. Simply have to do more with less.

Col. Cedric Daniels: So one thieving politician trumps 22 dead bodies. Good to know.

Col. Cedric Daniels: When the money starts to flow, I'll get you all back on this somehow. Sorry.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: .... Wonder what it feels like to work in a real fucking police department!

Scott Templeton: Who's doing the react piece?
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Jeff Will, why?
Scott Templeton: I'm just, uh... I need a story. I'm up.
City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: Yeah. Stay hungry like that. Good things come when they come.

—
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Final Grades

The Wire 4×13

Sgt. Jay Landsman: All that from overnight?
Det. Michael Crutchfield: All that from Freamon. He's out early today rooting through empties.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: You know what he is? He is a vandal. He is vandalizing the board. He is vandalizing this unit. He is a Hun, a Visigoth, a barbarian at the gate, clamoring for noble Roman blood and what's left of our clearance rate... And you sit here doing what exactly?

Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: You made your move too soon.
Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: I did.
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Politics doesn't suit you. Stick to operations. And don't you ever cross me like that again.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: The shot wasn't for the kid. Let's throw this one back. This sad-ass motherfucker's carrying more weight than we'll ever put on him.
Det. Michael Crutchfield: What about the clearance?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Fuck the clearance.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Need your help. Get dressed.
Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: I'm suspended with pay, pending a full trial board. Can't do nothing for no one, Kima.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Fuck what they say. This here's police work, and I'm asking if you police.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Christ. That's a lot of red names... It's your first red ball.
A.S.A. Rhonda Pearlman: Yeah. I thought I'd get a nice quiet domestic or two to start me off. We got national press on this already.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: You'll be fine, Ronnie. Just don't let any of these guys see you sweating.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: I feel old. I been out there since I was 13. I ain't never fucked up a count, never stole off a package, never did some shit that I wasn't told to do. I've been straight up. But what come back?... You think if I get jammed up on some shit, they'd be like, "Yeah. Bodie been there. Bodie hang tough. We got his pay lawyer. We got a bail." They want me to stand with them, right? But where the fuck they at when they supposed to be standing by us?... When shit goes bad and there's hell to pay, where they at? This game is rigged, man. We like the little bitches on a chessboard.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Pawns.
Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: Yo, I'm not snitching on none of my boys. Not my corner, and not no Barksdale people, or what's left of them. But Marlo, this nigger and his kind, man, they gotta fall. They gotta.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, for that to happen, somebody's gotta step up...
Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: I'll do what I gotta. I don't give a fuck. Just don't ask me to live on my fucking knees, you know?
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: ... You're a soldier, Bodie.
Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: Hell, yeah.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Seems like every time I open my mouth in this town, I'm telling people something they don't wanna know.
David Parenti: It's not you. It's the process.
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: The process?
David Parenti: We're gonna get the grant. We study the problem, we propose solutions. If they listen, they listen. If they don't, it still makes for great research. What we publish on this is gonna get a lot of attention.
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: From who?
David Parenti: From other researchers, academics...
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Academics? What, they gonna study your study? When do this shit change?

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Maybe I'd be different, you know?
Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell: Different?
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Yeah, no more of the... drinking and the whoring and all that. All that anger. 'Cause I'm better now here with you. No more playing "Jimmy Bust Balls" with the world.

Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: How in the hell do we kick up percentages in math and reading both?
Grace Sampson: You believe the numbers?
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: 38% proficient. 8% advanced... What?
Grace Sampson: "Proficient" means they're at least two grades below their level. "Advanced" can mean they're at grade level or a year below. They score 'em like that, and... they say we're making progress.
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: OK. I'm still learning.
Grace Sampson: Nah, you're gonna be fine.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: How you happen to pick this place for us to stage?
Col. Cedric Daniels: Lemel? They closed it a few years back, and I knew it was near a lot of our crime scenes. I went to school here back in the day. Got a decent education, now that I think on it.

—
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That's Got His Own

The Wire 4×12

Sgt. Jay Landsman: You going inside this one?
Det. Lester Freamon: I'll do the whole block.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: It's bad enough you popped the top off one house and gave us a body. What the fuck do you think you're doing now?
Det. Lester Freamon: An experiment.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: An experiment? Fuck me. I'm dealing with Madam Curie here.

Det. Lester Freamon: Sometimes life just gives you a moment, huh?
Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: He was gonna do me, and instead he gets done? I'm dipped in shit here. I'm the luckiest motherfucker you know.

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins: How much I need?
Mechanic: It ain't gonna take much. A vial of that shit'd kill every horse here.
Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins: That's all there is to it?
Mechanic: It ain't no thing to kill a nigger who's already about the business of killing himself. And the police, they ain't gonna pay no mind. You the one got to live with it.

Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly: You and your wife, you don't have children, do you?
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: Not yet, no.
Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly: Well, have some. They're yours for life. The kids in this school aren't yours. You do your piece with them, and you let them go. Because there'll be plenty more coming up behind Duquan, and they're gonna need your help too.

Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Colonel, I see you've thought this through, politically, I mean.
Col. Cedric Daniels: I'm learning as I go.
Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: I bet you fuckin' are...

Det. Lester Freamon: I'm police, right? Murder police, and I got bodies. I'm just supposed to let them lie? "We don't throw red up on that board voluntarily." That John-Goodman-off-his-diet-looking motherfucker was clear on that.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: So go over Landsman's head.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Jimmy, that's you. Send an anonymous fax. But Lester here don't fancy boats. And I get sick just filling the bathtub. It's just wrong.

Det. Lester Freamon: Ooh. World is on its hole when Jimmy McNulty is the most qualified to drive.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah, up is down, black is white... left is right.

Norman Wilson: Take the money. We need it.
Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: ...
Council President Nerese Campbell: Don't look at me. If you take it, you're selling out the teachers, and that's my base. If you don't, you're selling out the kids. Either way, I'll rip you, and half the council will too. Just glad I'm not the mayor.

—
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A New Day

The Wire 4×11

Norman Wilson: Well, civilian review is a nonstarter. You go now there now, you'll be bending over for four years for the ministers.
Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: So what? I throw them a bone and fire some idiot cop? By pressing that, the average beat cop's gonna hate my guts, and I can't change anything without rank-and-file support.
Norman Wilson: You don't fire him, you're going to piss off most of the black political infrastructure.
Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Yummy. My first bowl of shit.

Omar Little: Well, I'll be blessed, yo. Lookit.
Renaldo: This is good? We put him here? That tall man with Prop Joe?
Omar Little: Yo, for real, on this caper the more we learn, the less we know.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Sounds like a new day, don't it? Department's finally gonna get what it needs. State's attorney's office, too.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: A new day... They make a nice couple, anyway.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Hey, you play in dirt, you get dirty.

Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: What?
Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek: Smart move, accepting any ideas whatsoever come from the anointed fella... Daniels. The next commissioner... Any cocksucker that manages to go from lieutenant to full bird in a little more than a year is getting groomed... Wait. You didn't for a minute think that... Jesus, Bill, it's Baltimore. You ain't one of the natives, are ya?

Det. Lester Freamon: And?
Col. Cedric Daniels: And I want you to sign up.
Det. Lester Freamon: Colonel, there's the matter of...
Col. Cedric Daniels: You find yourself incompatible with a certain lieutenant? Detective Freamon, you have carte blanche in picking your squad. In fact, you can pick your supervisor for all I care. Motherfucker, as far as I'm concerned, you are the Major Crimes Unit. It's morning in Baltimore, Lester. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Det. Lester Freamon: I'm gonna miss you, too, bitch.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Lester do love listening to other people's phone calls, don't you? A bit of a pervert that way.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: You could use a wiretap case or two, broaden your horizons.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Oh, no, no. The Bunk is strictly a suit-and-tie motherfucker. At all hazards, a man must keep up appearances.

Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: I'm here about what I do know. A recommendation from Sergeant Hauk's commander will cross your desk tomorrow. Colonel Daniels, with Rawls concurring, recommends sensitivity training. It may be a fair decision, it may even be the right decision. But we both know it won't fly with the ministers, not even with Daniels behind it... 600 pages of rules, regulations, directives, orders. You fire a white police for a bad car stop on a black minister, you'll lose the rank and file. It's not cause enough. But if a commander can't find the grounds for firing a saint in here... The man has worked Narcotics for six years, and in Narcotics... there are no virgins.
Mayor Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: And herein lies your expertize?
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: I've always been comfortable delegating strategic elements. It's what the Deputy Ops is for. Me, I know what a mayor needs.

Omar Little: See now, Joe, I need you to resist your natural inclination to do anything twisted up in this here play, you feel me?

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: Was you listening? Omar to one side holding a spade, and maybe Marlo to the other with a shovel. And just at this moment, I managed to crawl out my own damn grave. No way do I crawl back in.

—
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Misgivings

The Wire 4×10

Grace Sampson: This time of year, we go to 90-minute classes. Concentrated prep in math and language arts only.
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: I don't follow. Why the heat?
Grace Sampson: It's the only way kids will sit through 90 minutes of anything.
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: Make them drowsy?
Grace Sampson: Right.
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: So it's about the tests.
Grace Sampson: From now until they're done, everything's about the tests.

Malik 'Poot' Carr: It ain't gonna be that cold this year.
Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: How you know?
Malik 'Poot' Carr: Global warming.
Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: So why is it so cold already?
Malik 'Poot' Carr: Yo, we just getting old.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Let's not panic... yet.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: You put a textbook in front of these kids, or teach them every problem on some statewide test, it won't matter, none of it, because they're not learning for our world they're learning for theirs. They know what they're training for and what everyone expects them to be.
Superintendent: I expect them to be students.
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: But it's not about you or us, or the tests or the system. It's what they expect of themselves. Every single one of them is headed back to the corners. Their brothers and sisters, shit, their parents, they came through these same classrooms. We pretended to teach, they pretended to learn. Where'd they end up? The same damn corners. I mean, they're not fools, these kids. They don't know our world, but they know their own. I mean, Jesus, they... they see right through us.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Baker, let me tell you a little secret. A patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America. We can lock a guy up on a humble, lock him up for real, or we can say, fuck it, pull under the expressway and drink ourselves to death, and our partners will cover it. So no one, and I mean no one, tells us how to waste our shift.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: It's cold, motherfucker.
Malik 'Poot' Carr: It's a cold world, Bodie.
Preston 'Bodie' Broadus: Thought you said it was getting warmer.
Malik 'Poot' Carr: World going one way, people another, yo.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson: Damn. You didn't even wait to get the motherfucker in the house.

—
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Know Your Place

The Wire 4×9

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: No more fucking bodies from you. No more comebacks or get-evens on this. No more killing... You owe me your word.
Omar Little: All right, man. No bodies on me.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You really want to ease my mind, you'll let me drive you down to Aberdeen rail station, put you on a northbound train.
Omar Little: Naw, man. Baltimore's all I know. You know what it is like, homey. Man gotta live what he know, right?

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: So now you come over East Side and expect me to hide you. Why is it that every Baltimore nigger think that running the fuck away means crossing downtown? Shit, you should be in New York or Philly or some shit. Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart: You know what the problem with these here machines? They too cheap to begin with. Some people would think for what it's worth to fix it and make the shit work right, you might as well dump them and get another.

Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Mr. Mayor, about Ervin. If you don't mind my asking, why keep him as a puppet commissioner when you can just fire the guy?
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: ...
Norman Wilson: We mind you asking.

Randy Wagstaff: What about that boxing guy, Mr. Cutty? What's wrong with Cutty?
Michael Lee: I don't know. Like, he just too friendly, you know? That shit creep me out, man. Like, he some type of faggot or something. ... I don't know. He just too friendly, you know? Everybody just too motherfucking friendly.

Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: I don't get it. All this so we score higher on the state tests? If we're teaching the kids the test questions, what is it assessing in them?
Grace Sampson: Nothing. It assesses us. The test scores go up, they can say the schools are improving. The scores stay down, they can't.
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: Juking the stats.
Grace Sampson: Excuse me?
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: Making robberies into larcenies, making rapes disappear - you juke the stats and majors become colonels. I've been here before.
Grace Sampson: Wherever you go, there you are.

Maj. Cedric Daniels: It's funny how it works out. All those years I'm trying to climb the ladder, kissing ass, covering ass, doing what I'm told. I finally let some of it out, tell 'em what I really think, and I'm going from lieutenant to colonel in a little more than a year. And, you, you're worried sick about those subpoenas and worried that Lester's killing you with your boss...
A.S.A. Rhonda Pearlman: But the subpoenas get me promoted...
Maj. Cedric Daniels: You know, Marla once said to me, "You cannot lose if you do not play." But here we are, right? Maybe it's changing.
A.S.A. Rhonda Pearlman: What is?
Maj. Cedric Daniels: The city, the way things work or don't. Maybe we're turning a corner here and it's not gonna be so unbelievably fucked up any more.

David Parenti: So, they didn't know the salad fork from whatever the other fork is for. So what?
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: I knew they'd be at a loss, but the extent of it... I'm talking about feelings - why they feeling this... this plummet from masters of the universe to abject fear to humiliated fury and no awareness of it.
David Parenti: Who says they're not aware? Maybe they just didn't acknowledge.
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: My point is, where do you start with them if they can't even admit their feelings about who they are and what they doing in this world?...

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: They're not fools. They know exactly what we expect them to be.

Michael Lee: I got a problem I can't bring to no one else...

—
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Corner Boys

The Wire 4×8

Sgt. Jay Landsman: Uh, lastly, as most of you are already aware, our CID Commander Raymond Foerster, after a long bout with cancer, passed away last night at Johns Hopkins... Better, uh, eulogies are coming. So, let me just say that the man served 39 years attaining the rank of colonel without leaving a trail of bitterness or betrayal. In this department, that's not a career, it's a miracle.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: You feel like winners?
Tuts: Always.
Namond Brice: That's how we did.
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Who's we?
Tuts: Us.
Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: No, who are you?
Namond Brice: Players.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Kingpins?
Namond Brice: Nah, that comes later. Right now, we just corner boys.

Michael Lee: You know, the thing with the teachers and cops, they always come at you like they got you by the ass. But keep your mouth shut, ain't nothing they could do. So, more times than not, they go away. Word on that.

Mayor-Elect Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: So what's the problem?
Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Problem is I do what I'm told.
Mayor-Elect Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Meaning?
Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Mr. Mayor, I'm no more a racist than you are. The thing about affirmative action - I'm just talking policy here, no offense...
Norman Wilson: None taken.
Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: It's a numbers game. And numbers games breed more numbers games. You need a 20% hike in black officers to match the city demographic. But that's got to be reflected up the chain, which means fast-tracking some people past where their... How do I say this? Their experience warrants. And he who owes his good fortune to the numbers, abides in them. Gotta show arrests are up 15, 20%? We'll worry about the quality later. So what you saw out there, it's a con game, a Band-Aid on cancer, so no, I'm not with this, but I do follow orders. However, if those orders were to change or if I had the opportunity to change them myself...

De'Londa Brice: What's this shit doing in my house?
Namond Brice: I'm stretching bottles, Ma.
De'Londa Brice: Your daddy bring his work home? That's what you got a lieutenant for! ... This has got to be packed up and elsewhere right now.

Namond Brice: We do the same as y'all, except when we do it, it's like, "These kids is animals." Like it's the end of the world coming. Man, that's bullshit, all right?
Tuts: Cos it's like, what is it? Hypocrite... hypocritical?
Zenobia Dawson: We got our thing but it's just part of the big thing.

Ms. Duquette: You don't teach math, you teach the test. This is about the leave-no-child-behind stuff getting spoon-fed.
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: And what do they learn?
Grace Sampson: Find some middle ground. Every day try to do a little for the statewide and keep a problem on the blackboard for Donnelly. If she comes to visit, she thinks you're on point. The rest of the time, do what you feel like you need to do. But be careful. You're still on your evaluation.
Ms. Duquette: The first year isn't about the kids, it's about you surviving.

Maj. Cedric Daniels: Will the mayor make the changes or leave it to the good soldier?... What I'm really asking is - how for real are you?
Mayor-Elect Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Well, I guess we're going to find that out together, aren't we... Colonel Daniels?

—
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Unto Others

The Wire 4×7

Omar Little: They got Honey Nut Cheerios in here?.. Shit.

Big Guy: Who you calling?
Omar Little: Police.
Big Guy: The police?
Omar Little: Man owe me a favor.

Former Mayor 'Young Tony': National party has to take notice. Young and pretty as you are, I'm sure they've got ideas. All you have to do now is run the city.

Former Mayor 'Young Tony': ... you know what, Tommy? That's what it is. You're sitting, eating shit all day long, day after day, year after year. When I realized that, I decided being a downtown lawyer and seeing my family every night made for a fine life. Just a fine life.

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins: I see you up here undercover. All right. Don't worry, dawg. I'll keep it close.

Omar Little: I got a bounty on my head, man... five figures. If I would have known I'd be sharing quarters with all these boys, I probably wouldn't have robbed so many of them.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Aw yeah. That Golden Rule...

Omar Little: Well, since you feeling all Biblical and righteous and all, you think on this. If Omar ain't killed that delivery lady, somebody else did. But you giving him a free walk right now, though, ain't you? A man got to have a code.

Mayor Clarence V. Royce: What the hell are we waiting for? Bring your ass around here and try out the big chair... Come on. Come on around here.
Mayor-Elect Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: I'm not even mayor-elect. General election's still a few weeks away.
Mayor Clarence V. Royce: You don't beat Crawford in a city where we outnumber Republicans nine to one, you don't deserve the fucking job, now, get on around here.

Mayor Clarence V. Royce: Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to look at. See to it. It's a hell of a goddamn job. Halfway glad to get out... I'm gonna miss it.

Maj. Cedric Daniels: A wise man once told me years ago when I wasn't even a sergeant that you should never take credit when the crime rate drops unless you want to take the blame when it rises.

Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Help me, Carv.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: This is not my problem.
Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Don't fuck me, Carv. Don't fuck me now.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: You know what this is? This is one of those enabling relationships.
Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Enable me, Carv. Enable me to find my fuckin' camera.

Mayor-Elect Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Fine. I'll do it myself.
State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: You won't. Royce can fire a black police commissioner, but the newly elected white mayor cannot. Brothers who voted for you'll be at your throat.

Namond Brice: Mr. Colvin, sir? Fuck... you.

—
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Margin of Error

The Wire 4×6

Reverend: I'll tell you what, I will keep an open mind until I walk into that booth on Tuesday and if you win...
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: You're holding me to a high standard. Moses? I mean, Jesus...
Jen Carcetti: Tommy.
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: I'm sorry. I can't believe I said that.
Reverend: Moses will do for now. We'll save Jesus for your second term.

Brianna Barksdale: You both got what was coming. But ain't nothing lasts forever.

Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Tactical tells me we're still about 20 bodies short for manning the polling places. I want you to detail two detectives to uniformed election duty immediately.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Let me guess: Norris and Greggs.
Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls: Sounds good. They're to report to Tactical at 1300 today for election orientation. They can pick up their writ and talk to their snitch on Wednesday... American democracy. Let's show those Third World fucks how it's done.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Yes, sir.

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Could be a great city again. Pull some jobs in here. People move back, fix up the houses...

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: We won.
Jen Carcetti: Are we happy about that?
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: I think so... I think we are. Yeah.
Jen Carcetti: You sure?

Theresa D'Agostino: Moolie?
Norman Wilson: Moolie.
Theresa D'Agostino: He said that in front of you?
Norman Wilson: He made a point of it, in fact.
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: You said I oughta shore up my base.
Jen Carcetti: You didn't call him on it?
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: The ironies of democracy. A vote's a vote. And I never throw one back. Speaking of ballots, did you vote for me?
Norman Wilson: The sanctity of the voting booth is a cornerstone of American democracy.

Theresa D'Agostino: Well, Tommy... four years is a long time for a fellow like you. This could be your last chance for a while... You sure? Maybe you have learned something... Write me a check.

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Alliances

The Wire 4×5

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Stan, you're sure about this?
Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek: On my mother's soul. It's a lock. Assigned a rookie - a broad, no less - as lead detective. Pulled a good man off too, I heard.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Fuck you, fat man.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Not original, but succinct. I like your approach.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: This is Homicide, Detective. This is not some boiler room unit where no one pays attention to whatever the fuck it is you call police work. The bosses? They know our names up here. Now I didn't like it when they came to me and told me to dump Norris, but dump him I did. And it's not like I wanna carry water for them now they're pretending they never told me to do any such thing, but carry the water I will. And in the end, when everyone else in this unit is buried and beshitted, this detective sergeant will still be standing.

Norman: Wait until he turns the corner... District office for Watkins - Gilmore Street! And fuck them red lights, man.

—
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Refugees

The Wire 4×4

Judy Pryzbylewski: Who's winning?
Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: No one wins. One side just loses more slowly.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: ... And over here, this is your desk.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: It's clean.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: You'll fix that. A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Lester.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: I believe you two refugees know each other well.

Col. Raymond Foerster: Burrell wants this case stalled until everybody votes.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: And Rawls?
Col. Raymond Foerster: How the fuck I know what Rawls wants? He never said shit. Let me tell you something, he knows this is fucked up.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: I have this correct? We are pulling a veteran off a pending case and giving it to a rook so as not to make timely progress on said case?

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: So, Major Crimes is dead, huh?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah, Lester killed it good. Went looking for the money. Guys like you, you never learn.
Det. Lester Freamon: Guys like me?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah, 13 years...
Det. Lester Freamon: Four months.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Four months.

Mayor Clarence V. Royce: African colors. Subtle.
Chief of Staff Coleman Parker: Tony Gray is pulling 24% now. You need new colors and a new message, Clarence. You need to rally the base.
Mayor Clarence V. Royce: You want me to start wearing dashikis? Go all Marion Barry and shit?
Chief of Staff Coleman Parker: I'll tell you what I would like - another 75 in cash for walk-around money.
Mayor Clarence V. Royce: 75, huh? Call another game.

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: They endorse Royce, fine. The hell else they gonna do? But what they say and don't say from the pulpit that Sunday before the primary, we still got a dog in that fight. I do this right, they'll respect it.
Norman Wilson: And if they don't, at least they get to see a begging-ass white man on his knees. Always a feel-good moment for the folks.

Det. Lester Freamon: She too young for you, boy.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Young?
Det. Lester Freamon: They get younger, William. Skinnier too. We don't.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Younger, skinnier - where's Jimmy?
Det. Lester Freamon: That's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, and nature is nature.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Pitiful.
Det. Lester Freamon: And pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You know what you need at a crime scene?
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Rubber gloves.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Soft eyes.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Like I'm supposed to cry and shit?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You got soft eyes, you can see the whole thing. You got hard eyes, you're staring at the same tree, missing the forest.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Oh, Zen shit.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Soft eyes, grasshopper.

Grace Sampson: You can tell the days by their faces. The best day is Wednesday. That's the farthest they get from home, from whatever's going on in the streets. You see smiles then. Monday is angry. Tuesdays, they're caught between Monday and Wednesday, so it could go either way. Thursdays... they're feeling that weekend coming. Friday, it's bad again.

Lt. Charles Marimow: Which one of you is Sergeant Hauk?
Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Sir.
Lt. Charles Marimow: And you must be Dozerman. Welcome to Major Crimes. I'm Lieutenant Marimow.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: You're the primary on the Braddock case. The dead witness. Norris is back in the rotation.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: What?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: You caught your first murder. Kudos.

Marlo Stanfield: That's my money.
Omar Little: Man, money ain't got no owners, only spenders.

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