Took (The Wire episode)

Infobox The Wire episode


caption =
episode_name = Took
episode_no = 57
epigraph = "They don't teach it in law school."
- Pearlman
teleplay = Richard Price
story = David Simon and Richard Price
writer =
director = Dominic West
guest_star = "see below"
prod_code = 507
airdate = 17 February, 2008
season = five|"Took" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, "The Wire". The episode was written by Richard Price from a story by David Simon & Richard Price and was directed by cast member Dominic West.Cite web|url=http://www.hbo.com/thewire/cast/crew/season_5.shtml|title=Season 5 crew|accessdate=2007-12-12|publisher=HBO|year=2007] It aired on 17 February, 2008.cite web| year = 2008 | title = HBO Schedule: THE WIRE 57: TOOK | publisher = HBO | accessdate = 2008-01-01 | url = http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=650531]

Production

Epigraph

Pearlman says this referring to the pseudo-populist tactics Sen. Clay Davis used to escape conviction.

Credits

tarring cast

Although credited, John Doman, Domenick Lombardozzi, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jamie Hector, and Michael Kostroff do not appear in this episode.

Guest stars

#Peter Gerety as Judge Daniel Phelan
#David Costabile as Thomas Klebanow
#Sam Freed as James Whiting
#Delaney Williams as Jay Landsman
#Ed Norris as Ed Norris
#Gregory L. Williams as Michael Crutchfield
#Brian Anthony Wilson as Vernon Holley
#Kara Quick as Rebecca Corbett
#Brandon Young as Mike Fletcher
#William F. Zorzi as Bill Zorzi
#Dion Graham as Rupert Bond
#Bill Murphy as Defense Attorney Billy Murphy
#Donnell Rawlings as Damien "Day-Day" Price
#Richard Belzer as John Munch
#Tom McCarthy as Tim Phelps
#Crissandra Spencer as Reporter
#Stanley Boyd as Cherry
#Christopher J. Clanton as Savino Bratton
#Edward Green as Spider
#Kwame Patterson as Monk Metcalf
#Thuliso Dingwall as Kenard
#James Jorsling as Vincent
#Jay Landsman as Dennis Mello
#Michael Salconi as Michael Santangelo
#Curt Boushell as Andy
#David Goodman as Budget Advisor
#Dennis Hill as Detective Christeson
#Elijah Grant Johnson as Elijah
#Kim Tuvin as Judge Emily Johnson
#Stu Evered as Detective
#Seymour Horowitz as Father
#Rosemary Knower as Mother
#Ken Ullman as Reporter
#Vickie Warehime as Patrol Sergeant

Stanley Boyd's name is misspelled in the credits as Stanely Boyd.

Uncredited appearances

*Michael Stone Forrest as Frank Barlow
*Derek Horton as Brian Baker
*Todd Scofield as Jeff Price

Plot

McNulty begins getting extreme amounts of unwanted attention towards his serial killer case. Even though he wanted the bosses to pay attention to this so everyone can get some "real police work" done, this is not what he wanted. Because he knows the serial killer plot is one big façade, he allocates the extra man power to get other detectives real police work done, acting almost as a Santa Claus; giving the detectives what they need.

It started when he, Freamon and Sydnor devised a plan so that he could call Scott Templeton acting as the serial killer and just rattle his and everyone's cage. It worked, much more than McNulty planned for. Gus begins barking out orders at his newspaper crew to cover this story and Deputy Commissioner Daniels does the same to his lot, making sure everyone knows that this is now top priority.

Freamon now can finally intercept Marlo's picture messages, but the code he thought he could break in less than two weeks proves much more difficult. Each picture has a certain time on a clock on it, and he needs more man power for surveillance on Marlo's people to see what they're doing and where they're going after they receive these messages from The Greek.

Staff Sergent Carver comes to Michael's corner and puts him in handcuffs and "giftwraps" him to Bunk so he can ask about his dead father. Michael provides Bunk with nothing new which only adds to Bunk's unhappiness with everything going on with McNulty. Landsman tells Bunk to help out with McNulty's case, but because he knows it's not real he tells Landsman off, and continues to do work on the 22 murders from the previous year.

Omar traps Savino Bratton, former Barksdale soldier, who tries explaining to Omar that he wasn't there when Chris and Snoop did Butchie. Omar tells him that even if he was there, he wouldn't do anything about it. Omar shoots him in the head because of that and limps off. We see Omar again, in broad daylight, limping with a crutch in hand, as he comes up on Michael's corner. Everyone is visibly scared even though Omar only has one good leg. He tells Michael to tell Marlo that he killed Savino, and that he'll take out all his muscle until Marlo comes at him himself.

Senator Davis appears in court, and it looks as though he is going to be heading to prison. With the amount of paperwork that Freamon and Sydnor got on Davis, it didn't seem like he could get off. That was until he hired Billy Murphy to help him out with his case. In the trial, even though everything was going against him, he did what he does best: talked. He continued to talk and sway the jury until everyone was on his side. Telling stories about how he would give cash out to this person and that person whenever they asked, and that he didn't have receipts for that because he didn't care to ask them because it wasn't important at the time. At the end we see him at the front of the courthouse, Bond asks Pearlman what happened. Her response: "Whatever it was, they don't teach it in law school."

Greggs asked McNulty where to get children's furniture because she was able to get her kid to sleep over for the night. At the end of the episode, he comes up to Greggs and says he cannot sleep. She brings him to the window and says to get to sleep we have to say goodnight to everyone, with the kid repeating what Greggs says. "Goodnight Moon, goodnight stars, goodnight po-pos, goodnight fiends, goodnight hoppers, goodnight hustlers, goodnight scammers, goodnight to everybody, goodnight to one and all."

Deceased

Savino Bratton: shot in the head by Omar Little

References