Who are your favorite best friends/ best buddies pair from The Wire TV show? Is it criminal masterminds Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale, or crime fighting Bunk and McNulty, or terrifying Chris and Snoop? The list goes on, too many options to choose from.
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Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell
Avon (Played by Sherwin David “Wood” Harris) was the head of the Barksdale Organization. His childhood friend and literally, the partner in crime, Russell “Stringer” Bell (Played by Idris Elba) was his second in command. Both of them led their crew to take over hot spots in the drug trade like the Towers and the Pit and became little kings in the west side of Baltimore.
D’Angelo Barksdale said that his grandfather was Butch Stamford. His father, uncles and cousins all are part of the game. One of his uncles, Avon Barksdale is a product of that environment. Avon only wanted to play his part in the game, his ambitions stopped at the Streets. He often said “I want my corners.” Stringer Bell recalled that when they were young, Avon was always looking for trouble. On the other hand we know nothing about Stringer Bell’s family background and personal life. Stringer saw the game as a means to an end, he wanted to make profit, invest the money and get out of the game and become someone like William Lloyd “Little Willie” Adams. Avon recalled Stringer Bell was always talking about Black Pride Movement when they were young.
Both of them were right and wrong at the same time. Stringer was right because they had to get away from the game while they had the chance. According to The Baltimore Sun newspaper, real life gangsters rarely have an exit strategy. They usually die young or end up in prison and lose all their money. On the other hand Avon was also right. Even though Stringer Bell thought that he was smart enough to play a business man, he wasn’t ready to play with big boys like Clay Davis and Andy Krawczyk. He had lot more to learn.
Avon’s ferocity and Stringer Bell’s business mind made the Barksdale Organization a powerful one in the West Baltimore. But later their different future visions collided and weakened the organization. Throughout the series we can see that the strong bond between Avon and Stringer gradually slipping away. The bond completely got broken when they simultaneously betrayed each other. Avon gave away the time and location about Stringer Bell’s meeting to Brother Muzone and Stringer snitched about Avon’s hideout to Major Colvin.
Avon and Stringer’s friendship ended when Stringer got killed because of Avon’s tip and Avon ended up in jail because of Stringer’s tip.
Herc and Carver
Thomas “Herc” Hauk (Played by Domenick Lombardozzi) and Ellis Carver (Played by Seth Gilliam) were narcotic detectives under Lieutenant Cedric Daniels (Played by Lance Reddick). Herc and Carver worked alongside Shakima “Kima” Greggs (Played by Sonja Sohn) who often treated them as her subordinates despite they were in the same rank.
Even though they were inseparable, Herc and Carver had completely different mindsets. Herc was thick skulled and not open to new ideas, meanwhile Carver was open to learn from his mistakes which ultimately helped him to turn around his life.
Herc always had wild ideas like visiting high rises at 2 in the morning to let the people know who they are, or use surveillance equipment to illegally spy on their targets. Carver went along with them and got in trouble.
Herc was self-conscious about his public image; He did not like when Kima bossed around them, he asked Carver to address him as “Sir” in public when he thought he was going to be a sergeant, asked Lester to let him give orders to the Major Crimes Unit because he is a sergeant. Carver only pulled his rank when he needed to assert authority.
In the beginning of the series, Herc and Carver had a parallel trajectory in their lives; they both stole cash from drug busts, got promoted through questionable means, cut corners in order to advance their investigations such as inventing a fake C.I. Fuzzy Dunlop, and firmly believed in the Western District Way which is, busting heads to lower the crime rate. In the middle of the series their separation began. Under Major Bunny Colvin, Carver started to care about the community and supported the Hamsterdam idea, he even tampered with a crime scene to save the Hamsterdam. Herc did not see things as Carver, he saw the Hamsterdam as a disgrace and finally tipped off media about its existence.
Major Colvin recognized that Carver had a good heart but lack the ability for policing, so he advised Carver to learn about his area. Carver took that advice to the heart and became familiar with the streets. Later he was well informed about the corners, and he could name corner boys and hoppers by name. He gained respect among his peers and became the go-to guy when someone needs to find about a corner boy or where they usually hangs out. Meanwhile Herc kept to his old ways and got in to more and more troubles, and got fired from the police department.
Best example for their friendship and the difference in thinking patterns is the scene where Herc visited Carver to ask to go easy on Officer Anthony Colicchio after Colicchio hit a school teacher. But Carver said he can’t do that because “It all matters.” And explained how he learnt that with the Randy incident. Herc asked “guess you think they had to do me?” to which Carver did not reply. Herc did not take offence, instead he stood by Carver’s decision.
Herc and Carver are not only partners in the workplace but also best buddies in their off-duty life. At the end, Herc was there to congratulate Carver when he got promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Bubbles and Johnny
Reginald Cousins aka Bubbles (Played by Andre Royo) and Johnny Weeks (Played by Leo Fitzpatrick) were two dope fiends in the Baltimore Streets. They were thieving, scamming and scraping by to buy the next high. Bubbles, the mature and more experienced one was showing the ropes to the young and greener Johnny.
Bubbles only wanted to get high. He did not like the baggage that came up with being a dope fiend. When Johnny got beaten up after a failed fake money scam, and when Bubbles nearly got caught stealing a stash using a fishhook only to learn that he risked his life for vials of baking soda, Bubbles got really upset and started to rethink about his life. But not Johnny, he thought it was all part of “the Game.” Johnny was so proud to be a part of the Game. Funny thing is other people in the game such as drug dealers and corner boys and even young hoppers did not have any respect for dope fiends.
Bubbles was open to give up drugs and get recovered. He accompanied Johnny to the court mandated Narcotic Anonymous (NA) meeting and listened to speeches eagerly, particularly Walon’s (Played by Steve Earle) speech made a quite impact on Bubs. On the other hand, Johnny always looked down on getting clean up. He thought NA meeting are useless and former addicts who attend them as good as dead. His motto was “I’m a Viking, homes.”
Bubbles is the most important snitch in the show and a registered C.I. (Confidential Informant). He did it to get paid and saw it as a way to earn easy money. Johnny was strongly against to snitching. He thought it was ok to snitch to get away from trouble, but otherwise snitching is braking rules of the game.
Johnny was greedy when chasing the needle. Oftentimes, old-timers tried to warn him to slow down. But with Major Colvin’s Hamsterdam, Johnny went down a path with no return. Hamsterdam was like a heaven to Johnny, he described it as a “Soldiers’ paradise.” Bubbles saw him there, dangerously getting high. Bubs tried to be reason with him, but Johnny did not listen and finally died from an overdose. Bubbles just continued to live his life without knowing the fate of his friend, because the police had quietly removed Johnny Weeks’s body from Hamsterdam to avoid media attention.
Bubbles and Sherrod
After Johnny Weeks, Bubbles was briefly schooling a kid who he found in Hamsterdam. After that, Bubbles found Sherrod (Played by Rashad Orange). Sherrod was also a kid, living in the streets, listening to tall tales from gangsters and witnessing violence. Time to time Sherrod tried the Corner Boy Lifestyle by slinging and going to fights, but he wasn’t hard enough for that.
Bubbles took Sherrod under his wing and started schooling him. His approach to Sherrod was different from Johnny. With Johnny, they were stealing, scamming and thieving. With Sherrod, Bubbles was selling good out of a cart and collecting junks. Business was good, people were buying t-shirts and other essentials from Bubbles, so Bubbles was teaching Sherrod in hope of expanding his business one day. Bubbles even put Sherrod back in school to teach him math skills.
A junkie had figured out that Bubbles and Sherrod were easy prey and regularly robbed them for money or dope. Bubbles tried to get help from despicable Officer Walker, Kima and Herc, but all of them failed him. Finally Bubbles took matters into his own hands and conspired to give the bullying junkie a cyanide laced dope vial. Unfortunately Sherrod had found poisoned dope and took them while Bubbles was sleeping. In the morning Bubbles found Sherrod’s body and to his horror he realized what Sherrod had done, but it was too late for the poor boy.
As Waylon said, every addict need to see the bottom coming up at them before give up on drugs. Sherrod’s death was Bubbles’s rock bottom. He blamed himself for the death and wasn’t ready to forgive himself. As a good NA sponsor, Waylon guided Bubbles through his journey to recovery and forgiveness.
Chris and Snoop
Chris Partlow (Played by Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Snoop aka Felicia Pearson are the deadliest duo in this list. They were the top enforcers of Marlo Stanfield. Chris and Snoop carried out any order from Marlo without hesitation.
Near the end of the series Marlo Stanfield became the kingpin of entire Baltimore city. Chris and Snoop played a key part in Marlo’s rise to the power. Their reputation proceeded them. Mere mention of sending Chris and Snoop to deal with some of the dealers was an enough threat to make them submissive to Marlo.
Marlo, Chris and Snoop were totally ok with not taking credits for their victims. They simply disappeared them, thus making the Vacant Murders Case. People from the streets were spreading rumors about how Chris and Snoop were making people disappear. Kids thought that Chris is a zombie master and Hungry man thought that Marlo was using funeral homes to make people disappear.
Chris and Snoop also took young, promising kids from the streets under their wing and train them in arms, tactics and counter surveillance. So the Stanfield crew was no nonsense, straight to the business kind of a crew.
They were loyal to Marlo to the end. After their arrest, Chris ate most of the charges so Marlo could walk free. Snoop tried to kill Michael Lee on Marlo’s orders but got herself killed instead.
Bunk and McNulty
Detective Jimmy McNulty (played by Dominic West) and Detective Bunk Moreland (Played by Wendell Pierce) were partners in the Homicide Department of the Baltimore Police. Since Jimmy got himself detailed to the Major Crimes Unit we don’t see them solving crimes together very much. But it was apparent that they had a good bond by witnessing how they solved Deirdre Kresson murder by using just a single curse word.
McNulty is a trouble maker. He often ignores the chain of command and thus make many enemies on his path. Bunk always try to do things by the book and most of the time unsuccessfully tries to talk sense into McNulty.
Both of them are cheaters and act as wingmen for one another to pick up women and ultimately cover for each other from their spouses.
Their friendship go beyond drinking buddies and work partners. They are family friends. We see them take their kids to games and dinners.
Bunk and Jimmy were extremely skilled detectives in their department. But at the end Bunk could not save his partner from self-destruction. So, Detective McNulty got fired over the Fake Serial Killer Case.
Polk and Mahon
Detective Augustus Polk (played by Nat Benchley) and Detective Patrick Mahon (played by Tom Quinn) are another detective best buddy pair in the BPD, but they are polar opposite of Bunk and McNulty in the detective skills department. As Lieutenant Daniels put it, Polk and Mahon were humps sent by Burrell as a message to not get fancy with the Barksdale Investigation.
They were old and lazy, did not care one bit about assigned case. They only cared about OT and getting drunk. However, later in the field Bodie attacked Mahon and badly injured him. To which Bodie received a brutal beat down from the police. Injured Mahon took the opportunity to get an early retirement based on medical grounds. He even suggested Polk to jump down a staircase, so they could retire together.
Mahon’s retirement hit hard for Polk. He started to turn up for the job drunk and barely functional. He confessed to Lieutenant Daniels that he can’t do the CID job without his friend Mahon. Lieutenant Daniels gave Polk an ultimatum, either do the job or get clean up. In the 5th season, Daniels met Polk in Evidence Control who looked healthy and barely recognizable in a good way.
Gerard and Sapper – 40 degree day
Gerard and Sapper are two idiot soldiers from the Barksdale Crew. They are the ones who shot at Omar’s grandmother and damaged her hat.
First they appeared on a stash house which was set up as a trap for Omar. Gerard and Sapper were there as a part of the ambush crew. Even though Sapper swore that he hit someone from the Omar’s crew, the ambush wasn’t successful. As a result Stringer Bell gave his 40 degree day speech.
Later, Slim Charles put Sapper and Gerard to stakeout Omar’s grandmother’s house. They saw Omar came by the house to take his grandma to the church. Upon Stringer’s approval Sapper and Gerard shot at Omar. They only managed to hit old lady’s hat. Stringer violated the Sunday Truce and disgraced the Barksdale Organization, but Gerard and Sapper got blamed for the action and they had to buy a new hat for the lady.
When police raided Avon’s hideout based on Stringer Bell’s tip, they found Avon and bunch of soldiers with weapons. Sapper and Gerard were among them.
Major Colvin and Lieutenant Dennis Mello
At least in his police days Major Howard “Bunny” Colvin (Played by Robert Wisdom) almost always accompanied by his trusted associate Admin Lieutenant Dennis Mello (Played by real life Jay Landsman). They first appeared together in season 02 after a young kid got hit with a stray bullet when Bodie’s crew and another crew clashed over a corner. Even then Major Colvin was disappointed about their inability to prevent crimes.
In season 03, Major got tired of manipulating statistics or juking stats to show that crime rates are lower than the reality. So he decided to implement free zones for drug trade. Lt. Dennis Mello initially pointed out that it was a crazy idea, but then he went along and helped major. Major Colvin even temporarily replaced IID representative with Lt. Dennis Mello so they could use excessive force to clean up corners without worrying about citizen complains.
Major Colvin’s method worked. It really lowered crime rates without needing to juke stats. But when higher-ups and the Mayor learnt about it, they had to let go of Major Colvin to avoid a huge scandal.
Bernard and his girlfriend Squeak
Bernard (Played by Melvin Jackson Jr.) worked for the Barksdale Organization. His job was to go on long road trips to buy burner phones. His nagging girlfriend Squeak (played by Mia Arnice Chambers) was reluctant to let Bernard go alone in those long trips, so she always went with him.
Bernard was a part of the reason that Major Crimes Unit could not get a successful wiretap on the Barksdale communication network. His job was very important to the Barksdale Organization. He was carefully following the rules which (I assume) were laid out by Stringer Bell. He went far away to visit many shops to buy couple of burner phones from each shop and returned them with receipts.
Squeak was always pushing Bernard to cut corners so they could go back early. And she saw that Shamrock was throwing away receipts without even looking at them, so she knew they could cheat without getting caught. Major Crimes Unit approached Squeak through Bubbles and tricked her and then Bernard so they could sell them pre wiretapped burner phones. When police took down the Barksdale Crew, Squeak and Bernard also got arrested. While they were waiting for processing Bernard said he could not wait to go to the jail so that he could finally get away from Squeak.
Wallace and Poot
Wallace (played by Michael B. Jordan) and Malik Carr aka Poot (played by Tray Chaney) were two corner boys who worked in the Pit for the Barksdale Organization. They and Bodie worked for Ronnie Moe who got arrested off screen. Stringer Bell put D’Angelo Barksdale in charge of the Pit.
Wallace and Poot were living in the same house, actually they were squatting in a vacant with bunch of other young kids. Wallace were taking care of other younger ones in the house despite he himself was a 16 years old kid.
Wallace and Poot were the ones who spotted Omar’s boyfriend Brandon. Brandon’s death traumatized Wallace. Poot was always a realist and knew how the Game works, so it did not bother Poot. Poot was worrying about his friend and checked up on him and found out that Wallace was taking drugs to cope with the trauma.
Later Major Crimes Unit took hold of Wallace and Wallace willingly gave away valuable information. So as a precaution Lieutenant Daniels drove Wallace to his grandmother’s house in the country side. Even then, Wallace called his friend Poot twice a day, even though there was nothing special to talk about.
Wallace returned to the pit, but his absence made some people worry. So Stringer Bell ordered Bodie to kill Wallace. Bodie and Poot confronted Wallace and then Bodie shot Wallace. But the shot did not immediately kill Wallace. Poot grabbed the gun from Bodie and shot to end his friend’s sufferings. It is sad that Poot had to kill his own best friend to survive in the game, but as I said Poot was a realist, he managed to survive and completely get away from the game at the end.
Brother Mouzone and Lamar
Relationship between Brother Mouzone and Lamar is a strange one. Brother Mouzone (played by Michael Potts) dresses nicely, speaks politely and reads a lot. His bowtie wearing look can be deceiving, but he is a cold, calculated and effective hitman. No drug dealer dares to go up against him.
On the other hand his companion, Lamar (played by DeAndre McCullough) does not look different than any other street thug. He is big and looks intimidating. Brother Mouzone uses Lamar as his bodyguard and sends him on delivery runs which Lamar always manages to mess up. But other than that we never see him in action. Brother Mouzone do all the dirty work himself. Also, Brother drives himself around, so Lamar is not his chauffeur either.
So honestly I don’t know why Brother Mouzone is keeping Lamar around instead of replacing him with a skillful, proper soldier. May be I am in the wrong for judging Lamar only from their brief appearance on the screen.
Anyway, Brother Mouzone and Lamar came to Baltimore on Avon Barksdale’s invitation and chased away Cheese and successfully defended Barksdale territory from East Side gangs. As a result of Stringer Bell and Prop Joe’s schemes Omar attacked them and severely wounded Brother Mouzone. So they left Baltimore. Later Brother Mouezone and Lamar came back to Baltimore for a one last time to take care of the betrayer, Stringer Bell. After that they left the city never to hear from them again.
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