The Wire Season 3 Episode 8: Moral Midgetry

The Wire Season 3 Episode 8: Moral Midgetry Brianna Barksdale's is an intriguing story arc. Introduced almost incidentally toward the end of Season 1, delivering crab cakes to her son, the ill-fated D'Angelo, viewers had little clue what a truly tragic Medea / Madonna figure she would turn out to be. In Season 2, she's fully established as part of the triumvirate that runs the Barksdale organization, the others being her brother Avon and Stringer Bell, whose brains could not save his from his own ruthlessness. In this episode, Brianna confronts Det. Jimmy McNulty, who has been making inquiries into D'Angelo's death in prison, a murder orchestrated by Stringer. She resents McNulty's implication that her son's death was not a suicide as ruled. No one would dare kill Avon Barksdale's nephew, she says. McNulty, cunningly, says she doesn't need to worry about an investigation because no one cares ... and her response to his findings further suggesting that she doesn't care either. At that he leaves her, tears welling in her eyes. It's a powerful moment. Later in this episode, Bell confesses to Avon that he put the hit on D'Angelo. This enrages Avon, and they tussle but Avon eventually, grudgingly, sees the wisdom in the action. Another turn of the screw in the slow dissolution of the Barksdale / Bell brotherhood.