The Best The Wire, Season 3, Episode 1 Quotes

Preston: No matter how many times you get burnt, man, you just keep on doin' the same.

- Yeah, walk it off, motherfucker.
- Fucking old-school-ass bitch.

- Everything matters, I'm afraid.
- Well, anything I can do to help.
- I'll get out of the way and leave you all to it.
- Marla, I have to tell you that your photo with Cedric works really well on the mailer.
- I sure hope he knows what he's in for because it's gonna be a long race for the both of you.
- And that is not going to go easy.
[Watkins] Speaking of which, we've got to...

[Man] Hey.
[2nd man] Hey, what's up?
- What's going on?
[2nd man] Yeah, what's up, dawg?

- Lost him. Rear of stricker, 800 block.
- Clear on riggs.
- He just went across stricker in an alley headed for gilmor.
- Fuck.
- We got rabbit in the alleys near gilmor.
- How about some backup?
- Roger that.

- But if you make us go into them weeds for you, or if you make us come back here tomorrow night, catch you on a corner,
- I swear to fucking Christ, we will beat you longer and harder than you beat your own dick!
- Cos you do not get to win, shitbird.
- We do!

Sgt. Ellis Carver: [the entire squad, plus backup, has chased a runner for several blocks into some overgrown backyards. Carver gets up on the roof of a car and yells this monologue at the top of his lungs] Now listen to me you little fuckin' piece of shit; I'm gon' tell you one thing, and one thing only, about the Western boys you're playing with: We do not lose! and we do not forget! and we do not give up! Ever! So I'm only gon' say this one time: If you march yo' ass out here right now and put the bracelets on, we will not kick the livin' shit outta you. But if you make us go into the weeds for you, or make us come back out here tomorrow night, catch you onda corner, I swear to fuckin' Christ, we will beat you longer, and harder, than you beat your own dick!

- Spiders with a red top! One and one!
- Where he at?

- Lavell's a soldier.
- He's not gonna roll up on prop Joe.
- That's true.
- But if we take him with a hand-to-hand, they gotta promote someone to replace him.
- Yeah, why drac?
- One thing about our boy?
- That's prop Joe's nephew.
- On his mama's side.

[Drac] They caught lavell with a whole ounce.
- Might not be no bail for that much weight.
- They might take it federal, run wild on they ass.
- And Joey gotta give lavell's corner to someone, right?
- Might be my turn.
- Our boy won't shut up.
- Caroline, you say that like it's a bad thing.
- Let's just hope we're listening to a candidate for elevation.

[Boy] Five-0 creeping.
- It's midnight relief coming in.
- What the hell is all this?
- You don't look at what you did before, you do the same shit all over.
- I'm out of here.

[Crowd] Ooh!
[Woman] Hallelujah! About time.
[Woman] Yeah!
[Bodie] Oh, shit.

- Fuck, right?
- You got a number?
- A number?
- Back in the day, when a player tried to say he lost a package to the police, he had to give up a number for the report.
- Well, we ain't back in the day.
- I'm getting fucking tired of your ass.

- I gotta go to work, all right?
- All right.
- Mr. Jimmy's gonna...
- Ooh!
- He's gonna take you home.
- You're on your own, partner.
[Announcer] Number 32... Luis matos.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [to an inattentive McNulty] I'm thinking of becoming a woman.

- Let's mount up.
- Carv.
- What's up?
- He's a complicated man.
- And the only one that understands him is his woman.
- Seek therapy.

[At the end of the meeting of drug dealers]
Russell: Adjourn your asses.

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: [about a drugdealer giving out information through his wired phone] If that idiot worked for us, he'd be a deputy commissioner by now.

- What can you realistically do?
- Our best-case scenario, if we bump overtime, is...
- 275, maybe.
- 275, Christ.
- That's a promise, right?
- 275...
- And this asshole carcetti has no issue.

- You ain't gotta push me.
- Hands up.
- Let me see you got your hands up.
- Anything on you?
- Here he goes.
- Later, son. Step light.
- Yo, was that the stash? Fuck!
- Let's go, let's go!
- Cut him off on stricker.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: [playing music from Shaft on his car stereo] He's a complicated man. And the only one that understands him is his woman.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Seek therapy.

- This nigger too ignorant to have the fucking floor.
- Y'all niggers need to start looking at the world in a new fucking light.
- Start thinking about this shit like some grown fucking men, not some niggers off the fucking corner, you heard me?
- Adjourn your asses.

- I heard about you, man.
- I hear your name used to ring out.
- You got something for me?
- You see where shorty's sitting at right there?
- You'll find a little help.
- And when you ready, we got some real work for you, all right?

- There isn't a better fucker out there.
- You know it, lieutenant.
- Don't you let him go soft on this.
- It's you against the world, is it?
- What the fuck did I do?
- Red tops, spider bags!
- You up?

- Somebody snitching!
- Shut the fuck up!
- Let's go, lavell.

- Fuck! I just stepped in dog shit.
- You hope.
- Fuck.

[about a drug dealer incapable of using code on the phone]
Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: If that idiot worked for us, he'd be a deputy commissioner by now.

Johnny: It'll be better tomorrow, Bubs.
Bubbles: Tomorrow, man. What kind of dope fiend be talking about tomorrow? Tomorrow ain't shit. Today, Johnny, today.

- Jimmy, right? Dennis kerpelman.
- Great kids.
- Anyway, nice meeting you.
- Do you want anything from the stand?
- No, thank you.
- Uh, don't stay till the last inning, cos it's a school night.
- Bye.

- Tomorrow. What you gonna do?
- I don't know.
- I know what be first.
- You don't know?
- I know what be first.
- I'm going home.
[Man] Time out!

Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: [about Proposition Joe's gang] What makes you think they'll promote the wrong man?
Lt. Cedric Daniels: We do it all the time.

Preston: Y'all are talking about steel and concrete, man. Steel and fucking concrete.
Malik: Man, I'm talking about people, memories and shit.
Preston: That ain't the same! Look, they gonna tear this building down, they gonna build some new shit. But people? They don't give a fuck about people.

- Jesus, bunny.
- What got into you?
- Another six months to my 30.
- I'm out the door on a major's pension.
- The hell they could do to me.
- Spider bags, red tops.

- I'm gonna ride the district until the deputy major gets in.
- If you need me, hit the radio.
- Distribution?
- Possession.
- And some loitering.
- Loitering?
- And behaving like assholes in the presence of sworn officers, boss.

- can attend a community policing seminar in Miami.
- Mr. Chairman...
- What does south beach have to teach this department about making Baltimore safer?
- I have no idea and you have no idea, and it is an embarrassment.
Marla: Cedric, they're gone.

[At the end of a meeting of Stringer's drug organization]
Russell: Adjourn your asses.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole way down way down in the hole

- Look a little light to be an ounce, don't you think?
- No, man. Ain't nothing light, it's just settled, is all.
- If it does what it should, I'm gonna come back to you for three, maybe four a week.
- Yeah, that could work.
- We good, then?
- We good.
- That's it.
- Take him down.

- All right, everyone. Count with me.
- Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!