​The Wire - "The Wire" Episode Title and Epigraph Meanings lyrics

Season 1 The Target: "...when it's not your turn" -McNulty The Detail: "You cannot lose if you don't play" -Marla Daniels The Buys: "The king stay the king" -D'Angelo Old Cases: "It's a thin line 'tween heaven and here" -Bubbles The Pager: "...a little slow, a little late" -Avon The Wire: "...and all the pieces matter" -Lester One Arrest: "A man must have a code" - Bunk Lessons: "Come at the king, you best not miss" -Omar Game Day: "Maybe we won" -Herc The Cost: "And then he dropped the bracelets" -Kima The Hunt: "Dope on the damn table" -Daniels Cleaning Up: "This is me, yo, right here" -Wallace Sentencing: "All in the game..." -Traditional West Baltimore Season 2 Ebb Tide: "Ain't never gonna be what it was" -Little Big Roy Collateral Damage: "They can chew you up, but they gotta spit you out" -McNulty Hot Shots: "What they need is a union" -Beadie Russell Hard Cases: "If I hear music, I'm gonna dance" -Kima Undertow: "They used to make steel there, no?" -Spiros All Prologue: "It don't matter that some fool say he different..." -D'Angelo Backwash: "Don't worry kid. You're still on the clock" -Horseface Duck and Cover: "How come they don't fly away?" -Ziggy Stray Rounds: "The world is a smaller place now" -The Greek Storm Warnings: "It pays to go with the union card everytime" -Ziggy Bad Dreams: "I need to get clean" -Frank Sobotka Port In A Storm: "Business. Always business" -The Greek Season 3 Time After Time: "Don't matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin' the same." -Bodie All Due Respect: "There's never been a paper bag" -Bunny Colvin Dead Soldiers: "The Gods will not save you" -Burrell Hamsterdam: "Why you gotta go and f** with the program?" -Fruit Straight and True: "I had such f**ing hopes for us" -McNulty Homecoming: "Just a gangster, I suppose" -Avon Back Burners: "Conscience do cost" -Butchie Moral Midgetry: "Crawl, walk, and then run" -Clay Davis Slapstick: "...while you're waiting for moments that never come" -Lester Reformation: "Call it a crisis of leadership" -Prop Joe Middle Ground: "We ain't gotta dream no more, man" -Stringer Mission Accomplished: "...we fight on that lie" -Slim Charles Season 4 Boys of Summer: "Lambs to the slaughter here" -Marcia Donnelly Soft Eyes: "I still wake up white in a city that ain't" -Carcetti Home Rooms: "I love the first day, man. Everybody all friendly and sh**" -Namond Refugees: "No one wins. One side just loses more slowly" -Prez Alliances: "If you with us, you with us" -Chris Partlow Margin of Error: "Don't try this sh** at home" -Norman Wilson Unto Others: "Aw yeah. That golden rule" -Bunk Corner Boys: "We got our thing, but it's just part of the big thing" -Zenobia Know Your Place: "Might as well dump em, get another" -Prop Joe Misgivings: "World going one way, people another" -Poot A New Day: "You play in dirt, you get dirty" -McNulty That's Got His Own: "That all there is to it?" -Bubbles Final Grades: "If animal trapped call 410-844-6286" -Baltimore, traditional Season 5 More With Less: "The bigger the lie, the more they believe" -Bunk Unconfirmed Reports: "This ain't Aruba, b**h" -Bunk Not For Attribution: "They're dead where it doesn't count" -Fletcher Transitions: "Buyer's market out there" -Scott Templeton React Quotes: "Just 'cause they're in the street doesn't mean that they lack opinions." -Gus The Dickensian Aspect: "If you have a problem with this, I understand completely." -Lester Took: "They don't teach it in law school" -Ronnie Pearlman Clarifications: "A lie ain't a side of the story, it's just a lie." -Terry Late Editions: "Deserve got nuthin' to do with it" -Snoop -30-: "...the life of kings" -H.L. Mencken