This Episode of ‘The Wire’ Changed the Course of the Show

In 2002, David Simon and HBO partnered to deliver one of the most accurate and thrilling journeys into street crime, drug dealing, the citywide police force trying to keep them in check, and the corruption that ran rampant in City Hall. The Wire, along with shows like Oz and The Sopranos, made HBO the gold standard for gritty original programming.

Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, brought an authentic feel to the stories set in the port city. His characters were unforgettable, including Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), loose cannon Omar Little (played by the late, great Michael K. Williams), Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris), and Avon’s nephew D’Angelo Barksdale (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.). The cops hunting them down are just as compelling, among them Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce), and Lt. Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick).

The game of cat and mouse clicks along at a perfectly measured place for the first season and a half, but in the sixth episode of Season 2, called “All Prologue,” one of these characters is killed off, and a decades-long friendship is betrayed. Beyond that major character death, the episode alters the trajectory of the show for the rest of its five-season run.

Avon Barksdale Rules Baltimore in the Beginning of ‘The Wire’

Throughout The Wire‘s first season, as well as into the first half of Season 2, the streets of West Baltimore are run by the biggest drug dealer in town: Avon Barksdale. He fights for control of every street corner and the prime inner-city housing projects, referred to as “the towers,” so he can keep his empire thriving. Stringer Bell is his second-in-command who makes sure that everything is being handled on the street and the organization is running smoothly. Below Stringer is Avon’s nephew, D’Angelo, in charge of running a prime piece of real estate within the projects known as “The Pit.”

Avon believes in ruling with an iron fist. He isn’t about to cede any of the territory he has fought so hard to claim. That typically amounts to more muscle and guns, which leads to more senseless deaths. By the finale of Season 1, Lt. Daniels and his rag-tag group of cops run the perfect wire and are able to pin some serious charges on both Avon and D’Angelo. Avon gets off easy with a sentence of only seven years, but D’Angelo ends up taking the fall for a lot of things he had nothing to do with, earning a 20-year sentence to close out the first season.

D’Angelo Barksdale Tries to Break Away From His Family’s Criminal Legacy

Over the entirety of The Wire‘s first season, D’Angelo is unable to fully embrace a life of crime like other family members. Although he and his girlfriend Donette (Shamyl Brown), who is also the mother of his young son, have been staying in a nice apartment paid for by Avon, being beholden to his uncle doesn’t sit well with D’Angelo. When he is arrested, he wants to make a deal with McNulty and Moreland if they can set him up with a new identity somewhere far away from the mean streets of Baltimore. However, Avon and Stringer know that D’Angelo is a weak link in their code of silence with law enforcement and will be tempted to give up information on both of them. Even though Avon tries to take care of D’Angelo in prison by getting him a cushy library gig, the younger man makes it known that he is going to distance himself from the Barksdale criminal enterprise moving forward.

When Avon gets sent to prison, Stringer Bell begins to take on a larger role in the day-to-day operations of the Barksdale Organization. Stringer has been striving to work smarter instead of harder, reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and taking macroeconomics courses at the local community college to implement aspects of supply and demand. Even with this new approach, however, Stringer and Avon butt heads over which approach is better. Avon has a propensity for violence and gunplay to maintain order, while Stringer has always wanted to engage in a more cerebral approach to making money.

Avon and D’Angelo doing time behind bars presents the perfect opportunity for Stringer to take control of the whole…