The Wire
Undertow
TV Flash files “Undertow” as hour 18 of 60 in the TV Flash guide — The Wire (2002–2008) on HBO, season 2, episode 5, aired 2003-06-29, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E05: listed hour 18 of 60 in the The Wire guide, hour 5 of 12 in season 2. It aired 2003-06-29 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Hard Cases” (S02E04). Next is “All Prologue” (S02E06).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
"They used to make steel there, no?" – Spiros Vondas Ziggy's inability to move a package of drugs costs him his Camaro and nearly his life as he falls foul of East side dealers. Seeing his cousin in danger, Nick attempts to parley with one of the dealers but discovers that they have torched Ziggy's car. Daniels sends his detail out for some hand-to-hands as they half-heartedly step up their investigation of the docks. Officer Russell gets information from an old boyfriend who indicates that the union computer may be useful in tracking containers. Sobotka's frustration with the Greeks begins to grow as he is once again denied a meeting with their boss, remaining defiant even when his payment for smuggling each container is tripled. Donette visits D'Angelo and tells him that he is being supported; D'Angelo remains cynical. The Barksdale family's drug trade continues to falter because of supply problems.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Undertow sit in the The Wire guide?
S02E05 is listed hour 18 of 60 — hour 5 of 12 in season 2, season 2 episode 5.
When did The Wire S02E05 air?
Undertow aired 2003-06-29 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start The Wire?
Episode one of season one. The show is a five-volume novel; skipping the corner season to “get to the good part” is how you miss the grammar.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as a civic novel that happens to be television: each season a new institution, the same city refusing to be solved. Characters function inside systems, not merch. Start at the corner; stay for the report card — and for a newsroom closer that still argues with the first wire.
Open on a street that is already an argument. The first hour of The Wire does not introduce a hero so much as a jurisdiction: a corner, a courtroom, a police department already lying to itself about what it can solve. David Simon and Ed Burns write Baltimore as a set of interlocking machines — drugs, docks, City Hall, schools, the newsroom — and then ask television to behave like a novel that refuses a narrator’s mercy. If you came for an antihero origin story, the text will starve you politely. If you came to…
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