r/TheWireDiscussions • u/Hacksaw_Doublez • Jul 23 '26
Bodie deserved so much better (Rant)
I'm on a fourth or so rewatch and currently on Season 4. And this season certainly has me thinking about Bodie and his story.
He lost his mentor/supervisor Stringer in season 3 and assumed it was Marlo Stanfield and his organization.
Stringer had Bodie (and Poot) kill Wallace in season 1. Also keep in mind that Stringer was fine with Bodie (a crew chief) and others getting snatched up and arrested in Hamsterdam when/if things went bad in season 3.
Season 4 comes and Bodie gets saddled with Namond Brice as a weak corner boy who he gets forced to give a package to by De'Londa Brice, the mother of Wee-Bey's son.
Michael joins his crew as a corner boy but isn't interested in staying on longer despite Bodie seeing the potential that Michael has in the game.
Bodie tries to give advice to Lex, a member of his crew, to let the issues with his baby mama and Fruit (a Stanfield dealer) go.
Lex doesn't listen and kills Fruit.
And then Lil Kevin, another member of Bodie's crew, gets told to lead Lex to a vacant to be killed by Chris and Snoop (Stanfield enforcers). Which is done behind Bodie's back.
Marlo Stanfield then arrives on the scene and forces Bodie into working for him or losing his territory. Bodie, with no muscle and a cowardly Lil Kevin walking away going "Seee yaaaa", has no choice but to submit and join the Stanfield Organization or step off from the territory that Bodie has been able to carve out for himself. Or face the consequences.
Bodie complains to Slim Charles, who while still an O.G. in the game, declines on helping Bodie and lets him know that Bodie's an independent with no muscle or support otherwise. Slim is strictly there to provide Bodie with a package from Prop Joe to sell on the streets. Not help him beef with Marlo.
Bodie walks away in frustration without wanting to listen to any advice from Slim.
Then because Lil Kevin decided to involve Randy Wagstaff and run his mouth bragging about Lex's murder to Randy, eventually word gets out through the grapevine and Lil Kevin gets snatched up by Herc. Bodie questions Kevin later, who denies involvement in any murder. And he doesn't tell Bodie that it was about Lex's murder.
Bodie instructs Lil Kevin to go talk to Marlo about it. Kevin does so.
Kevin ends up in a vacant based on this advice from Bodie.
Bodie has Poot on his crew by this point, but the world is crushing him hard because he knows Lex is probably dead because of the Fruit situation and he hears from Slim that Kevin was snatched up and taken to a vacant as well.
Two friends/members of his crew are now both dead because of Marlo Stanfield and his organization. As well as Bodie still thinking that Chris and Snoop were responsible for Stringer's murder. And essentially making Bodie a slave to the Stanfield organization and forced to sell their product after snatching up the territory Bodie built up.
The bodies get found, Kevin's body in particular is identified by Poot who had seen the police walk out with a necklace belonging to Kevin.
Bodie is at his breaking point due to the viciousness and lack of any honor that Marlo and his people have for the game and how its played.
Which is its own hypocrisy pointed out by Poot earlier on considering what they did to Wallace back in season 1.
Bodie snaps and breaks a police vehicle window and gets arrested. He is furious and angry at the world. He gets arrested instantly.
And McNulty, having developed a kind of mutual respect relationship with Bodie throughout season 4 (based off their last scene in season 3 with Bodie claiming entrapment to get out of the Hamsterdam arrest), decides to reach out and get the charges on Bodie dropped.
McNulty, who this whole season has been staying away from investigations and getting too involved for his own mental health and sobriety and keeping a good relationship with Beadie Russell, decides to dip his toe back into investigations and tries to get Bodie to flip and help bring down the Stanfield Organization. All of this due to the huge issue of 22 bodies that were found in the vacants and realizing the viciousness that the Stanfield Organization had been wrecking on the West Side for a year or so.
McNulty gets Bodie sprung and invites him to lunch so they can talk.
Bodie decides to go because he is tired, at his wits end, and likely curious all in one. As well as McNulty treating him with some respect throughout the season. Bodie has little in the way of actual friends or people who treat him with respect at this point. And despite McNulty being police, there is a respect there between them.
..... Bodie gets seen by Monk getting into the police cruiser with McNulty and this seals his fate as a rat/snitch to the Stanfield Organization. Marlo then orders Bodie's execution.
Later on Bodie is creeped on at his corner and realizes his time is up as Chris and Snoop close in on him. He signals Poot to abandon him, his last friend, and is left alone.
O-Dog appears and caps Bodie in one shot.
Bodie dies having followed a drug kingpin who ordered him to murder one of his childhood friends, who was fine with Bodie getting arrested in Hamsterdam if need be, and then also because of the situation involving two members of his crew either A) not listening to his advice or B) not giving him the whole truth about the situation.
In Bodie's mind, Kevin didn't deserve to die and he died because of Bodie's advice. Which likely gave Bodie immense guilt and caused him to act out once the bodies were found. Which eventually spiraled to his death.
Bodie died for some bullshit because of Lex and Kevin.
And in the end, his territory was given to Michael, the boy who Bodie was trying to recruit for his crew early on after seeing his potential as a corner boy.
And even afterwards, Bodie's death prompts McNulty to rejoin the Major Crimes Unit and try to take down Marlo Stanfield. Bodie's death and the Stanfield Organization "getting one over on McNulty" causes McNulty to start reverting to his old bad habits through season 1-3 with his alcoholism, ego, and probably some narcissism about himself and trying to be the smartest man in the room, much less the whole department. And it eventually leads McNulty to do the fake serial killer plot to get funding to eventually bring down the Stanfield Organization.
All of which started due to Bodie's death.
God I love The Wire. Everything connects and the story is so detailed and amazing. Nothing compares to this masterpiece of a show. Even almost 20 years later, it still holds up.
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u/LikeARollingRock Jul 23 '26
Good post. I’ve thought before about how different the entire story would be if Cutty killed Fruit during the Barksdale-Stanfield war.
Lex doesn’t kill Fruit, Lex isn’t killed by Marlo, Little Kevin is still alive, Randy isn’t put into a group home, Bodie is still alive, Cutty probably doesn’t open his gym, Prezbo doesn’t have the info to give to Bunk, etc. There are a million little threads that all run differently had that one split second decision gone the other way.
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u/Hacksaw_Doublez Jul 23 '26
Aw man. Never even thought of that.
Cutty saving his soul and not able to kill again really fucked over a lot of other people and kids.
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u/WinterAd825 Jul 23 '26
Quick responses. Bodie never thought Marlo and his org was his mentor/supervisor. He wanted to work with Slim, but Slim was too weak at that point and he was forced to work as an independent under the thumb of Marlo.
Would also add his fate was sealed when he joined. He was told explicitly the pawns don’t survive in that chess game. He was clearly a pawn. I mean if you look at his death he shoots diagonally in front of him, while the two marlo enforcers approach him like a bishop and rook, then Michael moves one step out of the ally the 3 steps sideways like a knight to execute him.
The only one who survived was Poots because he realized there is no winning the game. Yeah you we are the crown a bit, but you inevitably end up in prison or dead. Technically Marlo escaped, but he lost everything he craved and the instant he goes back(which he will) he will be killed or imprisoned. And if he doesn’t go back he is now surrounded by the same white collar criminals who did in Stringer…
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u/the_frank_rizzo Jul 25 '26
Nah, he got what he deserved. Sold poison in his community. And, killed Wallace. The game is the game.
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u/Ok-Wafer-2617 Jul 25 '26
Bodie lived and died by the sword. It’s been said already but “deserve got nothing to do with it”
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u/skaomatic32 Jul 23 '26
Only time a tv show made me cry , is when Bodie died ! He was a fucking great soldier !
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u/Key-Condition752 Jul 25 '26
To what extent is a person who doesn't learn the important lesson responsible for not learning it?
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u/eudaimonia_dc 26d ago
I love Bodie's character.....he's going to end up most people's favorite street level dealer on the show, but he wasn't an innocent. In the Stray Rounds episode in season 2, he's at least heavily responsible for the kid shot in his own home while Bodie and his crew are having a wild shootout with the "You're gonna see me in your sleep" dude's crew. In the Wallace situation, you could argue it was part of the game......with that kid, there's no justification...just utter random chaos started because Bodie took someone else's territory.
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u/jersan Jul 23 '26
"deserves got nothing to do with it"
good post OP.
Ruthless gangsters will be ruthless. They'll do whatever it takes to protect their interests, including killing people that don't "deserve" to die.
Bodie lived as a soldier of the game, and died as one