Home Rooms

"Home Rooms"
The Wire episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 3
Directed by	Seith Mann
Story by	Ed Burns Richard Price
Teleplay by	Richard Price
Original air date	September 24, 2006 (2006-09-24)
Running time	58 minutes
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

"Home Rooms" is the third episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by Richard Price from a story by Ed Burns & Richard Price, and directed by Seith Mann, it originally aired on September 24, 2006.

Plot

's advice, Carcetti does not address the press, deciding that the perceived restraint will make a stronger positive impression on Watkins and Daniels.

Bunk visits McNulty and Beadie for dinner; McNulty reluctantly goes for drinks with Bunk. Bodie is visited by Marlo, who gives him an ultimatum: start selling Marlo's product, or give up his corner to one of Marlo's crews. Marlo recognizes Michael and asks Partlow to find out more about him. Bodie also takes an interest in Michael and tries to convince him to stay with his crew instead of going back to school. Michael walks away without answering. Bodie later tells Slim Charles that he has decided to fight Marlo for control of the corner, even without backup. Meanwhile, the New Day Co-Op realizes they face two problems: Marlo is expanding his empire, and drug dealers from New York City are encroaching on the territory in East Baltimore. The Co-Op agrees to strike against the New York dealers and consider including Marlo in the effort. Slim Charles warns Proposition Joe that he is unlikely to be successful negotiating with Marlo, given Stringer Bell's previous failure to make him see reason.

As Omar makes his way to buy cereal, lookouts announce his progress and drug dealers flee. On his way home, a frightened dealer drops his stash from a window. Omar reflects that he doesn't want the drugs because there was no effort required to take them, and worries that taking easy targets will eventually make him soft. While staking out a corner shop, Omar spots Greggs photographing the owner, Old Face Andre. Both observers notice a drug resupply being delivered by a man with a child in school uniform. After Greggs leaves, Omar and Renaldo stick up Old Face Andre. At the MCU, Freamon has linked Old Face Andre to Marlo through the wiretap, and hopes to tie him to other Stanfield lieutenants. Rawls appoints Lieutenant Charles Marimow as the new head of the unit, who demands that the Stanfield wiretap be shut down. Freamon confronts Rawls and is forced to accept a transfer to Homicide. When Greggs considers transferring to Daniels' district, Daniels meets with Rawls and asks him to consider moving her to Homicide as well.

teaches and, seeing how out of control the children are, persuades the academic to study them instead.

On their way to school,

Production

Title reference

The title refers to the homeroom classes as the children begin the new school year. Also, this episode shows the home lives of both Omar Little and Jimmy McNulty. In this episode, Kima Greggs and Lester Freamon also search for homes in the police department.

Epigraph

I love the first day, man. Everybody all friendly an' shit.

— Namond Brice

Namond Brice remarking how people tend to be more friendly than usual on the first day of school. The epigraph could also be a reference to Lieutenant Marimow's first day as commander of the Major Crimes Unit.

Miscellanea

• Renaldo is shown reading the novel Drama City by George Pelecanos (a writer for the show).^[3]
• Andre asks Detective Greggs if she is "one of them half-
  soul, half-Chinese types." Though Kima has never been explicitly identified as mixed-race, actress Sonja Sohn
  's parents are African-American and Korean-American.
• As the students enter the building on their first day, Marcia Donnelly instructs them not to go "up the down staircase", a likely reference by the writers to the novel of the same name, which deals with high school bureaucracy's compromising effects on a teacher's idealism.
• Michael suggests that Chinese characters shown by Namond Brice are misidentified, which turns out to be true. When Namond points to the character for "lion" it is actually "heart" (心 xīn), and for "heart" it is actually "tiger" (虎 hǔ).
• After "interviewing" the 18-year-old from the street in the holding cell, Bunny is sitting outside with Carver and the academic by a sign that reads "Holding Cell for Western Police Officer's Only!...No Exceptions."

Credits

Starring cast

Although credited,

do not appear in this episode.

Guest stars

Uncredited appearances

First appearances

• Old Face Andre: Westside corner store owner who operates a drug package for Marlo Stanfield out of his store.
• Lieutenant Charlie Marimow: caustic commander with a reputation as a "unit killer" who is the replacement commander of the Major Case Unit.
• Dr. David Parenti
  : University of Maryland academic who is planning a pilot study targeting repeat violent offenders.
• Albert Stokes
  : a short, overweight, and foul mouthed eighth grade student in Prez's late math class.
• Darnell Tyson
  : eighth grade student in Prez's math class with a drinking problem.
• Karim Williams
  : eighth grade student in Prez's math class who is friends with Randy and Namond.
• Renaldo: Omar's new boyfriend.
• Bug
  : Michael's half-brother.

References

External links

• "Home Rooms" at HBO.com
• "Home Rooms" at
  IMDb