The Wire

The Worst Episodes of The Wire

Genres:CrimeDrama
Network:HBO

Every episode of The Wire ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of The Wire!

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the...
Episodes
60
Avg. Rating
8.3
S1
S2
S3
S4
E1
E2
E3
7.8
7.7
7.9
7.8
8.2
8.1
8.1
8.2
8.1
8.0
7.9
8.2

Filter By Season5

  1. 7.7/10(5.7k votes)

    #1 - Ebb Tide

    S2:E1

    'Ain't never gonna be what it was.' -- Little Big Roy Det. Jimmy McNulty--exiled to police-boat duty--makes a shocking discovery in the Baltimore harbor. Bodie drives to Philly to make a connection for the Barksdale crew and Stringer Bell takes the train to New York to feel out the crew's reticent suppliers.

    0 Comments
    View all
  2. 7.8/10(8.9k votes)

    #2 - The Target

    S1:E1

    '... when it's not your turn.' - McNulty. Baltimore homicide detective Jimmy McNulty gets into hot water and winds up assigned to a detail of narcotics outcasts charged with investigating drug lord Avon Barksdale and his powerful operation in Franklin Terrace. Meanwhile, Avon's nephew D'Angelo is fresh off beating a murder rap, but he finds himself demoted upon his return to the gang.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Clark Johnson
  3. 7.8/10(30 votes)

    #3 - Boys of Summer

    S4:E1

    "Lambs to the slaughter here." - Marcia Donnelly Four West Baltimore boys wrestle with what to do with the rest of their summer vacation as the new fall school year approaches. Bodie deals with his corner running slower than usual so he decides to take on a runner. Marlo believes he has finally solved the problem that Stringer could never figure out. Freamon, Greggs, and Sydnor go to Pearlman to see if she will issue City Hall subpoenas. Meanwhile, the mayoral race heats up as Mayor Royce and his primary challenger, Tommy Carcetti each hit campaign trail. Prez begins preparing for his new career in higher education, while McNulty ends up turning down a promotion.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Joe Chappelle
  4. 7.8/10(29 votes)

    #4 - Alliances

    S4:E5

    "If you with us, you with us." - Chris Partlow Commissioner Burrell loses Royce's support; Chris Partlow tries to recruit Michael to become a soldier in Marlo's unit; Dukie shows Randy and the boys that the missing are really dead; Odell Watkins drops his support for Royce and considers an offer from Councilman Carcetti.

    0 Comments
    View all
  5. 7.8/10(31 votes)

    #5 - Know Your Place

    S4:E9

    "Might as well dump 'em, get another." - Proposition Joe Herc and Dozerman search for Little Kevin; Omar gets out of jail; Carcetti has his first meeting with the City Council; Prez and the teachers begin teaching the test; Proposition Joe lets Marlo know Major Crimes is after him; Bubbles looks to Kima and Herc to help him out; Bubbles delivers Little Kevin to Herc; Old Face Andre goes into hiding but Proposition Joe sells him out; Bug's father gets in Michael's face; Michael takes his problems to Marlo; Daniels and Valchek gets promoted; Omar and Renaldo monitor Marlo's activities.

    0 Comments
    View all
  6. 7.8/10(30 votes)

    #6 - More with Less

    S5:E1

    "The bigger the lie, the more they believe." - Bunk Moreland. McNulty and the detail continue to stake out Marlo and his crew. Recently promoted Sergeant Carver is met with complaints concerning unpaid overtime. Meanwhile, Haynes deals with cutbacks, but is still able to expose a politician's connection to a drug dealer; and Joe, Marlo, Fatface Rick meet to divide up the drug trade across Baltimore.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Joe Chappelle
  7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 BEST Episodes of The Wire

    READ
  8. 7.9/10(35 votes)

    #7 - Time After Time

    S3:E1

    "Don't matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin' the same." -- Bodie A wave of urban reform brings down the notorious Franklin Terrace public housing towers, forcing the Barksdale drug crew to find a new home. Stringer Bell uses a new sales strategy as he awaits Avon's return. McNulty and the Detail look to make a case against Stringer with a wiretap on a drug ring run by Proposition Joe.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Ed Bianchi
  9. 7.9/10(34 votes)

    #8 - Dead Soldiers

    S3:E3

    "The gods will not save you." -- Burrell Colvin feels the sting of Burrell and Rawls during a Comstat assessment of his district's felony numbers; a blown wiretap forces Daniels's detail to turn to a new target; Proposition Joe cautions Stringer Bell that the police have been tapping phones. Carcetti continues to curry favor in Mayor Royce's inner circle.

    0 Comments
    View all
  10. 7.9/10(30 votes)

    #9 - Refugees

    S4:E4

    "No one wins. One side just loses more slowly." - Prez Freamon and Greggs move to Homicide, while Herc and Dozerman join Marimow in the lackluster Major Crimes Unit. Cutty gets a "custodial" job at Tilghman School picking up truants, but struggles to make progress while trying to mentor Michael. Bubbles works to get Sherrod back in school as an 8th grader. Burrell finds a way to sabotage the state-witness murder investigation before the election, impacting Greggs. Prez's struggles as a teacher continue while Bodie finds himself working for a new "company". Meanwhile, Colvin pitches his pilot program to the middle school and Carcetti meets with a constituency when he knows that they won't support him regardless of what he says. Randy is faced with a dilemma after being busted for his candy scam and Proposition Joe plays Marlo in a high-stakes heist.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Jim McKay
  11. 7.9/10(29 votes)

    #10 - Unto Others

    S4:E7

    "Aw yeah. That golden rule." - The Bunk Omar calls in a favor to the police; Carcetti gets advice from the ex-mayor and then Mayor Royce and his team; Cutty finds out why Spider has been avoiding him and explains to the rest of his boxers that it won't happen again; Prez makes a break through with his students; Herc loses his camera; Greggs solves the Braddock case with soft eyes; Bubbles gets robbed repeatedly and searches for Sherrod; Namond begins to work a package and finds it hard to get suspended from school; Daniels catches Carcetti's eye.

    0 Comments
    View all
  12. 7.9/10(28 votes)

    #11 - Unconfirmed Reports

    S5:E2

    "This ain't Aruba, bitch." - Bunk Moreland Freamon keeps a look out for Marlo, who is putting together a deal with Avon Barksdale. Davis goes to Burrell for help, but finds that the commissioner's hands are tied. Whiting puts together a series on broad strokes.

    0 Comments
    View all
  13. 8.0/10(5.1k votes)

    #12 - Hot Shots

    S2:E3

    'What they need is a union.' -- Russell Bunk and Freamon chase their crime scene, a container ship, to Philly. Lt. Cedric Daniels--disgusted with his exile to the evidence control unit--makes it known that he's leaving. On orders from Barksdale, Bell finds a way to set up the correctional officer who's been harassing Wee-Bey. McNulty pursues the identity of the Jane Doe found floating in the harbor.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Elodie Keene
  14. 8.0/10(5.0k votes)

    #13 - Hard Cases

    S2:E4

    'If I hear the music, I'm gonna dance.' -- Greggs Sobotka reprimands his nephew Nick for stealing the cameras and orders him to bring the cargo back--too late. McNulty is on a self-assigned moral mission to identify his floater, but his old partner, Bunk, says they have a more pressing matter at hand: to find Omar so he can testify against a Barksdale trigger man in one of last year's murders.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Elodie Keene
    Writer:Joy Lusco
  15. 8.0/10(32 votes)

    #14 - Amsterdam

    S3:E4

    "Why you got to go and fuck with the program?" -- Fruit West Baltimore residents get surprising straight talk at a community meeting from Major Colvin. Bubbles finds gainful employment; Stringer lunches uptown; and Bunk dangles the promise of immunity to a group of corner boys, in exchange for help. Greggs learns how Marlo takes care of business as Bubbles instructs her on the next big thing: disposable cell phones.

    0 Comments
    View all
  16. 8.0/10(33 votes)

    #15 - Straight and True

    S3:E5

    "I had such fuckin' hopes for us." -- McNulty Frustrated in his grass-roots reform efforts, Colvin arms himself with intelligence from Daniels's detail and personally delivers a message to the next level of corner management. McNulty sees Stringer Bell's legitimate business dealings as a sign that he is now unreachable as a drug target. Bubbles shakes the tree for Johnny one more time.

    0 Comments
    View all
  17. 8.0/10(30 votes)

    #16 - Corner Boys

    S4:E8

    "We got our thing, but it's just part of the big thing." - Zenobia Prez wants to teach off curriculum. Carcetti visits the Homicide Department and goes on ride-a-longs for drug busts. Colvin and Dr. Parneti's class discuss the Corner Boy rules. Bunk convinces Holley to take another look at the Old Face Andre/Omar Little case. Herc and Dozerman begin shaking down Marlo and his crew as they try to have their surveillance camera returned. Chris Partlow and Snoop look to send the New York crew a message. Marlo asks Proposition Joe to look into Herc. Michael's father comes home, while Namond recruits a lieutenant.

    0 Comments
    View all
  18. 8.0/10(28 votes)

    #17 - The Dickensian Aspect

    S5:E6

    "If you have a problem with this. I understand completely." - Freamon Marlo's crew goes on full alert after Omar's mysterious disappearance. Meanwhile, Carcetti concentrates on the plight of the homeless, while Bunk has an interview with a witness connected with the row-house case, and Templeton looks to a follow up to his recent front page story.

    0 Comments
    View all
  19. 8.0/10(28 votes)

    #18 - Took

    S5:E7

    "They don't teach it in law school." - Pearlman After cooking up another scheme for the homeless case, McNulty and Lester become popular figures. Davis is set for his day in court by collecting the best legal assistance money can buy. Plus, Michael has brushes with the wrong side of the law, while Gus seeks help for an old story by going outside the Sun.

    0 Comments
    View all
  20. 8.1/10(6.7k votes)

    #19 - The Buys

    S1:E3

    "The king stay the king." - D'Angelo. The early-morning 'field interviews' by Herc, Carver and Prez result in a minor riot, a boy losing an eye and some bad publicity for the department. On the other side of the law, D'Angelo teaches Wallace and Bodie how to play the game (chess) and later impresses Bell with his 'take' from the low-rises.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Peter Medak
  21. 8.1/10(5.3k votes)

    #20 - Collateral Damage

    S2:E2

    'They can chew you up, but they gotta spit you out.' -- McNulty Major Valchek gets back at Sobotka for the church gift fiasco, and a feud begins. Valchek ups the ante by asking Deputy Commissioner Burrell for a detail to go after Sobotka. Avon Barksdale continues to run his empire from a prison cell--counseling his nephew D'Angelo and going after a guard who is harassing the organization's convicted hit-man Wee-Bey.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Ed Bianchi
  22. 8.1/10(4.9k votes)

    #21 - Undertow

    S2:E5

    'They used to make steel there, no?' -- Spiros Vondas Ziggy loses his prized Camaro to drug dealers. Unable to dump the homicide investigation on other agencies, Rawls measures Bunk for the blame, if the cases go unsolved. Homicide detectives hand out grand jury summonses to stevedores involved in the homicide case, and port cop Beadie Russell talks to an old boyfriend to find out how cargo disappears from the docks.

    0 Comments
    View all
  23. 8.1/10(33 votes)

    #22 - All Due Respect

    S3:E2

    "There's never been a paper bag." -- Colvin Omar continues his bold strikes on Barksdale stash houses, now heavily guarded. Under orders from Stringer Bell, Bodie faces a critical test against Marlo, a fierce young dealer with lucrative corners. As the wire on Proposition Joe continues to yield little, McNulty launches his own reinvestigation of last year's prison suicide of D'Angelo Barksdale.

    0 Comments
    View all
  24. 8.1/10(32 votes)

    #23 - Back Burners

    S3:E7

    "Conscience do cost." -- Butchie Herc discovers a blast from the past, which he belatedly reveals to his ex-colleagues. Daniels blows a gasket over the real reason the detail was reassigned from an investigation in Pimlico to the Western District. Stringer Bell learns from Donette that she's told Brianna about McNulty's visit and that Brianna is likely to talk to him.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Writer:Joy Lusco
  25. 8.1/10(34 votes)

    #24 - Slapstick

    S3:E9

    "...while you're waiting for moments that never come." -- Freamon Responding to an officer's call for help, McNulty and Prez turn down the wrong alley, with unanticipated results. A Barksdale crew violates the unspoken Sunday truce with gunplay, increasing discontent among the New Day Co-op members. Stymied in his effort to open a gym, Cutty is surprised to find help from within Baltimore's power structure.

    0 Comments
    View all
  26. 8.1/10(29 votes)

    #25 - Margin of Error

    S4:E6

    "Don't try this shit at home." - Norman Wilson Carcetti responds to a campaign smear. Randy is accused of a serious transgression. Colvin's special class gets its first enlistees.

    0 Comments
    View all

Worst Episodes Summary

"Ebb Tide" is the worst rated episode of "The Wire". It scored 7.7/10 based on 5667 votes. Directed by Ed Bianchi, Steve Shill and written by David Simon, it aired on 6/1/2003. This episode scored 0.1 points lower than the second lowest rated, "The Target".