This thread is for all my Wire fans getting their Lester Freamon on, analyzing every little scene and tying it to others. I've seen The Wire several times now (Season 3 the most, probably 7 times), and have picked up on a lot of little nuances, but I'm still learning a lot from Coli brethren in random Wire threads. So this thread is for the little things you noticed that just make you go 
but still flew under-the-radar because of the show's complexity
Share your observations too, cuz I wanna know the things I've missed. Or ask questions that I'm sure someone here can answer
Warning: there's definitely gonna be a lot of SPOILERS
I'll start
1.
This is a great video I found on YouTube, it's like a highlight reel of the beginning of the Barksdale/Stanfield war. In one of the scenes, you see how incompetent Barksdale's soldiers are when Cutty and Slim are explaining how they will distract them while the rest roll up and blast, yet they still end by saying "I don't wanna be just some damn decoy". They didn't know what to do until right before the hit, and they still didn't even know
Contrast this with Stanfield's soldiers in the quiz scene in season 4 where they go "Hit him in the belly, dikk, or the ass region...Then you walk up". "And hit him with the headshot". "Good, now what if they're in a car?" Here, you see that they train the rank-and-file on how to deal with attacks like the one in season 3 before the fact. This shows Stanfield had the upper hand in the attack in season 3 when NayNay steered his car as a shield/roadblock, and they dropped Country and Tater (the 2 in the front of the car). Barksdale only kept up in the war because of eastside muscle.
2. HERC AS GOOD POLICE
I feel like I'm the only one who believes Herc wanted to be "good police". In the end of S1, he was telling rookies in CID that it wasn't just about jacking up corners. He was having fun in S2 going undercover with his toothpick prop. He tried the Major Crimes wire/surveillance tactic with Marlo, which ended fukking him over with camera's paperwork. After Kima says your only as good as your CI, he tries using Bubbles as a snitch, trying to be "good police" like Kima. He couldn't help Bubbles (once when he was trying to get Randy to confess with no leverage/body, the other when he was getting chewed out by his boss for the camera), then Bubbles fukked him by saying the reverend had drugs.
Herc wanted to be good police, he was just way too fukking dumb to do it well. Although not the cause of his downfall, it doesn't help that the department didn't promote "good policing" either and liked having cops do shyt like jacking corners. It seems he was kind of typecast ("Lift this, do that, pick up this kid"), and Levy was the only one willing to put his knowledge of police tactics to good use.
3. MCNULTY'S KIDS AND WESTSIDE
McNulty's kids have encountered 3 of The Wire's favorite characters. Bubbles went to a "soc-what?" game, they hit Stringer with the front-and-follow, and took Omar to the morgue. If only they knew the kind of dirt these characters were involved in, and the type of hood stories they could tell their friends in leave-it-to-beaver land
4. OMAR (SAVINO, HIS LEGACY) SPOILER
A. Let's start with Omar and Savino. Omar puts the gun on him and Savino pleads his case by saying "I wasn't there for that shyt with Butchie". Omar asks him "Well, what if you was there?.....You know what?" *POP* In that pause, he remembers what Barksdales people did to Brandon, and Savino was still no different just because he was with a different crew. Omar was on a new warpath, but seeing as how Savino was the only one he killed on the list, it was like he was finishing up his Barksdale warpath.
B. Omar's legacy. All over the streets they had all sorts of stories about how he died, usually involving numerous hitmen and AK's. Everybody knew him and yelled "Omar coming!" when he's around. Yet, the morgue confused his toe tag with some white guy I believe. At the newspaper offices, someone was asking about "the story about the fire, or the 35 year old man shot dead in a corner store?". I forget his age specifically, but in the end, he was still just a dead black man in a zip code that does not matter
. Season 5 is the one I've seen the least 
5. MICHAEL LEE
Now onto my favorite character of the whole series, Michael Lee. You could tell he was going to be big. I was curious the whole time who would take him under their wing. Was he gonna hustle with Bodie? Follow the straight-and-narrow with Cutty?
You could tell he was something serious when he looked Marlo right in the eye when he asked "is you too much of a bytch wonderin where my money came from?" Even more so when Marlo saw that he was wearing the ring that Marlo took from Old Face Andre, which Omar took, which Officer Walker took, which ends up with Michael. This chain of jackmoves could've been made shorter if Andre didn't take off his ring when Omar hit his bodega, but whatever. That ring's travels tho
with Michael at the top of the food chain
He "killed" both Snoop and Chris in the training session (which I assume is also useful for Snoop and Chris), foreshadowing what happens later. He went to war with Omar and survived. When Kenard kills Omar, the hoppers came in and took some souvenirs. I didn't realize that it was probably Michael's corner this happened on, and when the sawed-off comes out in the end montage
that's just your kneecap 
it all made sense. All the pieces really did fit.
but still flew under-the-radar because of the show's complexityShare your observations too, cuz I wanna know the things I've missed. Or ask questions that I'm sure someone here can answer
Warning: there's definitely gonna be a lot of SPOILERS
I'll start
1.
This is a great video I found on YouTube, it's like a highlight reel of the beginning of the Barksdale/Stanfield war. In one of the scenes, you see how incompetent Barksdale's soldiers are when Cutty and Slim are explaining how they will distract them while the rest roll up and blast, yet they still end by saying "I don't wanna be just some damn decoy". They didn't know what to do until right before the hit, and they still didn't even know
Contrast this with Stanfield's soldiers in the quiz scene in season 4 where they go "Hit him in the belly, dikk, or the ass region...Then you walk up". "And hit him with the headshot". "Good, now what if they're in a car?" Here, you see that they train the rank-and-file on how to deal with attacks like the one in season 3 before the fact. This shows Stanfield had the upper hand in the attack in season 3 when NayNay steered his car as a shield/roadblock, and they dropped Country and Tater (the 2 in the front of the car). Barksdale only kept up in the war because of eastside muscle.
2. HERC AS GOOD POLICE
I feel like I'm the only one who believes Herc wanted to be "good police". In the end of S1, he was telling rookies in CID that it wasn't just about jacking up corners. He was having fun in S2 going undercover with his toothpick prop. He tried the Major Crimes wire/surveillance tactic with Marlo, which ended fukking him over with camera's paperwork. After Kima says your only as good as your CI, he tries using Bubbles as a snitch, trying to be "good police" like Kima. He couldn't help Bubbles (once when he was trying to get Randy to confess with no leverage/body, the other when he was getting chewed out by his boss for the camera), then Bubbles fukked him by saying the reverend had drugs.
Herc wanted to be good police, he was just way too fukking dumb to do it well. Although not the cause of his downfall, it doesn't help that the department didn't promote "good policing" either and liked having cops do shyt like jacking corners. It seems he was kind of typecast ("Lift this, do that, pick up this kid"), and Levy was the only one willing to put his knowledge of police tactics to good use.
3. MCNULTY'S KIDS AND WESTSIDE
McNulty's kids have encountered 3 of The Wire's favorite characters. Bubbles went to a "soc-what?" game, they hit Stringer with the front-and-follow, and took Omar to the morgue. If only they knew the kind of dirt these characters were involved in, and the type of hood stories they could tell their friends in leave-it-to-beaver land
4. OMAR (SAVINO, HIS LEGACY) SPOILER
A. Let's start with Omar and Savino. Omar puts the gun on him and Savino pleads his case by saying "I wasn't there for that shyt with Butchie". Omar asks him "Well, what if you was there?.....You know what?" *POP* In that pause, he remembers what Barksdales people did to Brandon, and Savino was still no different just because he was with a different crew. Omar was on a new warpath, but seeing as how Savino was the only one he killed on the list, it was like he was finishing up his Barksdale warpath.
B. Omar's legacy. All over the streets they had all sorts of stories about how he died, usually involving numerous hitmen and AK's. Everybody knew him and yelled "Omar coming!" when he's around. Yet, the morgue confused his toe tag with some white guy I believe. At the newspaper offices, someone was asking about "the story about the fire, or the 35 year old man shot dead in a corner store?". I forget his age specifically, but in the end, he was still just a dead black man in a zip code that does not matter
. Season 5 is the one I've seen the least 5. MICHAEL LEE
Now onto my favorite character of the whole series, Michael Lee. You could tell he was going to be big. I was curious the whole time who would take him under their wing. Was he gonna hustle with Bodie? Follow the straight-and-narrow with Cutty?
You could tell he was something serious when he looked Marlo right in the eye when he asked "is you too much of a bytch wonderin where my money came from?" Even more so when Marlo saw that he was wearing the ring that Marlo took from Old Face Andre, which Omar took, which Officer Walker took, which ends up with Michael. This chain of jackmoves could've been made shorter if Andre didn't take off his ring when Omar hit his bodega, but whatever. That ring's travels tho
with Michael at the top of the food chainHe "killed" both Snoop and Chris in the training session (which I assume is also useful for Snoop and Chris), foreshadowing what happens later. He went to war with Omar and survived. When Kenard kills Omar, the hoppers came in and took some souvenirs. I didn't realize that it was probably Michael's corner this happened on, and when the sawed-off comes out in the end montage
that's just your kneecap it all made sense. All the pieces really did fit.
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brought Nick Sobotka to Prop Joe, he was complaining about how he can't cut off his fam and not hear about it come Thanksgiving. Further supported in S3 when the Major Crimes Unit wanted Drac promoted cuz he always talked on the phone, but Joe didn't promote him even though he was kin to the fat motherfukker.