You're absolutely right about how Bodie kinda slowly grows on you. After the death of Wallace I actually couldn't wait for someone to kill Bodie but when he was finally killed it made me tear up because he'd grown on me so much as a character. Bodie is one of the most tragic characters in a series full of tragic characters.
Bodie had a code and that's why. Yes he was a bad man who tried to talk kids out of going to school so they would sell drugs and stuff, but Bodie never left Baltimore until going to Juvenile Hall. I love to think that if McNulty would've been able to work him just a bit, maybe Bodie could've gotten an ending like Poot got. We see in S4 that Bodie and Poot are forever haunted by murdering Wallace, as they should be. Sometimes that is punishment more fitting than even the longest prison sentence.
Bodie is a young Avon. In fact, the real Avon Barksdale was nicknamed "Bodie." So they are actually the same person, but Simon decided to split them up.
@@naswiipp no he wasn't. Why is it he was a rat because he knew Marlo was pure evil and makes even a guy who shot one of his best friends to death stop and realize how wrong it is? Literally nobody liked Marlo. Some feared him and some hated him and some were just loyal to what he provided them but we never see anyone truly bonding with Marlo at all. I would imagine Marlo ends up dead or in prison not long after the series ended.
@@flightofthebumblebee9529 Bodie was not friends with Wallace like that. Poot and Wallace were best friends. Bodie and Wallace just happened to be in the same crew. You only saw Bodie and Wallace together in The Pit. Poot and Wallace you saw together outside The Pit constantly.
Bodie is probably my favorite character now-the fact that his character can make getting shot on a street corner in west Baltimore feel honorable really speaks to how tremendously acted and written his character was
I'll always remember, I actually cried out when he met his fate. It was totally involuntary. I just shouted. Didn't realize just how much I liked him until that moment.
At least Poot made it out ok. He seemed truly grounded by season 5 in the shoe store and completely lost his taste for all of the street life after getting out of prison and seeing Bodie killed.
Bodies and Poots are all over the place in the streets while hitters like Slim can go anywhere in that world cause good hitters are hard to come by. Personally, I knew a lot more Bodies, Poots, and Wallaces when I was growing up than Slims, probably why I liked the trio from the Pit cause they reminded me of some of my friends from back in the day.
@@Rakasha30 He looks trusting. Thing is who worth their while wants to stick around that. Hanguing next to Joe is full time plus overtime and whatevers left you're still a criminal and a dude who got bodies and opps.
JD Williams talent was grossly unutilized on the wire. He grew and showed so much Dept as well as nuance on OZ. With that being said I can't help but to see him as lil Kenny 💯.
Ol Kenny Wangler. Oz is sooo underrated, fam. No Oz I'm not sure ya get The Sopranos or The Shield to get to shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc. It made anti-heros and prestige television possible yet it's constantly ignored and misunderstood 🤦🏽♂️
Oz is just a dissapointment to me. Decent shot at a plot but poorly executed and set in a scenario that is so fast fetched and un realistic that I can't take it serious.
I'm from Baltimore. Back then a westside hustla that was street like Bodie was not gonna work for no East side plug. OG west niggaz was not rocking with east like that. Against the code then. That's why Avon ain't fuck with them like that because he was old-school Baltimore. Marlo ain't have a code. Joe was playing any side to maintain. Stringer was all business and not street.
In real life Bodie didn't stay a pawn... The real Avon street name was Bodie so the creators ran the characters parallel to show you avons younger mentality as Bodie....1 of the Easter eggs that blows your mind if you ever discover it...
Avon in the period we see him wouldn't.... But the time period they based Bodie on he wouldn't have a choice and the creators know you'll find out Bodie and Avon are the same person so bodies death on the shows explains why at that time he would have to let Marlo do what he does
@@sedhub8791 uh uh bro bro, according to the show, prop joe even wanted avon to let marlo have those corners. Which his response was fuck them niggas & I ain't no suit wearing dude, I may just be a gangster I suppose, but I want my corners. Avon knew how he got them corners in his younger days...which would not have happened if he got punked into taking someone else's package.
I rewatch the wire once a year and even after all these years i still notice something i previously missed. when Marlo snd Chris are discussing taking Bodie out Marlo says give it to your pup to get him started, Chris says your first time should not be somebody you know, this is in stark contrast to Bodies first time as he was ordered to take out Wallace by Stringer
Makes sense, as you can truly see the inner struggle Bodie is having right before shooting Wallace. He knew Wallace, and it was his first hit, and he almost had to be goaded by Poot yelling to, "do it if you're gonna do it!" Bodie is clearly stressed and conflicted about a task that Bodie 💯 KNEW he had to do or give up the streets, and possibly his life, for not carrying out the murder. I almost wonder if Poot yelling startled Bodie enough that he pulled the trigger, and you can see the disbelief in his face after the gun fires. Poot even had to take the gun and finish his best friend to end Wallace's suffering. Damn. Amazing acting by all 3 in the scene. 👍
Love Omar, McNulty, Stringer and Bunk... but man, Bodie was special. Great actor, amazingly scripted. His death was needed for the show to play out. But damn, it hurt hard.
Bodie believed in the fantasy that being loyal to dealers with pay off. When in reality loyalty to the dollar is the only true rule in and out of the streets.
Bodie was always my favorite character. Imo he’s as iconic as anyone on the show. I was terribly sad to see him die on that corner. I often wondered if Poot would’ve stayed he might’ve spotted the youngin coming from the side. Great video! 🙏
Same ending...just with two bodies...Chris and Snoop actually trained their young boys to be killers and always ready. Judging off how they schooled Mike ain't no telling how long O-Dog had been there waiting for the word to end Bodie. Remember get there early was the rule...Poot staying does nothing to help
Bodie is the character i was stand up for all along the serie, i really felt him like he was competent as hell but never got the real recognition he deserved, no matter how he play by the rules, showing up at work and killing it but still stand up alone in his last moment.
This is a really good analysis and as the show does, the portrayal of Bodie as a pawn/soldier holds true. What's interesting about his character is that while the atmosphere and power players change, Bodie essentially doesn't. He remains a soldier who simply goes forward. Even when Marlo takes over his area, he doesn't even consider moving because as noted, he can't even think outside of Westside, let alone Baltimore. The one point in which I'd strongly differ with the writers of the show was Bodie and Poot killing Wallace. While it was certainly one of the more poignant moments of the series, I didn't view it as realistic. In real life, even if he was snitching or just talking to the police, guys like Bodie and Poot are not going to kill one of their homies like that. Unless he's specifically snitching on them, he's in court and they are looking at years in prison, it wouldn't happen. If anything, they would have just told him to stay out of town because Avon and Stringer were looking for him. And to that extent, someone like Stringer wouldn't ask the guys friends to kill him. Those guys are too young and fresh to consider something like that. In real life, Stringer would have given that job to someone like Bird, Wee-Bay or someone else of that stature. Dudes on the street get killed all the time but that was an unlikely scenario.
Because he represented someone who wanted to be an individual in a world filled with institutional power. Any represented how individuals get crushed by institutional power. Slim and prop were also really not his people. Slim was a late addition to the barksdale crew basically a paid contractor. He was the man, but ultimately joining east side went against everything Bodie wanted. And they weren't effectively organized anyways and slim Even said they were basically just a loose affiliation without offering much protection to their corners. Especially against Marlo
That analogy about individuals an institutions like big corporations is spot on.I think in the real world surely he would have got in contact with Barksdale an got the connect an tried to replicate what Avon was doing
That chessboard reference you used for Bodie's death & all the characters involved was EPIC & spot on. I never looked at it that way until you broke it down.
Bodie represented something in a soldier that Marlo lacked: honor. If you think about it, Bodie's death was Marlo's downfall. It really lit a fire under Jimmy's ass, and he then sacrificed his career to take Marlo out of the game. In the end, nobody on the streets remembered Marlo's precious name.
CR..you're doing an awesome job with these great critical breakdowns and insights which many of us see who were true aficionados of this series, but your clear explanations and logical process is so on point. Great job my man and....Salute!
Wow. Beautifully said. Bodie had a code. Code died with him. Slim could go wherever needed. Funny. Nothing has change 20 years later in the street. NO one learned anything.
Bodie was 16 years when he got murdered and was still a CHILD! And at the same time he was a street veteran. Such an incredibly sad story. And as for murdering his friend (another even younger child), it was an order from the gang leader and Bodie either had to carry out the murder, flee from Baltimore or turn informant. Also he killed a presumable police informant. They way I see things they were all victims of the game.
@@ChrisThomas-hg4ne ok thanks. it is cool that there are som many Wire fans who can even break down these things straight from their memory. Take care man.
Bodie told us in the end why didn’t leave “this is my corner”. That corner is all Bodie had in the game. He was there to lead it’s growth and subsequent downfall. That corner for Bodie is the last remaining piece of the old days. Though he took Slims and then Marlo’s package, he was still the manager of that corner, he hired and fired the staff, he protected it, and he in the end died for it. That was Bodie’s corner and he was not going to leave it.
Bodie is always one of my favorite wire characters. He is in so many iconic scenes. He never changed up once from season 1 to his death and he died standing on what he believed in. He wouldn't back down to Marlo when everyone else did
Bodie always felt like the Christopher Moltisanti of The Wire for me. Cant say exactly why. Anyhow, Bodie was definitely in my Top 3 Favorite Characters along with McNulty and... i dont know, it's so hard to pick. Omar? Michael? Cutty? Frank Sobatka? Bunny Culvin? Avon? All those guys are definitely in my top 10, I just cant choose which of them I'd pick to round out my top 3, lol.
Because he was a low level soldier who lived in Marlo’s area, unless Slim Charles had offered him a position; he had no choice but to take Marlo’s package
Bodie also stayed Westside because he had claimed and built his own corner. It was “raggedy,” but it was his own slice of territory, his own crew, and some basic amount of autonomy. Yea, he was definitely on his own, subject to the kingpins, but he finally had his own shop as an independent. This agency came with personal growth, broader perspectives, and aspirations to experience the wider world. He staked his claim and built something and would never go back to being an employee, reflected by his final cry as he made his last stand “Yo, this is my corner! I ain’t goin nowhere!”
What I never understood was why Bubbles had no final meeting with Kima or the other police officers. It would be nice for them to see that he got free from that nightmare.
Bodie understood the game and knew his role and place in it. When Avon's crew was disarticulated he lost his identity as a member of a powerfull organización and was left by himself having to play by others rules (wich he hated). After Marlo did Lil' Kevin he became sick of the Game ando saw no point on it. Specially because he killed his own friend, Wallace, over something that didn't made sense to him anymore. He felt trapped in the Game. But didn't know any other type of lifestyle.
I would argue Michael Duquan Namond and Randy are the embodiment of all the Characters on the Wire. They show you where the Omar’s Avons, Prop Joes etc come from.
It may have been the person who host RU-vid Channel Lions and Legends that reached out to you previously. Just guessing. They do a lot of Character analysis deep dives from the Wire and other HBO dramas. If it's not them hope you are able to find out who it was. A collab with them may be just as good otherwise.
Marlo had to kill Bodie because Bodie was never going to be loyal to Marlo and ultimately he would kill Marlo if he got the chance....Slim knew Bodie wasnt cut to bow own an humble himself for the greater good....
Dude, I’ve been subscribed for a while cos I love your videos. I hope that patroon sub went through, I just did it on mobile on the bus and it was confusing. Anyway, keep doing you. I appreciate your content so much!
Fantastic Video, I am a fan of this channel. Especially since you started covering my all time favorite show. But if I'm not mistaken, it's Michael who kills Bodie, I don't know if any O dog. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I can't front a little tear welled up in my eye when Bodie got hit because I saw so many of my people fall that way. He represented the guy who that's all he knows but a soldier and a overall Kool dude. Sat an ate some wings and fried rice moving a pack sippin a brew kickin' it. The crazy thing is Bodie actually died by the words he spoke in his introductory episodes. He said to mcnulty and bunk anybody goes talking to cops gets got. And the wire was real in a way where people did their dirt such as Bodie and they did pay for it and Bodie wasn't exempt.
He didn’t join Eastside he just got his package from them he was alone that’s why he had to take Marlo package he had no one to back him in a war he was alone
great video, I believe brodie had a few problems mainly being his lack of understanding and not being able to see the bigger picture. He blinded by the game and couldn't see past the street, I think of him as the person who has been a fry cook his whole life and never know how to be anything more than that. He's the best fry cook in the world he flip those burgers with the best of em, brodie can work a corner and a crew with the best of em, but he can't see past that he can't understand how to move up, he can't see life where he's not on the corner, so he stay a pawn moving 1 square at a time never really thinking 3 moves ahead.
Let me...break it down!! Such was the impact 😌 of The Wire's character development, that when Brodie made that last stand...I still haven't watched that scene 😳
Hood politics..old-school feelings. West & East never fucked wit'eachother back in the day..especially when East chased West over the North Ave Bridge when the beaf broke out at club"Odells
Bodie aka Bricks from HBO's OZ. Almost Literally the same character. OZ used a TON of the same actors and I love it. Watched on cable and bought all the dvds.....
Bodie didn't go EastSide for the same reason Wallace didn't leave and get out of the game. WestSide was all he knew. It was where he felt most at home, regardless of what he had to do to survive. So, he stayed. There's no higher level of complex logic needed to understand this. It's just inertia. There was no real force in Bodie's life that came in and forced him to make a deeply consequential change. He didn't care which boss he slung for, so long as he got his corner to work. He even said so, several times in the show. What made Bodie such an interesting and integral character in the show was that he understood *what* he was, and where he stood within the larger context of "the game". Unlike many of his cohorts around him, Bodie was always very adept at managing his own expectations. It wasn't until Marlo & his crew began knocking off people for minor offenses did Bodie become unhinged. Not just because his friend Little Kevin was killed, but more because the rules to "the game" had been grossly violated in his mind.
He was a tried and true Westside Baltimore guy. So working for an Eastside dealer was out of the question. Even though it was Joe supplying Bodie through Slim Charles. Because Bodie’s crew was independent, they never had a chance against The Stanfield crew
That is a good analysis of Bodie ,he never had any real coolness to his personality just street corner bravido unfortunately. I think his character is very realistic nonetheless. 🎯🤺
Definitely didn't see his death coming, but sadly it made sense. Marlo had him on a island dead end corner; knowing all Bodie knew was the corner so Marlo always had the drop, obviously. Unfortunately, Bodie lacked the mind capacity to level up in the game, instead of staying that Pawn for years. He couldn't see outside of West Baltimore so he was literally stuck on a island, sellin a package frm a Drug lord you not on the same wavelength with. Although he realized it, it was far to late
IMHO, you're wrong about the Wallace killing. After Stringer put Bodie on it, he chose to include Poot, who didn't understand why Stringer ordered the hit. Bodie spent the day trying to show Poot why, because Wallace wasn't cut out for their line of work, "His heart pumped koolaid." After the initial shot by Bodie, Poot finishing the job was mostly symbolic in 2 ways; 1) Poot agreed about Wallace in the end, and 2) to show Bodie his own heart didn't pump koolaid, that he and Bodie were built from the same mold.
I love the chess analogy and I think it applies more than we think. After you mentioned the fact that Bodie was Westside; I visualized a chess board and remembered that pawns can only move one way unless they are fighting. Bodie could have been the pawn on the left side of the board and Slim on the right side as any other chess piece. Because of Bodie's position; he just doesn't know any better and only knows one way to go; to the "Top". On his way there he gets slain just like a pawn would. There's no chance for him to be next to Slim because Pawns can't move horizontally. Bodie stays "Westside" while trying to get to the top of the board.
Being patient waiting for Marlo to fall (your theory about slim advice) would not work. At least in all likelihood it would not. The potential to be killed for any reason or a potential reason (Marlo will kill if think you MAY be a problem) is too high. You can’t win working for Marlo.
