Ebb Tide

The second season of The Wire begins with Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) having been assigned to Baltimore's boat unit, the one place he did not want to be. McNulty finds a young woman's corpse floating in the river, and makes sure his old unit gets the case. Kima (Sonja Sohn) and Cheryl (Melanie Nicholls-King) are trying to have a baby. Prez (Jim True-Frost) meets with his father-in-law, Major Valchek (Al Brown), and tells him he wants to keep working good cases like the Barksdale case, but Valchek has other plans. Valchek is preparing a stained-glass window for his church, St. Casimir, and he's angry when he learns that the IBS dockworkers union, represented by Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer), has out-donated him for the nave window. Sobotka has his own troubles; his son, Ziggy (James Ransone) is a worthless drunk who can't hold down a job on the docks. His nephew, Nick (Pablo Schreiber), has a stronger work ethic. Sobotka sends Nick to meet with Vondas (aka "The Greek," played by Paul Ben-Victor) to discuss stealing a certain container off the dock for the criminal. Even though Nick foolishly brings Ziggy along on the meet, the deal is made, and Vondas says he'll send his usual driver, Sergei (Chris Ashworth). But the container sits on the dock, out in the open, and when Sergei drives off without it, Sobotka gets antsy and has his crew put it out of sight. But a cop working the docks, Officer Beatrice Russell (Amy Ryan), notices the broken customs seal on the container, and makes a grisly discovery. Meanwhile, Stringer (Idris Elba) sends Bodie (J.D. Williams) to Philly to pick up some product, but finds that Avon's (Wood Harris) nervous supplier has backed out of the deal.