Preston Broadus

From The Wire

Preston Broadus
Preston "Bodie" Broadus
First appearance	"The Target" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	"Final Grades" (episode 4.13)
Details
Nickname(s)	Bodie
Gender	Male
Year of Birth	1986
Year of Death	2006
Occupation	Drug dealer
Episode Count	42 credited episodes 37 appearances
Portrayed by	JD Williams

Preston "Bodie" Broadus is a Barksdale organization drug dealer who has slowly risen through the ranks over the show's run.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Season one 1.2 Season two 1.3 Season three 1.4 Season four 2 Production 2.1 Appearances 2.2 Origins 3 Reception 3.1 Critical response and analysis 4 References

[edit] Biography

Preston "Bodie" Brodus was raised by his grandmother after his mother fell into addiction and homelessness, dying when he was a child. He grew up the hard way in Baltimore in an economy that would not support him, and was still a teenager when he began working with the Barksdales. He once briefly enrolled in Baltimore City Community College, but dropped out to return to his career on the street corners of Westside Baltimore.

[edit] Season one

Bodie, age 16, worked under D'Angelo Barksdale in the low rise projects called "The Pit", with his friends Poot Carr and Wallace. He chafed under D'Angelo's soft style of leadership and often challenged his authority. When the pit's stash was robbed, he made a positive impression on Stringer Bell by noticing the name of the stick-up artist, Omar Little, and describing the van.

Bodie often displayed a quick, violent temper; he instigated the severe beating of drug addict Johnny Weeks, and later punched Detective Mahone while being searched. Bodie received a beating for this, from Detectives Greggs, Carver and Hauk. He was arrested but, immediately after arriving in the juvenile detention facility, he walked out and stole a car, soon back in Baltimore dealing again. He became a personal target of Herc and Carver, who picked him up in The Pit and gave him a second beating. However, while waiting for prisoner transfer, they softened towards him over a game of pool. The Barksdale organization's lawyer, Maurice Levy, convinced the judge to release Bodie. When Herc and Carver learned he had beaten the charges against him, they relented.

Later, was tasked by Stringer Bell to murder his erstwhile friend Wallace after Avon decided to eliminate anyone who might talk to the police. His willingness to do the deed further impressed Stringer. When the moment of truth came, Bodie was not quite ready to murder a friend; it took urging from Poot to push him into going through with the crime.

[edit] Season two

Stringer began entrusting Bodie with more difficult tasks, such as picking up the main supply in Philadelphia, and assigned him one of the prized Franklin Terrace Towers to run. Poot was assigned to run The Pit and he reported to Bodie. They faced problems with poor quality product because the Barksdales' suppliers severed ties thanks to Avon's arrest. Bodie came up with considered suggestions to work around the problem at Stringer's meetings.

When an independent crew of dealers moved in on the Barksdales' territory, Bodie's violent outburst led the other crew to start a gunfight which resulted in the accidental death of a child. After failing to adequately dispose of the guns, Bodie was picked up and interrogated by detectives Ed Norris and Ray Cole in connection with the crime. They attempted to bluff a confession out of him, but he saw through their trick and was released.

Stringer was unhappy with him, and ordered him to welcome "Proposition" Joe Stewart's dealers to the towers, because Joe was providing high-quality product. He and the other West Siders started friendly competition to entice buyers away from Joe's nephew, Cheese. Bodie was pleased when Brother Mouzone drove away the East Side dealers.

[edit] Season three

The Franklin Towers were demolished and Avon was released from prison. Western District Major Colvin tried to deal with the spread of the drug problem by offering "drug zones" where dealers and users would go unpunished. Bodie worked in one such zone nicknamed "Hamsterdam"; this brought him back into contact with Herc and Carver, now working in the Western District. On one occasion, Detectives McNulty and Greggs tried to arrest Bodie for possession. He protested that he was complying with Colvin's directive, and was not arrested. He also helped Dennis "Cutty" Wise to contact Avon Barksdale on several occasions.

The Barksdale organization became embroiled in a turf war with Marlo Stanfield's crew. Although Bodie's crew were badly beaten, Bodie himself escaped. The escalating murder rate brought further police attention. Avon was sent back to prison, Stringer was murdered and the gang were scattered. Hamsterdam was raided by the police, but Bodie avoided imprisonment by citing the aforementioned traffic stop as "entrapment" (although he called it "contraptment").

[edit] Season four

Bodie was forced into a less-desirable corner, because Marlo controlled all the prime territory. He continued to have dealings with Sergeant Carver and Officer Jimmy McNulty, since his operation fell in their jurisdiction. His crew included Curtis "Lex" Anderson (his second in command), Little Kevin, and Reesy; he also employed Namond Brice as a runner out of respect for his father's reputation, despite Namond's poor attitude. He tried to tempt Michael Lee, a far more effective runner, to take a permanent position at his corner, but Michael declined.

Bodie was supplied quality product by ex-Barksdale enforcer Slim Charles, now working on behalf of Proposition Joe, which allowed him to build his corner into a busy drug market. Marlo offered Bodie an ultimatum - let Marlo's operation take over the corner or stay but work Marlo's package. At first, Bodie was determined not to back down, but he ultimately began selling drugs provided by Marlo, after realizing that nobody would help him.

In a fit of romantic jealousy, Lex murdered his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend: a Stanfield dealer known as Fruit. In retribution, Stanfield enforcers Chris and Snoop executed Lex, in an ambush he was lured into by his co-worker Little Kevin — who in turn was executed by the pair days later to prevent him talking to the police about the murder of Lex. Bodie felt that Marlo was violating the rules of the drug trade, as he was unaware of Little Kevin's betrayal of Lex. After Little Kevin's body was discovered, a grief-stricken Bodie was arrested for kicking in the windows of a patrol car and was released on the recommendation of McNulty, who convinced him to inform on Marlo.

Bodie was seen getting into McNulty's car by Monk, one of Marlo's lieutenants. Later that night, Chris and Snoop set up an ambush, and a new member of Marlo's gang, O-Dog. After a brief shootout in which Bodie nearly killed both Snoop and Chris Partlow. O-Dog then shot Bodie twice in the head, killing him.^[1]

[edit] Production

[edit] Appearances

Season one appearances
The Target	The Detail	The Buys	Old Cases	The Pager
The Wire	One Arrest	Lessons	Game Day	The Cost
The Hunt	Cleaning Up	Sentencing

Season two appearances
Ebb Tide	Collateral Damage	Hot Shots	Hard Cases	Undertow
All Prologue	Backwash	Duck and Cover	Stray Rounds	Storm Warnings
Bad Dreams	Port in a Storm

Season three appearances
Time After Time	All Due Respect	Dead Soldiers	Amsterdam	Straight and True
Homecoming	Back Burners	Moral Midgetry	Slapstick	Reformation
Middle Ground	Mission Accomplished

Season four appearances
Boys of Summer	Soft Eyes	Home Rooms	Refugees	Alliances
Margin of Error	Unto Others	Corner Boys	Know Your Place	Misgivings
A New Day	That's Got His Own	Final Grades

[edit] Origins

The character is named aef name = "RR">Jesse Walker (2006). Localist television. Reactionary Radicals. Retrieved on 2006-07-22.</ref>

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical response and analysis

Salon described Bodie's evolution on the show as watching him grow up.^[2]

[edit] References