The Wire
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The Wire
"You happy now, bitch?"
―Bunk

William "Bunk" Moreland is a veteran homicide detective in the Baltimore Police Department.

Biography[]

Background[]

Moreland graduated from Edmondson-Westside High School. He moved to Randallstown, MD, a predominantly black suburb of Baltimore, with his wife Nadine and their three children. He became the partner of James McNulty in 2000.

Season 1[]

Bunk dropped off evidence at Ilene Nathan's office at the Circuit Court For Baltimore City courthouse with fellow homicide detective and partner, McNulty. McNulty wryly advises Bunk to not answer Homicide phone calls because the pair are not in rotation. Bunk, however, answers the homicide report of an unidentified man in a vacant house in the Poe Homes. McNulty is amused that Bunk ignored his advice and an irritated Bunk resolves to investigate the homicide alone. That night, after being reprimanded by Lansman, Bunk revealed that Randall Frazier found a bullet in the body of the Poe Homes homicide victim. The next day, at a bar, McNulty lamented to Bunk the limited visitation times his ex-wife allows him and Bunk warned McNulty about Daniels' preoccupation with his own career. Early in the morning and near the train tracks, a drunken Bunk told McNulty about how he once shot a mouse in his home with his service weapon. Landsman assigned a hungover Bunk a fresh homicide case. Officer Robert Brown guided Bunk to the murder scene of William Gant, the witness in D'Angelo's murder trial. ("The Target")

Omar Little informed him that the shooter is a Barksdale soldier named Bird, and agreed to testify against him in court. Because of this, Bunk persuaded his colleague Detective Cole not to arrest Omar for the murder of Stinkum. When Omar was at the police department, Bunk discovered that they had gone to the same high school, beginning an on-going association between the two. Omar remembered bunk, who was a few years ahead of the stick-up artist.

After one particularly heavy night of drinking, McNulty had to pick Bunk up from a random woman's house. Bunk had locked himself in her bathroom and burned his clothing so that his wife would be unable to find trace evidence of him having slept with another woman.

At Landsman's insistence, Bunk and McNulty reviewed the old Deirdre Kresson murder, which ultimately turned out to be related to the Barksdales, and was solved as part of the final arrests of D'Angelo Barksdale and Roland Brice.

Season 2[]

Bunk was partnered with Lester Freamon in Homicide, and they were quickly recognised as the squad's best detectives. Their new reputation led Landsman to assign them the investigation into the deaths of fourteen Jane Does in a cargo container on the docks, a seemingly impossible case. They were detailed Officer Beatrice Russell from the Port Authority, who initially found the bodies. The girls suffocated after the air pipe was deliberately closed off (other than one girl who was murdered and thrown overboard on the previous night).

Bunk and Freamon tracked down the ship which carried the package, and held the ship in port in Philadelphia to question the crew. None of the crew would admit to speaking English, and they let the ship go after learning that two crewman had jumped ship after Baltimore. Based on the few sparse facts they knew, Bunk and Freamon deduced (correctly) that the women were prostitutes being smuggled in from overseas to join a prostitute ring, that one of the girls was murdered by a sailor after refusing sex, and the rest were killed for witnessing the crime. The murderer is one of those who fled, putting the investigation at an impasse, and Bunk and Freamon came under heavy criticism from a frustrated Colonel Rawls for releasing the ship without getting statements.

Bunk also worried about the William Gant murder; state's attorney Ilene Nathan threatened to drop the charges if the police were unable to find the key witness, Omar Little. Bunk repeatedly reminded McNulty of this, and eventually McNulty was able to find Omar, with the help of Bubbles. Omar testified quite successfully, and Bird was locked away for a maximum term.

Later, Bunk and Russell returned to the port in Philadelphia and found video evidence implicating Sergei, whose testimony led to the solving of the Jane Doe murders, as well as aiding the Major Case unit's investigation into Frank Sobotka.

Season 3[]

When the city deals with five homicides in one night, Bunk had to leave his son with McNulty at an Orioles game to investigate one of them. He quickly recognized the scene of Omar Little's drug robberies, and (wrongly) believes one of the victims to be an innocent taxpayer. He became incensed, and obsessed over her death, continuing to investigate it even after his superior officers Landsman, Colonel Raymond Foerster Rawls ordered him to find the stolen weapon of Officer Kenneth Dozerman, who was nearly killed in a failed drug bust led by Sergeant Ellis Carver. They all considered the weapon's recovery to be a top priority, though he thought it was a frivolous use of his abilities.

Bunk met with Omar, confronting him about the "innocent" victim. Omar informed him that she was part of his crew, and states that he would never kill an innocent person. As Omar states no one will talk to Bunk about the murder and she died in the game, Bunk is able to guilt him about his negative influence on the world due to the collapse of their old West Baltimore neighborhood. Bunk devastatingly says that predators like Omar are all that still exist in their old neighborhood which was once a community despite the hardships.[1] To drive the point home, Bunk mentions that a group of young kids at the scene of Omar's gunfight with the Barksdales were arguing over who got to "be Omar" in the game they were playing. As a way of assuaging this guilt, Omar found Dozerman's gun and returned it to Bunk.

Bunk was also one of the investigators of Stringer Bell's murder, during which Bunk used the acronym "BNBG" - Big Negro, Big Gun - to sum-up witness Andy Krawczyk's stereotypical description of the murderer. [2] Bunk realized Omar was the shooter but did not conclude the case. After the investigation, he told McNulty the city's homicide rate would probably reach 300 by new years noticing how McNulty had slowed down on his consumption of alcohol.

Season 4[]

Bunk investigated the murder of Fruit, one of Marlo Stanfield's drug dealers. He was unable to find his main suspect, Curtis "Lex" Anderson, and it became clear that Lex was murdered, but no leads were forthcoming. At the same time, Bunk was surprised at McNulty's seemingly successful attempts to get his life back on track.

Omar Little contacted Bunk after Chris Partlow framed him for murdering an innocent woman in a convenience store robbery. Bunk initially ignored him, reasoning that Omar was guilty of several other unproven murders (including Russell Bell), but Omar appealed to his sense of honor. He tracked down new evidence proving that Omar's witness Old Face Andre lied, leading to Omar's release. In exchange, Bunk extracted a promise from him to never kill again.

Freamon transferred back to Homicide, and the two were partnered again. Freamon managed to find Lex's body and, in the process, more than twenty other bodies, all of which are linked to Marlo Stanfield after Bunk gets key testimony from Lex's mother.

Season 5[]

Personality[]

Though he is known for making sarcastic remarks during an investigation, and for frequently being hungover at work, Bunk is one of the Homicide unit's veterans and best detectives. Unlike McNulty, he is loyal to the chain of command in the department and is never insubordinate, but he shares McNulty's penchant for infidelity and alcohol (Bunk is smart enough though not to get caught and develop legal issues unlike McNulty). Sometimes they drink competitively with the loser paying the bar tab.

Production[]

Appearances[]

Season 1
"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 2
"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 3
"Time after Time" "All Due Respect" "Dead Soldiers" "Amsterdam" "Straight and True"
"Homecoming" "Back Burners" "Moral Midgetry" "Slapstick" "Reformation"
"Middle Ground" "Mission Accomplished"
Season 4
"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"
Season 5
"More with Less" "Unconfirmed Reports" "Not for Attribution" "Transitions" "React Quotes"
"The Dickensian Aspect" "Took" "Clarifications" "Late Editions" "-30-"

Notes[]

  • Bunk is based on a retired BPD Detective named Rick Requer, a black officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who eventually moved into the Homicide Division.[3]

References[]

  1. Bunk Chides Omar. You Tube (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-09.
  2. Org Chart - The Law. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
  3. Simon, David [1991] (2006). "Post Mortem", Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, 4th, Owl Books, 641. ISBN 0-8050-8075-9. “Rick 'The Bunk' Requer left to man the department's retirement services bureau, though his homicide incarnation lives on in Wendell Pierce's portrayal of the legendary Bunk Moreland on The Wire, right down to the ubiquitous cigar.” 
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