We Own This City is something The Wire fans have been looking forward and Episode 1 over here doesn’t disappoint them at all. We have some of The Wire Alumni making their appearance while the show presents its world full of police brutality. The show takes inspiration from the book Baltimore Sun by reporter Justin Fent and manages to introduce the brutal cops and the ways they abuse the system.
Taking a look at the same, here we are breaking down the very first episode of We Own This City. We will be looking at the introduction of the character Wayne Jenkins who is proud of being a cop and his ways. Then there is the character of Nicole Steele who looks forward to the change she can bring to the Baltimore Police Department as she investigates a cop who has received a number of complaints.
We Own This City S01 E01 Recap
We Own This City Season 1 Episode 1 opens up with Sergeant Wayne Jenkins guiding the officers on how the law allows them to go ruthless as they can. In February of 2017, we see Wayne and his team busting a hideout. There they come across chunk ammunition being stored. This leads to several arrests and tells us about the brutal way of Wayne Jenkins.
Meanwhile, another plot in the show sees David McDougall investigating a couple. While the girl dies after consuming heroin, the team manages to save the boy. McDougall’s team took a note of a bumblebee bag full of drugs and they question the boy about it. He eventually gives away the name of Anderson who was selling him these drugs.
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McDougall has been investigating these bags for a while as he has found four ODs so far. McDougall finds out about Anderson working in Alameda which leads him to keep an eye on him. He and his team later plant a tracker on Anderson’s car hoping to keep up with him.
The same night, a group of people robs Anderson. Later on, when McDougall’s team arrives to investigate the place, they found that someone had already broken into the place and cleared the stash leaving them nothing. The team later finds out that someone else had a tracker on Anderson’s car as well.
Amidst all of this, we have Attorney of Civil Rights Nicole Steele who has been observing the growing brutality of cops in the city and is making a note of it. A new member in the form of Ahmed Jackson joins her in the quest as they try to figure out the same. She comes across the name of Daniel Hersl who is part of the same Gun Trace Task Force. So, throughout the episode, we see Daniel Hersl’s way of working around. Hersl receiving only one sustained complaint out of a number of complaints makes Nicole wonder.
On the other side, McDougall’s team investigates into tracker which is not the department’s. They come across the name of John L. Clewell, who is a detective as well. Since they are up tracking Anderson as well, McDougall believes Clewell will come to him. The episode comes to a close FBI bringing Wayne in by tricking him.
We Own This City Season 1 Episode 1 Review
We Own This City Season 1 Episode 1 does a good job of building the world we are being introduced to. The episode opens with Jon Bernthal’s character of Wayne which is a prime example of the kind of characters we will be meeting in coming episodes.
Wayne as a cop takes pride in brutality and his ways of doing things around. He thinks of him as a superhero and it’s okay to go this way as long as he is getting the job done. The opening lecture of Wayne clearly states that and builds the conflicts of the show. More examples of such cops we see are in the form of Daniel Hersl. At the moment Nicole is chasing his case. Then probably Clewell as well whose tracker McDougall’s team found.
Nicole Steele is probably someone who is here to answer to the methods of the Gun Trace Task Force. We see her working in a world affected by the death of Freddie Gray. We see Steele raising questions about these cops who are free to do what they want despite receiving so many complaints.
Similarly, we may see the same in the form of McDougall who seems to be one of the good cops. As of now his investigation of Anderson receives a pause after he realizes another cop is chasing him. It’s a matter of time before he comes to realize how the system works here. Lastly, we saw the FBI bringing in Wayne. It may have to do with his ways or the case of Anderson the department might be working on.
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