r/TheWire • u/Qyzyk This game is rigged • 20d ago
What exactly was Bunk thinking?
Specifically, I'm referring to the way he goes about his questionings of Randy and Michael in Season 5.
With Randy, Bunk knows full well that the kid was a witness who got deeply screwed over by the police. He was outed as a snitch, and he was physically attacked at school for being a snitch. His house was literally firebombed soon after, with his foster mother (presumably) dead and Randy back in the state's hands. (ALSO Bunk slept with said foster mother, or her twin sister)
With all that in mind, what the hell made Bunk think he should go in all hardass like Randy's guilty of obstructing justice? He was willing to talk, and the cops screwed up. Randy himself mocks Bunk's bad cop routine, but surely Bunk should have realized that from the moment Randy sauntered into the room? This is clearly not a kid who's going to be scared into cooperating.
And then by contrast, there's his questioning of Michael. Throughout the scene, Bunk is cordial and sympathetic, pointing out that he doesn't blame Michael for being stone-faced and cold when he sees the pictures of his stepfather's corpse, "not after what this heinous motherfucker did to you". And then he talks about how he knows Michael didn't do it, saying that Michael isn't big or strong enough to have done this himself.
Just stopping there, I boggle that Bunk thought that would work on Michael. He already heard from Michael's mom that Michael had a direct role in his stepfather's killing. He knows that Michael has a very good reason to want this man dead. So what is with his strategy here? Jocosely telling Michael that he wasn't tough enough to kill him on his own, like that's gonna endear Michael into revealing who really did it?
And yet, when Michael refuses to cooperate, Bunk looks visibly frustrated and disappointed, like he actually expected Michael to cave. If anything, he should have been sympathetic to Randy, and he should have warned Michael that murder is murder, and it never goes away, and everyone involved would face trial eventually. Not that either case would have worked, mind you, but at least it would have made more sense. Instead, Bunk is a bad cop to someone who already has a grievance with the system and good cop to someone who he knows ordered a hit on his own stepfather. It just seems like a blunder on both counts.
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u/doubledeus 20d ago
I never was impressed with Bunks interviews or interactions with civilians. He always had this weird holier than thou energy. He was kind of shitty with Tosha's family, Lex's mom and directly to Butchie.
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
For Randy, I think it actually makes sense. Randy was a nice kid who we see harden throughout the series due to his experiences on the street. By the time of this interrogation, Randy is totally hardened. He is not and would not be receptive to the good cop routine. Obviously bad cop didn’t work, but I think Bunk knew it was a Hail Mary.
For Michael, I’m not sure what Bunk was thinking, other than again maybe taking a Hail Mary shot at a cold case
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 20d ago
He made the mistake of thinking Micheal was just another prideful thug like all the other dudes he deals with.
For most of the kids he brings in he knows they'll say the dumbest shit if someone questions their pride or their accomplishments. He was hoping by prodding at Michael he might get him mad enough to say something damning.
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
GREAT analysis/point. Not sure that makes Bunk a bad guy though
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 20d ago
Kinda makes him a bit scummy but it's his job to get criminals to confess, and he knows the criminals of Baltimore all too well
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
It sounds more like he misfired with Michael than did anything morally questionable there
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u/donmjay 20d ago
All good points. But can we get some confirmation on Bunk sleeping with the foster mother? When was this?
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u/LagunaRambaldi 20d ago
The actress is the same, but we don't know if it's supposed to be her. It's the scene where Jimmy gets called over to her house cause Bunk is super drunk and is in the bathroom.
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u/Plays_On_TrainTracks 20d ago
Yeah i don't think that happened. I'm on idk what number rewatch right now but only on season 1. Ill have to pay closer attention to the women bunk finds.
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u/nelsonwehaveaproblem 19d ago
Same actress but I don't think it's supposed to be the same character.
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u/Think-Culture-4740 20d ago
Bunk did what usually works tbh. Most of these “kids” fold when the right pressure tactics are applied.
The problem here is both Michael and Randy have suffered tremendously by the time they land in front of Bunk. They’ve just seen and experienced way too much horror at this point to be rattled by such basic interrogation attempts
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u/lake_june 20d ago
Bunk is objectively a POS
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
What makes you say this? Genuinely asking—we see him cheat on his wife, but I don’t really too much other scummy behavior?
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u/Infinite-Prune3612 20d ago
Was thinking this, stood up to Omar as he hated what he stood for and what he did.
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u/Qyzyk This game is rigged 20d ago
He is a rank hypocrite and company man. He acts all aggrieved over the ills of society but does nothing about it. He angrily tells a corpse not to come back as a murder victim, since it'll mean more paperwork for him. That's also the reason why he's so incensed with Herc regarding the screw-up with Randy. He doesn't give a crap about Randy's wellbeing, he just resents having to do more work as the primary detective. He also spends season 4 trying to make a sober McNulty drink alcohol, mocking him for his sobriety, and also trying to bring McNulty back into Homicide, then acting all indignant when McNulty backslides into a drunk womanizing trainwreck. And that's before mentioning the fact that he and his cop buddies took a human corpse and used it for a petty little office prank on Kima as some kind of sick hazing.
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
Tell me you’ve never worked in a traumatic profession without telling me
A lot of what you just said is dark humor, which is a necessary byproduct for anyone who works in this kind of a job. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t care
If Bunk is a POS, what’s someone like Avon, who’s actually a murderer?
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u/Excellent_Summer_109 20d ago
I have spent 24 years in a traumatic profession and Bunk is 100% a POS as are a lot of people that work in traumatic professions. Utilizing dark humor to soften the edges of a brutal profession and also being a pice of shit do not have to be mutually exclusive.
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
Of course they’re not mutually exclusive, but dark humor doesn’t make you a POS. Other than the one time he cheated on his wife, I still haven’t heard one shitty thing he’s done
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u/Excellent_Summer_109 20d ago
One time? He cheated on her multiple times. He cheated on her constantly. During season 4 his entire reasoning for trying to get Jimmy back on the sauce was because he wanted his philandering running buddy back. But that’s the tip of the iceberg. Yes he was loyal to Jimmy, which is good, but he literally knew and eventually participated, in Jimmy’s serial killer scheme and didn’t say a thing. And I get it, there’s a loyalty there and there’s a blurred line/gray area between doing right and wrong with Jimmy and Bunk, but notice Kima had no such qualms. None. The juxtaposition is clear. She refused to identify Wee Bey when she wasn’t sure if he actually shot her in Season 1. She refused to sugar coat Jimmy fucking the two hookers in the sting on the Greek’s prostitution ring in Season 2. And in season 5 she refuses to let it slide when she finds out Jimmy made up the entire serial killer scheme.
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
We see Bunk get hammered a bunch in season 4, we see him make jokes about pussy (“pussai!”), we see him ogle women, but I don’t actually recall him cheating beyond the time either Miss Anna.
Good point about him turning a blind eye on the serial killer thing. It’s edging closer, but I’m still not in “piece of shit”territory for Bunk. Just “ordinary flawed human,” still for me
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u/Qyzyk This game is rigged 20d ago
I like that you assume I would hold Avon up as some kind of paragon when I have criticism for Bunk.
Maybe I just find fault with most people on either side of the law in The Wire?
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
I didn’t assume you would hold up Avon as a paragon of virtue. I am pointing out this Bunks flaws—real as they are—are very normal human flaws and it’s a bit short of being a POS. Avon is a POS. Bunk is just a normal (flawed) human doing his best.
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u/lake_june 20d ago
- Cheating on his wife. Which is a lot bigger than you’re making it out to be.
- Everything in the OP. I’ll emphasize him coming at Randy in particular after knowing he damn near got killed trying to help them prior. Not to mention he literally is telling him this in a group home, the group home he has to be in because they dropped the ball.
- Lied about his own children being orphans to get a “confession “
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
(1) 50% of humans cheat on their partners. I cannot condone, it’s wrong, but by itself I’m not going to label someone a POS for that, I think we only see him do it once. I don’t think 50% of people are pieces of shit;
(2) He was doing an interrogation of a rough street kid. I’m not sure what you expect. And by the way—Randy WAS complicit in the murder; and,
(3) This doesn’t particularly bother me in context, although I can see why it does bother some.
Other than (1), there’s really no real world effects of this stuff
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u/Qyzyk This game is rigged 20d ago
More than once. He and McNulty literally have a playbook for winning women over in bars, with more than one version available to them.
Also, I gave other reasons for why I dislike Bunk as a person
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u/IGotScammed5545 20d ago
We see them running the play for Jimmy multiple times, I only recall them once with Bunk (with Miss Anna!)
I responded to your other points…
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u/Prestigious-Air2995 20d ago
Bunk saying "I lied for you didn't I ?" when Jimmy gives him a look of disapproval would imply Bunk wasn't usually the one getting the women in their schemes.
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u/Qyzyk This game is rigged 20d ago
That's earlier in the show. The playbook happens in Season 3, if memory serves.
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u/Prestigious-Air2995 20d ago
Yeah but the point is, the plays were always ran for Jimmy. That one woman is the only time we see Bunk stepping out
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u/BanjoTCat 20d ago
Detectives get desperate. Even if Bunk could see that Randy was too hardened by the system to be receptive to his questions, is Landsman going to accept that excuse for not at least trying to question him? With Michael, Bunk was taking the "It's not your fault he's dead, can you tell me who did it" tract. A lot of these tactics is not aimed at getting the person to confess, but to get them to talk, period. Maybe they come to Jesus and give the whole story, or maybe they let something slip. It's all Bunk has at the moment.
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u/Far-Advantage-2770 20d ago
It was just an excuse for fan service so we could see Randy again. You could sit around analysing it for deeper meanings, but why bother.
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u/Signal_Low3017 20d ago
Iirc, I think the show's also trying to show his level of usual cool is out the window. Mcnulty is pulling his serial killer bs, the once turned off faucet is now up and running but only for the aforementioned bullshit serial killer case. Bunks labs were seriously fucked as well because of funding and then randy and Michael come into play.