The Wire: What will Brianna do?

It's very easy to hold her responsible, but unless you've lived the life that the Barksdale family has, none of us can possibly understand what her thinking process was. I mean, seriously. McNulty had no right to lecture her like that

BetheSOUL

If she had stayed out of it, Stringer would have had him killed in Season 1 anyway, before he could testify, and Avon would have condoned it.

BetheSOUL

As with so many characters in The Wire, I disagree with her actions but I feel her pain. One thing I always wonder about is her relationship with D'Angelo's father. I'm sure D mentions at some point that his dad was in the game, but he's certainly not around right now, and Brianna is I think deliberately cast closely in age to D'Angelo (Google says Michael Hyatt was born 1970 and Lawrence Gilliard Jr was born 1973 - obviously they're playing a bigger age difference than that, but it's highlighted in season 1 when Wallace asks D if she's his girlfriend) - I wonder what that relationship was like, what the age gap was between D's parents, and if she was perhaps a vulnerable and young (teen?) mother (season 1 - Avon is early 30s, D is early 20s. I imagine Brianna is older than Avon, but not like 10+ years, especially as Wood Harris is slightly older than Hyatt). So I worry about her own life experiences and how they impacted how she raised D. Obviously that doesn't excuse her actions, but it does add an extra layer of complexity. She's a cold and unforgiving mother who was focused on making D tough enough to cope with the life she was raising him for, to the exclusion of thinking about if that life was right for him or if he should have the chance of something else. And of course, it was her who convinced him to take the 20 years rather than taking the witness protection deal. So she definitely had a huge hand in why he was in prison, and many of his emotional issues such as why he felt more free in prison than out. But it wasn't her fault he chose to avoid Avon in prison, and it wasn't her fault Stringer chose to have him killed. She didn't want him to die, she would never have agreed to the hit, and she worked hard to influence Avon to take care of his family and give him something to live for.

Laura

I mean the dude was literally about to tell on Avon who literally just saved his life. To be honest the only reason he was alive up until that point was because who his family was.

Acash33

Brianna holds a lot of responsibility for Dee’s death. Dee was never hard enough for the game, she pushed him into a life he was unequipped to handle. She failed her son by not accepting him for the person he was. She also failed him by pushing him to take the full charge to save Avon and by completely under estimating how ruthless Stringer is, she thought Avon’s shadow would protect him but never realized the real snake was standing right next to her.

Ryan

She can be angry with Stringer and Avon, but she also has to live with the fact she left Dee in a vulnerable position. And carry that with her forever. She's complicit and McNulty wasn't very subtle about twisting that knife either... I think that she justified everything they ever did to herself by saying it was to give their family a better life, to get them out of poverty. She even says that to Dee in Season 1. For her it wasn't risking Dee, it was helping Dee. Of course she kept herself isolated from the day to day and that probably made it easier to ignore the other lives lost and families destroyed by their business. Well, the same thing that happened to people like Wallace and William Gant happened to Dee in the end and all that hypocrisy and self-delusion must have come crashing down. I don't know how you could live yourself after that to be honest.

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Pronto (SK)

We don't really know that she's trying to get justice. All we know is that she's looking for answers. She hasn't said anything that indicates that she would cooperate with McNulty to seek charges against somebody.

Thoko

Maybe she was naive thinking it was a suicide. Idk but at least shes trying to get justice

Ruben Lopez

Well she certainly contributed to D'Angelo's death. But i do feel for her in a lot of ways. Losing a son is tough. At least she's feeling guilt for not being there for him when he needed her the most. I dislike her as a person, but love the character. Great season 2 tie in.

Kamina 1

She brought him into the life, but what killed him was Stringers lack of faith in him. So Stringer got him, but she basically sent him down the alley.

Rahsaan

She definitely indirectly killed D. If she stayed out of it maybe he would've lived. However it's still a big maybe, as the witness protection isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Lost Emu

Her acting was incredible in that scene. I can't even begin to imagine how I would pull off what she did there.

JD

Nothing but count her money