THE EAST SIDE
Proposition Joe (Robert Chew)
We first met Prop Joe during Season 1, at the annual East Side-West Side basketball game, where his squad faced off against Avon Barksdale's West Side team. Prop Joe had better ringers and won a hotly contested (and six-figure wagered) game. For the most part, Prop Joe is happy to coexist with the Barksdale crew, but his relationship with them became more complicated when Stringer Bell's supply went south. Joe agreed to let Stringer in on his good shit -- some of which, incidentally, came from the Sobotka-led connection at the docks -- in exchange for four of the high-rise towers. As Season 3 opens, the towers are gone, and relations are still uneasy between the East Side and the West.

Cheese (Method Man)
Just one level below Prop Joe, Cheese recently became the target of Daniels' unit when a tapped phone call revealed him crying into the phone about having to shoot his "dawg." Unfortunately, it turned out he was talking about a beloved pit bull he put down for acting cur in a dogfight, and his resultant arrest gave the unit no more than a bunch of dead wiretaps.

THE FREE AGENTS
Omar (Michael Williams)
Charismatic, daring, and murderous, Omar first showed up when he and his lover, Brandon, robbed a Barksdale stash. The resultant revenge torture and killing of Brandon drove Omar on a vendetta against all those in the Barksdale crew responsible -- from the triggermen to the generals at the top, Avon and Stringer Bell. While pursuing revenge against the Barksdales the old-fashioned way, Omar also contacted McNulty, offering his help in pinning some old murders on Barksdale soldiers. In Season 2, Omar took the stand in one of those cases, offering up his personal philosophy as justification for testifying: "I ain't never pointed my gun at no citizen." He robs drug dealers, not civilians, and sticks to that code of honor. When Stringer told him that Brother Mouzone was responsible for Brandon's torture, Omar found the previously invincible Mouzone and put a bullet in his stomach. But when Mouzone calmly explained that Omar had been misled, Omar, recognizing the truth in his words, called 911 and left Mouzone alive. As Season 3 begins, Omar is still sticking up Barksdale men, employing a number of disguises and a couple of female accomplices as well.

Bubbles (Andre Royo)
Based on a real Baltimore junkie, scammer and informant for whom David Simon wrote a unique obituary in the late 1980s, Bubbles has made a life providing on-target information for cops -- especially his buddies Kima and McNulty, whom Bubbles calls "McNutty." He was driven to snitch on Barksdale crew members when his HIV-positive partner-in-crime, Johnny, got badly beaten for running a scam. As Season 3 opens, Bubbles and Johnny seem to be close to rock-bottom, with Bubbles especially despairing. Bubbles has flirted with going straight before, but it's never panned out.

Cutty (Chad Coleman)
Just released after a 14-year stretch in prison, Dennis "Cutty" Wise seems to be a major character in Season 3, though all we've seen him do thus far is drift aimlessly from job to job -- some legit, some not. It is as yet unclear whether his allegiances lie with Avon Barksdale, who offered to hook him up, or somewhere else.

THE POLS
Commissioner Burrell (Frankie Faison)
Just ascended to the Commissioner's desk, Burrell functions as one of the heavies of the story, though, he isn't a particularly evil man -- he just looks out for himself, at the expense of, at times, the department he's meant to head. Burrell has a history with Daniels in particular: it was he who gave Daniels the initial mandate to keep the Barksdale investigation small, and he who stuck Daniels in the evidence control room when the probe got unwieldy. Now he's overseeing a police department in crisis, and a recently arranged meeting with Councilman Tommy Carcetti has shown Burrell what a little under-the-table dealing -- behind the mayor's back -- can accomplish for his department.

Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen)
An ambitious young city councilman who realizes that a white politician doesn't have much future in Baltimore politics unless he makes some noise, Carcetti began Season 3 by approaching Commissioner Burrell and offering him some behind-the-scenes help with his department.

Clay Davis (Isiah Whitlock Jr.)
State Sen. Davis first showed up in "The Wire" when one of his aides was picked up by Daniels' unit carrying $20,000 in Barksdale drug money. Burrell made the problem go away, but Davis later had an angry encounter with Daniels in which he demanded to know why the Barksdale investigators were looking into campaign contributions. A steadfast Daniels told Davis that if he wasn't doing anything illegal, he had nothing to worry about. In Season 2, we saw Davis accepting contributions from Frank Sobotka's stevedores' union.

Marla Daniels (Maria Broom)
Cedric Daniels' wife is embarking on her own political career as Season 3 begins, taking on an incumbent for a City Council spot. But her annoyance with what she views as her husband's lack of ambition has driven them apart, and he now shows up at political events for her benefit but sleeps in a bachelor apartment alone.

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