115 Fun Facts About The Wire

Which Baltimore police unit is Jimmy McNulty in when The Wire opens?

Homicide is McNulty's unit when the series opens; by going over Major Rawls's head to a judge about the Barksdale killings he gets the special detail created and makes an enemy of his boss.

Which game does D'Angelo Barksdale use to teach his young dealers how the drug trade's hierarchy works?

Chess: finding two of his crew playing checkers with chess pieces, D'Angelo casts Avon as the king, Stringer as the queen and the street dealers as pawns.

Which cereal does Omar Little walk out to buy in his pyjamas, sending the street dealers running?

Honey Nut Cheerios: the shop is out of his brand, but on the walk home a frightened dealer drops a stash from a window at Omar's feet, though he has no gun on him.

Season 2 of The Wire, while continuing the Barksdale story, widens its focus to which part of Baltimore life?

The docks: season two follows Frank Sobotka's union as vanishing work pushes it into smuggling, a story David Simon called a meditation on the death of work.

What was Major Howard 'Bunny' Colvin's Season 3 drug-toleration zone nicknamed?

Hamsterdam, a corner-boy mangling of Amsterdam, is the nickname for the free zones where Colvin lets dealers sell without arrest until City Hall shuts the experiment down.

Where did Lester Freamon spend 'thirteen years and four months' before joining the Barksdale detail?

Lester Freamon spent thirteen years and four months in the Pawn Shop Unit, exiled there after angering a deputy commissioner, before joining the Barksdale detail.

What is the real first name of the informant known as 'Bubbles'?

Reginald Cousins goes by Bubbles on the street; his real first name goes unspoken until the final season, when his sponsor Walon finally uses it.

Who plays Avon Barksdale's business-minded lieutenant, Russell 'Stringer' Bell?

Idris Elba plays Stringer Bell; the Londoner stayed in his American accent so thoroughly that fellow Englishman Dominic West did not realise, on first meeting him, that he was British.

Which season-one Deputy Commissioner of Operations goes on to run the Baltimore police as Commissioner?

Ervin Burrell answers to Commissioner Warren Frazier in season one, inherits the job when Frazier retires, and holds on to it until Mayor Carcetti forces him out in the final season.

What does Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski become after leaving the police?

Teacher: Prez finds his calling teaching math at Edward Tilghman Middle School, where he wins over his class by using dice games to teach probability.

David Simon likened The Wire's structure to which literary form?

A novel: Simon described The Wire as a novel for television, each episode a chapter, which is why its stories pay off across a whole season rather than inside one hour.

Who finally kills Omar Little, shooting him in a convenience store in season five?

Kenard, a young boy, shoots Omar as he buys cigarettes; the stick-up man the drug crews could never kill gives the child no more than a sidelong glance.

David Simon's year shadowing Baltimore detectives produced which 1991 book?

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets grew out of a year Simon spent inside the city's murder squad; it became the drama Homicide: Life on the Street and drew him into television.

Which Simon and Burns book about a West Baltimore drug market became an Emmy-winning HBO miniseries in 2000?

The Corner: Simon and Burns followed the people around a single West Baltimore drug corner through a year of their lives, and the HBO adaptation went on to win three Emmys.

The Wire's theme, 'Way Down in the Hole', was written by which singer-songwriter?

Tom Waits wrote the song for his own 1987 album, and the show then opened every season with a different recording of it.

Who performed The Wire's season four version of 'Way Down in the Hole'?

Five Baltimore teenagers, credited as DoMaJe, recorded the season four version of 'Way Down in the Hole', matching that season's focus on the city's schools.

Which real Baltimore mayor was cited as one of the inspirations for Tommy Carcetti?

Martin O'Malley, mayor from 1999 and later governor, was named as Carcetti's model so often that he protested he was the show's 'antidote'; David Simon called the character a composite.

Omar's character was partly based on which real Baltimore stick-up man and hitman?

Donnie Andrews robbed Baltimore drug dealers until a contract killing put him in prison; there he turned his life around, later advising the show and playing one of Omar's allies.

After the Barksdale detail is shut down, Rawls punishes McNulty by reassigning him where?

The marine unit: Rawls exiles McNulty to the police boat on the harbor at the end of season one, the one posting McNulty had admitted he would hate most.

The thirteen women found dead at the start of season two were being smuggled into Baltimore to work where?

Brothels: the women were being trafficked for the sex trade, and their deaths became murders once McNulty saw that the air pipe to their hiding place had been crushed on purpose.

In season five, McNulty fabricates evidence of a serial killer preying on which group?

Homeless men: McNulty doctors the files of dead vagrants, adding bite marks and a red ribbon, to invent a serial killer and divert money back to the Stanfield investigation.

Which economics classic sits in Stringer Bell's personal library?

The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith's 1776 treatise, sits on Stringer Bell's shelf when McNulty searches his tidy apartment after his death, leaving McNulty wondering who he had really been chasing.

How does Avon Barksdale shorten his prison time in season two?

Informing on a guard: Avon has the heroin a guard smuggles into the prison poisoned, then names him as the man behind the deaths in return for an earlier parole hearing.

What hobby earns deskbound detective Lester Freamon a substantial supplemental income and an eccentric reputation in The Wire?

Making dollhouse furniture began as a way to fill Freamon's long years of exile from real casework, and the series ends with him at his bench building miniatures beside Shardene.

Which bedtime classic does Kima Greggs adapt for Baltimore's streets while settling a sleepless child?

Goodnight Moon: unable to get her ex-partner's son Elijah to sleep, Kima sits him at the window and bids goodnight, one by one, to the people of the street below.

Which Irish actor plays the ambitious Baltimore politician Tommy Carcetti?

Aidan Gillen plays Carcetti, who eggs a friend on to run for mayor, counting on him to split the vote, then joins the race himself at the cost of the friendship; Gillen later played Littlefinger in Game of Thrones.

Frank Sobotka is treasurer of a union with what name?

International Brotherhood of Stevedores Local 1514 is Sobotka's union; as its secretary-treasurer he lets smuggled containers through to bankroll lobbying for dredging the canal and reopening the grain pier.

After rising to police commissioner, Cedric Daniels resigns rather than do what?

Manipulate crime statistics: Daniels refuses to juke the numbers for Carcetti's run for governor, and when Nerese Campbell threatens him with his old file he resigns rather than comply.

Proposition Joe co-founds which drug-supply cartel with Stringer Bell?

The New Day Co-Op: Proposition Joe and Stringer Bell set up the cooperative in season three so Baltimore's dealers could share Joe's quality package and keep the peace.

Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop, was convicted of what crime committed when she was 14?

Second-degree murder: Pearson shot another girl in a fight at 14 and went to prison; years after her release, Michael K. Williams spotted her in a Baltimore nightclub and brought her to the set.

Chris Partlow and Snoop hide their victims' bodies where?

In vacant rowhouses: Chris and Snoop leave the bodies under quicklime and plastic and nail each house shut, until Freamon spots a door that is nailed where its neighbours are screwed.

In his final scene in The Wire, Michael Lee is shown doing what?

Robbing drug dealers: Michael holds up Vinson's rim shop and shoots him in the knee to get the money, picking up the trade Omar left behind.

Driving to Philadelphia in season two, Bodie is baffled when what fades out on the way?

Radio station: when Baltimore's stations fade, Bodie asks whether the radio in Philadelphia is different, and admits he has hardly ever been outside his home city.

Which corrupt Maryland state senator is famous for his drawn-out pronunciation of a certain expletive?

Clay Davis, the state senator whose drawn-out 'sheeeeit' became a catchphrase, takes money from everyone and beats a corruption case in season five with a bravura turn on the stand.

Which magazines is the bow-tied New York hitman Brother Mouzone seen reading?

Harper's and The Atlantic are on the reading list Brother Mouzone sends his sidekick Lamar out to buy, and he is especially irritated when Lamar comes back without Harper's.

Which post-Wire HBO series set in New Orleans did David Simon create with Eric Overmyer?

Treme follows New Orleans residents rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, with working local musicians such as trumpeter Kermit Ruffins turning up as themselves; Simon created it with Eric Overmyer.

Dominic West, who plays the Baltimore-born McNulty, was actually educated at which English school?

Eton College: West, an Old Etonian, auditioned by taping McNulty's half of a scene alone and reacting to silence where Bunk's lines should be, which David Simon found too funny to ignore.

In which HBO series did Michael K. Williams play Chalky White after The Wire?

Boardwalk Empire turned Williams from the man who robs the gangsters into one of them: Chalky White, the sharply dressed bootlegger who leads Atlantic City's Black community.

In a nod to his Irish Catholic roots, McNulty jokingly calls Bushmills what?

Protestant whiskey: asking for Jameson and offered Bushmills instead, McNulty waves it away with that jibe, since Bushmills is distilled in County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

Which phrase, credited to 'Traditional West Baltimore', opens The Wire's season one finale as its epigraph?

All in the game: Omar says it as the finale's last line while robbing a dealer, yet the epigraph credits the phrase to 'Traditional West Baltimore' rather than to him.

The Wire's first scene is about which murdered dice-game thief?

Snot Boogie robbed the same alley dice game every Friday and was always let back in; asked why, a witness says: 'This America, man.'

How do season one's Barksdale dealers mostly communicate?

Pagers and payphones: the crew page each other in code and call back from public phones, so the detail clones a pager and taps the payphones; throwaway mobiles arrive only in season three.

Season two's international crime boss is known only by what name?

The Greek, played by Bill Raymond, is the only name the smuggler goes by; in season two he even remarks that he is not actually Greek.

Which formal code does Stringer Bell make his drug crew follow in season three?

Robert's Rules of Order: Stringer runs his crew's meetings like a boardroom and scolds a lieutenant for taking minutes of a criminal conspiracy.

In season four, Bubbles makes his living selling small goods from what?

A shopping cart: Bubbles wheels his stock around the streets with a teenage helper, and when the boy struggles with the sums of the trade, he tries to send him back to school.

What does the Stanfield crew send by phone to set meetings?

Clock pictures: the hands of each clock face point to coordinates on a page of a street atlas, a code the detectives crack only late in the final season.

Which US politician called The Wire his favourite show and Omar his favourite character while running for president?

Barack Obama told the Las Vegas Sun in January 2008 that he liked Omar best, then added that this was no endorsement: a fascinating character, he said, but not his favourite person.

Which morally challenged reporter does Tom McCarthy play in season five?

Scott Templeton is the ambitious Sun reporter who fabricates quotes and a serial-killer phone call and wins a Pulitzer; he is played by Tom McCarthy, later the director of Spotlight.

What was David Simon's job for twelve years before he turned to television?

Newspaper reporter: Simon covered crime for the Baltimore Sun, and a year's leave spent inside the murder squad gave him the book that took him into television.

Which fellowship did David Simon receive in 2010?

MacArthur Fellowship: the so-called genius grant went to Simon for dramas that, in the foundation's words, probe urban America's most complex and poorly understood realities.

Which non-fiction book did Simon adapt into a miniseries about US Marines in Iraq?

Generation Kill began as Evan Wright's Rolling Stone reporting, filed while he was embedded with a Marine reconnaissance battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

What does Omar hide under his long duster coat?

A shotgun is Omar's trademark, hidden under the duster with a handgun and a bulletproof vest; by his own strict code he never turns it on anyone outside the drug trade.

Whom does McNulty send to tail Stringer Bell through a Baltimore market in season one?

His two young sons: out shopping with the boys, McNulty spots Stringer and turns the tail into a game, and they come back with his licence plate number, to Bunk's disapproval.

Where does Stringer Bell take macroeconomics classes?

Baltimore City Community College: in season one McNulty tails Stringer and finds him sitting in a macroeconomics class there, textbooks and all.

Who plays the West Baltimore kingpin Avon Barksdale?

Wood Harris plays Avon Barksdale, a kingpin the detail cannot put a face to until Freamon digs out a poster from his days as a young boxer.

Which actor plays McNulty's cigar-chomping partner, Bunk Moreland?

Wendell Pierce plays Bunk, who is named for and modelled on Oscar 'The Bunk' Requer, a real Baltimore detective from David Simon's first book, cigar and all.

Which actor plays Lester Freamon?

Clarke Peters plays Lester Freamon; the New York-born actor had moved to London in the 1970s, where he wrote the hit musical Five Guys Named Moe long before the role made him famous.

Which actress plays Kima Greggs?

Sonja Sohn plays Kima Greggs; she went on to found ReWired for Change, a Baltimore programme for young people in trouble with the law, backed by David Simon and several castmates.

What is the name of the teenager Bubbles informally adopts?

Sherrod is the homeless teenager Bubbles takes under his wing in season four; he dies after taking the poisoned vial Bubbles had prepared for a tormentor, which drives Bubbles to try to hang himself.

Which actor plays Marlo Stanfield?

Jamie Hector plays Marlo Stanfield; off screen the Brooklyn-born actor founded Moving Mountains, a non-profit theatre group that gives young people year-round classes in drama, dance and film.

Which police commander is the father-in-law who keeps saving Prez's career?

Stan Valchek, the Southeastern District commander, keeps his daughter's husband in a job through one blunder after another, even though the two men can't stand each other.

Which federal agency had investigated Cedric Daniels for corruption before The Wire's story begins?

The FBI: in season one an agent tells McNulty the Bureau found Daniels with unexplained assets from his Eastern District days, a file his bosses keep in reserve to hold over him.

What career does Cedric Daniels take up after leaving the police?

Criminal defense lawyer: the finale montage shows Daniels arguing a case as a defense attorney before his partner Rhonda Pearlman, who is now a judge and recuses herself from hearing it.

Which actor plays Bodie Broadus?

J. D. Williams plays Bodie Broadus, who tells McNulty in his final episode that the game is rigged, then dies on his own corner, firing back rather than running.

Which fellow dealer does Bodie help kill near the end of season one?

Wallace: the order comes from the top after he is found to have talked to police, and Bodie and Poot shoot him in the low-rise apartment in season one's penultimate episode.

How is D'Angelo Barksdale related to Avon, the kingpin he works for?

He is Avon's nephew: D'Angelo is the son of Avon's sister Brianna, which is why the family's money and lawyer keep him in line after his season one arrest.

Which actor plays Frank Sobotka?

Chris Bauer plays Frank Sobotka, whose showy gift of a stained-glass window to his church upstages a police major's, a slight that first sets detectives digging into his union.

Who plays Frank Sobotka's troubled son Ziggy?

James Ransone plays Ziggy Sobotka, the hapless son who shoots the fence Glekas in season two after being short-changed and thrown out over a stolen-car deal.

Which actress plays port police officer Beadie Russell?

Amy Ryan plays Beadie Russell, the port police officer who finds the dead women in the container and later becomes McNulty's partner; Ryan earned an Oscar nomination for Gone Baby Gone.

Which actor plays Major Howard 'Bunny' Colvin?

Robert Wisdom plays Bunny Colvin, the district commander made a scapegoat and forced into retirement once his bosses learn what he has quietly been allowing on his streets.

What does Bunny Colvin praise as 'a great moment of civic compromise'?

Paper bag: Colvin tells his officers that a bottle hidden in one let police ignore public drinking and get on with real work, then laments that drugs have never had a paper bag of their own.

In which HBO series did Michael K. Williams play Rikers inmate Freddy Knight?

The Night Of cast Williams, The Wire's Omar, as Freddy Knight, the powerful inmate who offers the accused student Naz his protection in jail; the part earned him an Emmy nomination.

Omar's actor began his career as a dancer working with which pop stars?

George Michael and Madonna: Michael K. Williams started as a backup dancer, touring and appearing in videos with both, before Tupac Shakur spotted his Polaroid and cast him in the 1996 film Bullet.

In which London borough was Idris Elba born?

Hackney: Elba was born in the east London borough in 1972 to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother, and later shortened his given name, Idrissa, to Idris.

Which role won Idris Elba a Golden Globe after The Wire?

DCI John Luther won Elba the 2012 Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or TV film; playing Nelson Mandela on the big screen later brought him a nomination but no trophy.

Which Wire cast member made his directing debut with the season five episode 'Took'?

Dominic West directed 'Took', the seventh episode of the final season; he has said David Simon told him early how the story would end because he would be behind the camera.

Which royal did Dominic West play in The Crown?

Charles, Prince of Wales: West took over from Josh O'Connor for The Crown's final two seasons, and his own son Senan played the young Prince William alongside him in season five.

Which trombonist did Wendell Pierce play in Treme?

Antoine Batiste, always hustling for his next gig, was Pierce's role in Treme; he learned some trombone for it, but the notes were played just off camera by a professional, Stafford Agee.

Which band's 'The Body of an American' do The Wire's detectives sing at their wakes?

The Pogues: detectives belt out the band's song around a dead colleague laid out in the bar, a ritual first staged as a farewell to producer Robert Colesberry, who had played Detective Ray Cole.

Who performed the season five version of The Wire's theme song?

Steve Earle sang the season five version when he was already in the cast: he plays Walon, the recovering addict whose talk at a meeting helps Bubbles decide to get clean.

What do Frank Sobotka's union men steal from a police major and ship around the world?

His surveillance van: the union sends it from port to port, a photograph reaches the major from each stop, and it is still travelling the world when the case against Sobotka is over.

Which John Wick character was played by Lance Reddick?

Charon, the Continental's unflappable concierge, was Reddick's role in all four John Wick films; he died on 17 March 2023, a week before Chapter 4, in which Charon is killed, reached US cinemas.

Which football film featured Avon's actor as Julius Campbell?

Remember the Titans cast him as Julius Campbell, the defensive star whose friendship with white captain Gerry Bertier helps unite Denzel Washington's newly integrated high-school team.

Which Fox drama featured Andre Royo as attorney Thirsty Rawlings?

Empire cast Royo as Thirsty Rawlings, Lucious Lyon's shifty lawyer; as Bubbles on The Wire he was so convincing that a passer-by pressed heroin into his hand, a moment he calls his 'street Oscar'.

Which novelist called The Wire's Snoop perhaps the most terrifying female villain on television?

Stephen King gave that verdict in his Entertainment Weekly column; Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop, got the part after Michael K. Williams met her in a Baltimore nightclub and brought her to the set.

Which actor plays Chris Partlow?

Gbenga Akinnagbe plays Chris Partlow, the enforcer who ends the series pleading guilty to the crew's murders and taking life without parole so that his boss can walk free.

Which Wu-Tang Clan rapper plays Proposition Joe's nephew Cheese?

Method Man plays Cheese Wagstaff, who betrays his own uncle and is shot dead for it in the finale by Slim Charles, a soldier still loyal to the old man.

Which two men hunt down and kill Stringer Bell in season three?

Omar and Brother Mouzone: Stringer had tricked Omar into shooting Mouzone a season earlier, and once the two work out who set them against each other, they come for him together.

Which actor plays Ellis Carver?

Seth Gilliam plays Ellis Carver, who starts out secretly feeding the bosses information on his own unit and ends the series, a far better cop, promoted to lieutenant.

Which lawyer hires Herc as an investigator after he leaves the police?

Maurice Levy, defence lawyer to the Barksdale and then Stanfield organisations, takes Herc on as an investigator; Herc nonetheless copies a Stanfield phone number from his Rolodex and slips it to Carver.

Which actor plays Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski?

Jim True-Frost plays Prez; a Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member since 1989, he was billed as Jim True until he married Cora Frost in 1999 and the couple joined their surnames.

What incident drives Prez out of the Baltimore Police Department?

Accidentally shooting a colleague: in season three Prez shoots and kills plainclothes officer Derrick Waggoner in the dark, mistaking him for a suspect, and quits the force in horror.

What job does William Rawls hold at the end of season five?

Maryland State Police superintendent: the finale montage shows Rawls being sworn in as head of the state police, handed the post by Carcetti, the newly elected governor, as a reward for his loyalty.

Which actor plays The Wire's 'sheeeeit' senator?

Isiah Whitlock Jr. picked up the drawn-out delivery from an uncle, and first said it on screen in Spike Lee's 25th Hour after the director heard him use it in conversation.

Which crime novelist wrote The Wire's season three episode 'Middle Ground'?

George Pelecanos wrote 'Middle Ground', the season three episode in which Stringer Bell is killed, earning The Wire's first Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

Which McDonald's item sets D'Angelo Barksdale's crew arguing about whether its inventor got rich?

Chicken McNuggets: one young dealer is sure the inventor must be rich, but D'Angelo says he is just an underpaid employee whose idea made money for the people above him.

How does Omar escape the Stanfield crew's season five ambush?

Off a balcony: out of bullets, Omar jumps from the fourth floor, badly hurting his leg, and is soon hunting the crew again on a crutch made from a broom.

Who directed both The Wire's pilot 'The Target' and its finale '-30-'?

Clark Johnson directed both the first episode and the last, and in the final season he also steps in front of the camera as the principled city editor Gus Haynes.

Which real drug kingpin, convicted after a 1980s wiretap case, plays The Wire's Deacon?

Melvin Williams, the West Baltimore heroin kingpin jailed in 1985, turned community activist after his release, steering young people away from crime much as the Deacon he plays counsels Cutty.

In which season one episode of The Wire do McNulty and Bunk work a crime scene using almost one word?

Old Cases, the fourth episode, has McNulty and Bunk rework a long-cold murder scene with little but one expletive, yet they find the bullet and the shell casing that the first detectives missed.

Which bar owner acts as Omar's banker and adviser?

Butchie, the blind bar owner who holds Omar's takings and gives him counsel, is tortured and killed by the Stanfield crew in season five, which sends Omar after them for revenge.

Which series beat The Wire to first place in Rolling Stone's 2016 list of the greatest TV shows?

The Sopranos topped the magazine's poll of actors, writers and critics; second place was a late honour for The Wire, which never won an Emmy in its five seasons.

Which actor plays Cedric Daniels?

Lance Reddick plays Cedric Daniels; he auditioned four times, reading first for Bunk and then for Bubbles, before the producers called him back to try for the lieutenant.

Which former Baltimore mayor appeared in a minor role on The Wire?

Kurt Schmoke, who as mayor had publicly argued for decriminalising drugs, plays the city health commissioner called in when a police commander's unofficial free zones come to light in season three.

Where do Herc and Carver hide an expensive listening device to spy on dealers?

Inside a tennis ball: when the bugged ball is wrecked, the pair cover its cost by inventing a paid informant and naming him 'Fuzzy Dunlop' after it.

Which dealer does Brother Mouzone shoot as a warning in season two?

Cheese: Brother Mouzone shoots Proposition Joe's nephew Cheese Wagstaff when he finds him selling in the towers, a warning that sends Joe's crew back east and sets up Stringer's betrayal.

Where do Baltimore's detectives hold their wakes, laying the body on the pool table?

Kavanaugh's is the Irish pub where the department holds its wakes, the dead detective laid on the pool table as 'The Body of an American' plays, first for Ray Cole and later for McNulty's mock wake.

Which Fringe character did Lance Reddick play?

Phillip Broyles, the Homeland Security agent who runs Fringe Division, was Reddick's role across the show's five seasons; he also played Broyles's parallel-universe double, who gives his life to help Olivia escape home.

Which 2002 crime film featured Avon's actor as dealer Ace, based on Azie Faison?

Paid in Full cast him as Ace, the Harlem dealer modelled on Azie Faison, who walks away from the trade after surviving a shooting, much as Faison himself gave it up.

Where did Wendell Pierce train as an actor?

Juilliard: Pierce graduated from its drama division in 1985; David Simon recalled that he won his Wire role at an audition he arrived at still fuming from a row with a cab driver.

Who kills Snoop after working out that she is driving him to his own execution?

Michael Lee turns the tables on Snoop, who accepts her fate, checks herself in the car's wing mirror and asks how her hair looks before he pulls the trigger.

What does The Wire's finale title '-30-' refer to?

Newspaper shorthand for the end of a story: reporters once typed '-30-' at the foot of their copy to tell editors nothing more was coming, though nobody is sure how the number was chosen.

Which reporter is exiled to the Carroll County bureau in The Wire's finale?

Alma Gutierrez, the young reporter played by Michelle Paress, is banished to the Carroll County bureau after telling the top editors that a star colleague's supposedly full notebook was empty.

Which actor plays the young dealer Wallace in The Wire?

Michael B. Jordan plays Wallace, the soft-hearted teenager who looks after a crowd of younger children in a squatters' apartment, packing their lunches and seeing them off each morning.

Which pets does Barksdale hitman Wee-Bey Brice dote on?

Tropical fish: the hardened gunman fusses over his tanks, and when he has to flee to Philadelphia it is D'Angelo who is left to look after them.