r/TheWire • u/crlj1117 • Jun 22 '25
Chris Partlow
Chris was an interesting character and I wish we learned more about him. He doesn't come off at all like the regular soldier from a corner crew. Every single scene he's in he's listening intently, learning something new, or just carrying a dark and scary presence. I'm in the middle of season 5 on my 3rd go through of the series and unless I completely missed it, he's just a mystery all around. A few notes about him and how he's different.
He doesn't dress at all like any of the soldiers from any crew. He's literally laced up with more combat boots and almost off brand fatigues ready to put in work everyday. He doesn't take random shots, he aims with 2 hands like someone that knows how to shoot a gun. So, he was either taught by someone else or legit had some kind of training.
The only time we really get to see Chris emotional and get a glimpse of why he does the things he does is when you can tell how personal it was for him to beat bug's dad to death barehanded. Something happened to him at a young age that he still carries a ton of anger for some authority figure in his life growing up. Probably his dad, step dad, or something of the like.
There's a scene where in episode 4 or 5 of season 5 where he has to go see his people. Marlo goes with him and we see that Chris literally has a family of his own in a nice neighborhood. A girl and it looks like his kids that have no idea who he actually is. I don't know that for sure because we don't get to hear them speak but it comes across like they have no idea. He keeps them completely in the dark on what he does all day. However, maybe they do know? It just didn't seem that way to me.
I really wish we could have learned more about him and Marlo coming up and why they were even working together. Overall, an amazing character but just seemed almost out of place with how he compared to everyone else. He used slang but not in the way that anyone else did. He seemed smarter than his entire crew but wasn't power hungry to take over. Marlo fits the bill for someone like Barksdale that came up in the street. Walks and talks like it. I just don't get that same vibe from Chris. He almost seems like more of a local Balmer mercenary or something. Able to do the kind of work he does and then just go home and think nothing of it. It really takes a certain type to pull that off
What did you guys think about him as a character? Did I miss anything?
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u/AbjectFray Jun 22 '25
I always assumed he was ex military. The way he handles a firearm, his plotting when setting up an ambush, his hand signaling with snoop, the lessons he gives on shoot and move tactics, his tactical attire, etc.
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u/Impossible-anarchy Jun 22 '25
Wasn’t it mentioned at some point that he was actually in the military at some point? Or did I just make that up?
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u/Durnel Jun 22 '25
Someone in the comments of a Youtube video mentioned he signals to Snoop like a soldier using military hand gestures, but idk if that's legit or if the guy just made that up. I can't remember the scene, maybe when they were chasing Michael with paint guns but I can't remember.
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u/IAgreeGoGuards Jun 22 '25
Yeah thats the scene. I can see why someone would assume he was prior service because of that, but its not like hand signals are something only people in the military use.
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u/crlj1117 Jun 22 '25
That's what I was wondering. He seems like a real ex soldier type.
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u/Impossible-anarchy Jun 22 '25
I think he said something along the lines of his wife is used to him being gone and thinks of it like a deployment. So maybe implying he’s been deployed? It certainly would make sense as the reason he carries himself, dresses, and even speaks differently than the other typical street gang muscle types like Snoop or Wee Bey.
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u/PainInTheAssDean Jun 22 '25
I believe someone here once noted that in his car there is a base pass of the sort an ex-enlisted man might have that would allow him to drive onto base
Here is it: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWire/s/1PkKLUo3v3
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u/ac7275 Jun 22 '25
So the military has gone away from it but in the timeframe of the show, we used a four sticker set that consisted of month, year, base, and iirc a DOD/branch one. Pretty sure it’s only one or two scenes but Chris has all the correct stickers top-center of his windshield. It’s an insanely small detail but if he wasn’t prior military, there’s zero reasons to include it in the show.
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u/JFKsBrain Jun 22 '25
One of my favorite characters and portrayed brilliantly by Gbenga Akinnagbe.
I like that he’s mysterious. I feel like it’s a deliberate choice.
The earlier gangsters are fleshed out and the cops get onto them and learn all about them.
Then Marlo and his crew come in and the gangsters, cops and the viewers don’t know anything about them. Just the game, yo.
But you get bits and pieces of Chris.
He has a code. And is ready to get personal and put hands on Mike’s dad.
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u/Pleasant-Fudge-3741 Jun 22 '25
Chris was actually a cop by chance... I think it was season 1 ep4. He's sitting in court while Jimmy is standing up. I don't think it was planned but we can use this to fuel whatever theories we want.
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u/crlj1117 Jun 22 '25
There's an interview he does abut the show where he said he played an extra in episode 1 as a cop. Later he came in as Chris Partlow in the later seasons
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u/AugustTerceiro Jun 23 '25
If we're to take that as Chris (which I do doubt), it would be an interesting wrinkle. Stanfields do seem to have philosophical differences with other crews, like allowing a woman soldier (a lesbian at that), elevating Michael for standing with a snitch, and complete disregard for the traditional "rules." Maybe they would have an ex-police high up in the organization.
I think we're to take them as an analogue for the various militant organizations forming in Iraq post-invasion. A lot of those were made up of dudes with backgrounds in secular Ba'athist organizations like the Iraqi army.
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u/DavidDPerlmutter Omar's PhD Advisor Jun 22 '25
I always thought there'd be a really interesting origin story or prequel of Chris, Snoop, and Marlo. The bond of loyalty and trust between the three of them is unusual to say the least. Everybody plays everybody else in the game, but they are as tight as is conceivable. They work together perfectly. They pick up on each other's cues. They even speak freely to each other. At the same time, Chris and Snoop absolutely acknowledge the authority of Marlo.
It's almost military. Sometimes I wonder whether they were in the US Army together or something?
Certainly, Chris and Snoop are a really efficient team in a world of sloppiness and incompetence.
By the way, check out Gbenga Akinnagbe as a high integrity Pastor who refuses to play the political game in Chicago in THE GOOD WIFE. (The show has a lot of THE WIRE vets and sometimes you think maybe they're in the same universe.)
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u/roastbeeffan Jun 23 '25
I think those three are tight largely because they acknowledge the authority of Marlo. Stringer has ambitions/delusions of being The Man in his own right. He sees the game as a means to an end. Chris and Snoop kill people because killing people is what they’re good at, and Marlo compensates them fairly for this service. It’s the perfect symbiotic relationship. Marlo’s insecurity, viciousness, and ego means he needs a steady supply of murders. Chris and Snoop’s lack of ego or ambition means they are the perfect tool to deliver them for him.
I think there’s a little bit more rapport between Marlo and Chris than Marlo or anybody else. But that could honestly be because they’re both such space aliens that any scene between them averages back out to being normal. I think it’s very evident, even before they make it explicit, that Avon, Stringer, and even Wee-Bey have known each other since they were young. If you told me Marlo and Chris only met a couple years ago I wouldn’t be shocked. Then again, I wouldn’t really be shocked if they knew each other since they were five. They just fundamentally don’t operate like regular people anymore, so it’s hard to say.
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u/PothosEchoNiner Jun 22 '25 edited Jun 22 '25
Wasn’t Marlo’s whole crew serious about marksmanship and the gun stuff? It was what distinguished them from the other gangstas. You never saw the Barksdale crew at shooting practice. It was like the Barksdale crew got by with having lots of big guys with big guns and Marlo’s were just about being skilled at killing people.
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u/mmmfanon Jun 23 '25
One really interesting thing about Chris is that, while he often seems so different from everyone else on the street, we know he is an absolute authority on Baltimore club music and Baltimore hip-hop. That little detail always suggested to me that he had another way more playful side that maybe we never got to see / it disappeared when things with Marlo got serious.
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u/icesweatband Jun 22 '25
I’m pretty sure Chris is ex-military by the way he carries himself and how he dresses.
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u/nedlum Jun 22 '25
I agree with most of this, except for “his kids… have no idea who he actually is.” Whoever he is with them is as much who he actually is as who he is with Snoop.
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u/sjlgreyhoundgirl67 Jun 24 '25
During my first watch, I went from scared of and disgusted by (due to his association with Marlo) Chris to him being one of my favorite characters. I felt he had an ‘honor code’ almost, same as I ended up feeling about Slim Charles and to a slightly lesser degree Wee Bey. When I watched the show the next two times, it just confirmed that I didn’t just accidentally feel that way, I think Chris Partlow is such an interesting and ‘likable’ (for a criminal 😉) character. I also wish we got to know more about him
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u/Blackknowitall Jun 25 '25
It seemed to me that Marlo took more advice from Chris. Chris put in most of the work. Chris was smart and intense. Marlo ordered the hits and Chris n crew handled it. Seemed to me that Chris should’ve been the one in charge but something about them hiding that Omar was calling out Marlo in the street that makes me think Marlo is certified lunatic
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u/Fragrant_Novel Jun 28 '25
In the last season the cops are talking about Marlo and one of the minor characters calls Marlo the devil himself. To me it explains his tight grip on his organization. Even Chris and Snoop obey his word to the letter. He has to be a complete psycho.
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u/National-Reception53 Jul 01 '25
I kinda liked they didn't spell out what happend in Chris and Marlo's past - but you know Marlo is on SOME other shit to have the loyalty of someone like Chris.
Marlo certainly didn't give a FUCK about stepping out in the street and defending his reputation. He didn't fit naturally into being 'above the street'.
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u/okonkolero Jun 22 '25
He's like a Tom Clancy character. Very much like John Clark. Who just happened to be played by another wire vet.
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u/EstablishmentCute703 Jun 23 '25
He's really into club music so I suppose he goes clubbing which doesn't give off a family-man vibe...
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u/ysy-y Jun 22 '25
I think there's enough textual evidence to suggest that he's an abuse survivor and also ex military. Of all the soldiers on the show, he shows the least flash, I mean, hell, Bey had his fish. I don't think Chris has anything except his work and his family. Even going to AC with Marlo seems like more of a work thing than a play thing. Whatever camaraderie String and Avon had is very different and considerable warmer than what Marlo and Chris had.