Season 2 The Wire
Former Homicide cop Jimmy McNulty has been detailed to The Boat
(marine unit) for his transgressions
(as perceived by the powers that be) in the Barksdale case
(season 1.)
When he and his partner fish a dead girl out of the
Patapsco, the Homicide Unit investigates (sort of) and calls it a suicide.
But McNulty spots some anomalies.
It's not his case and no one else cares.
But McNulty can't let it slide.
That's his code. It's not expressed as such. It's usually
called his arrogance, or his insubordination, but Jimmy McNulty has to solve
murders.
When 13 more bodies are found in a shipping container on the
dock, jurisdiction is in question. McNulty puts concerted effort into forcing
the Baltimore Homicide unit into getting the case. Yes, he does it to fuck with
Rawls the unit commander who demoted him, but he would have done it anyway
because of his code: he has to solve
murders.
This theme runs through all five seasons culminating in McNulty running his own ops to do what he thinks is right.
The Code is never overtly stated as such.
There are references to it here and there.
It's actually better that the audience intuits The Code so
it doesn't sound like some sort of oration on right and wrong.
An example of a direct statement of code is the conversation
between Bunk and Omar.
The reason this works (when it generally would not) is that
Omar is a thug. Even a thug must have a code!
In The Professional, the professional assassin played by
Jean Reno says "no women, no kids." about who he will target. We know
the Bad Guy is VERY bad because he does kill women and kids.
You can't have a moral dilemma without a code.
And moral dilemma is the essence of plot.
Unbearable choices.
What's your main character's code?
Even if it's never directly on the page, we should be able
to intuit it.