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I think the metaphor is kind of flawed in the long run though because when you look at Marlo and how he reacts to Stringer initially it's clear that Avon didn't really have a choice but to go to war. Right after Stringer has his first and only meeting with Marlo, Marlo orders Chris to prepare for war, either because he feels the Barksdales will start one against him, and/or he feels that the Barksdales are weak enough for him to take over. Of course, Avon doesn't see this, he just goes to war as a means to get back in the game and take control of his own organization again (at least this has been my interpretation). He never sees Marlo as a real threat, at least not until Marlo sniffs out the Devonne ploy. I guess what he could have done is just left Marlo alone and dared him to try and take Avon on? I don't know.
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Mar 8, 2013 22:23
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I doubt that it crossed Simon's mind, but Marlo always put me in the mind of Alexander the Great. Ruthless, relentless, personally courageous and endlessly ambitious. He knows that he's not going to live a long life and he doesn't care, he's out to expand his kingdom and hear his name ring out. You can even parallel the conflict somewhat- upstart power that starts a war against a grand old power that should by all rights squash the upstart like a bug. Of course in all likelihood Avon and co. would have killed Marlo and his people at the rim shop if MCU hadn't swooped in right as they were gearing up for it. But then again, maybe not. Maybe Marlo and Chris and Snoop slip the trap and come back on them later.
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Mar 8, 2013 22:40
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cletepurcel posted:I think the metaphor is kind of flawed in the long run though because when you look at Marlo and how he reacts to Stringer initially it's clear that Avon didn't really have a choice but to go to war. Right after Stringer has his first and only meeting with Marlo, Marlo orders Chris to prepare for war, either because he feels the Barksdales will start one against him, and/or he feels that the Barksdales are weak enough for him to take over. I disagree though. The war was not inevitable. Remember Prop Joe said "back the gently caress up and let the young gun keep his corners" to String. String just couldn't "call off his dawg" -- Avon. I love Prop Joe. What an oracle he was. Rest in peace, Robert F. Chew. You're gone, but you will never be forgotten.
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Mar 8, 2013 23:46
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escape artist posted:If you can track down the episode, look up the American Gangster episode with Melvin Williams. Just randomly found the show on Netflix. American Gangster season 2, episode 3, Melvin Williams. Really gives you a look at the underworld, a little more dimension to The Wire, because it's just as much about Baltimore as it is Williams. Dude is interesting. All the write-ups, all around, are excellent so far. Hope your back gets better.
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Mar 9, 2013 00:32
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escape artist posted:I disagree though. The war was not inevitable. Remember Prop Joe said "back the gently caress up and let the young gun keep his corners" to String. String just couldn't "call off his dawg" -- Avon.  Marlo would've come calling sooner or later no matter how much they tried to appease him. Prop Joe learned the hard way that Marlo could only be satisfied by the illusion of being the king.
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Mar 9, 2013 02:50
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^^^ this. I have a hard time believing Marlo would be satisfied with just a few corners and a piece of the Co-Op for very long. He wanted to be the king, or at the very least a legend. Even if he had gone to war and lost he would probably have been a legend.escape artist posted:I disagree though. The war was not inevitable. Remember Prop Joe said "back the gently caress up and let the young gun keep his corners" to String. String just couldn't "call off his dawg" -- Avon. Considering how badly Joe would misread Marlo, I don't know if we can take his word at face value here.
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Mar 9, 2013 03:12
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Episode 6: The Wire Note the episode title, and keep in mind what Freamon said last episode - they should have had wiretaps on the payphones in the low rises/pit by now. This episode marks the REAL start of the Detail working the case against the Barksdale Organization. The episode opens with a horrifying sight - Brandon's tortured body has been put out on display atop a car in the low rises, just as Avon said he wanted it a couple of episodes earlier - like a deer. The camera moves up and follows a long extension cord running up into an upper floor window, feeding power into the apartment. Wallace is sleeping on a mattress on the floor, wearing the same clothes as he did the previous night when he spotted Brandon. The alarm clock startles him awake, he clearly hasn't been sleeping well, and we get our first glimpse of his "home" life. He and Poot are the oldest people living in an apartment with multiple children, and Wallace is the "mom" of the group, yelling at everyone to get up, handing them over juice boxes and packets of potato chips for the lunch and sending them off for school. He warns them all that if they don't get to school, the Government will come looking for them at the house and hand them over to foster care, which none of them wants. Everybody takes his mothering with good nature, even Poot who has a girl in his bed with him. The kids sent off to school, "Mom and Dad" prepare to go to work, spotting a police car pulling up nearby that isn't the usual narcotics officers. Outside, Poot is the first to see Brandon's body laid out on display - the dent in the car hood indicates that he may have even been thrown from a roof onto the car, and one of his eyes appears to have been gouged out - the young, pretty Brandon did not die well. Poot recognizes him instantly, but doesn't seem overly horrified, more curious. Wallace on the other hand is dumbstruck, and has to walk away, swiping angrily at a chainlink fence as he goes - he's just seen the direct results of his sharp eyes.  McNulty is being marched into the lion's den, he has to report to Rawls - the deadline that Landsman worked out for him has passed. Jimmy has no idea what to say, he has no intention of "wrapping up" the Detail but that is what Rawls will want to hear, and Landsman is making it clear to him to just tell Rawls whatever he wants to hear. In Rawls' office Jimmy tries to get on top of things clearly by telling Rawls that they now stand a good chance of clearing at least a couple of still unsolved cases but Rawls shuts him down immediately - this isn't a meeting where ideas are shuffled back and forth, this is a meeting where Rawls will speak and Jimmy will listen. Jimmy sits in his chair, an awkward and uncomfortable audience to the bit of theatre that Rawls wants to put on, listening as the Major clucks over a framed picture of his son ("good looking boy, ain't he?") and then launches into a prepared speech about what a reasonable person he is, with Landsman - acting the toady - chiming in with agreement at particular points. Rawls shuts down any attempt that McNulty makes to take part, explaining what at first seems a fairly reasonable position - the Homicide Division's system is simple, detectives are on rotation until they "catch" a murder, then they're taken off of rotation to work on that murder. After awhile, whether the case has been solved or not, they go BACK onto rotation in order to share out the workload evenly with everybody else. This way, nobody gets overworked/overburdened and everybody shares the load. It seems entirely reasonable, but we quickly come to Rawls' true interest - overworked detectives make mistakes, and that lowers the unit's overall clearance rate. To Rawls, the clearance rate is THE most important thing in the world. In season 3 we will see how this "numbers game" dominates the BPD as a whole, but suffice it to say that a drop in the clearance rate is anathema to Major Rawls. With finality he tells Jimmy that next week he is due to return to the night shift rotation, and Rawls expects to see him there. With that the "meeting" is over, and McNulty is ushered out. Meanwhile, in complete contrast to Wallace and Poot's home life shown earlier, we now see D'Angelo's. In a lovely home, D'Angelo stands freshly showered in a towel, looking over a massively packed wardrobe of expensive clothing. Whereas Wallace didn't shower, wore the same clothes he slept in and brushed his teeth while looking into a faded old mirror, D'Angelo is freshly clean and spoiled for choice over his outfit. He carefully lays out outfits and takes shoes out of boxes, cutting tags off of clothes that are obviously brand new purchases. On the television old silent cop films are playing, while in the Detail's basement the real deal is happening as Lester, Sydnor, Herc, Carver and Kima watch a tech putting in the cables for the payphone wiretap that Freamon asked Daniels about. They register one of D's pager calls coming through and comment that he is up early, and Lester notes there was a lot of pager activity the previous night - none of them have grasped the significance of this yet, or the fact that their wiretap come in a day too late to capture the records of an ordered murder that ran all the way from the bottom rung of the Barksdale Organization right up to it's Number 2 man in Stringer Bell. D'Angelo isn't alone in his lovely home, Shardene is there too, cooking breakfast in nothing but a shirt, laughing at the fact D'Angelo took longer than most women do to get dressed. D isn't offended, noting how good he looks, and points out that his mother told him that once you get a woman in your kitchen they're going to want a key to the house. Shardene says she doesn't want a key and she doesn't want a house, but quickly brings up something that does concern her. She's spotted a picture of D's son on the fridge and wants to know where the mother is, and learns that she is still "round the way", and that unlike Shardene, Donette wants a key, a house, clothes, a trip to the shore and a credit card with her name on it. D then manages to offend Shardene by casually commenting that "pussy isn't free", and her good mood is instantly gone, telling him that she needs to go. He grabs her for another kiss though, and watches her getting dressed.   Freamon switches on to a live feed of the payphone wiretap, and everybody listens in intently as the voice of somebody in the low rises talking on the payphone fills the room. But after a few seconds Freamon turns it off, and states that they can't listen in because it is an unmonitored call. Kima explains to the others that they can only listen in (and record) the phone call if they have visual confirmation that one of their suspects is the one making the call. That means that the are going to be up on the rooftops with cameras for hours at a time watching the dealers so they can confirm it back to whoever is monitoring the equipment in the office. Herc thinks that is bullshit, irritating Freamon who has FINALLY after 13 years (and 4 months) gotten his teeth into real policework, and he snaps at Herc that this IS the job, and asks him what exactly he expected when he came downtown to CID? Herc's reply? He blows a bubble with his gum. At Homicide, McNulty tells Bunk that he has intention of being back on regular rotation in a week. A phonecall comes through for him about a murder that might be connected to his Detail, and he heads down to the low rises where Detectives Ed Norris (played by former Baltimore Police Commissioner and Maryland State Police Superintendent Ed Norris) and Vernon Holley have caught the murder. As McNulty approaches with his coffee, a barking dog behind a fence startles him and causes him to spill coffee on himself, much to the amusement of Norris and Holley, as well as Poot who is gleefully watching from an upper floor window. McNulty spots Poot just as he drops the "curtain" (cardboard) down over the window. Holley reveals that the same thing happened to Norris, who admits it was more fun not to warn him. They show him Brandon's body, and explain that they saw he was wearing kevlar and thought it might connect to Bailey's death the previous week. McNulty explains who he is and why the Barksdales are after him, and they all note the brutality of the murder - Brandon was clearly tortured, there are cigarette burns all over his body, and he has sustained enough damage to have been murdered "4 or 5 times". McNulty tells Norris and Holley that they've currently got wiretaps running and he will let them know if anything comes up that will help them clear the murder, and they cover the body back up. Norris and Holley are waiting on the crime lab to come and collect the body, they've been there for over an hour already while Brandon's body lies in the sun. Why so long? Apparently somebody stole the City Council President's lawn furniture and both crime lab units are currently at his home taking photographs of an empty patio and dusting the fence for latents. Norris - a former police commissioner in real life - states that if you could show him somebody that could fix the police department, he'd happily give up half his overtime. Wallace is telling D'Angelo about Brandon's body, something that D is clearly uncomfortable in listening to. Wallace can't get the image of Brandon's tortured corpse out of his head, rabbiting on about his guts hanging out, one eye blown out and the other open like it could see everything. D is attempting to be reserved and controlled about it, telling Wallace that this is all in the game and reminding him that he must have known something bad was going to happen when he picked up the phone and called him about it. Wallace agrees but he still can't stop thinking about it, he reminds D'Angelo of the girl he murdered (at first D has no idea what he is talking about, before remembering the story he told them in which he clearly greatly exaggerated his role), then about what D'Angelo said about murder being an unnecessary distraction to their actual work of selling drugs to junkies. The nice theory doesn't match the sad reality though, and D tells him that as nice as it would be, the world just isn't that way. He calls over a small child to go buy him a drink (and something for himself), still clearly trying to keep himself busy and keep from thinking about Brandon's torture himself (it clearly bugs him as much as it does Wallace, but he's trying to maintain a facade), causing Wallace to shout out to get his attention, telling him that it fucks him up to think about it. D turns a despairing face to Wallace and tells him to just... don't think about it. It's hardly comforting to Wallace, who sits miserably on the couch, barely able to keep still as the horror of what he saw continues to churn around in his mind. It's really interesting to see the different reactions to Brandon's death. To McNulty and the other detectives the murder was brutal but they are able to eye it with detachment, even though McNulty just recently met the living Brandon. D'Angelo never met Brandon and was always a step removed from his actual capture and torture, and thus he has a level of distance from the murder that Wallace and Poot do not, but it clearly still bugs him to think about the part he played, though only when he is forced to think about it. Wallace saw calling in the information on Brandon as the right thing to do and was pleased to be picked out for praise from Stringer, but seeing the aftermath of his actions so directly in his face has left him in turmoil. Poot is exactly as complicit as Wallace in the murder, but look at how quickly he has gotten over it. Even when he saw the body initially it was more a kind of shocked curiosity than horror at what had happened, and we see that not long after he's happily peering out the window and laughing at the prank pulled on McNulty. Of the three low rise dealers left (Bodie wouldn't have given a second thought, I'm sure, beyond maybe approval of showing what happens when his crew is disrespected), it seems that only Poot has the true detached, dispassionate approach necessary to survive. In that regard, he's closer to McNulty, Norris and Holley than he is D'Angelo and Wallace, which makes his ultimate fate in the show all the more curious.   On the roof, Carver spots D'Angelo heading to the payphone to answer a beep, and calls through to Freamon to let him know. Lester and Prez listen in as D'Angelo puts through a call, having his own call returned. To Freamon and Prez's delight, the voice on the other end loudly calls out for "String" and they realize they now have a listed phone number for Stringer Bell, and listen in on the call. He asks D'Angelo about the young hopper "in the clutch" and asks if anything should be done about that. D gives a rather indifferent answer, as the young hopper in question is Bodie and D would probably prefer for him to not return. After the call ends though, he returns to Wallace (after enjoying messing around with a football with some of the other kids) and tells him happily that Bodie is coming home. Wallace still looks miserable though, and D'Angelo's good mood fades as quickly as it came. So long as he doesn't have to think about Brandon's death, he is happy and carefree, but Wallace can't stop thinking about it and that makes D have to consider it too. McNulty informs Kima over the radio about Brandon's death, and they both know this means they have to find Omar quickly - he is not going to take this death well. Bodie appears in court for a hearing to decide what will happen to him now - it's not good for him, he punched a police officer, was caught on camera selling drugs, escaped a juvenile detention facility and ran from the police when they tried to apprehend him. So of course... everything goes well for him! A sad little ADA sits alone at a table heaped with papers, staring forlornly across at Bodie who is flanked by Maurice Levy and a female lawyer from Levy's firm (acting pro-bono of course), who are waxing lyrical about what a wonderful little boy he is. He has letters of support from sponsor's at the Police Athletic League (!), as well as a paid-up invoice for his enrollment in the GED program at Baltimore City Community College! Bodie's grandmother sits beaming in the otherwise empty courtroom as it is explained that poor Bodie was manipulated by older boys into handing over drugs without getting any money in return, and that the punch was the result of lashing out wildly in self defense in the middle of a savage unprovoked beatdown by multiple police officers, the wounds clearly still visible on Bodie's face. He left the detention facility because he was heavily medicated as a result of the beating and in his confused state he was just trying to get back to his loving grandmother. Bodie listens to all of this with clear surprise, having been uninformed that Levy was being sent in as the heavy guns to save his rear end, but clearly understanding what is happening. He stands up and tells the judge,"I'm ready to be good", and the judge decides that there will be no problem with Bodie staying at home with his grandmother under phone monitoring for six months, at which point they will hold another hearing to judge how he is doing. Even this comparatively light sentence is too much for Levy though, who smoothly explains that Bodie's grandmother is on a fixed income and has no phone. The judge kindly takes this into account, Bodie will just need to make a phonecall to his probation officer twice a week. "Cool. Whatever.... your honor," notes Bodie.   Sweet Justice  McNulty leaves a card under the wipers on Omar's van, his only way of communicating with the stick-up artist. Bubbles is working on a street-side fruit stand when Johnny and another junkie roll up with a shopping trolley, wanting to know what scam he is running. Bubbles is pleased to see that Johnny is out and about again, but explains this isn't a scam, he's just giving a little back and doing a relative honest day's work. As Bubbles takes money from paying customers, Johnny quickly grabs various fruits from the stand and pops them into his shopping trolley, trying to convince Bubbles to join them on their latest rip. They plan to take "the copper house" which would appear to be some kind of scrapyard - Bubbles is curious how they are going to deal with the fence and the dogs, but Johnny claims to have a plan, the first part of which is "gently caress the fence!". Bubbles should know better but can't resist the idea of getting hold of a lot of copper to sell, so asks the fruit stand vendor to "cash him out" and joins Johnny and his friend, Johnny telling him that if you don't have dreams, then what is the point. They head off together with the shopping trolley, which now has a number of fruit stacked up inside of it. Bodie returns directly to the low rises, confused that nobody is about. He heads to a payphone to make a call, spotted by Herc who puts through a call to Freamon and Prez but asks to be put through to Carver afterwards. As Freamon and Prez prepare to take the call, Herc informs Carver that Bodie is back AGAIN, infuriating Carver who can't believe he has walked again. "Round 3!" declares Herc, and Carver races off to join him, watched by a puzzled Freamon. Bodie's call is returned by Stinkum, who Bodie carelessly names on the phone, pissing off the enforcer who reminds him to watch his manners. Prez notes down Stinkum's number, while Stinkum explains to Bodie that the pit is closed up for the day so he'll just have to catch up with them all tomorrow. As far as calls go it is low on content, so Prez logs it as non-pertinent. Freamon schools Prez over this, saying that just because they didn't directly discuss drugs doesn't make it non-pertinent. They use codes, they don't refer to each other by name (and are reprimanded when they do), and this all goes towards proving a criminal conspiracy. He holds up Stinkum's photo and the phone number they now have to go with it, and makes the quote noted at the start of the episode - "All the pieces matter". That night Herc and Carver spot Bodie calmly sitting on a stoop and pull up alongside him. He seems relaxed which infuriates them more, and they greet him with a fist to the face that knocks him to the ground, Herc declaring that every time he runs away from a juvenile facility they will beat him up, and they're happy with that if he is. As they prepare to cuff him, he tells them to check the papers in his back pocket, and Carver is disgusted to discover he's been released on home monitoring. They demand to know why, and he tells them that the Juvenile judge saw potential in him or something, goading them a bit before telling them not to take offense, but he thinks the juvenile system in this city is hosed up. Infuriated but powerless to do anything, Carver slaps the paper into Bodie's chest as Herc gets back into the car, and Bodie can't resist pushing just a little bit further, saying he'll call it even if they give him a ride down to his grandmother's house. Carver  s at him, but goes along with it, snapping at him to get into the back. I've always felt that Bodie has a surprising relationship with the police, despite the beatings and the abuse he always seems to regard them as colleagues as opposed to adversaries. A later episode sees him spot Herc and Carver at the movies with their girlfriends and he acts like they work in different departments of the same company, as opposed to being "criminal scum" that they're trying to take off of the streets. Throughout the series there are all kinds of little moments between Bodie and the police, and I think where he ultimately ends up in the show has a lot to do with that continuing attitude. That's something to delve into deeper in a later write-up though. Rawls is preparing to head home after a long day at the office when he FINALLY stops to take a look through the pile of cases that McNulty brought into their "meeting" at the start of the day. Something in them catches his eye, and he bellows out for Landsman. Elsewhere, D'Angelo is waiting by a payphone, but not for a call. A girl who works for him in the low rises - Cass - has picked up groceries on her way home, indifferent crossing the street and flipping the bird to the car that almost runs her over. She stops when she sees D though, who takes the shopping from her and notes it's late in the month to be picking up so many groceries, and begins to smash eggs on the ground in front of her, one by one, faster and faster, leaning over towards her in what is perhaps unconscious mimicry of the intimidating way Stringer was standing over him in the previous episode. Is she stealing from him? Cass just stares as he breaks eggs faster and faster, leaning in closer and closer to her.  Bunk shows up to work the next morning in a good mood that is gone before he's been in the squad a minute. Landsman calls him over to give him the bad news - Rawls looked at Jimmy's files last night and saw that there was a ballistics link between the Kresson case the other two murders that kicked off the whole Detail "problem" in the first place. He wants warrants issued TODAY and D'Angelo bought in, and he won't take no for an answer. Landsman fully accepts that there isn't enough to justify warrants at this point but he cannot go against Rawls' command, even though as things currently stand the cases wouldn't make it past the Grand Jury phase. Remember the note earlier about Rawls' obession with closing cases, this is a good example. In the book Homicide, Simon explains that a case that results in an arrest is considered "cleared" by the police department. Whether the case makes it trial (let alone whether a guilty verdict comes through) is irrelevant, the case is "cleared". This is what Rawls cares about, he doesn't care if the case falls apart once he has D'Angelo arrested, because at that point it is no longer his problem. His case will be cleared and that is what will go into the Department's stats. At the low rises, Bodie is already back at D'Angelo's side as the clear Number 2 in the Low Rises, despite his recently absence. D informs Wallace and Poot about changes to the way things are run, with Sterling and Cassandra now acting as Look-Outs, with Wallace now sitting on the stash. Wallace and Poot are confused as to why things are being changed up, and D snaps at them that he doesn't have to explain himself to them. The answer is - of course - that his recent experiment has shown him that he can absolutely trust Wallace (and Poot as an extension of that) and that he knows that Cass can't be trusted with the money. Presumably she told him the truth after his egg-smashing exercise, and implicated Sterling as well, but he isn't going to tell them that. The thing is, is a demotion enough of a punishment for theft when it comes to being a drug dealer? If D let that slip, can you imagine Bodie reacting in any way other than wanting to put a beating on them (at the very least)? Freamon, Greggs and McNulty are going over what they've picked up so far in terms of numbers, pleased with their progress. Freamon points out that their targets are getting lazy, they're not changing phones or moving around - they think they're safe. Daniels shows up followed shortly after by Polk, and nobody is pleased to see the latter. He can barely hold himself upright, staggering over to fill in his run sheet, Freamon noting that he's lit at 9 in the morning, with McNulty (no stranger to drinking himself) suggesting maybe he's just still drunk from the night before. Daniels isn't going to put up with this though, calling out to Polk and then snapping his name even louder when it appears Polk has fallen asleep at the desk. Daniels gestures to Polk to join him in his office as an amused McNulty returns Bunk's pager, his own good mood won't last long. In the office, Daniels demands to know why Polk even bothered to show up, and the clearly drunk detective struggles to maintain a semblance of sobriety, lamely offering that he might have missed a couple of days last week buttttt...... and he really has no way to finish that sentence. Daniels corrects him, there is a filled in run-sheet for every day of the week for Polk, it's just that various days have different handwriting - Carver's, Prez's, McNulty's etc. The other detectives have been covering for him despite being a useless drunk who does nothing for any of them, but Daniels isn't going to put up with it anymore. Polk finally breaks and admits that he just can't deal with the demands of the Detail, he doesn't understand the investigation, and with some despair says that he could have maybe learned a few new tricks if Mahon was still around. Daniels is disgusted, but shuts down the suggestion that he be sent back to Property Crimes, informing Polk that he was dumped on Daniels because he wasn't wanted, but that Daniels doesn't dump men from his command. So regardless of the fact that he's currently drunk as a skunk, Daniels gives Polk a choice, he can either go up on the rooftop and join the other detectives, or he can check himself into a medical facility for alcohol abuse. Polk is shocked at the suggestion he is a drunk, but Daniels isn't having any of his protests and makes it clear these are his ONLY options - get himself dry or go up on the rooftops wet. He leaves Polk to consider it, leaving the office as Polk - a sad, old drunk - is left to stare at his reflection in the glass. Outside his office, Daniels is surprised that McNulty, Freamon and Greggs are gone and asks Prez where they are, and Prez replies,"Who?", making Daniels' face fall - is this all he's got to deal with, an old drunk and a young idiot? Prez redeems himself though, calling Daniels back and happily asking if they can get a filing cabinet for all the paperwork they're generating, showing off the enormous amount of important (but dull) work that Prez is actually doing inside the basement now. Polk shows up and tells Daniels he has made his decision, and he wishes him all the best of his luck with his investigation. Polk is going to get himself dry, and we won't see him again for quite some time. Outside, McNulty, Freamon and Greggs have joined Bunk, furious over Rawls' actions. McNulty is convinced that Rawls is doing it as personal payback, because he thinks everything is about him. Bunk clarifies this - it's nothing personal, he wants the clearances. The detectives confirm that the clearances go onto the Department's statistics regardless of if the case is thrown out by the Grand Jury, and McNulty is determined to go straight to Rawls and have it out with him, but everybody else knows this will make matters worse. The major problem of course is that if they have to write up an arrest warrant for D'Angelo, then they need to include the what, why and how of the evidence they gathered, which means putting it on the record (for defense counsel to see) that there are wiretaps and cloned beepers. That means that regardless of whatever happens with the case, Avon will know that the police are onto him and will know exactly what parts of his Organization are at threat, what to close up and what to clean up. As they argue over whether they can go to Daniels to fight Rawls on this (McNulty is convinced that Daniels will fold in the face of a superior's orders), there is a simply wonderful bit of visual framing, as we see the detectives arguing strategy in focus in the background, and an unfocused game of chess being played in the foreground.   Bunk leaves, telling them they need to come up with some kind of strategy. Freamon and Greggs double-team McNulty, telling him that they need to tell Daniels. McNulty is furious at the idea, shouting out gently caress Daniels, gently caress him and his chain of command, rear end-kissing politicking bullshit. Greggs - who considers Daniels a mentor - angrily replies that they tell Daniels, because either he'll fight for the case or he won't, and if he won't then it just goes to show the Detail was never going anywhere anyway. Meanwhile, Johnny's plan to take off the "Copper House" is being put into motion. It turns out the "copper house" is a plumbing supply company, and rather than breaking in over the fence and dealing with guard dogs, they're going to pull off their caper during the day. They wait for a pick-up with copper pipes stacked in the back to leave and go into action, Johnny rushing into the road and into the slow moving vehicle, getting dropped to the ground. The driver isn't concerned so much as he is disgusted, he's clearly picked out that Johnny is an addict and was going slow enough that he figures this is a scam. Leaving the cab, he yells at Johnny to get up and asks what he wants, dope? "Mostly, yeah!" admits Johnny, while behind the pick-up Bubbles and Hucklebuck load up their shopping trolley with pipes. Johnny is able to keep an eye on their progress from ground level, distracting the driver and keeping him from leaving until the driver has had enough and tries to haul him up, ripping out his colostomy bag in the process. Disgusted, he steps back and tells Johnny he will go and get help, but is held back a little more by Johnny until he is sure the others are done, then yells at the driver to hurry up, what is he waiting for. The driver out of sight, Johnny leaps up and hobbles after the laughing Hucklebuck and Bubbles, telling them he used an onion soup mixture to fill his bag with the sloppiest looking "poo poo" possible (this is my take on what he says, anyway). As he hobbles along beside their overladen trolley, Hucklebuck cries out,"RUN FOREST, RUN!"  In the basement, Greggs and McNulty are laying out to Daniels what is going on. He asks why they came to him instead of Judge Phelan, and McNulty admits that even a judge isn't going to be able to convince a Homicide Major to let go off three murder clearances. It's put-up or shut-up time, as far as McNulty is concerned, either Daniels steps up to the plate or he sends them all back where they came from. Daniels asks why this is on him and the rather reasonable explanation is given - Daniels is in charge of the Detail, this IS his job. He fulfills McNulty's worst fears though when he replies that Rawls is a Major and he is only a Lieutenant, and that the Chain of Command means something to him even if it means nothing to McNulty. He returns to his office, leaving an infuriated but not surprised McNulty to offer an "I told you so" to Greggs. At the Low Rises, something unique is happening both in the world of the show and in the production of it. Avon Barksdale has come to the Low Rises! In an extremely rare non-montage case of non-diagetic music, Avon, Stringer and Stinkum walk in slow-motion (!) with the song Wax Box Music playing. It's a very interesting choice, and I have to wonder if the decision was based on the rather surreal sight of Avon coming out into the open light of day - the King visiting the troops, coming down from on high. Or maybe it's as simple as just being a stylistic choice that they decided they didn't like and discarded in future episodes.  Avon takes in EVERYTHING as he enters the Low Rises, watching deals being done and money changing hands. D'Angelo is surprised but pleased to see him, quickly falling into his train as he moves on a little further. Stringer points out Wallace to D'Angelo, and Stinkum pulls away to see him as Avon asks if word is getting around about the fate of Omar's two stick-up boys who dared to rob Avon Barksdale. He explains that he's dividing up the $2000 bounty with $500 to Wallace for spotting Brandon and pointing him out, $500 to D for facilitating everything, and $500 each to Wee-Bey and Bird for doing the "muscling up". Stinkum hands over the money to Wallace without a word and returns to Avon and Stringer, the latter asking D how things are going with his efforts to flush out a potential snitch. D'Angelo straight-up lies, telling him that nobody has been paid for a week and they're all coming to him begging for money, and nobody has been able to spend on anything. It's another sign that D'Angelo doesn't quite have the stomach for what he knows would happen if he revealed Cass and Sterling were stealing AVON'S money, and that he is affected by what happened to Brandon, if not to quite the same extent as Wallace. Avon is very pleased with how things are going - D helped catch somebody that Avon wanted, he has the Pit humming, and just as he did with Stinkum last episode, he wants to reward merit. He tells D to keep things humming as smoothly as they have been, and they'll be seriously considering getting him "points on the package" (he'll be getting a cut of all the money the Pit makes each week). D'Angelo is delighted, happily taking $500 from Stinkum and sharing some good natured shadow-boxing with Avon who heads away, his visit concluded. Where are the police while all this is going on? Santangelo is on the rooftop this shift, and as the top drug dealer on the West Side of Baltimore visits his troops and one of his enforcers hands over wads of cash to D'Angelo and Wallace, Santangelo is taking a piss. He returns to his post, lighting up a cigarette and picking up his camera, just missing Avon as he gets into his car and drives away. Just like with the wiretap on the payphones coming a day late, Santangelo has JUST missed spotting Avon. It's a trifle contrived, but it works well as a demonstration of the lack of singular vision and teamwork the police are suffering, especially in conjunction with the (current) singleminded and disciplined approach of the Barksdale Organization - though even there the cracks are starting to show, with D'Angelo lying to Stringer and Freamon noting the growing laxity of the enforcers. At a construction site, Bubbles is trying to work out a deal for the copper piping with the foreman. The foreman is playing hardball, he knows the pipes are stolen but he doesn't care, he just knows he can get them for cheap. As Bubbles tries his best to work out a deal, Daniels is doing the same thing with an equal hard-rear end who holds all the cards in Rawls. Daniels explains carefully the necessity of not charging these murders prematurely, noting that the charging documents will ruin the bigger case he is building against Avon Barksdale. Rawls doesn't care though, highly exaggerating the quality of the evidence they have (a tenuous link of D'Angelo being at the house of the Kresson murder scene and the ballistics match across all three cases) and saying that he isn't telling Daniels how to run his case, he's just trying to run HIS. Bubbles is negotiated down to 30cents a foot for the copper piping, and Daniels tries to negotiate as well, asking Rawls to do it for him as a personal favor. Rawls - an excellent judge of political weight - takes some pleasure in telling Daniels,"In that case.... no." Ignorant that Daniels is "stepping up", McNulty is throwing a little temper tantrum by taking the day off of work and just playing soccer with his kids instead. He tells them he'll take them out to a restaurant to get some lasagne for dinner, declaring that "work sucks" and "cooking sucks". A strange number on his beeper gets his attention and he places a call. Omar is on the other end, getting straight down to business - he wants to see Brandon's body. As night falls, in one of the sadly many abandoned row-houses/crack dens in Baltimore, Bubbles, Hucklebuck and Johnny are nodding off thanks to the drugs they've bought with the money from their copper heist. Hucklebuck is out to the world while Johnny and Bubbles can barely keep their eyes open, though they are enjoying reveling in the success of Johnny's plan. Bubbles reveals again that he has a highly developed sense of vengeance/justice when he states that he is going to get payback on the foreman for lowballing them on the copper - he'll wait for the copper to go into the walls of the row-houses being developed, then sneak in and steal it before the drywall goes up and sell it off to somebody else. Johnny is amused but his major guiding thought - as always - is to get high again. Bubbles agrees he could go for one more hit and looks for money in his pockets, but Johnny finds his own first and is in a gracious mood - the next hit is on him. He staggers outside to find a dealer while Bubbles slowly nods off. Further cementing his Dad-of-the-Year status, McNulty has his kids waiting bored in the back of his car as he waits to rendezvous with Omar. He lets Omar into the car, explaining it is his night with the kids, but Omar doesn't care, his only concern at the moment is Brandon. He just glares straight ahead as McNulty starts up the car and heads for the morgue. In the crack-den, Bubbles is woken from his drug-induced slumber by the sound of yelling. He moves to the window and looks out to see Johnny spreadeagled on the ground, yelling at a policeman who is detaining him, claiming it's because he's white. The cop quickly finds the drugs he just bought and promptly arrests a protesting Johnny, causing Bubbles to observe that the boy just doesn't have any luck. D'Angelo is sitting on the couch watching the night time dealings in the pit when Wallace shows up. D tries to cheer him up, asking what he plans to do with his $500, suggesting he take his girl out somewhere nice... and if he doesn't have a girl, he's now got the money to get one. Wallace laughs, but then questions why Sterling was demoted to look-out, after all he did get shot during the stash-house stick-up, surely he deserves better treatment? D - perhaps because he sees a kindred spirit in Wallace - chooses to open up, explaining that Sterling and Cass were thieving from them, diluting and shaking up the vials and selling the extra to pocket the difference for themselves. Wallace doesn't understand why D stopped paying them in the first place though, immediately understanding that Sterling and Cass did this only because they had no money. D'Angelo explains that Stringer suspected a snitch and had him stop paying the crew in order to flush them out, but there was no snitch to find, just a couple of thieves, and he didn't tell anyone else because the reaction would be to take a baseball bat to the thieves, cause more drama and make more noise, bringing down the cops and creating more discontent. D'Angelo has just made a pretty blatant "management" mistake, in his effort to make one of his workers think better of him he has revealed that unpopular decisions came from "above", which serves to create a "them and us" situation. What will Wallace think of Stringer Bell now? That he's a heartless man who lays down cruel edicts from above on a kind-hearted D'Angelo who just wants the best for his workers? That kind of thinking encourages disloyalty, or at the very least negative connotations. At the morgue, Jimmy's kids are sat down in the lobby of the morgue (Jesus Christ, McNulty) as he and Omar head down to the basement in the lift. For some strange stylistic reason, the reveal of Brandon's corpse from under the sheet is seen in black and white as if it was being viewed through a surveillance camera. Omar's facade cracks at last as he leans down and kisses the ravaged face of his lover, then he breaks down into tears and screams out in rage, so loud that Jimmy's kids here it up in the lobby.   The next day, a now controlled Omar meets Jimmy and Kima and gets into the back of their car. Snitching wasn't part of his game last episode, but all that changed with the death of first Bailey (causing him to give up Bird as the shooter of William Gant) and now Brandon. They take him to their basement office (Freamon observes quietly) where he questions why they aren't in a REAL police office? McNulty tells him that like Omar they're out there on their own, playing the game for themselves (McNulty really thinks a lot of himself, doesn't he). Omar settles down into a chair and Jimmy and Greggs immediately begin in working on him like they would in an interrogation - they point out how Brandon was tortured, how it happened because of what Omar did, and that they understand he wants revenge, but there's only so much he can do with a sawn-off shotgun.... but BEFORE he goes and does what they know he is going to do, they want him to give them everything he knows about the Barksdale Organization, because that can be used to hurt Avon too. Furious and distressed, Omar keeps control of himself and asks what they want, and they start with a timeline of Brandon's final known hours - when did Omar see him last, where was he going, what was he doing? As Omar begins, Freamon listens in and something sparks a memory, and he checks the paperwork and starts to put together the cause of the flurry of beeper activity the night before they put in the payphone wiretap. Omar explains that he thought Bailey's death could have been the result of anything, he had plenty of enemies and might have pulled something by himself on the wrong corner without back-up. He didn't want Brandon going out alone but knew you couldn't hold back a young man like that too long or he'd "buck". He thinks that Wee-Bey, Stinkum and probably Bird were the ones in on snatching up Brandon, they're Avon's top enforcers. Freamon gets McNulty's attention and takes him into the recorder room (where Prez is doing paperwork) and shows him the records of the beeper calls that went through on the night of Brandon's death, laying out the entire chain of calls that went through from spotting Brandon to him being snatched up. As he explains, Daniels shows up, passing by where Kima is interviewing Omar and going into his office. McNulty, realizing what they missed, takes the notes from Freamon and storms into Daniels' office, slamming the pad on the desk and declaring that this is on Daniels - if they'd been up on the payphones they would have had the murder on record, in fact they would have arrived BEFORE the murder. He rants and raves in front of a glowering Daniels then storms out, leaving the basement (followed by Freamon), leaving behind Omar with Greggs. "Bad time for y'all?" Omar quips, but as Greggs looks to Daniels' office (where he is going through the records), Omar takes his chance and looks around the office itself, spotting the organization chart that hte police have put together so far - Omar is getting far more out of this meeting than the police are getting out of him.   McNulty and Freamon have done to the Greek's Arcade where they show the owner a picture of Brandon, and he explains that Brandon got into a fight with policemen who arrested him. That story makes no sense to the detectives, but the owner (who doesn't have the best English) mimes out that Brandon was cuffed, suggesting that he mistook the men who snatched up Brandon as police officers. He doesn't recognize the pictures of Wee-Bey and Stinkum though, but Freamon has a more important confirmation, the payphone number matches the one on their records of the calls made that night. Daniels - still looking to follow the chain of command - has gone to see his Narcotics Major - Raymond Foerster, begging him to make Rawls give up on his desire to charge the cases. Foerster wants nothing to do with it, even though they're the same rank he is scared of Rawls, who he claims to be the most ruthless gently caress they have in the police department. He especially isn't going to cross Rawls to fight for a case that the Deputy Ops doesn't even want - he isn't going to risk his career for this. Back in the basement, Greggs is still interviewing Omar, asking for elaboration on his claim that Bird called William Gant - the "working man" witness from D'Angelo's murder trial in episode one. She wants to know how he knows Bird did it, and he explains that EVERYBODY knows, because Bird did it out in the open in front of everybody, knowing that they would be too scared to speak up. He tells Kima that Bird used a .380 to commit the murder, a gun he got from "Australia or Austria or something..." and that he's too dumb to throw it away, so if they get the gun from him they can get an easy ballistics match. Kima tells him that isn't enough, they need an eyeball witness, and Omar - who will go to any lengths to get revenge for Brandon - decides to remember that HE is that eyeball witness, he was there that day and he saw Bird do it. Kima is skeptical (as well she should be) but Omar insists, and when she asks if he isn't frightened of saying so in open court, his reply is a smug,"Omar don't scare easy." Daniels, in one last desperate effort to save the case has moved somewhat further up the chain of command than he should, and is now in the presence of the Deputy Ops himself, only one level below the Commissioner of Police. Major Rawls is there too, and Burrell eats his lunch as each man states their case. Rawls - practiced politician that he is, offers what sounds like a reasonable and even-handed reason for charging the cases. They can link D'Angelo to the crime scene on the night of the murder, they have a ballistics match across three murders, and they can "mindfuck" D'Angelo in interrogation to get him to flip on his Uncle and wrap up the whole organization on top of clearing three murders. He insists they can recanvas and pick up new witnesses after they've charged D'Angelo, and bring a case twice as strong by the time they get to trial. Daniels' attempts to retort are shut down by Rawls with practiced ease, until he loses his cool and declares that this is bullshit - what evidence IS in the case was found by McNulty who doesn't think the case is strong enough to go to trial. They've had D'Angelo in interrogation twice already and gotten nothing from him, and there is nothing to be gained from charging the cases now other than clearances for the Department's statistics. Burrell quiets him down and points out what is of the most importance to HIM is that currently he's paying $2000 a day OVER the Department's operating budget in staffing costs for this Detail - now Rawls is offering the chance to clear cases and bring down Avon Barksdale, so why should he stop him? Daniels has calmed down (but the expression on Rawls' face shows he's just made himself a solid enemy) and offers back an extremely reasonable alternative. If Rawls is right, then he'll STILL be able to clear those cases a month from now, and loses nothing. If Rawls is wrong, however, then the cases get thrown out by the Grand Jury, Avon Barksdale changes up his operation, the wiretaps are useless, and most importantly of all for Burrell, he will have NOTHING to show Judge Phelan.  What is the result of that meeting? It's made clear that night when Santangelo is summoned to a pissed off Rawls' office. Rawls informs him that he wants to know ANYTHING that McNulty does wrong - even as minor as cheating on a run sheet. McNulty thought Rawls charging the cases was a personal attack on him and he was completely in the wrong, but now that the cases are not to be cleared (at least for a month) it is definitely personal. Santangelo protests that for all his personal gently caress-ups, Jimmy pretty much doesn't do anything BUT work, but Rawls isn't hearing none of it. Does Jimmy still drink? Does he drink and drive? He wants to know about it, he wants to know EVERYTHING. As screwed up as it sounds, Santangelo will probably have far more trouble with this kind of informing than any other - so many cops drink heavily or drink and drive that the idea of reporting one for doing it feels alien to him. Rawls' desire for that kind of report is for all the wrong reasons, even though, to be perfect honest, it's the kind of thing that SHOULD be reported. At the basement, McNulty and Freamon return where Daniels informs them that the charge sheets have been put on hold, the Deputy Ops has given them another month. In addition to that, Omar has offered to be a witness in the Gant Murder Trial, and Kima will be writing up the paperwork tomorrow. McNulty is stunned and happy at the news, and takes it at purely face value, though he does offer a grateful thank you to Daniels. Freamon, on the other hand, understands that there is far more behind the decision to keep the detail running than just a simple,"The Deputy Ops is extending it" - he asks Daniels if it cost him, and Daniels replies by walking back into the darkness of his office. Freamon leaves, and only Daniels is left behind, where he looks over Brandon's crime scene photos - another young kid missing an eye. The episode began with a shot of Brandon's mutilated corpse, and it ends the same way.
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Mar 9, 2013 05:23
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That little part with police resources being wasted on the City Council President's lawn furniture is especially hilarious if you figure it was Nerese Campbell Daniels' "THIS...IS BULLLLSHIT!" is one of my favorite scenes from season 1. Officially the moment where he stops being a company man.
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Mar 9, 2013 07:33
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cletepurcel posted:That little part with police resources being wasted on the City Council President's lawn furniture is especially hilarious if you figure it was Nerese Campbell That was the first thing I thought too, but they mentioned it was a man so no dice, unfortunately cletepurcel posted:Daniels' "THIS...IS BULLLLSHIT!" is one of my favorite scenes from season 1. Officially the moment where he stops being a company man. Yeah, he's tried to play by the rules, operated through the chain of command like he's been taught, even tried to push the "favor" thing he's seen the likes of Valchek make use of, and none of it works and he realizes a case that is starting to come together is going to be ruined by some rear end in a top hat's desire to push through three "fake" clearances and he's just had enough. That said: Why would anybody ever want to piss this man off? 
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Mar 9, 2013 07:58
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PlisskensEyePatch posted:Just randomly found the show on Netflix. American Gangster season 2, episode 3, Melvin Williams. Really gives you a look at the underworld, a little more dimension to The Wire, because it's just as much about Baltimore as it is Williams. Dude is interesting. Seriously, thank you for finding this. Absolutely AMAZING back story to the show, the characters, and the reality. I honestly think if he hadn't been erroneously accused of drug dealing he would never have become a drug dealer. You gonna make me a dealer? Ima gonna be a dealer. Teeny tiny thing: I moved to Pittsburgh in 1997, the first place I ever chose to move on my own. My step mom is first generation American, born and raised in Baltimore, and in 2003 they moved there. I hadn't realized Baltimore was such a small (sub 1 million) town. It seems so small and decrepit when I visit, that I have literally come to hate my visits to Baltimore. I drive by places proclaiming "WEDNESDAY: $20 ALL YOU CAN DRINK" (which, OK, I am totally intrigued by) and all these run down areas and then I see things like the Inner Harbor and I ask my step mom and my step grandparents why they still feel fealty to this place that is so clearly dying...
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Mar 9, 2013 08:34
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Jerusalem posted:
wait, wait, wait, how the hell have I missed this all after all these rewatches? I'm kind of glad I'm single and not subjecting a girlfriend to watching this as I'd spend every episode talking about all the minute details that crop up all the time
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Mar 9, 2013 12:51
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Jerusalem posted:Episode 6: The Wire Pure poetry.
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Mar 9, 2013 13:58
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ShaneMacGowansTeeth posted:wait, wait, wait, how the hell have I missed this all after all these rewatches? I'm kind of glad I'm single and not subjecting a girlfriend to watching this as I'd spend every episode talking about all the minute details that crop up all the time Don't feel bad, I've missed it every time too. Another wonderful job, Jerusalem.
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Mar 9, 2013 14:40
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Jerusalem posted:Herc thinks that is bullshit, irritating Freamon who has FINALLY after 13 years (and 4 months) gotten his teeth into real policework, and he snaps at Herc that this IS the job, and asks him what exactly he expected when he came downtown to CID? Herc's reply? He blows a bubble with his gum. What I get out of moments like this with Herc is that he basically thinks that the job is cracking heads until your rabbi propels you up the ladder to a comfy job bossing people around. quote:In that regard, he's closer to McNulty, Norris and Holley than he is D'Angelo and Wallace, which makes his ultimate fate in the show all the more curious. Poot was probably the most natural of the bunch with regards to the game. He didn't think too much and was able to put things out of his head. He quits because he realizes that there's no cover left, all the old Barksdale hands are dropping and if he stayed out there it was inevitable that he was going to be next. To quote Daniels, by the time Bodie died Poot was out there without a titty to suck. So being a survivor (and a glorious hedonist) he moved toward a legit lifestyle. quote:I've always felt that Bodie has a surprising relationship with the police, despite the beatings and the abuse he always seems to regard them as colleagues as opposed to adversaries. A later episode sees him spot Herc and Carver at the movies with their girlfriends and he acts like they work in different departments of the same company, as opposed to being "criminal scum" that they're trying to take off of the streets. Throughout the series there are all kinds of little moments between Bodie and the police, and I think where he ultimately ends up in the show has a lot to do with that continuing attitude. That's something to delve into deeper in a later write-up though. "We grind, you try to stop us from grinding." It reminds me so much of the old WB Coyote and Sheepdog cartoons. Think also to when Omar tells Levy that he's been arrested often enough to not take it personally. quote:The thing is, is a demotion enough of a punishment for theft when it comes to being a drug dealer? If D let that slip, can you imagine Bodie reacting in any way other than wanting to put a beating on them (at the very least)? This is one of those management judgment things. Remember that D's got the low rises humming profit-wise, and the entire event reminds me of Daniels handling the Carver/Herc/Prez mess at the high rises in-house. D's basically doing the equivalent of not diming his people to IAD here. If he has the respect of the crew and makes it work, he's a genius boss. If they just burn him behind his back some more he's a punk. quote:Omar is getting far more out of this meeting than the police are getting out of him. And that's how a man makes it so long robbing drug dealers. Omar watches and absorbs everything in his environment. It's a beautiful little moment. quote:Rawls - practiced politician that he is, offers what sounds like a reasonable and even-handed reason for charging the cases. The Rawls scenes in this episode are what really cement him as an rear end in a top hat of kingly proportions. Given the chance to do a favor with no loss to himself, he takes the spiteful route just for the pure joy of being an rear end in a top hat. He's not just about personal advancement, he's about getting off on stomping people whenever he can. He is officer Walker about twenty years down the road, as I've said before.
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Mar 9, 2013 22:46
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Scenes with Rawls being a caustic rear end in a top hat have become among my favorites after recently rewatching season 3. Goddamn, those Comsat sessions were just incredible. Nice foreshadowing of those in your latest writeup, Jerusalem.
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Mar 10, 2013 03:04
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HelmetCheese posted:Scenes with Rawls being a caustic rear end in a top hat have become among my favorites after recently rewatching season 3. Goddamn, those Comsat sessions were just incredible. Nice foreshadowing of those in your latest writeup, Jerusalem. These scenes also make his scene with Jimmy after Kima is shot that much more poignant. God I love this show. It's on a tier of television all its own. I always tell people "it's not like anything else on TV; it's a televisual novel."
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Mar 10, 2013 03:12
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I'm always amazed at just how much they manage to pack into an hour. SOOOOOO much happens in any one episode, and yet while watching it I never feel like I'm being overloaded with information. Similar to the rather massive cast they have, it's crazy how easy it is to keep track of everybody.
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Mar 10, 2013 03:50
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Rawls being frank about just what he was doing to Major Crimes when he calls up Lester had me half-respecting the guy for at least owning to what he did, but half-hating him for doing it in the first place. I've been doing this rewatch with my parents, and I want to thank... Person of Interest? for making my dad instantly say, "ugh, not this motherfucker," upon seeing Marimow for the first time. You have no idea, dad
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Mar 10, 2013 05:18
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Parachute Underwear posted:I've been doing this rewatch with my parents, and I want to thank... Person of Interest? for making my dad instantly say, "ugh, not this motherfucker," upon seeing Marimow for the first time. You have no idea, dad At least he gets slapped down pretty harshly in House of Cards.
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Mar 10, 2013 19:22
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escape artist posted:Thing is, we all have our own style. Frankly, I think Jerusalem is more insightful than me. I'm more of a behind-the-scenes and paralleled characters and repeated lines type of guy. I'd be stoked to see multiple writeups of episodes (even if they were out of order) specifically because of the different approaches you guys take. Like, absolutely season 3 is an allegory for the war in iraq, but it's more than that, and I'd be keen to see what escape artist and jerusalem pick out of it.
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Mar 10, 2013 21:56
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So I'm on my first watch and just started season four. Dear god, what have they done to the opening theme? 
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Mar 11, 2013 00:06
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Fray posted:So I'm on my first watch and just started season four. Dear god, what have they done to the opening theme? Hey, if you're on your first watch, you need to stay out of this thread until you're done. We don't use spoiler bars in here. Seriously. You're about to watch the best season and shouldn't have any of it spoiled.
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Mar 11, 2013 00:10
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Fray posted:So I'm on my first watch and just started season four. Dear god, what have they done to the opening theme? Yeah, it is pretty distressing to discover the best possible version of the theme and know that no other will ever be quite as good, I agree 
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Mar 11, 2013 00:12
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I thought they were all good except for Steve Earle's version. It sounded like it was made with a drum machine or something, very inorganic.... when I love Steve Earle's music usually. It always sounds full and I don't know... It just was really disappointing. His voice was fine, but the music left a lot to be desired.
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Mar 11, 2013 00:18
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It sounds too upbeat and happy to me, discordant with the other versions.
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Mar 11, 2013 00:56
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escape artist posted:I thought they were all good except for Steve Earle's version. It sounded like it was made with a drum machine or something, very inorganic.... when I love Steve Earle's music usually. It always sounds full and I don't know... It just was really disappointing. His voice was fine, but the music left a lot to be desired. Which season did Steve Earle do? The only three I really liked were S1,2,4 (or Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, and The Best Version.
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Mar 11, 2013 01:20
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SpookyLizard posted:Which season did Steve Earle do? The only three I really liked were S1,2,4 (or Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, and The Best Version. I believe Steve Earle did the Season 5 version. e: Here it is.
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Mar 11, 2013 01:37
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SpookyLizard posted:Which season did Steve Earle do? The only three I really liked were S1,2,4 (or Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, and The Best Version. Season 5.
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Mar 11, 2013 03:10
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Every time I rewatch the change in theme jars me at the start of each season. Then after a couple of episodes I get in the groove with the latest version and like it all over again. Off the top of my head I can't name a single best one, though I'm sure if I sat down and listened to them all back to back I would. But then they also integrate in my mind with the video and the video opens were always strong and hit all sorts of high points from the season, so it's all just part of the art of the show for me.
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Mar 11, 2013 03:37
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Episode 7: One Arrest Freamon, Prez, Herc, Carver and McNulty are listening in on a recording of a phone-call they picked up off the payphone wiretap. To Herc it sounds like nothing, but Freamon and Prez have picked up on the code used by the dealers and are able to translate it. The drug stash the dealers have been selling is almost all used up, and a new stash is being delivered the next day by Stinkum (who is referred to by the codename "Black"). The other three are impressed, even more so when they are able to tell them exactly how many drugs are coming, where they're being delivered, at what time and by who. How do they know that? The code number sent to the pager, when turned upside down, lays it all out for anybody to see.  4 G Packs (4x$1000 worth of drugs) to be delivered to the Low Rises at noon by Stinkum. Prez has finally found his calling in the police force, rather than being a liability he is now an asset, because he is being used in a way that works to his skills and talent. The institutional problems within the BPD are made apparent again and again throughout the series, and this is another example. Prez has no business being a detective with a gun going up to towers to interrogate suspects - but put him on a wire, let him work on codes, and do paperwork and he excels - PARTICULARLY thanks to mentoring from an experienced Detective like Freamon and given a commander who recognizes and cultivates that talent like Daniels. The Department tries to force everybody to conform to a norm, and while this might lift some up to positions they're not suited for, it brings others down to positions they should be above. Contrast that with Avon's operation, where things are based on merit rather than family - even D has to prove himself in the low-rises to get back into his Uncle's good books. Carver is surprised to learn that Prez spent 4-5 hours working out the code on the message, but Prez sheepishly admits he didn't mind, and then says something truly beautiful - "It's kind of fun figuring poo poo out." Rawls is at the filing cabinet, quietly (oh God oh no ) complaining to Santangelo who has brought him no dirt on McNulty yet. Santangelo shows some backbone by harshly whispering that it is not his job to gently caress over another cop, but that just makes Rawl laugh (again in that terrifying quiet way). He points out the growing stack of unsolved cases, and points out that Santangelo's clearance rate is dipping down to an unacceptable low. He is having none of Santangelo's protests, telling him that he can solve most (but not all) easy cases that come his way, but is useless on anything more difficult. Taking great pleasure in torturing his minion, he offers him a choice - get him dirt on McNulty or solve one of his own outstanding murder cases, leaving Santangelo with the unpleasant prospect of having to actually do police work.Speaking of which, the Detail is doing just that. Kima and Freamon are explaining how they are going to take advantage of the drugs delivery to Herc and Carver - they're going to ride up behind Stinkum's car which will cause the Runner (who will have the package) to make a break for it, and BOTH of them are going to chase after the runner and leave Stinkum alone. Why let Stinkum get away? They're not, but they don't want to have to show probable cause on arresting Stinkum (whereas they'll have photographic evidence of the Runner dealing drugs) and give up their wire-tap, as would have happened if Rawls had got his way the previous episode. Surprisingly it's Herc who gets it first - thanks to the wiretap, they CAN arrest Stinkum at any time and make the charge stick, so there is no need to do it now when they can still wrap up more people in the Organization. As Herc has his moment of clarity, McNulty and Rhonda Pearlman are bringing Judge Phelan up to speed on what is going on with the case, and it's good news for once - more arrests as well as the possible assets forfeiture in the future. Phelan takes this all in but then goes on a bizarre tangent complaining about Jimmy's misspellings and poor grammar, lauding Pearlman equally before he agrees they have brought him more than enough to warrant continuing the taps for another 30 days. He signs off and turns a beaming face towards Rhonda, while McNulty sulks like a kid called to the Principal's office. Pearlman finds the tension unsettling and excuses herself, though Phelan approaches to further laud her for her competence, telling her he sees her as a Judge in 10 years time. She laughs off his clumsy flirting and leaves, with Phelan taking great pleasure in watching her go before he demonstrates he is truly a respecter of women by proclaiming he would love to "throw a gently caress into that". Jimmy is not amused but also doesn't want to upset the only political leverage he has in the world, and Phelan isn't letting him go just yet - now that the pretty lady is gone, he wants to be one of the boys with McNulty and chew the fat, and uses his influence and authority to all but order Jimmy to be his friend.  Stinkum and a young boy pass by Kima and Sydnor's car, and they alert Herc and Carver who get a photo of Stinkum in the car. As he passes they pull out and begin following him, making no attempt to conceal themselves. They sound the siren and pull up to Stinkum's bumper and he immediately swerves out into the opposing lane and takes off, Herc and Carver in close pursuit, waiting for the inevitable when the Runner will get out of the car. It happens and Herc is immediately giving chase, Carver taking a moment to stare in frustration at Stinkum driving safely away into the distance - he's had the why explained to him but he doesn't like it. As far as he is concerned, they have Stinkum dead to rights and thus they should be arresting him now, at this current point in time Carver is very much a short-term thinker. The Runner goes as fast as he can, Herc close behind as he returns to the Low Rises. In the Pit, Bodie, D and Poot spot him running and enjoy the spectacle for the moment, egging him on to run - Bodie even "accidentally" gets into Herc's way to say hello, Herc smashing him over and tripping up before scrambling back to his feet and continuing to pursue. The Runner leaves the Pit but is back moments later, Greggs now hot on his heels, and D, Bodie and Poot realize for the first time exactly WHO is running - that's their Re-Up, the Runner has their stash and the cops are all over him. They're shocked to see the police working so well in concert with each other, blocking off every escape avenue for the Runner who tosses aside the bag with the drugs in his desperation to get away only to find Carver in his path. Carver gleefully spear tackles him into the ground and the other cops gather around, restraining the Runner as Greggs opens the bag and checks the contents - 4 G Packs, ready for sale on the street. All of them panting roughly, they are placed around the captive Runner like hunters surrounding a trophy, and when Herc asks if anyone has a cigarette they all burst into laughter. It's not quite so funny for D, Bodie and Poot, who have just seen the next couple of days' worth of drugs grabbed by the cops. The Runner doesn't find it funny either, lying on his stomach cuffed with his one eye staring straight ahead. He has an eye-patch, this isn't some new member of the Barksdale Organization we haven't seen before - this is the kid that Prez half-blinded during he, Herc and Carver's drunk trip to the towers in an earlier episode, the poor bastard.   Phelan asks McNulty what is going on with his bosses, and learns that Rawls tried to shut them down and that Daniels of all people saved the day. Phelan asks why he didn't come and see him, and sulky McNulty moans that the Judge sold him out by talking to a reporter in an earlier episode and getting him into trouble. He explains that while the Detail has a month, he only has a week because if he doesn't report to the night shift as he is scheduled, then Rawls is going to come down on him like a ton of bricks. Phelan reminds him he has friends who can help him, stating that in a worst-case scenario Pearlman can go to the State's Attorney Office and have them go to bat for him, they have plenty of love for the guy who is bringing them a big drug dealer. Jimmy tells the Judge no offense (which means offense is coming) but he is more worried about those who supposedly have "love" for him than anyone else. This is typical McNulty, even if the Judge is a bit of an rear end in a top hat and a horndog, he likes Jimmy and wants to help him out. But if Jimmy doesn't get everything his own way, then he has no time for his new "enemy". McNulty is an all-or-nothing guy, and if you don't agree with him then you're not only wrong, but you're out to get him. People ARE out to get Stinkum, who has fled to the Towers and put in a payphone call to Stringer Bell. That gets picked up on the wiretap, of course, and Freamon calls to let Greggs know, and she informs Sydnor. He takes off immediately, because they need visual confirmation that it is Stinkum so they can monitor the call. He drives from the Low Rises to the towers, parking in the middle of the street (the benefits of being a cop) and charges up the stairs to the roof, panting roughly as he gets into position just in time. Freamon gets the confirmation and records the call, hearing Stinkum shout to Stringer that they "lost 4 to 5-0". Stringer takes it with surprising calm, asking Stinkum why he is talking to him on the phone, they'll talk in person later. He hangs up and Stinkum is in the car and away almost as quickly. At Homicide, Landsman is delighted when he sees Santangelo sitting frustrated at his desk, trying to find some insight into an old case to get Rawls off of his back. Unable to resist, he has Ray Cole (the late Robert F. Colesberry) give him the card of a psychic named Madame LaRue and offers it to Santangelo, who is not impressed Landsman persists though, telling the gullible Santangelo that Madame LaRue has a strange gift that he dare not question, and that she has pulled more than one detective's fat out of the fire in the past. Santangelo - a desperate man - begins to believe in spite of his better judgement, surely anything is worth a shot? McNulty is offering more concrete help to Bunk in one of his cases, helping him review the crime scene for the Gant murder. There are no witnesses despite an entire block of rowhouses having windows looking directly onto the scene of the murder. They spot an elderly woman struggling with her grocery trundler at the corner and immediately spot their chance, grinning at each other before rushing down to offer help. She's immediately suspicious, claiming she can manage on her own, but they continue on with her to her house and she accepts the inevitable - a white man and a black man hanging out together by the rowhouses wearing suits and ties? They must be police, and she heads inside, giving unspoken assent for them to follow her in. Johnny Weeks is waiting with a depressingly long line of other men in orange jumpsuits for his day in court. He tries to get the attention of the overworked defense attorney who brushes him off without so much of a look. His luck is in though, Bubbles has come to the rescue with Kima, who explains to the prosecuting attorney that she needs one of the accused cut loose, and has to get Bubble's attempted subtle gesture to figure out which one IS Johnny. The Prosecutor isn't impressed, going over Johnny's VERY long rap sheet, almost all of which involves possession of drugs including this latest charge. Kima needs him though, so he cuts a quick deal - if Johnny pleads guilty and agrees to take part in a treatment program then he won't serve any jailtime. She explains this to Johnny who hears,"BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH NO JAIL TIME" and quickly agrees, staring in disbelief and wonder at Bubbles, who has dressed himself up as nice as any homeless junkie can. Inside the old woman's house, it's clear that she had a good view of the murder. She tells them what she saw, detailing the last moments in William Gant's life before he was killed for daring to speak out. Somebody approached him, said something to get his attention and then shot him. Jimmy mimics shooting Bunk to figure out how close the shooter was - not right up next to Gant but within a few feet. But se claims that she didn't see the shooter's face, that his back was to her and she wouldn't be able to pick him out if she saw him again. They know she's lying, but they don't press her - the evidence she has given them is enough to corroborate the details of Omar's own testimony - the shooter was a light-skinned black male of average height, lean and out of his teens/early 20s. Omar insisted that Bird wouldn't have thrown the gun away either, so between what the old woman is willing to say, Omar's decision to testify AND the gun itself they have enough to charge him and get him to court.  Herc is delighted with how Freamon's plan went exactly as laid out. Everybody is in a good mood down in the basement, other than the Runner who is being interviewed by Carver. Prez shows up and takes a seat and the kid glowers at him, catching his attention thought it takes him a moment to recognize him from the Towers incident. Prez can't stand to be in the same room and goes to Daniels' office, getting his attention. Daniels realizes who he is and goes to see him, asking him if he wants something to eat or drink, giving money to a disbelieving Carver to go and get him a Peanut Butter Cup and a can of lipton tea. The kid - Kevin Johnston - can't take his eye off of Prez who is still in Daniels' office, growling that he can't even look at him, and that his lawyer tells him he has a good case against the police for brutality. Daniels tries to reach Kevin, telling him that the game has already cost him, accepting the possibility of blame lies on the other police or even himself, but they need to look to the future. He offers him his card, telling him to at least think about things, and maybe one day he can contact Daniels and they can see about giving him a chance to make a new start and do something different with his life. Carver has returned with the candy and an orange drink (they were out of tea) and Kevin tosses the card at him, laughing that Daniels thought he could pimp him out over a candy bar. Daniels doesn't betray how he feels about this, simply turning and returning to his office with dignity. Again we've see another example of how The Wire differs from other shows - Kevin's return is a reminder to us of the truly horrible thing that Prez did, something that Prez feels deeply guilty about but has done nothing to address once it was out of sight, out of mind. Daniels is complicit too, in order to maintain police solidarity he created a fiction about the scary young gangster who made his officers fear for their lives, and now he's come face to face with the mutilated consequences.   Santangelo has actually gone to visit Madame LaRue, who doesn't endear herself to him when she asks if he is Irish - he's Italian. She recovers well enough, knowing plenty about the Saint that is the source of his last name and then segueing into Saint Anthony, the Patron Saint of Lost Things and Missing People. She heads to a cabinet where many figurines of Saints can be found, and he follows her over, tripping over her children's toys - her parlor is based in her house, and she has the look of a harried housewife. She gives him the figurine (he isn't even sure if it is Saint Anthony) and tells him to go the cemetery, bury it in the grave of the dead girl, leaving it for an hour (no less!), take it home and sleep with it up to his ear..... "and he tells me who did it?" asks the hapless Santangelo. We haven't seen much of him in previous episodes but we know that he was considered dead weight and dumped into Daniels' detail along with old drunks like Polk and Mahon, the "housecat" Freamon and the "useless" Prez. Sadly whereas Freamon and Prez have taken the opportunity to shine, Santangelo looks to be exactly what his superiors thought he was - gullible, not too bright and woefully inadequate at his chosen profession. At the bar, Bunk can't take his eyes off of the middle-aged women to be found there, and tells Jimmy that his wife Nadine has been in Florida for a week and that the lack of pussy is enough to make even a good man stray. In a far classier section of town, Daniels and his wife are attending a fundraiser and while she schmoozes, he spots a surprised Burrell (the Deputy Ops) and goes to say hello, where Burrell notes that a $500 a plate dinner is cruel and unusual treatment for a man on a Police Lieutenant's pay. They share a joke about the corruption of various city officials, and then Burrell tests out Daniels with a visual pop quiz that Daniels fails miserably. A man is the center of attention of a nearby group and Burrell wants to know if Daniels can identify him, and the best that Daniels can manage is wondering if he is City Council Representative from the East Side. It's a demonstration of the limits of Daniels' current experience/political knowledge, he hasn't deal with anything higher than the City Council and anybody he doesn't recognize he assumes to be from the East Side. Burrell explains that this is Clay Davis (oh what fun times we will have with this man ), a State Senator from the 39th District and Vice-Chair of the Budget Committee. Burrell sighs that Daniels will never make Major at this rate, shocking Daniels till Burrell laughs it off and Daniels laughs in relief. One does have to wonder how much of it was a joke though, Burrell doesn't want political novices in important positions, and Daniels may have just shot his career aspirations in the foot. Burrell excuses himself to go kiss some senatorial rear end, leaving Daniels stranded alone at the fundraiser, a place he's not comfortable in surrounded by important people he doesn't know. Johnny and Bubbles attend Johnny's first NA meeting, where Johnny is disappointed to learn he won't get his sheet signed till after the meeting is over. He's a bit surly for somebody who just got saved from jail, but that's Johnny for you. Bubbles is more enthusiastic, wanting to "see the show" and enjoying being spotted by another attendee who is pleased to see him, thinking he has joined the program as well. They head to the front row where a desultory NA speech is being made by somebody who seems to be just going through the motions, but then somebody new is introduced who perks up everybody's attention - a portly bearded man called Walon, played by musician Steve Earle, who will do the theme song for Season 5. He speaks about his disease, about the strength of it and how it never goes away no matter what he says or does in these meetings. He lays out the things he lost (a good wife and a bad girlfriend amongst them), the relationships he ruined, and how that at rock bottom he still felt he was doing well and that God wanted him to get high, because getting high was so close to perfect - he knows he has at least one more high left, but he highly doubts he has one more recovery. Bubbles listens, laughing at first, but as Walon goes on it starts to hit him closer and closer to home, Walon's story is so close to his own, and while he might have intellectually known that his experiences are similar to every other addicts, to see somebody who made the same mistakes as Bubbles made and then got clean? That means something to him. It's somewhat depressingly realistic that when Walon finishes, a call is put out for anybody who has been clean for 9 months to come up and get their keychain and nobody moves. He puts out a call for 6 months... and nobody comes up. He asks for 3 months and one women approaches, getting riotous applause, and a couple more step up to get their one month keychains. With that finished, the call is put out for anybody who has 24 hours clean OR a sincere desire to get clean, and several people head up to applause. Bubbles stares and then to Johnny's great surprise, stands up and goes up himself. Johnny starts to laugh, thinking that Bubbles is playing a prank, but when Bubbles returns he seems to be investing a great deal into that small, cheap piece of plastic and what it represents.  At the fundraiser, Daniels has retreated to the kitchen where a group of drivers are watching the ballgame while waiting for their passengers to finish up. Daniels settles down at the table and replies to the question of who he is driving by saying his wife's name - Marla Daniels. One of the drivers looks around the kitchen and happily declares that he could make a lot of money from robbing the place, freely telling Daniels (who he only just met) that he knows how to wire the alarm system back on itself and would be able to sell most of what he stole in Baltimore, though some of the art would have to go up to New York. He introduces himself as Damien Price, who most people call "Day-Day", and Daniels introduces himself as Cedric Daniels, who most people call "Lieutenant". Price realizes his mistake but Daniels seems more amused than anything else, and soon leaves when Marla finds him and tells him she wants to introduce him to somebody. Marla is clearly the more political and socially-aware of the two. Back at the bar, one of the women is teasing stripping down the end of the bar, while an extremely drunk McNulty and Bunk slur quietly for her to take her clothes off and "rub 'em together". Bunk tells McNulty that he needs to solve the Gant and Kresson cases, gift the clearances directly to Rawls and then just pucker up and kiss Rawls' rear end for 3-4 months and maybe he'll come out of this whole thing okay. Jimmy - incredibly drunk - tells Bunk that he respects him because when it came time for Bunk to gently caress him, he was very gentle. Bunk agrees, telling him that he knew it was his first time, and he wanted to make that poo poo special. Two of Baltimore's finest stare sloppily at each other, then get into a brief argument over who will pay for the next drinks, Bunk laying cash on the bar but then slowly, clumsily picking it back up as McNulty struggles to get a note out of his pocket and drops coins on the floor.  The next morning, D takes a cab to Orlando's and prepares to head upstairs, though Orlando tells him that he wants to talk to him afterwards about a little something the two of them can put together for themselves. D is intrigued and heads upstairs, where Stinkum is getting chided for talking openly on the phone - last episode we saw him being treated well and promoted for his good work, but that doesn't get him a buy for screwing up this time - in the Barksdale Organization, unlike the police, mistakes aren't tolerated. D arrives and Avon is straight into it - he wants to know who in D'Angelo's crew is stitching. D is immediately on the defensive, complaining that he's been through all this with Stringer already and has proven that his crew can be trusted (even though we know that Cass and Sterling can't be), and puts the blame on Stinkum, suggesting he ran a stoplight or something. Stinkum doesn't like being called into question by D and yells back he wouldn't do anything so stupid considering what he was carrying, and Wee-Bey brings up that Omar hit the stash house and the police grabbed the re-up, so SOMETHING is up. Avon's solution is simple and again demonstrates the difference between his Organization and the BPD - what they're doing isn't working so they're going to change what they're doing. Stringer will come down to the Pit to explain the changes, but until he does the Pit is dead. D is dismissed and leaves clearly pissed off, if the Pit is dead then he can forget about getting points on the package. With him gone, Stringer wants to explore a different concern - why didn't the police go after Stinkum? Wee-Bey asks if Stinkum reported his vehicle missing and Stinkum says he just ditched it, and this raises further questions because the police would surely have gotten the license plate and come to see Stinkum (presumably his car is in his own name, which I find surprising). Avon's mind is racing, his eyes darting back and forth as he considers the situation and the things that don't make sense - how could the police get their hands on a 4 G Pack re-up and arrest the Runner but let Stinkum get away AND not get his license plate? Something isn't right. In the basement, Santangelo asks McNulty to cover for him with Daniels while he is out of the office taking care of something. Completely unaware that Santangelo is trying to protect him (even if they dislike each other, the police look after their own), McNulty mouths a grumpy "rear end in a top hat" as Santangelo leaves. Freamon calls on Herc and Carver who don't seem too pleased about being summoned (they are equal rank with Freamon, after all) but they change their mind when they hear Poot on the Wire complaining about how the stash was caught by "Batman and Robin", describing Herc and Carver to his current (of many) girlfriend. Leaving the office, they are in an enormous good mood and have a happy argument over which of them is Batman and which Robin - the drug dealers are complaining about them, to them that proves they're doing a great job. Bubbles and Johnny are preparing to get high, Johnny still mocking Bubbles about taking a one-day keychain. Bubbles reminds Johnny that he has to take drug tests and says they'll need to find a source of clean piss for Johnny to fake his results with. As they prepare to shoot up, Johnny can't help but laugh, who the hell do they know who has clean piss? Bunk has joined McNulty in the Basement, both clearly the worse for wear after the previous night's drinking, explaining to Daniels what they have on Bird and the Gant murder so far. If they get him with the gun then they can take the case federal and Bird will be facing a LOT of years, which gives them plenty of leverage to try and get him to give evidence against Avon. Daniels asks if they have an address for Bird but that's the one thing they don't have, Kima claiming that they do have informants working on it. Leaving the office, McNulty and Kima pick up Omar who openly sits in the car with them, completely unconcerned by being seen, claiming that if anybody has a problem with him then he'd be much obliged to stick a gun in their face. Omar is a character who stands out strongly in that he doesn't feel quite as grounded in reality as most of the other characters in the show - he feels almost like something out of a different, more dramatic show less concerned with realism. The fact that he is based on several real life stick-up men is kind of terrifying, because Omar is a person who has completely discarded with the rules of the street and regular society and laid down his own code that he sticks rigidly too. He's been likened to a Ronin before - a wanderer outside of society who terrifies those who cross him, and I don't really understand HOW he works as well as he does in contrast to the more grounded, realistic characters he's surrounded by... but I love that he does. Omar is their "informants" and they're at the towers where he is looking for Bird for them, since they don't have a picture of an address. Omar doesn't see him, but points out that they wouldn't want to take him at the towers anyway, since the rule is that nobody carries a gun, they have to go up into the towers to pick one up if needed. Omar doesn't have Bird's address either (if he did, then NOBODY would ever see Bird again) but suggests they try the Red Deli, which is probably the best quality non-Barksdale drug supply on the West Side at the moment. Kima and McNulty are surprised to hear that Bird gets high, and Omar explains this is another rule of the Barksdale Organization - you don't get high off of your own supply. I'm actually surprised they let their enforcers get high at all, it seems like the kind of thing Avon would be extra paranoid about. The Pit is dead, and Bodie asks Poot where Wallace is. Poot makes the biggest mistake he could possibly make by telling Bodie that Wallace has been hosed up since seeing Brandon's mutilated corpse, he's been sleeping later and become withdrawn and quiet. Bodie takes this in, as well as the unexpected presence of Orlando in the Pity, looking for D'Angelo. D is surprised to see him too, but intrigued by Orlando's offer to put together "something right" for the two of them. He notes that the Pit has been shut down and says he might be able to fix that, he has a connection to dealers running through New Orleans, and he has the money together to buy a good weight... but he has no distribution network. D'Angelo has the Pit and his crew, but currently no drugs to distribute because Avon has shut them down. Orlando stresses that the risk is all on him, he'll take the money to the Connect, he'll pick up the drugs, all D has to do is wait to receive them and get his crew selling them, and he and Orlando will split 50/50 - they can finally get something for themselves, and not for Avon's benefit. It's short-sighted, dangerous thinking but D'Angelo - smarting over his crew being shut down and his authority being called into question by the insistence of the presence of a snitch - is tempted. He and Orlando are looking at Avon's current position and thinking it's a simple matter to position themselves similarly, forgetting all the hard work and sacrifice (and brushes with death) that Avon has been through. D is forgetting his own chess lesson, and his admonition that "The King stay the King."  That night as the kids play around in the yard where Brandon's body was left on display, Wallace sits on his bed with the window open looking directly out onto the car. He snorts cocaine from his hand and collapses in a daze onto his mattress - Wallace has started using.  The Detectives are in place around the Red Deli, Freamon and Sydnor undercover as a couple of drunks, picking up a bottle of liquor and sharing it between them. Bubbles is doing his part with his red hat trick, as he is the only person who knows what Bird looks like. Herc and Carver (Batman and Robin) are bored, but things soon heat up. Bird emerges from the shooting gallery, passing Bubbles who is doing his sales patter and quickly places the red hat onto Bird's head. Bird - lean and light-skinned as the old woman said - tosses it to the ground and continues on, Freamon in front of him crying out happily to a nearby "Shorty" before suddenly spinning and shattering the bottle over Bird's head, dropping him instantly to the ground. The violence of the act - sent in a long shot - is shocking, based on Omar's warning that Bird is the type to start swinging and fighting without thinking. He's too stunned by the bottle to react though, hitting the ground with Lester and Sydnor immediately restraining and cuffing him. Herc rushes to grab his feet, the others arriving and keeping him covered as Freamon frisks him and delights in finding that - as Omar claimed - Bird kept his distinctive gun with him. D'Angelo, Bodie and Poot are cheerfully considering the placement of their couch in the Pit in a wonderfully domestic scene when Stringer and Wee-Bey arrive to ask them questions about their set-up. The stash house is being changed every day, and D'Angelo explains that the only people on his crew using drugs are the old touts, and they never get to handle any money or drugs. Wee-Bey confirms that D has had people going through the vacants making sure that the police haven't been setting up any watching/listening posts, and they don't use any cellphones or home phones. They don't, only their pagers and the nearby payphones, and Stringer looks those over and makes an incredibly important snap decision - destroy the pay phones. Bodie is surprised and Stringer turns a glare on him, not liking having his order questioned, so he repeats it. They'll tear out the payphones, and from now on if they have to make a call they'll walk the extra distance... and NEVER use the same phone twice. They nod at the logic of this, and Wee-Bey takes Poot and Bodie to tear out the receivers on the phones (a poor sap who was making a call can only stand and watch). D doesn't question what is happening, obviously thinking it makes sense, and he and Stringer are left alone momentarily. Stringer looks him over, then turns and walks away. In the basement, Freamon - fresh off of a big win for the Detail in their capture of Bird - is shocked when his phone recorder brings up a SERVICE INTERRUPT message. Landsman enters the interrogation room where a glowering Bird is handcuffed, happily joking around about the lack of backdrops as he takes a polaroid shot of the suspect. He explains this is so they have a record of what he looked like while in their custody, so he can't get himself beaten up in prison and claim police brutality. He feigns dismay when Bird snaps obscenities at him and leaves, replaced by Kima who is clueless about what is going on to the rest of their case down at the Pit right now. Kima explains - Daniels and Landsman listening at the door - that they are currently running tests on his gun, and if it comes back a match to the weapon that killed a STATE'S WITNESS then he will be facing the death penalty. His only way to save himself is to give them testimony implicating the people who ordered the hit, and Bird's reply is a string of abuse, calling her a dyke oval office and threatening to gently caress "all three holes" with his fist if she uncuffs him. Daniels tells McNulty somebody should join Kima in the interview room, not because she's in trouble but because she's liable to cut his rear end. In the past people have commented on Bird going directly to insults about Kima's sexuality, and pondered how it is that he knew she was a lesbian. I've always felt this is giving Bird far too much credit - he isn't calling her a dyke oval office because he somehow knows she is gay, he's calling her a dyke oval office because it's an insult and he's trying to get a rise out of her. If it was a male detective he'd probably tell him to suck his cock - the point isn't to demonstrate awareness of sexuality but to infuriate and put off-balance the person who has him in a bad position. Jimmy - putting his gun in his drawer first - goes to join her, leaving behind Bunk and Omar, who is there to answer Bunk's questions as the lead detective on the Gant case. Bunk wants to know why Omar is stepping up like this, and Omar explains that it was a mistake to kill a "working man" like Gant, that he himself might do some bad things but he'd never go after somebody who wasn't "in the game". Bunk notes that a man must have a code (the opening post-titles quote) but doesn't seem to be taking Omar at his word, grabbing a pad to start making notes on their interview. Omar isn't done though, sure he knows Bunk from somewhere, dismissing the suggestion it is from Bunk's pre-homicide postings and saying he knows him from back in the day... and it turns out the two went to school together, though they weren't in the same grade. Bunk is delighted, putting aside the pad and reminiscing about his days as a Lacrosse player, the first black person that Omar ever saw play the game. Bunk relishes the memory of the white players quaking when he ran towards them, then asks Omar if he'd mind continuing being generous with his recollections and let him know any more murders they could tie to the Barksdales - after all, there is no statute of limitations on murder. In the interrogation room, an uncomfortable silence has fallen till McNulty gets the ballistics result - Bird's gun is the one used to kill William Gant, he's now officially hosed. Bird begins hurling abuse at him, so McNulty leaves and Bird begins abusing Kima. She gets up and Daniels joins her in the room, showing Bird the polaroid that Landsman took.... and then tearing it up. Bird jumps to his feet, yelling that he's cuffed and they can't do him like that, but the only reply is Landsman closing the door. The camera pulls away from the closed door as all three put a beating on him - perhaps as much for the fact that he killed a "working man" as for the fact he is an abusive, offensive, drug-dealing murderer. As they beat him, Bunk is happily going over an old unsolved case that Omar has just given him a lead for, while Omar stands listening with great satisfaction to the savage beating being dished out to one of the men who tortured his lover. At home, Santangelo is woken from his sleep by a phone-call. It's Bunk, and Santangelo grabs the statue of Saint Anthony, sure this is about the murder he's been trying to solve. It's not, it's about an entirely different murder, but still one in his unsolved pile. He heads into Homicide, looking in on the now unconscious, badly beaten Bird, completely confused at to what is going on. McNulty hands him a typewritten sheet, the Redding murder has been solved, one that Santangelo doesn't even remember was his, but it has been wrapped up with thanks to Omar. He goes to Landsman with delight, unable to believe that Madame LaRue actually worked out even if he did ask for help for a different case. Landsman - no longer in a joking mood - snaps at Santangelo that it had nothing to do with "Gypsy poo poo", the case was solved thanks to McNulty and Bunk. He hands the Detectives both mugs of coffee, playing the paternal figure to his detectives now who have done the best thing you can do as far as he is concerned - bring him clearances. Bird's arrest has lead to at least two outstanding murders being solved. Santangelo looks at McNulty and his guilt overwhelms him, and he tells him that they have to talk about Rawls.   McNulty shows up at Rhonda's place late into the night, waking her up. Bemused, she wonders if he has shown up for a drunken gently caress, but for once he is completely sober. He explains that he now knows that Rawls is out for his badge, and reveals his deepest fear - he's going to lose his job, the only thing that makes his life worth living. She lets him in and the episode ends - the Detail is bearing fruit, they've arrested one of the Barksdale Enforcers, solved two open murders, intercepted a re-up for the Low Rises and Herc and Carver have been dubbed Batman and Robin. Wonderful stuff for them, but Jimmy has finally realized that this career-making case won't be able to save his career ("the job will not save you" is a lesson that will be explicitly laid out to him in the future), and right now only Freamon knows that their Wiretap has been interrupted, and even he isn't aware yet that the Low Rises crew have torn out the payphones and will now be using different phones every day. McNulty may have destroyed his career (and potentially many other people's) for nothing more than 4 G Packs and two cleared murders. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 10:06
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My dad always says that the Bird beatdown was what hooked him on the show. Re: Bird getting high - I interpret that as something Avon didn't know about. In season 3, one of the first things he does after getting home is kicking the two idiot enforcers out of his party after he can tell they are high.
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Mar 12, 2013 10:36
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I have always pondered the reasoning for the beatdown on Bird, though. Is it as simple as that they just find Bird such a distasteful person that they want to put a beating on him, or are they upset about the fact he killed somebody who technically should have been under their protection (a State's Witness)? If the latter, the show didn't do a very good job of showing that the police were fired up about it in general, and McNulty quite notably doesn't take part in the beatdown (while Landsman does). I know that in the old days in Baltimore (and probably every other city in the country) anybody who attacked or killed a policeman was basically guaranteed a savage beating at the least but this doesn't feel like one of those cases to me. Freamon smashing Bird with the bottle also struck me as surprisingly violent, I mean the dude swings for the fences, it's pretty brutal and I can imagine it being the type of thing Levy would have been all over (he probably was, along with the beating despite the lack of a polaroid) and that could have severely risked their prosecution.
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Mar 12, 2013 10:42
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I always figured that they went for a quick and savage surprise attack on Bird specifically BECAUSE Omar told him he was a violent man who would go down fighting without a second thought. This way there was no risk of (police) casualties or escape. It's true that it would have put them at risk of a police brutality case, but it's certainly not something they haven't wiggled out of in the past (after all, who knows exactly what happened in this poorly lit street at night...?), and it probably wouldn't have resulted in any serious lasting damage seeing as the bottle was in a bag which would prevent anything happening with glass shards. They might have even been able to claim justifiable force considering Bird's known violent nature, had it come to that.
BattleCake fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 11:03
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Good point about the paper bag, it reminds me of the old (and not lamented) police tactic of using phone books to beat suspects because they didn't leave bruises, or at least not the type that could be matched to fists and boots.
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Mar 12, 2013 11:27
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cletepurcel posted:Re: Bird getting high - I interpret that as something Avon didn't know about. In season 3, one of the first things he does after getting home is kicking the two idiot enforcers out of his party after he can tell they are high. I would also say Avon didn't know about it and anything like that was kept pretty hush-hush. He probably had his suspicions though, considering how careful he was with everything else. Throughout season 1 we see - on both sides of the law - rules being bent or broken for whatever reason. With the cops it's far more apparent because we as an audience live within the same societal constraints imposed by an institution and can spot when a rule is being broken eg: a timesheet being forged, drunk on the job, cheating on paperwork to forward a case etc. On the side of the dealers it's a far more blurry picture because they live outside these constraints. However, they still have their own rules which are imposed by an institution (the Barksdale crew and other drug organizations) that have to be followed in order for the institution to have control and thrive. This includes not getting high on the supply, the Sunday morning truce, acts of parle etc. The show brilliantly mirrors how, no matter what side of the law you're on, there will be individuals who break the rules of the society they are a part of in order to either advance into greater power or indulge in areas of pleasure they're not supposed to. It also further hammers home one of the over-arching themes of The Wire in how institutions, for better or for worse, hinder the individual through crushing bureaucracy and dominance from those at the top of the establishment.
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Mar 12, 2013 12:03
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A couple funny little observations. One, the 39th state senate district in Maryland isn't in Baltimore but in mostly rural parts of Montgomery County, which is a DC suburb and the 10th most affluent county (out of 3033) in the country, and pretty much the polar opposite of Baltimore as it gets in the state. Not sure if that was intentional or not on the writers' part, but someone like Clay Davis would never in a million years get elected there. Two, astute viewers will recognize Day-Day is played by Donnell Rawlings, probably most famous as Ashy Larry on The Chappelle Show, which first aired a few months after the Wire's first season ended.
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Mar 12, 2013 13:02
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I didn't like the bottle thing because Bird shows up later that night in interrogation completely coherent with a little scratch on his face as if getting clocked in the head with a bottle is no big deal. The show is normally good about showing the after effects of brutality, for instance Prez blinding the kid with one pistol whip, so it seems weird to me that they'd let Bird get clocked with the bottle and then show him later with what amounts to a 3 Stooges level of damage from the incident.
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Mar 12, 2013 14:45
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Slight correction: Wallace is using heroin, not cocaine. I've always been under the impression that Avon had no idea Bird was using. In Season 3... Episode 4 I think, when Slim Charles and Bodie are trying to re-indoctrinate Cutty, they take him to a party with booze and weed. Cutty says to Bodie something like "I didn't think Avon be letting y'all get y'all heads up." to which Bodie replies "Sometimes you got to." So yes it's definitely a rule. Note in this very episode Stringer asks the pit crew if anyone is getting high. escape artist fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 16:37
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That brings it to mind, is it cocaine or heroin that the crews sell in the show? I remember Prop Joe talking about some old timer who sold heroin a lot and I think the Greeks gave Nick heroin too, but isn't crack cocaine? Do they sell both?
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Mar 12, 2013 17:27
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Dope = heroin, e.g. when McNulty is talking to Phelan or whoever (I can't remember the exact reference) and is talking about 24/7 dope and coke in the towers. Not sure where crack fits in, all the vials they sell look like they are crack-cocaine, unless they just refer to it as coke - I can't remember them selling, nor do I remember anyone using, powdered cocaine in the show.
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Mar 12, 2013 17:30
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