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Frostwerks posted:Bodie's death was perfectly plausible though and it's not like he was gunned down out of nowhere. He was killed precisely because the Stanfield organization thought he was going to flip. Yeah, and I more got the feeling that he was TRYING to be heroic and brave like something out of an action movie, standing his corner, shouting his defiance, blasting wildly into the night.... and then he gets shot down by a guy who was standing quietly in the shadows not making any noise, just doing his job. It works pretty well as a parallel to the "Boyz in the Hood!" scene where Snoop teaches one of the young shooters about the difference between movies and reality.
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Aug 7, 2013 22:40
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Jerusalem posted:It works pretty well as a parallel to the "Boyz in the Hood!" scene where Snoop teaches one of the young shooters about the difference between movies and reality. Which one is that?
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Aug 8, 2013 05:04
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Sam. posted:Which one is that? "Let's go all West Coast with this!"
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Aug 8, 2013 05:05
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Season 4, Episode 1 - Boys of SummerMarcia Donnelly posted:Lambs to the slaughter here. The Wire is, in my opinion, the best television drama ever made. Season 4 of The Wire is, in my opinion, the best season of the show. The opening scene of this episode is, in my opinion, the best scene of the entire season... and therefore, the entire show. I could talk about nothing BUT this scene for this entire post, it's so loving good. On first glance nothing much happens at all, it's "just" a young woman going into a hardware store and being talked into buying an expensive nail gun. But there is SOOOOO much happening in this scene, so many layers and such incredible characterization that I almost don't know where to start. For starters, we have the clashing of two distinctly different worlds - the world of the street and the domestic "civilian" world. Snoop is a stranger in a strange land, a traveler, an intruder even - walking into a world that stands apart from her own reality. And yet there is this almost beautiful meeting between her and the salesman, where the gap between the two disparate realities is almost bridged. Here you have a gangsta from "the game" and a civilian from the "real world", a middle aged man and a young woman, a white male and a black female, a man from a comfortable middle-class existence and a woman from a poverty-stricken one. And yet they meet and connect over common ground - the tools they use. Snoop saunters into the "Hardware Barn" with her old battery-powered nail gun and looks over those on display, and the salesman approaches and without judgement or suspicion opens up a friendly banter with her in order to make his sale. But there is a genuine enthusiasm to his banter, and he treats Snoop with respect and takes her seriously. For her part, she listens attentively to what he has to say, offers insightful questions and draws out more information from him. The fact that they're talking about two completely different things is irrelevant, while he is talking about contracting and working around the home, she is talking about murder and hiding bodies, but their language is the same even if what they are referring to is not. Having convinced Snoop to move from battery-power to a powder-actuated nail gun, he finally gets his first uneasy sense that there is something more going on, and it is here that we see the probably inevitable failure to bridge the gap between them. After making a joke about the low ballistic power of nail gun she laughs that she's seen a .22 do plenty of damage by the way it "pinballs" inside the body, whereas a larger caliber will break a bone but do little else. Taking the nail gun, she peels off $800 casually from a thick roll of cash and hands it over to the salesman, happily dismissing his protest that she pay at the counter (Snoop doesn't operate under the rules of his world), asking him to take care of that for her. When he points out that she's given him $150 too much she smiles and tells him to keep the rest for himself, he "earned that bump like a motherfucker." That part is particularly important for me, because I feel it's so genuine - after all, she could have peeled off $700 and told him the same and it would have been a hell of a tip, but she went the extra mile and peeled off an extra hundred just as a way of showing her approval for how well he sold her on the benefits of the gun. She leaves the Hardware Barn and heads to the car where Chris Partlow is waiting. She gives a synopsis of the salesman's pitch to convince Chris of the quality of the purchase, and in another wonderful example of the gap between the two worlds, notes that he told her the purchase was the cadillac of nailguns, then adds,"He meant Lexus, he just don't know it." Chris laughs, good-naturedly amused at her pitch and she laughs back, telling him he should listen because she's schooling him. Happily, the two drive away, leaving "the real world" and returning to "the game".     Just look at these images - Snoop as intruder and then Snoop accepted as an equal, and two patriarchal figures beaming down approval on her - this scene is truly amazing. The new opening sequence follows, my personal favorite of all five. There are many deliberately contrasting images (such as the briefcases of city hall, the nailgun case belonging to Snoop and Chris, the hats of the police top brass etc) but the one that stands out to me most is the children at the very end, thronging into the school. This season took a giant gamble by not only tackling the deplorable condition of education in America (and the inner city schools in particular) - a noble but ultimately ignored cause as demonstrated by Tony Gray's failure to become Mayor - but adding a number of children to the cast, and focusing on four kids in particular. Adding children to a television show is usually a terrible idea, as child actors are for the most part loving terrible, but somehow they pulled it off here. Part of it may be that the kids picked up on what the other actors involved did - that this show was something special and needed their best efforts - part of it may be the tutelage of Robert Chew (Prop Joe) who made a great effort to take them under his wing, and part of it may just be pure luck. Somehow, all four kids deliver standout performances, it's difficult to really separate any of them to offer the highest praise to, they were all so good. At the Major Case Squad - now an official, permanent squad - Lester and Kima are detailing their continuing progress on the Stanfield case to Pearlman, and it's all good news. The Stanfield Organization may be full of disciplined, orderly "soldiers" but it has nowhere near the experience of the Barksdales, and they're proving extremely easy to track. Only changing their phone network once a month, they've enabled Lester to get a mostly complete organization chart built up. He suspects they know little enough about how well the police can tap them that soon there is a good chance that one of the street level dealers they're into will put a call directly through to the top, possibly even to Marlo himself. Lester isn't completely onto them though, as he and Kima tell Pearlman that the fierce rep that Marlo had built up in his war against Avon seems to have been mostly smoke and mirrors, as he doesn't seem to have dropped any bodies in months. Pearlman is amused at their disappointment but Lester reminds her that for the Major Cases Squad to remain sharp, they need hard targets. Of course what he doesn't suspect is that Marlo has been continuing to drop bodies all over the place, it's just that he finally figured out how to do so without drawing police attention, a problem that Stringer Bell was never able to figure out. Pearlman agrees to give them a 30 day extension on their wiretaps, which is when Lester lets the other shoe drop - he's got something more for her to deal with. Taking her into the wiretap room, she finds Sydnor and Massey tiredly going through huge stacks of paperwork ("I miss Prez," sighs Sydnor). This is everything that Freamon got out of Stringer Bell's home and the B&B Offices, and he's been following the money trail ever since. Pearlman is shocked, they're really diving into such a tangled (and politically dangerous) mess now? Freamon argues that he wanted to do it a year ago, but fresh cases got in the way. Pearlman asks if their lieutenant is okay with this and, hiding an amused smile, Lester insists that their Lieutenant is fearless. He hands over the subpoenas he wants issued, and Pearlman is outraged, he's asking her to do this to so many politically connected figures 4 weeks out from the Baltimore City Primary? Faking surprise, Freamon strokes his chin and asks if there is an election? Who's running!?! The answer is Tommy Carcetti, who is meeting with a former white Mayor of the city (based on Thomas D'Alesandro III) to discuss why he thinks he can win. The old ex-Mayor is intrigued by the notion, but wary of the idea that Tony Gray can garner enough votes from Royce to split the black vote and get Tommy through. Regardless, he notes that a good showing will get Tommy noticed and stand him in good stead if he takes a run at the State Legislature later on, but warns that in his opinion the days of the white Mayor in Baltimore are long since over. Tommy's (black) Deputy Campaign Manager, Norman Wilson, tries to hurry him up and doesn't take kindly to Tommy's angry dismissal, and reminds him that he's due to speak to seniors at a retirement home. The ex-Mayor reminds him that seniors vote and Tommy hurriedly moves on, leaving Norman (of course) to pay for the lunch. This gives the ex-Mayor a chance to remind Norman what he obviously already knows, the candidate is always on the Campaign Manager's clock, and he should never forget it. The source of Lester's confidence in his new Lieutenant is revealed when Kima brings him paperwork to sign off on, including the politically-dangerous subpoenas. An older man obviously approaching at least his 30th year with the BPD, Lieutenant Asher is absorbed in plans for building a beach house to enjoy his retirement in, and happily accepts that the paperwork Kima has brought him is fine and signs off on all of it without a concern - his only comment one of amusement at the request for a fan in the wire-room, since Massey complains it gets hot in there. Kima keeps him sufficiently distracted by asking about the beach house, lying that it makes her feel like retiring and she only has 9 years on the job. He tells her he'll need to be out of the office next Tuesday to meet with contractors and with great pleasure she says she and Lester will be more than happy to cover for him. If only McNulty was still around, he'd have discovered that the only thing better than a Lieutenant who cares deeply about good policework is a Lieutenant who cares so little that he just lets you do whatever you want! It's a hot summer's day and on a quiet street corner, several boys are hanging out. This could almost look like the "good old days" when Colvin was running Hamsterdam and everywhere else in the Western was left alone, but this IS a drug corner and this IS a crew. You wouldn't know it though, Bodie and a guy called Lex are standing against a wall discussing Lex's ex-girlfriend, while a young boy named Namond reads a magazine and a tout on opposite corner of the building calls out a bored,"Got that Pandemic," to the empty streets. Lex's problem is that he broke up with his girlfriend Patrice but has still been going around to see her every so often, only now she's going out with Fruit (who had all those run-ins with Cutty last season) and Lex feels like he has to do something about it. A car pulls up across the road, somebody looking to score, and a furious Bodie has to yell at Namond to stop reading the magazine and get across the street to serve him. Namond heads over, Bodie yelling after him to fix his distinctive ponytail since it would let police pick him out from a mile away, and rolls his eyes at Lex at what they've been reduced to. Another car arrives, this one with Slim Charles inside, and we get another look at the extent to which the once mighty Barksdale Empire has fallen. Slim escaped being rounded up with everybody else thanks to being on Marlo watch at the time (and I don't believe the Major Case Squad ever actually figured out he was part of the Barksdales) and is now effectively acting as supplier to the broken-off satellites of those who weren't rounded up with all the rest caught on the wire. He's come to see Bodie because he hasn't re-upped in a week, and Slim - knowing the truth - asks almost jokingly if he's been stepping on the package to hold back more money for himself. Bodie tells the truth that Slim already suspected, it's just been so quiet that he hasn't needed to re-up, and it's been like this ever since they abandoned Fayette Street to Marlo. He complains about that too, he hates having backed down and wants to do something about it, but Slim tells the truth that Bodie already knows - Marlo won, they lost, and those are Marlo's corners now. He heads on and Bodie expresses his reluctant acceptance of how things have turned out by giving Lex some valuable advice - Marlo has the world by the rear end, Fruit works for Marlo, so Lex needs to just forget about Patrice and move on.... because that's just the way it is. At City Hall, Herc arrives with another suited-up police officer. They're working the Mayor's Detail now, responsible for keeping the Mayor safe. How the hell did Herc get there? It's not a particularly exciting assignment, involving lots of standing around and being ignored. But he's a big, beefy dude who looks intimidating, and being on the Mayor's Detail is a good way of ensuring a promotion - you please or impress people close to the Mayor, that has to be good for your career. On their way up to Royce's office, they're passed by Council President Nerese Campbell, who ignores the black officer's hello, continuing on as both police leer after her appreciatively. When his partner tells Herc that he would gently caress Herc if it meant he could gently caress her, Herc points out that this makes him a human being (tying back to his conversation with Carter about what man he'd have sex with if it meant he could have any woman he wanted), and his far more mature partner replies quizzically,"It's just an expression." They arrive outside the Mayor's office, where Royce tells his swooning secretary he'll answer an important call from Andy Krawcyzk tomorrow and they head for the lift, not so much ignoring Herc, his partner and their Lieutenant as he is completely used to their presence. He jokes with his Chief of Staff that Krawcyzk always makes a call after donating money to test his political access, and they move on to Carcetti and Gray's demands for two debates for the upcoming primary. Royce is clearly unafraid of either, though he has correctly guessed that Carcetti is the more dangerous, and laughs along with Parker that Carcetti will have to get used to life in the wilderness. That's just the way it is.   He's getting a taste of it now, as he gives his stump speech to an indifferent group of seniors at a rest home, some of whom are playing cards, others who are just staring blankly at the windows behind him. Finishing, he asks if they have any questions and can only swallow his pride as one old lady puts her hands up and asks if they're having Salisbury steak or tacos for dinner tonight. As he feels his political career dying, Royce is enjoying the full flower of his own as he presides over a photo opportunity at a Harbor Redevelopment site, getting healthy applause and kudos from a property developer who extolls his vision and leadership in making the harbor development possible. Even members of the press applaud, while Royce sulks up the adulation.   On Bodie's corner, Namond is back to reading his magazine when three friends arrive - Randy, Michael and a quiet kid called Dukie. We're instantly given insight into their characters, as Randy loudly and enthusiastically shows an interest in what Namond is reading, while Michael surveys the corner and quickly registers how dead it is for business, and Dukie stands back, too timid to come any closer. They want to know if Namond is still "working" since they were planning to go and catch birds down in the alleys, and Namond heads over to ask Bodie if he can bounce early - lying that they need to go and buy school supplies. Bodie clearly doesn't want him to if only for the sake of discipline, but can see there is little point to keeping him around to read magazines while they have no customers. After breaking his balls a little about how he's only still in school due to "social motion", Bodie agrees to let him go but warns that he'll have to make the time up tomorrow, and tells Lex to pay Namond - who is late to work and early to play - for five hours. Lex is still daydreaming about Patrice and an increasingly disgruntled Bodie (not even 20 yet and already thinking about "back in the day") has to tell him again, then yell at Namond as he leaves to be early tomorrow because it won't always be this quiet. After Namond is gone, Bodie adds quietly to himself that at least he hopes it won't be. Back at the redevelopment site, Royce is preparing to leave when the developer stops him for a quick, quiet word to ask about his required access for a median cut on Boston Street. Royce assures him he has his men looking into it, mollifying him, then heads on and asks Parker if anything is happening, clearly none the wiser as to what he was talking about. Parker flat out tells Royce - Herc is standing right there - that it will go through if the developer ponies up some more cash for it, saying that the 4k he's already donated isn't nearly enough. A pleased Royce says he doesn't need to hear about it - politics, ladies and gentlemen. Elsewhere, one of the most terrifying things I can imagine is happening. The truth behind Marlo's lack of bodies is revealed as Chris and Snoop calmly, in a business-like fashion, set up a killing area inside an old vacant house... with their target right there in the midst of it, blubbering and begging for life. Lead like a lamb to the slaughter (the episode's epigraph), the victim has gone along and entered the home with them despite knowing his death is coming. Tearful, terrified and desperate for life, he doesn't fight or try to run, he just kneels there shaking and crying, throwing up at one point, pleading for his life but not doing anything - the kind of terror that Chris and Snoop can engender in a person to bring them to this state is just utterly chilling, as is the indifferent way that Chris cuts off the pleading, noting in his businesslike way that the victim need not worry, they're taking care of everything and will make sure it is quick and clean - a humane death like you might see at an ethical butcher's. "Chri-" starts the victim, and then he's shot through the head by Chris' silenced pistol, then a couple more times to be sure before they pour quicklime on him to help break down the body faster and cover him in plastic sheeting,.. and then they go, nail gun in hand to board up the house and leave it just another vacant home along the rows of vacant homes, nobody any the wiser that Marlo's victims are inside. In the alleys, another victim is about to walk into a trap. Like something out of a cartoon, Randy has put together a box trap to capture a white pigeon he believes to be a homing pigeon. Namond thinks the whole thing is ridiculous, reminding them that in cartoons the roadrunner always gets away with the birdseed, and Michael shuts them both up from arguing, exercising clear authority as the leader of the group. The three are squatting together, behind them are the rest of their extended circle of friends (collectively known as the Fayette Street Mafia) with Dukie far off to the side picking up empty beer bottles. Randy explains that Nemo - the slow but hardworking young man who looks after Marlo's pigeons - told him a homing pigeon could sell for as much as $400, which excites Namond, suggesting they should have put hamburger meat into the trap instead. Michael reminds him again that the trap would have worked by now if he'd just been quiet, and they watch as the white pigeon moves a little closer, a little closer.... and then the sound of shattering glass startles the bird which flies away. Dukie has smashed one of the empties on the ground, and a furious Namond stomps up and - egged on by the approval of the hangers-on - begins verbally tearing into Dukie for being weird and smelling bad, and still playing with bugs like he was in pampers. Dukie stands up for himself despite his own naturally shy disposition and says Namond needs the pampers for his mouth to catch all that poo poo, and everybody (including Michael) oohs in appreciation of the burn, leaving a horrified Namond quickly scrambling for a comeback. He insults and physically imposes him on Dukie, who snaps and comes at him with arms swinging crazily, and the taller, stronger Namond.... backs away in clear fright, arms raised clumsily to his side to protect from the wild flailing. Michael breaks it up immediately and a relieved Namond insists he didn't fight back because he didn't want to touch Dukie and pick up a disease from him, and shares a street handshake with the youngest member of their group - Kenard, who was playing "Omar" in front of Bunk last season - when Kenard laughs that Dukie fights like a bitch. They all head off, apart from Randy who points out without aggression that Dukie DID scare away the bird, and Dukie apologizes but then excitedly points out the bug he hit and asks if Randy wants to look at the parts (oh shiiiiiiit). Randy says no, but as he goes Dukie calls him back, telling him it wasn't a homing pigeon, they have metal bands on their legs. When Randy asks how he knows, Dukie says that sometimes Nemo lets him help out with Marlo's pigeons and schools him a little. Randy and Dukie share a smile, an incredibly sweet moment that is a rarity in Dukie's life, and then Randy heads on to catch up with the others and leaves Dukie on his own to look over his smashed bug.   It's summer but things are still happening at Edward Tilghman middle school. The Principal - Claudell Withers - and the Assistant Principal - Marcia Donnelly - are discussing the increasingly depressing outlook for the school once classes start up again. Tight on funding, short on teachers, they're trying to work out a schedule that will work considering some teachers are simply incapable of handling a particular period by themselves. The office lady pops in to say somebody has shown up outside claiming to be a teacher but without ID, and Marcia exclaims to let him in before he changes his mind. Unfortunately the door doesn't unlock when she tries to buzz him in so she has to come down and let him in personally, bringing him up to see Donnelly and Withers but refusing to even attempt to pronounce his name. It's Prez, and their faces fall when they discover he doesn't have his certification yet but is still set to teach maths to the students, and Donnelly comments that it's lambs to the slaughter. That all changes when he tells them he was police before he became a teacher, and they welcome him aboard with some small hope - a police officer? A police officer can handle some unruly kids, surely! At the Western District, Mello has returned to his previous role after filling in for Colvin following his sudden fall from grace. Colvin has been replaced by Daniels, who finally got the Major's promotion he'd been hoping for back in season one, and now heads up the Western District with the blessings of Burrell and Rawls, both of him now consider him a trusted and effective officer. Like Withers and Donnelly they're trying their best to make the best of their overworked, understaffed force, which is why Daniels has called McNulty to see him. The two have ended up in the same place after all, and Daniels asks McNulty not for the first time to return to Detective work, bemoaning the poor quality of the men he does have. McNulty thanks him for the offer but turns him down, there's a spring in his step and a load of his shoulders, McNulty has found a peaceful place to exist and he doesn't want to screw it up for anything. He heads out and Mello admits he tried many times to convince McNulty to leave foot patrol, saying McNulty is clearly in the wrong place for a man of his talents. Daniels disagrees, he might be in the wrong place for THEM, but he's in exactly the right place for himself. On Bodie's corner, Carver and Colicchio show up for - to Colicchio's surprise - a friendly chat. They've shut down their drug-dealing by the time they arrive of course, and stand around doing their best to look like they're just standing around, while a garrulous Carver greets them all by name - a far cry from his ignorance last season - and ends up causing Bodie to laugh despite himself when Carver suggests they send Reesy up to Edward Tilghman when school starts up again so he can take Remedial Math and not screw up the count anymore. It's an interesting look at Carver, who doesn't just know the names of the drug crew but also the role that each is involved in, and even some of their personal foibles. He's taken Colvin's words to heart, he's finally become worthy of his role as the DEU Sergeant. McNulty pulls up in his squad car to see if something is going on, and Carver says they're just having words. McNulty says hello to Bodie and tells Carver the story of how Bodie beat the Barksdale Indictments by calling them out on their entrapment after they gave him back his drugs to go sell in Hamsterdam. Despite himself Bodie has to smile, and McNulty laughs that he's still dining out on that story.... before getting serious and telling them all that he'll back in an hour and this corner is to be empty, they're done selling for the day. It's not perfect but a relationship has been established, and with that relationship at least a little give and take - McNulty can make sure the corners are clear at particular times, such as when kids are coming home from school or people are coming home from work, and the dealers can continue to sell without too much fear of being jumped on by police. With McNulty gone, Carver pushes Bodie to share in the polite conversation with a pleasant farewell, and then he turns to leave too. Bodie can't resist a sarcastically polite farewell to Colicchio too, however, and he turns and snaps angrily back at him to go gently caress himself with a forty (Bodie's crew are delighted he managed to get a rise from the officer), then demands to know from Carver what the point of this whole thing was. Carver explains that you can't bust every head, and Colicchio, without any irony, asks,"I can't?" In a back office at Carcetti's campaign headquarters that night, Carcetti and Norman join D'Agostino who wants to know why Carcetti was late to every meeting he had that day. Tommy tries to blame it on the seniors talking slowly but Norman isn't letting him get away with that, revealing that he was behind schedule all day because of a too long breakfast with "Young Tony", the old ex-Mayor. D'Agostino is not impressed, especially since Young Tony was only a one-term Mayor, and she isn't letting Tommy get away with blaming it on the 67 riots, noting that Spiro Agnew built a career out of the same thing in 68. Tommy doesn't like the idea of being likened to Agnew, but she reminds him that one man's shithead is another man's Vice President. He spots that she has some polling numbers and eagerly tries to grab at them but she shuts him down, saying they're raw numbers and besides which, he has to worry about one of the worst aspects of campaigning - he needs funds. Leading the protesting wannabe-Mayor into a back room, she informs him that he cannot leave for three hours or until he has raised $30,000, and if he can't do the latter then his campaign is over anyway, as he won't be able to afford television ads during the last two weeks of the primary. Carcetti sulks and fakes a phonecall in which he reveals more of the "actual" Carcetti than we ever usually see - he doesn't give a poo poo about the people he wants to represent, he just wants their money and maybe to gently caress their wives - as well as pointing out that the most any individual contributor can give is $4,000. That puts the developer's request to Royce in a new light, given that Parker felt that the maximum allowable by law wasn't enough. D'Agostino locks the door as she leaves, and Tommy is left with the phone, a desk, and a nude pin-up on the door as his only company. Standing under an overpass in the dark, Lex watches the line leading into a nightclub across the street, silently fuming. In the line are Patrice and Fruit, all over each other, smiling, happy, loving. They hand over their tickets to the bouncer and head inside, Lex's rage building up inside him. At Carcetti headquarters, like a child (or college kid) Tommy is doing everything he can to get out of doing his homework. Making a daisy chain of paper-clips, talking to presumably his wife on the phone about what is on television, playing darts with a board hidden behind the pin-up, talking sports on the phone to another friend... anything other than cold-calling people to ask them for money. On the other side of the locked door, Norman keeps an eye on the line to make sure Tommy is using it, but he's just left the phone off of the hook so they'll leave him in peace to waste time rather than raise money for his own campaign. Fruit and Patrice leave the club, both clearly a little drunk, laughing and happy as they head for the parking lot beneath the overpass. As they stumble along, without a word Lex steps up and opens fire, blowing Fruit's brains out. Patrice stares in open mouthed horror, hands clasped to her face, covered in blood-splatter. She turns and looks at Lex, who dead-eyed asks,"What's up, Patrice?" She screams and runs, and he turns and heads off into the night, having just brought a world of pain down onto himself and possibly his crew as well.  
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 09:50
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Tommy finally faces up to the fact he MUST make the calls, after making a lame excuse to D'Agostino that nobody is answering because everybody is out. With Fruit dead on the street, Carcetti cracks his knuckles, he sets to work, bemoaning how tough his life is. Soon he's pressing for 4k donations, asking one man if his wife can put in her own matching donation and "joking" that maybe their kids could too. The news of Fruit's death quickly spreads through Marlo's network, and as such is picked up by the wiretap. Massey calls in Lester when she hears what is happening, and he immediately heads over to Homicide to give the Detectives who caught the call - Bunk and Norris - the good news that he can already identity the shooter for them, somebody going by the name of Lex. Norris is appreciative, especially since this murder might screw up his case, but Lester assures him that Fruit is only one of many phones they currently have tapped. He does express surprise that after months of Marlo ruling the West Side, the first body to drop turns out to be one of his own, and Bunk is confused too, how can Marlo hold all his real estate without dropping any bodies? Lester had earlier dismissed Marlo as not being as "fierce" as he'd thought, but now it seems he's starting to latch on to the weirdness of Marlo's continued hold on power despite a lack of violence. He promises to give any more info he picks up to Bunk, who jokingly declares that Lester is his REAL partner, not Norris, his life partner. Freamon laughs and says not to tease him, and as he walks away Bunk turns to Norris and declares with great glee,"Look at that bow-legged motherfucker. I made him walk like that." There's just a general sense of happiness in the air, not just in the Detail itself but even over in Homicide, which is understandable given within an hour or two of being given a murder, they look set to put it into the black. Less pleased is Marlo, who meets with his Lieutenants to figure out if this is the opening salvo in a war against him, and the first thing he wants to know is,"Who the gently caress is Lex?" He's surprised to learn he's a nobody, he used to work for Kintel Williamson but now operates with an "off-brand crew" over on a hilltop corner, which is hardly a desirable bit of drug real estate. Chris has already picked up on the reasoning for the murder, it wasn't business, just personal, and another lieutenant - Monk - explains it's about pussy, Fruit was into something that Lex thought belonged to him (note how Patrice is reduced to an object to be owned?). Marlo looks disgusted, moreso when Monk and Tote both push for permission to wipe out Lex's entire crew and take over their corner, though it's curious that when the suggestion is first made he glances momentarily at Chris to see what he thinks, and seems to take direction from Chris' brief shake of the head. He reminds them that he has no need for an off-brand corner considering he's got the best territory in the Western, and doesn't see the point in going to war with them when they're not trying to go to war with him - this is just about Lex and Fruit, and Lex needs to go since he got one of theirs. It's not mercy, not exactly, more that Marlo doesn't see the value in expending the effort for no reward - it reminds me of his indifference to Bubbles and Johnny's fates when they dinged a lieutenant's car, he wasn't invested in their existence so his reaction of "Do it or don't" was based purely around the fact that he was being held up, so whatever was fastest was best for him. Norman drives an exhausted Tommy home, so exhausted that he actually fell asleep in the back of the car. Norman forces him out, saying he doesn't have to go home but he can't stay here, and sends him stumbling up his front lawn, dropping a shoe on the way but too tired to do anything about it. Norman calls after him to be up by 6:30 the next morning and he doesn't want to have to drag him out of bed, and all Tommy can manage by witty reply is by tiredly giving him the finger. The next day finds the Fayette Street Mafia once again trying to capture the white bird, this time with a bit of netting they found somewhere. Namond is watching when he sees Dukie approach, surprised to see he has a black eye. What follows gives us even more insight into the characters of the boys - Namond despite all his teasing and bullying of Dukie looks horrified by what has happened to Dukie. Dukie explains that some "Terrace boys" jumped him and Randy exclaims that they can't do that to one of them, and Namond and Michael instantly agree. But Namond takes it a step further, loud and brash he talks a big game about doing more than giving them as good as Dukie got, but going further. Michael is approving but quiet, feeling no need to speak up until Randy points out that the Terrace boys at least equal their own numbers, and possibly exceed them. He asks Randy if he is scared and Randy waves that off, but he's a smart kid, and he points out that they need to think of a smarter way to get their revenge. Here Michael reveals the depths of his still waters, immediately asking if Randy means guns, but Randy dismisses that - he's all for escalating, but not to that extent. A big grin crosses his face though and Namond crows with delight, Randy's got an idea! Meanwhile Carcetti is complaining yet again as Norman and he are driven to the first of that day's many engagements, this time about the fact he's eating a tuna sub for breakfast after having a tuna sub (in the car) for dinner the night before. Norman is amused by the bitching and puts on a CD of the radio spots they've put together, but then Carcetti is interupted by a phone-call with bad news from D'Agostino - after he spent 3 hours stretching and scrapping for 30k for radio spots, the Mayor has casually laid out $300,000 for television spots.... and there's still four weeks to go till the Primary! Raving in fury over the unfairness of his life as a rich white male, he badmouths the "mid-east" section of Baltimore they're heading for ("loving Fallujah!"), rants about the complaining residents he has to see, and most of all over the fact that Royce is able to spend cash like water while he struggles to find funding. They arrive for the meeting with a community leader and a reverend and Tommy exits the car with a complaint of,"They can bite my white rear end!" but in the 10 feet between exiting the car and reaching the small group of people waiting to let him know what is wrong with the city, he's got his game-face back on and presents the caring, concerned, roll-up-his-sleeves-and-get-the-job-done image he's relying on to get him elected.   Randy's plan involves a lot of soda. The whole Fayette Street Mafia are all gathered around, drinking from cups while Dukie offers suggestions that they think of running water as they drink. Namond cracks a joke that the running water has been off in Dukie's home for months and everybody laughs, but also (happily) note that this is a cold thing to say. One of the other members of the group - Donut - declares he is ready and Randy tosses him a water balloon with a funnel attached, but he laughs that he can't go while they're watching. Everybody laughs and turns away to let him make up the piss balloon in peace. Carcetti is shown an alleyway that has had the exit blocked up by trash, the alley full of drug dealers who glare up at the assembled constituents and Carcetti - they block the alley so the police can't come through without stopping to clear it, giving them time to run. Royce is frequently called about the problem, the trash draws rats, as do the nearby vacant homes, and though he usually sends somebody down who takes notes (like Carcetti is doing now, she points out) nothing is ever done. Carcetti attempts to lay the blame firmly on Royce, claiming that the Mayor won't take call from Carcetti's constituents to paint him as the good guy and the Mayor as the bad guy, but they just glare at him when he says that. They haven't come to hear excuses, they want to hear that action is being taken, so he gives them the empty promise they want, he promises to "look into it". Michael has been volunteered (or was happy enough to just do it) to be the bait for Randy's trap. He approaches two Terrace boys chatting and asks them casually if they know "Deez". When they ask he finishes the old joke,"As in, Deez nuts!" and punches one boy direct in the face, then hits another and sends him sprawling on his bike. Michael follows up with another shot on one fallen boy while the other runs, then grabs the bike and waits long enough for the rest of the Terrace boys to come running, then leads them on a chase through the alleys after him. Showing remarkable strategic foresight, Randy has set them up in a "killzone", the bulk of the Fayette Street Mafia block the alley as the Terrace boys come around the corner, and on both sides of the alley a couple more FSM boys each are up on the walls standing on higher ground. They throw the piss balloons at the confused Terrace boys, soaking them in piss, but the boys aren't backing down and when Namond clutches his balloon too tight and pops it on himself ("I pissed myself!") the FSM decide to cut and run, tossing their piss balloons to the ground and making a break for it. The Terrace boys follow, running the FSM down and putting a beating on them, one of them using a pipe to catch Michael by surprise before he and another Terrace boy begin laying in kicks to him as he huddles on the ground. Randy and Namond have managed to get somewhat clear, but when Namond spots his best friend taking a beating, he is too scared to make a move to help, and when two more Terrace boys spot him he gets the hell out of there.   Two seminars occur at roughly simultaneous times to roughly simultaneous reactions. At Edward Tilghman, the staff are sitting grumpily through a well-meaning but utterly irrelevant seminar about maintaining a pleasant demeanor in class, maintaining control and a sunny disposition. In the Western District, patrol officers are learning how to spot terrorist threats. Both seminars quickly descend into farces, as one teacher has enough when the hopelessly outdated presenter suggests the pencil sharpener is a place students like to congregate to gossip, and tells her about the time one student ripped the pencil sharpener out of its housing and threw it at him. All the teachers begin crying out their own horror stories as Marcia Donnelly tries to regain control, while in the Western, Lieutenant Mello is attempting the same. Santangelo has disrupted the seminar to ask if anybody could tell the difference if they WERE hit by a terrorist attack, which starts off a number of gleeful tall tales about where to find the "real" terrorists, with Carver cracking everybody up by declaring that a notorious stick-up crew (lead by Apex, one of the inspirations for Omar's character) stole the terrorists' stuff and scared them off. Everybody laughs as they let off steam, because both groups know that as well-meaning as these seminars are, they're essentially just a giant and boring waste of time by extremely earnest presenters.   Bunk arrives and gooses McNulty who is standing in the doorway, and after some gleeful flirting he gets to the reason he's come to visit, he's hoping to find out if McNulty knows anything about Lex, showing a photo and explaining the information comes from Lester's wire. McNulty is surprised to hear that Freamon has a wiretap going and Bunk is more surprised that McNulty is so far out of the loop, and surprised again when McNulty suggests he actually ask Carver, who has come a long way since the last time Bunk dealt with him. Bunk suggests McNulty come with him anyway, as he didn't just come down about Lex but also in the hope they could go out drinking again, like old times, he even mentions the old train and suggests they see if it is still on the tracks, and I'm sure plenty of people will be able to find any number of symbolic meanings from that statement. McNulty surprises him again though, instead asking Bunk to come around and visit with him and Beadie for dinner and meet Beadie's kids. McNulty is a changed man, as evidenced when he stops Santangelo from dumping his thick binder given out by the seminar presenter.... not because he wants to keep the information, but because with school about to start again he can dump out the useless terrorism appendixes and give Beadie's kids the binders. Bunk stares wide-eyed, this is NOT the same McNulty he knows so well. Beaten, bruised but still standing, the Fayette Street Mafia have gathered by an ice-cream truck - they're still in the strange middle-ground between kids and "young adults", Randy's plan was something out of a summer camp hijinks movie but the beating they took was all too real, but now they're doing what kids do in summer and stopping to grab some ice-cream. Dukie is asking Namond to lend him cash for an ice-cream, promising to pay him back, but Namond - safe now - is back to his cocky self and laughs that he'll never have any money. Michael comes limping up, brushing off their concern over his battered face, more concerned that everybody else is okay - they are, all except for one member who had to go and get stitches after being hit with a brick. Michael notices that Namond is not only unscathed but has even already changed his clothes, and stares a hole through his best friend when he continues to refuse to buy Dukie an ice-cream even after grandly offering to buy one for everybody since they all stood together. Intimidated by Michael and wanting his approval, Namond gives the pathetically grateful Dukie cash, and offers the same to Michael when Michael points out rather angrily that Namond managed to escape without a scratch, clearly picking out that Namond abandoned them. Randy escaped too, but nobody questions his loyalty, perhaps because he's never loudly proclaimed how tough he is, and everybody laughs when he admits the plan maybe wasn't the best, but the whole thing turned out to be pretty funny even WITH the beating. Night falls and Carcetti finishes up his over-extended meeting with the community leaders, having utterly charmed the woman who was so hostile to the empty promises of politicians (but wasn't happy if she wasn't getting them). Norman congratulates him on the effort as they leave, for once not minding that they're running late, and as they drive they enjoy some good natured ribbing. Carcetti is concerned that the black voters won't vote for him, but Norman says that black people have never had a problem voting for white people, it's always been the other way around. The driver says Carcetti has his vote but Norman just laughs, and refuses to say who he will vote for, only that the last white politician he could bring himself to vote for was Bobby Kennedy, and Carcetti is NO Bobby Kennedy. So will he vote for Royce? Gray? Norman just laughs and says it'll be "one of the brothers", and Carcetti laughs too, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere after the tense start to his day. Randy arrives home late, to the disapproval of his foster mother - Miss Anna - who reminds him that his curfew is 9pm sharp, and then takes a sniff and demands to know what he's been up to that makes him smell of urine. Randy, thinking fast, admits that they were playing with Dukie today, and Miss Anna knows what his home situation is like. Face softening, Miss Anna tells Randy that it's good that Dukie has friends, and then leads him inside the house. Randy's mother is unknown, but though it is never actually explicitly stated in the show itself, his father is none other than Cheese, the nephew of Proposition Joe. It seems Randy gets his entrepreneurial streak and smooth talking from his Great Uncle. Carcetti arrives at his next meeting over two hours late, and holds things up even more with a desperate phone call to a civil servant at his home, begging him to let him backdoor the process and clean up those alleys and potholes in the area he just visited, even if it's at best a temporary measure - he needs it done and Royce won't let any of his official requests go through. Begrudgingly the man on the other end agrees and Tommy prepares to head inside, passed by Tony Gray on his way out who tells him he'll never get elected by disrespecting his base by coming in two hours late. Tommy calls after him and tries to extend an olive branch, saying they'll both need to rely on each other if the other gets voted in, and it's nothing personal. Tony makes his own feelings perfectly clear regarding how personal it is - "gently caress you, Tommy." The next day Prez is introduced to his classroom and... it's a huge loving mess. Tables and chairs lie tossed about, there's paper everywhere, the place looks like it hasn't been touched since the final bell rang and the students rushed out so quickly that chairs and tables were knocked over. Prez asks if this is him and Donnelly says it is, and wonder of wonders, Prez actually looks... happy? One of Bodie's regular workers - a fat man called Little Kevin - approaches the corner where Lex is currently standing, but changes his mind when he spots Randy set up against the wall with a backpack full of candy. Eyes alight, Randy happily explains that he purchased the candy at a discount from a Korean store, and plans to sell it to other kids once school starts up again. Little Kevin hands over some cash for some skittles but tells Randy to keep the change, saying he can do him a favor instead by going down and telling Lex that Patrice wants to see him up at the old playground by Fulton. Randy is confused, why doesn't Kevin do this himself, but Kevin complains that he doesn't want any poo poo from Bodie about skipping "work". He leaves, and Randy frowns, smart enough to sense something isn't quite right but not able to see any reason not to do as asked. At Carcetti's house, Norman and the driver are discussing keeping an extra pair of clothes in the car so Tommy doesn't have an excuse to come home in the middle of the day. Tommy and Jen leave the house, Jen helping him do up his coat, and he enthusiastically tells her D'Agostino has new polling data, and thought she hasn't shown it to him yet, he believes he's earned a bump. Spotting the shoe he left on the lawn a couple of nights earlier, he throws it to Jen and joins Norman in the car, joking that he got to spend a whopping four minutes of quality time with the wife and kids. When the driver notes it was more like six, Tommy laughs that if he'd known that he could have gotten laid, much to Norman's amusement. That night, Lex approaches the playground and you have to wonder what exactly is he thinking? Does he think Patrice will be there? Love in her eyes now that she's realized what a brave and dangerous man he is? A girl is waiting for him in the dark, but when she steps into the light it's not Patrice, but Snoop. Lex may not be the brightest spark, but the sight of her instantly gets the correct reaction from him as he twists around to run... and like something out of a horror movie, Chris Partlow is just there, just standing there staring. Frantic, Lex tries to speak, to explain himself, but is shut down immediately by the simply, curt,"Yeah, that's good," from Chris. There will be no discussion or explanations or debate, and there's something truly terrible in Chris' face that makes people realize this - Lex is a dead man, he just hasn't stopped moving and breathing yet.    Only a couple of hours too late, Bunk and Carver sit watching Bodie's corner, but there is no sign of Lex. Carver saw him there earlier, and tells Bunk that they'll just have to return tomorrow for him. Bunk agrees, no idea that his near slam-dunk murder conviction has just become a mystery that won't be solved for quite some time. In an alley some guys are playing craps, paying money to a watching Randy for some of the candy he has in his backpack - Randy is entrepreneurial but taking a hell of a risk, if they wanted they could just take the backpack from him. Little Kevin passes by with a casual greeting but when he realizes Randy is there, he takes him aside for a quick word, a fateful one that will have horrific repercussions on Randy's life. Kevin asks if Randy passed on the message, and agrees he must have as Lex went up the block and never came back. Randy is confused and Little Kevin with the big loving mouth just openly declares that Chris and Snoop took care of him, and mimics shooting a gun. Forking over some extra cash to Randy for a job well done, he heads away and leaves the shocked Randy just standing there. Carcetti returns to his headquarters in a great mood... until D'Agostino lets him know the poll results. She's pleased but he's horrified, Royce is on 35%, he's only on 26% and Tony is on 20% with 19% undecided. It IS a bump for him but not enough, he feels he should be on 30 and that if Tony is going to split the vote he needs to be one 25. D'Agostino tries to explain that Royce's negatives are way up but Carcetti doesn't want to hear that, furious that his radio spots did so little. With his hands on the raw data, he devours all the negative news quickly - he's only polling 37% in his own district, while Royce is way up in the 4th... and when did the 6th District become 64% black? Norman fields that one, calmly pointing out that this happened five years ago as part of redistricting to give TOMMY the advantage in shoring up his white votes in the first! D'Agostino insists that 1-in-5 voters are still undecided and that nobody is paying attention to the race with a month to go, but Tommy won't be mollified. With finality he declares that he simply can't win, and he heads out the door despite the fact Norman is his ride home. Norman turns to D'Agostino who now can openly admit the truth - Tommy's reading of the poll is pretty drat accurate, things are NOT looking good for him. Snoop and Chris leave the vacant where they've dumped Lex's body, using the nail gun to seal up the door with the wooden plank put up by the city to block it. Quiet and businesslike, they head on down the empty row of houses, the only (living) people to be found anywhere near. A drunk Tommy sits on a park bench overlooking the harbor and the city at night - it's beautiful. A patrol car pulls up and the officer asks if he's been drinking, and tells him he'll need to move on, the park curfew is midnight. Tommy grumbles that with a murder rate of a body a day is he really being hassled about sitting on a park bench, raising the ire of the cop who demands to know if he's some kind of smartass. Tommy isn't quite drunk enough to say anything too stupid and apologizes, and to his great dismay the cop recognizes him... but doesn't know from where. Sadly he explains he is running for Mayor and offers his hand, and the cop telling he'll be back around in 20 minutes and Tommy needs to be gone by then. He drives on, leaving Tommy to wonder whatever made him think he could be Mayor of Baltimore. Randy sits on his stoop, the street empty other than a cop car passing by, pondering just what part he has played in the death of another person. Miss Anna pops her head out the door and calls to him, seemingly surprised to find him just sitting there. With a quiet,"Yes, ma'am" he gets up and heads inside, but his home probably feels less secure tonight, because now he has become involved in a murder and a powerful drugs organization, if only on the periphery. Randy's summer is almost over, as is his childhood. Lex's worries are over, Tommy's are the kind of problem many would probably love to have, and Randy's are about as bad as they can get.   
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 11:32 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 09:50
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Jerusalem posted:Links for the OP, escape artist, season 3 now complete - just copy and paste! Season Four Episode 1 - Boys of Summer - Part 1 Episode 1 - Boys of Summer - Part 2
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Aug 8, 2013 09:54
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Yes! I literally just finished this season again as you were posting this, burned through season 4 again in the last few days, I think it's the only season that I can always find an excuse to rewatch (I meant to do the whole series once this thread started but got sidetracked). Things I find strangely endearing: Snoop casually talking about how a .22 can "pinball" inside someone, to the salesman's horror, with her clearly knowing this but loving with him for the fun of it. I also inexplicably crack up when Carcetti does his fake phone call and rants about how much he hates raising money. It's crude and rather un-mayoral - his rant about "loving Fallujah" is even worse - but it shows that he's still naive and new to the process, which in the long run is interesting. His struggle to raise funds in this episode and loud complaints about doing it are of course a complete contrast to his gubernatorial campaign in season 5, where he easily raises record amounts of money and gleefully brags about it to his staff. I think if you're going to argue whether Carcetti was a self-interested hack all along or whether he was just corrupted by the system, this is an important episode. On that note I've always been interested in the scene with the community activists and Carcetti, which makes it clear that while their hearts are in the right place they are never going to understand the deeper forces that make permanent change impossible. (Carcetti noting that Royce is blocking all his requests looks like another excuse to them, but the viewer knows this is the actual truth.) Later on, when Carcetti is telling the cops how everything's going to change with high-level arrests, McNulty notes that it'll only last as long as it takes for some activists to complain about the dealers on the corner again. I always wonder if this isn't being too harsh on them. I remember watching this episode with my dad, who was a middle school teacher for many years, and him cracking up when he saw the worthless seminar with the teachers, saying it was completely accurate. I love this because he taught in a decidedly normal, middle class school, and yet there are parts of this season (though No Child Left Behind, thankfully, never has extended to Canada) that still rang true. grading essays nude fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 10:54
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Oh yeah, the introduction of one of my favorite tertiary characters, Principal Withers, or as I enjoy referring to him: Principal Fat Stringer.
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Aug 8, 2013 12:07
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Jerusalem posted:Elsewhere, one of the most terrifying things I can imagine is happening. The truth behind Marlo's lack of bodies is revealed as Chris and Snoop calmly, in a business-like fashion, set up a killing area inside an old vacant house... with their target right there in the midst of it, blubbering and begging for life. Lead like a lamb to the slaughter (the episode's epigraph), the victim has gone along and entered the home with them despite knowing his death is coming. Tearful, terrified and desperate for life, he doesn't fight or try to run, he just kneels there shaking and crying, throwing up at one point, pleading for his life but not doing anything - the kind of terror that Chris and Snoop can engender in a person to bring them to this state is just utterly chilling, as is the indifferent way that Chris cuts off the pleading, noting in his businesslike way that the victim need not worry, they're taking care of everything and will make sure it is quick and clean - a humane death like you might see at an ethical butcher's. "Chri-" starts the victim, and then he's shot through the head by Chris' silenced pistol, then a couple more times to be sure before they pour quicklime on him to help break down the body faster and cover him in plastic sheeting,.. and then they go, nail gun in hand to board up the house and leave it just another vacant home along the rows of vacant homes, nobody any the wiser that Marlo's victims are inside. So as I recall, part of this scene made it into the opening credits. If so, this is a scene which had to be reshot. I guess they shot it once, figured out that in the setup they had there would be Chris and Snoop DNA all over the place, and reshot it with rubber gloves and some other stuff. This actually turned out to be a key detail since one of the things which catches Chris is the bareknuckle beatdown he gave to Mike's dad.
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Aug 8, 2013 13:20
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Jerusalem posted:After breaking his balls a little about how he's only still in school due to "social motion", Bodie agrees to let him go but warns that he'll have to make the time up tomorrow, and tells Lex to pay Namond - who is late to work and early to play - for five hours. Just a minor point- Bodie was talking about Social Promotion, which comes up later during the school scenes, along with warehousing. cletepurcel posted:I remember watching this episode with my dad, who was a middle school teacher for many years, and him cracking up when he saw the worthless seminar with the teachers, saying it was completely accurate. I love this because he taught in a decidedly normal, middle class school, and yet there are parts of this season (though No Child Left Behind, thankfully, never has extended to Canada) that still rang true. Ed Burns who co-wrote all of season 4 taught middle school after retiring from BPD. He really gets a lot of the details right. After grad school I was an adjunct in a college ed department for a few years, and the scene at Tilghman with the self-esteem acronym overhead gave me mild PTSD the first time I watched the show. That bullshit was everywhere. Alec Bald Snatch fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 17:43
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escape artist posted:Oh yeah, the introduction of one of my favorite tertiary characters, Principal Withers, or as I enjoy referring to him: Principal Fat Stringer. Ok now I'm never going to be able to unsee this. On another note, it would have required a pretty contrived scene (and possibly subtitles) but it's too bad Vice Principal Donnelly's accent and Lt. Mello's accent never were in a scene together.
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Aug 8, 2013 19:31
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If people want to get into Michael's frame of mind in anticipation of this season, you can check out Clarissa comics ( http://imgur.com/a/mDf8c ) which were introduced to me by this thread ( http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3563443 ). The one that gets me the most is "Sorry we couldn't play pirates" in the Bunny comic.They aren't especially graphic and the swearing in them is relatively mild. But the subject matter makes them one of the most things I've seen. For real, they will ruin your day - but they might also (thank god I don't know personally) give you some insight into the hate and fear and self-loathing that goes into making a murderer like Mike or Chris Partlow. Or what Mike felt like he needed to save Bug from.
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Aug 8, 2013 20:29
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Jerusalem posted:The driver says Carcetti has his vote but Norman just laughs, and refuses to say who he will vote for, only that the last white politician he could bring himself to vote for was Bobby Kennedy, and Carcetti is NO Bobby Kennedy. So will he vote for Royce? Gray? Norman just laughs and says it'll be "one of the brothers", and Carcetti laughs too, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere after the tense start to his day. I always found that scene funny/depressing, how (assuming he wasn't he joking, and I don't think he was) someone could work so hard to get someone elected that they don't personally want to win. It seems very mercenary and undemocratic, but I suppose it isn't surprising, I imagine that very few people have the luxury of being personally invested in the things that they do for money (I know I don't).
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Aug 8, 2013 20:54
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Ainsley McTree posted:I always found that scene funny/depressing, how (assuming he wasn't he joking, and I don't think he was) someone could work so hard to get someone elected that they don't personally want to win. It seems very mercenary and undemocratic, but I suppose it isn't surprising, I imagine that very few people have the luxury of being personally invested in the things that they do for money (I know I don't). http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...holdin-my-nose/ It happens.
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Aug 8, 2013 21:17
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I don't doubt it. And I imagine that somebody in that position spends so much time watching the political machine at work that after a while, they probably almost don't care who wins, since they're all going to end up doing the same things anyway.
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Aug 8, 2013 21:21
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Ainsley McTree posted:I don't doubt it. And I imagine that somebody in that position spends so much time watching the political machine at work that after a while, they probably almost don't care who wins, since they're all going to end up doing the same things anyway. He started drinking the Carcetti kool-aid over the course of the season, only to have his expectations bust up when Carcetti wouldn't take the school money. Remember that scene with Norman and Royce's CoS? "They always disappoint", I think the quote was.
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Aug 8, 2013 23:07
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awesmoe posted:He started drinking the Carcetti kool-aid over the course of the season, only to have his expectations bust up when Carcetti wouldn't take the school money. Remember that scene with Norman and Royce's CoS? "They always disappoint", I think the quote was. I don't know if he ever fully believed in Tommy. He implies at the post-election party that he, indeed, did not vote for him (though he could have been joking). Nonetheless, he's ultimately a mercenary, because he doesn't quit after Carcetti rejects the Governor's money, and it appears he's still with him when Carcetti becomes Governor. By the way, I know this is way down the line, but I now notice the issue of the Governor's money is actually more complex than the show makes it look. I mean, yes, the main consequence is that whether or not Carcetti made the right decision, he definitely made it for the wrong reason, and from that point forward he's irredeemable. But I feel like they were a bit too cavalier in showing the state takeover and weakening of the teacher's unions as the right decision. Especially since they had the earlier scene, where Prez questions why it's a bad idea for the state to take over, and the other teachers just look at him in horror. I think it's possible the intent was to not present an actual solution to the school crisis but just to show that Carcetti is as worthless as anyone, though. grading essays nude fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 23:17
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I've been reading this thread for a week or two now after I watched the entirety of the show over the summer for the first time, and last night I had a dream about The Wire. The details are fuzzy now, but it seemed like I was in the midst of season 6. Tobey Maguire was in there for some reason. McNulty was a ghost or something. He got stuck under a rock and I asked him why he didn't just pass through it, and he replied that he didn't even consider he could do that. I was sitting in a circle with McNulty, Bunk, Kima, Lester, Carcetti's black advisor and some other people and I mentioned that I had been reading a message board about them and that we could all identify how the characters would react to something, like that Bunk would light up a cigar and say, "Bullshit", which he did at the exact same time I said he would. It was very surreal to talk directly to characters on a TV show about how I watched them on TV. Later on, I was sitting on a couch with Michael talking about how he was becoming the next Omar. Very weird.
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Aug 9, 2013 17:27
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I'm rewatching season three and am on the third episode during the firefight when Omar's raid goes wrong and one of his girls gets shot. I just realised she's not hit by any of the half-dozen Barksdale men but instead catches a friendly bullet from the guy in front of her, blazing wildly as he flees. It's a drat shame, but a cool touch of realism given how everyone in the fight is just shooting crazily. Also, is something up with Carcetti's accent? He talks a little differently to everyone else and, not being a native, I'm not sure whether it's some Maryland-specific regional thing or the actor.
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Aug 10, 2013 19:49
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Fargo Fukes posted:
The actor is Irish. He's also on Game of Thrones and has earned a reputation on that show for his wildly varying accent.
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Aug 10, 2013 19:53
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Lugaloco posted:The actor is Irish. He's also on Game of Thrones and has earned a reputation on that show for his wildly varying accent. I like to think whenever I watch Game of Thrones that Littlefinger is some ancient ancestor of Carcetti.
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Aug 10, 2013 20:10
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cletepurcel posted:I like to think whenever I watch Game of Thrones that Littlefinger is some ancient ancestor of Carcetti. Stringer didn't die, he just put on a lot of weight and got a job at the last place Omar would look. The guy Omar and Mouzone shot was actually just a British detective who happened to be in town.
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Aug 10, 2013 20:48
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Season 4, Episode 2: Soft EyesCarcetti posted:I still wake up white in a city that ain't. Herc brings his bored partner a coffee outside City Hall, confused because he was expecting the Mayor down to attend a breakfast down at the harbor. His partner is irritated by the Detail, surprising Herc who doesn't mind all the standing around doing nothing (perhaps thanks to Freamon's constant use of him and Carver as a stake-out team). Both are on the Mayor's Detail for the same reason, it's supposed to be a good way to get promoted. Herc, without a hint of self-awareness, complains that if you could make rank the "right" way he'd still be working drug busts in Narcotics. After torpedoing Colvin's Hamsterdam so he could get back to "doing what we do best" he apparently doesn't have the sense to understand why all that treading water with street level dealers hasn't seen him shooting up the career ladder. He decides to go and find his Lieutenant, and heads up to the second floor where he runs into a busy Chief of Staff Parker, who tells him that the Mayor's breakfast is now up in the air. He heads on before Herc can find out where the Lieutenant is, checking doors and walking into some utterly hilarious (if admittedly low) comedy:   Closing the door, the dazed Herc turns and stumbles up the corridor, feeling the eyes of Mayors of the past glaring down at him from the paintings on the wall. He has no idea how to process what he has just seen, all he knows is that he may have just ruined his career, not knowing that he's just given it a massive boost far beyond his limited capabilities. At the Detail Office, Sydnor and Pearlman are both freaking out while a happily busy Freamon looks over a table utterly covered in piles of subpoenas. There's a good reason for their fear and his exhilaration, they're about to drop these subpoenas on some of Baltimore's most prominent businesspeople and politicians and kick up a giant storm. Pearlman talks more to herself than anyone else, either trying to work up the courage to actually do this or break herself out of the shock of letting it happen and do something to stop it. Freamon reminds her that it isn't policy to run subpoenas like this past her front office like she suggests, but the hell with policy, she's (justifiably) concerned about the fact she might be destroying her career. The State's Attorney is running 2 points behind even with with Royce's support, and if she kicks up a political hornet's nest and he wins then he'll wreck her career. If his (black) opponent wins, then he's likely to want more black faces in higher positions at her cost. Freamon looks irritated at her only thinking in terms of her personal career, but his own prejudice comes out when he realizes that two subpoenas are missing - Clay Davis' and Andy Krawcyzk's. She insists that these two are too big to antagonize now, and there is no reason they can't hit them with a second round of subpoenas AFTER the primary. Furious, Lester explains that if they'd tried this a year ago then the Detail would have been buried and crushed, and if they try it a month from now the same thing will happen - but NOW when the primary is so close and they can't risk exposure? Now is the time to strike. To her horror, Pearlman remembers that Lester claimed he couldn't do this a year ago because of fresh cases. He maintains a poker face as she points out he has deliberately held back for maximum chaos, claiming to just be a police, but she knows better. Lester is McNulty hunting that white whale, but tempered by age and experience to choose his moment just right - McNulty would have unloaded the moment he had the subpoenas in place, but Freamon knows better, and he's taking Pearlman and Sydnor along for the ride whether they like it or not. Norman waits impatiently in the Carcetti home, checking his watch as Jen comments that the Teachers' Union endorsed Royce. Norman is unsurprised, they all knew he was going to, and makes polite conversation, asking about her own appearances that day - she and the kids have two appearances today as useful props for Tommy's bid, but the man himself seems uninterested in his own. Norman heads upstairs to see what is keeping him and finds him on his bed playing battleship with his daughter. It's a charming scene, or would be if it wasn't for the fact that Tommy's interest in quality time with his daughter seems inversely proportional to his belief that he can win the mayoral race. He asks for 10 more minutes and when Norman insists that he doesn't have them, he points out that there is zero chance of winning the election anyway so why bother?   The parallels between this scene and Herc and Royce earlier are both amusing and a little disturbing. Herc found Royce enjoying some "quality time" with his adoring Secretary, and walked away in a daze. Norman has walked in on Carcetti enjoying quality time with his adoring daughter, and been sent away disappointed. At Edward Tilghman Middle School, Prez plays Johnny Cash and puts things in order just as he once did in the Detail Office. He's scrubbing down his classroom, cleaning the desks, chipping away the hardened gum stuck to the underside. In prison, a bored Namond sits beside his mother - Delonda - who is discussing business with his father, an inmate serving life behind bars. Who he is? None other than Wee-Bey, the former top enforcer for the now defunct Barksdale Organization. Brianna Barksdale has been getting money to Namond's mother every month, payment for the HUGE load that Wee-Bey took on his shoulders at the end of season one, which has allowed Namond to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle that none of his friends could imagine, and that Wee-Bey himself doesn't get to enjoy even if his prison life is about as easy as it gets. Namond and Randy both have well-known fathers, though only Namond seems to have any awareness of/relationship with his father. Satisfied that his family's needs are being taken care of, Wee-Bey shifts to his true passion, asking about how his fish are doing. Delonda rolls her eyes and complains that the fish are being fed and as they're fish, she has no idea how the hell they're feeling and tells him to ask the boy. Turning his attention to Namond for the first time, the boy's whole face lights up even as he tries to affect a cool demeanor, and when Wee-Bey proudly points out that he's developing facial hair, Namond touches his upper lip and a big smile crosses his face before he puts the poker face back on and pretends that it's nothing important. There is no doubt that Namond utterly reveres his near-legendary father, and he delights in a story that Wee-Bey happily shares about his own youth when the old-timers on the corner convinced him to smear urine on his upper lip to help him grow his own first mustache. Joking aside, Wee-Bey asks how Namond is doing, and it's telling that Namond's first thought is to mention school, while Wee-Bey's is over how Bodie is treating him on his corner. They discuss his here, Wee-Bey surprised that Bodie hasn't done anything about it, and Namond admits that Bodie has been pushing him to cut it, which Wee-Bey agrees with, it makes him stand out too much and be easily identifiable to the police. Here Delonda speaks up, in what is a sign of things to come - Delonda takes Namond's presence and reputation on the street VERY seriously, and isn't pleased over news from Bodie that Namond has missed half his days of work, and angry that he's spending what money he does make on "nonsense", warning that she isn't going to put any cash towards his school needs. Wee-Bey offers somewhat of an alternative though, as rather than haranguing Namond like his mother, he points out an important truth - he's either real out there.... or he isn't.   Marlo Stanfield is real, and he's making sure everybody knows. He and Chris watch as money is handed out to local kids in his name, and he even waves when the kids call out a thank you to him. It seems a friendly gesture and suggests maybe Marlo does care about community relations after all, until he gets into his car and it's pointed out that now his name will ring out. A small smile crosses this face, that is the only thing that matters to him. The money is a token gesture, nothing more. Cutty is still working his day laborer job, impressing the crew boss who watches as he jovially curses with the Mexicans. He notes that Cutty speaks Spanish even better than he does, though Cutty laughs it off as just the odd curse word here and there, not really Spanish. But the Crew Boss is serious, Cutty could be running his own truck and picking up his own laborers, and if they worked together they could cover twice as much ground and make more money. Cutty happily turns down the generous offer, reminding him that he has other obligations, and the Crew Boss sardonically notes that he forgot Cutty was looking to be the next Angelo Dundee. Cutty's good mood isn't to be shaken though, and the two trade more cheery insults as Cutty rushes the mower up the lawn. On Bodie's corner, Namond has brought Michael to the corner hoping to get him work to help him cover the cost of school supplies for himself and his little brother. Bodie is pissed off, Namond barely works most days and now he wants to bring a friend on as well? Michael is clearly uncomfortable, but says he is willing to work, and when it becomes clear that Bodie isn't budging, Namond tells Michael he can take his place until he gets together what he needs. Michael thanks him and Bodie agrees, eager to get rid of them as he has spotted police approaching. Namond and Michael quickly clear out, and Bodie is very uncomfortable to see that Carver is joined today by the suited-up Bunk, a stranger to these corners to be viewed with suspicion. With his traditional good cheer, Carver asks where Lex is, since his broom is there but the man himself is nowhere to be seen. When Bodie lamely offers that he hasn't seen him, a disappointed Carver tells him that he thought they (Carver and Bodie) had a better relationship, and he may have to drive by every 15 minutes till Lex shows up. Bodie insists that he hasn't seen Lex but promises to get him in touch with Carver the moment he sees him, and when Carver just gives him a stare he repeats himself, assuring him he will. Carver grins and heads back to his car, Bunk taking a moment to give Bodie a deliberately contemptuous look before joining him, and they drive off. Bodie is left alone on his corner with only his nearby tout for company, already back to his cry of,"Got that Pandemic!' now that the police are gone. Bodie mumbles that this all depends on IF Lex comes by, as he has clearly already guessed what has happened to his missing friend. Herc and Carver drive the Mayor to his next engagement, Herc unable to stop looking in the rearview mirror at the Mayor as he chats on the phone with great glee about the poor showing of Tony Gray and the political suicide of Carcetti. This is a man completely at ease, enjoying his continued political domination, and the only cloud on his horizon is the big bald cop in the seat in front of him, who he himself keeps sneaking glances at - the Mayor has to be wondering what Herc is going to do with the bombshell he is sitting on. As you may have noticed there has been an oddly optimistic, happy attitude for many of the characters in the first episode and now in this one (with some obvious exceptions). Maybe it's because it is Summer and the heat and light just put people into a better mood, but whatever it is, Bubbles has certainly got it. He and his new protege Sherrod move their two linked shopping trolleys down a hill, Bubbles' shouting out to all who will listen about the many bargains to be had from "Bubbles Depo" (sic). He attracts a couple of customers, cheerfully handing over their requests - he's selling a little bit of everything, paint cans, packs of cigarettes, shirts etc - and taking an opportunity to school Sherrod at the same time. The young man struggles with his sums though, while Bubbles is able to add, subtract, multiply and divide with practiced ease, Sherrod has to use his fingers, and gets the figures completely wrong, charging $13 for a large order that is selling for $19. Bubbles corrects him, explains that he's still training the "intern" and reminds the customer he's still getting a bargain and best still the store came to him rather than the other way around. Sherrod pleasantly hands over his purchase, but Bubbles has lost a little of his good mood now. Bunk visits with Lex's mother, and though he's a very good detective he seems to be missing the subtleties of her emotional reactions as he gives his normal patter. Her home is spotless, and the presence of an older man in a corner chair and a tableau of family photographs indicates a solid family unit - a credit to the set design who convey so much about the family in a scene that lasts less than a minute. But Lex (real name Curtis) is a drug dealer, and Bunk isn't accepting her muttered protest that she knows nothing about that. He's heard it all before, of course, and finds himself telling a parent not for the last time that he doesn't care about that, that he's investigating a homicide, and that the best thing for her son is to come and speak with him. But when he says homicide her face falls, and whenever he talks about Lex in the present tense or leads her to do the same, you can see she is barely holding herself together. It's an excellent piece of subtle acting from the actress, who conveys well in a nearly motionless performance that her heart is breaking and that she's trying to hide her grief, because she knows that her son is dead.   That night Carcetti meets with Union Reps at the Fraternal Order of Police lodge accompanied by Valchek (who did such a good job of destroying Frank Sobotka's union in season 2) where he is resigned to what he is being told - the Police Union is going to back Royce, because all the polls say he is going to win and they don't want to get on the bad side of the Mayor. He agrees when they say he'd do the same thing in their place, but points out that while the Union can endorse Royce, there is no reason that off-duty officers should be manning his phone booths or otherwise show active or extraordinary support. They agree, and Carcetti leaves with a sigh, Valchek telling him it was the best he could do before scurrying off, perhaps his own finely honed political senses warning him away. Norman tells the despondent Carcetti he needs plenty of rest so he can prepare for the Debate tomorrow, nothing else matters. Carcetti has a different take on things - NOTHING matters. He's lost, he knows it, and he's given up fighting. At Cutty's Gym, adorably a giant poster of Avon Barksdale has been put up on the wall under a banner reading,"OUR PLATINUM CLUB PATRON", despite Avon's dismissal of the idea at the end of season 3 when he forked over all the money Cutty needed and more besides. The place is buzzing, and Cutty seems to have a couple of adult volunteers helping out now. Youths spar in the ring, Justin is skipping rope, others are working the bags, and a surprising number of women are gathered, with all their eyes quite clearly on Cutty and nobody else. A larger woman arrives and says hello to Justin before making right for Cutty, who recognizes her as Spider's mother. He tells her Spider left earlier but she waves that off, not interested in her son ("He's at his Grandmother's" she notes with a wave of her arm), wanting to talk about him. She explains how grateful she is about what a wonderful influence he is having on Spider, who is always talking about his coach, and tells him she wants to thank him by making him dinner at her place. A trio of women in one corner of the gym watch intently as she openly flirts with Cutty, who realizes what is going on and with great diplomacy explains that while he appreciates the offer, he has to work hard because a number of his students are fighting in matches this weekend. She turns on the charm more, pointing out that she can throw down in the kitchen... amongst other places! He gets the message all right, and tells her that if she was to make a plate and bring it down, he would appreciate that, and she takes whatever opening she can get, assuring him she'll do just that. Cutty is still relatively young, he's in excellent physical shape, he's community minded, respected by the kids and, importantly though not necessarily a necessity, he's single. His Gym isn't just attracting kids anymore, it's attracting every single mother for miles around.   In bed, Daniels and Pearlman are discussing Lester and his wonderful ability to guilt them into doing whatever he wants. Daniels is delighted to hear how confused Pearlman is that she ended up sending out all the subpoenas, and mimics Lester looking over his glasses, saying it's the act that says he's the father and he doesn't want to be disappointed in them. Pearlman slaps Daniels as he laughs, unable to prevent herself from joining in, and Daniels gleefully explains that he's just happy it's finally happening to somebody other than him. He wraps her in his arms and kisses her, the two blissfully happy despite Pearlman's concerns over her career. The next morning the beautiful summer weather has turned gray, and Bubbles is discussing a similar proposal as the Crew Boss made to Cutty - he wants to give Sherrod his own trolley and double the territory they work, increasing their market share. The trouble is, while the Crew Boss was eager to bring Cutty on, Bubbles knows he can't trust Sherrod to handle things unsupervised. Sherrod doesn't like to hear that, obviously, but Bubbles won't let it go - he needs some basic math skills if he is going to work Bubbles' Depo. Sherrod reminds him that they tried this once before by bringing him up to another school where they couldn't find his records, but Bubbles counters that they still let him go to class. Sherrod explains the teacher never paid him any attention, and Bubbles points out that Sherrod giving up on the class and skipping school because of that only hurt him, not the teacher. They continue on, Bubbles smiling, considering his battle already half won. The Fayette Street Mafia hang out on the stoop and discuss the impending end of their freedom as the school approaches. Namond has a different take on things though, he can't wait for school to start again so he can see which of the girls got "phat". Randy speaks up to mention a cute girl from the previous year who he recently saw who is not only "phat" but also has developed breasts, and Namond brags that he is definitely going to get with her. Michael speaks up with a grin, reminding him he tried the previous year, and Namond insists he only half-tried before joking that Michael will try and get with a notorious girl called Tina. Michael tells him not to speak badly about her and Namond, unable to resist, insists it isn't anything bad, she just sucks dicks in the boy's bathroom is all! Michael retorts that Namond sucks even more dicks, typical schoolboy stuff, and they begin sparring to the cheers of the watching boys. Michael actually starts connecting though and Namond immediately loses his nerve, pushing away and complaining that Michael might damage the new throwback jersey he just bought. Michael is just having fun and doesn't consider that Namond was terrified of actually fighting, settling happily back down on the stoop. The innocent fun ends there, unfortunately, as an imposing figure steps up to the stoop whom they all know - a Stanfield dealer named Monk who asks if they'll be back to school soon and need cash for gear, and then begins freely handing out $200 to each of the gaping kids. Randy's eyes light up, Namond is delighted, and Monk explains that Marlo Stanfield doesn't want them to go to school looking ragged. He gestures across the street where Marlo and Chris are watching, and Marlo offers the briefest of nods towards the kids... and that's when things get scary. Monk offers $200 to Michael, who drops his head, sucks in his lips and the pushes the hand away and as politely as possible thanks Monk but says no thanks. Confused, Monk explains he's not expected to do anything for it, which is about the worst thing you could say to Michael. He's more than willing to work Bodie's corner to make $40 or $50, but that's because he'd be doing something for it. To just take money for nothing? Michael simply can't do that, and says no thanks again to Monk and walks away.... and now he's caught Marlo's attention and raised Marlo's anger.   Randy tries to lighten the mood by telling "Mr. Monk" that he'll take Michael's money if he doesn't want it, but Namond quickly shuts him up, even his own cheeky personality knowing there comes a time when you don't press something. They watch uneasily as Monk walks away, and Marlo storms across the street calling out directly to Michael, demanding to know what is wrong with him... and Marlo has killed people for far less a "transgression" than this. Michael drops his head, offering absolutely no challenge or malice Marlo's way as Marlo demands to know if he has too much pride to take money, but when Marlo asks if he is a bitch who worries about the source of money, Michael's head shoots straight up and makes direct eye-contact with Marlo, a direct challenge to the undisputed king of the West Side. Marlo's reaction? He smiles!   Holding Michael's eye contact, he waits to see if Michael will back down, and when he doesn't a small smile crosses Marlo's face. He tells Michael not to worry, they're cool, and Michael instantly drops his eyes, turns to look back at his concerned friends, then heads on up the road leaving a bemused Marlo behind. Marlo returns to Chris, while Namond turns his head to hide the fact that he himself was near tears from the fear of what was going to happen to Michael. It was a complicated and very dangerous confrontation of wills, Marlo felt like he was being insulted or otherwise looked down on, while Michael's pride was unable to let him capitulate when his manhood was calling into question. Recognizing that Michael wasn't a "bitch-rear end punk" after all, just a prideful man who he was forcing into a confrontation, Marlo recognized the truth - Michael was absolutely no threat to him whatsoever unless Marlo forced that on him, and there was nothing to gain from Marlo utterly destroying him as he inevitably would have. Marlo is a complicated man, some things will raise up a fury in him that only the death of the offending party will put down, but in spite of that he isn't a careless, indiscriminate killer. He kills when it benefits him, he kills when he feels his reputation is being threatened, but he won't kill a kid because the kid's pride wouldn't let him take $200 from him for doing nothing. Marlo knows that Michael doesn't have a problem with him, Michael has a problem with Michael. Herc is navigating his own minefield, convinced that he has ruined his career. Returning to the Western District, he has gone straight to Carver to let him know what he saw in City Hall and beg him for advice on what to do next. Carver can't help himself and keeps laughing as Herc laments his fate, sure he's going to end up riding a boat like McNulty, sarcastically answering Carver's question of what he said to Royce by claiming he complimented him on his good, strong dick. Carver regains control of him, takes a deep breath, shakes his head... and then bursts out laughing again before suggesting that they take this to somebody who knows politics far better than they do. Speaking of which, Carcetti is being prepped for his debate, where D'Agostino and Norman are explaining how Royce will try to turn the crime statistics into a bonus for himself and accuse Carcetti of playing the race card. Carcetti is to stay strong and keep pushing the message that the city is not safer under Mayor Royce's administration. The phone rings and Carcetti leaps on the distraction, happily taking his wife's call and chatting away with her as Norman and D'Agostino exchange worried glances. Tommy is more concerned about forgetting to mail a check to the Archdiocese and that could get his kid taken out of her school. Norman snaps at him to get his mind back in the game, and Tommy immediately surprises them by hitting them with all the salient points, facts and figures he will need to tear Royce apart in the debate. They're delighted, till he reminds them that tomorrow night he'll kick Royce's rear end in the debate, but the following morning he'll still wake up white in a city that ain't. With that out of the way, he calls the Archdiocese to sort out that issue, something he CAN deal with. On the street, Michael, Randy and Namond have picked up some food and a now recovered Namond is laughing with Randy, exaggerating that Randy was running down the street after Monk begging him for Michael's money. Randy admits that he could use it, having spent all the money Miss Anna gave him for school clothes on candy to sell when school restarts. Interestingly, Randy is the one who verbalizes exactly what Marlo was doing, making sure everybody knows that he is the guy running things in West Side now, getting his name out. They ask Michael why he didn't take the money and he insists that's not him, he can't owe people money. Namond laughs and says he'll take any motherfucker's money if he is giving it away (a line later echoed by none other than Clay Davis), but Michael asks why, genuinely curious, Namond's family has more money than any of them. Namond explains that his mother has cut him off, and since Michael is working Namond's old job he needs the cash. They're cut off though when they spot a SUV careening down the road, driven by none other than FSM member Donut, who pulls up with a nod and a,"Gentlemen." Everybody gathers around, Namond instantly leaping into the passenger seat while Randy enthusiastically suggests they drive down to the country and go camping. Dukie says he's scared of the country and they explain they actually mean the county, but Namond pompously declares the Klu Klux Klan can be found there, causing Michael to laugh since his Aunt lives in the County (that'll be important in season 5). Namond tells Donut to drive him away from these simple fools and Donut obliges by lurching the car forward a few feet, cracking up the assembled horde. Carver is driving Herc to see their possible political salvation when he spots all the kids gathered around the SUV, and both instantly pick up they're looking at a stolen car. They turn and approach, lights flashing, and the kids instantly scatter, disappearing up the alleyways as Carver calls in their location. Herc bobs in the seat with pleasure as Carver prepares to give chase in the car, declaring it's just like old times, but as they turn the corner Carver abruptly stops, hit by a moment of clarity. Why is he getting set to go tearing around the alleyways? He knows half the kids he saw take off, including where they hang out, and he can find them anytime he wants. He tells a surprised Herc they'll just call it in and then go see their man, and backs out of the alley. This is a far cry from the Carver who chased a stash runner through the Low Rises and screamed out to an indifferent audience that,"YOU DO NOT GET TO WIN!" This is a more mature and effective police officer. The kids don't know that though, they're still running, getting as far as they can from the SUV, trying to keep clear of the approaching patrol cars that are searching for them. Randy unfortunately runs right across one such car's path, and is caught trying to get over a fence by a tall black uniformed officer. This is the first appearance of Officer Walker, who like Colicchio before him is that rare officer who appears to have no redeeming features whatsoever. Walker demands to know why Randy was running, not pleased by his answer of,"Because you were chasing me," and frisks him, finding the $200 in his pocket that Monk gave him. Accusing Randy of slinging drugs, Walker doesn't buy his insistence that his foster mother gave him that money for school supplies, tucking the cash into his own pocket and telling Randy that she can come and claim it if it belongs to her. He's clearly taking the money for himself, and Randy knows it, but as he walks away (Walker acts like he is doing him a favor) he looks back and Walker snaps at him not to look at him. Walker is a detestable character, though it's not like he just appeared one day fully formed. This is a guy who clearly has aggression issues, who is undoubtedly corrupt, but still considers himself superior to all those who remain down on the street instead of making something of themselves or pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. There are probably a great number of this type of police officer in the world, sad to say. On the opposite side of the Walker spectrum is Freamon, who is ready to strike and excited as hell about it. However as noted before, Lester is a careful, calculated and far more experienced version of McNulty and he is keeping his fellow officers in mind as he prepares to throw his harpoon at HIS white whale. He tells Greggs and Sydnor that he is willing to hand over the subpoenas himself and keep their names out of it, because he has his 20 years already and if things go bad, he can retire with his pension (they couldn't take that away from Colvin, no way they can take it away from him) but they'll still have to live in the Department. Greggs is, as always, more than ready to be an active participant, while Sydnor clearly hesitates, perhaps thinking about what life was like before this Major Detail when his mostly ignorant self was considered a bright, effective and talented young Detective on the rise. He joins in though, and soon Andy Krawcyzk and Clay Davis are getting the unpleasant surprise of subpoenas requesting their financial records. Krawcyzk tries to play it smooth, asking Greggs if she needs them right away since he's so busy, and she pleasantly tells him to just make sure they're provided in a timely fashion. His calm falls away when he asks what unit she's with and gets the terrifying answer of "Major Crimes". Meanwhile, Sydnor uses his undercover skills to fake a casual and relaxed attitude as he hands over his subpoena to Senator Clay Davis, who is all outrage the moment he sees what he's been given. As Sydnor notes that Davis is in the Sphinx Club and asks if he remembers Sydnor's Uncle who used to tend bar there, the outraged Davis demands answers, why is he being subpoenaed? Who is Sydnor? When he gets his card and sees that Sydnor is in Major Crimes, his outrage (masking his utter terror) simply grows, represented by what is essentially his catchphrase, a long drawn out "poo poo".  
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Aug 13, 2013 |
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Aug 13, 2013 11:13
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Out by a creek in the county, Marlo has gathered all his best soldiers together for shooting practise, keeping the trained ones up to snuff and helping bring along those with potential from the untrained. Glasses, jars and bottles have been placed up as targets and while none of them are what you would call marksmen, they have enough control of their weapons to hit most of what they're aiming at, finding a balance between aim and speed. Snoop enthusiastically shows off her own skills while Partlow is content to sit back and offer advice to the others, and Marlo just seems to enjoy shooting for the hell of it. Monk receives a phonecall and with agitation begins dealing with the problem - Old Face Andre wants a resupply and is insistent that they hurry up and get it to him. Marlo, in a shocking lapse of discipline born from ignorance rather than arrogance, takes the phone from Monk and speaks on the phone directly to a mid-level supplier of drugs, warning him to watch him mouth and consider who he is speaking to before making demands. Hanging up, he returns the phone to Monk who complains that Andre is more trouble to him than both his baby-mamas. On the East Side of Baltimore by the harbor, Herc joins Major Valchek on a park bench to explain his problems. Herc needed a politician to figure out how to deal with things, and Carver could think of no better politician in the BPD than Major Stan Valchek. The Major immediately sees Herc's situation as the blessing it truly is, and demonstrates just why he's been able to make such a solid career despite having being such a contemptible figure as he lays out Herc's course of action. Herc is concerned that his prospects for promotion have been destroyed but Valchek insists that he's got it made now, he should consider himself already a Sergeant and expect a Lieutenant and Major promotion to come in the following years. Why? Because he's going to take his knowledge of Royce getting a blowjob from his secretary and do absolutely nothing with it, that's why. He's going to pretend the whole thing never happened, never mention it, never allude to it, nothing. Royce will watch him, and then he'll come to Herc one day and he'll act friendly and concerned about Herc's career, wanting to know what he wants from the BPD and can he help in any way? Neither of them will mention what Herc saw, and Royce will keep things that way by making sure Herc is well looked after. What if Royce DOES gently caress Herc over though? In that case, says Valchek, then he should shout it to the rooftops, but he knows that isn't going to happen. Relieved, Herc thanks the Major profusely, first saluting and then shaking his hand. Valchek nods and suggests like it was an afterthought (it wasn't) that maybe one day in the future when Herc has made rank, he'll do Valchek a solid in return. As he pointed out to Herc, this kind of "you wash my back I'll wash yours" attitude has helped make many a career, and there's a reason Valchek is a Major in the BPD while the likes of McNulty walk foot patrol and Colvin left the force in a disgrace and knocked back to a Lieutenant's pension. Herc heads away, telling a surprised waiting Carver that there's no longer any problem, leaving Valchek to chuckle happily to himself while looking out over the harbor, wishing he was the one in Herc's position and considering all the advantage he could take. In Mayor Royce's office, a more pressing problem than what Herc saw has landed in Royce's lap - a pissed off Clay Davis is storming about his office in a rage over the fact that he's been issued with a subpoena. What truly rankles him is that it was a City Police that did it - a Federal Officer he could understand, that's "all in the game", but not a City Police, not after all the fundraising that Davis has done for Royce's ticket. Royce maintains his poker face and tries to calm Clay down, but he wants to vent and he's going to, stomping back and forth complaining about being accused of money laundering. He asks Royce where he thinks he got all that money - Korean grocery stores? - and then echoes Namond's earlier line as he snaps that he'll take any motherfucker's money if he's giving it away. Royce maintains his calm, reminding Clay that he doesn't want to know about the sources of the money and insisting again that Clay calm down, promising he knew nothing about any of this. Clay refuses to be calmed, declaring that he has to get out of this office before he loses his mind - there's nobody quite as outraged and furious as a man who knows that he's absolutely 100% guilty and in danger of being caught out. He leaves, allowing a worried Parker to come in and tell Royce that Krawcyzk is on the line, and he (Parker) is going to get right onto Burrell and Demper (the State's Attorney) to find out what the hell is going on. Surprisingly, Royce stops him for a moment to ask about the bald-headed white police working in his bodyguard, seemingly more concerned with this than two of HIS biggest fundraisers facing potential criminal charges. He wants to know where Herc came from, and seems surprised that Lieutenant Hoskins is really the best "Rabbi" in the Department that Parker can think of for Herc. Parker asks if he wants to lose him from the Detail, but Royce waves that off, saying he wants to think about it. Valchek read the situation perfectly, Royce wants to see how Herc handles himself before his makes his move. Sitting back down, he stares at the blinking light on his phone and sighs, now it's time to tell with Krawcyzk. Randy, Dukie, Namond and Donut have regathered at one of their hangouts, where Namond is commiserating with Randy over his money being stolen by Officer Walker. All the boys seem to know Walker, and his theft of Randy's cash comes as no surprise to any of them. Donut is enthusiastically looking through an Auto Trade magazine, talking about the cars he wants, and Dukie warns him to be careful, he was almost caught this time. Donut laughs it off, but his bragging is cut off as they realize that somehow Carver has tracked them down. He approaches and asks if they know who he is (they do) and explains that he's not a Narcotics Officer today, he's Auto Theft, and he's here to give fair warning that if he spots any of them so much as smile at a car then his officers will deal with them. Not by taking them in on juvenile charges, but by administering beatings to them in the alleyways where nobody can see. Namond is amused at this posturing and points out that police "can't" do this, but Carver tells them to just try him, and freaks out Namond when he calls him by name. Looking them all over, he warns that he knows every single one of them, knows where they live, and - as demonstrated by his current presence - knows where they like to hang out. He heads away, leaving the boys to stare in surprise after him, this is clearly a police officer not to be hosed with - they wouldn't recognize the Carver from season one. Even so, after he gets in his car and heads away, Donut can't resist commenting on what a nice ride he has.   In Homicide, Bunk is telling Norris and Holley that he thinks Lex is on the run but has to look on the bright side, at least he knows who is shooter is. Something is tickling the back of his mind though, and he tells them that Lex's mother was acting odd when he spoke to her, saying she knew nothing which is standard, but saying it in a different way than he is used to. He can't quite get to grips with the fact that she was trying to hide the fact she was grieving for a son she knows is already dead, her fear of the Stanfield Organization so great that she can't even let out that she knows Lex's fate. Bunk's musings are interupted by a ringing phone, and since Norris is up he prepares to take it, only for Holley to stop him as he considers a suspicion well known the world over - if Norris takes the call it's likely to be an easily solved crime, but if Holley takes it, it'll be a whodunnit... unless if Holley takes the call that Norris was GOING to take, does that mean he'll get Norris' "lucky" call? Finally Norris takes the call, and Holley is delighted that it appears to be a whodunnit, high-fiving Bunk who muses that it's better to be lucky than good. At Cutty's Gym, Michael is considering the heavy bag when Cutty notices him and asks if he wants to try it out. He calls over one of the other coaches who braces it as Michael begins to work it, and Cutty is enthralled, spotting that Michael has natural boxing talent. One of the many women who have started hanging around the Gym approaches and offers him a peach cobbler, the word having clearly gotten out about Spider's mother's attempt to get her hands on Cutty. He thanks her, but he can't take his eyes off of Michael as he watches him work the bag, and either doesn't notice or successfully covers up noticing that she is shamelessly flirting with him, even revealing that she doesn't have children and just comes to the Gym because she's so impressed with what he is doing for the community. He thanks her for it, while sharing a nod with the other coach who motions with his eyes towards Michael, as impressed as Cutty. Unfortunately this may have set the scene for an unfortunate misunderstanding down the road, as Michael probably can't help but notice that Cutty won't stop looking at him even while a woman is throwing herself at him. At the homicide scene, Holley has joined Norris who is the primary, and the uniformed officer is explaining the situation. The victim was actually alive when the uniform arrived, and was even able to speak. Norris asks hopefully if he identified his shooter, and the uniformed officer says he did, the victim said it was,"A guy with a gun." Holley bursts out laughing as Norris bristles, incredibly happy that he didn't choose to pick up the phone. Freamon, Greggs and Massey listen in on the recording of Monk's phonecall with Old Face Andre, Freamon working hard to get around the loud sound of gunfire in the background. They've identified Monk and Old Face Andre, but what they're really curious about is the third voice, because he clearly outranked Monk and based on what they could hear, it sounds like he outranked EVERYBODY. That can only mean one thing - Marlo Stanfield - and all the gunfire in the background is either target practise.... or a firing squad! Freamon is intrigued, Marlo has held the West Side for months and yet there are no bodies, but now they've got his voice on the wire while gunfire blasts out in the background... what exactly is he up to and how he is holding his corners? Massey makes the more salient point though, they've got him talking on the phone, something entirely unexpected and very welcome. Greggs laughs at how arrogant Marlo clearly is, laughing that he thinks he's the little King of everything (he certainly does!), and with great pleasure Freamon comments,"Ahh, youth." In an oddly touching yet utterly depressing scene, Bubbles and Sherrod are holed up in the little shack they've constructed in an alley for the night. Sherrod is sleeping on a mattress on the ground (you can't really call it the floor) and Bubbles has tied off his arm to shoot up, having apparently waited for the young Sherrod to be asleep before indulging in his addiction. He's alarmed when Sherrod speaks, and hides his tied-off arm under the blanket around his shoulder so Sherrod won't see it. Sherrod tells him that he's willing to go back to school if Bubbles thinks it will help him be an asset to their "Depo", though he hasn't been for awhile and doesn't even know if he will be allowed to return.... but if Bubbles wants him to, he will. Bubbles nods, touched, and Sherrod turns to get his sleep... and as soon as his back is to him, Bubbles immediately returns to shooting up again  The next day, Commissioner Burrell is catching Deputy Ops Rawls up on the Mayor's great displeasure over the subpoenas that have hit Clay Davis and Andy Krawcyzk. In a testament to just what a gaping rear end in a top hat he can be, McNulty is the first name on Burrell's lips, is he the one behind this? Rawls would be happy to blame McNulty I'm sure but shakes his head, McNulty has been gone from Major Crimes for some time now, and he suspects Lester Freamon is to blame. Burrell doesn't know who that is (a testament to Lester!), but he wants him squashed - they can't do anything about the subpoenas that have gone out but they can end the surprises, and that starts with ending Lester. Rawls disagrees though, he knows a far more effective way to nullify Lester without putting them in a position where it could look like they're interfering with a case to protect political figures - the Detail just needs "proper" supervision. At Homicide, Holley is in disbelief as a delighted Norris reports that his whodunnit murder victim turned out to be a cooperating witness, which makes this a high profile case, which means Norris is about to get all the overtime he could ever want. Norris pops in to see Landsman to fill him in, but after Landsman ascertains that Norris doesn't KNOW that the witness was killed for being a witness, he instructs him not to make any mention of it on his report - this close to the primary, he doesn't want the death of a cooperating witness muddying the waters. Norris doesn't look pleased but accepts the instruction, especially since Landsman tells him he'll approve all his overtime requests anyway and he'll be free to investigate as he sees fit - just without any mention of the witness angle. Once Norris is gone though, closing the door as instructed, Landsman gets right on the phone, ready to share this bombshell with "the major". Prez is getting useful advice from the other teachers ahead of the opening of school. Some of it is reasonable enough - have the students use generic headings for their work, and double space it so it is less of a strain on their eyes when marking. Others are more problematic, he has to explain that double-spacing doesn't mean to leave long gaps between words, and they even recommend he keeps the windows closed so the students get drowsy, because that makes them easier to handle. Prez asks about banning chewing gum in class and they laugh, only one of the teachers commands enough respect to prevent that happening in her class, and for Prez's first year he needs to concentrate on battles he can win. Finally they tell him to put as many activities into his lesson plan as he can, it keeps the students occupied and off-guard. They all get up to leave, and Prez is offered a mysterious bit of final advice - he needs "Soft Eyes". She doesn't elaborate, and the phrase will be used again by Bunk in another episode, essentially meaning to approach things from a new perspective and not focus so much on initial evaluations. Carcetti is phoning around again, fundraising listlessly as he goes through the motions of his campaign. To his surprise, Norman interrupts because Valchek wants to speak to him. The Major walks in beaming, and reminds Tommy that he asked him to keep an ear to the ground a few months back about any witness getting killed.... and now he's here with the "good" news. It seems Valchek was the major that Landsman called, and this would appear to be one of the many favors that Valchek cultivates, as he did earlier with Herc. At Edward Tilghman Middle School, Donnelly is being assisted by a young female student ahead of the start of the new term, and asks if she can drop off a box of new clothes to Dukie's house on her way home. The girl, Crystal, jokes that the clothes won't stay clean for long, and Donnelly stresses that she needs to give the clothes directly to Dukie, nobody else, including any of the adults living there. Dukie's bad family life is clearly no secret. Crystal takes the box and Donnelly thanks her for her help, then turns to see Bubbles and Sherrod at the counter, Bubbles dressed up as nicely as he can though the scars on his face plainly show his situation. He explains that Sherrod needs to enroll, and when Sherrod can't even recall what grade he was in when he last attended, Bubbles explains he has lost his way but is living with him now, and he means to make sure he gets an education. He identifies himself as Sherrod's uncle, and though Donnlly can clearly tell this is a lie, she still warmly invites them both into her office. As they follow her, Bubbles passes Prez, the two exchanging confused looks, wondering what the other is doing there.    At Cutty's Gym, Cutty is receiving yet another meal from an admiring woman, watched by an impressed Namond who is bracing the punching bag for Michael. They finish up the "round" and Namond praises a pleased Michael, only for Justin and Spider to get in their faces, insisting it is their turn on the bag now. Michael drops his eyes immediately, mumbling that he still has one more round to go, and like Marlo earlier Justin mistakes his lowered gaze for cowardice, and gets the same response when Michael sharply locks eyes with him, his pride not letting him take the insult lying down. Justin and Spider are pissed, Michael isn't in training and they are, and they want to work the bags. They almost come to blows, even Namond actually getting physical as he shoves Spider away. Cutty arrives moments later, breaking them up and demanding an end to this foolishness. He takes Michael aside, shouting back to Justin to wait till he gives the say-so before using the bag, and insists that Michael understand that he teaches boxing here, he doesn't allow fighting. Michael, his blood up, snaps that he'd take Justin on in the ring any day, but Cutty shoots that down too - Michael may be a natural but he has no business in the ring without being trained. Cutty would be happy to provide that training though, saying he'd be happy to train Michael personally, clearly impressed by the young man's natural skill but noting he still needs to work on his footwork. Michael, back to humble, mumbles that he just wants to go back to doing what he was doing, and since Cutty told him he could have four rounds on the bag, Cutty allows him to go back, clearly regretting that Michael didn't take him up on the offer. Crystal arrives at Dukie's that night, knocking on the door which is answered by a man who is clearly high as a kite, shaking and fidgeting, eyes spotting that Crystal has something and telling her he'll take it. Dukie pops his head out the window and calls down to her, telling her he'll be right down. She looks the disheveled man in the doorway over, and he grunts a semi-offended "What?" at her, as if she has no reason to be put off by his appearance and behavior. The Debate is finally occurring, and it's relaxed and confident Mayor Royce who seems to be getting the best of it as he details the successes of his administration, trumpeting in particular the drop in violent crime. At City Hall, his staff watch with beaming smiles as he focuses his attacks on Carcetti, Tony Gray all but forgotten as he stands on the opposite side of Royce, easily removed from the frame. Carcetti gets his two minutes to speak and immediately makes the shift to focusing on crime, and in another example of his talent for making great speeches that make people feel good about themselves, he quickly dismisses any police statistics as untrustworthy because of political interference. That would sound good but ultimately mean nothing if he had nothing else to add, and only a few hours ago he did have nothing else to add... but now he has a bombshell. Watched by members of the Homicide Division, they listen in astonishment (except for Landsman, who grins widely at seeing Valchek's handiwork) as Carcetti reveals that the man murdered the previous night was a cooperating witness in a drug trial set to begin in two weeks, a man who the entire case hinged on who had bravely stepped up to do his civic duty. The police weren't protecting him and now he's dead. That would be enough to take the wind out of Royce's sails but little else, but one of Carcetti's few non-political decisions now proves his saving grace. He mentions the meeting he had and the letter he wrote to Royce begging for more money to be put aside for witness protection, and then deftly avoids the race card by name-dropping Delegate Watkins (who is watching from his office with great interest) as somebody he worked with to raise funds for witness protection that would allow the city to apply for matching funds from the state.... matching funds that were never claimed. Of course Tommy knows that doing so would have been politically dangerous for Royce as it would have given the State Government (currently Republican) a chance to crow that Baltimore couldn't protect its own, but what is now coming across is that not only did Royce refuse to give money for witness protection, he actively turned DOWN money for witness protection. It's a king hit, and everybody knows it, Carcetti's Campaign Headquarters especially when Royce stammers his early response, which follows a sustained round for applause for Carcetti's speech. Suddenly the super-confident Royce who thought he only had to worry about Krawcyzk and Davis' bruised egos and maybe that bald headed police who caught him getting a blowjob has realized that Carcetti may have just blown the campaign right open, and he's actually going to have to fight hard to keep his position. He recovers as best he can, giving a good speech back that tries to paint Carcetti as a letter-writer as opposed to a doer, but he knows he's taken a heavy blow, and Carcetti knows it too.   But what about the citizens of the city? They have less interest in the politics than those immediately involved do. Cutty was watching the debate in bed (with one of the many women who now frequent the Gym sleeping beside him) but soon grows bored and switches to a football game. Namond comes home and finds his mother chatting happily on the phone to a girlfriend, and brazenly lights up one of her cigarettes for himself, taking a puff and throwing a mischievous wink at her before heading up the stairs. She smirks and goes back to talking, while Namond heads upstairs (fish tanks are everywhere, this is Wee-Bey's house alright) and finds to his great delight an entire new wardrobe of clothes laid out on his bed. He rushes back downstairs and catches her eye, and she smiles and tells him she wasn't going to let her son to back to school not looking himself. He blows her a kiss and rushes back upstairs as she smiles - enjoy this, it's one of the few genuinely loving and touching mother-and-son moments you'll ever seen between these two. Upstairs, Namond switches on the television where the increasingly sidelined Tony Gray is trying to get the subject back to education, reminding everybody of the true but sadly desperately boring fact that education is the best way to protect these kids from the corners, the violence, the drugs, and crime in general. He's barely gotten this statement made before Namond switches on his game console and begins playing a shoot-em-up videogame, completely oblivious to the political campaign taking place despite the debate on television and the fliers and posters that have been put up everywhere all over town. Tony Gray has no audience and dwindling support, and his laudable push for education is going to be completely overshadowed by two talented politicians using crime as a political football. The game is the game. Same as it ever was.
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Aug 13, 2013 11:14
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Jerusalem posted:Links for the OP, escape artist, season 3 now complete - just copy and paste! Season Four Episode 1 - Boys of Summer - Part 1 Episode 1 - Boys of Summer - Part 2 Episode 2 - Soft Eyes - Part 1 Episode 2 - Soft Eyes - Part 2
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Aug 13, 2013 11:17
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Good write up as always but when you were describing the scene with the Johnny Cash song you said Carcetti instead of Prez.
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Aug 13, 2013 19:12
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Wow that's a great catch with Cutty ignoring the women and watching Michael instead. Since the main direct consequence of Cutty sleeping with the moms is Spider leaving the gym, I never paid much attention to those scenes and just assumed Michael just inherently distrusted Cutty because of his past. It's still more due to Michael's psyche than anything of course but I didn't realize they were setting it up that early. There's a later scene where Cutty awkwardly tries to bond with Michael by talking about "how much he loves the women" and poor Cutty has no idea what actual impact it has. Also it's a pretty small scene but the scene where Marlo confronts Michael over his refusal to take the money is one of my favorite Marlo scenes. It's a really great example of Jamie Hector's perfectly economic performance. One thing I'm curious for interpretation on - why doesn't Valchek do anything with the blowjob info? I always assumed it was because he knew it would only play out as an unsubstantiated rumor and word might get around where he got it from. Or perhaps, as much of a piece of poo poo as he is, he doesn't want to betray another cop in that way? Or maybe he was planning on leaking it, then he heard about the dead witness which is a much better thing to use to aid Carcetti. It's never said but I'm curious because when I first saw it I assumed Valchek was not to be trusted with that info. Interesting how Lester's miscalculation with the subpoenas basically enables the entirety of season 4 and 5 since he would have had Marlo easily if he hadn't insisted on going after the money. Even with the precise timing it shows, I'm not sure what he actually expected to happen. It also shows that even though he's basically a smarter version of McNulty he's not that much smarter and he's not above potentially destroying people's careers. Also the witness play by Carcetti wasn't entirely the result of a "non political decision". The bit with writing the letter to Royce and waiting for another witness to be killed is precisely what Theresa advises him to do while he's planning his campaign in season 3. Funnily enough I don't think witness protection is ever mentioned again, even when Carcetti is genuinely trying to implement a New Day for the police. grading essays nude fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Aug 13, 2013 |
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Aug 13, 2013 19:42
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Jerusalem posted:When he gets his card and sees that Sydnor is in Major Crimes, his outrage (masking his utter terror) simply grows, represented by what is essentially his catchphrase, a long drawn out "poo poo". I'm sure most of you might have seen this already but it seems like the right time to post it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrfCixsd2N8
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Aug 13, 2013 22:27
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Sam. posted:Stringer didn't die, he just put on a lot of weight and got a job at the last place Omar would look. The guy Omar and Mouzone shot was actually just a British detective who happened to be in town. Charles Miner, accounting background, formally of Saticoy Steel, now Vice President of Northeast Sales for Dunder Mifflin. Good cover. Who would ever look in Scranton, PA? 
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Aug 13, 2013 22:34
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Thumposaurus posted:Good write up as always but when you were describing the scene with the Johnny Cash song you said Carcetti instead of Prez. Whoops, thanks! cletepurcel posted:One thing I'm curious for interpretation on - why doesn't Valchek do anything with the blowjob info? I always assumed it was because he knew it would only play out as an unsubstantiated rumor and word might get around where he got it from. Or perhaps, as much of a piece of poo poo as he is, he doesn't want to betray another cop in that way? Or maybe he was planning on leaking it, then he heard about the dead witness which is a much better thing to use to aid Carcetti. It's never said but I'm curious because when I first saw it I assumed Valchek was not to be trusted with that info. This is going to sound weird since I'm talking about Stan loving Valchek, but I believe it's because he was making the intelligent, long-term play. As you note, second-hand info that the Mayor got a blowjob is hardly a smoking gun, and trying to use the information himself is essentially crude blackmail as opposed to the subtler, mutually beneficial "blackmail" he suggests that Herc take part in - if he did that, he might get what he wanted but he'd create an enemy in the process. Instead, Valchek offers Herc some valuable advice while keeping himself at arm's length, and in doing so cultivates a potential ally for the future. He knows that if Herc plays his cards right he is going to get fast tracked through promotions and be seen as a rising star in the Department.... and that rising star is going to owe Stan Valchek a favor AND feel good about what a great guy Stan Valchek is. That later scene where Landsman calls Valchek to let him know about the witness is pretty important, because it shows that this isn't a one-off for Valchek, he's been doing this for years (decades!) and has a large network of guys who feel like they owe him. Politically speaking, Valchek is very intelligent, and while we all like to joke about it, it shouldn't come as too big a surprise that he ends up the Commissioner of Police. Ainsley McTree posted:I'm sure most of you might have seen this already but it seems like the right time to post it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrfCixsd2N8 I lost it when he started back up 
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Aug 13, 2013 23:15
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Spoilers Below posted:Charles Miner, accounting background, formally of Saticoy Steel, now Vice President of Northeast Sales for Dunder Mifflin. Good cover. Who would ever look in Scranton, PA? Every time he ranted at Jim for being lazy I imagined him thinking "gently caress, I'm still surrounded by 40-degree-day idiots."
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Aug 14, 2013 01:18
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I always saw the poster of Avon at Cutty's gym as just him doing his bit to make sure that Avon's name was still ringing out now that he's inside.
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Aug 14, 2013 14:10
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Happy 43rd Birthday Avon!!!
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Aug 15, 2013 12:06
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Season 4, Episode 3: Home RoomsNamond posted:I Love the first day, man. Everybody all friendly an' poo poo The first episode of the season showed the clash of cultures between Snoop and the "real world" as she undertook a very drab, common chore of going to a hardware store to buy a new tool. In that (fantastic) scene we saw that everything - even the mundane - is skewed by "the game", and that in many ways the people involved can never lead an ordinary life, because they're so deeply entrenched in the life the system has created for them. This is demonstrated again in the opening scene of this episode, as a familiar domestic routine occurs for Omar, and we see how even the most ordinary of actions are twisted for somebody living a life like his. On the surface it's something that may have happened to us all at one point or another - a man is woken from sleep by noisy garbagemen, discovers their partner/spouse/significant other has used up all the cereal and goes out to buy some, too sleepy and lazy to bother getting changed just for a quick walk to the local store. Of course the store doesn't have his favorite brand, so he takes the best he can get, stops for a cigarette on the way home, returns to the house and immediately walks into a complaint from his spouse that he brought the wrong thing. It's domestic, it's mundane, it's a slice of everyday life.... except it's Omar, and things can't be that simple. The noise of the garbageman wakes him because it sounds like a shot and he's immediately on his guard. It's too much effort for him to change out of his silk pajamas but at the same time he's trying to figure out how to tuck a gun into his waistband. The home he lives in is an abandoned derelict rowhouse with a boarded up door. As he crosses the alleys and roads to the local store, young touts cry out warnings that Omar is coming, making the early morning dealers run for their lives while he ignores them completely. When he stops for a smoke against a wall, he inadvertently chooses a local stash who drop their drugs out the window to him, fearing that otherwise he will burst in and kill them all. Taken aback, he still takes the drugs with him, returning home where his new lover - Renaldo (apparently Dante's capitulation to a beating after Brandon had stood up to torture and death saw the end of that relationship) - complains that he didn't get the honey nut Cheerios that he likes. Omar sits down at the table beside him and glares at the bags of drugs and complains he doesn't want THESE drugs. Why not? Because Omar says it isn't important what you steal, but who you steal it from. So how is going to run with the wolves at night if he spends his days playing with puppies? It's a mixture of pride and keeping himself sharp - a guy like Omar has to live on the edge to stay alive, because complacency will kill him. Not to mention, his name won't ring out and maintain his reputation if he's ripping off nobody-dealers in the middle of nowhere, and scenes like we've just seen where entire crews run away just because he's walking down the street (in his pajamas!) will stop happening. Like Marlo, Omar knows the value of a reputation, something that will have massive implications on Season 5. As a final aside for this scene (which is both funny and informative), this features very casual full frontal nudity on Omar's behalf. I think it's worth pointing out because full frontal nudity is a common thing for females in television shows as part of the ever pervasive male domination of society, whereas male nudity is quite rare. A show like The Wire was considered progressive just for the number of African American roles it provided, and it should be lauded for also showing homosexual relationships and male nudity as things that just happen, in the same way that heterosexual relationships and female nudity are displayed so readily on screen. This is how normalization and acceptance happens, so good for The Wire. Now is also a good time to talk about the political posters and signs. The first two episodes have seen them plastered up EVERYWHERE, and yet they've gone completely ignored by all the various characters we've seen, who seem to have no interest in the upcoming primary. In this episode, Omar becomes the first character I can recall who actually pays attention, noting a VOTE ROYCE poster on the exterior of his "home" and grumpily tearing it down and tossing it aside. This poster-blindness is next shown when the Deacon comes to visit Colvin at his home, and points out the many signs on the street, noting that Colvin appears to be a Royce man, which he can understand given the way Carcetti screwed him over Hamsterdam. Colvin has no idea what he is talking about until he actually takes the time to focus and notices the signs are there. Considering they're colorful and specifically designed to attract attention, it's interesting (depressing) to note just how quickly they fade into the background for the average citizen. Colvin grumpily complains that the signs are put up every day almost as fast as he can pull them down - this isn't about citizens actively supporting their favorite candidate, this is about a candidate's team creating the impression of widespread support for a candidate by everyday people. It's all an illusion that they are hoping to convert into a truth, create a large enough impression of popularity and support and you just might be able to make it a reality, if only because there will always be people who are concerned that they vote for the "winner" regardless of their policies.   Also note the similarity of color between Royce's signs and Gray's, while Carcetti's stand out. This is a pretty good example of how Gray has completely failed to distinguish himself, making Carcetti into the default opposing candidate against Royce. The Deacon has come to catch up on how Colvin is doing now that his police career is over. Colvin isn't exactly over the moon with his current situation but he seems reasonably content and far less stressed - he works as a Hotel Security Manager now, earning 52k a year with a take-home car, dividing his week between day and night shifts and working NO weekends. It's not the high-paid university position he had lined up before Hamsterdam blew up in his face, but it's sure as hell better than a kick in the teeth. He laughs when the Deacon offers him a different position, the University of Maryland has gotten a half-million dollar grant to do studies into repeat violent offenders and are looking for somebody with experience dealing with that type, and the Deacon has sold them on Colvin being their adviser. Colvin reminds him that he had his fill of these tie-wearing do-gooders during Hamsterdam, so the Deacon tells him to keep it in mind, the University types LOVE Colvin for being the police who legalized "it", even if everybody else hated him for it. Colvin is content though, his job is good, low stress and with reasonable pay, he's had his fill of tipping at windmills. At Bodie's corner, a very troubling sight is disturbing Bodie's good mood as the corner buzzes through a good day's business. A black SUV pulls up across the corner and from it emerges Snoop, Chris Partlow.... and Marlo Stanfield. Marlo takes note of Michael working the corner and points out to Chris that he isn't willing to take money but is happy to work for it, pleased by the fact. The three approach Bodie who tenses up, the whole thing having a wild west showdown feel to it till Chris puts up his hands and assures Bodie they're just there to talk. Marlo isn't so much interesting in talking WITH Bodie though, as talking at him. He notes that the corner is buzzing and that Bodie has done well, deliberately screwing up Bodie's name to demonstrate his own authority and power - for Marlo, the value of your name is THE most important thing, and getting Bodie's wrong is a demonstration of his own superior position. Bodie doesn't back off at all, scowling and saying that Marlo knows his name is Bodie, which Marlo acknowledges before laying out a FACT - this is now HIS corner. Bodie frowns, confused and angry, but Marlo isn't having a discussion, he's told Bodie how things are now and that's the end of that. Acknowledging that Bodie has done well with the territory and made this a valuable corner, he states that now Bodie has two choices - take his package or be run off. Chris will get in contact soon and Bodie will let him know which it is going to be, but that's the end of things - this IS a Stanfield Corner now, and Bodie either joins or dies. Remember that in season 3, Stringer's big mistake was sending Bodie to talk with Marlo as an equal, mistaking Marlo for just another small-time guy running a couple of corners, similar to Bodie's own status within the Barksdale Organization. Now Marlo is doing to Bodie what Bodie attempted to do to Marlo, and both of them know that Bodie is in no position to ignore and fight back against the takeover. Marlo leaves satisfied, telling Chris to keep an eye on Michael who he sees potential in. Chris agrees, asking if Marlo sees "big paws on a puppy?" and Marlo laughs, agreeing. That in turn plays back nicely to Omar's earlier comment about running with the wolves and playing with puppies - some puppies grow up to be wolves themselves.   In Royce's office, the big item on the agenda is Tommy Carcetti. He hit Royce hard at the debate over the dead witness, and while it wasn't a knock-out blow it has seen Tommy close the gap with Royce, while Gray remains a distant third. Royce is now really focusing on his re-election, which he had considered a done deal before the debate, and has summoned Burrell (Police Commissioner) and Demper (State's Attorney) to explain themselves at a meeting with Parker (Chief of Staff) and Odell Watkins (political rainmaker). Burrell admits that the murder could have been because of the witness angle... but it could just as easily not be, they don't have any information yet. Royce stares at the newspaper article on Carcetti's growing popularity and declares that this is it, this 8 point gap is the closest that Carcetti can be allowed to get, and it's time for Royce to unleash his plan to stop the rot. To Watkins' disgust and Parker's delight, said plan involves absolutely nothing to do with exploring the witness angle or cracking down on crime or getting matching funds for witness protection, and everything to do with personally destroying Tommy Carcetti. Royce wants the word put out that anybody who offers funds to his campaign AND Tommy's will be left out in the cold, there will be no playing things down the middle. All of Carcetti's signs are to be removed anywhere and everywhere they are planted, no exception (unless a homeowner is there to wrestle the signs away!). Anybody at Carcetti's campaign headquarters will be hit hard for any traffic violation (which brings to mind Valchek's campaign against Frank Sobotka), and Burrell and Demper are going to slow down the investigation as much as possible so absolutely no new information comes out that Carcetti can take advantage of, even if this means that one or both of them has to take the weight of public condemnation. Demper complains that he's currently running neck and neck with Bond for the State's Attorney role, but Royce smoothly lays out that he sure as hell won't get reelected if Royce drops him from his ticket. Their orders given, Burrell and Demper leave, while a disgusted Watkins points out that Carcetti has a point, Watkins did get State Matched Funding for Witness Protection, and he refuses to be fobbed off by Royce's assurances that the money will be claimed in the next fiscal year, pointing out it's only $250,000. Royce gets angry, reminding Watkins that if he makes any move now, Carcetti gets all the credit, so he won't touch the State's money till AFTER the election. Watkins is left unsatisfied, Royce has demonstrated that his ONLY concern is himself, nothing else matters than his re-election. Bodie sends three junkies past him to Little Kevin, who takes their money and motions to Michael the drugs they're due to get. Michael heads to the stash and collects the right amounts, but when he goes to hand over the vials the junkies use their numbers to try and confuse him over how much they're getting. Michael refuses to be rattled or confused, he knows what Little Kevin motioned and he's sticking with that, and when all three argue and complain with him he lays out a hard fact for them - they can take what they paid for or get nothing, and when one of them pushes closer intimidatingly, Michael calmly warns him about what is likely to happen if they lay hands on him (Bodie's crew will find them and put a severe beating on them all), then tells the others to thank their friend for costing them their high. He turns and walks away and the desperate junkies immediately fold, rushing forward with conciliatory words and gestures, apologetic and polite, taking the drugs they paid for and getting the hell out of there. Bodie has come around the corner, interested in seeing how Michael dealt with three junkies at once, and he's very pleased with what he has seen. Congratulating Michael, he - not for the first time it seems - asks him why he wants to waste his time returning to school when Bodie would be happy to have him on full-time. Michael mumbles a thank you but reminds him that he only did this to pay off school supplies for himself and his little brother, ignoring Bodie's goading questions over whether he wants to be an astronaut or something. Bodie compromises, asking him to come work for him after school during the rush hours, but Michael just walks away.   Carcetti and Gray's signs are removed, a Carcetti van is towed away on the street, while inside Carcetti Headquarters Tommy is happily fundraising, no longer finding it a chore now that he is the golden boy of the hour and people are eager to hand him cash. The only downer for him is the loud noises of construction, and as he leaves the fundraising room bragging at making 30k in 2 hours, he asks Norman and D'Agostino what is going on. They're very amused that the Department of Public Works are right outside the front door tearing up the sidewalk, because though it's loud and disruptive it's also a clear sign that Royce is scared. Kima takes photos of Old Face Andre sweeping the sidewalk outside his corner store, not knowing that she's been watched herself by Omar and Renaldo a little further up the road. Omar explains she's City Police and not a bad person, but he can't have her getting in his way. All three watch as a man and his little sister approach the store, the little girl with a purple backpack, and Omar immediately picks up that it is the re-up for Andre, and that Kima has spotted the same thing. Soon after the man and girl leave, the backpack conspicuously absent, and Kima heads right into the store for a closer look. Renaldo points out there are cameras outside the store but Omar is unconcerned, he wants people to know who ripped off the place, and seems somewhat upset at the suggestion that they should in some way try to hide who they are - Omar doesn't hide who and what he is from anybody, if he did he would have never been so open about his sexuality. Inside the store, Kima buys some game and takes the chance while Old Face Andre has his back turned to check out the store interior. Security cameras are facing the storeroom door to the back and not the entrance or counter, and the storeroom door is behind a security screen and has multiple locks on it. Ignoring Andre's terrible attempts to flirt with her, she leaves the store, gets into her car and drives straight back to the Major Case Squad office, leaving behind Omar to chide her for being impatient. Back at the office, Kima explains her findings to Freamon and he shows her the fruits of his own labor. He's been able to put together graphs of the Stanfield drug network raising up as high as Monk, though there is some concern that Marlo is too detached since Andre is getting his re-ups through Monk. But Lester is hopeful they can get a number for Chris Partlow, at which point it's just a matter of time before they get Marlo. As they contemplate happily their success, their Lieutenant comes out with the word that he just got a call from the Deputy Ops to come and see him Downtown, and asks if they're into any poo poo he doesn't know about. They pretend innocence and he heads off, and neither of them have any sense that their comfortable little world is about to be turned upside down, joking that it was lucky this was one of the days the Lieutenant was actually IN the office and not down at the ocean. At Headquarters, Lieutenant Charlie Marimow is getting instructions on how to deal with HIS new unit - the Major Case Squad. His job, as Rawls puts it, is to get the squad back on the street "where it belongs". As for the subpoenas? They won't receive a single piece of paper till AFTER the primary, and if there is nobody there to read them, well nobody from the Mayor's Office is going to complain. Marimow nods, he understands his job and how to take orders, and when the current Lieutenant arrives he is abruptly told that he is relieved of his duty at the Major Case Squad, with a few lines about what an excellent job he has done and how now they need his expertise on the Telephone Reporting Unit before summarily dismissing him. The Lieutenant looks bewildered but quickly accepts his fate, after all he is nearing in on his 30 and has a beach home to retire too soon, why make waves at this point in his career? Rawls is performing his duties well, Burrell (well, Royce) wants the subpoena situation dealt with? Well Rawls is doing just that, killing the Major Case Squad in the same way the Department has been killed - by turning it into a street rips unit. The man who once would have raged and ranted at this is currently enjoying domestic bliss. McNulty and Beadie are making dinner when Bunk arrives with a bottle of wine to enjoy a surprisingly adult meal with his reformed drinking buddy. After saying a happy hello to Beadie and noting she has gone blonde, he meets her kids, noticing their binders are the anti-terrorism ones that McNulty collected at the recent seminar in the Western District. The kids explain McNulty gave them to them, and he's bemused that they call him McNulty - not Jimmy or Uncle Jimmy or Jim or Daddy or Pops, just McNulty.   Bodie has called Slim Charles down to his corner, where he is giving vent to his completely justified anger. Marlo has come down and declared he is taking Bodie's corner, and Bodie has had to just stand there and take it because he has no muscle on hand or on call to bring down and help him hold it. What's worse, Marlo's product is significantly weaker than what he is currently selling provided by Slim Charles as part of the New Day Co-Op's independent circuit, and the only reason Bodie has been able to make a success of his corner is because his drugs are so good. He complains that things weren't like this in the old days (remember that Bodie is probably only barely into his 20s by now, if that) and Slim interrupts to point out that the thing about the old days is... they're the old days. Giving a glimpse into his own frustration, Slim points out that his current employers simply don't allow any violence at all and has to pause for a moment to swallow his anger about that, before making it clear that if Bodie chooses to go with Marlo, nobody is going to question or challenge him over doing so.... but if he wants Slim's advice... Bodie cuts him off there, saying he doesn't, and walks away with a trademark spit through his teeth as Slim starts to call after him, then gives up on it. That evening, the New Day Co-Op meets at the Holiday Inn where the subject of discussion quickly turns to Marlo, who is making inroads into Co-Op territory, Slim complaining that he lost three crews this morning - it seems Bodie wasn't a unique case. More problematic is that on the East Side a number of New York crews are moving in and taking territory as well, and Slim points out the major fault with Stringer's laudable goal to remove violence from the drugs equation - quality product over territory is all well and good until people start taking your territory AND refusing to sell your product. Marlo is bad, but he's only nibbling at them, the New York crews coming in are like Wal-Mart coming to town (funny how easily understood this concept is even to most uneducated drug dealers operating outside of the legitimate economy is). Everybody at the table comes to the same conclusion - Wal-Mart needs to go home. A curious thing happens, as they discuss forming a united Baltimore Front the idea is put forward of bringing Marlo in on their side - like the ringers that Avon and Prop Joe used in their friendly basketball game. Soon they're joking about the open secret of Marlo's ability to make his enemies disappear, with one Co-Op member putting forth the theory that the bodies are being put into already occupied coffins at a funeral home. Slim corrects them, he knows exactly how Marlo is doing it, the bodies are going into vacant rowhouses where the smell of the decomposing bodies blends in with all the other smells of decay. Just like everybody but the police knew who Avon was, now everybody but the police know how Marlo is disappearing bodies. So the motion is put forward, it's time to invite Marlo to the New Day Co-Op again, but it comes with a warning for Prop Joe who is going to be the one to make the offer - he needs a better lure than Stringer Bell ever had. The kids are in bed and Bunk, Beadie and McNulty are enjoying an after-dinner drink. Bunk still can't get over how domesticated McNulty has become, and McNulty for his part is happy to admit it is true. Bunk asks Beadie how the port is - quiet - and notes that it is quiet all over, McNulty agreeing this is even the case in the Western District. Bunk says something about it doesn't feel right though, but McNulty who once would have felt the same just tells him to enjoy it while he can. Bunk explains the case he's currently working is one where he knows the shooter but can't find him, and McNulty again demonstrates a surprisingly casual indifference by saying the shooter will turn up. Beadie offers more wine or maybe some desert, and Bunk cheekily says he was hoping to draw McNulty out for a few drinks, and McNulty quickly begs off only for Beadie to happily give him permission to go out and enjoy the company of his friend. She heads into the bedroom to check on the kids, and Bunk notes with some surprise that she trusts him, something McNulty quite happily agrees with. The McNulty we once knew would have chafed under the domesticity and being on a leash like this, given permission to go out and let off steam every now and then, but this McNulty is happy, content and grateful to have a partner who is happy to give him that freedom every so often. Unfortunately things aren't quite as stress free for Colvin. Called up to a hotel room while getting his dinner, he arrives to find a prostitute sitting in a chair, her face bruised from a beating she took from her John after he discovered she'd rifled through his wallet and stolen money while he was in the shower. He heads into the bedroom where the hotel manager is apologizing to the John for failing to find the money, and both squawk in outrage when Colvin cuffs him, the John even going so far as to bitch about how unfair this all is since HE is the victim. Colvin has convinced the prostitute to reveal the money she took the beating for, and depressingly it looks to have been barely $50. Yet, after beating her so hard that the people in the next room called security, the Hotel Manager insists that he be let go, claiming he represents a Consortium of Conference-Planners and that he's always been a good friend to the hotel. Outraged, Colvin insists that he's never taken the cuffs off of a good collar in 30 years as a police and he isn't going to start now, only to be reminded that he's NOT police anymore, he works for the hotel now. Disgusted with himself, Colvin takes the cuffs off the John (who has the temerity to turn around and GLARE at Colvin), walks over to the prostitute who stares downtrodden at the floor, then over at the other security man who lowers his own head. Nobody is happy with this situation, but the rich, well-connected guy is going to come out of this not only uncharged, but with an apology from the hotel for HIS mistreatment.    
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Aug 18, 2013 06:24
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Bunk and McNulty stop at their old drinking spot by the tracks and drink some beers, but McNulty takes it slow and turns down the offer of another beer by Bunk. Enjoying themselves, they get to talking about Lake Trout - no lake, no trout, it's all a marketing tool, and Bunk notes that while you can pretend it is something other than what it is, that doesn't change its nature. It's not exactly subtle, and it's kind of horrible that he's basically saying that this new happier, less-stressed and all-in-all better Jimmy McNulty is not the way he really is or that he SHOULD be. To his credit, McNulty doesn't get offended, just smiling and telling Bunk that sometimes things ARE what they seem to be. Bunk takes that on board, tells Jimmy he likes the way he thinks, and they both take a drink. The next morning marks the unofficial end of Summer, because it's the first day of school. Randy stops by Michael's house, where we get our first look at what Michael's entire life resolves around - his little brother, Bug. Stopping to make sure Bug's shoes are tied, he brushes the crumbs off of his face before joining Randy, the three of them walking up towards the street, Michael affectionately telling Randy that Bug can't wait to be in the third grade. He acts more like a mother than a brother to the little boy, and once we meet their mother you'll understand why. As they walk, Dukie calls out a hello, wearing his new school uniform which is the cleanest it will ever be. The others kind of stop and acknowledge him before moving on and he hangs back slightly before joining them in a line, where Randy offers him a bag of lunch without a word, not calling attention to the gesture, though Dukie gives him genuine thanks for it - the Fayette Street Mafia look out for each other. They head to Namond's door and knock, greeted warmly by De'Londa who comments on how big they've gotten and how they're like to beat on some 6th graders. They grin happily and head inside when Namond calls them, but when Dukie slowly comes up the steps De'Londa just stands in the doorway and stares him down before closing the door on his face. He turns and sadly waits, while inside Namond shows off artwork done by one of the prisoners for Wee-Bey, drawings of Namond himself as well as designs of Chinese characters that Namond is considering getting as a tattoo. Randy mocks the idea of getting a tattoo of himself on his arm, and Michael jokes that the Chinese characters may not necessarily say what he thinks they say. Namond growls at them and takes his drawings back, but it is all good natured stuff, first day of school hijinks when everything is still fresh, it's time to catch up with old friends and the novelty of being back hasn't worn off yet.   At the Major Case Squad, Kima, Sydnor and Freamon are getting that sinking feeling as Marimow stands in front of the Stanfield Organization chart and lays out his thoughts on how to run the Squad - everything he says SOUNDS great, he's real police who came up through the ranks working his rear end off getting dirty on the street and he has great admiration for the work of the Squad so far, particularly the case they built against Avon Barksdale... but now it's time for them to do better, and they will do better TOGETHER. He asks if they have any questions and, when they don't, heads into his office as all of them share concerned looks. What he said SOUNDS great, but the meaning underneath the words were clear - this is a guy who conflates REAL police work with street arrests, which means the same old bullshit of doing hand-to-hands, building cases against the lowest level street dealers and claiming that they'll be able to flip them to give up mid-level dealers and on on up the line, a strategy that has basically never worked and probably never will, but makes for great statistics and surface level perceptions of "something being done about drugs". Now approaching the school, Randy looks over his class schedule and can't figure out how to pronounce Prez's name, while Namond complains about the "foul bitch" he has for a teacher. They ask Michael who he has only to discover he isn't with them, having stopped to give Bug another once-over as he laughing classmates rush through the gates to their classes. Michael rejoins them as Dukie spots a discarded portable fan on the ground and picks it up, fascinated by whether he can get it to work again. Colvin arrives at the Deacon's who, sitting on his stoop enjoying the quiet streets on this first day of school, immediately spots something is wrong - where is Colvin's fine take home car? "Got took home," sighs Colvin, much to the Deacon's amusement. At the school, Marcia Donnelly waits inside the front entrance, while in the momentarily quiet and empty halls the janitor makes one last pass-through, the canteen ladies prepare and Prez waits in anticipation. The school is about to be invaded by excited and rambunctious students, and it is time for everybody to put their game face on and get through another term. Donnelly checks her watch, makes the sign of the cross and the school bell rings. The security guard steps up and opens the door and immediately the kids are flooding in, Donnelly crying out instructions that are largely ignored - which students should be going to what floors, where the common rooms are, not to go up the down staircase etc. She spots a few familiar students, warning some, warmly greeting others, and makes a beeline straight for Namond as he jokes with the security guard. He's wearing jewellery and a football jersey and they all have to come off, with the warning that this being the first day, he can keep them, but after this they go to her office. The boys head down the hallway, clearing a path and warning the "kids" to keep out of their way... until they walk into a group of large women who glare at them, and they quickly make way, politely letting them through before roaring with laughter and proclaiming,"Those bitches are on steroids, son!"   Students arrive at Prez's home class and he quickly calls to them to check the seating chart he has prepared, though most students ignore him to sit where they like, hugging those they haven't seen since the last school year, catching up with others, greatly enjoying themselves. Randy steps up and introduces himself, a cheeky grin on his face, then takes his seat as Prez tries to get everybody's attention, saved when Randy stands up and roars out for everybody to shut up. They momentarily settle and Prez makes a lame attempt at a joke, his name is Mr Pryzbylewski but they can call him Mr Pryzbylewski... and everybody just stares. The awkward moment stretches on till he breaks it by saying he'll get to know their names, but then Donnelly comes over the intercom to say that the bell for class change will ring in one minute. Realizing that his time is running out, Prez quickly begins handing out bus passes to students as they all jump right back into happy chattering, until a girl called Charlene complains that she didn't get hers, and becomes offended when he calls her Crystal. Prez realizes for the first time that nobody paid any attention to the seating chart, and that he has been handing out bus passes to the wrong students. The bell rings and he calls out desperately for everybody to stay in place so he can get the passes back, but they ignore him, heading for the door only to be stopped in their tracks by Mrs. Samson who declares with great authority that nobody moves till Prez gets his passes back. They quickly do as they're told, though in all the confusion Randy has taken advantage of Prez telling him to "just grab a hall pass" in answer to his repeated requests, grabbing a stack of them. Everybody clears out, and Mrs. Samson tells the overwhelmed Prez that he will get used to things. At City Hall, Herc arrives to see the Mayor and has an awkward moment when he has to stop to see his secretary first, the one who he walked in on with the Mayor in the previous episode. He knocks first, and then again even after the Mayor tells him to come in, and even then he calls out that he's coming inside before heading in - subtlety is NOT Herc's strong point. The Mayor called Herc to see him, it seems that Valchek was wrong in one respect, the Mayor didn't wait a couple of weeks to make the call. The Mayor motions him to take a seat, and one of the best politicians in the city proceeds to walk one of the dumbest cops in the city through the old boy's network way of doing things. Claiming to always be interested in those who work for him, he asks Herc why he took the detail, and Herc decides to be completely honest and explains that he was passed over for the Sergeant's exam but Lieutenant Hoskins - who went to the academy with him - told him this detail was a good way to get noticed, and he's hoping that in a year or so they might reach down to promote him. Royce frowns, a year? That's a pretty long time to wait, and when Herc looks confused he asks exactly where he placed on the promotions list, pleasantly surprised to discover Herc was as high as 32 - he was expecting a 60 or a 95. Proclaiming that the city needs good police like Herc out there doing work, not chauffeuring politicians, he puts through a call directly to Burrell. Herc thanks him profusely for doing so, and Royce's smile slips a little as he makes the price of this kindness entirely clear,"Don't mention it." In Prez's first math class of the day, he's trying to take things easy and break the ice with a rather simple and (to him) fun math puzzle - Andre leaves Baltimore traveling 60mph, going to Philly which is 80 miles away - so how long does it take him to get there? Of course it's not that easy, mostly because the kids are in a rambunctious mood and also because they want to test this new teacher's limits, so he finds himself dealing with a barrage of questions that have nothing to do with the question at hand, in addition to a girl called Chiquan suddenly declaring she has to move from beside Dukie's seat because he smells like garbage. As they argue over whether Andre left from East or West Baltimore (Prez makes the mistake of saying it doesn't matter and causes boos when he specifies East Side) and about how much Philly sucks, Chiquan taunts another girl by catching the sunlight on her wristwatch and shining it in her face. Namond and Randy get into a good natured argument over whether Andre is black and thus subject to racial profiling as he drives up the Interstate, while the other girl - Laetitia - has had enough and leaps to her feet, her and Chiquan getting in each other's faces as the other students rush around to egg them on. Prez, horrified, tries to get them apart, and is saved once again by Mrs. Samson who is clearly keeping a close eye on Prez this first day, storming in and demanding to know what the big problem is. As everybody rushes to their seat though, Randy has taken advantage of the confusion to slip out of class with his backpack full of candy. Marimow sits down with his new Squad for their first office meeting, and displays that he is a officious hardass by complaining that Massey isn't present, not accepting the excuse that she has worked an overnight shift on their wire as attendance at office meetings is mandatory. To their great surprise, he brings up Marlo Stanfield and asks a question they never expected to hear - is Marlo the best they can do? According to Marimow, Marlo is small potatoes, he has no bodies on him and he can't understand the amount of effort and expense they're putting into chasing him down when for the same money and effort they could have taken down a dozen or more dealers. They try to argue their case but have to admit that Marlo only has a history of bodies, and nothing in the last few months, and Marimow scoffs at their insistence that he rules the West Side, saying that in 18 years on the job he has never seen a carnivore eat a carrot. Lester is outraged when he declares that they will now concentrate on street rips and a regular turnover of 10-12 felony busts a month, moreso when he says they won't renew the wiretap when the latest 30 days runs out. Freamon points out that a Judge decides when that happens, and the Lieutenant makes a rather cruel grin and says that the Deputy Ops has a few words to say to him about that. The writing is on the wall, Freamon thought the politicians would be too scared to do anything before the primary, never considering that it would be easy to bury the Squad under the stats game so long as they had a Lieutenant willing to play ball - something that is in no short supply in Baltimore. Randy heads down the stairwell, showing his hall pass before heading to his locker and switching uniforms to lower grade. He joins the young'uns in the canteen and shows off his backpack of candy, offering them at discount prices. Throughout the day he attends multiple canteen sessions in different uniforms, making sales. As he works his financial magic, Dukie works on the inside of the discarded portable fan. Another re-up is made to Old Face Andre's, and once the man and girl leave, Omar knows it is time to strike. He hands Renaldo an old, weak gun and tells him to go in first, shocking Renaldo who knows the gun will do nothing to the bulletproof glass that is a staple of these stores. Omar snaps at him that it will play and sends him in, Renaldo has a mind of his own and isn't the submissive younger type like Brandon or Dante were, which is good for Omar but means they spend a lot more time arguing a point, whereas the former two were likely to just sulk or pout a bit. Renaldo heads in, and from the moment he enters Andre's instincts kick in and he slides the panel in his glass closed. Renaldo jams the gun against the screen and demands the package, Andre mocking him for his terrible choice of weapon as he slowly reaches for his own beneath the counter. But the distraction has worked, he doesn't notice Omar coming on his high quality security camera, and Omar's gun is more than powerful enough to put a hole through the top of the screen when Omar fires his warning shot. Frustrated but knowing he's beat, Andre passes the package through (after turning the ring on his finger around so Omar wouldn't notice it), and then gapes (as does Renaldo) when Omar cheekily passes some cash into the revolving door in the glass and asks for a packet of Newports. Andre tosses them in angrily, but Omar isn't done, asking for his change before he and Renaldo leave, Omar happily asking Renaldo if he saw the look on Andre's face, THAT is why they get up in the morning.   In another class, Prez has tried his Baltimore to Philly math puzzle again, with the added twist of Andre's friend Yvonne traveling from New York to meet him in Philly. It's clearly taken the entire class to get through just explaining the puzzle to them, and the rambunctious students are loudly foiling his every effort to push through - one girl tries to quiet everyone so Prez can teach them and an incredibly foul mouthed little boy shouts her down. The bell rings just as Prez gets to the point of asking them to answer who got to Philly first and by how much, and he adds in one final question once everybody has left - who gives a rat's rear end? At the University of Maryland School of Social Work, Colvin and the Deacon listen as an enthusiastic academic - Dr. David Parenti - explains that they're seeking ways to "innoculate" a target group of young violent offenders. Colvin hasn't got a clue what the hell he is talking about and the Deacon has to translate - they want him to go out and find him some corner boys to mess with. Parenti agrees, acknowledging that without somebody who knows the streets he would be torn apart, and explains they're looking for 18-21 year olds, who statistics show to be the peak of violent offenders. Colvin asks for a moment alone with the Deacon, where he complains that he can't do this when he can't even understand what the hell Parenti is saying, but the Deacon dismisses that as nonsense, Colvin knows the street and Parenti needs him. Colvin frowns, 18-21 year old corner boys are DEEP in the game by that age, Parenti is insane if he thinks he can reach them, and the Deacon suggests that he show him just that. Colvin comes to a resolution, he'll do it, but only for 50k, an 80-20 health plan and a take home car. The Deacon counters that he'll be lucky to get 30k, an HMO and a bus pass, and Colvin sighs and accepts that he really doesn't have any other options. Prez cleans up the classroom, weary after his first full day, and turns a chair over to discover there is already multiple pieces of gum jammed on the underside. Depressed and discouraged, he picks up a piece of paper on one desk and to his great surprise and pleasure, discovers that at least one student took his puzzle seriously and solved it.   Uplifted by this one hopeful moment, he moves on to the next desk and discovers:   Oh well. Carcetti arrives at the funeral for the dead witness, feeling like a scumbag for having set up a piece of political theater around a family's very real grief. Norman reminds him they have press coming to interview him when he leaves, and when they spot Watkins' car and realize the influential rainmaker is there, they quick head inside. The grateful family welcomes him and he offers his condolences to the mother. He starts to go into political mode, reminding her that her son is dead because of Royce's failings, but the presence of the body and the mother's clear grief reach him and he just offers his condolences again and heads away to sign the funeral parlor's book. As he does, the mother is escorted to her son's open coffin and she bursts out into great, wracking sobs and has to be walked away by her other son. Carcetti heads over to greet Watkins (Marla Daniels is with him) and they watch the mother being taken away, Carcetti saying quite genuinely (he is a parent, after all) that he doesn't know how anybody could go on after the death of a child, no matter how old. Watkins agrees, and Carcetti says his hellos to Marla, asking how her own race is going (surprisingly difficult even on Royce's ticket - Eunetta Perkins is entrenched) and wishing her the best of luck, saying the Council needs her. He heads outside where the press has arrived, but he quickly explains that it just doesn't feel appropriate to talk to them now and moves on. As the press complain about coming all this way for nothing (Carcetti invited them, remember!) Norman warns Carcetti that this could come back to bite him on the rear end, and Carcetti reveals that genuine feelings aside, he hasn't stopped thinking like a politician. They'll still make the news with the visual of him leaving the funeral home, and more importantly than that, he knows that Watkins was watching from the window and saw him NOT take political advantage of the situation - which gives Carcetti a political advantage, Watkins is a valuable guy to have - if not on his side, then at least thinking well of him. Colvin is in the middle of showing Parenti the error of his ways. Calling in favors at the Western, he's had Carver get them a chance to sit down and talk with an 18-21 year old corner boy called Shaun Williams, a hard and angry looking man. Carver - who still calls Colvin "Boss" - looks Parenti over and asks if Colvin really wants to be left alone with him, and the confident Colvin - now back in his element - assures him they'll be fine. Williams immediately declares that Colvin is police but Parenti is not, and reacts angrily to every single verbal interaction as Colvin asks how old he is (18) and whether he has a sister. Williams is furious at the strangeness of the situation, screaming at the "Chuck-E-Cheese looking motherfucker" for writing when he talks, and becomes further enraged when Colvin raises a hypothetical about his sister being beat up, demanding to know who has been loving with his sister. Colvin explains nobody has, it's just a question and they want to know how Williams would react. Alternating between yelling at Parenti to stop writing and working his way through the hypothetical, Williams suggests that his reaction would depend on the sister - one of them would probably "deserve" a beating but Danielle? Anybody beat up Danielle he would "gently caress their rear end shut". Colvin hits him with more hypotheticals to answer Williams' angry answers - what if he's in jail? What if he doesn't have a boy he can get to do it for him? What if he has a life sentence and can't do it when he gets out? What if he can't escape? till Williams finally resorts to angry,"gently caress you" responses. Unable to help himself, Parenti asks if he would call the police and Williams completely loses his cool, launching himself forward and grabbing at Parenti's pen. Colvin is immediately there, slamming Williams to the table where he instantly ceases to resist, knowing he can't press the police, but Parenti has already disappeared out the door like a flash. Colvin smiles, and thanks Williams for being himself. He heads out and returns Parenti's pen to him, and the Doctor admits that maybe 18-21 year olds ARE too "seasoned", causing Carver and Colvin to burst out laughing. Parenti asks about 15-18 year olds and Colvin asks who they have in juvenile holding, but the Baby Bus has already left so at the moment they're out. Carver makes an interesting point though, do they want 15-18 year old criminal kids or just kids? Because the new school term just started and there is a school right around the corner Parenti seems intrigued, but somewhat dismayed by the true extent of the issue he is dealing with when Colvin suggests that even 15-18 year old school kids might be too seasoned for their purposes.   Carver heads away still laughing, and to his great pleasure and surprise spots another familiar face, Kima is sitting in Major Daniels' office. He says hello but she waves him off, she's in the middle of an important meeting with Daniels, requesting that he allow her to come work for him in the Western. Even though Daniels was earlier trying to convince McNulty to take a step up, he addresses Kima's concerns from a personal standpoint - moving back to a District now would be a step down for her, and she doesn't need to be under his wing anymore, she needs to be making a step up, or at least a lateral one. She has to get out of the Major Case Squad in any case, she can't work under Marimow, and so he promises he will make some calls and see what he can do for her. A less pleasant meeting is happening between Rawls and Freamon, where surprisingly all cards have been laid on the table. Rawls freely admits that he has sabotaged the unit, that it's directly in answer to the subpoenas, and that Marimow's job is to keep any action being taken. Freamon admits he never considered they would gut the Squad from the inside, while Rawls is impressed at how stealthily Freamon managed to take things as far as he did. Freamon thinks he still has an ace in the hole in terms of getting the Judge to extend the wiretaps, however, but Rawls again catches him by surprise by repeating the same trick he used on Colvin. While Freamon himself might be willing to take the fall (especially as he has his 20 year pension to fall back on), Rawls doubts he'll be so pleased if his fellow squadmates take the fall with him, and Rawls is completely okay with openly blackmailing him with that threat - he can try to hold on or he can tell the Judge they hit a wall and need to end the wiretap. Realizing that he's been outmaneuvered, Freamon accepts his defeat, knowing that Rawls has got the best of him, and prepares to leave the office a beaten man. Rawls tells him that he knows Freamon won't believe it, but he does respect the effort, and then surprises Freamon further by extending an olive branch. He knows that Freamon can't bear to work under Marimow... but what about a return to Homicide? He was taken away from the dead girls' case back in season 2 and ended up staying on at the Major Case Squad, now he's got a chance to go back there. Freamon is surprised, but it does make a certain twisted sense - after all, Rawls doesn't have the same personal animosity to Freamon that he does to McNulty, and Homicide may be the one place where the interests of Rawls AND Freamon coincide. Freamon is a great detective who clears difficult cases, and that looks good for stats, and stats are what Rawls cares about. The next dayat Edward Tilghman, Colvin and Parenti walk through the halls and find themselves overwhelmed by the sudden influx of children when the bell rings, rushing around in excitement, a couple of kids throwing a seemingly good natured "beating" onto another, others rushing around throwing papers about, everybody making lots of noise. Parenti suggests this seems about right, and for once Colvin agrees with him. Daniels visits Rawls to discuss what has happened to his old Major Case Squad, Marimow's reputation proceeding him as Rawls agrees that Marimow is in charge there now and that means exactly what he thinks it does. Daniels says it is a shame but doesn't linger on it, his major interest today is in securing a position for his protege, Kima, and he tells Rawls that he feels she would be a natural homicide detective if Rawls would do him that favor. Rawls declares there was an empty spot, taking great glee in revealing that he already filled it with Freamon, then grins and tells Daniels - who let's remember he does think highly of after his "teamwork" approach to things in Season 3 - that he's in luck, and that Rawls is going to see who he DOESN'T love anymore to make space for Kima. Prez attempts another puzzle for the students, but simplifies this one to the point of ridiculousness - a rocketship is traveling at 1000mph, so how many miles does it go in one hour? He looks on desperately as the students just stare blankly at him, not noticing that Laetitia is glaring a hole at the obliviously happy Chiquan. Prez asks Chiquan how far it goes and she replies it goes as far as it wants since it is a rocketship, so sadly he moves on to Randy who is suspicious of the seeming ease of the question, asking if it is a trick. Prez assures him it isn't so Randy timidly suggests,"1000 miles?" and with great delight Prez declares he's on the money. Chiquan jokes she was just about to say that and everybody laughs, and Laetitia snaps, launching herself at Chiquan who jumps up ready to throw down as well... and Laetitia slashes her face open on both cheeks with a boxcutter! Prez forces his way through to break them up and recoils in horror at the sight of all the blood, as Laetitia brandishes the box cutter at him then turns to mock Chiquan, asking her to make jokes now. Everybody is out of their seats and staring in amazement or shock, except for Michael who has simply moved his table back to be clear of the blood and stares blankly at the scene. Mrs. Samson arrives but appears unfazed, moving straight to Laetitia and slapping her face, disarming the surprised girl as some of the students,"OOOOH!" in appreciation. She turns and tells Crystal to call 911 and get the nurse, and instructs everybody else to get to their seats. She settles down beside the shocked Chiquan and tells her to lay still, while Laetitia moves back against the wall and sits stares blankly at nothing, her fury turned to nothing after Mrs. Samson disarmed her. As Mrs. Samson offers quiet assurances to Chiquan that she'll be fine, Dukie makes the only effort to offer any kind of support or comfort to Laetitia, moving up beside her and switching on the portable fan he has spent all this time fixing. Maybe he thinks the summer heat/closed windows drove her to snap, maybe it's the only thing he can think of to do, but whatever the case, he's the only student (or adult) to offer any kind of outreach to the girl. He turns the fan off when she doesn't react and gently places it next to her bloodstained hands, then settles against the wall and hugs his legs... welcome to the Baltimore Inner-City School System - no child left behind, everybody getting an education, so there's no excuse if they don't automatically become productive and successful members of society!    
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Aug 18, 2013 06:24
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 Links for the OP, escape artist, season 3 now complete - just copy and paste! Season Three Episode 1 - Time After Time Episode 2 - All Due Respect Episode 3 - Dead Soldiers Episode 4 - Hamsterdam Episode 5 - Straight and True Episode 6 - Homecoming Episode 7 - Back Burners Episode 8 - Moral Midgetry Episode 9 - Slapstick Episode 10 - Reformation - Part 1 Episode 10 - Reformation - Part 2 Episode 11 - Middle Ground Episode 12 - Mission Accomplished Season Four Episode 1 - Boys of Summer - Part 1 Episode 1 - Boys of Summer - Part 2 Episode 2 - Soft Eyes - Part 1 Episode 2 - Soft Eyes - Part 2 Episode 3 - Home Rooms - Part 1 Episode 3 - Home Rooms - Part 2
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Aug 18, 2013 06:28
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One of my favorite things about season 4 is how poorly Royce handles his campaign. Carcetti is hungry and fierce, and even if he's speaking to a room full of bored old people he's still out in the streets. Even after the debate lights a fire under his rear end, Royce just shaves his beard and yells at his inner circle. If it wasn't for race this wouldn't even be a competition, Royce has no game compared to Carcetti. I think I really enjoy it because it highlights the complacency of characters who assume that they are on top (Such as Royce and Stringer). Its not a theme that the show really digs into, but we see several times that there's always a bigger fish than you. edit; After I wrote that I suddenly remembered Omar's wolf speech. No point in playing with puppies. SlimWhiskey fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 14:35
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It's also interesting to note how Royce looks to money as the solution to his problems while the city is frequently told to do more with less. When Carcetti really starts hitting him hard, Royce just calls a "poker game" in order to get hold of a ton more cash to spend on ads TELLING people how great he is, rather than showing them. Carcetti is no less guilty of political theater, but it's young, hungry and smart political theater - he makes the brother and mother of the dead witness feel like he cares, he makes Odell Watkins think that he is willing to forgo public political victories to "do what's right" and all of that builds in people's minds the idea that he is a great guy they want for Mayor, while Royce is busy telling everybody how great he is without doing anything to show them he is.
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Aug 18, 2013 21:51
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The Wire typically doesn't use this kind of foreshadowing, but I couldn't help but notice that Prez's math problem involves a guy named Andre driving to Philly from the West Side. Later on, Old Face Andre will unsuccessfully try to get to Philly to escape Marlo. It seems too coincidental, particularly since this episode is Andre's first appearance. (As an aside, for some reason, I always thought he had one of the best nicknames). That's an interesting note re: Carcetti blowing off the press at the funeral to impress Watkins. I didn't think of that - given how he seems to be genuinely moved by the family's grief, including crossing himself at the casket, I thought he legitimately felt guilty for exploiting the politics. Perhaps it's a mixture of both. Also it should be noted that Lt. Marimow is apparently named after David Simon's hated editor at the Sun, who most think was the basis for one of the strawman Sun editors in season 5. I always think this was way more cruel than the characters of Klebanow and Whiting. I think it's a hilarious touch that the political signs are plastered all over the city, even in places like Omar's hideout. It subtly speaks to the utter disconnect between the politicians and the real problems, like the moment in the election episode where Cutty has to explain to the election worker that he can't vote (yet we see Cutty do more for the community than Royce and Carcetti combined). grading essays nude fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Aug 19, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 23:56
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cletepurcel posted:That's an interesting note re: Carcetti blowing off the press at the funeral to impress Watkins. I didn't think of that - given how he seems to be genuinely moved by the family's grief, including crossing himself at the casket, I thought he legitimately felt guilty for exploiting the politics. Perhaps it's a mixture of both. Well notice that when he first arrives he is pretty disgusted with himself but the moment he's reminded that press are coming he launches right in there, and while he recognizes the mother's grief and pulls himself back from politicking to her, he makes a big point of talking up Watkins' protege and rather callously exploits Watkins presence. He may have felt bad, but the only reason he didn't talk to the press was because he calculated he could gain a bigger political advantage by being seen by Watkins to NOT talk to them. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Aug 19, 2013 |
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Aug 19, 2013 00:39
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