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Frostwerks posted:Omar was never in the closet so I don't see how he could ever bring himself out of it. I write too many words and get confused! 
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Dec 16, 2013 01:08
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While the actual homeless serial killer plot never got quite as stupid as it could have until the very last episode of the show (there really was a serial killer all along!), I was so totally disappointed in it compared to other season's plots that I at several points thought for sure McNulty was actually going to kill a homeless person. I'm not sure if the writers were trying to make me think that that was a real possibility to get across just how desperate McNulty was, in which case I guess they succeeded, or if the plot was just so ridiculous and unbelievable that anything seemed possible, even McNulty becoming the serial killer he so desperately needed. I should say that in a lot of ways, season 5 of The Wire reminds me of season 5 of Babylon 5. Where it's good, with Marlo and Omar for example, it's just as good as the show has ever been. And when it's bad it's the worst as well.
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Dec 16, 2013 06:09
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I was under the impression that it was a copycat murder, not there being an actual serial killer, although it's been a while since I've watched this show. The best parts of the fifth season all involve us seeing what has become of characters like Bubbles, Johnny 50, Nick Sobotka, Randy Wagstaff, and the like. It's unfortunate, because they couldn't've made an entire season out of vignettes like these.
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Dec 16, 2013 06:31
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Apparently, had HBO given a full season order for season 5, there would have been more screentime for characters like that (for instance, Cutty originally had a season 5 plot.) But I don't think you can extend those characters' epilogues much more than they did; their fates are pretty clear.
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Dec 16, 2013 07:12
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Hedera Helix posted:I was under the impression that it was a copycat murder, not there being an actual serial killer, although it's been a while since I've watched this show. Yeah, he kills one guy and ties a knot around the victim's finger (or hell, maybe the guy did it himself before being killed because he wanted to remember something) and the police leap on him as a possible suspect. McNulty ends up agreeing to go along with it so he can wrap everything up, once again using a homeless person with real mental issues as a prop for the convenience and putting a number of murders on him that he didn't commit (and in some cases weren't actual murders!).
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Dec 16, 2013 07:28
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Jerusalem posted:Yeah, he kills one guy and ties a knot around the victim's finger (or hell, maybe the guy did it himself before being killed because he wanted to remember something) and the police leap on him as a possible suspect. McNulty ends up agreeing to go along with it so he can wrap everything up, once again using a homeless person with real mental issues as a prop for the convenience and putting a number of murders on him that he didn't commit (and in some cases weren't actual murders!). Now that I think about it, wouldn't they be able to easily prove that he's not the serial killer because of the planted bite marks? Doesn't seem like something that could easily be covered up.
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Dec 16, 2013 08:05
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Octorok posted:I thought he did it purposefully to mislead his murder as one of the serial killer's? Everybody involved in the actual top levels of the investigation/prosecution - McNulty/Freamon/Daniels/Rawls/Pearlman and Carcetti - knew it was bullshit but they wanted the case wrapped up and consigned to history. I'm guessing once the guy was locked away in a mental institution the evidence would never be touched again, sitting down in Evidence Control in those brown paper bags never to be seen again.
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Dec 16, 2013 08:38
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Jerusalem posted:In regards to unexpected consequences, it often goes unremarked, but Marlo's downfall can be traced to Prop Joe in some ways. If Marlo hadn't killed Joe, nobody would have ever found the copies of the sealed indictments and learned there was a leak in the courthouse. If that hadn't happened, Pearlman would have never gotten leverage on Levy. If that hadn't happened, Levy would have been able to almost entirely blunt the case built against Marlo by Freamon. Chris might have walked and Marlo remained free to run his drug empire without the Sword of Damocles dangling over his head - but Marlo couldn't resist killing Joe, and that cost him everything. Now here I don't think that was really avoidable. No matter what Joe said, he would have come back on Marlo eventually. Marlo was right about that. If you like, the real problem was that Marlo didn't clear out Joe's house before/after killing him. Even throwing aside the sealed indictment thing, who knows what in there could have tied back to Marlo or the Greeks. If anything, that would have been an added bonus thematically to have Joe's house burned down on top of that.
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Dec 16, 2013 09:31
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Yeah the guy they eventually throw away as the "serial killer" is an insane homeless person who likely wasn't a copycat or even really aware of what was going on around him. His M.O. barely matched McNulty's fake killer except in that he actually killed a couple of homeless guys. I don't even think that him leaving his "business card" signature at the crime scenes was intentional. It was probably just sloppiness as a result of being a deranged, dishevelled mess who collected the things by the thousands. He also never actually gets charged for any murders other than his own. Rawls tries to press McNulty into putting the whole case on him in order to make it go away, claiming that it doesn't really matter how much weight the guy takes as he's going to be spending the rest of his life in a padded room anyway, but McNulty refuses to do it. So instead when they call a press conference to announce that they have solved the case they claim that while they believe all the murders are linked that they are only able to "prove" he committed the most recent ones. It wasn't that there "really was" a serial killer, just that homeless guys are killed all the time over nothing so they were never going to lack for a scapegoat. If anyone was to look at the thing critically they would be able to figure out the bullshit but the only people who might bother have a vested interest in seeing it go away. That's not to say it's gone forever though. Gus's comment about how "maybe you win a Pulitzer with this stuff, and maybe you gotta give it back" applies just as well to all the cops and politicians involved in this as it does to Scott, Klebanow, and Whiting.
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Dec 16, 2013 09:34
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Well, the way I read it was that the guy had been killing people, definitely two, but possibly others. No one ever would have noticed, cared, or linked them together, but it was entirely possible he actually was a serial killer. He wasn't responsible at all for McNulty's fake murders, but he had killed at least two other people. It just felt like a totally unnecessary crisis that was resolved basically immediately. It let them tie everything up into a neat little package rather than forcing Carcetti or Rawls to continue paying lip service to something that was fictional but the city suddenly cared about.
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Dec 16, 2013 10:48
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Jerusalem posted:Everybody involved in the actual top levels of the investigation/prosecution - McNulty/Freamon/Daniels/Rawls/Pearlman and Carcetti - knew it was bullshit but they wanted the case wrapped up and consigned to history. I'm guessing once the guy was locked away in a mental institution the evidence would never be touched again, sitting down in Evidence Control in those brown paper bags never to be seen again.
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Dec 17, 2013 02:19
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...an_villain.html I've seen this one posted to my Facebook a few times. I would love for David Simon to do an HBO mini series about this woman. The story has many of the hallmarks of a good story in the wire or treme. Nearly unbelievable and used by everyone for their own games.
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Dec 19, 2013 21:48
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Season 5, Episode 7: TookPearlman posted:They don't teach it in law school. Freamon and McNulty sneak into the wire room in the utility closet at Homicide, where Freamon plugs the disconnected wire into a spoofing device to fake a call coming from Marlo's number, which the police and prosecutors believe is the serial killer's number. A trace will call down to the phone held by Sydnor who is waiting by the harbor, creating the impression that the killer called from that location. This technology is all beyond "smartest guy in the room" McNulty, though Freamon tells him it is "basic stuff", but all he has to do is read from a script. It's part of their plan to get a look at the pictures that Marlo is sending his lieutenants, following on from McNulty picking up the vagrant in the last episode. They call Scott's office, and in scene full of comedy McNulty puts on an outrageous Baltimore accent as he snarls and sneers to a horrified Templeton that his killings weren't sexual, the biting was just biting and nothing more. Scott is understandably freaked out, he'd been in the middle of grabbing a bagel and coffee, and he staggers back to his desk as he tries to talk to the killer AND motion to Alma to put in a call to McNulty. He listens in horror as the "killer" threatens to bite HIM and see if he still thinks it is sexual. Meanwhile at Homicide, directly next to where the call is being made, Holley is woken by the wiretap going into action for the first time, and he too listens in shock as the killer rants and raves at Scott about being made to look bad in front of his father and his father's father. Holley puts in a hurried request for a trace, and down at the Harbor Sydnor listens in on the radio for word of the location being discovered so he can get the hell out of there. McNulty warns Scott that due to his reporting, no more bodies will be found from now on, and that he will send him a picture of a body that will never be found. Given the wind-up by Freamon, he cuts off the call just in time, and Sydnor is immediately on the move having heard on the radio that the police have traced the call. Pulling out his ID and his gun and pretending he was responding to the call himself, he identifies himself to the other responding officers and then watches in a mixture of awe and horror as he witnesses what McNulty and Freamon have unleashed on the city - police boats sail in, a helicopter flies overhead, cars and bike-officers and foot patrol converge on the scene and every nearby pedestrian are held for questioning, some aggressively - this is the big story in the city at the moment and the police are (over)reacting accordingly. McNulty "arrives" at Homicide to discover an excited, unsettled Holley telling the gathered detectives and Landsman that it was definitely the killer calling. At the Sun, Whiting and Klebanow are excitedly listening to an unnerved Scott explain what happened, while Gus takes a more detached view from further back. This isn't supposed to be the first time Scott has been called by the killer, and he has to match fiction with reality by gasping,"That was really him..... again!" A beep on his phone signals the arrival of the promised photo, and as far as he and anybody else at The Sun knows, he finds himself looking at a photo of the newest victim of Baltimore's serial killer.   Clay Davis meets with Billy Murphy, a (real life!) high priced and well known Baltimore lawyer. Clay wants Murphy to represent him in his trial, but he can only offer 25k up-front and another 25k when he gets in front of the jury. Murphy refuses to take the case without his full fee paid up-front though, 200k or nothing, and Clay has to admit that his usual financial sources have dried up - everybody thinks he is done for and are getting as clear of him as they can, which Clay calls "shameful poo poo", saying they're thinking short instead of long. Without money, he tries to sell Murphy on the invaluable reputation he'll build from going up against a rising star like Bond. Unable to help himself, Clay declares that Murphy could make such a name for himself from this case that Clay would be willing to get Federally indicted if Murphy paid HIM 20k to do so! Billy laughs and, maybe demonstrating some long-term thinking, agrees to represent Clay, telling him to save his silver tongue bullshit for the Jury.... something that Clay will definitely bear in mind. Landsman gets the word that the police failed to find the killer after his GPS just disappeared, and rejoins Holley, Kima and others in the wire room to let them know. They listen to the recording of the killer ranting again, Landsman comments on his thick Baltimore accent. Meanwhile at The Sun, McNulty looks at the photo of the victim sent to Templeton's phone, as well as another of the same man that was found in the paper's photo archives, probably taken during a previous piece on the homeless. He questions Scott on the call, asking how the man sounded, what type of thing he said etc, pretending he doesn't know exactly what was said. Scott is surprised when McNulty asks if it was the same voice, belatedly remembering again that this is supposed to be the SECOND call he recieved, which raises Gus' eyebrows when Scott hesitates before admitting that this time the voice had a thick Baltimore accent and he must have just not noticed the first time around. McNulty encourages Klebanow to publish the photos, saying they want as many eyes looking out for the victim as possible (and as much press to generate pressure on the top brass/Carcetti to get money). But when Gus points out this second call came from a cellphone and not a payphone, McNulty is quick to ask that they don't publish anything about where the calls are coming from, saying that he doesn't want to spook the killer as they try to get up on his phone - the truth of course being that as far as the police and prosecutors are aware, ALL the calls were made from a cellphone. He tells Scott not to worry as the killer (himself) needs him, and Scott displays the same lack of self-awareness that McNulty has when he says he resents that. McNulty notes it seems to be a mutually beneficial relationship so far and leaves, with Gus unable to shake the feeling there is something a little fishy going on. At the risk of sounding like I'm fixated on Gus' portrayal, I want to talk for a moment about his body language/where and how he positions himself in scenes. I don't know if it is a deliberate choice by the actor or the director or not, but often you see him in scenes sitting on the edge of a table or standing or in some way presenting himself in as informal a way as possible. In this scene he doesn't sit in a chair like the others, which makes him stand out/apart from Klebanow and Whiting. But I also think this is part of a push to present Gus as "the cool guy", the non-conformist who does his own thing or doesn't fit into a pre-defined category. I'm tempted to say this is being done unironically, and that Gus really is supposed to be a total rebel, but there is every possibility that it's all intended to be a front, as we see that for all his big talk, Gus frequently tows the party line or meekly capitulates when confronted by any kind of authority figure irritated by him pushing the informality too far.  A Stanfield muscle called Cherry arrives at a stash house with another soldier, irritated but not concerned that the man in charge of the stash - Vincent - hasn't answered his phone. The stash house is in a nice suburban neighborhood, far away from the dangers of the street, so it isn't until they arrive that Cherry becomes concerned by the door being ajar. They enter and discover one of the stash house muscle - Manny - dead, and Vincent tied up to a chair. Cherry ungags him and Vincent bitterly complains that they were attacked by Omar, saying the only reason he is still alive is because Omar gave him a message, one becoming all to familiar now, Omar is claiming Marlo is a bitch who is scared to face him on the street. The other soldier tracks spilled drugs through the house while Vincent complains that nobody needed to tell Omar the location - he just knew, adding to the mythical aura that surrounds Omar - and discovers the world's most expensive toilet seat.... Omar dumped four kilos of the best quality drugs in Baltimore... all to send a message to Marlo. A smug Carcetti happily does the job he always hated when he was on the campaign trail - fundraising. Chilling on a couch in his office, he easily extracts promises of money from the people he calls, flying high of the good buzz surrounding his impassioned speech about the homeless and the serial killer. When he leaves his office he gleefully brags about tripling the money they wanted him to make (they wanted 30, he hit 92k), only for his good mood to disappear when Norman arrives to fill them in on what is happening with the serial killer case - presumably getting the heads up from Gus or one of his many contacts. Carcetti and Steintorf know that a picture appearing in the paper is bad for them, as it will remind people that for all of Carcetti's impassioned speeches it hasn't done anything to stop the killer from grabbing people off of the street. He demands his secretary get Bill Rawls on the line and storms back into his office, happy mood completely gone. McNulty and Pearlman meet with Phelan in a diner, where they show him their request for equipment that can catch photos as part of a wiretap. The Baltimore Police Department doesn't have the necessary equipment but Howard County does, so McNulty wants to pick up two of their computers to use. Phelan, who isn't a dummy, notes that a request for TWO computers seems a little odd, but McNulty explains that they want one as a back-up in case the other goes down (the other is, of course, for Freamon). Phelan signs off on it, but as McNulty and Pearlman go to leave he calls them back, asking about the Clay Davis case and making a joke that hits surprising close to the mark - Carcetti is a young attractive politician who wants to be Governor, but crime hasn't gone down and now close to the time to announce Carcetti's run, homeless people are being murdered and photos sent to the newspapers... maybe they should check the Governor's alibi. They laugh, and then realize the real reason Phelan called them back, as he "subtly" pushes the bill towards Pearlman. She picks it up and Phelan - who probably makes more than Pearlman and McNulty put together - puts on an act of being surprised and gracious. As they leave, Pearlman slaps the bill into McNulty's chest. Bunk works his murders, in a good mood of his own as he goes over Devar's case history, calling Devar "a baby bumping motherfucker" which is as explicit as the show will ever get in discussing the sexual abuse of Michael - the case report itself was "inconclusive" over Devar's actions. His good mood disappears just like Carcetti's when Landsman shows up and tells him to go upstairs with the rest of the squad so Daniels can take them all through the big show of force the Mayor wants on the serial killer case. Knowing it is all bullshit, Bunk refuses to leave his actual police work for a PR stunt, even when Landsman tries to pull rank, going so far as to tell Landsman to write him up and send him to a trial board if he doesn't like it. Knowing when to push and when to leave things alone, Landsman leaves Bunk to work his murders - after all, he IS trying to clear a lot of red names off of that board. In one of the more obvious examples of scenes mirroring each other, we see Gus take his reporters through their response to the growing serial killer story vs Daniels taking his detectives through THEIR response to the growing high-profile of the case. Alma and McNulty will be the respective leads on the case, with others being given specific tasks on the periphery (Kima working the background of victims for the police, Fletcher talking with homeless people about their experiences etc). Scott is in the middle of the story, so he'll provide not only 1st person reporting on his contact with the killer, but be interviewed officially by Alma as well. The police will be maintaining a cordial relationship with The Sun to try and make use of Scott's involvement as a potential key to solving the case. Finally, both The Sun and the Police Department have taken all financial restrictions off their people to cover this story/case. In that respect they are different, because while The Sun is still a profit-making company that can afford to loosen the purse-strings, the City itself has NO money. McNulty is immensely satisfied over getting what he wanted (especially as Daniels is leaving the "staffing" to him) but he still doesn't seem to have grasped that the reason he couldn't shake any money loose earlier was because there was NO money. The unlimited overtime now being provided to McNulty's case is money that is now NOT going to the schools or other aspects of city management. How many school teachers will lose their job because of this? How many potholes will go unrepaired? How much garbage go uncollected? Carcetti's own motivations lie at the center of all this. The reason the city is struggling for money is because he wouldn't take the Governor's cash because it would mildly delay HIS career. The reason he is paying out non-existent money now is because not doing so might also mildly delay HIS career. Remember that Carcetti hasn't even finished two years of his FIRST term as Mayor yet, and yet he keeps acting like this is his only chance to ever make the step up to Governor. So McNulty is getting what he wanted, but only because Carcetti wants to get what he wanted too.   On Michael's corner, business is brisk though they have no idea the re-up that Michael is talking about getting won't be coming, because Omar dumped it down the toilet. Spider reports to a pleased Michael how well things are going, but when he tries to crack a joke at Dukie's expense (Dukie is sitting on a stoop going through the job vacancies) Michael's smile snaps off and he warns Spider to step off. Spider does as he is told, and Dukie goes through some of the vacancies with Michael, all of which he is unqualified for, most of which they doesn't understand (Geriatric care gets a,"Jerry who?" response) and besides which, Dukie isn't even 16 yet. Michael reminds him of this as well as the requirement that he be around to pick up Bug after school, but Dukie cuts him off in excitement, he's just found the perfect job! Good pay, lunchtime hours, all in the downtown area! What is it? An exotic dancer, of course, and Dukie leaps up and begins grinding his hips, much to Michael's delight and Kenard's contempt. Michael, throwing off his usual staunch expression, joins in the dance, miming "making it rain" for Dukie, both of them having a great time till a police car pulls up on the corner and everything shuts down. As the crew clears off the corner, Carver steps out and points directly at Michael, telling him that if they don't know what he did, then Michael himself does, and he's cuffed and taken away, reminding Dukie as he goes to pick up Bug after school. Carcetti gives an outdoor press conference on the homeless murders, where he is very quick to introduce police officials before getting the hell out of there, having offered nothing more than an assurance that the police have access to all the resources they need and that the killer WILL be caught. The gathered press calls out hoping to ask questions, but this time he isn't sticking around to enjoy the spotlight. Freamon unhooks the wiretap again and then assures the officer working the latest shift that any phonecalls or photos that are sent through will now be picked up on their equipment. Of course it's all set up to go straight to Freamon himself at the MCU, and he couldn't be happier about how things have worked out. McNulty, however, is discovering the pains that come up with getting what you want, as Landsman has now taken an active interest in the case and is insisting that he put Kima onto working the background details of the victims as Daniels ordered. McNulty, knowing that the whole thing is made-up, wants Kima to be allowed to work her triple murder, but he can't really offer much in the way of explanation to a pissed off (and justifiably confused) Landsman who points out that McNulty was the one who WANTED all the extra attention/resources/support he could get. Freamon overhears Landsman shouting at him and listens in as Landsman suddenly 180s and sweetly asks McNulty what other support he needs. He's actually proud in a way of what he thought was a typical Jimmy McNulty tantrum resulting in the politicians finally paying people to do policework again - he has surveillance teams for him and anything else he wants - including voice analysis on the recording of the killer's call to Scott. A slightly concerned McNulty (that's HIS voice) jokes that they'll be offering behavioral analysis by the FBI next, and Landsman actually admits that they have been considering it. Jimmy grunts that he doesn't believe in any of that, and Bunk loves in derision, before McNulty tells Landsman that the first thing he wants to do is work back on the ID they have for the missing homeless man. Landsman leaves and Bunk quietly, angrily asks Freamon and McNulty if they're proud of what they've done, quite rightly pointing out that Kima has been pulled off of a triple murder because of it. They insist that they only need a week or two to bring Marlo down and assure him they'll be making good use of the surveillance teams, but he doesn't want to know, and he especially doesn't want to know who the hell the homeless man in the picture is. Kima arrives and they all quiet down, Jimmy giving her the names of the serial killer's "victims" so far and telling her not to knock herself working them. She laughs and assures him she has his back, then quietly asks him for advice on where to get suitable furniture for Elijah who is coming to stay with her, and he happily tells her to pick up Ikea, not mentioning the drunken rage he flew into trying to put the stuff together. Everybody but Bunk leaves, and Bunk again makes a fruitless effort to get the evidence on Devar's crime scene analyzed, and is once again told that he can't have it because the serial killer is getting all the priorities. He's furious, but his mood brightens when Carver brings him Michael, and he has him put into the interrogation room to have a crack at him. As McNulty leaves, he spots another detective - Christeson - furiously and bitterly complaining about the broke-rear end department as he leaves his car. The first time they met, McNulty forced Christeson to give up his desk, but this is a far kinder meeting. Asking what the problem is, he learns that Christeson has been sitting on a location without pay hoping to spot an eyewitness who has been ducking him, but the apartment has two entrances and he can't sit on both. McNulty, realizing that he has more than he needs, decides to share the wealth a little, and offers two men from Tactical to come and help him watch the place, and he'll pay for their cars and their hours out of his serial killer case. Christeson is surprised, but McNulty is happy to pay more of the money that they city already can't afford out - justified in the sense that the police should be getting paid to solve crimes, but also only further serving to drive the city into unsustainable debt. But hey, so long as Jimmy McNulty gets to prove himself "right", right? Bunk shows Michael pictures of Devar's brutalized body, perhaps thinking that it would unsettle him, but Michael shows no sign of emotion and doesn't pretend not to know who it is, calmly saying that he recognizes the corpse. Bunk tries to laugh it off and form a rapport with the young man, acting impressed by Michael's lack of reaction, telling him he can understand that based on what Devar did to him, assuring him that he knows Michael wasn't the one who did that to Devar because - with all due respect - that he doesn't have the physicality to do so, and whoever did was a full grown and powerful individual, fearsome. He seems to be trying to imply to Michael that either he should be concerned for his own safety, or telling him that he understands that he is frightened, perhaps wanting to assure Michael either way that the police can assist him/protect him. Michael, no fool to the realities of the street or the games of police, simply replies that Bunk is the murder police, so how the gently caress should he (Michael) know?   Kima arrives at the home of the family of one of the victims, where media are already setup doing stories direct to camera. This is another of the unintended side-effects of McNulty's scheme - not only did he use the deaths of unfortunates as props for his little story, he's dragged their families in as well, not to mention given them the erroneous belief that their loved ones didn't just die in horrible squalor, but that they were murdered and possibly sexually abused in the process. Inside, she talks to the parents of one of the victims, a distraught older couple who tell a depressing story about their attempts to put their son through rehabilitation (which they couldn't afford) and their eventual agonizing decision not to keep enabling him by taking him in every time he ended up falling back into drugs. They admit they knew he would probably die out on the street, but they're horrified by the way it eventually happened, murdered by a serial killer with some kind of sexualized motives. Kima is incredibly uncomfortable, but at least she thinks the story is the truth. McNulty should be there, to see the human face of the props he has so callously used for his own purposes. At The Sun, Gus talks with Fletcher about the story he has just written, which Fletcher admits is a bit weak. Gus appears to be taking a mentor-ish approach to Fletcher, as he agrees that the story will be reduced to a side-bar somewhere but offers him some encouragement. He suggests that Fletcher go out and spend time with the homeless (just like Scott did), but to take the time to get to know them and what makes them tick as opposed to looking for a story. Find the truth, not something with great quotes and a core theme, and even if a story doesn't come from it, it will be an invaluable lesson for Fletcher in the importance of seeking the truth. The scene feels a little over the top, especially in how Fletcher thoughtfully nods as this wisdom is dispensed down, but the intention is admirable and the search for truth as opposed to forcing it into a pre-planned "great" story is something it is hard to argue with from a journalistic point of view. Alma has completed her story on schedule and is delighted, she's gone from contrib-lines to 30 inch front page stories. Scott tells Gus he is 5 minutes from finishing his own, and when Gus points out deadline is approaching he corrects himself to,"3 minutes", a conversation I'm sure has been happening in newsrooms for decades now. Shortly after, Gus joins Klebanow and Whiting to discuss Scott's story, and Gus has some qualms about some of Scott's stylistic choices. He doesn't mind the 1st person stuff, since Scott IS part of the story, but he takes exception to Scott's (surprisingly obvious) embellishments - he writes that he spent "night after night" with the homeless when Gus knows he spent ONE night, plus half a day getting quotes at a food charity. He also writes as if he is taking his life into his hand every time he goes out on "the street", and Gus grumpily reminds Whiting and Klebanow that this is Baltimore, not Beirut. Here again we see Klebanow and Whiting as one-dimensional characters, as they dismiss the concerns, and Klebanow doesn't answer any of Gus' very real concerns, simply offering to remove Gus' name and printing it under his own edit credit so that Gus isn't responsible for a story he feels he can't get behind. Gus also proves again that despite his tough talk he tends to fold fast when confronted, as he simply purses his lips, nods and leaves the office rather than continuing to argue for the integrity of the paper which is KNOWINGLY about to print a story that it knows is greatly exaggerated. Daniels watches the media story on the homeless victim's family, and notes how the media has gone crazy for the story, while admitting to Pearlman that it has meant that the police are getting paid properly again. But he also admits that this worries him, as he feels like any minute now the extent of the money now being spent will freak out the politicians and they'll be shut down. For her part, Pearlman is stressing over her preparation for the Clay Davis case. Even though Bond will be the Chief Prosecutor, she wants to make sure she knows the case inside and out so she can be an effective second for him - she knows that this case could make her as well as Bond, because he will remember the work she put in to helping make him look great. Currently Daniels is the Mayor's favorite, but Bond could also be the Mayor one day, and then SHE could be the Mayor's favorite, and that only bodes well for her career. Clay Davis' day is finally done, and now it is the turn of Bond, and hopefully she can be dragged along in his wake. At the MCU, Freamon sets up his computer while a troubled McNulty asks how long this is going to take - the sooner they beat Marlo the sooner they can shut down the serial killer case and avoid being found out. Freamon reminds him that Marlo will be using some kind of code, and the difficulty of the code will dictate how long it will take to break, but he has no fears at all that he won't be up to the task. McNulty gets a call from Landsman, who is offering to have an Academy Class come down and help canvas the missing man's regular corners, and a horrified McNulty insists he doesn't need this, and pulls out a trump card that concerns Freamon. McNulty explains that he doesn't need them because he already tracked down the missing man's name, DOB and last known residence, reading it off of Larry's card that he took before dropping him off in Washington. Landsman is impressed and asks how he did it, and McNulty complains he did it with police work, and insists that he back off and leave Jimmy alone until he ASKS for the manpower he needs. Hanging up, he complains that faking a redball has caused everybody to treat it like a redball, showing that same old Jimmy McNulty shortsighted approach - what did he THINK was going to happen? Once again he tells Freamon to get him out of this as soon as he can, and once again Freamon nods like it is a foregone conclusion. Similarly, everybody thinks Clay Davis is done. The next day he arrives for his court case, once again putting on his best face, insisting that he is innocent, smiling and laughing that there is no plea agreement because he has done nothing wrong. Understanding the power of theater, Clay has brought a copy of Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, and he happily explains what it and its significance is, butchering the pronunciation of the author and the title and giving an odd if somewhat accurate description of the story. The reporters seem amused, and it's almost a sad sight - Clay Davis who once loomed large in city and state politics and could easily con money out of opposing sides is now a clown only good for a laugh before he goes to what many consider a long overdue execution. The case against him is too strong, the facts cannot be denied, this is the end of Clay Davis as any kind of force and the way his face falls as he leaves his audience behind proves it - Norman was wrong, it's entirely safe to dance on his grave, nobody could get out of this one.   At Homicide, Landsman is once again on McNulty, wanting to provide an update to City Hall, what do they know about the missing man? McNulty hands over a file but that isn't enough, Landsman needs to bring City Hall plenty of progress. McNulty offers that he has sent the tape of the call to Quantico for analysis as requested, as well as a copy of the case file. Landsman asks if he wants bodies for a full canvas of every downtown shelter and mission, and is surprised to hear he'll be taking Christeson, but McNulty insists that as a rookie he's young and hungry and will ask fresh questions that McNulty might not. Assuring Jay he'll ask for more bodies when he needs them, he finally gets the Sergeant off his back, though Bunk is revolted to hear about yet another detective getting hauled in McNulty's bullshit, not knowing that Christeson is actually working an entirely unrelated case. He soon finds out though, when Norris comes up and whispers that he heard about what happened and is impressed, and lets McNulty know about his own problems. A potential witness in a homicide is willing to play ball now that his wife is in the system, but she's in New York and Norris will have to travel up there to make arrangements before he can put the case into the black. He stresses that the death was of a 20-year-old girl whose body was stuffed under a mattress, and Jimmy quietly agrees to bury the expense in his paperwork. Thrilled, Norris heads away and Bunk grunts that Jimmy has become the little "King of Diamonds". McNulty heads to Landsman's office and tells him he is taking Norris with him, and leaves with a little smirk towards Bunk, apparently still unable to grasp the depth of Bunk's contempt for what he is doing. At Clay Davis' At Viva House, Fletcher arrives in time to see Bubbles serving food - his fears/hopes of HIV were unfounded, and he has no excuse not to be out front now. Bubbles asks for his ticket, and Fletcher explains he is a journalist looking to talk to homeless people about the serial killer, but also to get a sense of what it is like to be homeless in Baltimore. Like Scott before him, Fletcher has to be told that Viva House provides not just to the homeless but also the working poor, and no he himself is not homeless either. Still though, Bubbles is naturally an outgoing and friendly person, and now that he's established for certain that he doesn't have "the bug", he happily introduces himself to Fletcher, whose earnest, awkward and obviously alien presence here seems to have attracted Bubbles to him. At the trial, Bond is greatly enjoying himself as he asks questions of Day-Day on the witness stand. Day-Day is forthcoming, admitting that he didn't really do anything in spite of his "job" at West Baltimore Hoops, and that the money he was supposed paid as a salary all went straight to Senator Davis. Even more damning is when he freely admits to have been sometimes given a little kickback when he went into the projects to "snap up money for him", and Billy Murphy immediately launches into an objection. The Judge sustains it, informing the jury to ignore what Day-Day just said, that it isn't pertinent to the charges Clay is currently facing. But you can't put the genie back in the bottle, and it is yet another nail in the Senator's coffin. At the MCU, Freamon is back from giving his evidence and his day just gets better as a call comes through from Marlo's phone, and it is a picture. Sydnor eagerly rushes in and they stand and watch to see what the image is, Freamon convinced the code won't take too long to break.... and then they see it.   The gently caress is that supposed to mean? At Clay's trial, Billy does question Day-Day, who is a far safer target than the dignified and competent Lester Freamon. He reminds the jury that Day-Day is a criminal, that Clay gave a job despite his history, that his testimony is ungrateful, that the lack of any kind of record of the supposed money he handed over to Clay is very telling. He points out that Day-Day is getting immunity for his own crimes in exchange for his testimony, and thus he cannot be trusted. Day-Day doesn't do himself any favors in his responses, and for the first time Bond and Pearlman seem troubled, though surely they must have known Day-Day wasn't going to make for a good witness. Sydnor watches Monk chatting casually with his muscle, having gone to watch him in hopes of their movements helping to crack the code. There has been nothing though, Monk hasn't made a move for an hour and a half and they're no closer. Meanwhile, McNulty is listening incredulously as Crutchfield eagerly explains how he is close to closing a case so long as he can get the men to watch a location over the next three nights. McNulty offers two and threatens only one when Crutchfield tries to push it, and then to his great horror Crutchfield reveals he's already been told the drill for how to bury it in McNulty's paperwork, and even worse, casually calls McNulty,"Boss," as he leaves. McNulty has become the thing he always hated - the guy in charge handing out resources or keeping them back as he sees fit. Kima arrives with the office reports for the family debriefings, and vents a little on how terrible it was to have to explain to these families that their grown child was murdered by some sick gently caress for jerkoff fantasies. McNulty has the decency to at least look guilty about this, and then Kima hits him with another blow when she complains that she has to go assemble her Ikea furniture, as he never warned her this was necessary. Bubbles takes Fletcher to some of his old stomping grounds, and watches carefully as Fletcher moves amongst the homeless talking to them, perhaps thinking about his own long running presence in these places and the life-long battle he has undertaken to resist ever ending up back there. Bubbles is an invaluable guide, not only showing Fletcher where to go but providing a familiar face to the interviewees and setting them at ease to talk to the stranger, something Scott never had. When Fletcher returns to Bubbles he is awed and horrified by what he has seen, but Bubbles quickly punctures that, asking if he wants to take the homeless man home with him... or hell, why not Bubbles? Fletcher is confused and Bubbles laughs, saying he was just loving with him, and a grateful Fletcher prepares to peel off some cash for him. Bubbles stops him though, telling him it isn't about that (the old Bubbles would have never turned down cash), he just wants to make sure that Fletcher tells it like it feels. That desire for the truth is in direct contrast with how the front page of the Sun is being handled, Gus reading his copy of the paper in disgust, the front page story written by Alma beneath an excerpt of Scott's greatly over-exaggerated odyssey.   At Kima's, she wrestles with the Ikea furniture, a familiar sight to anybody who has had to deal with that before, as well as echoing an earlier season scene of McNulty drunkenly doing the same. Tossing his paper away, Gus heads into Kavanagh's and meets with Santangelo, an old familiar face from his days as a reporter. As he enters, he passes Detective John Munch from Homicide: Life in the Street, who is complaining about the bartender pressing him to pay his whole tab and reminding him that he used to own a bar and he knows how it works. Santangelo catches him up on what has happened to him, he moved from Vice to Homicide and then returned to the Western District. Gus himself is no longer a crime reporter but an editor, and that gets Major Mello's attention, who calls out to him that he can buy a drink. Gus joins Mello (played by the real life Jay Landsman, who John Munch was based on in Homicide!) and admits he came into the bar because he knows it is a cop bar, and he wanted to talk to a cop about a "hypothetical" situation. Mello is happy to do so... so long as the bartender makes his drink a double and Gus pays for it. Another old familiar face heads down a Baltimore street at night, leaving a club and preparing to suck on his inhaler. As he passes a gap between buildings, he is slammed against the wall by Omar who appears from the shadows, gun to the man's back as he explains he saw him at the stash house. As he checks his pockets, the familiarity of the face comes to him, and he realizes this is Savino who used to work for the Barksdale Organization. He recalls that Savino never ran dope, he always worked as muscle, so now it seems he's muscle for Marlo. Savino, who knows what brought Omar back to Baltimore, tells him that he wasn't there when Butchie was murdered, that was all Chris and Snoop. Omar already knew that, of course, but he has a hypothetical question of his own for Savino - if he HAD been there, what would he have done? Savino can't answer but they both know what would have happened, and Omar considers his desire to push out the message to Marlo and figures in this case he can give it a miss... and blows Savino's brains out. He hobbles on down the street, Savino just another victim of street crime in Baltimore City. Omar once promised Bunk there would be no more bodies, but he's long since given up on that, Butchie's death meant more than a promise made to a police officer who saved his life a couple of years back. Marlo sends out another message, one of many that has gone out today. Freamon stares in despair at the pile of clock photos he now has on his desk, no closer to cracking the code than he was with the first. Unable to put it off any longer, he puts through a call to McNulty, they have to talk. At Kavanagh's, Gus discusses the story Scott told him about the woman using a fake id when arrested and creating the impression that the sister of a woman who died eating shellfish was a fraudster. Mello admits that this could maybe work on the first pass through the system, but after that she'd have photos and fingerprints on records, there is no way it could happen again. McNulty looks through the clocks and a calm Freamon explains that they can break the code, but they'll need surveillance teams to do so, they need to watch what they're doing and figure out what the clocks mean from that. McNulty takes it in stride, admitting that Landsman has been trying to force more men on him so he can make use of those. He also lets out that word is getting around the office that he is providing money and manpower to other detectives in Homicide in order to put down cases, which horrifies Freamon - this is a drat good way to get caught. McNulty, proving why he is so smart in some ways and stupid in others, jokes that nobody is going to squeal because everybody is getting paid for doing policework. Freamon tells him he'll need seven men, and they ponder who to use, especially to supervise them, and who they can trust. A call comes through for McNulty, an angry Kima slurring her words as she complains about the impossibility of putting together the Ikea furniture, not amused by McNulty's suggestion that she just needs an allen wrench and the right kind of Scotch. Having dropped Savino and leaving no witnesses, Omar has no option but to take a calculated risk if he wants to keep spreading the word on Marlo being a bitch. He appears in daylight on Michael's corner, catching Spider off-guard and waving him off from his lunge for their stashed gun. Using a crutch to support himself, Omar quickly thinks Spider is in charge, and mistakes Michael's youth and his attempts to hide his face as timidity and fright. Dragging Michael closer to him while Spider, Kenard and the other two young'uns stand wide-eyed against the wall, he gives Michael the message that he killed Savino and he's going to kill all the rest of Marlo's muscle till Marlo has the heart to face him like a man. With that he heads back up the street, keeping an eye on them, hobbling all the way. Spider is shocked to learn that Savino is dead, while Michael is just relieved, his apparent timidity was due to his concern that Omar might recognize him from the ambush at Monk's, and then he'd have been as dead as Savino. But while he is relieved, somebody else has taken a different message to heart. Omar's physical condition has not gone unnoticed, the young Kenard who once wanted to play "Omar" on the streets watches the legendary figure leave, and with derision asks,"That's Omar? drat. Gimpy as a motherfucker." As Omar knows only too well, reputation and perception are all important on the street, and Kenard's encounter with the reality of the legend does not bode well.    The Clay Davis case goes on, Billy Murphy goes through Bond's own charts with Clay who is now on the witness stand. Wisely, Murphy chose not to question the knowledgeable Freamon on the charts, but is now speaking to Clay who can put his own spin on things. What happens next has to be seen to be believed, even if you've seen it before, watch it again for a master class in what happens when you play to publicity rather than the facts, and create a situation where human emotions are an integral part of any resolution. Clay proudly and defiantly admits to taking the money, and with a mixture of charm, humor and derisive comments made Bond's way (likening him to then rising star Barack Obama, pointing out he lives in a wealthy area etc), Clay somehow turns facts about stealing money into a heartwarming story of a man who just cared too much about HIS people. Bond and Pearlman shift uncomfortably as Clay makes grand use of the platform he has been given, twisting facts, making broad and unprovable assertions, joking with the jury and the people spectating and making them identify with him. To hear him tell it, Clay is still a poor man struggling to survive just like them unlike that rich fatcat Bond, and his people know where to find him and have no hesitation in coming to him for support. Clay jokes about the ridiculous amount of the donations for the basketball center when really all they REALLY needed was a basketball and an airpump, so he figured he'd put the extra cash to good use. He tells sob stories about the things people needed - clothes, asthma medication, heating bills etc - while Bond stares incredulously and Pearlman lowers her head into her hands, knowing that they are hosed. The spectators bursts into applause and the judge has to quiet them, but they have every right to clap, they've just seen Clay Davis burst out of his coffin and right through the people who were prematurely dancing on his grave. Unaware of what has just happened, a thrilled Carcetti is discussing further ways to win the PR battle regarding the serial killer storyline. He wants to bring in FEMA trailers, a dozen or so, and though he admits that this will barely touch the 2000-3000 homeless in the city he rather cynically points out that it will be a symbolic gesture to show they care... just like in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina! But he's given fair warning, while Carcetti currently looks good over this case, if there is one more murder he will look ineffectual. Even worse, the current rate of spending on not just the police but keeping the shelters open 24/7 is putting the Health Department into the red, and they can last maybe a month at most before all other agencies go into the red and teachers need to start being laid off. That will look terrible for a gubernatorial candidate, and wreck his chances at becoming Governor... he might even have to complete his first term as Mayor! Speaking of wrecked political aspirations, when the trial of Clay Davis started, he was a dead man walking and Bond was looking like a lock for the next Mayor of Baltimore. Now as he and Pearlman stand outside the courtroom watching Clay Davis and Billy Murphy in triumph, Clay just found not guilty on all charges, he knows that he has destroyed his chance to become Mayor for quite some time - he's the guy who blew a slam dunk prosecution, and even turned down an absolute lock on prosecution by not using Freamon's "Head Shot". He asks what the gently caress just happened and Pearlman notes that whatever it is, they don't teach it in law school. They can only stand and watch at what was a dead man walking and is now Clay Davis: Greatest Hero in American history.   Gus jokes about at The Sun over his editing on the latest story about Clay Davis, but gets serious when he talks with the Regional Affairs Editor, Rebecca Corbett. She's as disgusted as Gus was with Scott's story, and he (who merely nodded and accepted Klebanow's decision to run it as is) quietly admits that he's started to pick up on some other troubling issues with Scott. He knows now that Scott's explanation for the fundraising story scam is bullshit, and he's also thinking about the kid in the wheelchair who couldn't get into the baseball game - that lack of information troubled them both, and now he's worried he is seeing a pattern emerging of Scott lying and covering up lies in order to get a better story or hide that he got "took". The trouble is, accusing a journalist of this is a HUGE deal, and he can't do it without something more concrete. Kima sleeps in a chair in her lounge on what is obviously a very hot night. She wakes to discover Elijah standing quietly in the room, unable to sleep, probably due to the heat as well as the strangeness of the location. Lifting him up, she checks the fridge for food then walks him to the window, and tells him they should say goodnight to everybody. Slowly he warms to the idea, and in what is probably the first and only dual tribute to both Clockers and Goodnight Moon in history, Greggs and Elijah say goodnight to the moon, to the stars, to the "po-po" and the fiends, the hustlers and the scammers, goodnight to everybody, goodnight to one and all. It is one of the only times you see the softer maternal side of Kima, a female character notable for being treated just like any other character in the show. It is a sweet scene, and a nice look at Kima's belated growing maturity, as she makes some attempt to preserve a connection to the family she rejected, and avoid ending up like the likes of McNulty. Because who the hell would want to be like Jimmy McNulty?  
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Dec 21, 2013 |
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Dec 21, 2013 09:42
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This court scene was always strange to me. Not as a court scene as I have watched similar circuses on political broadcasts but I mean it more as a work of fiction. See I come from the world of Dick Wolf and Jack McCoy, where Clay Davis putting on a show like this would raise the ire and Jack would deliver an equally rousing speech about how he IS guilty. Now maybe that is the problem, The Wire is supposed to be more realistic and that sometimes the criminal does get away even though they shouldn't and I just need to let it go. Of course speaking to other stuff in this episode, Gus is finally piecing together that Scott is lying on top of embellishing his stories yet when he confronts the bosses at the end of the season he and Alma are cast aside and Scott is shown as a beacon of hope for the failing newspaper because he won a Pulitzer and stuff. Now you mention at the closing of this write up that Gus would need some pretty damning evidence that Scott is lying and iirc he does have that evidence when he spills the beans but is it fair to say that because of his sheepish manner when confronting his bosses that they don't take his word for it? I mean, wouldn't Scott lose his Pulitzer and thus the paper would pretty much implode from the bad press that their star journalist was lying the whole time?
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Dec 21, 2013 11:24
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I think that was part of the problem caused by the one-dimensional nature of Klebanow and Whiting. Gus has been coming to them with concerns for quite some time and finally just brings them pretty troubling allegations that can be corroborated and they appear to just completely dismiss them out of hand. If we'd been shown anything of the pressures they themselves were facing, we might have an explanation for why they were in a position where they willfully ignored Gus' warnings. Maybe because their own jobs were at risk or the paper was in imminent danger of being shut down entirely, and they saw the Pulitzer as giving them enough prestige to keep their employers satisfied and keep the paper running. Instead, all the information we're given is that the paper is still profitable and Whiting is a gullible idiot with a boner for awards, and Klebanow is a pathetic little spineless man using his position to hire pretty young ladies as reporters, and they both ignore the evidence because... I don't even know, because they're jerks and idiots?
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Dec 21, 2013 11:42
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Great write-up, Jerusalem. There are a small percentage of things I might disagree with, but ultimately you have helped me understand Season 5-- the season I've seen the least-- a lot more with your fantastic write-ups!
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Dec 21, 2013 13:58
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A quick word about the direction in this episode: I recall from the commentary that this one was directed by Dominic West and may have even been his first time directing. I remember because he said that in the lawyer's office he tried very hard to get a camera angle where the horns behind the lawyers desk would at one point be behind his head and look like devil horns. I remember because he said it didn't work out but that sounded to me like a terrible idea. Take that as you like it for some of the other directing choices you mention throughout this episode.
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Dec 21, 2013 14:19
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Aces High posted:This court scene was always strange to me. Not as a court scene as I have watched similar circuses on political broadcasts but I mean it more as a work of fiction. See I come from the world of Dick Wolf and Jack McCoy, where Clay Davis putting on a show like this would raise the ire and Jack would deliver an equally rousing speech about how he IS guilty. Now maybe that is the problem, The Wire is supposed to be more realistic and that sometimes the criminal does get away even though they shouldn't and I just need to let it go. To be fair, according to Simon, the guy Scott was based off actually did have his work submitted for the Pulitzer even though they knew he was full of poo poo but he did eventually get exposed and fired (I think). I don't think Gus gets McNulty'd for exposing Scott because of his sheepish manner, I think its fair to just see it as a cover-up, just as how the police find out the truth about the serial killer but come out with good PR anyway. One of the only great Scott scenes is at the very end where McNulty confesses to him about the serial killer being a fraud. It's amazing because if Scott wanted to, I'm sure he could start pulling that thread and realize it was true, but he can't because he's already so deep into reporting it "honestly" that he can't go back on it now. I'm sure the news bosses were thinking the same thing when Gus showed them the file. Also note, when Gus commissions the reporter to expose Scott, he doesn't know what to do with it at first, he puts it the file in his desk drawer. I think that's because he knows there's a substantial risk of him getting McNulty'd if he comes forward with it (as indeed happens). I agree with Jerusalem's take on the bosses - like I've said before, Gus being a Mary Sue would be a tolerable thing if the newspaper bosses were shown with nuance. Though I suppose they're tied together.
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Dec 21, 2013 19:02
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I have to say, as a cryptography nerd, Marlo's code is a lot better than the code used by the Barksdale organization in Season 1. I don't know if the police would have broken it in any reasonable amount of time without the incredibly lucky coincidence that ended up happening. The idea of using a widely available and inconspicuous document as a key is a good one, especially in a situation where the people using the code can be caught and searched at any time. The misdirection caused by using photographs of clocks as ciphertext is an additional nice touch. Of course, anyone with any knowledge of cryptography could come up with a much better code that couldn't be broken by luck, even given the constraints Marlo had to work with. Still, Marlo is extremely smart to come up with a decent system without any knowledge of cryptography at all.
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Dec 22, 2013 14:31
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Konstantin posted:I have to say, as a cryptography nerd, Marlo's code is a lot better than the code used by the Barksdale organization in Season 1. I don't know if the police would have broken it in any reasonable amount of time without the incredibly lucky coincidence that ended up happening. The idea of using a widely available and inconspicuous document as a key is a good one, especially in a situation where the people using the code can be caught and searched at any time. The misdirection caused by using photographs of clocks as ciphertext is an additional nice touch. Of course, anyone with any knowledge of cryptography could come up with a much better code that couldn't be broken by luck, even given the constraints Marlo had to work with. Still, Marlo is extremely smart to come up with a decent system without any knowledge of cryptography at all. I think it's implied that the system was given to Marlo by the Greeks.
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Dec 22, 2013 17:10
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Atlas Hugged posted:I think it's implied that the system was given to Marlo by the Greeks. Implied? In the episode after Joe's death, Vondas shows Marlo how they conduct business. Presumably, it is how the Greeks always worked.
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Dec 23, 2013 03:56
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What I mean to say is that we see Vondas showing Marlo a phone. I suppose it's possible, though absurdly unlikely, all Vondas did was say, "Use pictures, but you're on your own for what the code is going to be," since there's no scene where we see him actually explaining how it works. I guess that's my definition of "implied", as in, strongly suggested or hinted at but not actually spelled out.
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Dec 23, 2013 06:30
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Hey, since we're coming up on the end of the series, I just wanted to say it was cool following along on a rewatch with you guys. There's certainly a novel's worth of analysis here and it was always enjoyable to read and discuss.
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Dec 23, 2013 06:43
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3Romeo posted:Hey, since we're coming up on the end of the series, I just wanted to say it was cool following along on a rewatch with you guys. There's certainly a novel's worth of analysis here and it was always enjoyable to read and discuss. Indeed! There's a lot of - for me at least - subtle stuff going on and it's quite easy to miss something and these writeups have given me an excuse to get the DVD set. Sometimes, they're not so subtle.  Marlo says goodbye to Prop Joe, he really wanted to be king e: apparently Royal Addiction is/was a clothing line designed by Jamie Hector. Did not know that willemw fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Dec 23, 2013 |
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Dec 23, 2013 18:52
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every 1500 pages I forget the t-shirt brand that Slim is always wearing.
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Dec 25, 2013 10:58
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willemw posted:Indeed! There's a lot of - for me at least - subtle stuff going on and it's quite easy to miss something and these writeups have given me an excuse to get the DVD set. That shirt is awesome. It has pinstripes, I think. I tried to buy it, but couldn't find it in that color anywhere.
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Dec 26, 2013 02:47
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McNulty's serial killer angle is the most asinine thing of the entire show. Everything else in the show is fantastic but I think this really brings down season 5. Also, I have a hard time believing that Lester would both go along with this stupid idea and also use an illegal wire tap.
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Dec 27, 2013 18:22
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Radiohead71 posted:McNulty's serial killer angle is the most asinine thing of the entire show. Everything else in the show is fantastic but I think this really brings down season 5. Also, I have a hard time believing that Lester would both go along with this stupid idea and also use an illegal wire tap. They needed to focus more on how pissed off McNulty gets when it becomes clear that Carcetti was just bullshitting them with all the "New Day" talk. That one ray of hope being squashed was the last straw that sent him over the edge but its not given enough time to develop so his behavior does seem pretty over-the-top and out of the blue.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:16
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It wasn't handled real well but there was a for real serial killer who upon his arrest was knowingly accused of a whole shitton of unsolved murders that were literally impossible for him to commit in order to close cold-case files all over the country. While that's beyond the reach of a single precinct to do, there is a historical precedent for shady poo poo involving law enforcement using admittedly lovely people as a way to duck or displace responsibility. It was Henry Lee Lucas, IIRc.
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Dec 28, 2013 08:44
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I thought the deal with Henry Lee Lucas was he took credit for a lot of stuff he didn't do, rather than the police just ascribing those crimes to him for expedience's sake. Same with Pee Wee Gaskins. Also, everyone should see Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Alec Bald Snatch fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 10:52
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I think to an extent it's acknowledged in-show the ridiculousness of the serial killer. Not so much the premise necessarily but the idea that it could actually work as a cover for an illegal Marlo wiretap. It's made pretty clear that even if Daniels hadn't found out the truth beforehand, Levy would have torn the case apart in court and possibly exposed McNulty and Lester. Plus, if Lester hadn't uncovered the courthouse leak to blackmail Levy with, McNulty and Lester would have been in prison probably.
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Dec 28, 2013 20:19
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I always found that the hoax was presented as purely a product of McNulty's world-weary desperation which Lester had even more of. Literally no one else thought it was a good idea or foolproof even as they were complicit in helping him work it out after it got rolling.
TheRationalRedditor fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 22:40
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team overhead smash posted:Instead he seems limited to "let's move everything back to the golden age of Capitalism" taking no account of how this will realistically be reached or if it were reached again why the disproportionate power of the Capitalist classes wouldn't inevitably result in it following exactly the same pattern it did the first time. The thing that confuses me about that is in one interview (it's on youtube but I can't remember which one it was) he decries the kind of mindset that says "Everyone is practicing 'crony' capitalism and it would all be better if society was following a 'true Capitalism' model"- and yet a lot of his dialogue about not being a Marxist suggests that he's kind of doing the same thing. It's really confusing because everything about The Wire and the stuff he's said in some interviews about things like prohibition only ending because society as a whole didn't want to convict a fellow citizen for making/drinking beer suggests that we need some kind of rallying of everyone and a kind of revolution because no change in leadership or authority is going to fix problems entrenched in the system- and yet it's all so we can go back to the "good old days". Is he just saying that disclaimer so he isn't written off by the media as a crazy commie?
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Dec 29, 2013 06:08
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I'm starting a rewatch myself, and found a detail I didn't see in the writeup. In S1E6, The Wire, as it opens following the extension cord to Wallace's domicile, the voice on the radio is saying some relevant stuff. It's tough to make out, but this is what I got. "...we all have to be prepared to take on any responsibilities. If you're a Taurus, you gotta get out more, interact with people who have a different perspective on life than you do. Your attitude is changing, and it may be time to consider moving in a different direction. GEMINI, if you believe in something, BELIEVE IT! Especially yourself. Something something dreams on the line. Something something you'll be sorry." Then of course Wallace wakes up to one word, INCARCERATED, and gets all the kids ready. Knowing his fate, this raised my eyebrows a bit. Love this show.
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Dec 29, 2013 08:18
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Season 5, Episode 8 - ClarificationsTerry Hanning posted:A lie ain’t a side of a story. It’s just a lie. McNulty finds himself in front of a COMSTAT meeting, where his old mentor Bunny Colvin had his career destroyed after embarking on his own mad and completely illegal quest to "do the right thing". McNulty is the man of the hour though, everybody is eager to here what he has to say, and what he is saying sounds great to them all. Carefully and with a level of timidity not usually seen in McNulty, he explains his progress in the investigation so far and makes his case for the use of surveillance teams to watch some of the potential suspects identified in the areas where victims have been found. In other words, he's asking for surveillance teams to watch the areas where Marlo Stanfield's lieutenants meet, which is why he's asked for Sergeant Ellis Carver to put together the surveillance teams. Daniels, who has taken a liking to Carver, immediately asks the pertinent question of why Carver and not somebody from the areas in question themselves. McNulty gives a viable excuse, citing his previous experience working with Carver and his valuing of Carver's judgement in picking the teams. Everybody can accept that, Daniels included, and with the Mayor also present and making it clear that he supports whatever McNulty is doing, it seems Jimmy is finally getting that blank check he has always wanted. Other political considerations are coming into play though, as Rawls realizes the truth of what Burrell warned him of. Carcetti demands that he provide whatever manpower and vehicles McNulty needs, and when Rawls reminds him that Carcetti's own decree was to NOT provide any more vehicles, Carcetti angrily cuts him off with a reminder that people are dying. Rawls also doesn't do himself any favors by cracking some of his usual black humor jokes about the victims, designed to lessen tension but coming across as inappropriate to a pissed off Carcetti who has decided that the Homeless is now his cause that he has always cared about deeply ever since realizing he can gain political capital from it. Daniels, by comparison, covers himself in glory with his appropriate questions to McNulty and his own breakdown of what the rest of the police force is doing to make the homeless safe while McNulty tracks down the serial killer. After Carcetti leaves, Rawls gives the assembled top brass the good news and the bad news. The bad news is that now they have no excuse NOT to catch the serial killer. The good news is that the Mayor has decided he needs the police force more than he needs the school system. Everybody laughs at that, including McNulty who gives a happy little smile, apparently unconcerned that his obsession is costing the school system money, resources and (eventually) teachers. Just as with Carcetti and the Baltimore Sun's priorities, the (still broken) school system is yesterday's story, and no longer something to be concerned with when a juicier story has come along. McNulty suffered it himself when the massive Stanfield case/vacants murders were deprioritized by the school system problems, and now he's responsible for the same thing happening. But what does he care, Jimmy McNulty is getting his own way. Dukie plays the oldest bored youth game in the world - Kick the Can. Walking the streets of the city, utterly bored out of his mind with nothing to do, no job, dropped out of school and unable to work the corners, he is so desperate for something to do that he pops into a local shoe store to see if he can get a job. Inside, a familiar face is seen helping a customer with a shoe - it's Poot, former Barksdale soldier and best friend of Bodie, now working into a small shoe store probably making minimum wage. Dukie lies about his age, saying he is 18 then admitting he is 15, and though Poot tells him he can give him a form to fill out, he warns that the manager won't hire anybody below 17. Discouraged, Dukie goes to leave but Poot calls him back, and quietly asks if he used to work a corner with Namond. Recognizing Poot at last, Dukie admits he did, and gets even more discouraging news, as Poot tells him that he'll just need to work the corners for a few more years and then come back when he is 18 to get a real job. Dukie heads out, and that is the last we will see of Poot for the series. D'Angelo, Bodie and Wallace are all dead, victims of the drug trade that they were all unable or unwilling to escape. Yet Poot, who once joined with Bodie in killing their own friend, who worked the corners and aided in the capture (though not the torture) of Brandon, who went to jail for the Barksdales and came straight back to the Corner etc.... Poot casually tells Dukie that he just got tired, poo poo got old... and just like that, he left and got a real job and inserted himself back into society. Yes he's an ex-convict, yes he's probably going to work nothing but minimum wage jobs for the rest of his life, but Poot seems to have learned the lesson that many others do not - if you're not a King, then there is nothing on the street for you but death or jail. To put it crassly, for a pussyhound like Poot, being dead or in jail is not conducive to doing what he loves best, so he just got out... as simply as that, he just left. Others can't or won't, though he was probably helped by the fact all his friends were dead or in prison, but Poot would agree with Marla Daniels - the only way not to lose, is simply not to play. It's not so easy for Dukie though, as he seemingly is utterly unwilling to entertain the notion of going back to school but is too young to find work and not hard enough to work a corner. So he goes outside, and goes right back to kicking that can down the road.   McNulty meets with Carver, who wants to know why he has been picked to head up the Surveillance Teams when it's not his district. McNulty offers a variation on the truth and his previous lie to Daniels, admitting that he's actually using them to follow up a fresh lead on Marlo Stanfield. Carver immediately picks up that this is "some hosed up McNulty poo poo" but he's not overly surprised by the fresh lead on Freamon, claiming it must be down to a wiretap and revealing he was the one who gave Lester Marlo's number. McNulty won't go so far as to admit that, insisting that all he knows is that it is a fresh lead, but what he can offer is overtime out the rear end, all fully paid and the paperwork taken care of by him, just so long as Carver can get him guys who will actually work. That includes cars too, and Carver can't resist the idea of he and his men (who earlier in the season were literally getting into fights) actually being paid for their work. He agrees to be a part of McNulty's fiction, unaware just how deep it goes and what he is making himself a part of. But while Jimmy is happily spending all the money being provided by Carcetti, at City Hall the Mayor is getting some very unpleasant news about all the cutbacks that are going to have to come from OTHER areas of the City's departments to pay for all this. A three month delay in fleet maintenance for public works (that means garbage trucks, sewerage trucks and the lie), a halving of the budget for snow removal come Winter, then they can avoid cuts for school funding.... for this quarter only. This will fund the police operation, putting them back to where they were before all this happened (so underfunded and promised paybumps to come!), though Steintorf is unapologetic, saying that they managed to avoid teacher layoffs and they got the 15 point bump they wanted in school results (undoubtedly bullshit, but Carcetti is either unaware/doesn't care about the juking of THOSE stats) so politically they're fine... so long as they can bring about a drop in crime for the next two quarters and make Carcetti look good for his campaign for Governor. A Charity for the Homeless has asked for a Candlelight Vigil to be held on the steps of City Hall, wanting to take advantage of the unusual interest in the Homeless for a change to try and get some donations coming in. Norman has allowed this to happen on the proviso that Carcetti gets to say some words, and they all laugh (rather callously, I must say) at the political advantage they can take. Unfortunately, bad news comes calling in the form of Norman. A reporter from the Washington Post has called for comment on a politician named Dobey from Prince George’s County who is considering running against Carcetti in the Democratic Primary. A Congressman called Upshaw is ALSO considering running, and to Carcetti's disgust he realizes that he is going to have to kiss some rear end to keep both men from forcing him into a bloody battle for the nomination for Governor. He's sure to win that nomination, but it will be expensive and less impressive than being clearly seen as the anointed one - if he wants to run for Governor, he has to start thinking outside of Baltimore. Carver delivers the good news to his chosen officers, including Officer Brown who was involved in that earlier fistfight (he's actually featured in multiple episodes, and is played by a real life Baltimore cop of the same name - Bobby Brown). Carver carefully offers the information that "sometimes" they'll be working an unrelated drugs case too, but Brown could care less what job they're working, so long as they're being paid. Even better news is when Carver shows them the keys to their rented cars, and Truck for one is very pleased with the car he gets - right now, Jimmy McNulty is everybody's favorite policeman. At The Sun's loading dock, Gus smokes with Jeff Price and Bill Zorzi and they discuss the Homeless story, pondering whether they're sensationalizing the story but having to admit that the police are backing Scott's story and the photo was of a real person... so they'll be covering this through December. Why through December? Because that's the cut-off for Pulitzer Prize submissions, and as Gus rather cynically points out, whatever a newspaper cares about in December it couldn't give a poo poo about in January. He heads back inside, where Jay tells him that somebody is down in the lobby demanding to see whichever editor worked on Scott's homeless vet story. Gus is confused, why not ask for Scott? Apparently Scott no longer takes the man's calls, so he has walked to the Sun to demand to see an editor. With a sigh, Gus puts his ID back on and heads down to find out what is going on. Michael meets with Chris and Snoop to fill them in on his encounter with Omar, giving them a breakdown of what happened and what Omar had to say. He tries to make light of it somewhat, explaining how he kept his face turned away so Omar wouldn't make him from the ambush, and letting them know how bad Omar was looking, especially with his use of a crutch. But Chris and Snoop are both worried, especially when Michael starts to voice the word that is going around on the streets, proof of the effectiveness of Omar's strategy. Omar is out every day calling Marlo a bitch, hitting stash houses, killing muscle like Savino, apparently on the warpath... and where is Marlo? Snoop is outraged and Chris is seething, but Michael has a very pertinent question - if Marlo was willing to kill Junebug's entire family over the suggestion that Junebug MIGHT have called him a human being.... why is he letting Omar walk the streets calling him a bitch and destroying his property/killing his men without an answer? The answer is that Marlo has no idea this is happening, because Chris and Snoop are deliberately keeping it from him to avoid him doing just what Omar wants and rushing out headlong into an ambush. But they can't tell Michael that, and when Michael makes the cardinal sin of saying,"If I was Marlo..." they shove past him angrily and bring the meeting to an end. Snoop has been insistent that they're going to get Omar, but she and Chris both know they missed their best shot at him, and now he's striking them with impunity and sowing discord through the ranks of Marlo's Organization and they can't do anything about it.   Truck and Dozerman stop on the street so Truck can grab an ice-cream. Back in the car, Dozerman happily enters coordinates of their next location on his GPS and tells Truck he hopes they never catch the serial killer, because actually getting paid PLUS all the resources they can use is just too sweet. Before they can leave though, a huddled up and pathetic looking figure limps up to the window and quietly, nervously gives them the description of some dealers working around the corner. They thanks the concerned citizen for his information and head off to grab the two men off the street, and the informant - Omar - moves on his way, having disrupted another Marlo corner successfully, this time without having to even be there himself. Gus enters the lobby and finds Terry Hanning - the homeless war veteran interviewed by Scott - waiting. Gus greets him warmly and tells him what an honor it is to meet him, but Terry doesn't want to hear any empty platitudes (the dude is homeless, he knows exactly how much his sacrifices are valued by his country), wanting to know who Gus is and then telling him immediately afterwards that if he's the guy who edited the story, then he's a loving liar. This meeting is not of to a good start. In the back alleys, a group of children are gathered around Kenard, watching as he and another boy hold down a cat and pours lighter fluid over it. Animal abuse is often pointed to as an early sign of the mental/emotional issues that lead into serial killers, but I don't think that is what we are seeing here. Kenard is the result of a emotionally detached upbringing, his actions mirror exactly those of DeAndre McCullough from The Corner, who boasted about killing a cat that was attacking his pigeons, telling the horrified Ella Thompson that just as the cat only did what it had to do, so did he. Note that the other boys are eagerly gathered around to watch Kenard's actions, none of them protesting at all. They do break up though when they hear an approaching adult, made even more fearsome by the fact it is none other than the legendary Omar. But as they scatter, Kenard makes no motion to move, still holding the cat down, untroubled by the presence of any adult, even Omar. That more than anything is more worrisome, to me, the lack of fear or guilt when an adult appears on the scene. Omar continues on down, clutching his shotgun close to his side, making note of Kenard but dismissing him as irrelevant (this is VERY important), more concerned about the possibility of any Stanfield soldiers being about. He heads on, watched closely by Kenard who once played at being Omar but was left disappointed and disillusioned by the reality when he saw him on Michael's corner earlier. Omar peeks around the corner and watches as the Stanfield crew are taken from their corner in a patrol van, and Dozerman and Truck drive away. A different cat passes on out of the alley as he watched, and once the police are gone he limps slowly across the street, scaring off the two remaining crew members who make a half-hearted attempt to reach for a stashed gun before taking off themselves. Omar collects the small stash of drugs, dumps them down the corner and then loudly counts the windows down the side of the boarded up vacants. Reaching the appropriate one, he calls out that he knows this is the stash house, and he's cleared out all the muscle so they might as well just hand over what they have now. When there is no response, he lifts his shotgun and declares he is obliged to come in, and slowly the board on the front door creaks open and a garbage bag of drugs is tossed out. Omar collects it, returns to the corner and dumps it too down into the sewers, then turns and stands on the now vacant corner and shouts out his defiance - he wants them to put the word in Marlo's ear, he is NOT a man for this town.   Bunk sits fuming at Homicide and finally he has had enough. He steps up and moves to where McNulty sits surrounded by his paperwork, handing him a piece of paper and a pen. McNulty hangs up and Bunk, with a smile, tells him to just sign it and shut the gently caress up - it's a request through McNulty's serial killer case to process the evidence on Devar's murder scene. McNulty beams smugly as Bunk leaves, which for me personally is one of the most infuriating moments of the season. He clearly sees it as a validation of his decision and an endorsement by Bunk, and it kills me that Bunk didn't take him aside and explain that he needed to go through McNulty because McNulty's bullshit murders had dropped the Devar scene - which links to the REAL Vacants Murders AND Marlo Stanfield - down the priority list. Kima arrives, it is time for them to go and get an FBI Profile of the serial killer based on his recorded phonecall to Scott. As they leave she asks if he has done one before, and he tells her it is just a matter of sitting and listening to some bullshit from the FBI that they already knew. Then why do it, asks Kima, and gets the honest response,"So we can say that we did it." Having hosed with yet another Stanfield Corner, Omar heads into a local shop and asks for a pack of cigarettes. His limp is less pronounced, he seems to be improving little by little from his initial poor state. The bell on the door rings and - and this is so, so, so important - Omar turns and looks, making sure he is safe, that the person entering isn't a threat. Satisfying himself that they are not, he turns back to the shopkeeper (behind bulletproof glass) and starts to ask for something else... and then a bullet blows through the back of his head and he crashes to the ground on his back, dead before the hits the floor. Who has slain the mighty Omar? A deadly New York Assassin? the spooky Chris Partlow? the dangerous Snoop? the young trainee Michael? None of those, the perpetrator is an astonished and horrified little boy - Kenard has followed Omar from the alley into the shop and shot him, and now the reality of what he has done has set in. Kenard has always talked big, but there is a big difference between tough talk on the corner and actually pulling the trigger and killing somebody for the first time. Kenard gapes at the result of his actions, in a state of shock, then slowly turns the gun on the shrieking shopkeeper before staggering forward to where Omar lays dead. He slowly reaches out as if to confirm the reality, then it all proves too much for the little boy and he drops his gun and rushes out the door. How did he get the drop on Omar? He didn't, Omar knew he was there and dismissed him as not being a threat - Omar's soft spot was always for children, and though he knew they worked the corners as touts and runners and even primary dealers at times, it never occurred to him that one of them might be carrying a gun and willing to use it. Omar died because he believed in an innocence that may no longer exist as the default state for many children in Baltimore. Kenard is innocent in other ways though, shocked at the reality of the murder he has committed, he makes the most obvious mistake possible and drops his gun at the scene with his fingerprints all over it. He left a witness alive, and with any luck he was probably filmed committing the act as well... small sympathy for Omar, who returned from a blissful retirement for revenge and ended up dead in a little inner-city shop, Butchie going unavenged.... for now. This will not be the final word in the Omar/Marlo war though.   Bunk heads back down to the lab, spots Ron Lowenthal and heads straight to him, handing him the paperwork directly into his hand and telling him to get the DNA comparison he asked for, because it is now connected to the serial killer case. Now there are no more excuses, Lowenthal will do the comparison and Bunk will FINALLY get his evidence to hopefully progress his stalled casework. He gets a call and leaves a dazed looking Lowenthal behind. At The Sun, Hanning sits with Gus and Scott and he is NOT in a good mood. He's irate that Scott glamored up the story he told him, adding in a firefight that didn't occur while he was trying to help the soldier whose hands were blown off by the IED explosion. He makes the very good point that what he told him was enough and didn't NEED any further enhancement, but Scott is adamant that he told the story exactly as Hanning told it to him, and that it is all in his notes. Getting pissed off himself, Scott demands the right to tell his side of the story without interruption, and Hanning provides the epigraph for this episode - a lie isn't a side, it's a lie. Gus, to his credit, takes a supportive role to Scott (remember he lauded Scott on the story, particularly what he thought was his "restraint") and suggests that maybe Hanning - who admits that he drinks - exaggerated the story slightly while under the influence. Outraged, Hanning admits that he has told plenty of exaggerated stories in his time but there are some things you simply don't gently caress with, and comes down to the heart of his concern - what if one of the other marines who WAS there reads the story and thinks that Hanning has been exaggerating the story? In his disgust at Scott and his adamant refusal to accept he did anything wrong he demands that Scott leave. Gus takes Scott outside and assures him that it is probably something as straightforward as Hanning being off his meds and getting wound up over nothing.... but being journalists, they're going to do their background and talk with people from Hanning's unit and find out exactly what happened that day. If their story matches Scott, they'll chalk it up to Hanning being unstable and unmedicated.... but if their story matches Hanning's, then they WILL print a clarification. Scott looks pissed at this, and it's obvious why, he's finally been caught telling a story that can be demonstrably proved to be false but independent and unshakeable sources. Of course he can still argue that Hanning himself told the exaggerated story, but it'll be a chink in the fictional world he has created. Gus returns to Hanning, where one little detail that Hanning brings up causes him to ponder the veracity of Scott's side of things. Scott said they ate donuts and drank coffee, but Hanning remembers it was chocolate milk, not coffee. If Hanning remembers a little detail like that and Scott doesn't, then what does that mean for the rest of the story? McNulty and Kima discuss their relationships as they make the drive to Quantico. Kima admits that she still has too much dog in her to settle down, and that staying with Cheryl wouldn't have been right, but she is glad to have made a connection to the little boy at least. But what about McNulty and Beadie? They seemed to have something good there, and McNulty was settled for a brief time. McNulty shrugs and recounts the time Bunk told him he was no good for the people around him, but does admit when Kima asks that yes Bunk was quite drunk when he said that. Bunk himself arrives at the store where Omar was shot, where a group of bystanders are gathered and one girl is telling another that Omar is dead. The other says she has heard that before but the girl says she saw his dead rear end herself, and the first of many rumors is created when she explains she heard he tried to rob the Koreans who ran the store and got shot for it. Bunk joins Norris and Crutchfield inside, looking shocked to see Omar really is dead, and Crutchfield and jokes that Bunk should have let Omar take the years on the murder he was arrested for back in season 4. Bunk observes the clean shot through the back of the head and presumes it was a professional job, but learns that the female shopkeeper reported it was a "short" fellow, and Norris indicates the size, showing it was a child. Omar's pockets have been turned out, but he wasn't robbed by the shooter, the young hoppers apparently rushed in and rifled through the body for souvenirs, a final indignity for a man who only an hour earlier commanded the fear and respect of Baltimore. Bunk spots a rolled up piece of paper and asks for permission to inspect it, and unrolls it to discover that once again Omar was far, far ahead of the police's own investigations - it is a list of known hangouts for Marlo and every top Lieutenant he has. That night, Chris and Snoop drive about on the lookout for Omar, Snoop assuring Chris that based on the information they have, Omar is sure to fall - he is out with a limp and no car, he can't evade them forever. Chris clearly is not anywhere near as confident, knowing it isn't a matter or Omar evading them as he is hunting them. A picture sent by Marlo tells him it is time to meet, and Snoop heads for the appropriate location. At the MCU, Freamon gets the same message and calls Sydnor, but he's still in the process of taking Carver's men through the process of getting on the Stanfield Lieutenants, so they agree to deal with this tomorrow, thus missing the chance to catch Marlo, Chris and Snoop together. Dozerman and Truck will be on Monk; Bobby and and Brian are on Chris Partlow and Snoop, and Karen and Tony will follow Snoop if she splits off from Chris. Marcus and Angela will be on the backup unit, and Sydnor himself will be keeping on Marlo himself. He explains how to get up on each of them, revealing where they can expect to find most of the Lieutenants at different points in the early morning. The purpose of their surveillance is to establish the pattern of their meeting locations, and as this is all being run through McNulty's serial killer paperwork and none of it will be used in court, all they have to worry about is keeping on their targets. All of them accept this, effectively breaking the law but in a way that they think is entirely appropriate, none of them (even Sydnor) knowing just how deep down the rabbithole this all goes. Chris and Snoop arrive at the meeting location where Marlo is already waiting, and he has great news for them, surprised that they themselves don't know - Omar is dead. They're shocked, especially when they hear the killer was some young boy and nobody even knows if there was a reason for him to shoot Omar. Marlo himself suggests maybe it was a Hopper who just wanted to hear and see the result of shooting somebody, but he really doesn't care. Though his relief at Omar's death is evident, he's already moving on and leaving the thought of the man who humiliating him in the past, reminding Chris that he wants them to go to Atlantic City and enjoy some time off gambling - about the only thing that Marlo seems to do purely for the pleasure of it.   At Quantico, McNulty and Kima sit down for the results of the Behavioral Analysis of the serial killer. They meet Arthur Toland, Deputy Director of the Unit, who happily tells them all about the appearances he has made on television, the books he has written, and eagerly explains about how his stuff is used on "those CSI shows". Having introduced himself and talked all about himself, he stands around awkwardly for a few moments and then leaves, another example of the rather pathetic and ineffectual upper management types as seen at the Baltimore Sun... but at least this one was funny. With him gone and a few snarky comments about him out of the way, they get down to the heart of the matter. It's a scene that is too funny not to link, as they quickly move beyond the all-over-the-map forensic behavior of the killer into his deeper personality flaws, and effectively describe McNulty to a tee. He has to sit and uncomfortably listen as all his own personality foibles and flaws are exposed and analyzed unknowingly by the Analyst, and when it's over and he and Kima leave, he quietly admits that they seem to be in the right ballpark. At The Sun, Gus puts through Fletcher's story on the homeless and congratulates him on a good story, pleased with the drama he has found in small moments. Fletcher admits that he had help, a tour guide in the form of Bubbles who introduced him around, and the more time he spent with him the more he wanted to write about him. So why not write about him? Because Bubbles isn't homeless and Fletcher doesn't have any core theme he wants to write about, he just wants to know more about Bubbles. He tells Gus a little more about him, he lives in his sister's basement but isn't allowed up the stairs, he volunteers at a soup kitchen and sells the Baltimore Sun (Gus loves that) in the mornings. Gus makes a decision, pleased with Fletcher's instincts, and tells him to take a couple of weeks and see what if anything he can put together as a story, and Gus will make sure his other assignments are covered. Fletcher heads out and Alma comes in, she has two potential stories, one on a fire and the other on the murder of a black male by a juvenile suspect (Omar and Kenard). Gus, who just showed a good journalistic ear by setting Fletcher out on the Bubbles story, ponders these two potential stories based on the amount of space they have left (four inches), decides to go with the fire, and thus misses one of the biggest stories in Baltimore. Omar was a legend on the street, but a nobody to the "legitimate" world, and The Sun didn't even know he existed. Carcetti and Norman meets with Congressman Upshaw to discuss the rumblings around him standing for the Democratic Nomination for Governor. He details all the problems PG County is facing, similar ones to Baltimore's - high crime, a failing school system, and no financial support at all from the Republican Governor. Carcetti insists that he is the only one who can beat that Republican Governor, and that Upshaw would just make things needlessly difficult for them all by standing against him. He promises that while Upshaw might have heard it all before, he can guarantee that those problems will go away when HE is the new Governor. Upshaw, no fool, tells him that he's going to require a lot more from Carcetti than his word if he wants PG County to fall into line, and Carcetti and Norman share wry looks - it always comes down to this, in the end. McNulty returns home and finds the house deserted, Beadie and the kids are both nowhere to be seen. He looks around and finds a note on the table from Beadie, with a very clear message - she may be back tomorrow or the next day... or she may not, and that is something he had better think about. In other words, she's not going to sit around and wait for him to destroy himself or pull himself back from the brink, he either changes now or loses her, she won't always be there while he fucks everything else up. McNulty stands gaping, as for perhaps the first time (maybe aided by that behavioral analysis) he realizes just how much he has hosed things up. Bunk returns to the lab where Ron pointedly notes that the victim in his case wasn't homeless, which is curious considering the link to the homeless serial killer. The DNA evidence has come up with a name - Chris Partlow, much to Bunk's great relief. Ron points out that a lesser man would be pissed at being hosed over like Bunk just hosed him over (a lesser Detective would beat his rear end for loving up 22 individual evidence samples!) but he remembers Partlow's name from the Vacants Murders, and so instead he congratulates a beaming Bunk for FINALLY getting the traction he needs on his case. Freamon meets with the Maryland US Attorney, as well as Reese and Fitzhugh, where he finally provides them with "The Headshot" that Bond neglected to use. The US Attorney understands immediately what happened and Freamon confirms it - Bond didn't use it because he wanted to grandstand it as a City Case and ride the wave of his success to City Hall.... a dream you can be sure is now dead and buried. But if Freamon was hoping that bringing him the Headshot now would do him any good, he is soon brought back to bitter reality. While the entire case remains viable from a legal standpoint, the fact is that a City Jury found Clay Davis innocent and made him look like Martin Luther King, and the optics of a mostly-white Federal Jury finding him guilty would be a political nightmare. With some justification, the US Attorney complains bitterly that a six year case against Clay Davis was ruined by "the city" and hands the file back over to Lester, telling him he has a headshot but no gun to fire it - Clay Davis is once again untouchable. Of course, the US Attorney is far from innocent, having tried to co-opt the hard work of Lester and the MCU for the Republican Governor's gain, but he's not going to mention THAT. Bunk brings McNulty the paper he found on Omar, bringing him up to speed on Omar's death and the fact he was hunting down Marlo's crew. He admits that this is payment for McNulty signing off on the labwork that got him Chris Partlow, and is less than pleased when McNulty - surprised by Omar's death but quickly moving on - asks him to hold off getting a warrant on Chris, as they're on the edge of getting the entire crew. Bunk agrees reluctantly but can't help reminding McNulty that he solved a murder with good honest police work and no shucking and jiving, and McNulty replies that he wouldn't have gotten anything without McNulty's shucking and jiving getting him the labwork done. Bunk glares, but again doesn't bring up that the delay was due to the "serial killer" getting in the way, and heads off. Less pleasant news is coming though, when Barlow shows up eagerly whispering about a potential break he has in a case that just requires him to travel to South Carolina for a couple of days to investigate another case. McNulty looks through the file and is amused but confused, the cases are not remotely connected or similar, and an irritated Barlow comes out with the truth - his brother-in-law has organized for them to play a round of gold at Hilton Head this week and he is taking it. McNulty doesn't understand what this has to do with him, and Barlow lays it out again - he knows that McNulty is being cute with the money/resources he has and passing it out "like a priest doling out wafers", and it will only take one call to the top brass to get the whole thing to collapse around his ears.... unless Barlow gets two paid days and a road car in South Carolina. Disgusted but knowing he is completely over a barrel, McNulty agrees, revolted that anybody would fake a crime in order to satisfy his own personal desire - what kind of an rear end in a top hat would do that!?! Freamon picks up another coded message and contacts Sydnor, who coordinates with Dozerman and Truck to keep an eye on Monk and Marlo. They tail their subjects, passing by Dukie as he is rejected from an application to another place for work. As Marlo and Monk meet, another coded call comes through to Marlo but surveillance on the other lieutenants show that none of them are using a phone, which brings Lester to an inevitable conclusion, there is somebody else on this small network of Stanfield's top dogs that they're not currently aware of. Dukie spots an odd sight, a horse and carriage down an alleyway, a man loading up the carriage with scrap metal. Spotting the trouble the man is having with some scrap, he offers to help and cuts his hand doing it. The arabber offers to give him a lift down to the scrapyard where he is going to sell his collected junk, saying that if Dukie is willing to stick around and give him a hand then he'll pay him $10 for his troubles. Bemused by the novelty and desperate for something to do to fill in his days, Dukie agrees, wrapping his hand in a rag and being driven down the alleyway. McNulty is preparing to leave to see Lester when Kima arrives with a fat stack of case files. To his horror, he realizes that she intends to go through every single one of the casefiles (many of which detail graphic sexual crimes) to compare them against the FBI's analysis. Unable to stand the thought of putting her through all this needless (and horrific) work, he takes the files from her and settles them down on his desk and takes her into the interrogation room, where he makes a deadly confession - there is NO serial killer. He attempts to justify his actions, explaining all the good work he did and laying out an incredibly deluded exit strategy - once Lester brings down Marlo, McNulty expects the case to just... go away, that the bosses will just lose interest and everything will go back to normal somehow. While it's true that in the past he has seen big cases fade in importance and eventually disappear, he doesn't seem to quite grasp just how big a hornet's next he has stirred up this time. Having laid it all out to a revolted Kima, he happily offers her anything she needs to work the cases she wants to work, then tells her he has to go and leaves, apparently thinking he has settled this issue and that she could be bought off just like all the others. Carcetti bites his tongue and sits seething as he meets with two very important political figures representing the East Side and West Side of Baltimore respectively, two figures he desperately needs in his run for Governor. One is Nerese Campbell who he thought was yesterday's news what with Rupert Bond coming up in the world, and the other is unbelievably Clay Davis, whose grave Norman warned him not to dance on. He explains what is happening with Upshaw and Dobey and the negotiations he is in to get Upshaw on side, but he needs them to promise to ignore Dobey's efforts and support Carcetti's so he can have as clean a run to the nomination as possible. This will cost him though, Nerese wants his endorsement for her to replace him as Mayor when he goes, and Clay wants three seats on the liquor board for some cronies. Carcetti offers one and Clay counters with two, promising to throw in fundraising on Carcetti's behalf into the bargain. Carcetti accepts that but notes the idea of Clay with two seats on the liquor board terrified him, and Clay just stares for a moment before bursting out laughing. He can happily let comments like that roll off of his back, he knows what the US Attorney already told Freamon - he's effectively bulletproof now, for at least a little while, and he's right back on top along with Nerese in having the Mayor right where they want him. The Junk Man brings Dukie by Bug's school, the little boy thrilled to see Dukie riding a horse and carriage. Dukie jumps down and the Arabber tells him that he'll have the $10 for him tomorrow, and as much work as he wants if he comes to the stables before 9am. They can work through the day, he'll always need help lifting things, and Dukie happily takes him up on the offer, he's finally found something to fill his days before picking up Bug after school - he has a purpose. Freamon reports the latest coded message to Sydnor, who has to report he has lost Marlo while making a detour but is trying to pick him back up. McNulty arrives with the news that Bunk has an arrest warrant for Chris, but is holding of on it for a couple of days as a favor to McNulty expediting his paperwork - they all know that if Chris is arrested, the rest of the Stanfield Organization will go to ground. He also hands over the note that Bunk gave him and tells Freamon about Omar, and Freamon is very interested in Cheese's name being on there - is Cheese part of the Stanfield Organization? He had assumed he was just one of the many dealers being wholesaled to by Marlo, but it seems he might actually be under his wing. Less pleasing is what McNulty tells him next - he told Greggs. Freamon is shocked, and McNulty can't offer any encouragement about how she took it.   Sydnor still can't find Marlo, so he puts through a call to the other surveillance units to see if they've seen him. He decides to hook up with the unit sitting on Snoop, but being unfamiliar with the area and unable to follow their directions he decides to check his map. As he goes through the coordinates of the map, the numbers start to sound familiar and he hits on a moment of inspiration - Sydnor has just cracked Marlo's code, the clock numbers are map coordinates. That night on the steps of City Hall in front of a cheering crowd, Carcetti delivers one of those wonderful rousing speeches of his that sound fantastic and mean absolutely nothing. Ripping into the Republican Governor and the Federal Government for their failures in relation to the Homeless (and the conditions that create those homeless people) and declaring his intention to fix those problems. He doesn't just talk about the city of even the state, but the whole loving country (is he already thinking about running for President halfway through his first term as Governor?), working the crowd up as he declares that the serial killer will no longer be able to prey on the homeless, because they are now protected. The crowd erupts in cheers and he moves to shake the hands of the homeless who are effectively just props for his campaign.   Freamon watches the news story on the television at the bar before turning his attention to his real target. He has his eye on Clay Davis, as fixated on that case as he is on Marlo Stanfield, and ready to make a dangerous move. Turning on the Freamon charm, he convinces the woman at Clay's booth to leave for a moment while the Senator is at the bar, and when Clay returns Freamon is seated across from him and casually starts up a conversation with him. Clay, triumphant and back on top, recognizes Freamon and happily jokes with him about "my thing", which was not so long ago threatening to destroy his career and put him in prison. Freamon is charming back, but takes the wind out of Clay's sails by casually asking if he thinks he could pull off another miracle escape... this time in Federal Court with a majority-white jury? He hands over the file and tells him to take the paperwork on his mortgage application to Billy Murphy and see what he has to say about it. Clay pretends outrage, demanding to know if he's looking to get paid, but Freamon replies that he gets paid when he comes back in a couple of nights and gets answers from Clay to a great many questions he has had for a long time now. Telling the Senator to keep the file - it's a copy - he says a charming farewell to Clay's returning date and heads on out the door, wondering if Clay will call his bluff/is aware that the US Attorney won't dare take the case. At The Sun, Gus tells Metro Section Editor Steven Luxenberg that he is going to cut out a section of Scott's story on the Homeless Vigil, Luxenberg backing him though both know that Scott will probably react poorly. The issue is that despite the tremendously well attended and public nature of the vigil, Scott has attributed a (fantastic) quote and anecdote from a nameless homeless woman. Gus refuses to run that, pointing out that considering it was a public vigil attended by any number of homeless people who voluntarily went, he could have easily found somebody willing to be named. Scott focuses on the quality of the quote and Gus admits it is an excellent one, but probably goes a little too far by outright suggesting that Scott made it up, saying the perfection of the nameless quote is what worries him. Scott is as furious as anybody caught in a lie will be, storming back to his desk and sitting fuming, soon joined by Klebanow who wants to know what is wrong. Once he hears, he heads over to Gus who for once actually doesn't fold or capitulate in the face of authority, though he does do it in a remarkably passive-aggressive way. Citing the paper's sourcing policy and the utter needlessness of an unnamed source for a story like this, he refuses to discuss it with Klebanow, saying he already spoke with the Metro Editor who backed him, and thus he is secure that he has made the right choice. He points out that as the Managing Editor, Klebanow is free to make any changes he wants, but Gus will not edit and put out a story like this, and with that he puts on his coat and storms out the door, leaving Scott seething at having his (phony) integrity called into question. McNulty sits up waiting for Beadie's potential return when he gets a call from Christeson, who wants to thank him for helping him put down the case he had been struggling to solve on his own time. McNulty accepts the thanks and hangs up, and then sits alone in his empty house wondering if that kind of reaction was worth destroying what may have been his last chance for domestic happiness. Carcetti is doing a good job of destroying his too. He returns home where Jen is waiting, happy about how good he looked on television. The kids are asleep and Carcetti only half pays attention to his wife as he rushes to the lounge and turns on the television to try and catch himself on CNN. As she asks him about what is going on he reveals he is endorsing Campbell despite preferring Bond, that he's paying off Clay, and then distractedly reveals he is going to have to give PG County half of any extra school or anti-crime money he gets from the legislature to assuage Upshaw. Even a passive person like Jen understands the implications of that, that is money that Baltimore needs, and Baltimore is far more than twice the size of PG County. Finally turning his attention (momentarily) away from himself, he reminds her that if he doesn't win, he brings back NOTHING, then jumps straight back to watching himself on television, while his wife is left to ponder exactly what the hell he even wants to run for Governor for?   At the MCU, Freamon is impressed with Sydnor's cracking of the code. The seconds hand represents the page number of a Baltimore City map book, most of them 34 seconds for page 34. Longitude A-K is the hour hand, and for the latitude they go by five-minute intervals. All that Sydnor hasn't been able to figure out is WHEN they meet, but Freamon figures that as the locations are all within roughly a 30 minute drive, that the standing logic is to meet within an hour of receiving the message. Remembering there were some calls where nobody seemed to move, he collects those pictures and notes the second hand is on 35, which is East Baltimore. Given what McNulty brought him from Bunk, this can only mean Cheese, and for the first time Lester (who knows NOTHING about the New Day Co-Op) realizes that Marlo runs the whole drat city. The pleasure of their success is short-lived when Kima bursts into the office glaring, disappointed to find Sydnor involved too. Freamon tries to explain but she is having none of it, refusing to be a part of this and storming straight back out again. Beadie returns home with her kids and finds McNulty waiting on the stoop. She sends the kids straight in to bed and he asks her where she went. She tells him quite justifiably it is none of his business, and then adds that next time it won't be HER leaving the house, it'll be him, because that is HER loving home. The two stand on the stoop, where she dishes out her aggression and he for once sits and takes it. Anger lends her eloquence, as she echoes what Freamon once told him - the job won't save him, neither will the drunks or the girls or his co-workers, they won't be there at the end when he's dying or dead - all he can rely on is family and, if lucky, a couple of friends who were like family. He'll just be Jimmy the Cop, or Jimmy the Drunk, the guy who stopped coming around one day because he died. Accepting it all, McNulty blurts out the truth to her, perhaps as a defense mechanism, perhaps because it really has been eating him up. He lays out all he has done, why he did it, admitting he doesn't know where the anger comes from but offering a few half-assed justifications. He promises that once Marlo is arrested he will run it all down and bring it to an end, though she points out he can only do this if he ISN'T in jail, and angrily reminds him it isn't just HIS life he is loving with. He agrees, attempting a vain effort to justify things again by saying when you start you think you're the hero, but she isn't interesting in his vain philosophizing and just goes inside, closing the door behind her. At the Morgue, proving Beadie's point about the reality of death, Omar lays in a body bag, no family to be seen. A member of the staff passing by notices an oddity, opening the bags and noticing that the corpse beside Omar's has his name on it. How does he know the other corpse isn't Omar's? Because it's a white guy, and the tag says AAM for African American Male. Realizing what has happened, he smirks and replaces the tags - and that is how Omar Little's physical presence on the show ends, lying dead and forgotten in a morgue, almost incorrectly tagged by a clerical error.  Reality is always drabber than legend. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Dec 31, 2013 |
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Dec 31, 2013 12:12
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Jerusalem posted:Even a passive person like Jen understands the implications of that, that is money that Baltimore needs, and Baltimore is far more than twice the size of PG County. Actually, Prince George's County is significantly larger than Baltimore (and has been for almost 20 years) and more importantly a lot wealthier since it's a DC suburb. In the past decade especially gentrification's pushed out a lot of the former black residents of DC, but the inflated real estate values gave them a lot of money that goes a lot further out in PG, which is in large part why it's the wealthiest majority black county in the country, with about a third the poverty rate of Baltimore's. All of which makes it really weird that's the place the show singled out as being in similar dire straits when it was going through a boom period when the show was produced.
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Dec 31, 2013 14:04
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One thing I noticed reading these - Kima is told by an informant that Marlo was behind the triple murder, and she tells Bunk this, but McNulty doesn't know about it so he initially doesn't involve her in his bullshit so she can work it. Had he known they were effectively chasing the same suspect, who knows if he would have ever felt guilty enough to tell her. Omar's death is still shocking all these rewatches later. It's scary how Marlo accurately guesses that a little kid must have done it just to see what happened; it's pretty easy to imagine young Marlo as Kenard and vice versa. Also I don't have the screenshot handy but I was amused to see, when Carcetti flips through channels to CNN, a pre-Fox News Glenn Beck (hosting Planet Hollywood) is briefly seen. I only mention it because I'm pretty sure this was made before he became a nationally known wingnut.
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Dec 31, 2013 19:13
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comes along bort posted:All of which makes it really weird that's the place the show singled out as being in similar dire straits when it was going through a boom period when the show was produced.
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Dec 31, 2013 21:05
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Thanks for the correction on the size, though as noted it does make it even more galling that Carcetti is promising them half the cash he can get from the State Legislature when Baltimore's need is obviously more dire. Omar's death is pretty much perfect for me, because after all of the mythology and legend built around him of course he would be killed by a nobody (ala Wild Bill Hickok), but then look how quickly rumor starts spreading and inflating the story, from a kid shooting Omar in the back of the head to Omar being killed in a robbery to (eventually) Omar making a last stand surrounded by half a dozen New York assassins sent in specially to do the job that nobody in Baltimore could do. The legend had a life of its own, and it is proof of a sort that Marlo was right - nothing is more important than the value of your name on the street - in that sense Omar will live forever while Marlo is already a fading memory by the time the season ends.
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Dec 31, 2013 22:28
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You messed up the names of Omar and Bunk as well as Beadie and Jen. Beadie and Jen is in the 2nd to last paragraph, Omar is when Bunk is at the crimescene, where apparently Omar steps in to find himself dead.
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Dec 31, 2013 23:17
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