The Wire 1/20, "Not for Attribution"

Cafe Society
1

Well, the first death of a character, although not a major one. Bye bye, Butchie.I have a feeling there are more to come.

Nice to see Clay Davis sweat a little more. I’m enjoying it while I can.

Finally we may find out a little about the cloud hanging over Daniels. I’m trying to figure out how he and Marla could have come up with “a few hundred thousand more than a police lieutenant should have.” Any guesses, anyone? Were they laundering money like the minister? Bribes? From whom and for what?

AuntiePam, I’m beginning to come around to your point of view about the show. I rewatched last week’s episode and saw a lot more that just didn’t rise to the level of quality we’ve come to expect. On second viewing, the morgue scene was clumsier and more badly acted than I first thought. The actors playing the male county detective and the redheaded female coroner were pretty bad. And is the blonde county detective going to return, or was she just a one-time plot device?

Also, I’m not happy with what they’re doing with Jimmy. His descent into drinking on the job and public screwing is just too over the top for me. It lacks the subtlety that characterized the first four seasons. And Lester going along with Jimmy’s fake serial killer is also a false note that would be more at home in a conventional crime show than The Wire.

There may still be time for this season to redeem itself, but I’m beginning to think this will not go down as the best season of The Wire.

2

No, I don’t think it’ll be the best season either. My vote goes to season three, no doubt.

I liked this week better than last week. Except for the gratuitous sex in public on the hood of a car – Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy. Seriously, when men get that drunk, can they do that? In my experience they usually founder and pass out.

Where do you think they’re going with Marlo and his money? It’s too bad Marlo never met Clay Davis. Clay could take care of it for him. I’m thinking something happens with the Caribbean bank account, leaving Marlo confused and blaming Prop Joe.

I’m clueless about Daniels’ dirty past. I can not see him ever taking a bribe or stealing. Whatever he did, I’ll bet he thought at the time that it was the right thing to do. Maybe he covered for someone else, got paid, and couldn’t return the money. How does that sound?

3

As Omar would say, oh indeed. Season 3 was definitely the best.

The scene with Butchie was hard to take. Omar back! And I sincerely hope he is going to be the undoing of Marlo and his gang. They have done too much killing and gotten away with it (this is also alluded to in the convo between Michael and Chris/Snoop about the necessity of killing Junebug… that shit was brazen). I can see an unholy union of Prop Joe and Omar again for this job, since Marlo is encroaching on Joe’s territory, trying to cut out the connect, and I can’t see Joe taking it lightly.

Dunno. Maybe Marlo will retire to the Caribbean? Eh, no, probably not.

I remember a conversation where he discussed it with Carver, that he did it in the Eastern DEU when everyone was dirty. He was cautioning Carver not to fall into the same trap that he did as a young up and coming officer. Maybe he did pocket some money, back in the day when he was young and had an ambitious wife to satisfy. I imagine the temptation would be great, but it must have been a lot of money to lead to “excessive income charges.” His righteousness now might be a direct result of having been dirty in the past and not wanting to do it again. Isn’t everybody dirty on The Wire?

4

I agree that this is not The Best Season, but I really enjoyed this episode. McNulty dropping broader and broader hints was hilarious. As for how ridiculous it is for Freamon to agree to go along with this, you have to remember how pissed off and frustrated Freamon is about his investigation. Although, we know that he’s dedicated and talented and hard-working. That doesn’t mean he’s someone who refuses to bend or break rules. Let’s see how it plays out, I guess.
Seeing Clay Davis going down is sweet :slight_smile:

5

Just another example of unWire-like behavior, IMO. A little too heavy handed.

I’m enjoying it, too, but don’t count your chickens…

6

Agreed on each count. There was a moment during this episode—after more of McNulty’s cartoonish antics (does he really have to punctuate every scene with a grandiose swig from his flask? He’s out of control; we get it.) followed by some clunky dialogue between Michael and Dukie—when my heart sank and I began to think that the show really had taken an unrecoverable downturn. It was all coming off as trite, unsubtle, improbable, and not particularly well-acted—everything I’ve come to not expect from “The Wire.”

I thought it improved after that point, thankfully, but overall this season is a bit of a letdown thusfar.

(And it’s not just my imagination, is it—Dominic West is having a harder time not slipping back into his British accent in some of these scenes?)

7

he fell out a lot during the scene in the early am with bunk and “room 1”

8

I’ve never noticed his accent slipping, but I don’t have an ear for accents. Same with the guy who plays Carcetti – he sorta swallows his words so I notice that more than his slipping accent.

Heads up, guys! Clarke Johnson (Gus Haynes) was on Fresh Air today, and Omar (Michael Williams) will be on tomorrow. I’m hoping Terri asks him where he got the scar. And I’m hoping he doesn’t spoil anything.

Terri kept talking about the “upcoming series finale”. It’ll be over too fast. This season might not be as awesome as the others, but it’s still damn fine television and we’ll miss it.

9

McNulty never really had that Bawlmer accent that you hear on Mello and other obvious natives. He always misses the “a” sound, like in “can’t.” He says “cahn’t” instead of “caaaan’t.” That sound must be hard for people, because Carcetti misses it also.

Where Omar got it or where MKW got it? I’d love to know how Omar got it. MKW got it from a razor slash in a bar fight. He is such an amazing actor, I can’t believe he’s never gotten an Emmy nom for his role… but then again, I can say the same for Clark Peters, Sonja Sohn, Andre Royo and so many others, not to mention the writers.

10

I guess I’m not seeing the slip in quality you guys are. The newsroom scenes I find more realitic and fascinating than the schoolroom scenes.

Omar standing there tearing up without moving a muscle was fantastic. Even Marlo’s thug doesn’t think it’s a good idea to cross Omar like that. I wonder if Cheese acted with Avon’s blessing - Avon setting Marlo up to go against Prop Joe and Omar?

11

Rewatched the ep (saw it first a week ago when it came out On Demand). I think where they’re going with Marlo and the money is that when Lester et al finally catch up to him, they’re not going to be able to trace any of the money in the Caribbean, which is going to screw their investigation. This is in contrast to Clay Davis, who has a paper trail a mile wide.

I don’t think Avon is behind Cheese’s actions. Cheese just hates Omar and seems to be acting alone, for the cheese and the revenge. Joe is going to be scrambling to disassociate himself from what happened to Butchie because he knows Omar is going to be out for blood, so if he finds out what Cheese did, that’s going to be bad for him.

I’m wondering, though, if Marlo isn’t going to be undone by the same thing that ruined Avon-- that need for street drama, to always be fighting someone. Things were too quiet for the likes of Chris and Snoop, so Marlo starts up some shit with Omar, just like Avon pushed the shit with Marlo. Here’s hoping it blows up in his face.

Where was Omar supposed to be? Was that Mexico? I couldn’t tell.

I’m really growing to hate Scott, the lying reporter. I hope he gets busted for making stuff up.

12

Well they were definitely speaking Mexican accented Spanish. I remember b/c I thought at first it was Marlo in Antilles and thought they had screwed up.

13

Too bad. I thought it would have been funny (but too coincidental) if Omar was living in the poor section of the island Marlo had just visited.

As for Dominic’s and Aiden’s accents, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed any slips. But as we’ve noted before, they aren’t attempting the classic Bawlamer accent.

14

Aren’t they after Marlo for the vacant house murders? Marlo’s drug business is small potatoes if they can put 22 murders on him.

Avon’s in in prison because he violated parole, being caught with all those weapons. I don’t think anyone has been put away on this show because of drugs or drug money.

I guess it makes sense in the context of a drug investigation to be able to follow the money, but we spent a lot of time in a short season on Marlo learning how to launder money. It should lead to something more than another failed investigation.

15

They can’t put anything on Marlo re: the murders, ISTM. Even if they could nail Chris and Snoop for it (and they would’ve by now if they could’ve), they’d never implicate Marlo. The burden of proof would be on the State to prove that Marlo ordered the murders… I’m not sure how they’d prove that if Chris and Snoop ate the charges. They just don’t have the evidence. I think Major Crimes just wants Marlo for whatever they can get him for, just like they took what they could get on Avon. The purpose of the wire is to catch them doing drug deals, isn’t it? Assuming they’re too smart to talk about murders.

Stringer Bell died before he could be charged, but I think they had some serious money trail on him, which is what led to Clay Davis being taken down. If Clay goes away, it’ll be because of the work done to take down Barksdale & Bell.

Now I want to know, what exactly did Avon get convicted of, and how long is he in for? If it’s just the parole violation, he is just serving out his original sentence. There must have been additional charges for all those guns, righ?

Do you think The Wire will end with a successful investigation? You are more the optimist than I am, then. I fully expect that Marlo will either get away with it via his laundered money, or Omar will get him. I don’t expect him to be arrested and sent to jail or death row, though it would be cool if Lester could take down SOMEONE with his wire, so he could die happy. I guess Clay Davis would be satisfying enough, but I think the audience really wants to see Marlo go to jail. However, I’m used to not getting what I want from the show. It’s part of the charm. Sorta.

16

We’ll probably never see Marlo in a courtroom, but if we did, they should have enough evidence to prove he was part of a conspiracy. Chris and Snoop take orders from Marlo, and the BPD has plenty of photos showing them together, and showing Chris and Snoop on corners.

If they can put just one murder on Chris, that might be enough to charge Marlo too. They have DNA linking Chris to the murder of Bug’s daddy. But they only sent stuff to the lab from the vacants, and Bug’s daddy wasn’t found in a vacant. So unless Lester gets another one of his miraculous brainstorms – let’s look at ALL the unsolved murders – Chris will never be charged.

Nah. I thought that Marlo being in the co-op would help, but with no MCU working on the money trail, it’ll never happen. Is there time in seven episodes to re-establish the MCU and put Lester on the trail of Marlo’s money?

Any chance Clay Davis will give up some of his money sources in exchange for leniency?

17

Why haven’t they arrested them already then? They just do not have enough evidence to prove anything. It seems hard to believe, but wasn’t Pearlman saying that there just isn’t enough to do anything, that it was all too weak?

It would be cool if Chris finally went down for killing Bug’s daddy, but that hasn’t even come up yet this season. Even so, getting Chris for that murder does nothing to link him to the bodies in the empties, since it had a completely different MO. Chris and Snoop still have that gun charge pending, but that will be a light sentence I’m sure.

Any chance Clay will flip on Prop Joe and take out the whole co-op? THAT would be insane. Talk about a career case!

18

Excellent point! They aren’t even ripping his corners. They know he has the whole West Side drug trade. Harass him a little! Where’s Officer Walker when you need him?

Actually, in three episodes, we haven’t seen any police work except for McNulty and his bodies.

(They have evidence though – they just don’t know they have it, which amounts to the same thing.)

19

Episode 2 was definitely a dip in quality, a one-off. Except for the McNulty swig, Episode 3 came back up to snuff. The McNulty overdramatic swig from the bottle is getting on my last nerve and has got to go.

I think that, if Burrell and Rawls go after Daniels with the dirt they have, there will be something Daniels can use to go after them. It may be the homosexual stuff (re Rawls, or not) but I definitely think he has something on both of them. Scott will play a major part in the downfall of both Clay Davis and the top police brass. The twist will be that he will publish something false or shady but it will turn out to be instrumental or lead to some other truth that will take people down. Clay Davis will definitely sell whomever he can to save his own hide.

I think Michael will be instrumental in any downfall of Marlo/Chis/Snoop. He’s already beginning to become disillusioned with certain aspects of the game. Most especially Chris and Snoop though, because of the scene in the car re Junebug, the killing of the family and orders to kill the kid who ran. Then there’s fact that the street kid specifically mentioned Chris already knew Michael hadn’t been on his corner taking care of business all day, like he should have been. Marlo will go down and in my opinion, at the hands of Omar.

They were able to give Avon more time (in addition to his original sentence) because of the serious gun charges. I may be wrong, but didn’t somebody in his organization allude to the fact that he shouldn’t have been around all those guns, right before they were busted?

I thought I would be the only one to think Omar was Marlo in Omar’s first appearance. Before my confusion cleared up, I did sense of the intimacy between the two men and had a “WTF” moment before I realized it was Omar. The OP above might be right about the Mexican-accented Spanish, but in my mind Omar is in the Dominican Republic. Remember, he loved Latin men and, in the DR, his dark skin would fit in well with the range of complexions to be found there.

Rubystreak mentioned last week how Michael, Duquan and Bug seemed to be set up like a family. I was hesitant to point out that, for no clear reason I’ve seen – just a feeling, it could be a bigger plot point than that. With Michael’s vehement opposition to Cutty getting close and calling him a faggot, I thought he was protesting too much, and this would be revealed in the setup of his household. However, the scene with the young girls last night seemed to make it obvious that the producers believed people would start to think that way too and I think that was there to keep things on track. (Apologies to AuntiePam for my nonforthcoming hints in PM that related to this conjecture.)

20

I think I’m late to the party here, having just watched this, but I also echo concerns that this season is getting way too contrived for me. McNulty’s whole caper is so corny that I’m actually groaning at the screen, and it doesn’t help that he seems to be taking sublety lessons from William Shatner. The one saving grace is that it does make sense that he’s not getting caught, as everyone in the department seems to be having a hard enough time summoning up the motivation to give a shit about their own cases, let alone playing watchdog on their fellow police.

But still, hammering that “Do More With Less” motto from both the police department and newsroom in the same freakin’ episode is just so un-Wire-like. To further beat it into our heads, they have both McNulty and that lying reporter pulling the same type of scheme at the same time-- ARGH!!

At long last, after four seasons of unparalleled excellence, they be slippin’ an’ trippin’. I’m still gonna watch til the bitter end, though. They’ve earned that much, at the very least. Believe.