I still love this series. This season got started slowly, but the last few episodes have been great.
I’ve been wondering how the growing conflict between Avon and Stringer would work itself out, and I guess I was rooting for Stringer. But I suppose we had to expect that Avon’s brutality and direct action would prevail. So Stringer’s gone, just as the Police were about to nab him.
One thing I just don’t understand is that when Avon asked him what time he was meeting the contractor, it was clear that Stringer was suspicious about the question. So why didn’t he tell Avon the wrong time or just move the meet? It seemed certain he knew he was walking into a trap.
There was a great piece of inside-Baltimore humor in this episode that most people outside Maryland won’t get. In the meeting in the mayor’s office the guy playing the head of the public health department was the real-life former mayor of Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke. The show’s mayor is trying to find some way to keep Major Colvin’s free zones going, because of the reduction in crime everywhere else. At one point Schmoke’s character tells the mayor that when the word gets out that drugs have effectively been legalized in parts of Baltimore, people will be calling the mayor “the most dangerous man in America.”
Well, as Mr. Schmoke describes here, this is exactly what happened to him in 1988 when he merely suggested that there ought to be a national debate on the war on drugs and its apparent failure.
So here are my buring questions for the last episode:
[ul][li]Does Colvin take down Avon? [/li][li]If so, does nabbing a big drug dealer redeem Colvin for Amsterdam? [/li][li]Will the hitters Stringer ordered still act, now that he’s gone, and who were they going for: the senator or maybe Avon? I know this last may be a stretch, but keep in mind that Shamrock said “hitters” not “hitter.” Could be one for each. (I, for one, would not mind seeing that slimy senator get it. But I think that whatever happens, Avon will make it to next season.)[/li][li]Will the free zones be closed, sending drug dealing back to the corners again? (In light of the downer endings of the first two seasons, I’m guessing yes.)[/li][/ul]
And my prediction for next season:
Carcetti is already mayor when the season starts.