Starting a thread early to share this awesome Survivor: West Baltimore video. It contains SPOILERS through episode 9.
Anyone have special plans for watching? I’m turning off the phone and making sure the dog gets his potty break, but other than that, it’ll just be me and my box of tissues.
If anyone’s seen the finale, please box your spoilers until after the show has aired. Kthx!
I’ve seen it. Without spoiling anything, I’d say it’s maybe a little too neat, a little too pat, but I’ll take it. I guess I’d prefer too few loose ends to too many.
Forty minutes until the finale of the finest series ever. I have been in a funk all weekend, knowing this is the end. I loved aspects of Deadwood more, but overall, I am now fully in The Wire camp.
I started watching this show in January this year and got through all five seasons. I’ve also seen the finale. It was a fitting end and no “sudden black screen” like in The Sopranos. There are quite a few “I knew it”, “a-ha”, and “WTF?” moments to make for some interesting discussion.
I’ll miss this show.
A great conclusion to a great series. The street, like life, just keeps going on, no matter who is around.
To quote from a scene in the first season:
Fuck
FUCK
fuck
FUCK FUCK
Fuck
Fuck
FUCK
Fuuuuuck
Fuck
I only cried once. I expected Marlo to be back on the streets, and took that as confirmation that he would be incarcerated soon. I’m good with that. But damn, Dookie oiling up? As far as he had come? That was what had me reaching for the tissues. Mike ripping off the cash store, good. Slim Charles popping Cheese, better. Dookie riding the horse, can’t take it. I hope Lester keeps his woman happy and McNulty can hold on to Beadie, the scene on the porch gave me hope. Norman sticking the made up issue back in Carcetti’s face was classic. I am going to miss this show.
I’m happy with it too, except for Dukie, of course. In the version of The Wire that will continue to run in my head, he’ll get help from Bubbles or Cutty.
Very satisfying finale. Particularly loved Norman laughing at Carcetti. I also really liked McNulty’s fake funeral, since there were “spoilers” around that he was dead in the finale, from a car accident. I wonder if Simon did that on purpose, to foil the spoilers.
I’ll watch your version in my head and hope that happens. There was so much hope in that montage, but I keep coming back to that one scene.
I wonder what McNulty will do with himself. I’m not sure if I see him getting a “save the world/Baltimore via other means job” like Bunny Colvin did after he was drummed out and not ending up drunk 24 hours a day. It was great to see another cop funeral. I’m pissed (but perhaps not surprised) that Scott got away with his lies and the paper won a Pulitzer. I’m thrilled that Bubbles got let upstairs, and maybe that means someday Dukie and Bug will find a better life.
Big smiles for Cedric, McNulty, Lester, Bubbles, and I guess Rhonda came out OK as well.
Sad face for Dukie
The rest are stuck in the perpetual cycle of crap
Valchek ends up as Commissioner? And Rawls remains in the closet.
I was glad Kenard got caught and Slim finally did what a lot of people wanted to do to Cheese.
That ending montage was perfect, in that they’ve done it every season, but this time they used “Down in the Hole,” and it just seemed so fitting. I almost started crying when Dukie was shooting up, but the thing that made me LOSE it was Reginald getting to go upstairs to eat with his sister and her kid.
Kenard got arrested, but Levy is still practicing law. Chris is in prison, hanging out with Wee-Bey, but Marlo has gone from being the new Avon to being the new Stringer. And were they suggesting that Sydnor becomes another McNulty, in the scene with him and the Judge?
I’m as satisfied as I can be, I think, because I didn’t want it to end. If it HAD to end, they HAD to show the game moving on, and they threw in a few happy endings without making it ridiculous.
Dukie’s situation was sad, but one hopes that he’ll end up like Bubbles and cleaning up one day.
So Mike is a hustler in the streets now? Unfortunately there’s no future in that life. He’s either going to wind up dead or locked up. It would have been nice to see him leave Baltimore and doing something else somewhere else. But that wasn’t going to happen, was it?
Marlo… that motherfucker. How does he even purport to be one of the upper crust, wheeling and dealing? He’ll always have to work out of the shadows. That scene was pretty ridiculous. If I understood it correctly, that scene was to show that he’s really a gangster and will always return to the streets. Hopefully he won’t last long.
Oh, and Cheese? Ha!
Interview with the main creator of the show, 5 pages of delicious awesomeness.
Well, it’s over. The 5th season was certainly the weakest, but still damn good television, and it managed to both wrap things up nicely, and also NOT wrap things up nicely. The game is still going on. Michael is the new Omar. Sydnor is the new McNulty. Nerese is the new Royce. Dukie is the new Bubbles. The greeks are still in place.
One of the big question marks for me is Carcetti. I always thought he was portrayed as being, while obviously not incorruptible, at least someone who cared, someone who was clearly several steps up from the Clay Davis mold. He was too focused on his own career, but he did honestly try to make the city better. Or did I just naively fooled by his boyish good looks and charm?
Loved seeing Lester with the prostitute from first season. I was just thinking about her the other day, wondering if she and Lester had ever hooked up.
Dukie’s going to end up dead. Bubbles has a sister with a basement. What the hell does Dukie have? Nothing, that’s what. He’ll be dead in a year.
I hate that Templeton never had a real “come to Jesus” moment, but such is life. Not all the gamers get caught, and it would have been too pat if he had. But still, I kept waiting for the scene where we find his dead body. Characters like his always end up suiciding themselves off. So glad the show didn’t go for that cliche.
Overall, I loved the season as well as the series. It was my favorite show of all time.
Dukie’s not going to end up dead. He’s going to end up Bubbles.
And, Mike’s the new Omar. Sticking up the bad guys.
Good finale. I really liked the two Baltimore montages (there was a nice brief one in the middle). They didn’t focus on Bubbs too much this season, but I really liked everything they did with him. The “door” was a nice touch.
And, McNulty’s convo with Scott was great.
I choose to believe that Shardene was just a dancer, that she never hooked. 
She and Lester have been together for awhile. We saw her in S2 or S3 (?) at the MCU and it looked like she was wearing one of Lester’s shirts. Lester recognized her quality right off, when she was willing to risk her life to help bring down Avon.
I wonder if Michael is really going to be the next Omar, or if he was just trying to draw Marlo out by ripping off the rim shop.
I would’ve like to see at least a cameo from Avon, but I still liked the episode quite a bit.
Loved to see Cheese catch one.
Probably a really dumb question: why was the ep called “30”?
Yep, nothing changed, really. I agree that Mike is filling Omar’s role now, though I hope he has a happier ending to his career. Very sad about Dukie… maybe he and Mike will find each other again. Kima is also following in McNulty’s footsteps, giving a shit when it’s not her turn. Looks like Rhonda is the new Phelan, and Daniels might eventually be the new, improved Bond (now with integrity!)
What will Jimmy do now? I’m glad they didn’t kill him off. Will he turn into Herc, only smarter and not as much of a sell-out? What about Marlo? Is he headed back to jail once he’s back on the street, or was that attack on the corner boy a one-time thing, for old time’s sake? Will he become Stringer (semi-legit business man) or Avon (unable to leave the street behind)?
Were you still fooled by the end, when Daniels was forced out for not wanting to lie and juke the stats? That was the give-away that Carcetti turned out to be just like the rest of them-- remember when he was the Mayor Elect, he promised Daniels there would be no cooking of stats? Well, that went all out the window when he decided to run for Governor. He is just as corrupt and self-interested as Clarence Royce was (no, not as bad as Clay Davis, but shiiiiiit, that’s damning with faint praise). Obviously Nerisse Campbell is also more of the same. Power corrupts, and yes, Carcetti was corrupted by it. He was a huge disappointment.