The Wire: Episode 47

Love Bubbles fucking with Herc

 

just read the hbo recap of episode 47.... they stopped short of saying that michael's stepfather is dead..... there's been a lot of talk about money for witness protection and reform of the police department... could michael's stepfather be recovering in a hospital? could he be the eyeball witness who will tie chris and snoop to the bodies in the vacants? will michael finish his stepdaddy in season 5 as payback to snoop and chris?

 

Another tie in to the Godfather -- I think Michael was drinking orange juice out of the fridge after the death scene.

Oranges foreshadowed death in the godfather trilogy. An homage, perhaps?

 

This whole season being available OnDemand is really fucking up the weekly discussion. Because by the time us regular mopes can talk about the most recent episode, the folks with On Demand have already seen the next one. We almost need two different threads.

(Crap. I wrote so much I had to break into two posts.)


I feel like the whole key to this episode (47, Misgivings) was in Poot's line about global warming.

"So why is it so cold?" Bodie says.

"Yo, we ... just getting old." Poot answers.

Seems like that's the running theme through this episode. As you age, you see things differently. (Unless you're Herc.) Bodie and Poot, they're not just young hoppers on the corner anymore. They're hardened players, with Bodie asking himself (in a very Tony Soprano-esq way) what exactly are the rules of the game? Michael, after killing off his stepfather, suddenly has a taste of what power feels like. He's getting older, hinting at who he'll become. Then you've got the scene with McNulty and his ex-wife, where she says, "If I'd have known you were going to turn into a grown up..." He's grown up too, as has Carver. Namond is growing older too, but in a different way.

The scene with Bunk and McNulty and their kids at the restaurant tells you everything you need to know about the message behind the season, especially when you combine it with Colvin's speech about trying to educate these kids the same way the system tried, and failed, to educate their parents, cousins, brothers and sisters. McNulty's kids want to be a video game designer and a rock star. Bunk's kids want to be the chief of police and a neurosurgeon (though obviously Bunk was kind of joking about that one). Bunk's youngest son looked so much like the little kid with the foul mouth who is always hanging around Namond and Donut (car thief) it tells you exactly why the corner kids can't choose a different life. Because, as Bunny said, they all know what we expect them to be. And at the same time, to prove the point one last time, we've got McNulty schooling the young officer on police work, teaching him how to be good police, and Bunk saying, "It's got to come from somewhere."

As Boobie pointed out, amazing work by the writers in making us feel, if only for a second, like we understood Chris a bit more as he was beating Michael's stepfather to death. The beauty of this show, so often, reveals itself in what's not said. We don't need Chris to tell Snoop, "I was molested too!" because we get it, just by the way he looked at Michael. Chris KNEW. Nothing else had to be said. We knew what was going on in Michael's head when he looked at his mother (though I disagree that she has any clue he had anything to do with it; I think he was just gloating to her that Bug's dad wasn't coming back, just like he said).

I say this having, obviously, not seen episode 48, but I don't think Randy dies. I think what would be even more interesting, and in a way more tragic than Michael killing Randy, would be if Randy felt he had to do something to prove himself to his friends again since word is out that he's a snitch. Instead of his death, I feel like it would be almost more awful if Randy had to kill someone himself, and get into the Game, to show the neighborhood that he's not some little snitch. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe Marlo rethinks his decision that "he can't hurt us" once Lester and Bunk start opening up the vacants, but I still think, sadly, Dukie is going to be killed somehow, because he's the most innocent. Simon has preached for years that drugs destroy people's lives, but the war on drugs destroys communities, and innocent kids like Duquan are the ones who suffer.

(CONT)

 

Jason's theory about how Omar being a Willy Horton doesn't add up for me. I don't see it. Look at how Omar is taking notes, being patient, acting like he's Lester Freeman. We've already seen Marlo set up for a murder, and his loyalty helped him beat it. Freeman and Bunk would never go along with some story, no matter how much pressure they got from the mayor, that Omar killed a bunch of random people and left them in vacants. He's going to be the one that brings Marlo down, all the while keeping his promise to Bunk, and suddenly I'm feeling like Chris might be the guy who takes over. Chris and Snoop do the actual killing, but it seems like to me that Chris simply takes orders from the Boss.

Which brings me back to Bodie. It seems obvious that there's a code to the street, and everyone, for the most part, understands it and tries to adhere to it. Marlo doesn't seem to be interested in it. He's not particularly interested in money, he wants instead to hear his name ring out and to be feared. When Bodie and Slim Charles were talking about Lil Kevin's death, it seemed like even they understood that killing was above and beyond the usual rules of engagement, even for their world. For that reason, I don't know that Marlo wears the crown for long. Simon's point in Season 1 seemed to be that Stringer and Avon weren't necessarily the bad guys, and the cops necessarily weren't the good guys. They were just on opposite sides of a pretty big fence, one with gray areas on both sides. But Marlo just seems different. Evil. Jamie Hector, the actor portraying him, has been awesome this season. It would be a pretty dark message for him to get the best of everyone.

Maybe that's the truth, though. We want the Bodies and the Stringers and D'Angelos and Omars to survive, because we can see the humanity in them and relate to them, but maybe that's why the Marlos end up winning in real life. Don't know.

I think my favorite scene of the whole episode, however, might have been when Bubs was giving Herc the minister's license plate (PR8ZGOD), and then after offering up his cell phone, he glanced up at the spires of the church, and the heavens.

As Burrell once said in a ComStat meeting, "this is Baltimore, and the gods will not save you here," but The Lord does help those who help themselves.

 

Nice job, DD, as usual. I still think Michael's mom has to have at least a small suspicion that he had something to do with her boyfriend's disappearance, because Michael told her in advance that he wasn't coming back. But maybe, like you said, it was just him gloating. (An aside -- is Michael really sticking his tongue out at his mom as he walks out of the room? It's a silhouette, but that's sure what it looks like. And if it is, then maybe that says something about Michael being childish and grown-up all at the same time).

Zeke -- nice catch on the orange juice. I'm starting to think my Godfather comparisons have even more legs than I first thought.

Two things about the Bodie-Poot conversations struck me, and they both show how great this show is at making every little piece count -- even pieces from several seasons ago. First, the fact that Bodie and Poot still talk about Wallace shows how profoundly that murder affected them. One of the supposed codes of the street is that you don't talk about the dead, but clearly Wallace's death still bothers them (or, at least bothers Bodie), and he's still trying to reconcile that act with his role in the game. I like DD's comparison of Bodie to Tony Soprano in that regard. He's just using Poot as his Dr. Melfi.

The other line -- which seemed like a throwaway comment to those who didn't know better -- was Bodie asking Poot if he was still banging the girl who gave him VD. Remember the first time Poot mentioned her (in the first episode of Season 3)? The purpose of that original conversation was to set up the line, "Don't matter how many times you get burnt, you keep doing the same." And here we are, at least a year later, and Poot still can't stop himself from taking part in an activity he knows full well will hurt him. Sort of like a lot of other people in the game...

 

if the stepdaddy isn't dead, season 5 could pick up right where season 1 started... michael (the new avon) interefering with a murder trial (snoop and chris)....

 

First off, let me say I watch the show two to three times on Tivo, but damn Double Down, you must take notes like it's a football game. I don't know what kind of sports writer you are, but I truly think you missed your calling. You should be a TV or movie critic.

On some of the points brought up here:

I still don't know if Michael was molested. I know obviously everything is laid out there, but is this the first sign that we see a dark side from him. Is his true prelude to being a master of the game and the streets that he pulled one over on everybody -- letting them believe he was molested -- just to get what he wanted, which is control of the house, because that's the only way he will know for sure that his little brother is taken care of in the best possible way. By him.

As smart as this writer is, a drastic plot twist would not be out of the question.

And speaking of plot twists, I'm convinced now that Michael and Namond are about to head down opposite roads. With Bunny seeing what Namond comes from, I almost think that he will somehow save him. And if what everybody else says, Michael will get into the game.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Omar will bring Marlo down, sending him to prison, not killing him, like he has done with other major players. I've always thought it, from the time Omar had that quote in the courtroom ... I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?
I've always liked Omar (just not in the way Omar might like me).

Among the others I've always liked is Slim Charles. I don't know if he'll be the next ruler or not, but I'm rooting for him. He's just too close to Prop Joe not to turn into a major player.

It's amazing how the show can make us find compasion in those that on the outside look so heartless. We've obviously seen it in Chris, beating down the stepdad for Michael. I think he showed it to us in Marlo, too, more than once. For some reason I want to believe he sent Chris and Snoop out to do the stepdad because he felt sorry for the kid. Not because he felt like it would be a way for Michael to feel like he would then owe him something.

Also, he more or less lets Randy off the hook and decided to off Little Kevin instead. He could have easily had both of them killed. Instead, he decided (in a round about way) teach Randy a lesson putting the snitch word out on the street. I refuse to believe there's nothing that Randy can't weasel his way out of. He'll live, but only because ...

When Bunk finds out that Herc is worthless, he'll then scoop Randy up before he is harmed. However, we may lose contact with him on the show. I just see them putting him in a witness relocation foster home.

 

I'llnevertell, I have a friend in LA who swears Michael wasn't molested, too. I don't buy it. Simon doesn't write that way (I could be dead wrong).

I was convinced that Namond might go on the straight... Now I'm not so sure...

 

There's enough in Michael's body language--recoiling from every touch by the stepdad--not to mention never wanting to leave his little brother and the stepdad alone for even a second that strongly suggests he was molested.

 

Yeah I definitely think he was molested, but like I said a while back I like that they never actually confirm it in anyway. Leave it twisting out there just enough. I don't think it's part of some major plot twist, I don't even think it'll ever be resolved, and it's better that way. Most shows would have Chris go to Michael and tell him he knows what he's been through, but that's not real and so obviously this show would never go there.

As for the stepdad, I can't fathom him surviving that beating. He got smashed in the face with a pistol at least a dozen times, probably two dozen. It's a little surprising that they didn't put a bullet into him just to make sure, but the fact that they didn't seems to indicate that he was definitely dead.

Jason I like some of the links you've made from the young kids to the older players from the past, but I think you might take some of it too far (i.e. the potential trial with Michael's stepdad). I feel like these writers are showing some of where these guys come from as kids but I don't think they're going to go to mirror storylines. I could be wrong, but just my 2 cents.