So Many Feels on The Wire This Week.

The Wire

Episode 10:

The Cost This episode was jammed pack with all kinds of developments!! Wallace and Omar are staying at the top of my list as McNulty continues to annoy me. McNulty just bothers me because although I know he is probably a good cop and will eventually bring down the whole Barksdale gang, when he isn’t working, he just seems so scummy. He was a bad husband, isn’t a great father, and gets wasted so much that he ends up sleeping at the office. Wallace and Omar on the other hand, are actually trying to turn their lives around and do right. We see Omar helping the police by wearing a wire to Avon’s parlay with Stringer and then we see him leaving town to start anew.

Wallace who is unfortunately still using drugs, is apprehended by the cops and when he is brought in, he tells the cops almost everything they need to know, especially more information about Stringer. I thought it was nice of him to protect D’Angelo from the blame and I think it showed that he is still loyal to him even though he does not work for him anymore. By not turning D’Angelo over, it also shows that he really did appreciate D’Angelo letting him out of the game. The whole idea of Wallace being able to be let free and go live with some relatives outside of the projects really brought some positive light to such a dark show. I like how the writers made sure that we didn’t forget how much this kid needs a new start though, and so when he asks the Lieutenant what “that sound” was (they were crickets chirping) it just reinforces the point that the kids growing up surrounded by the game don’t know anything else.

Bubbles is also at the top of my list, because he another troubled character that is trying to turn their life around. I like how Whalen and he show the other side of the game, which is all the addicts who are buying from these dealers. Bubbles and Whalen also show that it IS POSSIBLE to get out of the game without ending up dead or in jail. I particularly like Whalen’s quote to Bubble, “gettin’ clean’s the easy part. And then comes life.” That also reinforces that people who are caught up in the game don’t know any other life. In thinking about the title of the episode, which is “The Cost,” we see many different instances of what it costs to be in the game this episode. We see how it’s cost Bubbles his family, we can recall it’s cost Wallace his education, it’s cost Omar his boyfriend, it’s cost Orlando his life, and then at the very end, we see it even costs the cops. It potentially costed them Kima’s life. There was just so much to this episode, that I chose to summarize this one for the GIF assignment.

GIFs from my GIF assignment depicting Episode 10 of The Wire.

(See actual GIF assignment post for the process and a brief reflection.)

Episode 11: The Hunt

It was refreshing to see some of the higher up cops doing work out in the field instead of just giving orders from their office. Nevertheless, two key moments in the episode really stood out to me. The first is the very short scene of Kima’s girlfriend sitting on their couch in their apartment. You can tell she’s trying to calm down and process Kima’s condition, but then she sees the blue mark from Kima’s highlighter on the cushion. I loved how the scene zoomed into her fingers reaching out to feel the blue mark, as if she were reaching out to Kima herself. Although the scene was very short, I thought it was very poignant since it allows the audience to realize that there are also more minor characters in the show, and just because they aren’t focused on right now, it doesn’t mean their plot line has stopped.

The other scene that really stood out to me in this episode was the seen where Bay takes D to his house. D is absolutely terrified because he has no idea where he is or what Bay is doing. When D nearly breaks down in the dark room of Bay’s place, I thought that signified how terrified of the game D really is, and how much he doesn’t trust the higher ups like Stringer Bell and his uncle to not just “off” him someday. Right as Bay turns on the lights, however, the tone of the scene dramatically changes. Instead of finding himself in some creepy abandoned place, D finds himself surrounded by beautiful and well kept fish tanks. Bay doesn’t seem to understand how much he freaked out D and continues on to tell D about how he needs to look after his fish while he is away in Philly. It was wonderful to see another side of another one of the gang members besides the side we see in the drug game. Bay’s concern for his many fish, that he knows by breed and name gave him a much more personable element, especially since we know he was one of the shooters who shot Kima and Orlando.

Episode 12: Cleaning Up

This episode definitely stayed true to its title. “Cleaning Up” meant many different things depending on who was cleaning up and how they were cleaning up. Avon and Stringer not only literally cleaned up and packed up Orlando’s club but they also cleaned up their men and flushed out anyone they felt they couldn’t trust. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see them order Bodie to kill Wallace and then to see him get shot and die. The deputy was trying to clean up the Barksdale case and told Lieutenant Cedric’s team to bring in Avon on anything, even if it isn’t all about being the leader of a drug ring.

At the very end of the episode, there are two important camera shots that tie together everything that happened in the episode with the title. The first is the police’s bulletin board where they have been tying together all of Barksdale people and his locations. The board does not appear to have any loose ends left, has an “arrested” index card under Avon and it all nice and tidy, or “cleaned up.” The second shot is back at the courtyard where D’Angelo and his crew usually hang out. In this shot, all we see is the empty orange couch out in the middle of the courtyard where it usually is. There is nobody near it or on it, it is just the couch. Avon and Stringer have successfully “cleaned up” the courtyard and got rid of anyone they can’t trust. The biggest question I have now since this wasn’t the season finale, is “now what?” I know the McNulty and the rest of the team he has been working with cannot be happy with only bringing in Avon without Stringer. Furthermore, what is Stringer going to be up to now that Avon has been arrested and a good portion of his crew on the West side has either been sent away, killed, or arrested?

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