Posted by SH
McNulty’s serial killer concoction drew some traction after he stumbled upon an old vagrant murder where the victim had a red ribbon tied around his wrist. After a couple of unauthorized additions to old casefiles and planting one on a corpse in the morgue — hark! — a madman is loose in the streets of Baltimore! It even says so in the pages of the Baltimore Sun, thanks to McNulty stroking the ego of ambitious reporter Alma Gutierrez, who’s ready for big-time stories after recently being spurned from the front page. The problem for both of them is, the story is buried on Page 3B.
And instead of being the voice of reason, Lester points out that Mr. “We have to kill again” McNulty didn’t go far enough. Make it sensational, give the people what they want out of a serial killer. All the while a horrified Bunk looks on. The scene is played just a little for laughs, but Lester’s reasoning that they can get away with it because nobody cares is heartbreaking, the kind of hopelessness that “The Wire” trades in and makes so compelling. It’s also a rare moment when the smooth operator loses his cool, dropping all pretense of keeping people focused on the task at hand and instead just playing the game. He wants Marlo Stanfield. Bad. I wonder when Bunk will start planting evidence. If he were going to rat McNulty out, he would have done it already. Right?
Marlo has other problems, trying to get the Greeks to take his (literally) dirty money and seeking Prop Joe’s advice on where to keep his extra cash. Poor Prop Joe doesn’t seem to know he’s being set up, so seeing him help Marlo is pretty unnerving. Part of the advice he gives Marlo is to set up some offshore accounts, so Marlo takes a trip to the islands, where tax laws and trials aren’t a concern, to check on his money. His impatience with the French-speaking teller is hilarious. I love scenes like this, where we see characters so entrenched in all that is Baltimore interact elsewhere. Any other environment on the show seems like a distant planet. I’m thinking Bodie in Season 1, not realizing that radio stations are different when you go to New York, or the kid from that same season who hides out at his grandma’s house in the country. It doesn’t happen often that the action leaves Baltimore, but this week we get three out-of-town scenes. The others we’ll talk about in a minute.
The paper receives some bad news and, uh oh, one of those “doing more with less” speeches after hearing of corporate cutbacks that will pretty much gut the staff. As the veterans line up to hear the buyout pitches, the loathsome Scott Templeton chimes in with a comment about how they’re just cutting dead weight. Which makes it so delicious when Gus asks Templeton to jump on a story about a police department shakeup involving Daniels, Rawls and Burrell, and Templeton has no idea who the heck anyone is. Who should pipe up to fill in Daniels’ background but one of the dead-weight old veterans, letting the twerp know pretty much Daniels’ entire career. Templeton further proves himself a colossal douchebag by making up a reaction quote to round out the story. It’s perfect and gets right to the heart of the story and, naturally, it’s anonymous. Man, this guy needs to go down. Hopefully, David Simon will indulge himself a little bit and actually tar-and-feather the guy instead of going all realistic and ambiguous on us.
As for that whole police shakeup thing, Carcetti wants Burrell out, after Burrell cooked some crime statistics to save face. What Burrell didn’t know is that Valchek (where ya been, Stan!) already brought in the real numbers to try to put himself in position for acting commissioner. The mayor’s office is trying to float the idea of Rawls taking over temporarily, warming the seat for Daniels. So here comes a front-page news story that says as much, along with Templeton’s made-up quote about Daniels stabbing Burrell in the back. So instead of enjoying his upcoming promotion, Daniels is worried Burrell will turn over information all about “the old days” that could wreck his career. You gotta think that after five seasons, we’re finally going to see just what Daniels could have done that he’s so worried about. Couldn’t be that bad, right? Not like he fabricated a serial killer.
Two other out-of-Baltimore scenes alternated between character development and tectonic plot shifts. We see Michael, Dukie and Bug hanging out at an amusement park, riding roller coasters, picking up girls, you know, just being kids. The harsh reality of their world is hammered home when they get back and Michael is yelled at for ditching his corner for the day. This plot line doesn’t seem to be going to a nice place.
The other scene shows the one, the only, Omar Little running the gamut of emotions. One minute he’s enjoying a nice walk around his retirement villa, and the next he’s mourning the loss of Butchie, who was tortured and killed by Marlo’s thugs. Butchie didn’t talk, though. So look out, Marlo. You wanted Omar, now you got him.