"Late Editions"
With only one episode left in the series, all the chips are coming home to roost, all the chickens are falling where they may, and the opera is very nearly over. George Pelecanos, the current dean of DC-based crime fiction (particularly since the death last week of Stephen Marlowe) wrote this one, from a treatment David Simon and he put together, and it's another episode that, while packed, allows us a little time to feel the import of these late moves, as we approach (to indulge in another cliché of the sort this show loves to mock) endgame.
The biggest news in the episode is the successful execution of the arrest of most of the important players in Marlo's organization, including such de facto Marlo lieutenants as Cheese, by an operation under the direction of Lester. Lester's jubilation is tempered only by his cool as he makes a great show of confiscating Marlo's cell phone and the clock Marlo used to designate the coordinates of their meeting sites. Marlo, Chris and other upper-level members of the gang frantically try to determine how they could've been infiltrated, and Marlo particularly decides that Michael, while he couldn't have been responsible for blowing their clock-code, might've somehow otherwise been a snitch and would be a dangerous potential witness who needs to be eradicated. Marlo also loses his cool when he finally learns that Omar had been publicly calling him out in his raids on Marlo's corners, much to the mild-to-sheepish disgust of his underlings, who all realize that they have more important things to worry about, even if Marlo is most worried about keeping his image - the theoretical source of his power - intact.
Lester is busy on other fronts, as well... to get the big bust fully operational, he comes (partially) clean to Deputy Commissioner Daniels about how they in Major Crimes had been maintaining surveillance on the Marlo Stanfield organization even as they did their official work on Clay Davis' case, and how they need various aspects of the department and related agencies to square away all the arrests. Happily for Freamon and Daniels, the latter had just been in a meeting with Mayor Carcetti's aide about how to reduce crime in the city in time for Carcetti to claim that he had followed up on his campaign promises in the race for mayor, and would do so again in his upcoming race for the governorship of Maryland. Carcetti is overjoyed to anchor the press conference announcing the bust, to the disgust of the
Sun's veteran reporter in the audience, who anticipates the bromides Carcetti will use to junior colleague Alma's amusement. When Alma approaches Daniels for a comment for the story, Cedric is polite but stiff, telling her the last time the
Sun reported on him, they were dead wrong.
When Alma lets Gus know that, as Gus goes over her story about the press conference, it's just another log on the fire of his distrust of Scott.... Gus puts an old friend, a reporter returning to the
Sun from another newspaper, on a mission to fact-check all of Templeton's stories, while following up personally with a friend of the Gulf War veteran Scott had misquoted in one of his less-fabricated submissions. Meanwhile, Gus' clueless bosses are planning their campaign to get Scott and the
Sun a nomination for the Pulitzer for his contributions on the homeless in Baltimore, including the serial-killer stories.
The investigation of the fradulent serial killings, while having paid off well on Lester's end of the conspiracy, are starting to wear heavily on McNulty. Jay, his boss, needles him on his apparent lack of progress on identifying the murderer, citing Bunk as a sterling counter-example (as Bunk sits back and smiles at Jimmy's discomfort), and Kima makes it increasingly clear that none of this is all right with her, either personally or in the bigger-picture rough justice sense. She reports to Daniels, whom with the Assistant DA who's been in charge of Major Crimes and serial-killing wiretap orders and similar paperwork investigates the evidence in hand for the McNulty case, and determine that they've been had... and they wonder what that might mean for the prosecution of the Marlo bust, as well.
Levy, as the lawyer for Marlo and his crew, is likewise wondering what kind of handle he can get on this case... how and to what extent the evidence is built on wiretapping, for example. Herc, who of course had provided the phone number of Marlo's cell that made the tap on his phone possible to begin with, now tries to feel out his ex-colleagues on the force to determine, for Levy's benefit, what was done how and with what prompting, but he doesn't get too much that's solid or, at least, apparently admissible in court.
Meanwhile, Lester's not yet done... the documents he's still holding over Clay Davis' head as a means of squeezing information out of the state senator get Davis to spill that Levy not only is key to taking down the Baltimore drug lords, as a financial adviser as well as a lawyer and political fixer, but that he also has a mole in the district attorney's office, which allows Levy to sell information to his clients when it's useful. Hence, for example, the confidential DA documents that had been found among Prop Joe's effects after his murder.
Lester isn't the only one on his game in this episode.... Snoop, having been dispatched to dispatch of Michael, pretends to need his help in an execution of another potential witness agains Marlo and company. Michael, however, was a more attentive student than Snoop realized, and gets the drop on her. "How's my hair look?" is her last question, as she waits for him to pull the trigger on her; he assures her she looks fine, as he does so. He then takes his brother out of harm's way, he hopes, to stay with a relative, bribed with considerable cash to sweeten the deal, with the promise of more to come; Dukie rather less comfortably goes to stay with the "arabers" he's been working with.
And Bubbles reclaims his name, Reginald, as he marks his first anniversary of sobriety at his NA/AA meeting, with the
Sun reporter he's been guiding around the city in tow.
Tension mounts. One episode left. At least to some extent, this can't end well... except as one of the best television series we've seen, at least the equal of
Homicide: Life on the Streets, which was the best dramatic series on television during its run. It's certainly as good as any series on HBO, which has several series to be proud of (even if it hasn't treated some of its best programs as well as it should have). And it's a series that isn't afraid to make a gracious in-passing reference to
Dexter, another good, if not as good, crime drama.... There are occasional valid criticisms to be made of
The Wire, but most I've seen have been trivial and off the point; one criticism not of the show itself, but of much of what the show criticizes, has been made in a discussion elsewhere online, most pointedly by crime-fiction writer and former journalist Karen Olson, where she noted that the crisis the
Sun is facing in the series was more true of the state of newspaper journalism three years ago than today.... Today is even worse.
For more on
The Wire, please see our
Online Video Guide.
