So I'm going through The Wire again, and yeah, if it wasn't my GOAT TV show already (and it was), it definitely is now. The more you watch, the more every other show pales in comparison to the complexity and richness of The Wire.
So I'm doing my rewatch, and I just reached Season 3, Episode 11. The episode before the finale. And the build up to this episode, not just over the series but in this season in particular is incredible. If you've watched The Wire, and you probably should have if you're in this thread, you know that judging by single episodes isn't really the greatest way to encapsulate the show's greatness, but this particular one has so many great scenes and conversations. Particularly in the context of the final chapters of Avon and Stringer's relationship, but there are multiple payoffs for other characters as well.
-----
It starts with Brother Mouzone confronting Omar about the hit Stringer put out on him, which was his first time he actively worked against Avon.
Omar: This range? This caliber? Even if I miss I don't miss.
Stringer realizes he got played by Clay Davis when talking to his lawyer. We've seen it for a while, but Stringer's cracks have finally started becoming visible to everyone around him. A man who's worked his way the top because of his composure and acumen is now having all of that undone by the ripple effects of the game and natural po-lice, that have developed and permeated over the past few years (seasons).
Levy: He rainmade ya. The guy said if you pay him, he can make it rain. You pay him. If and when it rains, he takes credit. And when it doesn't, he finds reasons to make you pay him more.
And then the moment where Stringer resorts to desperation, asking Slim to assassinate Clay Davis while Avon is secretly listening before he intervenes, something that never otherwise happens. Rarely does he ever reach this low of a point where he makes such impulsive decisions, and the most notable time before this was preemptively calling the hit on D. Through the acting alone, you can see Avon, although knowing Stringer his whole lifed, learned the last of Stringer's weaknesses. And he sticks it to him:
Avon: Nah, you a fucking businessman. You wanna handle it like that. You don't wanna get all gangster wild with it and shit, right? What I tell you about playing them fucking away games? Yeah. They saw your ghetto ass coming from miles away, n***a.
Brother Mouzone tells Avon that Stringer ordered the hit on him, and in their conversation, Avon, IIRC for the first time and just using the words that came to him, invokes "business" to explain his offer of cash to compensate Brother Mouzone. But in the process, he realizes the deceit and loaded nature of the word that has allowed Stringer to maneuver around and against Avon this whole time. The acting in this scene by Wood Harris is phenomenal.
Avon: If there's a way.. I mean if my man.. if he made a mistake here, then I'm willing to pay the cost.
Stringer realizes he's past the point of no return and gives up Avon's spot to Colvin. Stringer risks his reputation, and dissolves his former identity altogether in talking to the police. He's been trying to push himself out of the drug game, and now he finds himself being pushed out to his own displeasure. It's now about self-preservation.
Colvin: He must have done something to you.
Stringer: Nah. It's just business.
Peppered throughout this episode are a ton of bite-sized scenes of Cutty getting his boxing ring together, all leading up to the sparring session with the kids from the other gym. In true Wire fashion, this is done with subtlety. Cutty is getting to where he wants to be in life, and finally reaching a point of rehabilitation, but there is no overt music cues or rising action or any of that. The slow burn of Cutty reintegrating himself as an ex-con, with help from Avon, while Stringer slowly crumbles in parallel.
Also throughout the episode, we see the ramifications of Hamsterdam play out with the quickness as Rawls and Burrell find themselves under the gun for once as they desperately wait for the Mayor's decision on how to spin Hamsterdam. Men who usually have the power to and do crush others under their power and suddenly in a position where their careers and comfort is on the line because they pressured Colvin and others to do what they had to do to meet the Mayer's quota. It's a wonderful circular series of causes and effects between the Mayor, and every level of policing that leads to this crisis, really hammering the theme of the role people play in institutions that underlies the show. Which also gives Carcetti, a relative outsider to the bureaucracy, the key he needs to make himself competitive against Mayer Royce. The miracle that the great white hope needed.
D'Augostino finally calls McNulty back. He complained about how he saw through her and exposed the sad life that McNulty lives (I'm just a breathing machine for my dick), but getting this call from her gives him the hope he's been searching for this whole series that someone may just like him for who he is. And once he finally gets there and she starts asking about some rumblings at DC about Hamsterdam, in a great act of strength, he says no to the pussy, realizing that everything he said about the institutions being dirty and being at arm's length from having any impact on the people of Baltimore, the things turned D'Augustino off of him the last time they tried to date, were true. He's being used, like his wife used him, like the police use him. Lester said he needed to find a life outside of the police, but he can't have that. His own poor decisions have forced him to submit to the only life he has. Low key might be the best scene in the episode but I can't find a picture or video of it.
Also through the episode, the detail progressively and finally gets a wiretap on Stringer's phone. They have him. They finally have him. No, McNulty has him. Three years of his life. The "career case." The job that would save McNulty in his own eyes. It's in the next episode, but McNulty's reaction is too perfect: I caught him, Bunk. On the wire. I caught him. And he doesn't fucking know it.
Perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in the whole series. Stringer and Avon reminisce about the good ol' days, both fully aware that the other is scheming against them, and by the end of it, aware that they've both made moves to end the other. The contrast between them has always been one of the great dynamics on the show, but the acting and writing sells it hard.
Avon: What time y'all meeting?
Stringer: Uh.. what time.. uh.. 12.. I think, why? You need me to do something for you?
Avon: Nah, I'm just seeing where you're gonna be at. You need to relax more, man.
Stringer: When the time is right. You know I don't take my work too seriously.
Avon: You're right. It's just business.
Avon: To us, motherfucker.
Stringer: To us, man.
And to end the episode, another one of the most iconic scenes in the whole series. Omar and Mouzone, tipped off by Avon from what he learned in his last talk with Stringer, confront Stringer Bell. Seeing Stringer accept his fate is magical. The man who called the hits had the hit called on him. Apparently, Idris had different ideas for how Stringer should go out, and watching it the first time it all happened so suddenly, but watching again now, it feels right. And the effect it has on McNulty in the next episode is poetic too, but this post is long enough as is.
Omar: You still don't get it, do you? Huh? This ain't about your money, bruh. Your boy gave you up. That's right. And we ain't had to torture his ass, neither.
-----
I don't think I did a good job, but it's hard to summarize why this show is as great as itis. There are so many interlocking characters, themes, institutions, and pressures that change the city, characters, themes, and the institutions themselves, and you all get to see it play out. I can't possibly type enough detail to cover the why of all of these events, but if you've seen the show, you know that both short-term and long-term decisions have their ramifications. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it isn't, but there's a real cause and effect, and those effects are usually felt at multiple levels, and it's a real beautiful model of how change occurs in any society.
What y'all think? Any other great episodes to mention? General The Wire love also appreciated.
So I'm doing my rewatch, and I just reached Season 3, Episode 11. The episode before the finale. And the build up to this episode, not just over the series but in this season in particular is incredible. If you've watched The Wire, and you probably should have if you're in this thread, you know that judging by single episodes isn't really the greatest way to encapsulate the show's greatness, but this particular one has so many great scenes and conversations. Particularly in the context of the final chapters of Avon and Stringer's relationship, but there are multiple payoffs for other characters as well.
-----
It starts with Brother Mouzone confronting Omar about the hit Stringer put out on him, which was his first time he actively worked against Avon.
Omar: This range? This caliber? Even if I miss I don't miss.
Stringer realizes he got played by Clay Davis when talking to his lawyer. We've seen it for a while, but Stringer's cracks have finally started becoming visible to everyone around him. A man who's worked his way the top because of his composure and acumen is now having all of that undone by the ripple effects of the game and natural po-lice, that have developed and permeated over the past few years (seasons).
Levy: He rainmade ya. The guy said if you pay him, he can make it rain. You pay him. If and when it rains, he takes credit. And when it doesn't, he finds reasons to make you pay him more.
And then the moment where Stringer resorts to desperation, asking Slim to assassinate Clay Davis while Avon is secretly listening before he intervenes, something that never otherwise happens. Rarely does he ever reach this low of a point where he makes such impulsive decisions, and the most notable time before this was preemptively calling the hit on D. Through the acting alone, you can see Avon, although knowing Stringer his whole lifed, learned the last of Stringer's weaknesses. And he sticks it to him:
Avon: Nah, you a fucking businessman. You wanna handle it like that. You don't wanna get all gangster wild with it and shit, right? What I tell you about playing them fucking away games? Yeah. They saw your ghetto ass coming from miles away, n***a.
Brother Mouzone tells Avon that Stringer ordered the hit on him, and in their conversation, Avon, IIRC for the first time and just using the words that came to him, invokes "business" to explain his offer of cash to compensate Brother Mouzone. But in the process, he realizes the deceit and loaded nature of the word that has allowed Stringer to maneuver around and against Avon this whole time. The acting in this scene by Wood Harris is phenomenal.
Avon: If there's a way.. I mean if my man.. if he made a mistake here, then I'm willing to pay the cost.
Stringer realizes he's past the point of no return and gives up Avon's spot to Colvin. Stringer risks his reputation, and dissolves his former identity altogether in talking to the police. He's been trying to push himself out of the drug game, and now he finds himself being pushed out to his own displeasure. It's now about self-preservation.
Colvin: He must have done something to you.
Stringer: Nah. It's just business.
Peppered throughout this episode are a ton of bite-sized scenes of Cutty getting his boxing ring together, all leading up to the sparring session with the kids from the other gym. In true Wire fashion, this is done with subtlety. Cutty is getting to where he wants to be in life, and finally reaching a point of rehabilitation, but there is no overt music cues or rising action or any of that. The slow burn of Cutty reintegrating himself as an ex-con, with help from Avon, while Stringer slowly crumbles in parallel.
Also throughout the episode, we see the ramifications of Hamsterdam play out with the quickness as Rawls and Burrell find themselves under the gun for once as they desperately wait for the Mayor's decision on how to spin Hamsterdam. Men who usually have the power to and do crush others under their power and suddenly in a position where their careers and comfort is on the line because they pressured Colvin and others to do what they had to do to meet the Mayer's quota. It's a wonderful circular series of causes and effects between the Mayor, and every level of policing that leads to this crisis, really hammering the theme of the role people play in institutions that underlies the show. Which also gives Carcetti, a relative outsider to the bureaucracy, the key he needs to make himself competitive against Mayer Royce. The miracle that the great white hope needed.
D'Augostino finally calls McNulty back. He complained about how he saw through her and exposed the sad life that McNulty lives (I'm just a breathing machine for my dick), but getting this call from her gives him the hope he's been searching for this whole series that someone may just like him for who he is. And once he finally gets there and she starts asking about some rumblings at DC about Hamsterdam, in a great act of strength, he says no to the pussy, realizing that everything he said about the institutions being dirty and being at arm's length from having any impact on the people of Baltimore, the things turned D'Augustino off of him the last time they tried to date, were true. He's being used, like his wife used him, like the police use him. Lester said he needed to find a life outside of the police, but he can't have that. His own poor decisions have forced him to submit to the only life he has. Low key might be the best scene in the episode but I can't find a picture or video of it.
Also through the episode, the detail progressively and finally gets a wiretap on Stringer's phone. They have him. They finally have him. No, McNulty has him. Three years of his life. The "career case." The job that would save McNulty in his own eyes. It's in the next episode, but McNulty's reaction is too perfect: I caught him, Bunk. On the wire. I caught him. And he doesn't fucking know it.
Perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in the whole series. Stringer and Avon reminisce about the good ol' days, both fully aware that the other is scheming against them, and by the end of it, aware that they've both made moves to end the other. The contrast between them has always been one of the great dynamics on the show, but the acting and writing sells it hard.
Avon: What time y'all meeting?
Stringer: Uh.. what time.. uh.. 12.. I think, why? You need me to do something for you?
Avon: Nah, I'm just seeing where you're gonna be at. You need to relax more, man.
Stringer: When the time is right. You know I don't take my work too seriously.
Avon: You're right. It's just business.
Avon: To us, motherfucker.
Stringer: To us, man.
And to end the episode, another one of the most iconic scenes in the whole series. Omar and Mouzone, tipped off by Avon from what he learned in his last talk with Stringer, confront Stringer Bell. Seeing Stringer accept his fate is magical. The man who called the hits had the hit called on him. Apparently, Idris had different ideas for how Stringer should go out, and watching it the first time it all happened so suddenly, but watching again now, it feels right. And the effect it has on McNulty in the next episode is poetic too, but this post is long enough as is.
Omar: You still don't get it, do you? Huh? This ain't about your money, bruh. Your boy gave you up. That's right. And we ain't had to torture his ass, neither.
-----
I don't think I did a good job, but it's hard to summarize why this show is as great as itis. There are so many interlocking characters, themes, institutions, and pressures that change the city, characters, themes, and the institutions themselves, and you all get to see it play out. I can't possibly type enough detail to cover the why of all of these events, but if you've seen the show, you know that both short-term and long-term decisions have their ramifications. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it isn't, but there's a real cause and effect, and those effects are usually felt at multiple levels, and it's a real beautiful model of how change occurs in any society.
What y'all think? Any other great episodes to mention? General The Wire love also appreciated.