The Wire, Season 5 Episode 7

"Took"


The serial killer calls again: McNulty, Lester and Sydnor team up and use a voice modulator to call Scott and follow it up by sending him a picture of Larry. Scott understandably wigs out, and the resulting fallout sends both the Sun and the BPD into a tizzy. The police department finally turns on the faucet of money, and now McNulty's got more manpower and resources than he knows what to do with. Most importantly, though, he gets a tap for cell phone pictures. By the end of the episode, Lester starts receiving the pictures: they're clocks. Since the time of the clock never corresponds to the actual time, we've finally found a code that can stump Lester. At least for now, anyway.

As fallout from McNulty getting excess overtime, the other dectectives start approaching him on the sly and asking for a few hours to cover their other cases. He agrees, in part because he's pleased they're doing police work (not of the fake kind), and because I think he's really starting to feel guilty about how broad this thing has become.

Omar is still hobbling around out on the streets, calling out Marlo. He runs into our old Season 1 Barksdalie, Sevino, and Sevino ends up with a bullet in his head. Then Omar, who just seems increasingly desperate for revenge at this point, robs Michael's corner. And if we're scared for Michael's life, Michael's even more scared, refusing to look at Omar, lest he be recognized from the shoot-out at Monk's apartment.

As for those actually doing legit police work, Bunk has Carver bring Michael in for questioning in connection with the murder of Bug's father. Michael, naturally, is too smart to say anything incriminating.

Carcetti raises $92,000 in one morning for his gubernatorial campaign; too bad his day had to be ruined by news of Larry's kidnapping.

At the Sun, it's the same old "liar, liar, pants on fire" dance between Scott and St. Gus, with Scott churning out one self-serving piece after the other, with both Whiting and Klebanow there to back him up. Meanwhile, a whole bevy of reporters has been assigned to cover the serial killer case and the homelessness issue. Fletch gets to go out on the street to find some homeless, and runs into Bubbles at the soup kitchen, who informs him that there aren't actually a whole lot of homeless in soup kitchens.

In other news, Clay Davis has acheived something remarkable: he has overtaken Levy and Herc as my least favorite character. He hires a high-powered attorney, gets up on the stand, and begins to cry (literally) about how he was just stealing money to help out the po' folk in his district. The jury eats it right up, and Bond's slam-dunk conviction (and his mayoral dreams) go up in flames. It never bothered me so much when Stringer or Avon got away with their crimes, but I just cannot stand the thought of Clay Davis, obvious crook, staying out of jail.

Quick Hits:

Loved Dukie's dance moves. And that he's looking for an actual job.

Excuse me for being shallow for a second, but: can we have more of Lance Reddick in tank tops? I mean, we haven't had McNulty shirtless in awhile, so is that too much to ask?

Kima & Elijah's moment at the end of the episode was adorable, especially after watching her struggle with her furniture all day, which led to the line of the episode, "What brand of scotch are you using?" From McNulty, of course.

And, I've already seen Episode 8 (the wonders of OnDemand), and I have to say, I don't envy Allie for having to write the recap...to say the episode packed a bunch would be the understatement of the year.