“Clarifications”
They killed Omar! Sorry, I just had to get that out of the way. I literally gasped when he took a shot to the back of the head at the Korean grocery while buying a pack of Newports. I was expecting Omar’s death by the end of the season, but I was not prepared for it to be so soon and so… uneventful. “The Wire” doesn’t glorify death or linger too long on the demise of even a main character. However, other major deaths (Stringer, Wallace, etc.) have at least happened closer to the end of a season and at the end of an episode. Omar – one of the most beloved and legendary “Wire” characters – was killed in the middle of an episode, three episodes away from the finale.
It was almost as if Simon and crew went out of their way to make his death meaningless. He was shot by the little snot Kenard; Marlo’s entire menacing crew was hunting Omar, and it was 4-ft.-nothing Kenard who took the shot for no apparent reason. Hoppers robbed his corpse and stole his shotgun – stripping him of his pride and dignity in his death. The Sun cut a brief about his death from the paper in favor of a fire. They put the wrong ID on his body at the morgue, for god’s sake! I guess it would have been un-Wire-like for him to go out in a blaze of glory, but this was just undignified. So, we are paying tribute to our favorite stick-up boy here. We’ll miss you, Omar!
Of course, a bunch of other things happened in this episode beside Omar’s death (I had to re-watch to catch them because I was too busy mourning Omar the first time). So, on to the rest of the recap…
The episode opened on McNulty briefing the brass and the mayor on the homeless case. The mayor throws the department unlimited resources (even an account at Enterprise for cars) to solve the case. Rawls sums up this meeting nicely by saying, “Bad news is we’re actually going to have to catch this mother-fucker. Good news is the mayor finally needs a police department more than he needs a school system.”
We cut to Dukie, who is unsuccessfully trying to find a job. He asks for an application at a sneaker store from employee Poot, who apparently went straight since the last time we saw him on the corners. Poot recognizes Dukie from the corners, but says the manager won’t hire him until he is 17. “So, I guess you need to bang awhile longer, then come back and see if we got something,” Poot advises. Instead of banging, Dukie finds work helping the junk man lug scraps.
On the homeless murder front, McNulty is blabbing right and left about his fake case. He brings Carver in, but gives him limited information, and he spills the beans to Kima and Beadie, who are both extremely unhappy. At this point, Jimmy, you’re just asking to get caught.
McNulty continues to work his fake case, and goes to the FBI for a profile on his “serial killer.” Coincidentally, the killer’s psychological profile matches McNulty perfectly: White male – check. Employed in a bureaucratic entity – check. Problem with authority – check. Trouble with lasting relationships – check. High-functioning alcoholic – check. It’s a wonder no one has fingered McNulty for this crime before.
Some good is starting to come from the fake investigation, though. Bunk uses McNulty’s signature to push through DNA analysis on the murder of Michael’s stepfather, and gets a positive match on Chris. Also, Sydnor cracks Marlo’s code by discovering that the time on the clocks corresponds to map coordinates.
Templeton, on the other hand, is not catching any lucky breaks. The war vet he wrote about comes to the Sun’s office to complain that Scott embellished his story in the paper. And we though Scott actually reported that piece honestly. Silly us!
And if you didn’t catch on before, they killed Omar!
They killed Omar! Sorry, I just had to get that out of the way. I literally gasped when he took a shot to the back of the head at the Korean grocery while buying a pack of Newports. I was expecting Omar’s death by the end of the season, but I was not prepared for it to be so soon and so… uneventful. “The Wire” doesn’t glorify death or linger too long on the demise of even a main character. However, other major deaths (Stringer, Wallace, etc.) have at least happened closer to the end of a season and at the end of an episode. Omar – one of the most beloved and legendary “Wire” characters – was killed in the middle of an episode, three episodes away from the finale.
It was almost as if Simon and crew went out of their way to make his death meaningless. He was shot by the little snot Kenard; Marlo’s entire menacing crew was hunting Omar, and it was 4-ft.-nothing Kenard who took the shot for no apparent reason. Hoppers robbed his corpse and stole his shotgun – stripping him of his pride and dignity in his death. The Sun cut a brief about his death from the paper in favor of a fire. They put the wrong ID on his body at the morgue, for god’s sake! I guess it would have been un-Wire-like for him to go out in a blaze of glory, but this was just undignified. So, we are paying tribute to our favorite stick-up boy here. We’ll miss you, Omar!
Of course, a bunch of other things happened in this episode beside Omar’s death (I had to re-watch to catch them because I was too busy mourning Omar the first time). So, on to the rest of the recap…
The episode opened on McNulty briefing the brass and the mayor on the homeless case. The mayor throws the department unlimited resources (even an account at Enterprise for cars) to solve the case. Rawls sums up this meeting nicely by saying, “Bad news is we’re actually going to have to catch this mother-fucker. Good news is the mayor finally needs a police department more than he needs a school system.”
We cut to Dukie, who is unsuccessfully trying to find a job. He asks for an application at a sneaker store from employee Poot, who apparently went straight since the last time we saw him on the corners. Poot recognizes Dukie from the corners, but says the manager won’t hire him until he is 17. “So, I guess you need to bang awhile longer, then come back and see if we got something,” Poot advises. Instead of banging, Dukie finds work helping the junk man lug scraps.
On the homeless murder front, McNulty is blabbing right and left about his fake case. He brings Carver in, but gives him limited information, and he spills the beans to Kima and Beadie, who are both extremely unhappy. At this point, Jimmy, you’re just asking to get caught.
McNulty continues to work his fake case, and goes to the FBI for a profile on his “serial killer.” Coincidentally, the killer’s psychological profile matches McNulty perfectly: White male – check. Employed in a bureaucratic entity – check. Problem with authority – check. Trouble with lasting relationships – check. High-functioning alcoholic – check. It’s a wonder no one has fingered McNulty for this crime before.
Some good is starting to come from the fake investigation, though. Bunk uses McNulty’s signature to push through DNA analysis on the murder of Michael’s stepfather, and gets a positive match on Chris. Also, Sydnor cracks Marlo’s code by discovering that the time on the clocks corresponds to map coordinates.
Templeton, on the other hand, is not catching any lucky breaks. The war vet he wrote about comes to the Sun’s office to complain that Scott embellished his story in the paper. And we though Scott actually reported that piece honestly. Silly us!
And if you didn’t catch on before, they killed Omar!
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