“Are you talking
about a do over, baby? Are you talkin’ about a fuckin’ do over? That's not how
the game is played!”
In
1972, the US basketball team played the Soviet Union in the Gold Medal game. The
US seemingly won when the USSR inbounded (after the US’s Doug Collins sunk 2
free throws) and the horn blew. But then a do-over was called, to great
confusion. And when that failed, another do-over. On the third try, the USSR
won. While upsetting to the US, it paled in comparison to the events of 4 days
previous. On September 5, in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes were captured, and
murdered, by Palestinian terrorists.
Of
course, sports are trivial in comparison to something as life-or-death as the
Munich massacre, and to compare the USSR’s multiple chances to win a basketball
game with Israel’s athletes losing their chance at life, family, joy (in
essence, everything) is unfair. I’m sorry, in that regard, for drawing the
comparison. My point isn’t that they were equivalent events: my point is that
they were both random, and that second (or third) chances come usually not from
merit, but seemingly from nowhere. Bubbles, for all of his bad luck, isn’t
beaten when steals drugs. Johnny Weeks, meanwhile, is HIV positive. There are
reasons, certainly (it wasn’t random that it was Israelis who were targeted in
the massacre), and these events make a certain degree of sense. But only just,
and only in retrospect.
One
thing that has earned a seemingly unending series of chances is perhaps “The
Wire’s” favorite point of criticism: the War on Drugs. I’ve talked only a
little about it directly (although it’s effects obviously are pervasive in all
of the show’s themes), but here the series begins to construct a more direct
criticism of the concept itself. Herc and Carver are discussing its relative
merits, and its seeming futility, when they begin to realize that the ghetto
they drive though is completely vacant. Two things make this work. One is just
how empty the Baltimore streets are in these scenes, showing, not telling, the
gigantic mess it has created (and it’s not exaggeration, at least in imagery).
Two is the ultimate revelation: what has caused the minor peace throughout
Baltimore isn’t the police, or civilians who do the right thing, but a
community basketball game. It might as well be “Hoosiers,” were it not for the
murders going on regularly.
The
game itself, meanwhile, is a great setpiece, a chance to develop old characters
(Avon Barksdale) and introduce new ones (Proposition Joe). When Prop Joe brings
out his ringer in the second half, you know Avon has no right to be mad: he
just bought a junior college player for 10,000 dollars. There’s palpable joy
here, which I think is one of “The Wire’s” great underrated strengths. If you
were to describe the plot of the season so far, it would sound like the
“Angela’s Ashes” of TV shows, but the show demonstrates (“realistically”) how
these are more than just victims and criminals: they’re people, people who
bullshit like the rest of us. They form communities, and there’s a damn good
high school sports team. Except the community leaders, because of the
institutional collapse in Baltimore, are the only people with the resources to
lead: the drug dealers.
Omar,
then, is our community’s Batman (a stretch, I know, but I’ve seen “The Dark
Knight Rises” twice in the last week. Sue me). He’s set on vengeance: dead-set.
Omar serves as more of a boogeyman in this episode than most, first coming to
Prop Joe to find a way to get to Avon, and then later coming a fortuitous
arrival of Wee-Bay away from being successful. Omar is good, but Avon is a
little too intuitive to get clipped this early in the show’s run.
I
must be honest: there are a few too many plotlines to cover in depth, so I’m
going to throw out the rest here. We have, first, Bubble’s first real attempt
to get clean, influenced by his sister and Walon. His sister locks him in the
basement, a great detail of just how much harm this guy’s habit has inflicted.
Greggs and Freamon manage to turn Shardene, showing her friend’s Keisha’s body
(a body that her boy D’Angelo helped to dispose, leading to the end of their
relationship). There’s the rather entertaining phone sex involving Poot (which
leads to actual, but unusable evidence). And many other small, great moments.
Omar
misses, the investigation makes some small steps forward, and Bubbles seems
earnest in his desire to get clean. As “Wire” episodes go, it’s a relatively
entertaining and, dare I say, even joyous. Avon even pulls off one of the
showier/badass kingpin moves, a rarity for the normally hidden leader. No one goes
under in this episode, but it’s hard for the victories not to ring hollow given
what we’ve seen before.
“Maybe we won.” – Herc
Big Miss
n
I have to go,
again, with Shardene’s reaction to her dead friend and break-up with D’Angelo.
I just don’t think the actress is up to the heavy stuff, and I don’t buy D’Angelo’s
muted reaction (a rarity for how much I like the character) for some reason.
Big Hit
n
The entire
basketball scene is great, from the trash talk (Avon calling Prop Joe “Pat
Riley, even though you can’t read a clipboard”) to his subsequent smackdown of
the referee. It’s really great, as he and Prop Joe get along great for a day
(even as Prop Joe sells him out for a drug shipment just a few minutes later).
And, if I can extend, him waving his finger at Lieutenant Daniels is just sublime.
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