“He’s your son.”
The docks
have been, in some odd way, a respite from the normal world of East Baltimore.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, there still is crushing poverty, violence, crime, etc.
But it hasn’t seemed, so far, like death and prison are the only two routes out
of there. Even for a schmuck like Ziggy, it seemed like the stakes were lower,
although it’s not exactly like he’s God’s favorite child. That couldn’t remain
the case for long. In an instant, Ziggy throws away his life, his father’s
dream, not to mention the life of an (admittedly scummy) businessman. All for a
second of power, of dominance over another. Ziggy was always going to lose
something in his quest to be respected, a marriage, a family bond, but he loses
everything here.
Frank is
coming down off the minor triumph of getting funding for the grain pier when
Nicky tells him the news. Both Sobotkas are in shock over the news, but respond
in different ways. Nick’s breakdown is crushing, more for his disbelief that
this could be his family, staying in prison for life. Frank is so single-track
minded that he can’t see that his son, while he was busy doing everything else,
went off the deep-end. Out of all the legs in Frank Sobotka’s deck of cards,
that it’s his son who gives out for no real reasonable…well, it just makes the
collapse all the more brutal.
What we
owe, and what we leave, for the next generation is a question that runs through
the entire episode. Kima’s isn’t exactly the idea supportive wife during
Cheryl’s pregnancy, and seeing her clear apathy at Cheryl’s pregnancy is one of
the more numbingly horrifying scenes of the episode. We know Kima, we like
Kima, but that she could be so fundamentally unconcerned with her
soon-to-be-born child is a flaw that we rarely have the guts to depict in any
medium. Good people don’t always make good parents, which often means the
continue the cycle of damage onwards and onwards.
It’s a
concept Prez is intimately familiar with. Although he isn’t his father per se,
merely his father-in-law, Valchek often acts as though he is, ordering the
young detective around like a child at a playground. Valchek is clearly a shit
among shits in the command, caring less than zero about anything but his own
personal grudges (this whole season wouldn’t have happened if Valcheck didn’t
have church-donation penis envy). When he starts shoving Prez around, that’s
about all the young guy can take. Like Ziggy, there’s a limit, although Prez’s
retaliation merely ends with him punching his superior officer who controls his
entire career.
On the
streets, it’s the new same-old. Prop Joe’s drugs are clearly working, as Bodie
sees an explosion in profits after the new stuff. Of course, everything comes
at a cost, so Cheese takes over three of the towers in return for the drugs, an
idea which at first makes Bodie furious. Bodie, however, is a rather smart
bloke (he grew up on the crime side, the new york times side, staying alive was
no jive), and when he realizes that the cost of the good drugs is the towers,
becomes a hard-nosed businessman more concerned with beating Cheese “fair and
square,” such as it is, than with violence.
Unfortunately,
Cheese isn’t surrounded by just upstanding gents like Bodie. Brother Mouzone
makes his first real appaearance, standing down and shooting Cheese for taking
over Avon’s territory (as Avon and String can’t come to an agreement). I have
to admit, I think the Brother is one of the worst characters the show came up
with: he’s just a little over-the-top, too mannered and just an inferior version
of Mr. Little. Nonetheless, the game’s the game, and Cheese and Prop Joe know
there is only one man for the job. It’s safe (dangerous?) to say: Omar comin’.
“It always pays to go with the union card.” – Ziggy
Observations and What-Have-You’s
n
Highlight of the episode: Daniels showing more
emotion than I can remember, laughing and horrified at Prez knocking out
Valchek. It’s nice to see the hardass smile once in a while.
n
Kima’s conversation with Beadie shows just how
much the latter is out of place in the unit. Everyone else (McNulty, but also
Daniels, Bunk, Freamon and Prez) is addicted to policework, and can barely see
a life without it. Beadie, meanwhile, couldn’t imagine sacrificing her kids for
the job.
n
Landsman is wonderfully sympathetic in his scene
with Ziggy. Gotta feel for the guy: he’s a politician, yeah, but he’s also a
concerned policeman too.
Sorry if I concentrated a little too much on the
recap portion instead of the analysis this time
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