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October 02, 2006
Sunday Night Wire Blogging
by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
Spoilers ahead. Consider this an open thread on tonight's episode.
The parallel institutions that made the first three seasons so great are harder to find this year [aside from the obvious look-the-other-way-while-money-changes-hands schtick from episode II]. So far, the only real set of parallels seems to revolve around mentorship. Everyone seems to be trying to "get to" the tweeners that are new to this season; Colvin and his college boys, Bubbles, Marlo, Marlo's poker buddies, Prez, Cutty. Obviously Prez, who clearly wants to be able to reach his students, has found himself totally unable to get anywhere. Cutty's having more success than Marlo at the moment, and Bubble really hasn't gotten far at all.
Open questions/snark:
- Prez' "No one wins. One side just loses more slowly" has obvious connotations for our current political and military situations.
- Can someone explain to me why Marlo decided to break the rules of The Game by getting a citizen over fifty cents worth of candy? On the face of it, it's a serious miscalculation, especially once Freamon and Bunk figure out where the bodies are. Of course, we see that Marlo isn't a very good poker player, so maybe he's hasn't yet learned when to fold [see also the lack of flex with his stash-house minder; the joking threat to ice his poker competition, a move bold enough to spook his muscle; and of course the unwillingness to play ball with Prop Joe and the co-op].
- Why did Cutty's younger protege—the middle school kid who won't take Marlo's money; I only know Randy, Duquan, and "Wee-Bay's son" at this point—ditch the van? Does he have a street life that we don't know about? He seems to be the straight-laced on of the bunch, looking after his younger brother and keeping out of the mischief that his friends get into.
- The new Major Crimes LT refers to their MO as "rip and run". Omar's words, right? The LT ought to know that's the stick-up boys' term, and the po-lice use "buy-bust".
- A common complaint is that Cutty's segments break up the "realism" of the show and feel like an "after-school special". This ignores the fact that Cutty spent twelve or thirteen years at The Cut, so his dialect would almost certainly differ from his teenage charges'.
October 2, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
My thought was the kid didn't want Cutty to see something about his home life, his parents, where he lived? But that doesn't seem right, it's not like Cutty would invite himself in. He seemed a bit ansy all night with Cutty, so I think whatever was bothering him will be revisited.
What was the deal with Marlo and the security guard? They had a past, right? I just assumed he was killed over some old unfinished business of some sort. Then again, some compulsive gamblers get really upset and do stupid things when they lose, or so I'm told.
Posted by: djw | Oct 2, 2006 4:43:11 AM
Answers to your questions from a devoted Wire fan:
-Marlo has the security guard killed for little to no good reason, but it hardly violates the "rules" of the game, in fact only Omar really follows the "rules" about not putting a gun to a citizen, he preys on drug dealers precisely because they don't follow the same code. Marlo cares about two things money and rep, one flows from the other, he kills the security guard simply because he violated the only "rule" that counts in the drug world: Marlo is the king.
-Michael is the boxer, who Marlo wants to recruit, gets out of the van early, because he clearly doesn't want Cutty to see where he lives. He is embarraressed by how shitty his home is. Like Snoop says, he only goes to school, "to spring out that shit pile everyday." note: the first four episodes have all ended with a shot of one of the four kids this seasons focuses on, Randy, Namond, Dukie, and now Michael.
-"Rip and Run" is exactly Omar's words from when he took the stand against Bird in season two. "I rip and run" is how he described his occupation, namely robbing drug dealers.
- I don't think the bits with Cutty's gym are at all a break from the realism, they're just about a guy trying to do some good for himself and others after a life of almost total self/collective destruction, its never mentioned but implied that Cutty was a stone killer before getting out of jail.
Its been a fantastic season so far.
Posted by: Fronts NYC | Oct 2, 2006 11:02:36 AM
Fronts NYC is right--there are no 'rules' about not killing civilians. Only Omar observes that distinction.
What I got from Marlo and the security guard was that Marlo has been dropping a lot more bodies than we ever suspected.
its never mentioned but implied that Cutty was a stone killer before getting out of jail.
This was made more explicit in Season 3.
Posted by: Tom Hilton | Oct 2, 2006 11:13:27 AM
Stupid question, something I didn't quite catch--should I have recognized the body Greggs and Bunk found?
Posted by: djw | Oct 2, 2006 12:30:44 PM
My feeling was that Michael shrank from Cutty's friendship all day, not just at the end-- as though he expected to be abused in some way. I'll bet he's being molested or something and that's why he's so afraid of Cutty.
Posted by: Aaron | Oct 2, 2006 12:49:03 PM
Aaron's right ... is or has been, with 'privy to' as the long shot. He's reading Cutty as trying to put a move on him ... its not just bailing out when the other boxer got out, it is also checking that the other boxer is definitely going to the fights, and talking across Cutty at the fights.
Posted by: BruceMcF | Oct 2, 2006 1:17:25 PM
I think Aaron and BruceMcF are right. That's the way I read his behavior throughout that scene.
Posted by: Tom Hilton | Oct 2, 2006 3:09:52 PM
I disagree about the rules The Game. This is a first time any of the major 'bangers have gone after someone who's not either a witness or another player. There hasn't been a killing that's simply over "disrespect"; it's always been about business. This isn't a question of maintaining order as much as it is a question of reducing the police presence.
There's an obvious parallel between Marlo going all-in when the cards weren't in his favor (I think we're supposed to assume he was bluffing) and going after the guard; ill-advised gambles each.
Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Oct 2, 2006 3:13:18 PM
My two cents. Nicholas, Marlo called the all in he didn't go all in, and I think this was showing that Marlo is willing to pay to see if people are for real. One silly observation, the guys playing poker were using the cheapest poker chips out there, and I found that amusing, they were throwing around a couple hundred thousand dollars, but using the cheap bicycle chips.
We all want to see Omar kill Marlo, but I don't think it is going to happen.
Posted by: jbou | Oct 2, 2006 5:12:02 PM
I love the Cutty scenes, I hardly consider them a break from realism, it is just a hopeful story of a guy trying to climb out of the gutter. Cutty's storyline is one of my favorites, I just hope that when everything that appears good comes crashing down this season, like the past three seasons, Cutty manages to come out on top and save at least one of the kids.
Posted by: JOey | Nov 9, 2006 3:20:10 AM
