Season Five, Episode Three

The opening scene of episode three is why I watch The Wire. McNulty, drunk and overtired from working for 24 hours straight, is not trying to solve a murder, but trying to manufacture one that will get the attention of the Baltimore Police Department. Bunk comes in for the morning shift and finds McNulty stooped over a table in an interrogation room, sifting through open murder files looking for the clue he needs to pull off the trick. He takes Jimmy’s ubiquitous bottle of Jameson and tries to convince him he’s crazy, and there, underneath his anger, you can already see him beginning to cave. Throw in a scene two minutes later where a broken door locks him and Jimmy in the very same room, the deal is sealed.

I don’t know if Jimmy will pull off his caper, but I love watching him try. When he puts his mind to something (though typically it’s to getting laid) he is a wonder to watch. He is without question the driving force of the show, and as you know I am glad to have him back. As he gets more and more crazy he is taking my mind off of the reporters whom I am getting pretty sick of. Part of the reason for this is the fact that I read too many articles about this season before it aired, and most of them questioned the Sun storyline. By now, since I’ve read most of the witty lines delivered by Gus and the boys, they have lost any luster they may have had. Therefore, the “Less with More” lines given by the bigwigs seem scripted and tired, and leave me something less than tumescent.

There is a note of great news…Omar is back, brief as his appearance may have been. Marlo is making his play to get to him and we see Omar relaxing on an island, wearing shorts and surrounded by adoring children. In the scene, he hears from a confidant that his old money manager butch has been killed by Marlo, but right before that he has one grave concern. He can’t seem to find any of his favorite cereal on the island and he tells his roommate, “Cuz got to find out where they got Honey Nut, yo. And they expect us to call this spit o’ land home.” Thus Omar’s wisdom.

The Jimmy watch is a little ridiculous this week. As I’ve said, he’s been burning the candle at both ends and he doesn’t sleep for a minute during the whole episode…I think it spans two whole days. He not only attempts over and over to get some play on his “serial killer” within the deaf eared department, but he gets caught having sex on the hood of his car by two beat cops. All he does is flash his badge mid-thrust and they move along. McNulty.

Ouch, another o-fer for the wife and me on guessing the intro quote. Who the hell even knew the name of the little heard from reporter at the Sun who says, “They’re dead where it doesn’t count.” Fletcher is his name and I do love the cynicism, but this was an impossible one to guess. The good news is that my one quote lead is still safe this week.

One quick note on this week’s episode. My wife and I watched it on Saturday night. It seems that you can watch the episodes one week early on demand. I don’t plan on watching any that early, it seems dirty, but it was a bonus to be able to see it a day early and not miss the NFC championship game.

So, for this week I leave you with this. In the scene where Bunk gets Lester to try and sway Jimmy away from his serial killer plot he is totally shocked as he watches Lester instead support Jimmy with the lines, “You fucked up. Sensationalize it. Give the killer some fucked up fantasy. Give the people what they want.” Bunk’s frozen turn toward the two co-conspirators is money and the biggest reason to watch The Wire. Funny, it took me five seasons to see the similarity between McNulty and Freeman when it was in front of me the whole time.