Words and Thoughts

The Wire’s fifth season continued on Sunday with”Unconfirmed Reports,” and Bunk’s comment from last week’s episode, “The Bigger the lie, the more they believe,” is sounding quite prophetic. From the police to the streets, the hall, and the Sun, untruths were the order of the day.

Rather than try and recap the episode (which would be difficult since I failed to take notes during either of my viewings), I want to focus on three scenes that I feel were particularly emblematic of the episode: Chris and Snoop schooling Michael, the discussion of the schools at The Baltimore Sun, and McNulty unleashing his “grand plan” (as it were). Each of these, in my mind, speaks volumes about this season, this series, and David Simon’s world view.

The Chris/Snoop/Michael scene is actually a late addition to this piece; it wasn’t until I’d started writing this that I was struck by it’s importance. The bit of interest if at the end of the scene, when Michael asks why Junebug has to die and is told that it’s because he called Marlo a dicksucker, though neither Chris nor Snoop can confirm that. Chris does offer that it “doesn’t matter if he said it or not; people think he said it,” which is probably the most succinct explanation of the truth/media theme of this season that we’ve heard thus far (the Bunk’s quote that’s in the first paragraph is a bit heavy-handed, if apt). What really drew me to this exchange, though, was the way it echoes back to something Slim Charles said (and got the title card quote for) in the third season finale, “Mission Accomplished”: “…we fight on the lie.” We like (need) to believe that there is some underlying order or sense to the way that things work, and it is possibly better (at least in the short term) to keep living the lie rather than recognize that it is one. Of course in the long term it’s guaranteed that the lie will collapse (like the school budget situation from last season, the effects of which are still at the fore of this season’s plots) — perhaps making the lie just a facet of Simon’s villainous “post-modern institutions.”

Speaking of institutions brings us to a convenient point to move discussion to the discussion at The Sun about doing a series on the schools. Thematically I think the scene was quite clear; so clear, in fact, that it ended up being one of the more egregious fourth wall breaking moments that I can remember seeing recently. I can’t imagine anyone with even the slightest bit of background knowledge about the show seeing the scene as anything other than David Simon saying, “I am right and the news media is wrong, and if you don’t believe me go watch the critically acclaimed 4th season of my show, The Wire.” I’m not saying this is a bad thing; I may even agree with him, but it’s just a bit more heavy handed than I was prepared for. The core dynamic of The Sun actually reminds me of the police in the first season, when it was easier to see McNulty as a generally right-minded rebel and Rawls as only a few steps removed from the devil himself, although now we have Gus Haynes and James C. Whitting III as our rebel hero and face of the institution, respectively. It feels a bit black-and-white compared to the levels of nuance we’ve seen in the last few seasons, and I can’t help but think this is a bit intentional so that Simon can really drive his point home about the press. I’m still liking where the focus on the press can take us, but I’d love if it were a little easier to read as something other than the execution of a vendetta. (As an aside, does anyone else find Whitting to be one of the most odious characters on the show? The only comparable character I can think of is the 1st season rendition of Rawls, though he acted with a double middle finger style malice of forethought, while Whitting seems to be more blithely unaware than vindictive.)

Finally we come to the crowning jewel of the episode: McNulty’s plan. Here is an idea that takes the “the bigger the lie” ideology to heart. It’d been pretty clear for most of the episode that McNulty would hit his breaking point, and the scene in the coroner’s and the detectives’ discussion at the bar seemed to be pretty clear indications that faking a crime scene was going to be how it happened. Because of this, when McNulty started staging the crime scene I felt felt a bit of excitement at seeing the payoff. Then something threw me; McNulty said, “there’s a serial killer in Baltimore,” which was a much bigger lie than I was ready for. I figured he’d just try to pin something more tragic on Marlo so he could get the case back, but that doesn’t even seem to begin to scratch the surface of what McNulty’s after. In a way he reminds me of a post-modern Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles’s corrupt sheriff in A Touch of Evil), though Quinlan had the advantage of being the law, and therefore only having to wage his war on criminals. In Baltimore, though, no man can be “the law” (even Burrell’s hands seem tied these days) , so McNulty is stuck waging war on both the law and criminals, and it would seem that he’s finally reached the breaking point. It will be interesting to see how things progress from here - whether McNulty’s plan can even get far enough to have people think there’s a serial killer in Baltimore before Bunk (or someone else) shuts it down. (Another aside: Was McNulty’s time walking a beat and living with Beadie another “big lie”?)

So far this is looking to be another excellent season of The Wire, there’s so much that either is spiraling out of control or just on the verge of doing so that I can’t even begin to imagine how things are going to end up. I think that’s the thing I’m missing right now; there was a lot of hope early in the last season: hope that the four kids would be the exceptions (only one was) and hope that Carcetti would really bring a new day to the city. That hope is what made the season so visceral; up until the very end it still seemed possible that things might work out. This time I’ve been left with a feeling of impending doom since the very beginning; I have to imagine that things will either get very bad or Simon will throw a curve ball and lighten up in the end (although I’m not betting on the latter).

More next week — comments are, as always, both welcomed and encouraged.

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