The Wire - Final Season - Episode 2

By Winston • January 15, 2008

Official Bar Score:

So the Marlo detail has officially been shut down, allowing Marlo to resume his campaign of violence to put a stranglehold on the Baltimore drug trade. He has dedicated himself to the idea of circumventing the co-op and striking up a business relationship with The Greek that for the time being is still held exclusively by Proposition Joe. He decides to call on Boris (from season two) who is serving his sentence but still maintains his ties to the The Greek and Spiros, The Greek’s right hand. But to his surprise, he is forced to go through none other than Avon Barksdale (say WORD!) to have some face time with Boris, as Avon is, as always, running things, even behind bars.

Elsewhere, Freeman continues to monitor Marlo’s activities despite a lack of funding (and overtime pay for that matter.) The hammer is about to drop on corrupt Senator Clay Davis, and he is not thrilled and threatening to bring down all of his partners down with him. Mayor Carcetti is still trying to figure out how to fix the myriad problems facing his city without reaching to others for a handout, all the while trying to plan a gubernatorial campaign. Bubbles continues to struggle with life after calling it quits being a junkie. McNulty is slipping further and further off the deep end as his drinking problem is getting worse and the paychecks are getting smaller.

The most intriguing part of this episode is the Baltimore Sun story going on. This is one to be watched as it got real interesting real fast this episode. The editor is an idealist and holds standards really high, however a young writer with aspirations of greatness has started going higher up the chain of command to get his way. However this writer may be a bit too overzealous, as there is an underlying possibility that he could be doing some shady stuff to get his stories. I can’t wait to see where this is going.

That being said, this was a Marlo episode through and through, and the moment of the hour was the appearance of Avon Barksdale. I sincerely hope that he has a recurring role throughout the season, as he is one of my favorite characters on any TV show ever. Unfortunately, it has “cameo” written all over it, so we shall see. It was cool though, I’m glad they were able to get him in. Maybe resurrect Stringer Bell somehow? Okay, maybe not, but Avon popping up was great.

I can’t wait until next week’s episode. They are setting up a lot of potentially great stuff, including a showdown between Marlo, Chris, and Snoop, and everyone’s favorite armed robber Omar. Until the next time…