Some of the most intense scenes from the series are in this episode.
Episode #11: “The Hunt”
“Dope on the damn table.” – Daniels
While Greggs’ life hangs in the balance, Daniels is ordered to raid the Barksdale operation. The detail’s hand is forced and a series of city-wide raids and arrests are made to appease the Commissioner’s desire for “dope on the table.” Bubbles unwittingly implicates himself in the shooting.
New Characters:
Commissioner Frazier
Lt. Torret
Assistant State’s Attorney Ilene Nathan
I was actually very pleased with how they dealt with Kima. Because they whisked her away to the hospital and her outcome is unknown, I don’t feel cheated about not knowing whether she’ll live or die. If the characters in the Wire knew more about what was going on than I did, then I would feel cheated. But we are forced to sit there right along with them—they don’t know what is going to happen any more than we do.
The repercussions of what has happened are resounding with or without Kima dying. She has become a key plot point—she is a piece of evidence, a catalyst for relationship change between different characters, and has revealed important things about each character (based on their reactions).
What I’d like to see in the last episodes is something that progresses the plot in a new direction. I wouldn’t mind being hooked along with another cliffhanger, but I would like to know where the case is progressing. I think it would be useful to have some characters that have been hanging in the balance to make some decisions (like Wallace or D’s indecision about his place in the drug world, or Bubbles trying to get clean, or even McNulty and his relationship with his ex-wife). Or the characters could at least be put in a position that forces them to make a decision.
The show has earned my respect to the point where I don’t want to know everything, but I am ready for a deepening in the plot. How far DOES the money go? If the case gets really, really big, then what other players will come in? I would of course like to see if Kima lives or dies, but more importantly what will it mean for the undercurrents at play?
What episodes 10 and 11 do primarily is raise the stakes, both for the Barksdale crew and the Police. The investigation has become even more personal for McNulty, Bunk, Daniels and the others. What I would like to see out of the last two episodes is a resolution to the Kima issue, but not to the Barksdale issue.
With Wee Bay moving to Philly, and the knowledge that they shot a cop, the Barksdale crew seems like they might be about to make some kind of transition themselves. Whether its expansion to include a new setting or movement to a larger area, I can see the story world potentially getting larger. Without a transition made by the Barksdale crew, it seems like the police will catch them within the next season. Avon and Stringer are great characters, and I don’t want them to be caught any time soon. Maybe not in the next to episodes, but eventually I would like to see the scope of the story world become larger and this investigation possibly become an inter-state issue.
I would love to watch the opening scene of episode 11, “The Hunt,” and the opening scene of episode 1, “The Target,” together. They differ from the opening of episode 6, “The Wire” in that while all three episodes begin with the aftermath of a murder or, in the case of Kima, perhaps a near murder (we still don’t know whether or not she’ll survive), episodes 1 and 11 begin with a police investigation. Both episodes open with “wires” of blood on the pavement, but while the pilot depicts order, “The Hunt” depicts chaos. McNulty is calm and composed, interviewing a boy that introduces us to the idea of “the game” when the series opens, but Kima’s shooting is an extension of that game—a tough reality that the detectives don’t want to face. Yes, the police force was played, but this is partly a consequence of their lack of planning. Why couldn’t Kima get to her guns? Why were there no eyeballs on the street?
The number of police, detectives, EMTs, and staff that arrive in the aftermath of Kima’s shooting sharply contrasts with their response to the death that opens the series. Interestingly, with fewer personnel, as the pilot episode depicts, there is more control; however, one can’t help but feel, to some degree, disappointed by the fact that certain incidents take precedence over others simply because of the players involved. Shouldn’t every murder case receive a similar reaction? The shooting of a detective is, of course, controversial and will certainly hit home with Baltimore’s crime force, but so too is the murder of a maintenance man in the projects who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I think there is a lot more to compare and contrast about the openings of these two episodes. Does anybody else draw interesting parallels between these two episodes that we might want to consider?
Interesting comparison, Andrew. The two scenes also differ sharply in the general focus of the police investigation. In Episode 1’s opening, we don’t see much attention shown to the actual murder. McNulty’s focus is on understanding why the world works this way, and not on how Snot was killed or who did it. In “The Hunt”, the cops aren’t focusing on the general reasons for the shooting, they just want to know who shot Kima and how. As the shooting has affected one of their own, none of the cops are able to step back and try to put it all into perspective the way McNulty does in episode 1.
It’s really hard to anticipate what (if anything!) will be resolved in these last two episodes of Season 1. Season 1 has taught us to not get our hopes up, and I bet there will still be a lot of loose ends following our screening Monday night. I do hope we find out more about Kima’s condition and see how it continues to affect the other characters. Another thing I’d like to find out more about that hasn’t been discussed yet is the hypothetical dirt that Daniels has. He’s been gaining our respect as someone committed to the work of the detail and has taken a lot of abuse. But I’m thinking he won’t be let off the hook for much longer and that we might lose a lot of respect for him.
This was a pretty pivotal episode in the series thus far both with character development and story development.
Since Kima’s shooting, the police are really out to hit the dope dealers where it hurts and take their dope and money.
One scene in particular that I would like to point out is in the beginning, just before the intro starts Major Rawls is at the scene of Kima’s shooting and fixes the street signs. This was definitely symbolic of the police’s efforts to literally “get the streets right,” or “correct the streets.”
As far as character development goes I’d like to mention Lester. He really takes the lead in the beginning of this episode and gets the team re-focused. Carter loses his cool at one point and saying something to the extent of “fuck going back to work.” and Lester sets him straight, asking if anyone has contacted Kima’s family, and telling the team how important it is to get back on the wire immediately so that they can maybe catch word of who did this. This really shows Lester’s composure in intense situations and his ability to think smart and effectively.
In thinking about this evening’s upcoming screening, in which we will finish the first season of The Wire, I anticipate that many loose ends will remain unexplained, only to come into play in subsequent seasons. This series requires its audience to actively participate in viewing television, and it is in considering this reality that I expect to have more questions than answers as the season comes to a close.
As I have watched this first season, I have tried to put myself in the mindset of a weekly viewer of The Wire. We are fortunate in that we watch The Wire at an accelerated pace, which allows us to make connections and observations thanks to short-term memory. That said, we suffer—to a lesser degree—from having to wait to see the action of the series play out. One can only imagine the increased connection one might have with the series when being forced to watch the story unfold on a weekly basis.
With this in mind, my hopes for the final two episodes are as follows:
(1) that we end the first season knowing whether or not Kima survives the gunshot wound, but not necessarily knowing the consequences of her survival/death;
(2) that the relationship between Proposition Joe and Avon Barksdale intensifies;
(3) that D’Angelo seriously questions his commitment to the Barksdale organization; and
(4) that Baltimore’s crime force begins to piece together a new plan for dismantling the Barksdale organization, but that we do not yet understand how this plan will unfold.