A new case begins…
Episode #14: “Ebb Tide”:
“Ain’t never gonna be what it was.” – Little Big Roy
Jimmy McNulty is sidelined to harbor patrol. He discovers a corpse in the harbor and pays back Colonel Rawls by proving City Homicide are responsible for the investigation. Major Valchek feels slighted when the boss of a local stevedore union named Frank Sobotka donates a more impressive gift to a local Polish church. Sobotka meets with other union leaders and learns that a crucial pier is still in a state of disrepair. Sobotka instructs his nephew Nick to see The Greek regarding payment for a clandestine container that he is smuggling through the port. Later, Port Police Officer “Beadie” Russell stumbles across The Greek’s container and discovers the bodies of over a dozen young women inside.
New Characters:
The Docks
Frank Sobotka
Nick Sobotka
Ziggy Sobotka
Horseface
Nat Coxson
Ott
Little Big Roy
Chess
Moonshot
New Charles
Big Roy
Johnny “Fifty” Spamanto
La La
Delores
Joan Sobotka
The Greek
Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos
Sergei “Serge” Malatov
George “Double G” Glekas
The Police
Officer Beatrice “Beadie” Russell
Officer Claude Diggins
The Street
Shaun “Shamrock” McGinty
Country
Tank
Puddin
Rico
Episode #15: “Collateral Damage”
“They can chew you up, but they gotta spit you out.” – McNulty
Officer Russell is assigned the murders of the thirteen women discovered in the cargo container. McNulty offers to help and again ensures that the case goes back to Rawls’ homicide department. Valchek strikes a deal with Acting Commissioner Burrell—in return for supporting Burrell in his aspirations for promotion, Valchek demands Burrell set up a detail to investigate Sobotka and his union. Sobotka considers cutting his ties with The Greek for not telling him the contents of the container and demands a meeting. “Horseface” complains of sudden police pressure to Sobotka and the two come up with a plan to further embarrass Valchek. In prison, Avon Barksdale’s relationship with his nephew D’Angelo begins to sour. Bodie Broadus finds that the new shipment of drugs for the Barksdale Organization is missing.
New Characters:
“White” Mike McArdle
Correctional Officer Dwight Tilghman
Andy Krawczyk
A small note on the window panel in the church and its importance:
Traditionally, donating a painting, panel, or window to a church was a mark of social importance and done as an ostentatious display of ‘bling’. In the middle ages, French aristocrats commissioned church art that would be seen and recognized by their illiterate peasants, as a show of authority and as an affirmation of their divine right to rule. The art also served to illustrate bible scenes when it could neither be read (due to illiteracy) nor understood (due to the preaching being done in latin.) Later on, Italian renaissance nobles, merchants, and guilds in the city states of Florence, Rome, Venice, and others were constantly competing financially (and sometimes violently). The physical representation of this competition was visible in the countless sculptures, panels, windows, and buildings that were accomplished for the public good, payed for by private interests, and all designed to pay tribute both to the patron and to the church.
For our purposes, the seemingly innocuous windows donated by the stevedores and by the police bear special meaning to the churchgoers who would see them. The windows represent social and financial authority, and neither Valchek nor Sobotka are willing to relinquish their hold.
The second season has a far different feel from its predecessor to this point. The first episode of season two felt much more in the spirit of the show than did the second, probably because during the second episode, the show seemed to create a scenario unlike any that we have seen to this point in the series. We saw significant plot unfold before us in the second episode of the season whereas we needed to work to understand the beginning of season one. I have to admit that I am frustrated with the movie-like presentation of the second episode of the second season. The episode seemed to diverge too prominently from the traditional methods of “The Wire.” I can see how the writers could come to understand the nature of the drug game as the show displayed in season one, but how would they learn about the best way to interrogate a Turkish boat captain? The ruthlessness of the Greek’s interrogation of the captain felt like it belonged in a Hollywood movie, not a convention-breaking show. As the season develops I intend to carefully scrutinize the writers’ abilities to return to the traditional untraditional mode of “The Wire.”
In response to Addison:
I think that was my knee-jerk reaction too. I hope that is all it is though. These episodes might be in fact much more realistic than we are giving them credit for, but I can’t help but feel a bit cheated by how popular-culture it feels. It had echoes of James Bond kind of criminals, a more sprawling (less intimate) world, and seemed to over-play certain textures of the dockside poverty. Of course I enjoy seeing our characters in new environments—but it seems a bit conventional: McNulty finds ways to get at his superiors even from the water, and of course the next big case has to be something that he has access to. We’re all expecting it to tie in to the drug-trade, but human trafficking? I’m a bit confused, maybe I’m just very sheltered, but are things like this common?
I know that the writers have experience in homicide journalism, but I can’t help but feel that they are dipping their feet into something they don’t know as extensively—but because of the trust and respect the show earned from me in the first season, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
This latest plot does seem a bit pop culture / typical cop show, but it is an interesting counterpoint to the relatively small scale crime the show has been dealing with so far. If it is true that “50,000 undocumented women” like these are in the US, as Russel states in the next expisode, then it really is a bigger problem then we realize. I personally didn’t think this was a common thing in th United States, but I could easily be wrong. It also shows possibly some of the crime that is at the root of the drug trade, serious, international stuff. True, this kind of crime is typical in some cop shows and movies, but it does actually exist. I would agree that this does seem like a more mainstream subject for the Wire, but I’m sure it will end up being for a purpose, not just for drama.
Jake writes about the importance of geography in the final episodes of season one of The Wire. This forced me to think about the role of place in the beginning episodes of season two. Just as we come to feel comfortable with the show’s setting, we are transported to an entirely new world that is, in all honesty, not that far away from the projects and the Barksdale organization.
We are not the only ones to struggle with geography, however. Characters struggle to get their bearings, and in some ways, are as helpless as the television viewers. The docks appear to be foreign territory to all. I didn’t feel as if this was the case for the detectives in season one. In fact, in considering how the series opened (McNulty’s curbside conversation following the death of Snot), we’re pretty confident that the detectives have experience in the projects. So far, we cannot say this for the docks.
I didn’t think of it that way, but it IS interesting to see the cops almost as confused as we are about the way the docks work and the atmosphere. It adds a new dimension since we aren’t explained everything from the start.
Really good point.
I had one comment about today’s class that wasn’t really related to the first two episodes, which I will touch upon later.
At the beginning of class, Professor Mittell said that many people found The Wire to be a cynical show. I think this is contradictory because, in order to be cynical, one has to be inputing a certain amount of opinion or personal perspective on issues. The Wire makes a point of NOT inputing a point of view, and of a realistic form of cinematography, plot and character. I would think that this would mean that it is not cynical, but shows a depressing side to reality that we are not used to.
I was wondering what you guy thought about the word “cynical” used to describe the show. It kind of hit me as a strange term to use for it, and can you guys think of any better ones?
So far I don’t like this new season nearly as much. One of my favorite elements of the first season, was learning about the intricacies of the drug trade. We were enlightened, and even impressed, with all of the strategies the pit used to evade evidence; the codes, the pay phones, the around-the-corner transactions. We felt apart of it and felt like we could play a detective role on both sides- we could try to work out how the cops could get evidence on them, and we could try to work out how Avon and his crew was going to adapt to the cop’s continual raids and captures. However, in season 2, I am left completely clueless as to how the shipping industry is structured and how it runs. I don’t know anything about The Greek who is essentially the Avon Barksdale of season 2. I want to sympathize and get to know the villains like in the first season so I can root for them or demand their heads! I feel much less engaged in this season. However, I absolutely LOVE the motif of Jimmy screwing over Ralls. I LOVE that he goes way out of his way, and puts in extra hours of work to totally screw over his old boss. It shows his humor, his wit, his dedication to revenge, his pride, and most importantly, his intelligence and talent at police work. I’m 100 percent rooting for Jimmy even though hes a gaping asshold; hell, thats why I am rooting for him! In such a corrupt, selfish, and messed up department, Jimmy needs to be an asshole because the nice guys are simply ass-kissers who are doing their superiors dirty work. I hope season 2 develops a little more characteristically, and I hope it finally starts to explain how the shipping system works.
Season two starts off a bit slow. with this second time around, i am certainly gaining a new appreciation for the elements that the writers and creators are trying to incorporate in telling the bigger story. As we move away from west baltimore, our attention moves to the south east district, who’s population and identity contrasts greatly from the towers and pits in season one. the notion of space is a prevalent motif throughout the series, as we have discussed, and operates interestingly in the telling and connecting of the stories of the wire. The initial narration of the Frank and the port were both confusing and jaring for me the first watch. and even now, with the knowledge of how the series plays out, the story is still frustrating. perhaps tha this the purpose though. It is in its confusion and unpretentiousness that gains a lot of my engagement. I am interested in how the writers chose the story of the sea port as their next plot line. Like West Baltimore, it seems to be an underworld of sorts, that deals with the issues of blue collar work, and the ways in which seemingly disconnected territory is tied to the bigger picture in many unobvious ways. We spoke in class about the idea of the lens widening, and revealing a greater tapestry. It feels more like the lens getting jolted in an opposing direction, and instead of escaping or avoiding to see the similarities, we are forced to examine and connect the puzzle pieces that piece together the patterns and lives of Baltimore.
the season two opener is interesting in comparison to the season one opener. We again meet McNulty, this time serving his designated punishment and demotion with the marine unit of the Baltimore police department. His duties are far less demanding and engaging as his conversation about snot boogie in episode one. Instead, he and his new partner drift seemingly aimlessly about the ocean harbor, with assumed minimal duties and the occasional maintenance issue. The name of the episode, ebb tide, seems appropriately tied to the opening scene and later connects to the unfolding events and characters we left in season one. McNulty appears perturbed in his new duties. the story structure that leads up to assisting the party goers on the yacht seems to illustrate elite attitudes towards the responsibilities and duties of the baltimore police. Both the environment and the attitudes of McNulty’s new constituents are cold and distant, and far from the world and space in which McNulty belongs. the title also connects to the change in tides of many of the characters of season one. We are reintroduced to Kima, Carver, Hurc, Daniels, Prez and Freemam, whom are all dealing with their shifting demotions or roles within the force in the wake of the Barksdale case. The floater that McNulty discovers is also connected to this title, and their significance seems to ebb and flow as the story’s lens pans out. Particularly for McNulty, who’s connection to the case, and vindictive acts towards Rawls and the homicide department, is initiated by his discovery of the body. This also connects to the shows quote..it aint ever gonna be how it was…both for the lives of the characters as well as our own perceived methods of interpreting the show. Everything changes.