Yes. A duck.
Episode #21: “Duck and Cover”
“How come they don’t fly away?” – Ziggy
McNulty deals with the disappointment of his failed reconciliation with his wife by returning to his old drinking and womanizing habits while falling further into depression. The detail closes in on Sergei Malatov when they track his cell phone through his truck rental paperwork. Concerned about the union’s finances, Sobotka decides to pay the bills and discovers that his cell phone account was flagged as to not have service disconnected. Becoming paranoid, he smuggles a container without contraband to see the results, and his suspicions solidify when the police pull the container over. Frank and Nick visit the diner to meet with The Greek; The Greek tells him to deliver more disappeared but clean containers to the shut down warehouse as suspicions mount about possible interest from the police. With his business faltering Bodie moves his crew into new territory.
Episode #22: “Stray Rounds”
“The world is a smaller place now.” – The Greek
The detail is dismayed at the lack of activity from their subjects and realizes that they must be changing their operating procedure. Nick moves higher in the underworld when Vondas allows him to wholesale drugs on their behalf. On the new drug corner they commandeered from their rivals Bodie and crew are involved in a shootout that kills a child. Rawls greets Major Howard “Bunny” Colvin at the scene of the shooting; Colvin disapproves of Rawls’ counter-strategy of large-scale strike operations through the Western District. Stringer meets with Proposition Joe behind Avon’s back to discuss turning over some West side territory in exchange for a cut of the Greeks’ drugs. Avon complicates Stringer’s attempted betrayal by hiring feared hitman Brother Mouzone to drive off rival dealers.
New Characters:
Major Howard “Bunny” Colvin
Lieutenant Dennis Mello
Agent Koutris
Brother Mouzone
Dangling Threads:
This episode plants some important seeds that bear fruit in season 3.
I’m still finding it hard to decide whether the show is on Frank’s side. He is my favorite character of the Docks. He is struggling with the exact same difficulties D was dealing with 1) The challenge of leadership 2) The difficulty of obeying higher-ups with different values, and 3) his own conflicted conscience. The complexity of his character fascinates me and I can’t wait to see how he continues to develop through the series.
I think one of the most important scenes of Episode 21 was Frank’s meeting with his brother (Louis). Louis confronts Frank and his dirty money, but doesn’t exactly offer a good alternative. It seems like Louis isn’t doing much in his life and is just drinking his days away. The two brothers represent the two possible tracks for the dockworkers of the 21st century– they can either rely on crime and corruption to sustain their labor, or live unemployed and unhappy. I think the show certainly sympathizes with Frank, but my feeling is that he will continue to be marginalized by the capitalist system.
I think that Alex makes an interesting point about Frank’s character in the second season and his similarities with D’Angelo from the first season. I found myself struggling with Franks character. I cannot figure out whether I sympathize with him. He is clearly involved in illegal activities but his ultimate goal is to help his family and the dock workers. I find it unusual that I sympathized with D’Angelo’s character and I don’t sympathized with Frank’s character. For some reason to me D’Angelo seemed like he had less control over his decisions when compared to Frank. Frank is more of the head of the family figure like Avon. He name has power.
The opening of episode 22, “Duck and Cover,” is one of the most powerful opening scenes we have seen so far in The Wire. It might also be one of the longest opening scenes we have watched thus far. Jimmy McNulty is at his lowest point here, drinking himself into oblivion, crashing his car twice, participating in a one-night-stand, and waking up to sheets stained with blood.
I am always particularly careful to take good notes during the opening scene of each episode because, when looking back upon them, they almost always foreshadow important action in the episode itself. In “Duck and Cover,” Daniels convinces Rawls to put McNulty on the case, and as his colleagues and friends make clear, When Jimmy isn’t on the case, he is drunk, helpless, and miserable. What’s more, “policing is the closest the man comes to being right.” McNulty was growing restless on the boat, but the truth of the matter is that his participating in this case is a product of his being on the boat. Still, there is no denying that McNulty, despite others’ views towards him, deserves to be on the case. We knew that the day was coming when Rawls would have no choice but to reinstate McNulty, and I am thrilled that the moment has finally arrived.
I agree with Tahirah. D’Angelo had far less control over his situation than does Frank. In fact, Frank is more like Avon in that both characters serve as the centerpieces of their respective families. When one of the Union members finds himself in trouble, Frank, as the head of the Union, takes care of them, at least financially. Avon does the same with respect to D’Angelo. It is not clear, however, that Frank and Avon are supposed to parallel each other. Frank seems a little more coarse and is more easily frightened than Avon. I believe that Avon, and Stringer, are more careful and consider options more carefully than does Frank. Avon and Stringer rarely throw money around because they are aware of the perceptions about their money and occupations. Frank seems more willing to divulge his secrets, as most of the stevedores are well aware of the lack of due-payments that Frank receives.
Adding on to what Alex has said already, the opening scenes of both of these episodes are very powerful. McNulty’s drunken debauchery seems like it could stand alone as a short film. His getting back in the car and retrying the turn is funny, sad, and thought provoking. He is trying to prove to himself that he can make the turn, as if trying to overcome his frustration or disgust with himself. Waking up hungover to a cut hand and bloody sheets after a drunken one night stand is a suitable ending for this scene of frustration and dissapointment.
The opening scene of stray bullets is perhaps even more powerful than that of Duck and Cover (I’m pretty sure its the opening scene…correct me if I’m wrong). We see Bodie’s crew engaged in a shootout with another crew over some territory. Simultaneously, we see a woman and two children in thier home scrambling for cover. The mother tells her son to get down on the ground as she goes and puts the younger daughter into a bathtub. As soon as she said this I knew the boy was going to be hit, but that did not reduce the power of this scene. It pointed out the pointlessness and wastefulness of the shootout between the two groups. Neither group gains much of anything and they end up killing an innocent child in the process.
First: Brother Mouzone is one of my favorite characters in The Wire. From the brief glimpses and references that we see, we know he is different. when Avon’s sister tells Stringer that Brother is coming from New York, Stringer is taken aback and impressed, he takes his glasses off and looks truly shocked. For Someone like Stringer to be so shaken is a dramatic shift. In the first glimpses we have of Brother, he contrasts every other “street” Game-member we see: he wears a suit, he is polite to the police officer, and he comes off as above and beyond the Baltimore Towers world in which he has arrived.
I wanted to reply to Tahira’s comment. I have been thinking a lot about Frank Sobotka’s character because I believe he is one of the most deep and powerful characters on the show. He embodies the old Baltimore or America even, that is slowly falling apart or being outsourced.
Anwyays, I wanted to respond to the comparisons of Frank to Stringer or Avon. I believe it is difficult to say that Sobotka mirrors any characters in the drug criminal world, but I would have to agree far more with Alex. Frank seems to be facing many of the difficulties that D faced, especially regarding his conscience. Comparisons can also be drawn to Wallace because he, like Frank, did not truly understand the game. Frank has gotten way over his head by aiding the Greeks, and his world is slowly falling apart. It is heartbreaking to see this as well because he is a good man who means well, definitely a tragic character in my eyes.
I’m not sure that Frank has much more control over his situation than D’Angelo. While he tries to assert his power as head of the union, he’s really at the whim of the Greeks and the politicians for much of Season 2. Both D and Frank struggle gain the support of their subordinates. And as we just saw in the second to last episode, Frank is quick to lose the respect of his fellow dockworkers.
I think that both D and Frank only had two real options: stay in the game (drug dealing/stealing from the docks) to preserve their livelihoods and maintain their friends/family, or face marginalization, poverty, and disownment.
For me, the conversation between frank and his brother was particularly resonating in gaining an understanding and empathy for both Frank and the circumstances surrounding his complicit corruption. While Louis was particularly domestic in comparison to his brother, his life is seemingly dull, unhappy and repetitive, what he maintains is his morals and dignity, in a way that frank forced to sacrifice. Frank is not the sharpest character, and like D’Angelo, the choices that he makes in assuming power and leadership are conflicted with an inner consciousness. nonetheless, we the audience are still able to relate and understand why his choices are what the are. At one point of the conversation, Louis mentioned that he is glad that he does not have to make the same choices as Frank, and in that regard, while we can understand Louis’s anger and frustration in his son, Nick’s choices and decisions, we also see that Frank’s loyalty to the Stevadoors is tied to a bigger system of industrial and institutional corruption that seems unavoidable.
We have talked a little bit about the issue of space and character throughout the series. With Frank, we see him desperately trying to reinvent himself and his responsibilities to revitalize and even relive a kind of nostalgic glory and dignity that the docks once held. In his senatorial luncheon, and even with his encounters with the Greeks, Franks presence is uneasy and hesitant. He is playing a game that he does not fully know the rules to, or is at least not equip to play to the fullest. again, we seem to be reminded of D’angelo, who found himself in a similiar predicament. But without a family connect behind him, Frank’s future looks as bleak and fatalistic as D’s did.
With the docks, we get a sense of the past being casted out by the corruption of the present. Lester’s words from season one again seem to resonate in the distance: if you follow the money…and we see just how pervasive and complex that web unwinds. With Frank, we understand that while his engagements are incredibly unethical and criminal, we know and see that it is for a purpose bigger than himself, one that is even noble. At one point, in a conversation at the police unit, the distinction between the notion of being noble and being right is raised. It seems a prevalent theme, particularly with Frank, whos corruption is certainly not right, but rings with some vague sense of nobility.
Ahhhhhh…Brother Muzone….bean Pie my Brother (im allowed to make that joke!) Can i just say that i dont really appreciate the Nation of Islam dis. lol. yea, it hits home a little, but overall, i thought it was kind of gimmicky. Particularly because it perpetuates misinformed stereotypes about members of the nation…(true, prisons were a standard recruiting space for potential converts, and true, one can make the argument that the show perpetuates many informed and misinformed stereotypes overall) …this is my mini rant and should not be taken too seriously. I just wasnt feeling it! Also…im sorry, but it is me, or is Omar a little abrupt and unusually irrational in his response to Muzone?
ZIGGY!–possibly the most frustrating character we have encountered in the first two seasons of the show. i think the only person who tops Ziggy is De’Londa in season 4. but that is to come later. The epigraph to this episode is “How come they don’t fly away?”, when ziggy was purchasing the duck he later bedazzled and killed via alcohol poisoning…(smh!) The epigraphs are generally thematic, and with this one, it definitely hits a resonating point around the idea of space and the confining and trapping sense of all of the characters. With Bodie and his ties to west baltimore, the police bureaucracy with Daniels, McNulty, and others, and with the characters of the Docks. There is an overarching sense of being caged and disabled with all of the stories, and an underlying yearning for escape. With ziggy, in this case, his antics and behaviors are beyond excessive. His flashiness, his impetuousness and his obsession with power, or at least the illusion of power, all seem to address his own desires to not lead the life that he, in many ways, has been caste into. We later see Frank talking to his political connect (im unsure exactly what he does, he seems to be an adviser of sorts for franks political engagements) about the story of growing up and drinking rang, so that ppl can grow up to be astronauts, and how for most of the young boys who bought that dream work on the dock. For his advisor, who’s son goes to princeton, when frank asked what he would do when he graduates, his response was “whatever he wants”. With Frank’s son, ziggy, the choices are not that limitless. Ziggy, like his father, works on the docks, and while he seems to wanr to fly away from that reality, we see that his own wings are in many ways clipped, and fated to the confines of south east baltimore. With Frank, who’s flight is similarly clipped, seems to try to escape back to a time when the steevadoors were much more than they are now. His obsession is trapped in the past, Ziggy’s is a more immediate compulsion of impulse and the present, but is nonetheless still deluded by a notion of escape.