Season 3 starts in the middle of the game.
Episode #26: “Time After Time”
“Don’t matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin’ the same.” – Bodie
The season starts midway into the Major Case Unit’s unsuccessful investigation into the Barksdale criminal enterprise. With their recent efforts fruitless, ASA Pearlman and Lieutenant Daniels consider dropping the wiretaps, to the dismay of the squad. Meanwhile, Ellis Carver finds himself in command of an incompetent group of policemen in the Western district. Bodie Broadus, Poot Carr, and Puddin reminisce about their days living and working in the 221 tower before it is demolished in an effort to stifle the drug trade. At a Barksdale Organization meeting, new head enforcer Slim Charles suggests that more territory is required and should be taken by force if needed; Stringer Bell maintains that product is the cornerstone of their operation. Dennis “Cutty” Wise, a legendary enforcer, is released from incarceration with an offer of work from Avon Barksdale.
New Characters:
Police
Off. Caroline Massey
Off. Anthony Colicchio
Off. Dozerman
Off. Lambert
Off. Truck
Patrolman Castor
Patrolman Baker
Major Marvin Taylor
Politicians
Mayor Clarence Royce
Councilman Tommy Carcetti
Councilman Anthony Gray
State Delegate Odell Watkins
Chief of Staff Coleman Parker
Street
Marlo Stanfield
Dennis “Cutty” Wise
Slim Charles
Drac
Lavelle Mann
Tote
Fruit
Justin
Jamal
Boo
Episode #27: “All Due Respect”
“There’s never been a paper bag.” – Colvin
Detective McNulty has doubts about the reported suicide of D’Angelo Barksdale and starts an unofficial investigation. East side drug lieutenant Cheese participates in an underground dogfight, and euthanizes his pitbull after losing. He speaks of this killing on the wire, and the Major Case Unit confuse it with a real murder. The unit decides to arrest Cheese and prematurely reveals their wire-tap in the process. Omar Little returns to Baltimore and resumes robbing stash houses. Councilman Tommy Carcetti pressures Acting Commissioner Burrell over high crime rates, and Burrell sends the pressure downhill to the foot officers. Cutty finds honest work with a landscaping crew. Western District Major Howard “Bunny” Colvin is ambivalent about the tactic of reclassifying crimes to manipulate statistics and is driven to consider an unorthodox solution when one of Carver’s squad is shot in an undercover operation.
New Characters:
The Deacon (played by Melvin Williams, real life model for Barksdale gang)
Vinson
There was some interesting discussion in these first two episodes about the conflics between the old school dealers like Cutty and former dealers and the new, young dealers like Bodie and Marlo. When Marlo’s crew steals Cutty’s package and claims cops took it, Cutty tells them that back in his day you would have to give a report number to prove that it really was taken by police. Marlo’s man proceeds to get in Cutty’s face and calls him old school. Later in the episode, Bodie remarks an how people are always saying that the newest batch of drug dealers is worse(more aggressive/violent?) than the last. His point seems to be that they really are all the same. I am curious about whether or not there will continue to be a clash between the old school and the young dealers, and if there really is much of a difference between the two.
There were a few interesting moments in these first two episodes of the third season. Its interesting to see how Stringer runs the game, without the bodies strictly business. This illustrated through the new headquarters of the operation which is the funeral home. It interesting to see the meetings and Stringer leading the meeting in front of a casket. The major theme is that the game is being played in a new way. It is also interesting to see which cops are picking up on this. This is also reinforced in the character Cutty, for Cutty he has been out of the game for 14 years and it is like a foreign language to him. This change is also evident in the police operations with the introduction of Compstat.
We have come to realize that the opening scene in each season of The Wire, in many ways, speaks towards the underlying themes of the seasons themselves. With this in mind, I would like to explore several ideas that I believe will resonate with the storylines of Season 3. On a general level, we can begin by considering the end of the towers as a destruction of childhood and memory. To me, this suggests that Baltimore’s political and financial elite believe that only good can come of destroying the towers. That said, they fail to recognize the wants and desires of many living in the Projects. What’s more, to the frustration of the Barksdale Organization, they “snagged the best territory in Baltimore” without any effort.
There is also something to be said in regards to the aftermath of the explosion—namely, the dust and rubble that rose through the streets, sickening the onlookers of the occasion. This can be interpreted in a variety of ways:
(1) as a metaphor for the effects of drugs on users and, in general, the Projects;
(2) as a tangible reminder of the power that the Barksdale Organization holds over the area, even after the towers are taken down; or
(3) as foreshadowing the inability of Baltimore’s public officers to maintain order and control of the Projects.
Specifically during these two episodes short one liners or very quick scenes seemed particularly evocative of potentially larger thematic trends in the season to come. As we have discussed in class the very first episode often provides important clues for what is ahead and the cliche but effective visual of the dynamite flaring and the buildings collapsing sending a puff of smoke over the crowd was one such example. The dust is just beginning to settle as the theme song kicks in and the credits roll, leaving the audience to wonder in the face of change and reform whether the dust will settle neatly back into position or form differently. Bode and Poots conversation before the towers come down about the link between place and memory and Bode’s conviction that “they” as in the arbiters of change (politicians, lawmakers etc) “don’t care about people” also lays the groundwork for thematic development.
In the second episode a couple of moments with the new character Carcetti seemed interesting and provocative. The moment when he arrives from his sons baseball game and says after Burrell asks who won “who keeps score? Its not personal, Its never personal to me.” struck me as an interesting bit of contrast. In the larger framework of the show till this point we have seen Burrell and other high ranking police personnel as scorekeepers and Jimmy and most of the detail as people who get highly personally involved in their work (from spending all hours on the job, to sleeping with their co workers, Rhonda WHAT are you doing?) to have Carcetti as someone who doesnt fit neatly into either of these roles will challenge the way we look at the other characters. Carcetti also exemplifies the importance of who you know (your childhood/past) in Baltimore as a stepping stone to efficient achievement. His ability to call on a friend from his first communion class and display his connections with all manner of people make him a force to be reckoned with. It also calls into question yet again the agency of individual characters who are less well connected. We have yet to see where Carcetti’s true motives lie and whether we will view him as a positive or negative personality but he enters with a bang and demands that we watch him closely.
I agree with Tahirah that Stringer is struggling with his own identity. It is clear that he has one image of himself as an intimidating, tough boss. On the other hand, Stringer has also shown his desire to make something more of himself–more than the game as we have come to know it can offer. His two worlds clash in the beginning of season three when Poot speaks at one of the meetings in the funeral home, asking whether “the chair knows we gonna look like some punk ass bitches?” Stringer’s reaction embodies his two worlds. He yells at Poot and curses, losing the composure that he seemed to have been working hard to maintain to that point. Even though he had spent the last few minutes of the meeting prior to his outburst acting calm, cool, and collected, Stringer’s past tendencies of street bullying emerged when he most needed his composure. In a way, this is truly sad. Stringer has worked so hard to put himself in a position that allows him to observe his business like a professional. In one moment, however, his hard work is largely undone and he is no better or more composed than any stressed-out drug dealer.
I also found that moment very jarring and revealing. As cool and collected as Stringer always seems, that was a useful moment to reveal how insecure about it he is. He wants to pretend he’s running a legitimate business, and I think that he wants to be distant from “the street”—but like we talked about in class: the street is the street. The Game is the Game. It doesn’t really matter how much “product” they move, or the profit they get from it. We’ve seen how much money actually means to them, which is very little. You can’t be flashy. You get money and keep it. What’s more important is the respect, and I think that is what Stringer is forgetting. Territory is about respect not about a profit margin, and losing it for more money doesn’t make sense no matter how much product you sell.
I definitely found Stringer’s meeting one of the most interesting parts of the two episodes. It seems to me that Stringer has either totally changed his outlook, or he has forgotten an integral part of the game. One of my favorite Stringer Bell quotes from season 1 is when he is talking to ‘D’ about their highly cut product. He says that it is a sort of sick world in their favor because “the worse the product, the better off we are.” If junkies do not get as high from their, then they will have to buy more of it. Stringer is now preaching that it is all about the PRODUCT now.
Maybe this is a result of the arrests at the end of season 1; it is no longer safe to drop bodies left and right to guarantee the monopoly. But their product problems they had experienced in the first season did not really affect cash flow because they dominated the territory. It is possible that Stringer has developed some wisdom or that he is just out of touch with the streets right now. I guess this season will tell.
Andrew,
to me the towers falling was a symbol of a set-up theme of Season 3: real-estate agents vs. the drug game. I don’t mean as a “showdown” between the two per-say, but as a sort of thought provoker of the benefits that each provide the community. Obviously the drug game is not good for the community, but will new real-estate really bring the benefits that the mayor promised? It seems that the real-estate business is filled with corrupt people as well, tied to both politicians and the drug game (as seen during the lunch between real-estate guys, Clay Davis, and Stringer Bell). It seems like the finagling of politicians landed the grainery in real-estate’s hands instead of the stevedore’s at the end of season two. It will be interesting to see if there are any actual boons to the community with the towers now down. To me, the dust cloud seemed like an ominous foreboding of a continued neglect of the poor residents of the area.