In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« The Wire
Episode Recap: "Unconfirmed Reports"
An episode about cutting corners, figuratively and almost literally, to get what one wants.
We begin in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, wherein Bubbles (Andre Royo) is encouraged by his sponsor (Steve Earle) to testify; he can't bring himself to do so, beyond a few jokes about the old days before sobriety.
The Major Crimes Unit, now down to two detectives, keeps up their assigned duty of working the case against State Senator Clay Davis (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), although Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) isn't about to let go of their other major investigation, of the Marlo Stanfield gang, even if he has to work it on his own time. Meanwhile, Jimmy McNulty, even more than his fellow homicide detectives, is chafing under the restrictions on budget and his reassigment back to Homicide from Major Crimes. He takes on a slightly hincty-looking death investigation out of turn more to get out of the office than anything else; this eventually puts him in the pathologists' offices at the same time as an old friend from the Baltimore County police, who demonstrates to him with her current case how a fresh corpse can show misleading signs of strangulation or related violence.
At the Baltimore Sun, ambitious and somewhat brown-nosing reporter Scott Templeton (Thomas McCarthy) makes noises that senior editor Whiting (Sam Freed) likes to hear; Whiting had previously locked horns in the morning editorial meeting with Metro editor Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson) over how deeply to work the context of why Baltimore public schools seemed to be failing, with Whiting overruling Haynes in arguing for a close focus on the schools themselves rather than a wider focus on the failures of society generally, particularly in Baltimore's poorer neighborhoods. Templeton having been detailed to begin writing a series focusing solely on the schools, he's also assigned a puff-piece for the Orioles' opening day, with the pitch that he'll seek out someone with a compelling human-interest angle on seeing the season's first baseball game. Finding such a person to interview, however, proves difficult, so he comes back and files a story that ever more clearly appears, to Haynes and his other coworkers but not to the oblivious Whiting, to be fiction. When Haynes points out that no evidence can be found to support Templeton's story, Whiting pushes it through anyway.
Lester, having staked out one of Marlo's gang's usual haunts, discovers that they, as he predicted, have gotten incautious once the Unit is no longer obviously keeping them under surveillance. Lester then contacts Jimmy, to see if he's also game for some extracirricular gang-busting; they together seek out an FBI friend, with the offer of a major bust that might take perhaps two weeks worth of more sophisticated surveillance than the Baltimore Police choose to afford at the moment. Unfortunately, the US Attorney, peeved at the mayor's unwillingness to play along with him previously, makes it clear that the city police will get no federal help from any agency he can control.
For his part, Mayor Carcetti is underwhelmed, in a meeting with his aides, to learn that the major good news is a 15-point improvement in third-graders' reading scores; he notes that if he manages to be elected governor in two years' time, the next mayor will have it easier, and meanwhile it might be held against him that the current probable candidates for mayor might well be touched by the corruption scandals around Clay Davis. Davis, for his part, pays a visit to his old crony, Police Commissioner Burrell (Frankie Faison), to see if he'll quash the investigation; Burrell points out that no one in the city hierarchy could do so at this point, and that all Davis's allies, including himself, are under scrutiny. Davis leaves, with promised to remember this betrayal.
Marlo (Jamie Hector) is pleased to be able to operate more openly again; he orders his lieutenant Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and primary enforcer Snoop (Felicia Pearson), along with thug in training Michael (Tristan Wilds), to go ahead and punish the street pushers working some corners "belonging" to distributors who refuse to take their product from Marlo, as well as to assassinate rival gangsters June Bug (for supposedly talking trash about Marlo) and Omar (for his theft from Marlowe). Chris notes that to get at Omar, they'll have to draw him out of his apparentl "retirement"; he's instructed to do just that. Marlo's trio go do his bidding, first shooting at least one corner pusher, then laying in wait at June Bug's rowhouse for him to arrive; Michael wonders if killing June Bug for supposedly talking about Marlo is justifiable; he's instructed to keep his qualms to himself, and, while Chris and Snoop go in for the kill, to go around the back and kill anyone who comes out. When the only person who runs out the back is a young child, Michael shakes his head and walks away. Later, Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn) and her partner are the detectives called in on the massacre; the uniformed police who first arrived failed to find the child cowering and bloodied in the closet; she carries the kid away from the sight of his parents' corpses.
Meanwhile, Marlo finds that his attempts to contact the Russian gangster Malatov (Chris Ashworth) in jail, as a means of getting at the Greek drug importers, will require a little more negotiation than he expected; Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris), whom Malatov has worked with and goes to for advice, cuts himself into the transaction for a sizable finders' fee, while making noises about West Baltimore solidarity with Marlo. Marlo, while clearly thinking himself Barksdale's superior, acquiesces, and gets to make initial overtures to Malatov.
Drinking and otherwise carousing out of his frustration, a hungover McNulty is ordered to go with his partner Bunk (Wendell Pierce) to investigate a homeless man's death; Jimmy, still smarting over the further frustrations of trying to get funding or attention to the gang murders the Major Crimes Unit had been investigating, uses his new knowledge of how to rough up a corpse to make it look like a murder victim, and suggest to Bunk that he's intent on establishing a false scare that there's a serial killer loose in Baltimore (quite aside from the gangsters, that is). Bunk wants no part of this, and leaves, but makes no effort to stop McNulty.
Among the new cast for this season, it's always good to see Clark Johnson's easy charm and odd mix of caginess and straightforwardness on display; it's probably a pity that Johnson apparently prefers directing to acting. Steve Earle is probably the most famous of the non-actor actors in this season; the show's ability to make canny use of essential or previous non-actors, such as Felicia Pearson, so seemlessly with veteran cast members is one of the obvious strengths of the show.
Among the antic character naming this time out, "Whiting" takes the cake; interesting that an "Avon" is being challenged, however indirectly, by a "Marlo" for supremacy, given how much like a John Webster play
The Wire can sometimes be.
Can't get enough of The Wire? Please check out our Online Video Guide.
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
Jan 13, 2008 6:48 PM
|
|
From the land of amazing continuity, I give you the woman speaking at the NA meeting. She appeared for one scene in season 3 buying an 8-ball from Bodie in Hamsterdam while in a pretty nice car. She appeared briefly again in season 4, now a hooker, having a chat with Old Face Andre about her pimp in his store. And now in season 5, she's seen pouring her soul out at NA meeting. What other show would give a nameless character such a devestating but ultimately hopeful arc with only three scenes spread out over three seasons? It's amazing that the writers put so much thought into such minor characters.
|
|
Jan 14, 2008 1:14 AM
|
|
Does anyone understand why the writers do not have the Baltimore Sun cover the fiscal problems in the city's police department? You would think cops not having usable police cars would be more of a front page story than an Orioles baseball game, or the continual failure of the city's school system. I like this show for the realism, and this unrealistic flaw in the plot structure is disappointing.
|
|
Jan 14, 2008 2:47 AM
|
You know alynch I remember that girl from the previous seasons. Thanks for the reminder.
Anyway Im an idiot, no wonder I had to rewatch last weeks episode. I accidently watched this weeks episode a week earlier thanks to On Demand. Oh well.
|
|
Jan 14, 2008 8:23 AM
|
|
I agree, nj_user. It should be front-page news. But as a former resident of Baltimore, it just isn't. Sadly, this is completely realistic.
|
|
Jan 14, 2008 9:22 AM
|
The current issue of The Atlantic Monthly has a very interesting background piece on David Simon and The Wire. Check it out at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/bowden-wire
Also, by any chance was the woman that Jimmy McNulty apparently picked up in the bar the same one who gave spoke at the recovering addicts meeting? It was just a quick shot in a dark bar, but I wondered if this was one of those brilliant now-you-see-it moments for this program.
|
|
Jan 14, 2008 12:30 PM
|
|
The fact that The Sun is wasting space on fluff pieces instead of sniffing out REAL news is probably the mainplat point of the entire season. They are so distracted with budget cuts, a thinning pool of actual journalists, and an editor who pushes lies to the front page because they SOUND good, that no one has time or talent to do any good reporting. This is exactly the kind of mess David Simon wants us to see and hate.
|
|
Jan 14, 2008 2:33 PM
|
|
Thanks, David1959, for drawing our attention to the Bowden piece...I don't read The Atlantic much anymore, and this piece is pretty typical of why...it seeks to pretend to be evenhanded, while taking as personal and carping a slant as any behavior it describes and criticizes, then decides it's ok to be slanted but gosh wouldn't be nice if the subject at hand were more openminded, and by the way, good work, there, mostly. Simon might be getting some personal payback, but sadly that doesn't invalidate either his larger nor his more focused criticisms, as those of us who've listened to NPR news reporting or read the current Philadelphia Inquirer can attest.
|
|
Jan 20, 2008 3:14 PM
|
|
|
