"Conscience do cost.”

Clarifications

“There are some things that happen, you don’t ever fuck with them.” – Terry, the homeless vet

RIP Omar. I knew he was going to die but didn’t expect it to be from a head shot delivered like a sucker punch from little Kenard. I was hoping the hunt would continue till the very end.

And yet challenging audience expectations has always been a hallmark of “The Wire.” His death reminded me of how one of the characters dies in “No Country for Old Men.” The movie (my favorite of the year) proceeds as if it is leading up to final a showdown between two men. That is what the audience is expecting… and then (I'm editing this post so as not to give it away to those who have seen it - my apologies), it doesn't quite happen that way.

Similarly, we were watching this season with anticipation for the “High Noon” moment where our hero surprises some combination of Chris, Snoop, Monk and Marlo in a Baltimore alley and dispenses the justice the police can’t meter out.

I didn’t notice it till the second viewing but Kenard was one of the kids torturing the cat in the alley. Makes you think of that dismissive line Omar said last season when he was watching Michael talk to Marlo: “He just a kid.” His death mirrors that of Jesse James or Wild Bill Hickock – fearsome gunslingers gunned down by marginal figures they never would have thought to fear.

In a way it was his old-school sensibility that did him in. “Marlo Stanfield is not a man for this town,” he says, betting that people may respond to his invocation of honor. Omar went after more established muscle, the shady folks in the game. What he either didn’t realize or accept is how pervasive the game is now, how even pre-pubescent, entry-level hoppers like Kenard see themselves inextricably a part of it and want to move up. Kenard knows as well as anyone how violence commands the upmost respect in the wretched world he lives in: it’s easy to see how he would see shooting Omar as the most rational thing he can do to get ahead.

The death scene happened very early in the episode. It took me aback, like when Nate Fisher dies near the end of the last season of “Six Feet Under.” But after hearing the Michael K. Williams interview on “Fresh Air” in which he says, “It’s Baltimore baby, everybody dies!” you knew it was inevitable. And his death doesn’t even warrant making the Sun.

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Ever since the wire was surreptitiously launched a few episodes ago, this season has had legs. It dragged a bit before as we watched McNulty painstakingly set up the lie of the serial killer. There was too much focus on the horrors of budget cuts, the resulting low morale and what is perhaps the central theme of “The Wire” – the dysfunctional mechanics of institutions.

But now that’s changing. A lot of the key characters are coming back with fresh missions: Greggs and Carcetti especially. The producers seem to have finally settled on who the important characters are at the Sun and aren’t throwing all these extraneous characters at us who we don’t know or care much about. We just saw Fletcher, Haynes and Scott this episode with minimal exposure to other Sun characters. By and large, that whole world and plotline hasn’t sung so well and part of the reason “Clarifications” was so great is that the Sun felt in the background to the developing police investigation of Marlo.

When you’re watching all of Carver’s people drive around in their Enterprise cars, it reminds you of Season One and why you first liked the show so much to begin with. It shifted the focus away from selling the con of the homeless murderer to building the case against Marlo. And the truth is starting to come out little by little and I’m just disappointed there’s only two more episodes to explore this. I wish this episode had come one or two in the past.

Everyone is eating right out of McNulty’s hand. “The king of fucking diamonds,” as Bunk told him. He’d grin like a Cheshire cat if no one were around in that police room using Compstat to con everyone.

But McNulty doesn’t seem to have the emotional stability of Lester to be able to deal with this. Out there on that porch talking to Beadie – the guy looks positively lonely. He wants to be understood so badly. He wants to be appreciated, he wants someone to validate him. And this keeps him spilling the beans and you know it’s not going to end well.

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It looks like it’s going to end well for Carcetti. He’s getting traction on the homeless thing and making all the necessary deals. This was a very good political episode (Oh yeah, PG is Prince George County, I believe). The conversations at the hall are always strategic. How can we play this? How is this going to advance my own ambition? However, he runs into a problem that Kerry did in ’04, taking the black vote for granted. Ah, when will the Democrats learn?!?

As one reader remarked last week, Carcetti is now a full-blown political hack. “New Day” does seem far away. He keeps leaving money on the table just so he looks good. That scene where he’s watching TV at home while his wife meekly looks at him showed this better than any other. She’s not even asking him to do the right thing any more.

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One gets the feeling that Michael is too independent for what’s he’s doing – he’s a leader. My bet is the series ends with him ascending to Marlo’s place. And the importance of the Omar and Michael scene is not what it said about Marlo but what it made Michael think about Marlo. Marlo had cultivated this image of the invincible one and it looks like Michael is questioning it (and by next week’s preview doing something about it). He doesn’t think he’s for real any more. The kid just can’t seem to stand anyone being in a position of power over him. I wonder why…

Surprised Snoop and Chris don’t do more than lightly push him in the scene where he’s mouthing off at them about what Omar said. Chris doesn’t seem happy with Omar’s death. Professionally disappointed? Wish he had pulled the trigger?

And yet, it’s Bunk who is going to bring Chris to jail. “No shuckin’, no jiving. Just good old police work,” he tells McNulty. He’s going to do what McNulty or Omar couldn’t do, and he got it done by being resourceful.

“Good old honest work,” he says. And Bunk is joined in his work ethic by Dukie and Fletcher. By contrast, there’s McNulty, Scott and Clay Davis. I’ve never watched a show that pays as much attention to work ethic as this one is. Simon and Burns’ take on it feels almost Calvinstic in its morality.

- One thing that the producers seem intent on pushing across time and time again: Federal authorities are pompous, egotistical and unhelpful. But this time they’re right on in their description of the suspect… only it’s McNulty. Amazing how they describe him so perfectly. “Trouble with lasting relationships” authority and likes alcohol. As they leave the building McNulty says, “They’re in the ballpark.” Classic.

- Hey, Fletcher used my term, calling Bubbs a “tour guide.”

- Good line: “Playing that race card, shameful.” Clay. Wasn’t quite sure what Lester was wanting Clay to do by confronting him in the bar.

- Who thought Sydnor would have broken the code? He’s always been the real salt-of-the-earth guy on the show. He’s never shown us any flashes of intelligence nor any idiosyncracies to really attach ourselves to. He’s not a memorable character, but he gets it. “That’s police work son,” Lester tells him.

- I liked Poot’s cameo. He’s the only one from the orginal S1 crew in the low-rises that got away. “Shit got old,” he tells Dukie. And he broke his own prophecy, “world going one way, people another,” by getting out of the game.

- The first time, I didn’t understand the identity switch by the OCME guy in the last scene. Then I saw: they were switched to begin with. It’s a scene I think that just shows the notoriety of Omar and how everyone knew him.

- That line I put below Omar's photo comes from something Butchie said in S3.

- Lastly, I want to thank everyone who leaves a comment on my blog. If I had more time I’d respond to people’s comments but I get a lot of out reading them.