The Wire: Collateral Damage   Rewatch 
August 15, 2014 7:36 AM - Season 2, Episode 2 - Subscribe

The shipping container full of dead women is shrugged off as accidental and everyone still breathing scrambles to cover their own ass and minimize the, well, collateral damage. Everyone except McNulty of course, who pokes his nose into Beadie's "investigation" and sniffs out 13—make that 14 murders. Daniels puts in notice and looks to pursue a career in lawyering.

After ticketing cars at the Union Hall and taking a shaming from Sobotka, Valchek's vendetta gets truly nasty as he goes direct to Police Commissioner-in-Waiting Burrell and requests a detail to take down the IBS union. The detail is assigned with another bunch of overtime mopes and surprise! Prez is in charge! At the same time BPD is forced to take on the murder investigations of the 13 Джейн Doe, landing specifically on Landsman's best men Lester Freamon and Bunk Moreland. They recruit Beadie Russell and chase the scene of the crime to Philadelphia.

Avon Barksdale continues to deal with the state of his organization, sending Stringer to a new hookup and keeping up with Wee Bey and D'Angelo as they adjust to life inside. To a different perspective on corruption and brutality.

"They can chew you up but they gotta spit you back out." - McNulty

HBO Synopsis
posted by carsonb (5 comments total)
 
"On my docks!"
posted by box at 5:25 PM on August 15, 2014


Sobotka is pretty great at basically getting super mad at people who can (and will!) kill him. He is in a tough spot here, and you can see it on his face. He's spent a fortune of money he's known is dirty trying to protect the docks, but now is faced with the grim reality of what he's been doing.

And Jimmy's antics back fire on his friends here, although I kind of think Bunk and Freeman are asking for this one!
posted by Cannon Fodder at 11:08 AM on August 17, 2014


Sobotka's a guy who thinks he's on his home turf when he's not. (Or, if you prefer, he thinks it's one way, but it's the other way.) And he's--how did Beadie say it--better than the people he's in with.

It says something about 'The Wire' that a corrupt union boss is one of its most sympathetic characters.
posted by box at 1:17 PM on August 17, 2014


Sobotka's a guy who thinks he's on his home turf when he's not. (Or, if you prefer, he thinks it's one way, but it's the other way.)

That's a great observation. Sobotka's definitely on his home turf from his perspective, and his great character arc this season is his realization that it's changed completely despite his expectations. He doesn't recognize it anymore. He stares at the rotting hulks of industry along the waterfront, and he feels the pain of his workers, and it's totally alien to what he knows and expects from his home turf. Attempting to adapt to the new reality he teams up with the most alien entity around, The Greek. He's so invested in preserving what he knows that it doesn't occur to him that he's allowed it to be invaded.

Chris Bauer gets a ton of credit for bringing Sobotka to life as an awesome anti-antihero. He recently showed up in my rewatch of Fringe, in a straight villain role, and it was a thrill to recognize him.
posted by carsonb at 4:18 PM on August 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


It's kinda weird that Valcheck, and Sabotka for that matter are so obsessed with windows,
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 8:26 AM on May 24, 2016


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