The Wire: Dead Soliders

December 9, 2014 3:01 PM - Season 3, Episode 3

"The gods will not save you." -Burrell.

Omar's war with the Barksdales leaves some bodies behind, including one of his own as he pushes. Carcetti makes a play that leaves Burrell vulnerable. Bunny lays out his strategy ("I thought I might legalize drugs"), with the consequences as yet unclear. Marlo's crew lets the Barksdale crew know that territory isn't for sharing.

After taking one for the mayor, Burrell dismisses one of his commanders. Kima starts channeling McNulty, and the two of them head up to the Western to reconnect with Bubs and find out what the Barksdale crew is up to. Not content with screwing Burrell, Carcetti finds another partner. Cutty remains lost, not comfortable in his old world or able to make it to a different one.

And the show has a wake for Det. Ray Cole, who had been played by executive producer Bob Colesberry. Colesberry died before season 3 started filming; his career in film is referenced by Jay Landsman's eulogy (specifically, "Mississippi Burning" (producer); "After Hours" (producer) and "The Corner" (executive producer/actor)).

posted by nubs (4 comments total)

The weekly COMSTAT is a really great addition to the show, because until now we've only really followed the grunts in the police force, we don't get to see the kind of pressure each Major is under to achieve certain stats. Rawls here takes Taylor to pieces, and maybe he's not even wrong, although it's very easy to pick on failures when you don't have to deal with the reality on the ground. After all, Rawls was fairly devoted to avoiding real policing when he was running homicide.

I'm with Daniels on switching to Williamson to be honest. I imagine Kintell is hardly a lovely person after all, and they have shown a complete lack of progress after two years of work. Of course Daniels wants to switch targets.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 4:48 AM on December 10, 2014

Speaking of Colesberry, David Simon has a lot to say about him in his post about the Wire in HD.
posted by juiceCake at 8:16 AM on December 10, 2014

The weekly COMSTAT is a really great addition to the show, because until now we've only really followed the grunts in the police force, we don't get to see the kind of pressure each Major is under to achieve certain stats.

I find it's a nice parallel to the two drug rings as well - we see how Rawls and Burrell deal with their subordinates, and we see how Stringer and Marlo deal with their lieutenants; there's a nice parallel (to my eyes) between how Rawls dismantles Taylor and how Marlo deals with one of his lieutenants - Taylor is belittled, humiliated, and dismissed. Marlo observes to his guy that his numbers are down; his guy shares the problem with the Barksdale crew, and Marlo basically says "you need to step up. Here's some guys to help with that." In contrast, the police commanders are left to their own devices. And now that Stringer's strategy of talking and peaceful co-existence has run it's course, we'll have to see how the Barksdale crew responds.
posted by nubs at 11:24 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

This is also the episode where we get to know Gerard and Sapper ("like a 40 degree day!"), the two most witless soldiers of the show.
posted by rocketman at 9:40 AM on December 17, 2014