The Wire “Refugees”

The new head of MaJor Crimes, Lt. Marimow, shuts down all the wire taps in favor of less covert hit and run tactics that anyone who’s been watching this show knows doesn’t work.  And since Lester and Kima quit the unit, that means bringing in some new people, including Herc.  Herc has no problem with the new way of doing things.

Much of this episode seems to be about how stuff accumulates.  Carcetti is making hay out of a dead witness for a court case, so the mayor pressures Burrell to pressure the Homicide Department to put a slow rookie detective onto that case before said rookie can really learn the ropes.  That would be Kima.  That may or may not be better than the hazing she’d been going through at that point.

Bunk, meanwhile, is finding out how depressing it is to drink without McNulty.  Lester just isn’t a good wingman, particularly when he’s pondering how Marlo has to be hiding bodies in West Baltimore.

This episode also features a lot of Marlo being Marlo.  He’s playing poker with some old timers who keep taking him to the cleaners.  He’s getting some guff from a security guard that means nothing to him aside from the fact he’ll have Chris and Snoop kill the guy later.  We see him take some bling from a guy Omar robbed to make up for the lost revenue.  We see him take over Bodie’s corner without a fight.  We see him turn down Proposition Joe over an offer to join the Co-Op.

We then see Joe tip off Omar about the poker game so Omar can rob Marlo and the old timers personally.  Damn, son.

As for the school, everyone seems to be going there.  Cutty got a job there picking up kids skipping.  He only needs to bring in one for a day in September and one for October for funding purposes.  He doesn’t like that, but it’s the best he can do.  He’s trying to reach out to Michael, too.  But that isn’t working.  Everybody loves that kid.  Colvin is there with the professor to observe stuff.  Prez is maybe starting to get through to his students a little bit after the trauma of that girl getting slashed up by her classmate.  Prez is learning the very depressing ropes and…hey, is that Mrs. Prez?  Well.  The legends are true!

There’s even more depressing moments where Bubbles’ “nephew” sneaks out with two random books claiming one helps with homework for the other.  The books?  A French dictionary and an algebra textbook.  I don’t think Bubbles was fooled for a moment.  Plus, Randy got pressured into snitching when he’s caught selling candy to younger students instead of being in class.

Between Major Crimes and the school system, I’m not sure any of the city’s institutions are going to be doing anything right for the foreseeable future.