The Wire “Unto Others”

You know, there’s a part of me that wonders if Carcetti might actually be an improvement once he becomes mayor.

But this is The Wire.  That won’t happen.

But it’s the episode after the election, and we see some changes.  Carcetti can sit down with Mayor Royce and have a chuckle, showing a peaceful transfer of power.  Plus, Carcetti goes down to see the progress report that goes on all the time, and while there he seems to be actively listening to Daniels about how ill-prepared many of West Baltimore’s cops are for anything other than quick busts.  Plus, the incoming DA decides to reward Pearlman with a promotion instead of punishment for sending subpoenas off to powerful politicians.

Though that case that probably got Carcetti elected, the death of a witness, turned out to be accidental.  Kima’s becoming quite the detective.

School seems to be going somewhere.  Prez figured out how to use stuff like poker and dice games to teach his students how to read the odds.  Namond isn’t doing too well when he finds out that acting out doesn’t get him suspended from the new special class Colvin is supervising.  Maybe if he didn’t screw around, he could have been back in Prez’s class since Prez found newer editions of the textbook and an unused computer to do stuff with.

But letting the system take care of Omar isn’t enough, it seems.  There’s a bounty on the guy, so Omar calls in Bunk for a favor.  While Bunk has no problem letting Omar go to jail for a crime Omar didn’t commit–seeing as how there are a few crimes out there that are essentially unprovable in court that Omar actually did commit and Bunk knows it–letting the actual killer get off doesn’t appeal much to Detective Moreland.  At the least, he gets Omar transferred to a safer county lock-up.

Who set the bounty?  Marlo.  Marlo also, under advice from Proposition Joe, steals that camera Herc isn’t supposed to be using.  See, Joe figures the feds would just shrug it off.  The city can’t afford it, so if someone comes looking for that camera, Marlo can at least know who’s gunning for him on the side of the law.  Herc’s getting a bit desperate, and despite Carver’s idea of grilling Randy for bodies, there isn’t anything Randy can give in the form of actual evidence.  Herc might do something stupid as a result of all that…

Someone on The Wire is going to make something worse?  How unsurprising.