THE WIRE: R.I.P. OMAR

Apparently they're really getting ready to end The Wire. And the execs at HBO must not have read my last post on how to end it. Because they killed off Omar! Nooooooooooooo!

In what has to be the most disappointing turn of events this season, Omar met his demise at the hands of an ambitious youngster (who was about to set a cat on fire! Omar should have saved that cat). Hearts and hopes of audiences across America were dampened at the realization that there would be no showdown between Marlo and Omar. Omar would not deliver the style of street justice we had all hoped for. He didn't even get Cheese, which would have been sweet. Instead, he had an unglamorous, almost embarrassing death. But I guess that's the point of it. It's all just senseless violence. Would his death have been any more noble if it had ended in a blaze of glory? With that in mind, combined with the unexpected nature of his death, I have to say I sort of like wrapping up his end of the story like that. Sure, I wanted to see him creep up on Chris, Snoop and Marlo as much as the next guy, but I like to be surprised.

Here's the only face-to-face we ever got from Omar and Marlo, a classic Omar scene:



All I have left to root for now is that Scott gets so thoroughly humiliated he decides to retire from journalism and resort to a sordid, detestable life as an advertising copywriter, where you never have to tell the truth and it's okay--or rather, it's your JOB--to make boring stories seem extraordinary.

Thumbs up to Bunk and Kima, who keep on doing good police work and won't climb on the bound-for-disaster McNulty deception train. If McNulty doesn't get strung up for this ridiculous masquerade, I'll be severely disappointed. After his spineless dealings with that guy who scammed his way to golfing at Hilton Head, I want McNulty to be explosed as a fraud almost as much as I want it for Scott. And how sweet was it when McNulty listened to the FBI profiler read him a description that was a dead ringer for McNulty's pathetic personality. I'm officially on the down with McNulty bandwagon.

I'm also getting a little tired of Carcetti's windbag act. So far, I've seen a lot of talk, a lot of reactive governing and virtually no leadership. He's getting eaten alive by the political system and Baltimore's problems and still doing a lot of talking. When he leaves for the Governor's office, the city will be just where it was before.

And how is it that there's no montage of Senator Clay Davis delivering shiiiiiiiiiiiit on YouTube? That's a video that's begging to be made. Can you imagine how specatular five years of shiiiiiiiit would be?



The preview for next episode make it look like it's going to be bananas, and I guess it better be, since we're wrapping up five years of story in the next two weeks. Until then, I leave you with the immortal words of Baltimore's favorite gay thug Robin Hood.

"Y'all ain't man enough to come down here and dance in the streets with Omar!"