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The Wire, Season 5: "Unconfirmed Reports" [recap]

Straight up and down: I didn't see any of this McNulty-retwerking-crime-scenes shit coming at ALL! I mean, I figured the whole convo about that guy in the morgue would have some kind of meaning, but McNulty, who is delving deeper into the drink, to start reconstructing these natural deaths into twisted homicides was just mad unexpected. And adds a layer to Jimmy that was never seen before. We've seen him pout and kick desks, undermine authority with a wink and a smirk, but him doing a 180 and trying to, I don't even know... is he crafting some kind of absurdist art gallery in response to the dwindling finances of the police department? Voicing his frustration over the lack of concern for the 20+ bodies pulled from the vacant buildings? Or is he just trying to amuse himself and solve crimes sober that he creates while drunk? Who knows... but I am with Bunk on this one. And based on the previews of next week's episode, it looks like Bunk and McNulty might be falling out over this.

Seeing Avon Barksdale brought a smile to my face. It looks like Marlo and his crew are trying to parlay with The Greek directly, instead of going through Prop. Joe, which is a good idea, but it cost Marlo "100 large" upfront just to get a sit-down with Sergei, who was not receptive to Marlo at all, but looks like he might be warming to him. Marlo's power struggle is only starting to come to a head, what, now that he realized that Major Crimes isn't on their ass anymore.

Chris and Snoop are already cracking heads, and were sent to straight merk some shittalking associates. Michael was in on the hit, and showed his green nature by questioning everything (he must realize - no matter what he knew as being real and reasonable, that drug game is a different beast - there are no rules anymore). I half-thought he was going to pop off on that lil' kid who ran out the back of the house, but you know he saw his own brother Bug in that kid. How his reluctance to complete the job will play out in later episodes remains to be seen - we don't know if Chris and/or Snoop even know about the lil' dunn that got away...

The other burgeoning story involves the Baltimore Sun, who has a conflict between Gus and the white man in charge, Whiting. Whiting is a fan of Scott Templeton's, to the point where he's pushing him to get more coverage. While Scott spoke briefly about wanting to get to a larger paper in the premiere, you can see how "new" he is, trolling around the Orioles opener, trying to obtain statements and, ultimately, coming up with crap. What does he do? He writes a story, which Gus immediately suspects, but Whiting doesn't have Gus' eye, and pushes it through. Stories like Scott's (poor black kid in a wheelchair can't get into the game) sell papers, and would be ill if there's correlating info to back up this kid's existence. My assumption is that the story was fugazi, and I also think it will propel Scott out the door into his wish. Will that be what he truly wants when he gets there, though? Ah, the rub...

A couple of other points: Freamon telling Sydnor how much of a "career case" the Clay Davis debacle is, while still staking out Marlo's crew; Freamon and McNulty fucking with the FBI dude in the parking lot; Avon throwing up the Dub; every scene Bubbles was in this week was wild, esp. with his talk of the "dope fiend lean" - homeboy is a great actor, and he is playing the SHIT out of that role.

Oh and that whole "west coast drive-by" gone awry had me ROLLIN'. That cat really though they were gonna Boyz-N-The-Hood it, but he forgot that you gotta have AIM!

The forthcoming episode looks like it will be the one to watch: hell starts breaking loose. I love it.

What did you guys think?

related links:
HBO.com summary of "Unconfirmed Reports"
TV Squad review
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