If this is Shakespeare, Michael will kill Marlo, not because he has become him, but because he still has a conscience. That will be the redemption, such as it will be. "The Wire" may be coming to an end, but Baltimore will go on,and another series will be born.

Take heed of Marlo's confession for these words carry tonnage the Greeks would appreciate.

Marlo, Snoop and Chris form alliance of sexual sadism which sets the stoic trinity apart from other co-op barons who may have machinations for Joe's crown. Any remorse or compassion these characters may have possessed as children has been body dumped into the brackish swamps of systematic sexual abuse for the crab-like step-fathers and cell mates to scavenge. Over time that evil peat has bronzed all affectation out Marlo's death mask. Marlo's cadre is a cold and efficient automaton with the exception Chris's rare loss of emotional control when confronted with the perpetrator of Michael's abuse (Recall Snoop's look of indifference turn to horror and finally empathy). As long as the center holds, the trinity will continue to devour all of the indifferent soldiers.

"I was never meant to play the son"

Marlo isn't going to take the strap from nobody; not the police , not Prop Joe and certainly not from self-righteous thief Omar who refuses to play the game. Or so he thinks, chambering into the barrel his own unspeakable terror, encased in nine millimeters of catatonia and hidden beneath the Tenifer matte finish of a dense locked breech.

To paraphrase from Season One, he's not here about the dope, he's here about the bodies.

I love that you guys are so methodically going over every episode of The Wire -- it makes my Monday. But I've got a couple of reactions. First, Hepola's comment about Jamie Hector needing to go to acting school really disappointed me. Lacking a range of expression is one of the things that makes the character of Marlo so frightening and intense. To suggest this range is limited by poor acting skills misses the mark entirely.

Second, last week Manjoo mentioned being eager to see something come of the Rawls as homosexual story line hinted at in Season 3. I really hope we never see it emerge again. One of the greatest strengths of The Wire is its subtlety. I have no desire to see that story line played out. That allusion has already served its purpose time and time again. Every time I find my blood boiling at Rawls (which is almost every time he's on the screen), I remember that scene at the bar and I soften just a little at his complexity and humanity. To play it out further would only lessen its potency.

Keep writing. I look forward to this discussion every week.

The withdrawn child from the home invasion, the scene where Michael's mother bails him out and says that Michael is keeping Bug from her, the scene that takes place on Michael's corner where really young children are already being victimized all, I think, foreshadow an event where Michael will take the final step from being one of those victimized children to being the next Marlo.

We have been watching him slowly change from the beginning of last season. We know he lives in a world where the arc of power is steep and the decline precipitous.I would not surprise me if the denouement of the "street" storyline is'nt between Marlo and Omar, but between Marlo and Michael.

Marlo has indeed unleashed the hounds of hell by drawing Omar back, but Omar said that he'll go after Marlo's people-won't go at him directly,and we've seen that children get caught in the crossfire.

The one older guy(The Greek) isn't greek. He jokes about how they call him the greek and he isn't even greek.

I agree with the comment about how Method Man's casting takes you out of the story a little bit because he is one of the few familiar faces onscreen. But what about the Greeks? My wife is Greek and I am around quite a lot of Greeks in my Brooklyn neighborhood and the guys cast (Paul Ben Victor and Bill Raymond) are perhaps one of the least authentic aspects of the show. Just shows how amazing a show The Wire is when the only real criticism I have is that The Greeks don't look Greek enought. Opa!

Just a note to say I actually had a chance to meet some of the cast of "The Wire" at the HBO premiere party this season.

As a big fan, I was so nervous that I got out of the cocktail line when I realized I was behind Snoop, who was chatting with Chris. The show is so realistic that I could NOT separate actors from their characters.

The one exception: Jamie Hector. He had a smile a mile wide, and he's hardly recognizable in the photo I took with him (you can see it here: http://www.melissacwalker.com/blog/2008/01/marketing_monday_and_the_wire.html)

He was just a happy, fun guy with a lot of energy--total opposite of Marlo.

Had to note that.

Regarding the question or concern that Mr. Simon has provided no history of Marlo's past, it would be my take that the first four seasons are just that story.

And as for Chris being nice to Joe, this is the same silliness that let's people think that psychopaths as as we, just without the lessons.

WHS

I would say that we have been shown the full context for Marlow's sociopathic existence-- the full arc of this show has definitely shown the environment in which the Marlows, Stringers and Avons of the world are bred. I thought it was genius to show his rise in tandem with shedding light on the public school system's total failure. If that, coupled with with the knitted together lives of the kids on the Wire doesn't reveal his genesis, I don't know what will.

Avon cares about Butchie and Prop Joe because they're from the old school, like him. They've been part of the game a long time and they respect the rules that are a part of it, which were around even before they came up.

Remember how angry Avon was when Stringer gave the ok to hit Omar on a Sunday afternoon? Avon despised Omar, but "the truce" on Sundays was an old and respected rule, and nobody with any class or dignity would break that rule just to settle a score. Avon was a bad guy, but he had a code, which gives him much more in common with Omar than someone like Marlo.

The "revenge" he wants stems simply from being bested by Marlo's gang, but I think it also extends beyond that. It's revenge on behalf of the older generation against a younger, viler one. That's not to say I think he'll achieve anything like that. I think skimming that hundred grand was the best he could do. Unless of course Marlo goes to prison, where Avon seems to once more be running things.