And really, isn't that reality? Best episode of season Five.

Very scary to think about ever accidentally getting in the way of a babyfaced sociopath like the one who took down Omar.

...keep watching. I will miss this show so much. Best scene yet in episode 9. You'll know what I mean when you see it tomorrow on inDemand.

"How's my hair look?"

Omar's death just makes it clear that no one in this series will find a hero's end. Even sadder than Omar dying, I think, was seeing him standing in the street, calling out Marlo, but no one listening nor caring. He was dead before he even went into the store. He was alone, without a purpose. Remember that in the first few seasons Omar always ran with a crew, now he had no one. He may have been a legend, but no one will know it, just another anonymous corpse. A sad ending, but great writing.

I knew Omar was going to be capped by Kenard from that moment in the last episode when he got a good look at Omar as he threatened Marlo thru Michael. We've known that kid was hard boiled since he went at Namond in season 4. I am surprised that anyone who watched the entire sequence leading up to Omar's sudden demise in the store would be surprised that it was coming. The tension and focus on the minutia of each moment as Omar combed the street, looted the stash house and stared out at the empty terrain. Those scenes were emblematic of the pacing and cinematic tension that lead to No Country For Old Men's sweep of the Oscar's last night. The writers are correct to cite the ending of the Sopranos as well, considering this onslaught of calm, minimalist, and anti-climactic tension seemed to originate with that show's finale.

Just wanted to point out that Omar, for all intents and purposes, was killed by his antithesis. Unlike Omar, Kenard was young, vulgar, attacked people outside the game, and as we all saw when he was attempting to set a poor cat on fire, possessed no code.

Omar's demise was inevitable because over the last couple of episodes, he was beginning to stray from his own code. Prior to this season, Omar's code dictated that he only kill those people who threatened him or who were directly involved with Brandon's murder. However, when Omar set out to avenge Butchie's murder, he began to to kill people who had no role in Butchie's death.

For four seasons, Omar negotiated a tight rope between sociopath and robin hood. But the second he began to stray from his code, karma dictated that he had to go. Therefore, I found it fitting that Kenard--a character with no code--would take out a player with one of the strongest codes. This is because when it comes to the game, the characters who possess the highest sense of a code tend to end up in a body bag while those with no code tend to outlast everyone else.

As sad as it seems, at least The Wire has stayed true to its themes...

McNulty sitting there, listening to the FBI describe him to the last detail was outstanding. I wonder if the season is going to end with McNulty having been fired for making up the serial killer case, thrown out by Beadie, living drunk under the bridge?

How can it be a surprise that Omar was killed by Kenard? Ever since Kenard showed absolutely no fear or scruples as Namond's "lieutenant," you could see that he was, essentially, on a fast track to becoming Marlo. One of the themes of the show is that there are always younger, tougher kids ready to prove themselves and take the place of the oldheads. This has been a long time coming. RIP Omar!

While Omar is buying his cigarettes, you can hear the door opening and he turns his head. He must have seen Kenard and because of his code, he probably did not think he was in danger from a juvenile. People like Omar don't live by their code, they die by it.

I wonder if the neighborhood kids will yell "Kenard" when he runs through the neighborhood in the next couple of episodes.

So I came to a realization that may have been obvious to many people a while back.

I've tried to read up as much on Simon as possible, especially with this latest season, since like a fiend, I know the supply is going to run out, and I need to get as high as possible. I've noted Simon's obvious bias towards reporting today, and the failed job of the media.

I couldn't help notice though that from all of the reading on Simon that I've done, that he was (subconsciously?) referring to himself when McNulty was listening to the FBI description of the serial killer. These same characterizations could just as easily be aimed at Simon ("Holier than thou", "Trapped in a bureaucracy", etc...).

Clearly, just as another counterpart to Simon (Omar), gets his hopes and aspirations dashed by someone not paying attention to The Code, McNulty will also be lost in the system one way or another. Either he'll be found out, or he'll just implode (both of which I suppose happened to Omar).

One thing that I suppose shows Simon's bias in his story-telling, is that there's no competition to the newspaper. There're only the economic forces pushing to subvert the whole industry, and the always-present internal bureaucracy that eats it from the inside. Nowhere mentioned are the blogs, or other forms of reporting that have sprung up lately to replace the newspaper. It's a different code that every generation lives by, as all of the strata of The Wire point out, but Simon only tends to point to the supposed negatives of those codes. I mean, time constraints in reporting? Margins? Page layouts? There're a lot of things to be thankful for in newer media that the newspaper is a slave to (and arguably hobbled by).

I still love the sh*t out of this show though ;).