Back in the 'amsterdam season Carcetti went down to visit Colvin's experiment first hand. He told Bunny that he had his back because he was impressed with how he turned around the rest of West Baltimore. Within an episode, rather than getting Bunny's back, he used 'amsterdam as an attacking point against Royce, which, in turn, did in Bunny. I think he would have knocked him on his ass had it been in a dark alley somewhere :-)

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On a side note, when everyone was complaining about Bond throwing the Davis case. Now Davis is saying that "hangs around the grand jury" has been giving them to Levy. And you wonder why Bond threw that case?

I believe Dukie was dropped off with what are called A-rabs (pronounced AY-rabs). They are baltimore street peddlers that use horses. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog/2007/08/arabs_and_arabs.html

It is interesting to note that in a season that focuses on the troubles in today's media with respect to fabricated sources, etc., one of the key lines would be lifted verbatim from the classic movie, Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" in which he uttered the same line as Snoopes -- i.e "Deserves got nothing to do with it."

I noticed the line from Unforgiven as well. I think that it was intended as an homage. It worked well in the scene.

My friend and I watched the last four episodes of season one this afternoon (wtf, it's Sunday) before tuning in to episode 9, season 5. (Though she has "on demand" service, I prefer to wait until the show actually "airs" to see it. I think it's another sign I was born in the early 70s.) As you all may remember, that's when Kima gets shot, and McNulty is loaded with guilt thinking that it's his fault. Rawls tells McNulty it's not "on him," and if it were he would be just the jerkoff to say so. McNulty says nothing was worth letting her get shot. But when she recovers, she says the only thing she'd do differently is use more tape to secure her gun under the seat in Orlando's car. Everyone acknowledges at that point that duty is a responsibility to others -- even people you don't know or never met. It is a responsibility to the good, old cause, to the idea of civil government. It is the original and counterpoint to what has unfolded in this season. In the first season McNulty blows up at Rhonda Pearlman after a nasty meeting with mob lawyer Levi, in which she wouldn't confront Levi because he's on the board of the bar association. He tells her that all the lawyers are complicit in the corruption that plagues the city as a whole because they are more interested in advancing their careers by covering up the malfeasance of their professional peers than maintaining the integrity necessary to do their duty to society. And here it has all come around. McNulty has finally (and truly) dishonored himself by perverting his duty. He put himself in a place where he had to rely on the corrupt status quo to cover his tracks. Freamon is the biggest disappointment. He was a Lester "Free man" until he bartered his independence for revenge on Marlo. And the sad truth is (I refuse to watch it early) Marlo's conviction won't stick. Just like the end of season one, just as you think the good guys are going to catch a break and win one, Levi's brilliant legal mind gets the bad guys off, and the pain of McNulty, et al. was all for naught. When Kima caught a bullet in season one it was a badge of honor. That same honor made her snitch on McNulty tonight.

I am latecomer to "The Wire" as I started to watch the first season on DVD when the current season started. You can imagine how arduous I found the journey.

But the thing that sticks with me is that the creators of the show don't hold out a lot of hope. Yes, there are occasional breakthroughs like Naimond and Bubs but overall the tone is bleack if elegaic. (Almost) No one gets out alive and abandon all hope ye who enter here, etc. Maybe it's just the fact that I have crammed four plus seasons into the last two months (thank you writers strike for freeing me up!) but it seems to me that Simon may end up wanting to make the ending even more painful.

I don't know a thing about next week and I have no access to any spoilers, but I wonder if Rawls, Daniels and Pearlman might end up having to bury McNulty and Freamon's conduct and tell Kima to shut up about it. Wouldn't that, at the end, be a bigger punch in the gut to all of us who believe in these people? Wouldn't knowing that they are every bit as greasy as the people they try to catch (even if not nearly so murderous) hurt the viewers even more than seeing McNulty wind up way down in the hole? Wouldn't Gus resigning from the Sun because the paper's management decided that they should back Templeton even in the face of proof of his duplicity sting us more? What if Cedric finally decided that he needed to make Marlo go away and help gin up the case because that would free him up to do even more "good" in the future than if Carcetti fired him and blamed him for McNulty?

One thing I have come to realize about this show is that if you want somthing to feel good about, you have to earn it. Would it make us feel good if we knew that Marlo went away because these characters we believe in so strongly decided to take a step away from goodness?

Bringing it back to season 1, did anyone catch Lester dropping Chardine's name after drinking at the tracks? The end of the first season tipped out with him closing the door to his office while talking to her.

RE Michael not remembering the ice cream that Duke got after catching a beating - it's just like with Bug - he had to put on a mask, the pause and the way that he said he didn't remember it were signs that he felt he needed to cut ties entirely.