The series finale of “The Wire” was last night - and as exhilarating as it was, it was also a bit sad - not just because of what happens to some characters, but because our journey with them is over. I will put all information specific to the finale and Season 5 below the fold - so as not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen the episode yet - or is still catching up on past seasons (hurry - there is so much good stuff to get to!).

But before I do that, I want to post a video of the first scene of the show (I think it’s good to watch it again) and also quote creator David Simon from an interview he gave, which I think speaks to the importance of The Wire:

You know it’s funny, we’re trying to tell a story that we think is more universal than that, but at the same time it always made sense that somebody where their credibility rested on their proximity to the game, to the street world, would be interested is some of what The Wire had to say. We always sort of knew that we might hook into that a little bit. What I love is when you get some 50-year-old white guy with a two car garage who’s watching what D’Angelo Barksdale is going through and how squeezed he is by his bosses, and he goes, “Shit, that’s my job.” That to me is subversive. [The FADER]

On to the finale :

Last night I caught up on episodes 8 and 9 along with watching the 90 minute series finale - so there was a lot of emotion running through me. The one thing I regret is that I started fresh on episode 8 after somewhat of a Wire hiatus. The beginning of 8 gave us the quick and uneventful death of someone who I beleive was the in many ways the center of The Wire, Omar Little. I knew it was coming, but after some time off, I wasn’t ready for it to happen so quickly. But just as Jesse James, another man of mythic proportions, was done in quickly without excitement, Omar Little saw his end in a bodega where he was buying some Newports.

And like Jesse James, his murderer was someone who in many ways idolized him. But we must not forget this is The Wire, and even though Omar Little has been our truth teller, our roque, our favorite anti-hero for 5 seasons, the reality of Omar is that outside of a few cops who were familiar with him and the myths that will grow on the streets, he isn’t someone that matters. It makes no difference that Omar notoriously took down important people on the world of the street, in our world of industry over individual, Omar Little isn’t much of anybody.

But I digress, the finale for me worked in two ways. First, it wrapped it all up, it gave us as much closure as you can on stories that clearly never end. Second, it also drove home the larger points of industry (including some of the most obvious connections to the war and post 9/11 America that we have seen on The Wire) that are changing the world very quickly. The ending montage of the actual city showed the life that continues to hum long after we turn off our television sets. The buildings we see seem to overshadow the people of the city, which I think is no mistake.

I’ve had a few problems with this season, as it took me awhile to really accept that McNulty and Freemon would actually make up a case in the manner that they do - I have no doubt that what they do in possible (think of the US’s recent disregard of the Geneva Conventions…) but I had trouble believing the two of them would do this. Both Freemon and McNulty have tendencies to only see the importance of the outcome, but they also spent a lot off time talking about doing real honest police work. I thought the finale did a fairly good job of wrapping this all up, some battles were won, some were lost, but mostly everyone covered their own ass. I should add that I did enjoy the world that their actions, believable or not, let me see.

That world was The Baltimore Sun and the media. This storyline wasn’t necessarily anything that I didn’t know somewhere in the back of my head - I have no doubt there are many people like Scott Templeton (* Who I should add is played by Thomas McCarthy, who also happens to be the director of Participant’s film “The Visitor” - perhaps making a film that looks to be really positive is his way of karmically making up for the awfulness of his character) and that much of our news is manufactured. The moment in last night’s episode where he, if only for a moment, seems to wrestle with what he has done (when he leaves work to go throw up), gave me a bit of hope for the future (of course I have to think of that scene next to his montage moment of excepting the Pulitzer…).

The saddest stories were of course those of our Season 4 protagonists. Randy, Dukie, Michael and Namond represent an entire generation and watching then all walk toward their very different futures was heartbreaking. Namond and Randy, we saw briefly, earlier on in the season, Randy getting screwed by the system and Namond benefiting from finding a stable family situation. Michael and Dukie, however, went on represent the cyclical nature of everything. Our last moment with Dukie is of him shooting up, our last moment with Michael is of him sticking up a joint with a shot-gun - both referencing the new Bubbles and the new Omar (On the note of Bubbles, his last moment was earned and amazing). Some might feel Michael and Dukie’s last moments are too much, that we know where they are headed without being directly shown - I would argue that seeing is what was important. Too often we “know” what will happen to kids like Dukie, like Michael, but rarely do we have to see it and rarely is it something we have to directly confront.

I think that’s all I have for now (I know I’ll be thinking about the show for a long time to come).

For those of you who want to read more, I recommend you to read a great interview with David Simon, again to read a great interview with Michael K. Williams who plays Omar and one more time to read a great recap and lots of great comments about the show and final episode.

Below are the 5 different opening credit sequences from each season (in order), enjoy!