The Gods Will Not Save You: The Wire Revisited

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Willy and Jacob get right into discussing episode 2, which sees the ramifications of William Gant's execution as McNulty and Bunk try to tie it to the detail's goal of bringing down the Barksdale organization. Other material covered includes Jacob's David Simon "grand chicken conspiracy" and an in-depth discussion of some of the pillars of The Wire's cinematic style with references to "Style in the Wire," an incredible video essay by a Norwegian academic named Erlend Lavik. We hope you enjoy, and as always, please hit those like and subscribe buttons!

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD: We have reached our final episode of "The Gods Will Not Save You: The Wire Revisited," in which we discuss every episode of the hit original HBO series, "The Wire." We want to take this opportunity to thank anybody who has engaged with us and our project along the way. Whether you've listened to us from the beginning, came along during a later part of our run, or are just now discovering us, your engagement has meant a lot to us and we couldn't be more grateful. Thank you to anybody who has left us positive reviews and ratings on podcast platforms, we truly appreciate your feedback. We would also like to give a special thank-you to all of our financial supporters on Anchor. Your helpful donations ultimately incentivized us to lend some financial support to "We Build The Block," a New York non-profit organization aimed at stopping the spread of community violence, co-founded by the late, great Michael K. Williams. We hope that our modest financial contribution helped honor this amazing actor and activist's legacy, as well as provide some relief to those communities in need. In the series finale of "The Wire," Daniels continues to be disappointed in Carcetti's tenure as mayor, as he receives the news of the serial killer hoax and essentially orders a cover-up from the top officials in order to prevent a devastating loss in his gubernatorial bid. McNulty's guilt intensifies as he and Freamon are found out, and a "copycat" killer comes onto the scene to reign real terror on the homeless community. Freamon takes the helpful tips about the lawyers from Clay Davis to expose the courthouse leak, but the news of his illegal wiretap on Marlo starts to spread rapidly, forcing Maurice Levy and Rhonda Pearlman to play a brutal game of legal tit-for-tat, preventing the Stanfield bust from being as blockbuster of a case as it could have been. The Scott Templeton/Gus Haynes beef reaches its tipping point in the newsroom when Templeton peddles his biggest lie yet. And in perhaps what is the happiest ending of the series, Reginald, aka Bubbles, finally starts to feel some relief on his path to redemption when he reluctantly agrees to let Fletcher publish the warts-and-all article, detailing his rocky road to recovery. 

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Carcetti continues to do a complete 180 from what he campaigned on. He gets back into bed with Clay Davis and Nerese Campbell, in order to advance his position in the gubernatorial race. Freamon bluffs his way into blackmailing Davis and giving up the crucial nugget of information: the lawyers are part of the money trail. Marlo misses out on his opportunity to celebrate Omar getting killed by a child. by going to Atlantic City with Chris, when his clock code is cracked by the cops and him and Chris end up arrested. McNulty feels like the victory is anticlimactic and meaningless. Gus is now so fed up with Templeton's lies, that he gets his other trusted colleague, Robert Ruby, in on the snooping. 

WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD! Clay Davis lies on the stand, humiliating Bond and eradicating any of his political ambitions. Carcetti okays the police to do whatever they want, leading McNulty to make requests that would have previously seemed outlandish. Gus continues to suspect that Templeton is a fraud when the Iraq war veteran that Scott interviewed, comes back to accuse the paper of printing falsehoods about his time in combat. Bunk is persuaded to hold back on following through with his murder warrant for Chris, so he can tie it in with McNulty and Freamon's efforts to bring down Marlo's empire. Omar gets killed by Kenard in a liquor store. 

WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD! McNulty finally gets the serial killer story to blast off when he fakes a call to Templeton, does a soft kidnapping of a homeless man, and gets Carcetti's full support. But he soon starts to regret this when everybody in the department comes to him begging for OT and manpower to work their own cases. Freamon needs more time to figure out what the time-based codes Marlo and company are using actually means. Fletcher goes to the viva house for an on-the-ground scoop on the homeless killings but instead meets Bubs, which prompts him to go in a different journalistic direction. Omar continues to be a thorn in Marlo's side. Rupert Bond fails miserably to put Davis' head on the chopping block, as the state senator charms the jury out of convicting him for his financial crimes.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! McNulty tries to out fake Templeton, by claiming that there's fake probable cause for wiretapping the Baltimore Sun because Templeton faked a call from the "serial killer." Without even waiting for approval, Freamon sets up a wiretap on Marlo's phone. Omar plays hide-and-seek in the utility closet at the same apartment complex from which he made his "Spider-Man" jump, while Chris, Snoop, and more of Marlo's minions are left scratching their heads. Bunk channels the angry energy that he has for McNulty into trying to solve a case the old-fashioned way, but runs up against bureaucratic lab incompetence. Carcetti turns the homeless killings into a campaign opportunity. Marlo now wears the crown at the New Day Co-Op.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! With Proposition Joe out of the way, Marlo takes on the position of being Vondas and the Greeks' Baltimore drug connection, proving that loyalty never meant anything to them and that they were always primarily concerned with their bottom line. Dukie continues to be the victim of bullying even with Michael's protection and no amount of learning how to fight or shoot guns seems to change his personality. Clay Davis takes it upon himself to shape public opinion in his own favor. Bubbles thinks he is not being punished enough for his past misdeeds. McNulty and Freamon continue to concoct false details around their "serial killer" but still have to go against bureaucratic incompetence. Omar has an extremely close call with Chris, Snoop, O-Dog and Michael.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Kenard really ticks off Officer Colicchio by setting up a brown paper bag dog feces decoy, which causes him to assault a teacher and therefore forces Carver to grow as a person and as a cop. Proposition Joe tries to send out signals to Omar that he's upset about Butchie's death, but he doesn't take into consideration that Marlo, Cheese, and the Greeks are already making moves against him. McNulty and Freamon do their best to sensationalize the idea of homeless killings to get more mileage out of their police misconduct. Meanwhile, Daniels tries to do damage control with Burrell and Carcetti continues to eat bowls of shit when he realizes he has to appease every minister in town. 

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Michael, fresh off a new wave of PTSD after he refused to kill a kid in a home invasion, plays hooky from dealing drugs, to go to Six Flags with Dukie and Bug, where they meet girls from Virginia with sidekick phones. Bunk is still mad at McNulty for creating a fake serial killer, so he enlists the help of Freamon to talk some sense, but Freamon ends up endorsing McNulty's plan. Valchek leaks the real crime statistics to Carcetti, which throws the whole Commissioner Burrell situation into a tailspin. Clay Davis, paranoid about his legal troubles closing in on him, continues to beg for mercy from Burrell and Carcetti. Marlo, Chris, and Snoop go behind Proposition Joe's back to send a message to Omar, get the information of Butchie's whereabouts, and then torture and kill him. Alma is disappointed that her news reporting is not getting more coverage, while Templeton invents a react quote out of thin air for Twigg's piece about the police chain-of-command shake-up. 

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Dee-Dee makes her final appearance on the show as she tells her story in an NA meeting attended by Bubs. Bubs himself, is being pressured by Walon to tell his full story of how he got clean, thinking that it will be the only real way he could ever get true clarity. Clay Davis feels the walls closing in on him and lashes out at Burrell, who was once one of his staunchest allies. Marlo, feeling emboldened, goes on a tear and starts ordering home invasions, homicides, and the like, while also trying to get in contact with Sergei at Jessup, but he runs into the obstacle of having to talk to a now-pathetic Avon Barksdale. The tension between Gus Haynes and Scott Templeton begins to brew as we get our first taste of Templeton's untrustworthy nature concerning the "EJ" story. McNulty, spiraling back into the throes of alcoholism, decides to initiate a farcical hunt for a serial killer that doesn't exist so that he can gain some leverage to go back after Marlo.