Settle this once and forever

I have finally caught up and seen the entire series of the Wire. Here I may occasionally offer my take on some of the notable plot lines in advance of the new season premiering January 6. It's an expansive show with complex characters, but I'll do my best.

As with any show, the interactions between characters on 'The Wire' make it what it is. Conflict and resolution, I think they call it in high school english class. Be it Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell, McNulty and Bunk, Bubbles and Greggs, Sobotka and Valchek, Prop Joe and Marlo, the list goes on and on. My point is the truths revealed by the way characters play off each other is a big reason the show is so good.

One of the best examples is the relationship between arguably two of the most stone cold gangsters on the show, Omar Little and Brother Mouzone.

Omar, quite frankly, is unlike any other character in the history of television. Robs drug dealers for a living, yet never turns his gun on a citizen. A thorn in the side of Baltimore kingpins from Barksdale to Marlo, kind of like a modern day Robin Hood. Also, he fucks dudes.

Brother Mouzzone is muscle enlisted from New York by Avon to hold onto the towers while Avon is in prison. He's basically a Louis Farrakhan rip off, if Farrakhan killed niggas. He's got the trademark suit and bowtie, rimmed glasses, is well-spoken and has penchant for highbrow literature and public commentary. Much comedy comes from Mouzone harassing his assistant for forgetting to buy his Harper's magazine.

In season 2, String allows East siders to take over a couple towers, so Prop Joe would provide him with that good package. Unfortunately, Avon (who is in prison) doesn't want to give up any territory, so he calls in Brother Mouzone. Stringer then enlists Omar to take out Brother Mouzone, because no one else is badass enough to take him out, and String needs Prop Joe to keep hooking him up with the good dope.

Omar is beholden to no man, so String tells him that Mouzone was the guy who tortured his lover in season one. Omar gets the drop on Brother Mouzone, with the help of his skank friends.

The brother returns to New York, only to return in season 3 -- in the clip embedded above. He gets Avon to sell out Stringer, and then he and Omar team up to form the deadliest hit duo pretty much ever. Stringer's got to get got.


As the brother says to Avon Barksdale, "The inner workings of your organization are of no concern to me." Stringer's fall cannot be called tragic, it was all part of the game.