SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this edition of Wire Watch, look up the definition of “collegial” in the unabridged dictionary.
Chew, as Prop Joe, embodied the dying idea that capitalists should put limits on themselves. / HBO photo: Paul Schiraldi
Wow. A lot happened last night, but all I really feel like doing is talking about that astonishing final scene and paying some tribute to Proposition Joe–both the character and the performance by Robert F. Chew–in whatever is the current appropriate mode of salutation to a departed gangsta. Does one still tip one’s 40?
Chew’s was one of the greatest in a slew of great performances in The Wire, and probably the greatest performance that I’ve never really gotten around to writing about. The constant sense of even-keeledness he gave off only made his end that much more stunning: he’d seen it all, Joe had, until the end came around that he evidently did not see coming at all. That even someone like Prop Joe, who seemed to have it all figured out, could get taken down by the rapacious Marlo made the ending truly sad, even though Joe was, ultimately, a criminal who destroyed people’s lives.
There are criminals and there are criminals on The Wire, after all. The endgame between Joe and Marlo—in which Joe thought he was taking Marlo in to the grown-up world of co-operative, bloodless crimes but was taken in by him—was a kind of reprise of the season 3 conflict between Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale. Stringer was all business: it was all about making as much money as possible, diversifying, realpolitik and not getting into profitless fights. Avon was about pride and passion: yeah, he liked his money, but not just the money. To Avon, you held your corners because they were your corners, and when someone hit you, you didn’t bust out your calculator and figure if it was worth it to hit back. (Both sides had their pros and cons. Avon may have shed more blood, but he also had more scruples: he knew you didn’t shoot at a church-going lady on Sunday, business or not.)
Prop Joe and Marlo were not exactly the same story, but something like it. They were both about business, though Marlo—as we see in his pursuit of Omar—isn’t willing to let insults go to keep the money flowing. Really, they’re about two different ideas of capitalism. Prop Joe is about the idea of capitalism that sets limits on itself in the interest of the long-term. You invest in the future, you co-operate with people even if it costs you short-term, because that keeps the system stable. “Son, you need to focus a bit more on what can be gained by working with people.” Marlo is a new, turbocharged, short-term driven capitalism that wants all it can get today, because there’s no tomorrow.
Hearing their last conversations reminded me of my interview with David Simon, when he talked about America’s economy: “There came a point in the early ’80s, when raw unencumbered capitalism became miscontrued as a social and political policy. It wasn’t just a force. It was acknowledged to be the be-all and end all of policy: that money should route itself and that power should be beholden to money and the opportunity to acquire more of it. The idea of mitigating capitalism so all society benefits became absurd.” Now, Joe was not exactly a philanthropist, but he did understand the need to put off profit today for security tomorrow. The Co-op and the payoffs were like investments in infrastructure: you build bridges and repair levees so you have a system that can support your business later. Marlo could care less about that. Co-op? F___ that. I want it all, now.
So the new kid visits Vondas, the powers on Olympus nod—it’s no coincidence they call the top man “The Greek”—and Marlo wins. And credit too to Jamie Hector, who hit new depths of frigid evil with his quiet, tender last words as he talked Joe out of the world: “Joe.You’d be up into mischief in no time. Truth is, you won’t be able to change up no more than me. Close your eyes. It won’t hurt none. There, there now. Joe, relax. Breathe easy.”
Other thoughts:
* I’m glad the Clay Davis story is getting play in this last season. As much as Davis is an opportunist and a buffon, there’s also a tragedy to him.
* Burrell likewise. Yes, he’s a hack. But he’s a hack in a system that, for years and years, has wanted a hack, that makes one contradictory demand after another and wants a bureaucrat to shovel the crap into the system and get cooked-up numbers out of it. Now suddenly it’s convenient to be affronted by his hackitude.
* Haynes getting chewed out in the newsroom for profanity was probably the first really false note I’ve heard in the journalism side of this season. I suppose this is Simon wanting to show how newspapers have been overtaken by bloodless prigs, but even the bloodless prigs swear freely.
* Good to see that Ellis has finally, completely been redeemed. “It matters. It all matters.”
* Omar still back. “I’ma work them. Sweet Jesus, I’ma work them.”