I guess if you haven't seen the last episode, this has spoilers....
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In brief, I think this was one of the strongest episodes of the season
and a good wrap up of the series. Lots of loose strands to tie up, but I
didn't feel like it was forced or hurried, and there were a few classic
moments.
I loved the scene where the remaining members of the coop were trying to
scrape together enough money to buy the information about the Greek -- I
wasn't expecting long-suffering henchman Slim to ever do anything, and
seeing him snap was a great moment, only to be outdone by the oldtimer's
moaning about who was going to come up with the balance of the money.
I also enjoyed the scene where McNulty gets the tip from the undercover
cop that Templeton made up the van snatcher, with the request for the
dollar to keep his cover, and McNulty's hesitation before handing over
the cash.
And McNulty's wake was great -- I had a horrible feeling when it started,
and I loved the attempt to get Freamon to snuggle with the body on the
pool table.
I'm part of the camp that didn't like the newspaper part of the season.
I think it had potential, but where I think it failed was in fleshing out
any of the newsroom characters except for Gus. Templeton in particular
was just a blank, and while the idea of an inventing reporter had a lot
of potential, I felt he was just too sketchy for the amount of time
devoted to him. I also felt that the Sun bosses were just too vague --
shadows compared to Rawls, Burrell or Valchek.
Marlo's escape from prosecution worked for me -- it seemed like a
realistic resolution to a tricky situation, not too different from the
way the Barksdale operation was dealt with in season one, with Stringer
getting off and Avon getting only a lesser charge.
I liked seeing Marlo's attempt to cash out. It was interesting to see
him figure out right away that he was out of his league, which was
Stringer's big failure -- if Bell had been willing to bide his time to
learn the ropes, he never would have been taken by Clay Davis or gotten
stuck with the failing development.
I thought the resolution to Freamon and McNulty's fraud was well done
too, with everything being left in the air with what would happen with
McNulty down the road. What, exactly, would he do?
I'm glad we got to see one last scene with Prezbo, but it left me wishing
for more. I think season 4 was the best, and it was hard to see so
little of Prez, Namond and Randy. Of course, I'm scratching my head to
see a way they could have been brought back into the story in an fitting
way, so I can't blame the decision to leave them out.
All in all, it was a good ending to a great series, and I'd love to see
Simon revisit Baltimore in, say, 10 years. Not necessarily with any of
the same characters, or even another crime-focused series, but at least
touching on some of the same themes of poverty, politics, schools, the
media, and all of the rest.
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