The Wire: Michael’s evolution
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- February
- 10
The change in Michael from the one boy in the neighborhood who wouldn’t deal with Marlo and his minions to one of Marlo’s top lieutenants has been among the most heartbreaking on The Wire.
The scene last season where Marlo’s giving out money to all the neighborhood kids, but Michael declines was a defining moment for Michael. He couldn’t be bought. He wasn’t going to take any of the dirty cash.
But, in the end, when Bug’s dad came back, it was more important to Michael to protect his baby brother than it was to protect himself.
So he went to Marlo and asked for them to get rid of Bug’s father.
Chris and Snoop did the job. Another incredibly powerful scene. Obviously, Chris once was sexually abused by an older man. He took out his anger on Bug’s father. Even Snoop was amazed at his anger in the way he committed that murder. And Snoop’s hard to impress that way.
So, now Chris, more or less, belongs to Marlo. He has a corner he’s responsible for. So much so that he can’t even go to Six Flags with Bug and Dukie for a day without being challenged on it. When he’s not dealing with his corner, he’s joining Chris and Snoop for a shootout.
I must admit I got nervous in the scene last week that ended with Omar jumping out the window. For a moment, I had feared Omar was going to shoot Michael. It was truly crushing to see Michael in that moment, completely one of Marlo’s minons.
So in honor of tonight’s episode, here’s an interview Tristan Wilds did with LAist in advance of this, the final season.
Here’s a taste of what he had to say:
There are too many people out there like Marlo and Chris to sway kids. There aren’t enough guys like Cutty out there. As far as the path Michael took, even with positive influences around him, he went the other direction because he felt it was the only way he could get what he needed done. He didn’t realize there were plenty of other ways he could have gone, being from Baltimore and seeing what he has seen, he thought this was the only way he could go.
Read the interview, enjoy and come back tomorrow so we can discuss tonight’s episode, “The Dickensian Aspect.”
Photo courtesy of HBO.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 2:00 pm by Amy Vernon.
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