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The Wire, Season 3, Episode 12 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-05-14 23:15:44
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Mission Accomplished

Files

Previews only

Wire3 12

Comments

Chris

Just to point out a layer that's kind of been lost to time--Slim Charles's "we fight on that lie" speech had VERY clear resonances to the Iraq invasion at the time this aired.

JENNIFER E

A pleasure to watch my favorite season of television with you all. One thing I noticed while watching along is that removed from the context of the early-mid 2000s it is easier to miss a core theme of this season. The critiques of the war on drugs, capitalism, and institutions are still ever present but S3 also is a critique of the Iraq War/War on Terror. The season starts with a project towers coming down as a metaphor for 9/11. They move through the futility of the Avon/Marlo Street War and Bunny explaining the difference between cops and warrior to Carver as a stand in for the Iraq War. This episode being called Mission Accomplished while Slim Charles does his best Dick Cheney impression ("If its a lie, we fight on the lie") and Rawls, et al celebrate a return to treating the Western District as occupied territory also drives that home. In 2004 this felt totally obvious but 20 years later can get lost in the shuffle.

Youtalkingtome
>>174066393

Thank you for sharing that! That's really great context for the show (of course I should have caught the "Mission Accomplished" usage, and how wrong Bush was in thinking the war was over, and how that pairs with the celebration of the "win" over the Barksdales.

Pam Nail

I love how they set up McNulty's increasing dissatisfaction with his life, even before Stringer's death. A few episodes back, when he runs into Santangelo, you can see on McNulty's face how he kind of envies Santangelo just getting to do day-to-day policing in the Western District. It also ties back to that woman in the community meeting who talked about how she missed having a uniform cop walking the neighborhood -- someone who knew everyone and knew what the specific problems and needs of their people were.

Jonathan

A lot of people had a feeling that this episode was the end of the show the cast and crew said goodbyes not really expecting to be back. David Simon wasn’t giving up hope because he had already experienced it with Homicide almost being canceled every season of its existence. A few events in Hollywood helped the wire to come back more than anything related to the show. Another critically acclaimed show named Everwood that also didn’t get the love it deserved had been canceled but unlike the usual cancellations the critics went on social media to blast the executives who canceled it which led to a gigantic PR nightmare because the fans started protesting the executive offices and getting them a lot of media attention. HBO didn’t want to repeat that so they had a meeting with David Simon and he laid out his vision for the final two seasons of the show to prove that it wasn’t going to go off the rails from the high it ended season three on. The other unrelated thing that saved it was there was supposed to be major filmmaking in the Baltimore area finishing the Civil War trilogy that started with Gettysburg. That final film got canceled which meant that a lot of the crewmembers were readily available to start filming some already having been compensated by government grants for their time so they could be hired very inexpensively.

prolifik5

Another small callback: in an earlier episode we saw Lt. Mello at roll call admonishing the officers to stop throwing beer cans on the roof, by order of the Deputy Ops. Now we know why!

prolifik5

Love Bunny, but he was way too naive about how this thing would play out. As much as Burrell and Rawls fucked him over by busting him back, things could have gone a lot worse for him and everyone else if they hadn't had the time to do damage control (as opposed to that first reporter breaking the story right away). I don't know why he thought he'd just be able retire quietly and transition into a lucrative private sector job once Hamsterdam became public knowledge.

Youtalkingtome
>>174075773

That is a great point. It obviously wasn't gunna work out for him. Just sucks because he's such a good guy

Youtalkingtome
>>174071613

That's great behind the scenes trivia. I'm glad we weren't crazy because it does feel very final. Didn't know there was supposed to be a third part to the Civil War trilogy.

Youtalkingtome
>>174068369

Loved the scene with the woman talking about the uniform cop walking the streets. Honestly seeing Jimmy be that guy made me so happy. McNulty got a happy ending and I loved that.

steve borden

The actor (he’s a well known local musician from Dc) that plays Slim Charles came into the place that I work a few months ago randomly out of the blue, I work out in the middle of nowhere southern Md. He looked super familiar when he came in but has a short haircut now, but when he was talking to one of the guys I worked with his voice is very recognizable, especially here growing up listening to the go go band that he fronts most of my life. Big G from the Backyard Band

Jeremy Hicks

As a manager, watching Ervin Burrell gives me nightmares. One of the most terrifying villains ever put to screen, because he's so realistic. By this point in the show I've started to empathize with Royce for having to deal with him.

Adam

It always broke my heart the way Omar looks at his boyfriend when they get him back. Like Omar is glad he's okay, but he can't help thinking about how Brandon got tortured to death for him. Where are you gonna find a love like that again? Season 4 is gonna be such a trip, I think about these two seasons all the time.

Adam

The craziest thing about making a top-5 character list is who gets left off, that's how you know the bench is deep. Show your list to another Wire fan and they'll be like "You have him WHERE?" Imagine having a character like Stringer Bell being in the bottom of your 10, isn't that insane? The best show ever.