All Prologue (S02E06)
Airdate: July 6th 2003
Written by: David Simon
Directed by: Steve Shill
Running Time: 56 minutes
For much of its second season, The Wire deliberately navigates treacherous waters of narrative stagnation. The intricate machinery of the Baltimore docks, the simmering tensions within the stevedores’ union, and the slow-burn investigation by the Major Crimes Unit often feel mired in procedural minutiae, yielding frustratingly little tangible progress. Plotlines meander like the polluted currents of the Patapsco River, with weeks seeming to pass within the narrative without significant advancement. Yet, precisely at the season’s midpoint, All Prologue masterfully subverts this perceived inertia. It functions as a deceptive clearing of decks, where several seemingly disparate strands of unfinished business are abruptly, sometimes violently, concluded. Characters tie loose ends with a finality that feels less like resolution and more like the tightening of a noose, culminating in a closing scene of such profound, chilling brutality that it instantly ascends to the pantheon of the series’ most unforgettable and devastating moments.
One such thread being forcibly closed belongs to Jimmy McNulty, the series’ nominal protagonist, whose professional nadir defines this season. Haunted by his promise to Assistant State’s Attorney Ilene Nathan to deliver Omar Little as a witness against Bird for the murder of William Gant, McNulty’s efforts finally bear fruit. Omar, characteristically defiant and disdainful of courtroom formalities – mocking the requirement for a tie, his own criminal pedigree, and the sheer improbability of his presence at Gant’s murder – ultimately perjures himself with brazen confidence. When the slick, morally bankrupt defence attorney Maury Levy attempts to eviscerate Omar’s testimony, the stick-up man’s raw street intelligence and magnetic charisma prove devastatingly effective. He doesn’t just survive cross-examination; he dismantles Levy’s smug authority, winning over the jury through an undeniable, almost theatrical authenticity that exposes Levy’s artifice. The resulting guilty verdict against Bird would undoubtedly delight Judge Phelan, for whom Gant’s murder – a witness killed after testifying in his court – was a deeply personal affront to the law’s sanctity. McNulty, therefore, secures a rare, tangible victory, a flicker of competence in an otherwise bleak professional landscape.
Yet this courtroom triumph is rendered bitterly ironic against the backdrop of McNulty’s simultaneous, crushing failures. His inability to identify one of the Jane Doe victims pulled from the harbour represents a profound personal defeat. When Medical Examiner Frazier coldly informs him that her body will be dissected in medical anatomy classes, McNulty’s visceral reaction – tearing up the photograph he’d clung to as a potential link to her family – speaks volumes. This moment crystallises his utter professional despair. Trapped in the Marine Unit he despises, his career lies in ruins, pushing him seriously towards resignation. This desperation fuels his clumsy attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife, Elena. A date and fleeting intimacy offer a glimmer of hope, but Elena’s subsequent rejection – declaring it a "one-time thing" and forbidding him from staying – underscores the totality of his isolation.
Elsewhere, the Sobotka clan grapples with its own toxic loose ends. Ziggy’s crippling drug debt to Cheese, Proposition Joe’s volatile nephew, threatens to spiral into violence. Nick Sobotka, attempting a more diplomatic path, seeks intervention from The Greek’s organisation, now bolstered by the chillingly efficient Israeli enforcer, Eton Ben-Eleazer (Lev Gorn). Vondas, displaying a surprising pragmatism, commends Nick for refusing his initial offer to simply "take out" Cheese, valuing the less violent solution. Shielded by Vondas’s men, Nick brokers a deal directly with Proposition Joe. The agreement not only settles Ziggy’s debt but includes restitution for the car Cheese wrecked. Ziggy’s response, however, is pure, self-destructive folly: he literally sets the cash alight inside the bar. This reckless flaunting of unexplained wealth ignites Frank Sobotka’s justified fury, highlighting the precariousness of their entire operation – the illicit funds cannot be displayed without inviting scrutiny. Nick, meanwhile, takes a significant step deeper into the criminal world, accepting part of his future payment for the stolen chemicals in drugs, setting the stage for future trafficking.
Frank’s anger at Ziggy’s stupidity is profoundly justified, for unbeknownst to the union, the investigative net is tightening. While Herc and Carver continue their futile, drug-market-focused blundering – largely irrelevant to the docks conspiracy – Prez and Kima Greggs pursue a more fruitful avenue, leveraging contacts among strippers to identify trafficked Eastern European women who might connect to the bodies. It is Beadie Russell, however, whose meticulous, often overlooked work proves pivotal. Recognising the systemic nature of the smuggling, she steers the investigation towards cargo checkers and computerised shipping records, advocating for the painstaking analysis of specific vessels, cargo lines, and dockworkers. Her methodical approach represents the first genuine, systemic understanding of how the smuggling operates, moving beyond random hunches towards concrete evidence – a stark contrast to the Major Crimes Unit’s earlier scattergun tactics.
Amidst this gathering storm, D'Angelo Barksdale appears to be the sole character genuinely striving for redemption. Determined to sever ties with his criminal past, he makes the painful decision to tell his mother, Brianna, that he must face his prison sentence alone, cutting off all family contact and former associates. He actively pursues a new path: flushing drugs, securing a library job, and participating in literary classes led by the writer Richard Price (in a meta-touch, a future Wire staff member). His insightful analysis of The Great Gatsby, particularly his grasp of Jay Gatsby’s doomed yearning, reveals a mind awakening to its own trapped circumstances and the elusive nature of the American Dream he once chased. D'Angelo seems poised for a genuine transformation, a rare glimmer of hope within the show’s relentless pessimism.
This fragile hope, however, is meaningless to the cold calculus of Stringer Bell. Viewing D'Angelo’s potential for future cooperation with law enforcement an intolerable "loose end" threatening the Barksdale organisation, Stringer activates his Washington connections. He commissions Mugs (Dakota Anderson), a prison inmate, to eliminate D'Angelo. The murder is executed with chilling efficiency: D'Angelo is lured into a false sense of security, strangled, and his death meticulously staged to resemble suicide. This act isn't impulsive violence; it’s corporate restructuring, a brutal application of Stringer’s "business" philosophy where sentimentality is a fatal liability. The life D'Angelo fought to salvage is extinguished not by street chaos, but by the deliberate, detached order of the organisation he sought to leave.
All Prologue isn't devoid of fleeting, almost jarring moments of levity that feel like brief respites, perhaps even fan service. Bunk Moreland’s hangover-induced misery during a debrief provides dark comedy, a reminder of the detectives’ human frailty. McNulty’s absurd attempt to seduce Elena by stripping a mannequin in her real estate office, followed by their brief, ultimately futile sex encounter, offers a glimpse of his desperate, misguided charm. Yet, the episode’s undeniable comedic and narrative highlight is Omar’s courtroom takedown of Maury Levy. Despite his lack of conventional polish, Omar, armed only with street wisdom and unflinching honesty, dismantles the series’ most despicable character – Levy, the epitome of amoral legal cunning who treats justice as a commodity. Omar’s victory, achieved through sheer force of personality and truth-telling against Levy’s manipulative artifice, cemented his status not just as iconic, but as the show’s most beloved figure, a folk hero who outwitted the system from within.
This carefully cultivated, almost deceptive lightness makes the episode’s conclusion utterly shattering. While The Wire had dispatched major characters before (like Wallace in Season One), those deaths often felt like inevitable conclusions to established arcs. D'Angelo’s murder, however, strikes with the force of a lightning bolt from a clear sky. It occurs precisely when he seems on the cusp of redemption, making it profoundly more tragic and shocking. Director Steve Shill renders the assassination with cold, documentary-like precision: the assassin’s clinical manipulation of D'Angelo’s trust, the flawless execution, the seamless cover-up, and the mundane return to the prison population. There’s no dramatic music, no lingering shot; just the horrifying banality of institutionalised murder. The episode ends not with discovery, but with unbearable suspense – D'Angelo’s body lies undiscovered, the audience left to ponder the devastating ripple effects through the Barksdale organisation, his grieving family, and the indifferent streets of Baltimore. This stark, unresolved finality is one of the series’ most powerful and haunting scenes.
The resonance of this scene deepened chillingly years later. The meticulous staging of D'Angelo’s death as suicide – the positioning, the lack of struggle, the official narrative quickly accepted – became an unnervingly apt template referenced in public discourse surrounding the death of financier Jeffrey Epstein in a supposedly secure federal facility. While Epstein’s case involved vastly different contexts, the methodology depicted in All Prologue – the quiet, professional elimination disguised as self-harm within a controlled environment – provided a sinister, readily understandable framework for public suspicion. It became a stark, real-world example of life imitating art, underscoring The Wire’s unnerving prescience about how power operates in the shadows to eliminate inconvenient truths, making D'Angelo’s fictional demise feel tragically, disturbingly prophetic.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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