Season 3, Episode 12, "Mission Accomplished"

The Gods Will Not Save You: The Wire Revisited

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Mission Accomplished! Well, no, not really. As anybody who lived through the days of the Iraq War in the wake of September 11, that banner that then-president George W. Bush stood victoriously in front of represented anything but a "job well done." And with the end of this season, David Simon, Ed Burns, and co. complete their War on Terror allegory in spectacular fashion. The irony of the "Mission Accomplished" slogan is not lost in the creation of this show as the story is far from being over as there are a whole two more seasons. Willy and Jacob talk about a controversial scene where BunkNulty survey the now-dead Stringer Bell's upscale apartment, how the show pulls off some serious magic by getting us to feel sorry for Avon, what it must be like for people at home watching the news of Hamsterdam's fall, and how this all fares for the rest of the story and the ensuing reign of terror at the hands of the vicious Marlo Stanfield. Take notice of the classic line reading by the great Anwan Glover as Slim Charles about "fighting on that lie" and how it reveals some of the more base impulses of people in powerful leadership positions.