-30- +1

OK, I was wrong, but I was close. There was a wake for McNulty. I was right about that. He just wasn’t dead. Now how could I guess that alternative?

I loved the final episode. There were some incredible lines:

Norman – “The Commissioner is about to have a Come to Damascus moment.”

Rawls – “You’re a cunt hair away from being indicted.”

Vinson - "That sentimental motherfucker just cost us money."

And of course, the piece de resistance, Jay Landsman (the actor who played Jay Landsman, not the real Jay Landsman, who was also an actor in the series but who wasn't a good enough Jay Landsman to play Jay Landsman) providing the ultimate eulogy for McNulty. Here it is in its entirety:

He was the black sheep, a permanent pariah. He asked no quarter of the bosses and none was given. He learned no lessons; he acknowledged no mistakes; he was as stubborn a Mick as ever stumbled out of the Northeast parish just to take up a patrolman's shield. He brooked no authority. He did what he wanted to do and he said what he wanted to say, and in the end he gave me the clearances. He was natural police. And I don't say that about many people, even when they're here on the felt. I don't say that often unless it happens to be true. Nat'ral po-lice. But Christ, what an asshole.

And I'm not talking about the ordinary gaping orifice that all of us possess. I mean an all-encompassing, all-consuming, out-of-proportion-to-every-other-facet-of-his-humanity chasm — if I may quote Shakespeare — "from whose bourn no traveler has ever returned." He gave us thirteen years on the line. Not enough for a pension. But enough to know that he was, despite his negligible Irish ancestry, his defects of personality, and his inconstant sobriety and hygiene, a true murder police. Jimmy, I say this seriously. If I was laying there dead on some Baltimore street corner, I'd want it to be you standing over me catchin' the case. Because brother, when you were good, you were the best we had.

Beautiful words, Sgt. Landsman. And If I am laying there dead on some San Francisco street corner, I hope Jay Landsman will provide the words of eulogy for me. Of course, I’m not “nat’ral po-lice”, but I am an asshole.

A guy is sitting at a bar. Suddenly the drunk guy next to him erupts: “All lawyers are assholes,” he growls. The first guy stares him down and says, “I resent that.” “What, are you a lawyer?” the drunk answers. “No, I’m an asshole.”

The Wire, RIP