GOODNIGHT, PO-POS: Aw, shucks. With "Took" (Sepinwall, AVClub, THND), The Wire continues to close a few doors and give more characters grace notes on our way out of their fictional Bal'mer, St. Sen. Clay Davis' reliance on Ah-Silly-Us, Pro-mee-thus Bound, and good old fashioned huckstering to get him out of trouble (as well as real life superlawyer Billy Murphy, whose victories include a multimillion dollar suit for carbon monoxide exposure on behalf of the workers at the Ruth's Chris where Bunny took Namond et al); Kima mirroring McNulty's frustration with Ikea, but showing that she's ready to be a fantastic "aunt," at a minimum.
As far as the McNulty silliness goes, yeah, I'm starting to appreciate the black comedy (and Bunk's glares) as this thing escalates way beyond his control, but mostly I'm waiting to see who gets called on the carpet first between him and Templeton, and just how much the fallout ends up punishing Freamon and Gus, respectively.
For completists, of course, this episode was a Tommy Westphall multiverse highlight: John Munch, who's based on the real-life Jay Landsman, walks into a bar with the real-life Jay Landsman, here playing Dennis Mello, and then in walks Gus Haynes, played by Clark Johnson, who of course also played Munch's partner Meldrick Lewis on "Homicide." Yippee.
Of course, what I'm really waiting for now is for Freamon to bring in Prezbo to solve the clock code, and for Quantico to figure out what's up with McNulty. Also, R.I.P., Savino: Maury Levy got you a short sentence (from the Kima shooting) for this?
