r/TheWire • u/Confident_Try5464 • 1d ago
I love marlo’s end
I finished the wire 2 days ago and one of my favorite moment was the conclusion of Marlo.
It represents the fact that he can’t be another thing that a hoodmaster, Social advancement is at a standstill, and even with Stanfield's success, he won't feel truly comfortable or accepted in the world of the "big boys," the world of people who exploit all these street dealers. If Stringer had understood that, he wouldn't be dead.
The difference between Marlo and Stringer with Avon is that one does what he does because he comes from the streets and has no choice to survive (at least not at the base, without much financial education, just pure resourcefulness), and the other two have no code of conduct and want to get rich by denying all morality (a symbol of unbridled capitalism). Both have simply forgotten that the floor above is hermetically sealed off to people like them.
24
u/FanParking279 1d ago
If you watched it in two days, the best advice I have for you is to start again from the beginning. You’ll see something new each time if you allow time to reflect between episodes. All the pieces matter.
12
u/Commercial_Gold_9699 1d ago
There is a joke in there about not reading the OP correctly and all the pieces matter but I won't be making it!
6
9
8
6
u/comment_i_had_to 1d ago
I think of Marlo and Avon as being essentially the same. Both wanted to build an empire on the foundation of street dealing that they knew intimately. Stringer wanted to parlay his street wins into a larger bet with more financial risk and less criminal risk.
Stringer got killed because his scheming got exposed and he trusted his boy Avon. He lost his money because he "played them away games". Plenty of other schemers got theirs one way or the other, I think what killed Stringer was his sense of loyalty conflicting with his sense of what was best (both traits I find more admirable than pure greed, power or sadistic pleasure in killing).
3
u/Far-Advantage-2770 21h ago
Yeah, it's great. Up until that point you are getting really irritated thinking that psycho is going to get away with everything. Then you realise in the last scene he has the worst punishment of everyone, he's stuck in purgatory fighting over some nonsense forever, and he'll just wind up dead or in jail next year.
And subtle too, if it was Breaking Bad, he would just blown up in a big explosion.
1
u/MetalTrek1 7h ago
He was all about his name. And now nobody knows who he is. The guys he confronted were talking about Omar, if I'm correct. For Marlo, this is a fate worse than death.
3
u/AdEnvironmental467 6h ago
Even if he went to prison he still realized on his first visit that Avon was always still the king
2
u/jasonkash 17h ago
I couldn’t stop thinking about his ending when I finished. If you pay attention the last shot of him is a perspective of him under a distant shot of him under a lamp post on the corner representing him and his permanent place as someone who wants respect on the street, owning the corners similar to Avon. Very poetic almost like a play
If you ask me I don’t think stingers be above if he knew his place I just think he made too many enemy’s on the street he didn’t respect or give credit to
2
u/Myantra 14h ago
Both have simply forgotten that the floor above is hermetically sealed off to people like them
It really is not. At one point or another, Levy walked all three of them up the stairs to the floor above, but only one of them was willing to do what was necessary to walk through the door. Put Avon or Marlo in a suit, and they are what you would expect them to be, a hard ass gangster in a suit. Stringer adopted the lifestyle, and he acted like he belonged there.
When Levy takes Marlo to that social event, Marlo gets a glimpse of what Stringer called "games beyond the game", and he quickly realized that he lacked all of the skills necessary to play that game. His crown was meaningless in that game, and he could not win it by murdering his way to the top, like he did with the street game. He could not even pretend to be civilized enough to move in those circles. His ending is worse than prison or death, as he is left empty. The crown is the only thing he ever wanted, and he has lost it. He cannot go back after it, as prison or death are all that await.
What got Stringer killed, was trying to play both games. He had enough money, real estate, and legit businesses that he did not need to bother with the street game anymore, especially after he dodged a bullet by not catching any charges from the first detail. People like Andy Krawczyk and Clay Davis are willing to dine with him, in public. The "big boys" accepted him, and were willing to be seen openly doing business with him. What he failed to do was listen to and take full advantage of his guide to that game, Levy, and he failed to leave the streets behind. Even if he had not been killed, he was about to be arrested, and all he had to do to prevent both was cash out his chips and move up to a better casino.
The floor above is not sealed off, but one has to fully leave the floor below in order to succeed on it, because the game on each floor demands their full attention.
1
u/Wall_Willing 2h ago
Remember what he told Joe ||before he killed him?|| “You wouldn’t be able to change up anymore than me.” Marlo definitely dies after the end of the series.
29
u/cagewilly 1d ago
I'm sorry, are you saying that Marlo is pure streets and the Barksdale crew are unbridled capitalism?
Maybe fair enough. But if Marlo isn't an unbridled capitalist, then he's just unbridled. He's actually feral. He's taking his friends out to the shed to be put down. He's taking innocent people off the street to be murdered for no reason. Stringer was always going to be a bit murdery. But he really was trying to get out. Avon also wanted to avoid the heat, at least until the end.
Marlo was vicious. He was lucky that he ever had the opportunity to get out. He probably didn't take it. And he's the only one that had a bunch of bodies in the vacants all at once. What did he think would happen? They would find all those bodies with lime and the same nails in the doors... and nobody would notice it's the same MO?