The Wire re-up: season four, episode 12 – Mike ain't Mike no more

The Wire: the book

The Wire Re-up: The Guardian Guide to the Greatest TV Show Ever Made is out now from Guardian Books, and available in all good bookshops. The book features blogposts on every episode from all five seasons, plus interviews with the cast and features on the show – as well as many, many of your comments, which have made this blog the great forum it is. Buy the book by clicking here.

Season four, episode 12

If nothing before in The Wire has brought you to tears, if you could take Frank Sobotka's self-sacrifice, Bubbles's repeated attempts to get clean and the crushing blow of McNulty's handout, this is the episode where you will crack at the sheer, epic shittiness of the hand our boys of summer have been dealt. George Pelecanos, who wrote the episode, has said of it: "We were at the top of our game here." It's hard to disagree.

The Michael who turned down work on the corner is long gone; his education at the hands of Snoop and Chris kicks off the episode, wrongfooting the viewer, and he is now a killer in training, as methodical with this as he was with his sporadic schoolwork: "One to the head, keep it quick." The puppy with the big paws puts his hands to different use when Kenard needs to be punished for stealing the stash – his violence, which leaves the tiny boy bloodied and silenced on the ground, terrifies Namond, who later says: "Mike ain't Mike no more."

Dukie is being forced to move on by the school system, away from the one place he had felt safe. Randy is confined to his foster mother's house, in fear for his life after Carver inadvertently gave him away. Namond is being punked by everyone he comes across – his reluctance to step up is ruthlessly exploited by his monstrous mother – "Wee-Bey walked in Jessup a man, and he gonna walk out one. But you out here, wearing his name, acting a bitch." At the gym, he lashes out at Dukie, the weakest target he can find, and is slapped down by Michael. "She expect me to be my father, but I ain't him," he sobs.

In the episode commentary, Pelecanos and director Joe Chappelle mention the "false moves" made by adults as they try to reach out to the four lost boys.

After the attack by Michael, Colvin tries to console Namond, who refuses to go home. He ends up at the station after his mother declares: "Put that bitch in baby booking where he belongs; let him learn something" – before she can be told he has done nothing wrong. Bunny again reaches out, and Namond has nowhere left to go.

Prez tries to establish an understanding with Dukie, who responds blankly ("Did I do something wrong?") to talk of moving up a grade and away from the friend he has found.

Cutty tries to break through to Michael, and gets the most violent rejection – he is shot down by Monk on the corner, though Michael, suggesting that all is not quite lost (although in the next episode he proves that it is) prevents the coup de grace.

Left with no home, friends or reputation, Randy shrugs off Carver's hand in the hospital, and along with it yet another offer of help. "You gonna help, huh? You gonna look out for me? You gonna look out for me, Sergeant Carver? You mean it? You gonna look out for me? You promise? You got my back, huh?"

The emotional impact of the boys' stories dwarfs the goings-on at City Hall, though events there demonstrate exactly how trapped the poor residents of west Baltimore are, and how the trap continues. A $54m hole has been found in the schools budget, and, after Carcetti's promises to voters, he is forced to go to Annapolis to plead for more. Carcetti and Wilson wait. And wait. And wait. They are finally are allowed in to see the governor, to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas ("We won't go until we get some"). This humiliation will be later echoed by Colvin's pleas for funding for the school study.

In Major Crimes we see a demonstration of another familiar Wire theme – how decisions taken almost arbitrarily or for political reasons at the very top level roll down to those below. Carcetti's decision to fund the investigation into the rowhouse bodies – ostensibly to get the bodies out but with the benefit of the costs being added to Royce's term in office, not his own – gets Lester back on the streets, much to Sergeant Landsman's dismay: "We do not go looking for bodies, especially mouldering fucking John Does."

One more shot of tragedy comes from Bubs. Searching for a way to get rid of the vicious junkie, he asks around, and leaps at the local Arabbers' suggestion of sodium cyanide – "looks and cooks just like the real thing". The apparent glimmer of hope around his excited preparations at bedtime seems too good to be true, and so it is. The tainted vial in his pocket is a loaded gun, and Sherrod duly pulls the trigger. The camera's lingering shot on the jacket forestalls the event, and we know the horror before Bubs realises that in his effort to escape his tormentor he has caused the death of his friend. What set this in motion? Herc's repeated failure to come to his aid.

We end with the torching of Randy's home after the protection officers are lured away. Carver's repeated promises to Randy have become dust, and they are thrown back in his face. At every step, Carver has tried to watch Randy's back, to keep him on the straight and narrow track, and nothing good has come of it. We are way down in the hole.

Favourite quote: "You do your piece with them and then you let them go," Prez is advised. We've spent a term with these boys, and seen how quickly the street takes them – I don't think we're ready to leave them just yet.

Running totals

Murders: no new deaths, but not a good week for limbs as both Cutty and a henchman get shot in the leg. Paintballs don't count. One new old corpse, courtesy of Lester and Bunk's drunken bet. Steady on 67.

McNulty giving a fuck when it's not his turn: McNulty is flying low, though is reminded of his anonymous faxing days. Steady on 31. Drunk: as Bunk puts it: "The world is upside down when Jimmy McNulty is the most qualified to drive." Steady on 16. Dubious parenting: the most shocking "parenting" comes from Namond's abusive, aggressive, bullying mother. Steady on seven.

Bunk drunk: slurring about "another little taste" and J-Lo's "prime cut of ass", Bunk's on fine form: up one to nine.

Herc fuck-ups: steady on 20, but Marlo's pigeons come home to roost. Herc thinks he's escaped early in the episode – "I'm dipped in shit here. I'm the luckiest motherfucker you know" – but IID turn up, as they always do in the end, to take him in for the missing security camera and various informant discrepancies.

Omar stick-ups: Omar pulls off an almighty heist, supported by his old soldiers. "Sort of like a Magnificent Seven," says Pelecanos. "Shit was unseemly, man," confesses Cheese to Proposition Joe. Up one to 12.

Bubbles attempting to get clean: he's trying to get rid of a persistent piece of dirt, and it goes badly awry. He's not getting clean any time soon. Steady on five.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKWVmbaie86rnpqml6e2r7DEq2ZraGFlfKexwWhna2ennr%2BmedKemKynnmKBbrHPoqqonJVifnM%3D