Television Review: Backwash (The Wire, S2X07, 2003)
Backwash (S02E07)
Airdate: July 13th 2003
Written by: Rafael Alvarez
Directed by: Thomas J. Wright
Running Time: 58 minutes
Following the devastating, soul-crushing finale of All Prologue – where D’Angelo Barksdale’s fragile hope for redemption was extinguished in the most brutal way possible – the architects of The Wire faced a narrative precipice. David Simon and his team, either compelled by thematic necessity or inadvertently guided by instinct, steered the immediate aftermath into unexpectedly lighter waters with Backwash. This episode, the seventh of the second season, functions as a necessary, albeit jarring, decompression chamber. It deliberately tempers the preceding episode’s operatic tragedy with moments of dark comedy, procedural momentum, and character-driven levity, preventing the audience from drowning in despair. Yet this tonal shift is not mere escapism; it is a masterful demonstration of the show’s core thesis: life, even in the crucible of Baltimore’s systemic decay, persists with its absurd rhythms, petty triumphs, and relentless forward motion, indifferent to individual tragedy. The episode’s genius lies in how it weaves this levity through the ongoing darkness, never allowing the viewer to forget the void left by D’Angelo’s absence, even as it offers fleeting moments of respite.
This balancing act is established immediately in the semi-humorous cold open. Bodie Broadus, the hardened young soldier, finds himself in the incongruous setting of a flower shop, tasked with arranging wreaths for D’Angelo’s funeral. His earnest, almost naive, debate with the florist over the "appropriate" style – pondering whether something more "gangsta" befits a man who met his end by his own hand (the official Barksdale line, which Bodie seemingly accepts) – is pitch-perfect dark comedy. Bodie’s discomfort and misplaced solemnity highlight the absurdity of applying conventional funeral rites to a life violently truncated by the very organisation now dictating its narrative. Crucially, Stringer Bell stands as the silent counterpoint. He alone among the major players knows the brutal truth – that D’Angelo’s death was no suicide but a murder orchestrated by Stringer himself to eliminate a liability. Yet Stringer maintains impeccable, chilling composure: offering hollow condolences to the grieving Brianna Barksdale at the wake, discussing the "tragedy" with Avon Barksdale (who remains blissfully unaware of Stringer’s duplicity and the potential threat to his own leadership). This moment crystallises Stringer’s terrifying evolution – the calculating businessman utterly compartmentalising his moral bankruptcy. The funeral itself becomes a stage for another pivotal, sinister shift. Proposition Joe exploits the sombre occasion not for mourning, but for cold-blooded business, brokering a deal with Stringer: superior Eastside narcotics supply in exchange for a slice of Barksdale territory on the Westside. This is the a move Stringer might pragmatically accept to bolster his empire, but one Avon would vehemently reject, clinging to territorial pride.
Simultaneously, the Major Case Unit’s investigation into the Baltimore docks begins yielding its first tangible, if complex, fruit. Beadie Russell, demonstrating sharp tactical nous, employs a masterstroke of deception. She lies to her stevedore acquaintances, assuring them the case is closed, solely to lower their guard. The ruse succeeds spectacularly. When suspected contraband arrives via the Talco Line ship under the supervision of "Horseface," the unit successfully tracks the container to a city warehouse. The clincher? Proposition Joe himself is observed visiting the warehouse, effectively confirming the long-suspected link: the "Greeks" are the Eastside organisation’s primary suppliers, operating through this intricate maritime conduit. This breakthrough validates Lester Freamon’s meticulous focus on the docks, moving the case from theory to actionable intelligence. Even before this, Kima Greggs and Prez have made significant headway, successfully tracing East European prostitutes from the strip club back to the apartment building housing the entire trafficking operation on one floor.
Remarkably, even the often-bumbling duo of Herc and Carver strike gold, their path paved by apparent disaster. Their tedious surveillance of the chaotic Southeast open-air drug market, dominated by the hapless white dealer Frog (Gary "D.Reign" Senkus), seems utterly compromised when their expensive, self-funded listening device – concealed within a tennis ball – is accidentally crushed after Frog kicks it into the street. Facing financial ruin and professional embarrassment, their sacrifice proves unexpectedly fruitful. Through persistent, dogged legwork following the incident, they uncover Frog’s supplier: Nick Sobotka. The scene where Nick flaunts his new drug money to Aimee, promising a better life for their child, is laced with dramatic irony; he remains oblivious that this very display has cemented his status as the Major Case Unit’s prime target, linking the docks’ criminal enterprise directly to street-level narcotics.
This growing momentum forces a critical shift at the command level. Lieutenant Cedric Daniels, long torn between political ambition and investigative integrity, finally swallows his pride. Persuaded by Lester Freamon’s unassailable logic – that the container killings are intrinsically linked to the port corruption and the Sobotka investigation – Daniels agrees to fold these murders into the Major Case Unit’s purview. It’s a victory for principle over pragmatism, a necessary step towards tackling the case’s true scale, though it comes at the cost of further straining his relationship with the politically ambitious wife Marla.
Yet, amidst these procedural advances, Backwash reaffirms Frank Sobotka as the season’s most profoundly tragic figure. His motivation has never been mere greed; it stems from a desperate, almost noble, desire to save his union brothers and the dying port culture that defines them. This tragedy is rendered visceral when Frank attends a presentation on the Rotterdam harbour. The sight of its robotic, hyper-efficient operations – safer for workers but ruthlessly eliminating the need for human labour like his own – triggers utter horror. He recognises the inevitable future bearing down on Baltimore’s stevedores, a future he has done nothing to prepare his own family for. This neglect of the younger generation is laid bare in his furious confrontation with lobbyist Bruce DiBiagio (Keith Flippen). DiBiagio, hailing from a similar blue-collar background, represents the path Frank failed to take: a family that prioritised education, ensuring each generation was equipped for a changing world. Frank’s rage stems from recognising his own failure; he raised Ziggy to follow him onto the docks, blind to the industry’s impending obsolescence. The authenticity of this portrayal is undeniable, rooted in the episode’s writer, Rafael Alvarez, former Baltimore Sun reporter whose own background from dockworkers+ family infuses Frank’s struggles with raw, lived-in truth.
Backwash is, fundamentally, a deeply dark and depressive episode. It delivers the brutal, unflinching message that D’Angelo’s entire arc – his moral awakening, his yearning for escape, the audience’s emotional investment – ultimately amounted to nothing. He is erased: Larry Gilliard Jr. vanishes from the opening credits, his death officially dismissed as a weakling’s suicide by nearly everyone except the cold-eyed Stringer. The fleeting tears shed by Poot at the funeral feel almost performative against the pervasive narrative of D’Angelo’s perceived cowardice. This erasure is the show’s harshest commentary on the expendability of individuals within these systems.
However, this crushing realisation is deliberately tempered with humour, preventing the episode from collapsing under its own weight. Herc and Carver, now firmly established as the show’s essential comic relief, provide genuine levity through their surveillance misadventure – the tennis ball fiasco is pure, farcical gold. Similarly, Ziggy Sobotka’s humiliation, tricked by Maui into believing he’s facing a paternity suit, offers a moment of almost slapstick absurdity, highlighting Ziggy’s perpetual victimhood within the Sobotka clan’s dysfunction. This humour isn’t a distraction; it’s a vital narrative tool, reflecting the resilience and dark wit necessary for survival in Baltimore, making the underlying tragedy more bearable and, ultimately, more human.
The episode’s sole significant flaw lies in its handling of Jimmy McNulty, the show’s nominal protagonist. Confined to a single, utterly superfluous scene where he awkwardly lingers around his soon-to-be ex-wife and chiuldren, McNulty serves no purpose beyond a redundant reminder of his existence. It feels like pure filler, a narrative dead weight that momentarily stalls the otherwise compelling momentum generated by the dock investigation and the Sobotka storyline. In an episode otherwise so meticulously crafted, this lapse is conspicuous.
Backwash succeeds precisely because it refuses to be defined solely by the shadow of D’Angelo’s death. It masterfully navigates the treacherous waters between profound tragedy and necessary levity, using the latter not to diminish the former, but to illuminate the relentless, absurd, and often darkly funny continuum of life that persists even in the face of utter devastation. It advances multiple plotlines with surgical precision, deepens the season’s central tragedy through Frank Sobotka’s doomed struggle, and reaffirms The Wire’s unparalleled ability to portray the complex, often contradictory, rhythms of a city and its people. The episode is not a reprieve from darkness, but a demonstration that within that darkness, life – in all its messy, humorous, and ultimately tragic glory – stubbornly continues. It is a testament to the show’s maturity that it understands the audience, like its characters, sometimes needs a grim chuckle just to keep breathing.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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