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The single biggest turning point in the series

posted 8 years ago by kentbholm
5 replies | jump to latest

As far as how the drug war on the streets goes. And as I think about it it has to be Mcnulty deciding to visit Deangelo's girl and telling her that his death couldn't have been a suicide. Because following from that single event is her telling Brianna, Brianna putting pressure on String and Avon about it, and then String finally deciding to tell Avon about having him killed. If these things had not occurred, would String still have dimed on Avon, and Avon given String up to Mouzone and Omar? Maybe the latter but imo not the former. If either occurred.

And therefore if those two stayed together imo the Barksdales definitely win the war with Marlo and who knows how things progress from there. A whole slew of changes occur without Marlo being the King in S4 and 5.

[–] micirisi 8 years ago

I think there was more to it than the demise of D'Angelo. Other than some guilt and having to deal with his sister I got the impression Avon did not really care that much for his nephew whom he considered a weak link in their enterprise. D'Angelo was using and also likely suspect of turning at anytime in the future to reduce his sentence. I believe the major impediment to the Avon/Stringer partnership was their divergence in business philosophy. Stringer wanted to compromise with adversaries while gradually going legit whereas Avon was more an old school gangster. Screw legit and no compromises, fight it out on the street when necessary.

He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.

[–] kentbholm 8 years ago

Yeah I probably should've put this in the OP. They had their differences anyways, but idk if it would've gone down to the level that it did if not for the thing with D. On the other hand String only told Avon about him taking out D because of their fierce disagreements about how to handle business. And to show him that he can do what it takes as well.

[–] andy5868 8 years ago

You are right about this being the turning point. It ruined the most important relationship on the show. My favorite season was season 4 though so I don't think it ruined the show.

It gave way to a new kingpin which was Marlo. His crew and the kids made season 4 an absolute masterpiece.

It was such a dark season with the bodies in the houses and all the killing. Marlo's crew was just cold. Seeing the school system in such disarray was also dark. Seeing how these kids live with addicted parents, getting evicted, going into foster care, getting involved with gangs and drugs was heartbreaking as well.

We also got to see the day to day life of a Baltimore Mayor. This was by far the deepest season and my favorite season of television of all time.

[–] bill_kilgore 8 years ago

And it also leads to one of the greatest scenes in the entire show, when McNulty destroys D's mother with a few well chosen, cutting words.

[–] prolifik5 8 years ago

I don't know, there were a lot of factors that led to the demise of the Barksdales and I'm not convinced this was the turning point. At the end of the day, the only reason Avon felt forced to give Stringer up was Stringer double-crossing Mouzone, who actually had the cachet to sully Avon's reputation and seriously hamper his operations going forward. (Maybe learning about the extent of Stringer's scheming behind his back made the decision a bit easier, but he did bargain for Stringer's life, and he sure didn't seem too thrilled about it after the fact.) And the only reason Stringer dimed on Avon was to protect their business which was threatened by Avon beefing with Marlo over territory. Both of those issues have little or nothing to do with the hit on D'Angelo.

Let's say Avon finds out about D, but the Mouzone thing either never happens or is brought to a conclusion by Omar actually killing Mouzone. What comes out of it? Avon is angry with Stringer and loses a certain amount of trust in him, even though he probably understands Stringer's reasoning from an objective point of view. Brianna starts to become suspicious of both of them after confronting them with McNulty's claims. Neither of those things comes close to changing anything much on their own.