And Simon seems to assume that newspaper once fulfilled their watchdog function but now journalistic standards are in decline. His own experience as a reporter in Baltimore was an exceptional case of managerial largesse. How many other newspapers gave full rein to such projects? And isn’t Baltimore more than just the police and the drug dealers and the dock workers and the schools? Aren’t there whole worlds in the local sphere that the Baltimore Sun is not writing about? While there are stories on “The Corner,” aren’t there stories in those white neighborhoods and suburbs we visited so briefly on “The Wire”? Are they any less important or any better covered?

Shipping troublemakers and screwups off to the bureaus or to the copy desk or to rewrite is a time-honored tradition. Some things don’t change. And such an assignment is about the best an old dinosaur like Gus could hope for.

I hear what everyone says about it being Marlo on the corner, but I still highly, highly doubt it. It just sounds too implausible - plus, if you think about it, if you’re David Simon and you’re thinking about what the parting image of Marlo has to be, then I would think that he’d leave it at the “man without a country” metaphor of Marlo standing tall on a corner but nevertheless forced off of it by his leaving the game.

Thinking back on it, the one gratuitous cameo that I wish was made at one point during season 5 was by the carjacking kid from s4 - that kid was great.