The Wire Season 3 Episode 9: Slapstick

The Wire Season 3 Episode 9: Slapstick Damnation and redemption are common themes in The Wire, although it's never quite clear who is on the road to hell and who to heaven. Jim True-Frost plays Det. Roland Przbylewski, a serial screw up who joins Lt. Daniels' major crimes unit and redeems himself, but not before misfiring his weapon during a staff meeting and blinding a young corner boy for sassing him. Under the tutelage of Det. Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters), Prez is reborn as a detail oriented, paper chasing, code breaker. Who knew? But then in this episode, the bottom falls out again. Prez shoots an undercover police officer in a dark alley while responding with Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) to a dispatcher's request for backup. It was a bad move for a housecat like Prez but McNulty is nothing if not persuasive. This time it ended tragically. The relationship between the professorial Freamon (in Sgt. Jay Landsman's words, tweedy impertinence) and the neophyte Prez was developed with intelligence and warmth. When Daniels visits Prez after the shooting, Prez, damning himself before a review board gets a chance to study the case, announces he will quit the force. He asks Daniels to take a message to Freamon. "Tell Lester I'm sorry," he says. It's a touching moment that rings with finality, but something tells us it's not the last we'll see of Prez.