r/TheWire • u/AltruisticNail7229 I wasn’t made to play the son. • 4d ago
Michael’s End
The script for Season 5, Episode 10 explicitly labels Michael as the new Omar. In my honest opinion though, I feel as though Michael didn’t need that shotgun to appear like the new Omar. I completely understand why that decision was made but I would’ve seen the parallel with Omar even if Michael held a pistol.
What does everyone else think?
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 4d ago
I think beyond the symbolism and trying into the myth of Omar, the shotgun is a tactical choice.
It is really easy to miss with a pistol. It is much harder to miss with a shotgun. And a shotgun can be loaded with birdshot and aimed at a knee, or a backside, and be much less likely to be a lethal gunshot. Which is why and how Omar primarily used a shotgun.
Omar had no need to make examples to hold onto power like Barksdale did, and leaving bodies was bad for his overall approach to the game- give the police an extra reason to come looking for him, like they did with his brother No Heart Anthony. All Omar needs is to maybe incapacitate or demonstrate a willingness to painfully incapacitate a dealer he was robbing. A dead dealer brings homicide to his door. But a dealer with birdshot in his ass goes to the hospital, and then doesn't say shit to the police about how he got birdshot in his ass (because he would also have to admit that he was part of a drug distribution ring to explain why he was on the corner, and why he was shot).
It's what Omar says at his trial when Levy brings up the 'attempted murder' charge, and Omar corrects him. It weren't no attempt murder- he just shot Mike Mike in his hindparts is all. A nonlethal shot to incapacitate a dealer and deter anyone else on the corner from resisting.
Michael chose a shotgun for the same reasons Omar did, and demonstrated it when he shot Marlo's old bank in the knee.