Omar Little, The Series Personified

              With the introduction of Omar Little, the series was thrown into a new direction with a truly unique character. He is a third party, a neutral ground between the police and the drug dealers, as a Robin Hood character of sorts. He steals from the drug dealers, which is a horribly dangerous profession as it is, and he loses a loved one as a result. He testifies against the drug dealers in order to get revenge, showing that he is a vigilante, with the ability to play on the side of the law or against it. Also, he’s gay, which, without that characteristic, would have made him a controversial character as is, but, with his homosexuality, he is raised from an exemplary character to the series personified.

Throughout the first season, The Wire deals on a spectrum, with very little falling in black or white. Neither group, the drug dealers or the cops are completely in the moral right with any actions. The cops never know if their order handed down from the corrupt higher ups are just or tainted, and the D’angelo and his crew in the pit realize that their way of life destroys others lives, but it’s the only way they can etch out a living. To that end, Omar Little is the personification of that sentiment; he is a character of pure polarities.

                He is, first, a vigilante of sorts. Although his stated reasons for stealing from the drug dealers is ambiguous, saying that it’s “all for the game”, the motivation behind such crimes is easier to see. One with such skill wouldn’t take the horrible risk to steal from drug dealers for just the money, he could easily get away with more money if he held up businesses; rather, he steals from them for the greater good; he’s trying to topple them. This is seen through his character’s dislike for swearing. In a show that’s mostly swear words and eye movement, he’s the character that takes an active stance against it. He’s the iconoclast in this sense, and it shows his decency. He’s a moral character that does unmoral things for the greater good, like most of the other characters.

Second, he’s a terrifying gay man. The archetypal gay man is far from terrifying, he’s soft and feminine, and all things Omar is not. He scares small children by simply walking down the street and whistling, he is fear personified for some of these people. Fear like this is not usually associated with a gay man who’s in a loving relationship until his untimely death. His character itself is a dichotomy, making him a personification of the show.

                The show deals with these dichotomies, with morality that’s a subtle shade of grey, no one party is ever completely right, unlike the archetypal cop show. The cops are good, the robbers are the bad guys, and the cops always win, the end. In the wire, the cops are run by corrupt establishments, but the foot soldiers are good people, and in the drug world, the overlords are corrupt, D’angelo knows that, but he knows he can’t just walk away. Omar is neither one thing or the other, but he is both. He’s a gay man who kills people and is terrifying. He’s a thief that steals from the corruptors, the pushers, the thieves of lives. He is simply The Wire.