What's on tonight? Closure.

Whether it's a tribute to the writers' talents or my own literal mindedness, in my head there exists a place called Dillon, Texas and sooner or later (thank baby Jesus) I'll again be privy to what goes on there. That community isn't entirely realistic, especially lately, but then again that line about stranger-than-fiction bears the weight of my experience, so I tend to be forgiving. And, you know, Riggins. I'm so looking forward to picking up those threads and following as long as they run.

Baltimore, on the other hand, can be located in any Rand-McNally, and the stories that I've been watching there in five season of The Wire are rooted in truth. But they're stories, and after tonight, they will stop. Those cops and drug dealers, dock workers, reporters, and teachers never exactly existed--not all of them, anyway--though I kind of choose to believe they did. In that I'm not really alone; even Newsweek ran an obit for Omar, best anti-hero ever, in a space normally reserved for passing artists or politicians or athletes. True dat.

This season of The Wire has not been what I hoped for--somehow I think David Simon's hatred for The Sun got in the way--but it's getting there, finally, and at least there will be some closure, and not the Sopranos' black screen of cop-out death. Every week there's been a call-back, a glimpse at a character from seasons one, two, three, and four. Something that answers the questions, "Where are they going? Where are they now?" The Wire being The Wire, at least as real as reality, the answers are heartbreaking most of the time. But at least there are answers. I don't want to make up my own story; I want to know what happened. What really happened. In their worlds, which, when I'm lucky, intersect with mine.