That episode - hell, that season - is pitch-perfect.

Al's "I do have a knife. It come to me just now."

I love his line about how seeing the boy "unmanned" him. That's a line straight into the heart of Al's psyche.

I should warn you that both High Hat articles dealing with Deadwood assume that you have seen Season 3, so beware of spoilers.

Aw, mine looks so shallow now...less "New Journalist" than "Nice boots" journalist. But Tim Goodman totally writes Simon's name in his notebook and he appears not to be too worried about it.

I'm deliberately avoiding them, Corwood, just in case they're spoilery.

Good idea. Hope you read 'em later, though, 'cause Tom Block's essay on cinematic violence is one of the most insightful pieces of writing I've ever read.

less "New Journalist" than "Nice boots" journalist

Pshaw. It's delightful.

Yeah...they are. Really well-written though.

I definitely want to read them, but not until I'm caught up.

Wire spoilers aren't quite the same...the show takes such a long view, it'd be like "Remember the guy who came into Butchie's two years ago..." "Maury Levy" played another slick lawyer on Studio 60 this week and last, though.

Yay! My instincts about the identity of the Ice Truck Killer were spot-on!

Also, I find it very weird to watch Michael C. Hall having sex with anyone but Matthew St. Patrick.

Matt, I haven't watched yet, was it the doctor?

I don't know whether I need to whitefont, but what the hell.

I'm sad that Namond's mother has no love for the boy. I get the feeling he'd eventually come to do well in an environment that expected him to...I dunno, Do Right in some way.(but of course this show ain't about that, exactly, is it?) Anybody trying the '80 degree strategy on me would have got what the Ed books call an unintended consequence. My stomach does not deal with heat in a very gracious manner, and it was far worse when I was young like that. So, yeah, of course I live on the surface of the sun. Sometimes I think God's rules are Simon rules. Sheeit. I think Zenobia is probably crazy smart. Not easy to control, but how many really smart people really are? Especially considering how many valid reasons she probably has to be, well, pissed all the time. And girlfriend did have a total point about the welfare office. I'm completely acknowledged to be "deserving" and yet if some genie were to come to me and say "Erika, you'll never have to be evaluated again, but in exchange we will take ten years off your life," I would totally think I got the better end. That is how much those appointments suck. And I am a "Good" client, nsm with the under-the-table jobs or boyfriends slipping me ducats. And I'm quite obviously fucked-up and shit, right? And I wasn't raised to be hard. My mother hoped with all her heart not to give me her McNutty-like, uh, "authority issue" and raise a little respectful citizen. I was completely unprepared for the constant disrespect you get just for being poor. And I am a blonde, blue-eyed, posterchild of a person who learned how to use multiple forks and "whom"(Which has caused me *no end* of shit, incidentally, as bureaucrats decide that my being smart is really "being smart". Which it mostly is not...maybe a little, as I adopt the family motto "I Fight Authority...Authority Always Wins" but I'm a writer. It'd be bad for my reputation and my self image to speak in the "don't got no" way they expect. Because it might be cool to be an O.G. but I see nobody lining up for...you should excuse the expression, "white trash".) And I no longer know quite where I'm going with this, but this season has been a very emotional experience for me, despite my being very far from West Baltimore in many ways.