re: #345 jaunte

It wasn’t Omar did Proposition Joe.

Omar would never have betrayed Joe as Cheese did. Omar saw that sort of betrayal as dishonorable, as something that would make him lesser if he were to do such a thing.

To used Simon’s own comment of The Wire as Tragedy, Cheese might be seen as Edmund of King Lear in his treacherous ambition. That treachery is also the reason why both characters are killed in the final part of the story: for such a betrayer to be allowed to live would be to counsel despair,and neither Shakespeare nor Simon wanted to send that message. So both Edmund and Cheese are killed by men who are honorable and loyal, but had to pass through their own time of weakness before finally stepping up and bringing the traitor down. Slim Charles occupies Edgar’s role in this analogy.