Omar Little
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| Omar Little | |
|---|---|
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| First appearance | The Buys (episode 1.03) |
| Statistics | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | early 30's |
| Portrayed by | Michael K. Williams |
| Created by | David Simon |
Omar Devone Little, played by Michael K. Williams, is a character on the HBO drama The Wire. Omar is a stick-up man - he makes a living holding up drug dealers. Unlike the Barksdale gang's massive organization, Omar's gang is small, never having more than four or five members at a time. Omar is a homosexual who has had three partners on the show. He lives by a strict code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in the drug trade (In the courtroom in Season 2, Omar claims "I never put my gun on no citizen"). Notably, Omar is also the only character on the series who never uses profanity. He is legendary around Baltimore for his long career, characteristic shotgun, facial scar, and whistling of the tune "The Farmer in the Dell."
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Season One
Omar robbed the Barksdale crew's low-rise stash house along with his boyfriend, Brandon, and another partner, Bailey. Brandon inadvertently used Omar's name during the heist. After the robbery, Avon Barksdale put out a contract on Omar, Brandon and Bailey. Omar's price was twice as much as those for his two cohorts. Both Bailey and Brandon were soon dead with the latter being tortured, mutilated and left out for all to see. Detective McNulty surmised that Brandon's extensive injuries were a result of his refusal to reveal Omar's whereabouts.
Omar began targeting the Barksdale crew specifically after they killed Brandon, escalating their conflict into an all-out war. Despite their best attempts to hunt him down, he eluded Barksdale's men, killing Stinkum and wounding Wee-Bey. Omar even succeeded in getting a shot at Avon Barksdale himself, by trading stolen drugs with Eastside drug kingpin Proposition Joe in exchange for Avon's pager number. He tailed Avon, paged him and waited for him to emerge into the open. Avon narrowly escaped when Wee-Bey arrived and drove Omar off by shooting him in the arm. Afterwards, Stringer Bell offered Omar a truce, planning to kill him when he relaxed his guard. However, Omar realized Stringer's duplicity and left town. In the final scene of season one, he is seen plying his trade in the Bronx.
Following Brandon's murder, Omar has co-operated with the police, particularly Jimmy McNulty and Bunk, in order to exact revenge on the Barksdale organization. He gave the police key information leading to the arrest of Barksdale soldier Bird for the William Gant murder, and agreed to be a witness against him at his trial.
[edit] Season Two
Omar returned to Baltimore with a new boyfriend, Dante, shortly before Bird's trial. He quickly returned to his old business and connected with another pair of stick-up artists named Tosha and Kimmy who also joined his crew.
Omar testified against Bird in open court as he had promised to do. Unabashed and unapologetic about who he was, he won over the jury with his charm, and Bird was sent to prison for life. He embarrassed Barksdale attorney Maurice Levy by throwing his comment that Omar was a parasite who thrived on the drug trade back at him, saying that they were both essentially the same in that respect -- he carries a gun while Levy carries a briefcase. This comment caused Levy to stop discrediting Omar as a witness in the courtroom as he could no longer properly cross-examine Omar.
Stringer Bell managed to get some measure of revenge when he duped Omar into shooting hitman Brother Mouzone, claiming that he was the one who was responsible for torturing Omar's boyfriend Brandon. At the last minute, Omar realized he had been tricked, and let Mouzone live. He redirected his murderous intent at Stringer himself.[1][2]
[edit] Season Three
Omar's gang begins season three by robbing several Barksdale safehouses in revenge for Brandon's death and Stringer Bell's lies. These assaults lead Stringer to increase the number of soldiers guarding Barksdale safehouses. During one raid Tosha is killed in a street-side fire fight. In the wake of Tosha's death, Omar contemplates giving up his war against the Barksdale organization.
Two of Avon's soldiers, under orders from Stringer Bell, attack Omar while he is taking his elderly grandmother Josephine to church on Sunday. Omar recognizes the attackers before they open fire and forces his grandmother into their taxi, which quickly drives away. Josephine loses her best hat in the gunfire. This blatant violation of the longstanding and widely respected Baltimore Sunday truce between rival gangs leads Omar to resume his war. This time Omar acts alone; Kimmy decides to leave the gang, and Omar refuses to allow Dante to remain involved. Avon is also outraged by Stringer's disregard for the truce; he forces the men responsible for the attack to buy Omar's grandmother a new hat.
Meanwhile Brother Mouzone, who has returned from New York, sends his man Lamar into Baltimore gay bars in search of Omar. They do not find Omar but do manage to capture Dante. Brother Mouzone beats Dante into revealing Omar's hiding place. Brother Mouzone approaches Omar and suggests an alliance in their quest for revenge against Stringer. Together they ambush Stringer during a meeting with a property developer and execute him. Once Stringer is killed, Brother Mouzone allows Dante to go free and gives Omar the weapon he used in the shooting to be disposed. During the Season three finale, Omar throws his shotgun and Brother Mouzone's pistol into the harbor.
[edit] Season Four
As the fourth season begins, Omar has a new boyfriend, Renaldo. Omar is dissatisfied with how easy his work has become due to his formidable reputation and worries that pursuing easy thefts will make him soft. He plans a robbery to challenge himself. His target is Old Face Andre, a convenience store owner and one of Marlo Stanfield's dealers.
Omar surveys Andre's store and spots his re-supply's being delivered by a young girl wearing a school uniform on the day before school begins. He also notices Kima Greggs photographing the re-supply. After she leaves, they enter the store. Omar fires through the Plexiglas with a large caliber Desert Eagle automatic and demands the stash. As they return to their vehicle Omar tells Renaldo that the look on Andre's face is why they do what they do.
For his own reasons, Proposition Joe suggests that Omar rob a card game, without telling him that it is held by Marlo Stanfield. He and Renaldo rob the game, and Marlo vows to get revenge. Marlo sends Chris to Old Face Andre's convenience store; Chris kills a woman there, then beats Andre into saying Omar did it. Omar is picked up by police and jailed; Jimmy McNulty and Bunk Moreland are both very skeptical at the odds that Omar would murder a citizen.
In Central Booking, Omar calls Butchie for reinforcements who come in on minor charges to give him a knife made out of plastic, which is undetectable to the security's metal detectors. He is subsequently attacked by a past adversary whom he stabs, puncturing his rectum in the process and sending a loud message to the other inmates not to attack him.
Bunk suggests re-opening the crime scene files, but the other detectives are reluctant to do so as Omar is a known criminal. Bunk does convince fellow homicide detective Vernon Holley to assist him in re-examining the crime scene and finds that Old Face Andre was lying about Omar's involvement. Bunk and Holley take Andre downtown and warn him of a perjury charge which causes him to admit Omar's innocence and lack of involvement in the murder. From there, the charge against Omar is dropped and Bunk then transports him out of Harford County with a warning - no more murders against any one. The unsolved murders at his hands that Bunk knows about will be brought up, among other things, if Omar is caught killing anyone else.
Omar finds out that Marlo was responsible for framing him, and, upon following him, is surprised to find out that Marlo was the one he robbed at the card game. Going back to Proposition Joe, Omar demands (at gunpoint) that Joe help him rob Marlo. Joe agrees to alert Omar when his nephew, Cheese, is dropping off Marlo's package. Omar then tracks Cheese and begins working out his ultimate plan. Rather than simply stealing Marlo's package as Joe expected, Omar orchestrates an elaborate and successful hijacking of Joe's entire shipment of heroin as it enters port, cutting off the supply of all dealers in the co-op.
[edit] Casting and origins
Michael K. Williams received the part after only a single audition, although the character was initially slated to appear in just seven episodes before dying. Williams has stated that he pursued the role because he felt it would make him stand out from other African Americans from Brooklyn with acting talent because of its contradictory nature.[3]
David Simon has said that Omar is based on Shorty Boyd, Donnie Anders, Ferdinand Harvin and Anthony Hollie, all Baltimore stickup men from the 1980s and 1990s.[4]
[edit] Critical response
For his portrayal of Omar, Michael K. Williams was named by USA Today as one of ten reasons they still love television. The character was praised for his uniqueness in the stale landscape of TV crime dramas and for the wit and humor that Williams brings to the portrayal.[5]Omar has been named as one of the first season's richest characters, not unlike the Robin Hood of Baltimore's west side projects", although his contradictory nature was questioned as a little too strange.[6] The Baltimore City Paper named the character one of their top ten reasons not to cancel the show and called him "arguably the show’s single greatest achievement."[7]
Williams has stated that he feels that the character is well liked because of his honesty, lack of materialism, individuality and his adherence to his strict code.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Character profile - Omar. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
- ^ Dan Kois (2004). Everything you were afraid to ask about "The Wire". Salon.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-12.
- ^ a b Joel Murphy (2005). One on one with... Michael K. Williams. Hobo Trashcan. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
- ^ Richard Vine (2005). Totally Wired. The Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.
- ^ Robert Bianco (2004). 10 Reasons we still love TV. USA Today. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
- ^ Chris Barsanti (2004). Totally Wired. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
- ^ Brent McCabe and Van Smith (2005). Down to the wire: Top 10 reasons not to cancel the wire.. Baltimore city paper.. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
