(S01E9) Ecclesiastes 7:2: It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, For that is the end of every man, and the living should take it to heart.

Now that Tommy has worked his way into the second most-important position in the legislature, the Speaker orders him to get a crucial vote on passing the budget. Naturally Tommy's mob ties (by blood anyway, to brother Michael) come into play. And, just as naturally, the vote he needs this time comes from the one representative that last week called Tommy's installation as new party Whip what it was: ward politics at its worst.

This episode is frought with death and betrayal which should have made for some compelling television, but didn't work for me. The past couple episodes have been so good that I found myself expecting more. Well, we do get more, but it's just more of the same. Another dirty deal by Tommy, another attempt at reform and backslide by Eileen, another attempt (and success) by the mob characters to solve problems with violence or cash.

At this point, I get it. People are all corrupt and tainted, and life is humorless and tragic. I can't wait for The Wire to start.

This week's vale of tears has the Hill mourning after a disaster which costs the lives of people very close to many of the main characters. Mobster Freddie Cork's son Ricky leaps off a bridge to kill himself and caused the bus crash. This might have meant something if we'd even known that he had a son earlier. Eileen's ex-lover, mailman Carl, is also killed in the wreck. Later she finds out that he had a fiancé that he broke it off with six months ago. Eileen handles all this with supreme indifference, so that's the end of that story arc. Declan's maybe-potential mob informant Marty Trio loses his wife and that -- on top his inoperable cancer -- moves him to (again, maybe) unburden his sins to state police. Declan gets more time and seems more significant as the show moves forward.

Tommy has to defer to the mayor when it comes to knocking on the first door of a grieving family in a series of sympathy calls after the wreck. He tells Tommy they "can switch off" knocking on every other door after that. Tragedy is a political opportunity that must be exploited. Even whether Ricky's suicide will be ruled an "accident" so that Freddie's son can receive a church funeral is a angle to be worked to advantage. Michael uses Freddie's distraction from grief, to form some alliances of his own with a rival mob.

By the end, Tommy gets his way again -- his legislation is passed, but he's worked every relationship, personal and professional, to the extreme to get it done. So finally, what is the cost?