Salon writers and readers are more than a little obsessed with the final season of "The Wire." (Read the current wrap-up of Sunday's episode here.)

 

With one episode left (and HBO refusing to put the final episode on its On Demand service -- drats!) what are your predictions for the final episode?

 

I'll go first. I'm going to side with an astute Salon letter writer that David Simon and Co. are best when they confound our expectations -- and yet resolve stories in ways that are brutally believable. I still think Jimmy McNulty is headed for a brutal fall -- but not in the way we expected. I think the case gets made against Marlo Stanfield -- they bury the evidence that it was based on questionably obtained wire taps, and tell Kima Greggs to keep her yap shut. But the guilt from that, his failed relationship with Beadie -- as well as whatever ends up happening to Donald, the homeless guy he kidnapped and moved to a far-off shelter -- is what really brings him down.

 

I also think: Daniels gets promoted over Rawls when Marlo and team get put away (and Rawls is never outted); Herc gets fingered for passing on the phone number and bites it; Gus finally gets the goods on Templeton, but the Sun is sold and he gets the boot; Prez (Prez!) finds some hope for Dukie; but Michael's story ends the only way it really can.

 

 What do you think? (And don't forget to tag your post: thewire)