HBO’s We Own This City Ends on a Heart-wrenching Episode 

Despite knowing what went down in real life, the writers, actors, and the director of We Own This City do an incredible job of tugging at audience’s heartstrings.  

Based on Justin Fenton’s non-fiction book titled We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption, HBO sanctioned a six-episode original limited series of the same name.  

The show explores the police corruption scandal that gripped Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF).  

The show is a spiritual successor of The Wire, but with a more horrifying, gruesome take on the rampant exploitation, classism, and racism of the institution that is set up to actually protect people.  

We Own This City held up a mirror to the city of Baltimore and the police that grew horrifying with each abuse of power.  

In its season finale on May 30, the show did serve justice, in a way, but also opened new wounds. Everyone is punished for their wrongdoings, one suffers a gruesome fall, while one realizes that there’s no end to the corrupt, malicious system.  

One of the main characters, Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (essayed splendidly by Jon Bernthal) is sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. But punishment doesn’t come easy. It arrives after Jenkins does not cooperate with the investigators at all, in classic Jenkins style.  

Jenkins abused his power, was probably the dirtiest officer, continuously stated that he did not plant drugs on a suspect, cheated on his wife, and more. Though he later agreed he added a false report, he viciously blamed Jamie Hector’s Sean Suiter, his deceased partner, for planting the drugs on the suspect.  

Sean Suiter was a BPD homicide detective entangled in the GTTF’s case. The detective was apparently shot in the head in a back alley while chasing a gun-wielding suspect.  

Suiter’s death, which the creators have left open for speculation, just like the still-contended real-life event, was the most impactful scene of the entire finale episode.  

While the Baltimore city and the real-life Suiter’s family contest that his death was not a suicide, the series shows both aspects. It showed the coroner’s report ruling it as a homicide and another report that contested it, citing the guilt and protection of his legacy as reasons for suicide.  

The other major piece in the puzzle, Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice’s attorney Nicole Steele, essayed by stunning Wunmi Mosaku, stood on her moral grounds until the end.  

When Nicole realized that the BPD would be falling back into the same corrupt, brutal ways, she handed in her resignation to Ahmed Jackson (Ian Duff), her mentee, with a powerful statement,  

It’s your turn, motherf*cker.

Nicole

It was a huge step for the viewers, as we saw a well-intentioned attorney doing everything in her power to beat and expose the system but still ending up being a victim, nonetheless. 

As for other GTTF officers such as Gondo, Rayam, Daniel Hersl, Marcus Taylor, and Mayor Cathrine Pugh, everyone receives multiple years of imprisonment.  

In the final scene, we’re transported to the school scene in the first episode where Jenkins took a class of recruits. Except that in these last moments, the class isn’t of random recruits but the entire GTTF officers, his partner, and even Commissioner Kevin Davis.  

The scene was probably one of the hardest-hitting scenes in the finale. It took us back to the root of the problem—as Jenkins gave his encouraging monologue lying about police brutality, corruption, and the web of crimes they were going to create to suit statistics for politicians—everyone in the classroom cheered. 

The last scene reflected how everyone was complacent to the growing corruption, whether they wanted to or not.   

We Own This City ends on a terrifying loop. As GTTF is stripped of its power, new mayors are elected and they bring back the plainclothes approach. However, before the same approach could lead to another GTTF, the mayor is put behind bars as his criminal activities from the past approach him.  

Now all that’s left in We Own This City is people’s distrust in the police, as murders, crime, and drugs are still on the rise.  

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