Why Jon Bernthal Breaks The Fourth Wall In We Own This City Episode 2
Warning: This article contains spoilers for We Own This City episode 2.
HBO's We Own This City episode 2 begins with Jon Bernthal's Wayne Jenkins in police custody and awaiting interrogation, leading to a haunting moment when the corrupt cop stares right down the camera, breaking the fourth wall. For something as based in reality as HBO's belated spiritual sequel to The Wire, it's a jarring moment, but it absolutely fits what is already established about Jenkins as a character.
TheWe Own This City cast is packed with impressive talents, but despite enjoying top billing, Bernthal barely appears, book-ending the episode, but immediately establishing himself as a formidable presence. He stalks the streets of Baltimore cockily swinging his nightstick as the residents scatter, building up Jenkins' mythology before he's even shown breaking a single law. It's an incredibly subtle, but brilliantly effective trick that means his arrival for real in We Own This City episode 2 lands even harder. And so too does the flashback to his early days as a more idealistic cop.
Related: Every The Wire Actor Who Returned For We Own This City
Prior to his interrogation and the flashback to his pre-corruption days, Jenkins sits alone in the interrogation room, aggressively staring at the security camera in the corner of the ceiling. He is the epitome of a caged animal, full of righteous indignation at the injustice of his imprisonment, but not because he's done nothing — because someone has dared to take him down. When Bernthal breaks the fourth wall in We Own This City episode 2, he's continuing to break rules, indicating he is certain he's above usual restrictions, and it's almost a provocation of the audience too. How dare anyone throw «the
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