"I hate the smart ones"
Returning to the S.W.A.T. proposals in this new year.
What's the work?[]
S.W.A.T. is an action-drama police procedural series focussing on an LAPD SWAT team, and specifically team leader Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson who must deal with the struggles of being a black officer in modern-day America. Other major characters include Hondo's second-in-command Deacon Kay, third-generation SWAT veteran Dominique Luca, officer Christina "Chris" Alonso, and new recruit Jim Street who often causes problems due to his impulsive behavior and sometimes bad judgement. The series was based on another series of the same name from 1975.
Who is the candidate?[]
Cyrus Wadel is introduced in the season three episode "Hotel L.A." as the leader of the One-Niners, an African-American drug gang. He presumably took over the 'Niners sometime after the previous boss Katrell Porter was defeated in an earlier series. Cyrus is noted to be smarter than most street thugs and desires to solve the biggest problem facing all the gangs in Los Angeles, that being how to smuggle their products into the US securely. He eventually manages to come up with a solution. A cartel called the Rabiosos once built a smuggling tunnel to run all the way from LA to the border. Most people believe the tunnel was never finished and so law enforcement have overlooked it completely, but Cyrus manages to locate it and confirms that it does actually go to the border by walking the whole thing himself...a distance of 2,377 kilometres. That's some dedication right there.
Having secured a pipeline for his drugs, Cyrus sees potential to make even bigger profits and arranges a meeting with the leaders of three rival gangs at the Los Angeles Hotel. He pitches his new drugs pipeline as a joint business operation and offers them the opportunity to buy shares in it. The One-Niners will run the pipeline and allow the other gangs to use it to transport their own goods (drugs, guns, contraband etc.) in return for a share in the business. It's such a good plan that Cyrus is able to deflect all criticisms of it with suavity and charisma.
Unfortunately for Cyrus, the LAPD has somehow found out about the meeting and are monitoring the whole thing from the next building, preparing to send a SWAT team in to arrest everybody once the meeting ends. SWAT's plan predictably goes to shit when there's an unrelated shooting in the hotel lobby which forces SWAT to go in early. The meeting is on the tenth floor so the baddies don't initially realize that anything's wrong, but Cyrus has stationed spotters nearby so he is quickly warned about the police presence. All the other gang leaders panic and start running, but Cyrus remains strangely calm and stays put. SWAT capture the other bad guys quite easily but realize Cyrus has vanished, having last been seen entering a stairwell with no cameras.
It eventually turns out that Cyrus predicted something like this might happen and is in league with the hotel's corrupt manager Greg Russo, who he supplies with drugs and hookers for his rich guests in return for being allowed to use the hotel. Russo has been giving him info about SWAT's progress and the layout of the hotel to help him avoid capture. Using Russo's information Cyrus comes up with an exit strategy. He finds and breaks into the service wing to steal a janitor's uniform which he uses to disguise himself. He then makes his way to the top floor, where a wealthy woman named Othella Baker is delivering a seminar, and infiltrates it by pretending to be fleeing from the gang members. Once SWAT warns the people inside who Cyrus is, he takes Othella hostage, reasoning that she's rich and a friend of the mayor and thus a more valuable prisoner than anyone else. He gets Russo to send him the location of an escape route on the roof before releasing the other hostages in the room as a distraction for his escape. Unfortunately for him Russo has already been arrested and the escape route he sent doesn't exist, leaving Cyrus stuck on the roof with 20-Squad. Cyrus refuses to surrender, as he would rather die than be just another number in the crime statistics, and says that he and Othella aren't both going to survive... before jumping off the roof to his death, leaving her unharmed.
Is he magnificent?[]
Cyrus is a charismatic and intelligent leader who comes up with a brilliant plan to expand his business that even surprises the other gang leaders. While he doesn't get to put his plan into operation it's made clear that it would never have been stopped if the police weren't already watching him. Once he finds out that the cops are raiding the building he has an escape plan ready to go and avoids capture for much longer than all the other bad guys. He's also a lot less willing to harm innocent people than most other criminals in the series, as although he kidnaps Othella he doesn't really intend to kill her and ends up committing suicide when 20-Squad call his bluff. This makes him more sympathetic than his rivals who repeatedly try to harm innocent bystanders in their efforts to escape the hotel.
Is he a baddie? Too much?[]
Obviously he's a gangster who plans to turn the One-Niners into the most powerful drug cartel in LA, as well as helping other gangs to smuggle and traffic illegal goods such as guns and drugs. Although he doesn't harm Othella Baker at all he still kidnaps her to use as a hostage, and he was planning to take everyone at her seminar as hostages before realising she was the most valuable. He isn't too evil though because apart from kidnapping Othella all of his crimes are offscreen and aren't dwelt on.
Final verdict[]
Yes.