Sgt. Carver faces discontent of unpaid officers; Mayor Carcetti struggles with keeping a campaign promise; Proposition Joe and others meet to discuss dividing drug frontiers across East Baltimore's county line.
Marlo takes care of some unfinished business and strikes a business deal with Barksdale; Mayor Carcetti's chief of staff searches for good news; frustrated McNulty decides to take matters into his own hands.
Campbell tries to facilitate the transitions in the police department; the newspaper scrambles to confirm surprising news from City Hall; Proposition Joe prepares to make himself scarce.
Marlo forges an alliance with a drug connect; the newspaper gives McNulty increasing attention; Elena confronts him about his behavior.
Templeton makes headlines; Bunk follows up on old leads; McNulty takes an interest in the homeless.
After an unexpected call, Templeton and the newspaper find themselves back in the spotlight; McNulty receives unwanted attention.
Bunk returns a favor; Carcetti must make political deals; Haynes approaches Templeton about his sources.
While Freamon's hard work pays off with a promising lead, McNulty is not in the mood to celebrate; Michael is suspicious about his latest assignment; Bubbles recounts a recent temptation.
Carcetti maps out a damage-control scenario; McNulty asks Landsman to pull police off the homeless case; Haynes' concerns about Templeton fall on deaf ears; Dukie seeks out an old mentor for a loan.
Marlo maintains discipline without bringing police attention; the mayoral candidates hit different campaign trails in the final weeks of the race; McNulty turns down a promotion.
Herc's job with the mayor takes a hard turn; Prez prepares for his first day as a teacher; Carcetti drops a bombshell on the mayor during a televised debate.
Michael proves to be adept as a runner; Rawls replaces Asher with a company man; McNulty and Bunk reminisce.
Freamon and Greggs move to the homicide unit; Cutty gets a job at Tilghman school; Bubbles gives Sherrod an ultimatum to get back in school.
Valchek leaks details of a case to Carcetti; Royce turns against Burrell; Chris tries to enlist Michael into Marlo's ranks.
Carcetti responds to a campaign smear; Randy is accused of a serious transgression; Colvin's special class gets its first enlistees.
Omar calls in a favor; Royce and Carcetti make their peace; Cutty ponders his job future.
Carcetti makes the rounds with members of the force; Herc tries to retrieve his camera; the return of a missing family member dismays Michael.
Bubbles identifies a witness for Herc; Colvin motivates his class; Old Face Andre turns to Proposition Joe for protection.
Burrell sends out a mandate; Kevin comes clean to Marlo; Bubbles gets revenge; Chris takes care of a problem.
Carcetti faces a dilemma; Randy gets the cold shoulder at school; Omar pays a visit to Proposition Joe; Freamon has a revelation.
Burrell offers his support to Daniels; Bubbles' plan backfires; Colvin tries to get Namond off the street; Omar hatches a new plan; McNulty looks to pay back a debt.
Urban reform forces the Barksdale drug crew to find a new home; the mayor informs Burrell that the number of murders must come down.
Omar continues to make bold strikes on Barksdale stash houses; McNulty launches an investigation into a prison suicide.
A blown wire tap forces Daniels' detail to turn to a new target; Omar and his crew stick up a Barksdale stash house; Cutty struggles to stay on the straight and narrow.
Greggs learns how Marlo takes care of business; Carcetti reveals his political ambitions; McNulty reconnects with Stringer.
Colvin arms himself with intelligence from Daniels' detail; Carcetti wants to fix the witness protection program; Omar struggles with dissension in the ranks.
Stringer Bell gets an education in construction management; Bunk delivers a searing message to Omar; Daniels keeps up the front of marriage to Marla.
Herc discovers a blast from the past; Omar grapples with guilt; Bunk receives a gift-wrapped surprise; McNulty tracks Terri to Washington.
McNulty and Greggs embark on a road trip; Carcetti confronts a hurdle; Marlo appears to take the bait.
McNulty and Prez turn up in the wrong alley; Cutty finds help; Bubbles is wired up; Pearlman and Daniels confront a cell-phone company.
Stringer and Avon reminisce; Cutty hits upon an unusual benefactor for his gym; McNulty finds a key piece of the puzzle in an unlikely place.
Avon readies his troops for a war against Marlo; the detail works toward the top rungs of the Barksdale organization; McNulty reassesses his pursuit of Stringer Bell.
Detective Jimmy McNulty finds a body in the Baltimore harbor; Bodie drives to Philadelphia to make a connection for the Barksdale crew.
Valchek seeks revenge for the church gift fiasco; Barksdale runs his empire from his prison cell; police officers investigate the contraband found in The Greek's container.
Bunk and Freamon chase a container ship to Philadelphia; Lt. Cedric Daniels is unhappy with his assignment; McNulty pursues the identity of his Jane Doe.
Ziggy loses his prized Camaro to drug dealers; Col. Rawls puts pressure on Bunk to solve the homicide investigation; Bodie gets heat for weak product.
McNulty gives up on identifying his Jane Doe; Sobotka tries to play a political game on behalf of his union; D'Angelo wants to live outside of Barksdale's umbrella.
Sobotka gives his lobbyist grief over the status of port legislation; Greggs and Prez tap into a circuit of Russian prostitutes; Bell tries to hold it together in the wake of a recent tragedy.
McNulty is back to his old self; Bunk tries to get Daniels and Rawls to look after McNulty; Sobotka meets with the Greek and Vondas; business dries up for Bodie and Poot.
Bodie's effort to improve sales ends disastrously; Ziggy pulls Johnny Fifty into a new caper; McNulty goes under cover in the brothel.
The Detail uses satellite technology to its advantage; Valcheck visits the FBI; Ziggy's deal goes bad.
The Detail makes a desperate move; Omar's suspicions are validated; Sobotka is forced to make a difficult choice.
The detail suffers a setback; Russell and Bunk return to Philadelphia in search of evidence; Brother Mouzone talks with Stringer Bell regarding their agreement.
McNulty (Dominic West) is assigned to a team of outcasts assigned to probe drug lord Avon Barksdale's (Wood Harris) operations.
A witness who testified against D'Angelo is found murdered; Greggs is briefed on the Barksdale probe.
Detectives' inquiries spark a minor riot, causing a boy to lose an eye and giving police a black eye publicity-wise.
Gang members arrested in the raid face arraignment; Greggs and McNulty try to turn Hardcase into an informant.
McNulty's detail tries breaking the code on the gang's pagers; Bell teaches D'Angelo how to train lookouts.
Rawls' demands create strange allies; Wallace and D'Angelo wrestle with their consciences; Omar turns witness.
A tip-off prompts arrest, but Avon and Stringer grow suspicious; another witness to the Grant murder emerges.
McNulty gets Stringer's license-plate number; Omar engages in a violent street encounter.
McNulty and Daniels try to figure out what to do with Wallace; Sydnor and Carver track down one of Barksdale's stash houses.
After a drug bust goes awry, Greggs winds up in intensive care; the police step up the hunt for Savino, Wee-Bey and Little Man.
McNulty and Daniels wire Barksdale's back office; Wallace returns to the projects; D'Angelo makes a run to New York.
Daniels and McNulty attempt to continue the case; Freamon and Bunk try to trace a crucial call; Pearlman and McNulty celebrate a break in the case.