History Recap / TheWireS03E01TimeAfterTime

* ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam: A rather cynical version. The whole neighborhood gathers to watch the demolition of some high-rise housing projects. Most people are glad to see them go, even those who grew up there, because they had been a focal point for some of the worst drug and violent crime in the city. Poot, however, expresses sadness and nostalgia, mainly because that was where he lost his virginity. Bodie mocks him for his AnythingThatMoves reputation, and Bodie says the real tragedy is that they're about to lose a prime drug market.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Burrell asks Daniels why he thinks Drac will get promoted even though he's a knucklehead, Daniels replies, "[[DeadpanSnarker We do it all the time.]]", which Burrell chuckles at.

* TemptingFate: When Mello expresses surprise about Colvin making waves at the Comstat meeting, Colvin mentions he's only a few months from his pension; "What can they do to me?"

* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: When Rawls is telling the commanders how they need to show a drop in felonies, he says, "We are dealing with certainties.You ''will'' reduce the UCR felonies by five percent or more, or, I've always wanted to say this, 'let no man come back alive'."

* SophisticatedAsHell: Especially apparent when Stringer is trying to run his meeting according to Robert's Rules of Order, with highlights such as Shamrock's, "You ain't got the floor. Chair doesn't recognize your ass" or Stringer's, "Adjourn your asses." Not to mention:

* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Seth Gilliam (Carver), Domenick Lombardozzi (Herc), Corey Parker Robinson (Sydnor), Jim True-Frost (Prez), JD Williams (Bodie), and Michael K. Williams (Omar).
* RealSongThemeTune: The Neville Brothers do this season's version of "Way Down in the Hole".

* CatchPhrase: In addition to Herc's "the western district way", [=McNulty=] gets to say, "What the fuck did I do?" after he upsets everyone at the detail meeting.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: When Taylor tries to say his people had responsibility, Rawls interrupts to say, "Goddamit, Marvin, did you just invoke the word 'responsibility' to explain why you didn't get on top of this shit? Did you just do that? I don't think you know what the word means, when I look at the 24s here and plainly see that some .38 caliber asshole is raping your entire district, all the way from Greenmount to fucking Edison Highway."

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: WordOfGod admits any similarities between the major storylines of the season with the WarOnTerror - including the towers coming down, [=McNulty=]'s obsession with catching Stringer, and the feeling they had him before but didn't do it right the first time, and being alone in this belief - are entirely intentional.

When the 221 tower block is demolished by Mayor Clarence Royce as part of Baltimore's inner city urban reform, Bodie, Poot and new Barksdale enforcer Slim Charles suggest new territory should be taken, by force if necessary. However, Stringer maintains it doesn't matter where they operate as long as they have good product. Meanwhile, the MCU is up and running, supplemented with Sydnor and Ofc. Caroline Massey. However, having spent six months with wires on several of Prop Joe's people they have nothing with which to make a case, and, as such, Daniels and Pearlman are considering dropping the wires and trying to get some of the street crew to role on their higher-ups. In the Western District, soon-to-retire Maj. Colvin is growing increasingly disillusioned with both the street scene and his own people, including Carver and Herc. Elsewhere, legendary Barksdale enforcer Dennis "Cutty" Wise is released from prison after fourteen years, finding himself out of touch with the contemporary drug game, while ambitious city council Thomas Carcetti attempts to ingratiate himself with Acting Commissioner Burrell.

Bodie, Poot, and another member of the Barksdale crew are walking towards a stage, where Mayor Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman) is speaking, to see the Terrace Towers demolition. Bodie doesn't really care if the towers are down, or at least pretends he doesn't, while Poot is sad (when he mentions he lost his virginity in the towers, Bodie [[SarcasmMode says they should put up a sign advertising the place as where "Malik Carr first got his dick wet"]]). Bodie points out that the real tragedy, as far as he's concerned, is they no longer have that territory. Mayor Royce, meanwhile, is going on about how the Towers were a blight on the community, but affordable low-income housing will be going up in its place, and he stands with the people who live there, which goes well with the rest of the crowd, as does his promise of a "reform" administration. He has the crowd count down from 10, and at the end, the mayor pushes the plunger and a member of the construction crew there pushes a button. The Towers implode and everyone cheers, although less so when the area is flooded with dust.

[=McNulty=] and Sydnor head into a vacant, and Sydnor complains about having stepped in dog shit ([=McNulty=]: "You hope"). Through a crack in the wall, they can see Cheese and his crew. As they stake out Cheese, Lester, Prez, and new recruit Caroline Massey (Joliet F. Harris) are in the detail office, listening to someone calling to try and get ahold of Cheese. Lester and Prez disagree over what's said. One of Cheese's crew hangs up his phone, goes over to Cheese (who's got a dog on a leash), whispers in his ear, and Cheese nods and they leave. Sydnor points out Cheese has yet to get on a phone, and back at the detail office, Lester complains about that as well.

Carver is now the DEU sergeant in the Western District under Major Colvin. He is briefing his men - Herc, Anthony Colicchio (Benjamin Busch), Kenneth Dozerman (Rick Otto), and a bunch of other officers and detectives, on how to take down a drug crew; they'll ignore the person who runs away, and grab everyone else, and they'll especially keep an eye on whoever has the stash. Everything seems to go according to plan at first - only one kid runs away, and they put everyone else against the wall of a building - but then it looks like the runner took the stash, and there's a long foot and car chase while, in the meantime, another kid takes the real stash. All of the cars eventually regroup in an alley, having lost the kid who was running with a bag. Carver is frustrated by this failure:
->''Hey, listen to me you little fuckin' piece of shit! I'm gonna tell you one thing, and one thing only about the Western boys you are playing with! We do not lose! And we do not forget! And we do not give up! Ever! So I'm only going to say this one time: If you march your ass out here right now and put the bracelets on, we will not kick the living shit out of you! But if you make us go into them weeds for you, or if you make us come back out here tomorrow night, catch you on a corner, I swear to fucking Christ we will beat you longer and harder than you beat your own dick! 'Cause [[EvilWillFail you do not get to win, shitbird!]] We do!''

Carver gets down from the car, still frustrated.

In the funeral home, Stringer is attempting two things; trying to run the meeting of the Barksdale crew, which includes Bodie, Poot, Shamrock (who's behind Stringer, who's at the podium), and newcome Slim Charles (Anwan Glover), according to [[WeirdTradeUnion Robert's Rules of Order]], and trying to convince everyone the new rules of their business, which is product instead of territory. However, neither plan goes very well, even though he reminds everyone [[Recap/TheWireS02E09StrayRounds the deal he made with Proposition Joe]] has given them better product, and the fight over territory is what gets people killed and attracts the attention of the police, no one seems convinced, and while they try to follow the rules, they aren't happy about those either. Stringer eventually loses his temper, at which point they finally listen, and dismisses them.

[=McNulty=] and Sydnor return to the detail office, and Kima and Lester laugh at how worn down they both look. [=McNulty=] goes into Daniels' office, and Rhonda is there as well. They all agree they've gotten nowhere in the six months they've been on Cheese, but [=McNulty=] gets irritated when Daniels and Rhonda start talking about charging the people they can and not extending the wiretaps. He says they don't have a case worth charging, and if they just push things above the street, they'll eventually get Proposition Joe, which will get them Stringer. Daniels says he can't ask for an extension just on blind faith alone, and says they either have to figure out a way to break the case, or let it go. [=McNulty=] seethes.

Major Colvin is in his office at the Western District, interviewing two new uniformed cops, Brian Baker and Aaron Castor, one of whom is the nephew of someone Colvin knew ("Good police"). He asks where they are, and while they say "the Western", they don't know specifically, and Colvin has to point out if they're on patrol and in trouble, they have to know exactly where they are in order to get help. He's even more exasperated when they don't know which way is north, and gives them both compasses. The two officers leave Colvin's office, and Carver and Herc good-naturedly tease them ("[[DeadpanSnarker I'm at a desk outside the roll call room on the first floor of 1034 North Mount. My feet are facing west and my dick is pointing south-southwest!]]"), while assuring them Colvin's been giving that speech to every newcomer in the District. Colvin comes by, sees the runner they've grabbed, and asks if there's a charge. He's exasperated when he learns the charge is merely loitering in a drug-free zone and fleeing the scene, and there were no drugs. Herc says they took him "[[CatchPhrase the western district way]]" (Colicchio fist-bumps him on that), and when Colvin asks what they've learned, that drug runners can't run from a drug corner in that sector without Herc giving them a boot up the ass. Colvin sighs.

Bubbles and Johnny are rolling along with a shopping cart full of cast-iron, which they figure they can sell for good money, when they lose control of the cart and it crashes into an SUV. Unfortunately for Bubbles and Johnny, the owner of the SUV is a driver for drug dealer Marlo Stanfield, and is not happy, slamming Johnny onto the hood of the car and pointing his gun at him. Marlo comes out from an apartment, and asks what's going on as Bubbles begs for forgiveness. Marlo is dismissive ("Do it or don't, but I got someplace to be"), and his men decide not to kill Johnny, but since they have no money, they're forced to give up their pants, and Bubbles tells Johnny they need to stop at K-Mart and get pants after they get paid.

With Burrell's promotion to Commissioner, Rawls has been promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Operations. The two are in front of a city council subcommittee being chaired by Councilmen Tommy Carcetti (Creator/AidanGillen) and Tony Gray (Christopher Mann). Carcetti asks how they plan to deal with the increase in crime, and Burrell defers to Rawls, who says they're putting more people on the 7-3 shift. Carcetti isn't happy with this answer, but he lets it go and adjourns the meeting, saying he'll see them at the quarterly budget review the following evening. As Carcetti adjourns the meeting, he sees Marla Daniels with Delegate Odell Watkins, who's in a wheelchair and in the back of the hall. In the corridor, Carcetti catches up with Burrell, and they make a plan to meet in half an hour for lunch. As Burrell leaves, Gray joins Carcetti, and Carcetti asks him about Watkins and Marla.

Kima, Lester and [=McNulty=] are photographing a drug dealer known as Drac, whom is the talkingest motherfucker Lester has ever heard on a wiretap. As proof, he plays back a tape where Drac is trying to talk in code but eventually loses patience and shouts, "Cocaine, nigga!", and the three of them laugh. Lester also identifies Drac as Proposition Joe's nephew on his mother's side, and if the detail can bust a mid-level dealer named Lavell (whom Sydnor has a line on), Drac will get promoted, and that would get them a line on Proposition Joe.

Bubbles and Johnny are able to sell their ill-gotten gains at a junkyard, and the junkman asks, "[[CaptainObvious Y'all know you ain't got pants?]]"

Carcetti and Burrell are eating lunch, and Carcetti is entertaining him with a story of a guy from his district who had adverse dealings with UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter before getting to his point; he's worried about what's happening to the city, especially with the rise in crime, and tells Burrell while he says he knows Burrell can't cross the mayor publicly, Burrell should come to Carcetti for help if Burrell can't get what he needs. Burrell, however, says he's not about to go outside the chain of command. He says he'll get lunch, and leaves.

In the jail yard, the inmates are playing baseball, and one inmate, Dennis "Cutty" Wise is leaning against the fence with Wee-Bey. Wee-Bey asks what Cutty's going to do when he gets out of prison (he's getting released the next day), and Cutty's evasive at first before saying he's going home. Avon walks over to meet them, and the game stops until Avon finishes crossing the field. Avon greets the two of them, congratulates Cutty on getting out, and tells him he'll need a "soldier" since the towers came down and Avon's looking to expand his business, especially since [[Recap/TheWireS02E04HardCases he'll be getting out soon]]. Wee-Bey gives Cutty a number, and Avon tells Cutty to call it when he gets out, and he'll be put to work. As Cutty joins his team on the field, Avon worries prison might have broken Cutty, but Wee-Bey assures him there's nothing to worry about.

Bubbles and Johnny are trying to buy drugs, but they don't have enough for one vial for each of them, and the dealer they try to buy from won't accept their promise to pay them back later, so they have to split one.

While Burrell is playing OfficeGolf, Daniels tells him about their plans for Drac. Burrell in turn tells Daniels his promotion (to Major) is being held up, as Mayor is none too happy about Marla running against Eunetta Perkins, one of the mayor's allies, for a council seat. Daniels reminds Burrell [[Recap/TheWireS02E04HardCases they had a deal]], and Burrell points out by submitting Daniels' name and giving him the Major Case squad, he's fulfilled the deal.

Bunk and [=McNulty=], along with Bunk's son, are at Camden Yards, watching the Orioles play the White Sox. [=McNulty=]'s looking for Elena, since she's dropping their sons off with him in the middle of the fourth inning. [=McNulty=] finally sees Elena, and notices with disgust she's with another man, and being quite friendly with him.

Bubbles and Johnny are in a squat, and while Johnny is doing okay, Bubbles is upset how hard they worked only to get screwed over, and he can't even get high.

[=McNulty=] greets his sons in the entryway, and they go on and on about the great seats they have. They look unhappy when [=McNulty=] tells them where he is, but Elena points out they haven't seen their father in a while. Elena's current boyfriend shows up and attempts to greet [=McNulty=], but gets nowhere.

Norris is working a murder scene in an alleyway when he gets a call on his cellphone about another murder. Norris points out he's already working one, and when he hears Cole is handling a stabbing, says they should call Bunk even though it's his day off.

Bunk is trying to engage [=McNulty=] in conversation, but [=McNulty=] is busy staring at Elena and her new boyfriend (even "I'm thinking of becoming a woman" fails to rouse him). Bunk's interrupted by a call from his cell phone, and when he learns what it's about, tries to point out he's at the game (he even holds up his phone so the caller can hear the crowd), but when he hears how shorthanded the squad is, sighs and says he'll take the call. He tells his son [=McNulty=] will take him home, says goodbye to [=McNulty=], and leaves.

The next day, Cutty walks towards a housing project, finds his grandmother's house, and greets her when she opens the door.

Burrell and Rawls are running a meeting of police commanders at Comstat, and Rawls is grilling Major Marvin Taylor (Barnett Milton Lloyd) about a cluster of armed robberies committed in his district. Rawls isn't too pleased to find that Taylor isn't on top of the situation. Burrell, in turn, complains to a subordinate about Carcetti. Colvin turns to Mello during Rawls' tirade, and commiserates, though Mello points out it's better Taylor than him.

At the detail office, Sydnor is getting prepped for the buy-and-bust, and he's not worried. Rhonda goes over to Daniels' office, and after learning he's living there for now, tells him they're ready. Daniels tells everyone Drac is counting on them, and tells them to "mount up".

The operation goes exactly as planned - Sydnor makes the buy, Kima and [=McNulty=] overhear it, the police arrest Lavell and his crew, and Kima "arrests" Sydnor for show, and leads him away while pretending to be angry when he yells, "Somebody snitching!"

Cutty goes to a pay phone and makes a call; he's told where to go for a meet.

The detail listen to Drac brag about how he'll get promoted thanks to the bust, and Caroline says he won't shut up, to which Lester responds, "[[DeadpanSnarker You say that like it's a bad thing.]]"

Cutty is on a corner when a car swings by, and Shamrock tells Cutty to grab a bag of drugs he sees under the stairs of a housing project a young kid is standing by, and when he's done with that, he'll get some real work. Cutty grabs the bag, but isn't happy about it.

Daniels goes home and awkwardly greets Marla. She brings him into the living room, where Delegate Watkins and members of her campaign team are, and he greets them all. He says he'll do anything to help, awkwardly kisses Marla on the cheek, says he'll let them get to their meeting, and exits the living room.

Burrell and Rawls walk into the quarterly budget review meeting, and are surprised and upset to find the media is there.

At the detail office, everyone listens in dismay as they hear Drac has been passed over in favor of Cheese.

At the budget meeting, Carcetti is grilling Burrell and Rawls at how the money that should be going to line officers and detectives is instead going to things like majors going to a police conference in Florida. Burrell tries to speak up, but Carcetti is having none of it.

Daniels is close to falling asleep on a couch when Marla wakes him up to tell them everyone's left. Daniels gets ready to leave, and Marla tries to apologize for making him go through the charade, but Daniels assures her it's okay, and she's done enough for his career that he owes her.

In Mayor Royce's office, Coleman Parker (Cleo Reginald Pizana), Royce's chief of staff, is telling Burrell and Royce that Carcetti's district has everything they need, so that's not why he's going after Burrell on crime. Royce thinks he might be gearing up for a run for mayor, and [[TemptingFate laughs at the unlikelihood of that happening]]. Burrell asks what they can do to get Carcetti off his back, and Royce and Parker decide they should keep the number of murders under 275 for the year, which Burrell isn't happy about, but he reluctantly agrees.

Burrell and Rawls tell the assembled commanders at Comstat the mayor's orders about the murders, as well as reducing the felony rate by 5%. Rawls adds, "[[ExactWords I don't care how you do it, just fucking do it.]]" No one is happy about this, but everyone stays mum, except for Colvin, who points out they can't make bodies just disappear to drive down the murder rate. Rawls gives Colvin a DeathGlare as Burrell reminds everyone that since they were appointed to their positions, they could easily lose them. As the meeting breaks up, Valchek laughs in amazement at Colvin, and wonders what got into him. Colvin points out he's got six months till he can retire on a major's pension; "[[TemptingFate The hell can they do to me.]]"

Cutty is across the street from a drug corner, watching how things are working.

At the detail office, everyone is regrouping and wondering what they can do next. [=McNulty=], of course, is still obsessed with nailing Stringer, and is upset when Rhonda says they should move on to another case. Even Daniels and Lester are ready to move on, but [=McNulty=] won't listen.

Cutty goes to Fruit (Brandon Fobbs), the leader of the crew working the corner (he works for Marlo), and offers to sell him the package he has. After they haggle about the split, they settle on 60-40.

Mello is briefing the officers at the western, and tells them he's been asked from on high to tell everyone [[BrickJoke to stop throwing empty beer cans on the roof]]. After he dismisses them, Colvin drops by and says he's going to take a drive around his district. As he walks out, he passes Carver and Herc, and learns, to his dismay, they've only busted someone for possession.

At the detail, [=McNulty=] decides on a whim to look back into the Barksdale case files. Prez comes in to work the late shift, and asks [=McNulty=] what he's doing; [=McNulty=] replies, "[[HistoryRepeats You don't look at what you did before, you do the same shit all over.]]"

That night, Cutty tries to collect from Fruit (as his crew gets ready to have sex with a naked woman), but Fruit claims the package was stolen. Cutty isn't buying that, but Fruit doesn't care, and pulls a gun on him. Cutty steps back. He walks away as Colvin passes him driving through his district. As he drives through, while most of the dealers recognize Colvin as police, one of them, Justin (Justin Burley) tries to sell him drugs, which Colvin can't believe, and it's not until he puts on his cap that Justin finally recognizes him as police. Colvin drives away.

This episode contains examples of:

With Burrell's promotion to Commissioner, Rawls has been promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Operations. The two are in front of a city council subcommittee being chaired by Councilmen Tommy Carcetti and Tony Gray. Carcetti asks how they plan to deal with the increase in crime, and Burrell defers to Rawls, who says they're putting more people on the 7-3 shift. Carcetti isn't happy with this answer, but he lets it go and adjourns the meeting, saying he'll see them at the quarterly budget review the following evening. As Carcetti adjourns the meeting, he sees Marla Daniels with Delegate Odell Watkins, who's in a wheelchair and in the back of the hall. In the corridor, Carcetti catches up with Burrell, and they make a plan to meet in half an hour for lunch. As Burrell leaves, Gray joins Carcetti, and Carcetti asks him about Watkins and Marla.

-->'''Herc:''' He's a complicated man, and the only one who understands him is his woman.

Carver, now a DEU sergeant in the Western District under Major Colvin, is briefing his men - Herc, Anthony Colicchio (Benjamin Busch), Kenneth Dozerman (Rick Otto), and a bunch of other officers and detectives, on how to take down a drug crew; they'll ignore the person who runs away, and grab everyone else, and they'll especially keep an eye on whoever has the stash. Everything seems to go according to plan at first - only one kid runs away, and they put everyone else against the wall of a building - but then it looks like the runner took the stash, and there's a long foot and car chase while, in the meantime, another kid takes the real stash. All of the cars eventually regroup in an alley, having lost the kid who was running with a bag. Carver is frustrated by this failure:

Major Colvin is in his office at the Western District, interviewing two new uniformed cops, Brian Baker and Aaron Castor, one of whom is the nephew of someone Colvin knew ("Good police"). He asks where they are, and while they say "the Western", they don't know specifically, and Colvin has to point out if they're on patrol and in trouble, they have to know exactly where they are in order to get help. He's even more exasperated when they don't know which way is north, and gives them both compasses. The two officers leave Colvin's office, and Carver and Herc good-naturedly tease them (Carver: "[[DeadpanSnarker I'm at a desk outside the roll call room on the first floor of 1034 North Mount. My feet are facing west and my dick is pointing south-southwest!]]"), while assuring them Colvin's been giving that speech to every newcomer in the District. Colvin comes by, sees the runner they've grabbed, and asks if there's a charge. He's exasperated when he learns the charge is merely loitering in a drug-free zone and fleeing the scene, and there were no drugs. Herc says they took him "[[CatchPhrase the western district way]]" (Colicchio fist-bumps him on that), and when Colvin asks what they've learned, that drug runners can't run from a drug corner in that sector without Herc giving them a boot up the ass. Colvin sighs.

* TheBusCameBack: Sydnor, who was gone from Season 2 without any explanation, returns to the Major Case squad without any explanation.

* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: When Rawls is telling the commanders how they need to show a drop in felonies, he says, "You will reduce the UCR felonies by five percent or more, or - I've always wanted to say this - let no man come back alive".

[=McNulty=] and Sydnor head into a vacant, and Sydnor complains about having stepped in dog shit ([=McNulty=]: "You hope"). Through a crack in the wall, they can see Cheese and his crew. As they stake out Cheese, Lester, Prez, and Caroline Massey (Joliet F. Harris) are in the detail office, listening to someone calling to try and get ahold of Cheese. Lester and Prez disagree over what's said. One of Cheese's crew hangs up his phone, goes over to Cheese (who's got a dog on a leash), whispers in his ear, and Cheese nods and they leave. Sydnor points out Cheese has yet to get on a phone, and back at the detail office, Lester complains about that as well.

Carver is briefing Herc and Officers Anthony Colicchio (Benjamin Busch) and Kenneth Dozerman (Rick Otto), along with other officers and detectives, on how to take down a drug crew; they'll ignore the person who runs away, and grab everyone else, and they'll especially keep an eye on whoever has the stash. Everything seems to go according to plan at first - only one kid runs away, and they put everyone else against the wall of a building - but then it looks like the kid who ran took the stash, and there's a long foot and car chase while, in the meantime, another kid takes the real stash. All of the cars eventually regroup in an alley, having lost the kid who was running with a bag, and a frustrated Carver gets on the hood of a car and starts yelling:

In the funeral home, Stringer is attempting two things; trying to run the meeting of the Barksdale crew, which includes Bodie, Poot, Shamrock (who's behind Stringer, who's at the podium), and Slim Charles (Anwan Glover), according to [[WeirdTradeUnion Robert's Rules of Order]], and trying to convince everyone the new rules of their business, which is product instead of territory. However, neither plan goes very well, even though he reminds everyone [[Recap/TheWireS02E09StrayRounds the deal he made with Proposition Joe]] has given them better product, and the fight over territory is what gets people killed and attracts the attention of the police, no one seems convinced, and while they try to follow the rules, they aren't happy about those either. Stringer eventually loses his temper, at which point they finally listen, and dismisses them.

Colvin is in his office at the western district police department, interviewing two new uniformed cops, one of whom is the nephew of someone Colvin knew ("Good police"). He asks where they are, and while they say "the western", they don't know specifically, and Colvin has to point out if they're on patrol and in trouble, they have to know exactly where they are in order to get help. He's even more exasperated when they don't know which way is north, and gives them both compasses. Both of them go downstairs, and Carver and Herc good-naturedly tease them (Carver: "[[DeadpanSnarker I'm at a desk outside the roll call room on the first floor of 1034 North Mount. And my feet are facing west and my dick is pointing south, southwest.]]"), while assuring them Colvin's been giving that speech for a long time. Colvin comes by, sees the runner they've grabbed, and asks if there's a charge. He's exasperated when he learns the charge is merely loitering in a drug-free zone and fleeing the scene, and there were no drugs. Herc says they took him "[[CatchPhrase the western district way]]" (Colicchio fist-bumps him on that), and when Colvin asks what they've learned, that drug runners can't run from a drug corner in that sector without Herc giving them a boot up the ass. Colvin sighs.

Burrell and Rawls (recently promoted to Deputy Ops) are in front of a city council subcommittee being chaired by Councilmen Tommy Carcetti and Tony Gray. Carcetti asks how they plan to deal with the increase in crime, and Burrell defers to Rawls, who says they're putting more people on the 7-3 shift. Carcetti isn't happy with this answer, but he lets it go and adjourns the meeting, saying he'll see them at the quarterly budget review the following evening. As Carcetti adjourns the meeting, he sees Marla Daniels with Delegate Odell Watkins, who's in a wheelchair and in the back of the hall. In the corridor, Carcetti catches up with Burrell, and they make a plan to meet in half an hour for lunch. As Burrell leaves, Gray joins Carcetti, and Carcetti asks him about Watkins and Marla.

In the jail yard, the inmates are playing baseball, and Dennis "Cutty" Wise is leaning against the fence with Wee-Bey. Wee-Bey asks what Cutty's going to do when he gets out of prison (he's getting released the next day), and Cutty's evasive at first before saying he's going home. Avon walks over to meet them, and the game stops until Avon finishes crossing the field. Avon greets the two of them, congratulates Cutty on getting out, and tells him he'll need a "soldier" since the towers came down and Avon's looking to expand his business, especially since [[Recap/TheWireS02E04HardCases he'll be getting out soon]]. Wee-Bey gives Cutty a number, and Avon tells Cutty to call it when he gets out, and he'll be put to work. As Cutty joins his team on the field, Avon worries prison might have broken Cutty, but Wee-Bey assures him there's nothing to worry about.

Burrell and Rawls are running a meeting of police commanders at Comstat, and Rawls is grilling Major Marvin Taylor (Barnett Milton Lloyd) about the robberies that took place in his district. Rawls isn't too pleased to find that Taylor isn't on top of the situation. Burrell, in turn, complains to a subordinate about Carcetti. Colvin turns to Mello during Rawls' tirade, and commiserates, though Mello points out it's better Taylor than him.

The operation goes exactly as planned - Sydnor makes the buy, Kima and [=McNulty=] overhear it, the police arrest Lavell and his crew, and Kima "arrests" Sydnor and leads him away while pretending to be angry when he yells, "Somebody snitching!"

* ShoutOut: When Carver and the others are getting ready to bust the corner, Herc puts the theme from Film/{{Shaft}} on his car stereo.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: When Taylor tries to say his people had responsibility, Rawls snaps, "Goddamit, Marvin, did you just invoke the word 'responsibility' to explain why you didn't get on top of this shit? Did you just do that? I don't think you know what the word means, when I look at the 24s here and plainly see that some .38 caliber asshole is raping your entire district, all the way from Greenmount to fucking Edison Highway."