"Lambs to the slaughter here."
— Marcia Donnelly
With Daniels in command of the Western District, the MCU is now led by Lt. Jimmy Asher, who is more interested in his upcoming retirement, and is effectively letting Freamon run the unit. Although they have wires on several of Marlo's people, they are surprised by the lack of bodies. What they don't know is when Marlo orders a hit, he does so in person, and enforcers Chris Partlow and Felicia "Snoop" Pearson take the victim to a vacant row house, kill them, cover them with quicklime and seal the vacant up. Following the Barksdale money trail, Freamon presses a reluctant Pearlman to issue subpoenas for financial records to several high ranking political figures - the very same territory that got the original detail shut down three years previously.
Meanwhile, since the fall of the Barksdale empire, Bodie is operating as an independent dealer on a corner with little to no business. As Prez prepares for his new career as a schoolteacher, four friends, Michael Lee, Namond Brice, Randy Wagstaff and Duquan "Dukie" Weems enjoy the last few days of summer. Elsewhere, the mayoral election campaign between city councils Carcetti and Gray and incumbent Mayor Royce enters its final stages, and despite encouragement from his campaign manager, Norman Wilson, Carcetti is disillusioned about his chances of winning.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Carver suggests sending one of Bodie's crew to remedial math class so he won't screw up the count, Bodie chuckles.
- Admiring the Poster: Mayoral hopeful Tom Carcetti smiles and mouths a kiss at a playboy-style poster he put up in one of the rooms inside his campaign headquarters, featuring a curly-haired woman leaning down to touch her feet.
- The Alleged Boss/Clueless Boss: Asher, though that suits Lester's purposes just fine.
- Brutal Honesty: Carcetti does a mockery of what an honest campaign donation call would sound like:Hey there, Jim. Tom Carcetti here, remember me? We met at your sister's house you know, the one that's married to that Republican cunt. I know you don't remember me. I know you don't have any use for fucking politicians, and frankly, I don't give a flying fuck about what you think or what your concerns are. But I do care about what your cute little blonde wife thinks about so many things. But, Jim, the reason I'm calling is because I want you to write me out a check for $4,000, the maximum allowed by law. Because we don't trust you to actually mail that check, we're gonna send over a couple of furloughed DPW workers to beat the check out of you.
- Character Development: Compare the Carver at the beginning of last season, when he was still willing to do things "the Western District way", to the more thoughtful Carver here. Colicchio, by contrast, hasn't changed a bit.
- Continuity Nod: Herc's Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? tendencies:Herc: Council president's hot as balls.
Royce's Other Bodyguard: I'd fuck you to fuck her, man.
Herc: Yeah? You'd fuck a guy for a chance to fuck a hot broad? You don't think that makes you a faggot or nothing?
Royce's Other Bodyguard: It's just an expression, man. - Epigraph: "Lambs to the slaughter here", said by Donnelly when she first meets Prez.
- Foreshadowing: The way Chris and Snoop get rid of bodies in general, and Lex's in particular, becomes very important over the rest of the season. Also, the qualities each of the four major teen characters show here - Dukie's hidden smarts (and the way
he's always picked on), Michael's leadership skills and ability to take care of himself, Namond's way with words (as well as the fact his bark is ultimately worse than his bite), and Randy's salesmanship and his getting involved in events he shouldn't - all pay off later in the season. The subpoenas Lester wants to send out will also become important in future episodes. - Gay Bravado: Bunk, first with Lester:Bunk: You're my real partner, Lester. My life partner.
Lester: Don't tease, bitch. (chuckles as he leaves)
Bunk: (to Norris) Look at that bowlegged motherfucker. I made him walk like that.- And later with McNulty:McNulty: (after Bunk grabs his ass) You beast.
Bunk: I can't help it. You stirred my manhood, little Boy Blue.
- And later with McNulty:
- In-Series Nickname: Once again, Kima calls Lester "cool Lester Smooth".
- Literary Allusion Title: The title of the episode comes from the non-fiction book by Roger Kahn about the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1940's and 1950's (though it could also refer to the song by Don Henley).
- Lured into a Trap: What happens to Lex.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Lester.Rhonda: Four weeks before the Baltimore City primary, you hand me a stack of drug-money subpoenas that hit a dozen key political figures.
Lester: There's an election? Who's running? - Oh, Crap!: The look on the salesman's face when he realizes Snoop is more dangerous than she appears.
- Also Lex when the woman waiting for him is Snoop and not Patrice. Turning around to find out Chris is right behind him elicits another one.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The secretary at the school says she doesn't want to even try to pronounce Prez's name, so Prez assures her, as well as Withers and Donnelly, that they can just call him Prez.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: While Aiden Gillen put on a convincing American accent throughout season 3, this episode shows a lot of slip, especially during Carcetti's moments of high stress.
- Pragmatic Villainy: When one of his overzealous dealers wants to kill everyone who works with Lex on the corner, Marlo of all people displays this trait by pointing out the corner is out in the middle of nowhere, and there's no need to rack up bodies when there's no crew fighting him, so simply killing Lex is ample enough.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Chad L. Coleman (Dennis), Jamie Hector (Marlo), and Glynn Turman (Royce).
- Rule of Symbolism: Once again, the opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the season; since education is the theme, we see Snoop getting "schooled", as she puts it, on the best product to buy. Also, unlike other characters we see in the story, Snoop is an eager and willing student here.
- Serious Business: Caroline does not like it when someone tries to take the coupons she's been clipping.
- Shout-Out: Edward Tilghman Middle School is named after the police commissioner who let David Simon follow the Baltimore Homicide squad around for a year, and enable him to write his book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.
- Mello describes someone as looking like Opie.
- Terri mentions how Spiro Agnew made his name on the 1968 riots.
- Spell My Name with a "The"/Third-Person Person: "The Bunk expects a call."
- Too Dumb to Live: Even when it is coming from a trusted source, you'd think that Lex would know better than agree to meet alone with anyone alone in the middle of the night in an isolated place after having committed a high profile murder of a high ranking member of an opposing gang, yet he really is that careless.
- There's also Lex killing Fruit in the first place. Bodie straight up told him not to take out a member of Marlo's crew, but Lex didn't listen.
- Water Guns and Balloons: the boys ambush a rival crew with water balloons filled with urine. the aftermath of the attack sees Randy and Namond dodge consequences, and Michael and Duquan getting the worst of it, foreshadowing their roles.
