As
Marlo's crew searches in vain, an injured
Omar hides himself in the same building where he was ambushed by Michael, O-Dog,
Partlow, and
Snoop. He threatens
Fat Face Rick and takes his gun, which he uses to wound a
Stanfield soldier before setting fire to one of Marlo's cash pickups. Marlo increases the
bounty on Omar's head, suspends the meetings of the New Day Co-Op, and ups the wholesale drug price for its members. A wary
Slim Charles declines Marlo's offer for control of the
Baltimore County territories, which are instead given to
Cheese. At the
Baltimore Sun,
Templeton's reporting on the "
serial killer" gets national attention, leading editors
Whiting and
Klebanow to ask for a follow-up article. Templeton spends the night under the
Jones Falls Expressway and interviews Terry, a homeless
Iraq War veteran with
PTSD.
Gus is pleasantly surprised with the high quality of Templeton's piece, but remains skeptical of his reporting overall. He asks Templeton to pursue a report from Fletcher of a complaint on Templeton's story about a woman who died from
seafood poisoning. When Templeton claims the complaint was false, Gus takes his word at face value, but remains suspicious.
McNulty realizes that Templeton made up a few details of his own about the killer.
Bunk, still disgusted with McNulty's behavior, dives back into the old murder cases tied to Marlo's crew. He decides to interview
Randy Wagstaff, who remains in his group home, but he refuses to cooperate.
Greggs tells Bunk that an informant implicated Marlo's crew for her triple homicide. They learn that evidence from the
vacant murders has become irrevocably jumbled due to human error. Bunk then investigates the killing of Bug's father and interviews
Michael's mother. While there, she implies Chris and Snoop were the killers, leaving Bunk surprised. He is given a folder of stolen
grand jury indictments found in
Proposition Joe's shop. Meanwhile,
Mayor Carcetti hosts a ribbon-cutting ceremony for portside condos while being heckled by ex-
dockworkers, including
Nick Sobotka. Later, Carcetti gives a passionate press conference vowing to protect the homeless from the "serial killer."
Wilson and Steinhorf suggest that running on defending the homeless may be Carcetti's key to getting elected
governor.
Daniels hands the stolen indictments to
Pearlman and
Bond, who realize there is a leak in the courthouse. Bond also makes clear that he will be handling the Clay Davis trial alone (with the implication being that he wants to ensure that the spotlight shines solely on himself), and that he wants to remove some witnesses from the trial list. Judge
Daniel Phelan declines McNulty and Pearlman's request for a wiretap on the
Sun's phones. Freamon reveals his illegal wiretap of Marlo to Sydnor, who agrees to help. He determines that Marlo is sending photos, but a new wiretap authorization is needed to see what is being sent. McNulty finds that, with police now arriving on the scene immediately whenever a homeless person turns up dead, he is unable to stage more serial murders. He comes across a mentally ill homeless man named Larry and, with Freamon's help, photographs him with the "killer"'s trademark ribbon, after which Larry will never be seen again; the killer, according to the cover story, will now only send photos of his victims to the press, and their bodies will not be found. McNulty gives Larry $100 and drives him down to a homeless shelter in
Richmond,
Virginia, giving him a stolen ID card. As he leaves, he feels a pang of guilt over what he has done to Larry. ==Production==