( dog barking )
( helicopter whirring )
( chattering )
( radio alarm ) ¶ incarcerated... ¶
Rise and shine!
C'mon, man, get up!
Oh, boy. C'mon, get up!
It's a school day, y'all gonna be late!
Let's go, get to school.
Go, get up, c'mon, man.
- Damn, wallace. - Damn, wallace, nothin'.
Little hoppers like y'all don't go to school,
And soon enough they goin' be callin' around
And all y'all end up in foster care.
Y'all want foster care?
Just climb your little black asses back in them beds, then.
Get out of my way, man.
Damn, too early for this shit!
( children laughing )
( sirens blaring )
Narcos?
Naw, rollers, man.
Yo, where's breakfast at?
Here, man, take your chips.
I want two bags.
No, man, you ain't gettin' no two.
Quit being greedy. Take your chips!
Ah, c'mon, here, take your juice.
C'mon, man.
Where mine?
Go share with tee-tee. C'mon, man.
Where's your book-bag?
Teacher ain't give no homework.
C'mon, man.
( music playing )
This is the worst case suicide i've ever seen.
That's him.
You see?
That's him, right there.
That's omar's boy.
Go ahead, man.
( theme music playing )
¶ if you walk through the garden ¶
¶ you better watch your back ¶
¶ well, i beg your pardon ¶
¶ walk the straight and narrow track ¶
¶ if you walk through jesus ¶
¶ he'll save your soul ¶
¶ you gotta keep the devil ¶
¶ down in the hole ¶
¶ all the angels sing ¶
¶ about jesus' mighty soul ¶
¶ and they shoot you with your wing ¶
¶ keep you close to the lord ¶
¶ don't pay heed to temptation ¶
¶ oh, your hands are so cold ¶
¶ you got to keep the devil ¶
¶ way down in the hole ¶
¶ way down in the hole. ¶
What the fuck can i tell him?
Whatever the man wants to hear, jimmy.
Whatever he wants to hear.
Prodigal son.
Major, we got a good shot to clear a couple cases here.
One thing--
We're not here to talk cases, mcnulty.
I don't care about your cases.
Sit.
Relax.
I'm a reasonable guy.
In fact, everywhere i go, people say to me,
Bill rawls, you are a reasonable fucking guy.
- Am i right, jay? - You are reasonable, sir.
Yes, yes, i am.
And because your sergeant knows me to be reasonable,
He came in here a couple weeks ago
And reasoned with me, right, jay?
We reasoned, we did.
We reasoned that despite his negligible irish ancestry
And a propensity to talk out of turn,
Jimmy mcnulty is a good worker,
Probably worth saving.
- Major, i'm not-- - he's a good-looking kid, huh?
Do you know what we do here, mcnulty?
What we do here?
That was one of them, what-do-you-call-its,
A question you don't really have to--
A rhetorical question. You were being rhetorical.
Rhetorical and reasonable, sir.
We work murders cases here, detective.
We work them as they come in.
One at a fucking time, it's called a rotation.
You're up 'til you catch one.
When you catch one, you step down,
You work it for a while, someone else steps up.
It's a simple, but effective way to do business
In a town that has 250 to 300 cases a year.
Yes, sir.
But if someone gets it into his head to leave the rotation,
It puts an unfair burden on the other detectives,
Who have to pick up their casework.
Overworked cops make mistakes,
Mistakes lower the unit-wide clearance rate.
And that can make someone who is
Otherwise as reasonable as me...
Unreasonable.
( chuckling )
Detective mcnulty,
I expect to see your ass back here next week
When your shift rotates to night work.
¶ dreams come true, maybe it'll be me and you ¶
¶ things go up and the beat goes on ¶
¶ like one of those nights that goes on too long ¶
¶ maybe one of those songs that could've got ¶
¶ cut the fuck off a long time ago ¶
¶ my friends, still as i lent like i knew you wanna see ¶
¶ should've just followed the laws ¶
¶ the hip-hop laws, you know those laws ¶
¶ there's laws of hip-hop, kid ¶
¶ you should've read that book that i recommended ¶
¶ 'cause if you did, you would see... ¶
( pager beeping )
¶ if you don't have a hip-hop license ¶
¶ you're trying to be rhyming... ¶
He's up early today.
A lot of pager activity last night too.
( reggae music playing )
No woman takes that long.
Yeah, but i look good, right?
Wow, you did all this, huh?
Burn an egg or two, ain't no thing.
Yeah, my mama always said, don't let 'em get to cookin'.
Once they get into your kitchen,
Ain't nothin' left to do but give 'em a key to your house.
I don't want no key. I don't want no house.
And your mama don't know shit about me.
He looks just like you.
Yeah, he do.
Where's his mother?
Around the way.
Yeah, you friends?
Oh, you know, she want a key.
She want a house, she want a car,
She wants some new clothes, a necklace,
She wants some pocket change,
You know, a trip down to the shore,
And she want a credit card with her name on it.
Ain't no such thing as free, right?
When it come to pussy, ain't no free.
I gotta go.
You're working on this one.
Lines on the other two pay phones aren't in yet,
But you'll get 'em tomorrow.
So, we up?
On the low-rise pay phones, yeah.
Let's hear.
Woman: See what i'm talkin' about is he ain't paid no one
And he just think he right to do it.
- Man: Huh. - You see how it go?
So i ain't got shit, i ain't got it.
But, damn, you know.
Thinkin' he all that because he got his family thing.
- Who? - Dee, talkin' about dee.
Hey, it was getting good.
- It's unmonitored. - It's what?
It's unmonitored. We can't listen
To a conversation on an unmonitored pay phone.
What's that mean?
We got a tap on the courtyard pay phone.
By tomorrow we'll be up on two near the high-rises.
But we can't listen to anything unless
We know one of our targets is using the phone.
So, we gotta be out there on those rooftops for hours,
Watching these assholes talk on the phone?
Yep.
It's more bullshit.
Detective, this, right here.
This is the job.
You know, when you came downtown to cid,
What other kind of work were you expecting?
So, what are you gonna do?
Well, i can't get back here in a week.
This case is taking off.
You tell rawls that?
No.
Mcnulty, line three.
Yeah?
Where at?
800 block, in the rear.
Yeah, i got it.
Thanks. Yeah.
( barking )
( laughing )
( police radio chatter )
11-22.
Man on radio: 11-22.
I'm still out here waiting on a lab unit. Do we have an eta?
Negative, they're all out.
Christ.
Damn dog got norris too.
And you didn't think to warn me?
Too much fun not to.
Damn.
Yep. He one of yours?
We found him with the kevlar,
Like the one worden caught last week,
So we thought maybe it might be a connection.
- Yeah, it connects. - How so?
Don't have a name, but he's part of a stickup crew,
Took off a stash house last month.
- My guy, barksdale, is coming back on them. - In a big way.
Jesus, they must've killed this kid four or five times.
Cut him in a dozen places, burned him with cigarettes.
Goddamn torture-fest is what it was.
Doesn't look like your scene either.
Fuck him up somewhere else, dump him here for all to see.
Anything we can use?
Not yet. But we're up on some phones.
If i hear anything, i'll let you know.
11-22.
- Man on radio: 22. - Anything yet?
Or we just stand around here and let this guy go ripe on us?
Are you waiting for crime lab?
Over an hour.
Only two units on the street and both of 'em are up
At the city council president's house.
What happened there?
Someone stole his lawn furniture.
They're up there taking pictures of an empty patio
And dusting the backyard gate for latents.
I kid you not.
I swear to god, you show me the son of a bitch
That can fix this police department,
I'd give back half my overtime.
He was all cut up and shit,
His insides was hangin' out.
That's fucked up, yo. I mean, damn.
Sometimes, you gotta send a message, yo.
I mean, yo, when you picked up that phone,
What you think they was gonna do, huh?
Shit, all that shit is in the game, man. You know that.
Yeah, like you and that girl, huh?
- What girl? - The one in the apartment.
- Come here, man. - The one you told us about, remember?
I mean, i liked what you said about all that killing, you know.
Especially that part about how it ain't got to be like that.
Just sell the shit and move on.
Get me a ginger ale and get something for yourself.
Boy: Yo, day, c'mon.
Yeah, i know, i remember that, but it ain't like that, is it?
- ( pager beeping ) - yeah, i know.
I know it ain't.
Thing about it was his eye, his eye was blown out,
And the other one was open...
And, yo, dee, it fucks me up!
It's like he's looking out,
Like he sees everything, you know?
Don't think about it.
I can't.
Fuck!
Yo, let that shit go.
Just let it go.
Yeah, barksdale kid on the line.
He's beeping someone.
Who threw that? You got a good arm. Go deep.
( phone ringing )
- Yo. - What up?
- Yo, you ain't him. - Hold on, hold on.
Hey, yo, strings, it's dee.
Strings: Yeah.
Dee: Yeah, you hit me?
Yeah, yeah, um... I wanted to know,
If you know young hopper, the one they got down there?
Which one?
You know, the fool who dropped the man with a punch, you know?
Oh, yeah, yeah, what about him?
He got some promise, right?
What you mean?
Enough to bring home, right?
You know, man, whatever.
A'ight.
( phone clicking )
( beeping )
They bringin' bodie home.
The young boy who was with him,
Light-skinned kid from the cemetery.
- Greggs: Where? - In the alley behind the 800 block of argyle.
- Right across from the low-rises. - Shot?
- Stabbed, beaten, burned. - Jesus.
- Yeah, we gotta get with omar. - Yeah.
( tires screeching )
Impressive.
It's not often that i see respondents come so prepared
For a juvenile commitment meeting.
In addition to those signed statements
From preston's sponsors at the police athletic league,
I also have a photostated copy of a cashed check,
Which indicates that he is enrolled in the ged program
At the baltimore city community college.
Can i ask how this young man is able to afford, not one,
But two attorneys from your firm, mr. Levy?
This is pro bono, your honor.
My firm is making it a priority to identify
A number of city youths who are in crisis
And to undertake efforts to reorder their lives.
Excuse me, but i can't help but notice
That your client is under a delinquent petition
For the sale of narcotics, and further,
For assault on a police officer.
Beyond that, he walked away from a jsa facility.
Your honor, my client stands ready to acknowledge
That he was involved, for a time,
In the sale of a small amount of drugs,
A transaction for which he received no remuneration,
Having been manipulated
By older traffickers in his neighborhood.
That was a mistake, your honor.
So noted.
However, we will contend that it was preston
Who was the victim of a brutal police beating
Indications of which are still evident on him, your honor.
He struck back,
Wildly and in self-defense, your honor.
- And the walk-away? - Preston was heavily medicated
When he left the cheltenham facility.
In that state, your honor,
He was simply trying to get back to see his grandmother.
Did you know what you were doing
When you left boys village, son?
( clearing throat )
Naw, i was, uh... I was messed up.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Um, just...
I don't know, uh...
I'm ready to be good.
Pending a hearing on these charges to be scheduled
Within six months, i'm putting the respondent
On home monitoring with his grandmother.
Ah, your honor.
I'm afraid mrs. Broadus doesn't have a telephone
For any monitoring calls.
She's on a fixed income, your honor.
How about he calls his probation officer twice a week?
Cool, whatever.
Your honor.
- ( dogs barking ) - ( sirens wailing )
( chattering )
Yeah!
Yo, bubbles, what's the game?
- Hey, johnny. Up an' about, huh? - Yeah.
- Huck. - Bubs.
Where's the scam at here?
Ain't no scam. Thank you, ma'am.
What you got here is an honest day's work
For an honest day's pay. Right, lavell?
Oh, mr. Straight-time, bubbles.
Gotta give a little somethin' back when they least expect it.
Me and huck here, we got somethin' on too.
- We got a plan. - No.
For real, for real.
Yo, we're gonna take off on the copper house.
Damn, johnny. Your first few days out and you goin' get all dramatical.
- The copper house? - Got to be got, homes.
- Yeah, what about the fence? - Fuck the fence.
Fuck the--
- ( laughing ) - how about the dog?
Fuck the dog. Yo, all that time i was resting got me thinking.
Yo, got good to me, too.
Copper house...
Gracious.
I gotta roll. Okay, cash me out.
Yo, if you ain't got dreams, bubs, what the fuck you got?
Thank you. C'mon, dreamer.
( chattering )
( phone rings )
- Yeah? - One of ours on the line.
Got 'em.
Is carv still there?
Hold a sec.
Carv, call for you.
Carver: Yeah, hello?
You ain't gonna believe who i'm lookin' at right now.
Again he walks off?
Ding, round three.
( pay phone ringing )
- Yo. - What up, man?
Yo, stink, what up.
Yo, where your manners, fool?
My bad, yeah.
You need to keep your fuckin' head, boy.
Forgot it.
Um, yo, what's up? Where you at?
I don't know, where you at?
Oh, i'm down in the pit. Just came home.
I don't see nobody around, i just wanted to know,
You know, what was up.
Ain't nothin', goin' late, man.
Oh.
Just catch us tomorrow, man.
- A'ight. - A'ight?
Yeah, a'ight, later.
( clicks )
- ( beeps ) - non-pertinent?
How do you log that non-pertinent?
No drug talk.
They use codes to hide their pager and phone numbers.
And when someone does use a phone,
They don't use names.
And if someone does use a name, he's reminded not to.
All of that is valuable evidence.
Of what?
Conspiracy.
Conspiracy?
We're building something here, detective.
We're building it from scratch.
All the pieces matter, all right?
( tires screeching )
Shit.
Ow, fuck.
Oh, shit.
Are you fucking serious?
Ah, fuck.
You keep walking away from jsa,
We keep kicking your ass.
I'm all right with that, if you are.
Look, i ain't walk away from nowhere, man.
Check my back pocket.
Home monitoring?
Yeah, man, if you ask questions
Before y'all start wilding on niggas,
You might save everybody some trouble.
How the fuck are you home?
Yeah, you know what i mean.
Juvenile judge, man, he saw my potential, okay?
He expects big things from me.
Yeah, like what?
I don't know, college, law school,
Medical school, all that good shit.
Seriously, how are you out?
Look, i'm gonna tell you somethin'.
Okay, this is just my opinion, but, uh...
The juvenile system in this city is fucked up.
It's a big-ass fucking joke, no offense.
Fucking fuck.
Hey.
Look, give me a ride down to my grandma's, we'll call it even.
Man: Hey, yo, hold up!
In back, fucknuts.
Man: Get a line real quick.
( sirens wailing )
Jay!
( music playing )
( honks horn )
Get your ass out of the street, bitch.
- Hey. - Hey.
What's up? What you need?
Little late in the month for this shit, don't you think?
What you mean?
My aunt, she hit the match-four.
You stealing from me, cass?
What?
Raymond, you look fresh today.
Got laid last night, that's why.
Oh, yeah? Your asshole still hurtin'?
- Call jimmy. - What's up, boss?
Rawls finally got around to reading the office reports
That mcnulty tried to give him.
He wants arrest warrants for deidre kresson
And the two project murders that match up to that gun.
I know.
Ah, c'mon, jay. Be right on this.
I can't, it's rawls. He wants warrants today.
All right, no problem.
So, who the fuck are we supposed to charge?
You got a witness that puts d'angelo barksdale
At the scene of the murder, the night of the murder.
You've got a ballistics match between the kresson girl
And the two dead mopes in the project where barksdale hangs.
Run with it.
This weak-ass shit is not gonna get past a grand jury.
Charge the mope and work it more afterward.
Call jimmy, let him know.
Dee: Yo.
All right, listen up, new deal.
Wallace, you goin' be on the stash now
With latroy and peaches.
And what about sterling?
Sterling, he gonna be down on preston lookin' out for a while.
- Cassandra too. - What happened?
- Nothing. - Why you wanna change up then?
Nigga, i got to explain shit to you now?
Stringer bell's pager number?
Stinkum's too, i'm pretty sure.
Very sweet.
If they moved around a bit more, we'd have problems.
But they're a little lazy, you know.
Tend to go to that one pay phone
In the courtyard a little too much.
Jesus.
He's lit at 9:00 in the morning?
Or from the night before.
Detective?
Detective polk.
Yeah, it's mcnulty, bunk paged me.
All right.
Why did you even come in today?
I had some--
To pretend that you were here?
To fill out a run sheet?
I know i missed a couple days last week, lieutenant.
I got run sheets from you every day for the last two weeks.
Twice in carver's handwriting.
Twice it was prez. Once it was mcnulty, i think.
They covered for you.
But i won't.
Well, lieutenant, i, um...
I don't know, i'm not really up for this
Drug thing, you know.
Maybe if mahone was here, i could get into it more.
Learn some new tricks, i'm...
Oh, hell, lieutenant,
Why don't you just send me back to property
And keep everybody happy?
Send you back to property crimes,
So you can binge for two more weeks?
I'm not doing that.
Lieutenant, please, look i...
You were dumped on me, augie.
But it ends there, i don't dump people.
You either go out on those rooftops today
To watch pay phones with the rest of this unit,
Or you go over to the medical office and check yourself in.
- Medical? - For alcohol abuse.
Either dry yourself out, or go up on those rooftops wet.
Take a few minutes and think on it.
- Where'd they go? - Who?
Lieutenant...
We need a file cabinet, or two.
The paperwork from this, i mean...
There's a lot of it.
Lieutenant?
Sir, um...
I'm going to...
Good luck with the case.
( reggae music playing )
Fucking rawls. He's fucking up the case to get to me.
No, he's fucking it up for three paper clearances
On prior cases, jimmy. It ain't personal.
All he's got is d'angelo at the scene through hearsay
And a ballistics match to a couple of unrelated drug murders.
How can he charge that?
Baby, he can charge anything he wants
To get credit for the clearance.
Grand jury doesn't indict, he drops the case, keeps the stats.
I need to go in there and tell him what the fuck he can do.
- No, you don't. - No, i'm trying to build something here,
All rawls can think to do is stick a finger in my eye.
- You talk to landsman? - Jay can't fix this.
Rawls told him to have the warrants typed and ready by morning.
You're telling me he's gonna charge murders
He can't prove just to get the stats?
And fuck up our case in the process.
We give up the ballistics info
And the motive for the kresson killing
In the charging documents and avon barksdale,
He's gonna change up.
And what he don't change up, he'll clean up.
Somebody needs to tell rawls that.
Oh, rawls couldn't care less.
Rawls wants me home and he wants the stats, that's all.
Then we take this to daniels.
- Daniels? - It's his case, he'll fight for it.
- Daniels won't do shit. - He plays stiff every now and then,
- But he's a good man. - Are you kidding me?!
Daniels has been trying to put the brakes on this for weeks now.
This'll be his new excuse to close shop.
Well, look, you guys got to make your move soon.
All right? I'm sorry to say.
- Freamon? - All right, man, take care.
- We tell daniels. - Fuck daniels
And his fucking ass-kissing, up-the-chain- of-command ambition.
What other choice do you got, huh?
We go to daniels. If he fights, he fights.
If he gives it up to rawls, then fuck it,
We were never gonna do the case anyway.
All right, come on.
( rock music playing )
Oh, god.
Fucking idiot!
Come on, get up, stupid, let's go.
I'm hurt, man, i'm hurt.
What are you doing? Leave me alone.
What are you on, dope or something?
- Mostly, yeah. - Come on, get up, get up.
Oh, ow! You tryin' to rip out my guts or something, man?
You tryin' to kill me, man?
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Where you goin'? Where you goin'?
Buddy, i gotta get help.
You can't. You can't leave me here, man.
You gotta stay with me. Stay with me.
All right, let me get you over to the curb.
Go get help, man, what are you doing?
- Stay there, stay there. - Aw, christ.
Damn, boy, that all come out of you?
- Onion soup, campbell's. - Yeah, come on.
Run, forrest, run.
You could go to forester, or the deputy ops.
Why come crying to me?
Why not go to your friend the judge?
I don't see a circuit court judge being able to argue
The city homicide commander out of three murders,
Even if the cases are all weak sisters.
It's put up or shut up time, lieutenant.
Either you step up or you send us all home.
So, this is on me?
I don't see anyone else in charge of this detail.
Rawls is a major.
Rawls is an asshole.
My point is, he ranks me on this.
( scoffs )
The chain-of-command might mean nothing to you, mcnulty.
What i tell you?
( music playing )
( helicopter whirring )
( sirens wailing )
Yo, how we doin'?
We doin' good. We doin' good.
You know, if you say we doing good.
What's up?
So, the word is out about these stickup boys, right?
Yeah, yeah, y'all bein' heard.
A'ight.
There goes shorty right there.
What's up, man, you know?
I'm a man of my word.
You know, i said it was 4,000 on omar,
2,000 on each on the younguns.
This bein' a team effort,
I'm puttin' $500 in the boy's hand for doing the scope,
I'm putting $500 in your hand for doing the relay,
I'm putting $500 in wee-bey hand, bird hand,
For doing the musclin' up.
How you doin' with that other thing?
What?
Everybody a little pressed, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, ain't no surprises yet.
I cut everybody loose on friday,
And they all just a bunch of beggin'-ass bitches, you know.
I mean, ain't nobody showed no money since.
You gonna keep it hummin' though, right, cuz?
Yeah, you know it.
Oh, oh, you got your hands up,
You got your hands up?
You keep on doing, like how you're doing,
We'll be talking about points on the package.
A'ight?
A'ight.
Keep it hummin'.
Yeah, mos def.
A'ight, baby.
Take it light, but take it.
Yeah.
- 40 cents. - No, not 40 cent a foot, no sir.
No sir, look, respectfully, i got to tell you.
For 40 cent a foot, you might as well go ahead
And drive on out to home depot,
Right, and pay them.
They gonna charge you, what, 45, 45, 50 cent a foot.
For copper that isn't stolen.
Look, all right.
35 cent, 35 cent a foot.
And that's all in respect i have for y'all.
What y'all tryin' to do in the our community with these,
These quality domiciles here.
30 cents a foot, take it or leave it.
I understand the interest in clearing these cases, i do.
But charging those murders now,
And putting the information
That we have into the charging documents.
I just call 'em like i see 'em, lieutenant.
Three murders, same gun.
We got this barksdale kid right at the scene on the one.
We're up on a wire.
We're starting to pull good information.
You charge these prematurely and barksdale will change up on us.
The work we've already done.
I can't tell you how to run your case, lieutenant.
I can only run my own.
Major...
I'm asking as a favor.
As a favor?
Yes, sir, a favor.
In that case...
No!
Sorry.
You got off from work early today.
Yep, work sucks.
Are we eating dinner with you?
Why not?
Mom was cooking lasagna.
So, we'll go to little italy, get some lasagna at sabs.
You never cook.
Yeah, cooking sucks too.
( pager beeping )
Who's this?
Man: Hey, yo, i want to see him.
Who?
Brandon, my boy.
Copper house, yo.
Wasn't shit.
My plan, bubs.
Johnny had a plan.
( laughing )
Get out the way, motherfuckers,
This here white boy day.
- I got a plan too. - What?
We gonna wait for that cheap-ass, speculatin' motherfucker
To put that good copper line
Back into them row houses he fixin' up.
And then, before the drywall get up,
We creep back in there and steal that shit right back.
30 cent a foot.
Got to come back at a motherfucker for that, you know?
Yeah.
You good?
I could top off with one more.
Just one, just one more.
Johnny got it.
I'll be back.
( video game sounds )
It's my night with the kids.
( ignition starting )
( johnny shouting ) you ain't gonna buy nothin',
'cause i ain't do nothin', man.
Why don't you just leave me alone, man?
A white man can't walk down the street?
What's that about? Come on, man.
That sucks, man. It's profiling.
What, it's 'cause i'm white, right?
Why don't you just let me--
Oh, man, what the--
What's that? What's that?
That boy ain't got no luck.
Hey.
So...
What you gonna do with your money?
You know, what you should do,
You should take the whole roll
And go do somethin' nice for your girl.
You do have a girl, right?
Yeah, well, anyway,
You got enough money to get yourself one now.
Yo, why you punk sterling like you did?
I mean, he did get shot behind this shit.
I didn't punk him, yo.
So, why you drop him to lookout?
Cass, too.
'cause they was thieving, yo.
Both of them.
They got pissed 'cause i wasn't paying them.
So, sterling, he started shaking up the vials,
Handing off to cass.
She was selling on the side.
You ain't tell anybody?
I mean, stinkum, bodie?
They don't know?
If i tell 'em, what you think they gonna do?
They gonna take a baseball bat to sterling.
Probably one to cassandra, too.
There's too much drama, right?
So, i just took 'em both off the stash.
So, why didn't you pay us?
That wasn't right.
Listen, man.
Stringer thought we had a snitch down here.
You know, with the jumpout, omar, all that shit.
So, he told me to punk y'all for a little while,
See who was still holdin' money at the end of the week.
Was they snitchin',
Sterling and cass?
Naw, man, just thievin'.
( tv playing )
Hi. I'm homicide.
Okay, you two sit right here, okay?
Don't wander off.
Um, dad?
What?
You know, it's a school night.
Mom said we had to--
I know, i know, we will.
Okay? You stay there.
( video game sounds )
( omar screaming )
Woman on radio: 64 charlie to central k.
You up to this?
Mcnulty: Pay it back, omar. Pay it back.
( police radio chatter )
I'm saying, why we ain't in no real police office?
We're a little like you, omar. Out here on our own.
Playing the game for ourselves.
Hard way to go sometime.
Sorry about your friend.
Avon is one sick bastard.
Of course he had his reasons.
Greggs: For one thing, y'all did take his stash.
For another, he was looking for you, omar.
That's what all the cigarette burns were about,
Broken fingers, cracked forearms.
He wanted your boy to give you up.
An address, a street.
Kid had heart.
Yeah.
I know you want to go to wherever it is
You lay your head and pick up that sawed-off
You like so much and go on the hunt.
That's how a man like you wants to carry it.
And you wouldn't be wrong.
Greggs: No, you wouldn't.
But one man with two barrels ain't enough, omar.
Now you gonna do what you gonna do,
But whatever else you can give us
On barksdale and his people,
Well, that can go to hurting them, too.
Mcnulty: Just throw us what you can.
Hey, look, let me tell y'all something, a'ight?
What i do, i do! Straight like that.
So ain't no sense in y'all even troublin' yourselves over that.
'cause, man, the way i feel right now, today!
Hey, what y'all need from me?
When'd you last see brandon?
Tuesday.
'round 7:00, maybe later.
He was on his way to mondawmin,
Then the greek's after that.
Everybody talkin' 'bout he got snatched up from there.
From the greek's on baltimore street?
Yeah, he like to play them pinball games to death.
Greggs: He go alone?
Oman: Yeah and i ain't like it none neither,
But you know, you can only treat a young man like a boy
For so long before they buck, you know what i mean?
When bailey got killed, you must've figured
That barksdale was coming back on you, right?
Man, bailey? Please.
That nigga's enemies got enemies.
I just figured he tried his hand on the wrong corner
Without us and got dropped.
But you were worried about brandon, right?
Omar: Look, in my game,
You take some care and you play it the safest way you can.
But it ain't about no hiding forever.
You heard?
And frankly, you been in this as long as me,
You do the thing on your name.
Anyone gonna come after omar,
They gonna know omar's comin' after him.
Oh, indeed.
So, who came after brandon?
Heard it might've been wee-bey.
Boy stinkum.
And bird,
He was down with the snatch, too.
Greggs: So, what can you give us on the towers?
Omar: What you need?
Check it, 7:56, tuesday night,
You got an incoming call to d'angelo barksdale's
Giving him the number of a pay phone,
Westside exchange, numbers encoded, right?
Three minutes later,
You get another call from the low-rises to that number.
Then a half a minute later you get another call
From the low rises to a pager number
We know is stringer bell's.
Well, i'll be damned.
Finally, you get another call, probably from a pay phone,
Probably stringer bell calling back
Coming on into the low rise courts.
45 minutes later, another call,
This one from the same pay phone that went to d'angelo's pager
To start the whole damn thing off. You see that?
This is the murder, right here.
This first number, the one they sent to d'angelo,
I'm thinkin' this comes from a pay phone over by the greek's.
He's on you.
We're up on those pay phones tuesday night, we catch that murder.
Shit, we get there before the murder.
It's all here on the pen registers.
This one calling that one, that one calling back.
We're up on those pay phones when we should be,
And we have them cold.
But we're not up in time, are we?
In this case, we're never where we need to be.
( door slams )
Bad time for y'all?
He fight, but you arrest.
You saw him get arrested?
On tuesday?
Tuesday, tuesday, yes, yes, tuesday.
By the police? The police arrested him?
Cuffs, they handcuffed him.
Mmm.
How about these guys?
Were they there with him?
No, no.
No?
No, he fight, you arrest.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
It's a match.
No.
I need help. Rawls ranks me.
Lieutenant, think what you're doing here.
You're gonna cross bill rawls,
As ruthless a fuck as we have in this department,
And to do what?
To fight for a case the deputy of operations doesn't even want.
No.
I like my career, thank you very much.
Greggs: In the cemetery, you were telling us a guy
By the name of bird killed the working man?
Omar: Yeah, that man who testified.
William gant, right.
Yeah, bird did that one, for sure.
- How you know? - Everybody know, man.
Nigga walked up behind the man
And shot him straight in the head.
The whole blessed projects saw that much.
And bird worked for avon?
Yeah, as one a his shooters.
Liked to use this real sweet gun he got.
A 380 from austria or australia,
Or something like that.
But i know he love that gun.
- A 380? - Yeah, a 380.
You get him, you get the gun,
'cause bird too dumb to throw a gun like that off.
- A gun alone ain't enough. - Oh, no?
He goes to court, testifies he bought the gun on the street
After gant was killed.
Come on, now, so, what be enough then?
Eyeball witness.
Some kind of corroboration for what you're telling me here.
- Okay. - Okay, what?
I'm your man.
You saw the murder?
Yeah.
You can id this man bird as the shooter of william gant?
And you ain't afraid to go into the court downtown
And testify against one of barksdale's people?
Omar don't scare.
The fact is that while lieutenant daniels
And his merry band are lost in the swamps,
Playing with beepers and pay phones and body mikes,
My people have developed information
That ties barksdale to three killings.
D'angelo barksdale, not avon.
D'angelo, on behalf of avon.
The victim is identified by our witness
As being involved with avon barksdale.
Sir, we're developing information.
You're dancing around this thing.
I'm charging three murders.
You charge those cases, my investigation folds.
And what's more, not one of those cases
Is strong enough for court. You know that.
So, we bring the barksdale kid in,
Throw a little mindfuck at him and the case becomes stronger.
You've had him in the box twice before.
He's gonna go for less the third time around.
So, we recanvass, develop fresh witnesses.
The case i charge on today
Can be twice as strong by the trial date.
We get a conviction,
We roll little boy barksdale into big boy barksdale,
Then we go home like good old-fashioned cops
And pound some budweiser.
This...
Is bullshit!
It was mcnulty himself
Who made the ballistics match on these murders
And he's telling me to fight this.
He knows you don't have a viable prosecution.
So do you, so do i.
Enough!
Look, i've got no love for your wiretap, lieutenant.
I'm spending 2,000 a day over the unit operating budget
To staff the case.
And major rawls here is offering a chance
To leverage barksdale through a murder prosecution.
Why not jump on this?
Because if major rawls is right,
Then he will be just as right a month from now.
And if the wire doesn't give us a case,
He can charge all the murders he has.
We lose nothing.
But if he's wrong, if he can't convict,
Or if the barksdale kid doesn't flip,
Then it's too late to do anything else.
Avon barksdale changes up his pattern and the wiretap dies.
And at that point, there isn't gonna be a thing
That you or me or rawls here
Is gonna be able to say to that goddamn judge.
You wanted to see me, major?
Mcnulty does personal business on the clock, i want to know.
He cheats on a run sheet, i want to know.
He runs any kind of game at all, i want to know.
Major, the man's an asshole,
But he doesn't do much other than work.
He's got this fuckin' case in his gut like it's cancer.
He does no wrong?
He doesn't drink anymore? Doesn't drink on duty?
Doesn't drink and drive, detective?
Major...
You gotta help me on this, michael.
Daniels: The murder warrants are on hold.
The deputy gave us another month.
Also, whoever that was you brought in here today
Gave himself up as an eyewitness in the gant murder.
Who, omar?
And greggs said to tell you she'd write it up in the morning.
Lieutenant.
Thanks.
It cost you?
( music playing )
( theme music playing )