Al Brown

The early-morning 'field interviews' by Herc, Carver and Prez result in a minor riot, a boy losing an eye and some bad publicity for the department. On the other side of the law, D'Angelo teaches Wallace and Bodie how to play the game (chess) and later impresses Bell with his 'take' from the low-rises.

Major Valchek gets back at Sobotka for the church gift fiasco and a feud begins, and Valchek ups the ante by asking Deputy Commissioner Burrell for a detail to go after Sobotka. Avon Barksdale continues to run his empire from a prison cell--counseling his nephew D'Angelo and going after a guard who is harassing the organization's convicted hit-man, Wee-Bey. On the waterfront, port police officer Beatrice Russell gets stuck investigating the contraband found in The Greek's container. McNulty lends a hand with the investigation, albeit for vindictive reasons. Ultimately, Detectives Bunk Moreland and Lester Freamon are assigned to help Russell investigate the deaths.

In the Season Two premiere, Det. Jimmy McNulty--exiled to police-boat duty--finds the body of a woman floating in the Baltimore harbor. Bodie drives to Philly to make a connection for the Barksdale crew and Stringer Bell takes the train to New York to feel out the crew's reticent suppliers.

Omar continues his bold strikes on Barksdale stash houses, now heavily guarded. Under orders from Stringer Bell, Bodie faces a critical test against Marlo. As the wire on Proposition Joe continues to yield little, a restless McNulty launches his own reinvestigation of last year's prison suicide of D'Angelo Barksdale. On the street, bodies continue to drop, prompting Burrell and Rawls to jack up the heat on their district commanders. The street violence also presents Daniels with the difficult decision of whether to help end a drug war in the Eastern. Cheese loses more than a little on his bet at a bloody dogfight and later is hauled downtown for questioning as a murder suspect by Bunk and McNulty. A beleaguered Cutty attempts to get on track, seeking employment outside the drug world. Carver, Herc and the Western drug unit take to the street undercover, but a hand-to-hand drug buy goes sour, prompting district commander Major 'Bunny' Colvin to question his thirty years on the force.

Sobotka reprimands his nephew Nick for stealing the cameras and orders him to bring the cargo back--too late. McNulty is on a self-assigned moral mission to identify his floater, but his old partner, Bunk, says they have a more pressing matter at hand: to find Omar to testify against a Barksdale trigger man in one of last year's murders. To placate Valcheck, Burrell asks Daniels to lead the detail investigating Sobotka, and Daniels agrees. McNulty--on his second moral mission of the season--begins courting his estranged wife, promising a new day and a new Jimmy McNulty. Still holding onto a shred of hope, McNulty signs a separation agreement.

Ziggy loses his prized Camaro to drug dealers who aren't buying his alibis about not paying up. Unable to dump the homicide investigation on other police agencies, Col. Rawls measures Bunk for the blame, if the cases go unsolved. Weak product in the pit has Bodie getting heat from fiends and slingers alike. Homicide detectives hand out grand jury summonses to stevedores involved in the homicide case, and port police officer Beadie Russell works the lingering affections of an old boyfriend--also a stevedore--to find out how cargo disappears from the docks. Inside the detail, there is clamoring to have the ongoing homicide investigation folded into the investigation of Frank Sobotka and his band of union brothers.