McNulty (Dominic West) is assigned to a team of outcasts assigned to probe drug lord Avon Barksdale's (Wood Harris) operations.
McNulty's detail tries breaking the code on the gang's pagers; Bell teaches D'Angelo how to train lookouts.
Rawls' demands create strange allies; Wallace and D'Angelo wrestle with their consciences; Omar turns witness.
Urban reform forces the Barksdale drug crew to find a new home; the mayor informs Burrell that the number of murders must come down.
A tip-off prompts arrest, but Avon and Stringer grow suspicious; another witness to the Grant murder emerges.