"It's a thin line 'tween heaven and here". - Bubbles
Bodie manages to slip through security and escape from lockup. Meanwhile Herc and Carver continue their renegade ways by travelling to Marlboro to find Bodie and beat him into giving up information on the case. Once they get there, Herc has a change of attitude after meeting Bodie's grandmother. Furious at being robbed of his product during the "re-up", Avon Barksdale instructs Stinkum, Wee-Bey and Stringer to double the existing reward to anyone who eliminates Omar and his crew. When Bodie returns to the pit, he explains how no jail can hold him because he's too tough. He further challenges D'Angelo's mettle by implying that D'Angelo's weak. D'Angelo responds by telling how hehuged one of Avon Barksdale's ex-girlfriends after she threatened to give Avon up to the police. AFter hearing this, Bodie becomes cautiously impressed. Sgt. Landsman tells Major Rawls that despite all the screw ups, McNulty's tenacity and obsession with getting the job done usually results in closed cases and that the Major should probably cut McNulty some slack. Detective Freamon discovers D'Angelo's pager number just when Greggs and McNulty figure out a cloned pager could be the advantage they need.
In chronicling a multi-generational family business dealing illegal drugs and the efforts of the Baltimore police to curb their trade, this series draws parallels between these organizations and the men and women on either side of the battle.
The words of Gary W. Potter, Professor of Criminal Justice and Police Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, in writing about the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, can also be used to illuminate some of the central premises of the show.