The police are overwhelmed by the vacant houses' yield. Meanwhile, Bubbles takes a protégé's fate hard, Colvin asks Wee-Bey for a big favor, Omar looks to rob Joe's co-op once again, Marlo gives Michael his first assignment, McNulty mulls a return to his old unit, Bodie voices his displeasure with the current regime and Carver runs out of time trying to help Randy.
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.