The Wire Episode Rating Graph

"...we fight on the lie." -- Slim Charles In the Season Three finale, a reticent Avon readies his troops for a war against Marlo. Meanwhile, as the detail works towards the top rungs of the Barksdale organization, McNulty reassesses his pursuit of Stringer Bell and the path he's chosen for himself. While Royce continues to grapple with Amsterdam, Burrell offers a deal to minimize the fallout.

"Deserve got nuthin' to do with it." - Snoop A promising lead makes Freamon's hard work worthwhile, although McNulty doesn't feel like a celebration. Michael is suspicious about his latest assignment;.Haynes gets fresh eyes to help with fact-checking. Namond's debating skills make Colvin proud. Davis points a finger at Levy and the courts. And Bubbles recounts a recent temptation overcome.

"all in the game..." - Traditional West Baltimore. Every crew has weak links--including Avon Barksdale's. With the heat turned up in the high-rises, Daniels and McNulty turn to a higher authority in an effort to crack the case wide open. Season finale.

"And then he dropped the bracelets..." - Greggs. With Wallace in custody, McNulty and Daniels try to figure out what to do with him in the months before he testifies. Sydnor and Carver track down one of Barksdale's stash houses, and Prez shows off his 'gift for the paper trail.' McNulty's estranged wife Elena takes desperate measures after learning that he had their kids follow Stringer Bell.

'Business. Always business.' -- The Greek The Detail has a setback, while Russell and Bunk revisit Philly to look for evidence. Brother Mouzone talks with Stringer Bell about their agreement, leaving Bell to contend with a dissatisfied Avon Barksdale. Bubbles and Johnny pull another caper and McNulty and Greggs return to the Westside, where they discover new connections.

"You play in dirt, you get dirty." - McNulty Randy has trouble with his friends at school, while Carcetti faces a huge dilemma. Meanwhile, Omar visits Proposition Joe, while Freamon reveals a secret.

'I need to get clean' -- Sobotka With the clock ticking, the Detail makes a desperate move, and Daniels reams out Landsman for dropping the ball. Nick's deceit is in the open as Sobotka is overwhelmed by bad news. The Greeks ease out of an encounter with the Detail, and Omar's suspicions are validated. The Detail hopes to find Vondas's boss, and Nick hopes to repair relations with the Greeks.

"This is me, yo, right here." - Wallace. The low-rise pay phones are out of service, so McNulty and Daniels try to keep pace by tapping Barksdale's office. Bodie gets new responsibilities from Stringer; Freamon gives Shardene a 'new look'; and D'Angelo goes to NYC on an errand for his uncle. With the detail's future hanging in the balance, Daniels faces off against Burrell and his political allies.

"Crawl, walk, and then run." -- Clay Davis With Amsterdam running full-tilt, Carver and Truck discover there really is no honor among thieves. Prez impresses the detail with what he's found out from Bodie's cell phone, information that sends McNulty and Greggs on a road trip. Colvin sees the benefits of his plan working but has overlooked the human toll, until the Deacon points out the deficiencies.

"Dope on the damn table." - Daniels. The police turn up the heat on tracking down Savino, Wee-Bey and Little Man. Burrell orders Daniels to hit drug dealers for results that will impress the press. Barksdale sees his ranks thinning after the hit on Orlando. Bubbles tries to stay sober while scoping out the projects for McNulty; and Freamon determines there's a rat in the detail.

"Buyer's market out there." - Templeton Omar plots his revenge for his former associates murder now that he's returned from exile. Gus stresses the need for a city-court reporter, after missing out on a grand jury probe. Carcetti finds there are strings attached in his desire to get rid of Burrell. While McNulty investigates the deaths of homeless men, Freamon needs the help of an old friend. Also, Marlo looks to the future in his dealings with the Greeks.

'It pays to go with the union card every time.' -- Ziggy The Detail uses satellite technology to its advantage. Bodie is unhappy that Proposition Joe's people are slinging on his turf, but business flows--until a new face arrives. Stringer Bell looks to an unlikely solution to the problem. Valcheck visits the FBI in an attempt to get real results on the docks. Ziggy's deal with Double-G goes bad in a big way.

"A lie ain't a side of a story. It's just a lie." - Terry Hanning A shift in the police department sends Carver to a new location. Meanwhile, Carcetti is forced to put his political future in jeopardy, Haynes digs deeper into Templeton's work, and an important case has a breakthrough by Sydnor, while Fletcher continues working with Bubbles.

'It don't matter that some fool say he different...' -- D'Angelo Trying to let go of police work and return to his marriage, McNulty gives up on identifying his Jane Doe. In their investigation of Sobotka, the detectives discover a pattern in the computer and explain the connection to Daniels, but he still won't take the murders. Sobotka tries to play the political game on behalf of his union.

"The bigger the lie, the more they believe." - Bunk Moreland. McNulty and the detail continue to stake out Marlo and his crew. Recently promoted Sergeant Carver is met with complaints concerning unpaid overtime. Meanwhile, Haynes deals with cutbacks, but is still able to expose a politician's connection to a drug dealer; and Joe, Marlo, Fatface Rick meet to divide up the drug trade across Baltimore.

'You cannot lose if you do not play.' - Marla Daniels. McNulty feels the heat when a witness who testified against D'Angelo is found murdered. Meanwhile, Greggs is given the lay of the land regarding Avon Barksdale's key players, and Herc, Carver and Prez find big-time trouble at the towers.

"This ain't Aruba, bitch." - Bunk Moreland Freamon keeps a look out for Marlo, who is putting together a deal with Avon Barksdale. Davis goes to Burrell for help, but finds that the commissioner's hands are tied. Whiting puts together a series on broad strokes.

"The king stay the king." - D'Angelo. 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.

"It's a thin line 'tween heaven and here." - Bubbles. Greggs and McNulty try to get Hardcase to turn informant as arraignment begins for those caught in the raid. Barksdale places a bounty on the head of rival gang leader Omar. Meanwhile, McNulty takes Bubbles on a cultural field trip, and Herc and Carver try to track down Bodie.

'If I hear the music, I'm gonna dance.' -- Greggs 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 so he can testify against a Barksdale trigger man in one of last year's murders.

'They used to make steel there, no?' -- Spiros Vondas Ziggy loses his prized Camaro to drug dealers. Unable to dump the homicide investigation on other agencies, Rawls measures Bunk for the blame, if the cases go unsolved. Homicide detectives hand out grand jury summonses to stevedores involved in the homicide case, and port cop Beadie Russell talks to an old boyfriend to find out how cargo disappears from the docks.

"Why you got to go and fuck with the program?" -- Fruit West Baltimore residents get surprising straight talk at a community meeting from Major Colvin. Bubbles finds gainful employment; Stringer lunches uptown; and Bunk dangles the promise of immunity to a group of corner boys, in exchange for help. Greggs learns how Marlo takes care of business as Bubbles instructs her on the next big thing: disposable cell phones.

"..a little slow, a little late." - Avon Barksdale. McNulty's detail finally gets 'clone' pagers to track Barksdale and his gang, but nobody can crack the codes used by the callers. Meanwhile, Bell instructs D'Angelo on how to school his lookouts while simultaneously flushing out a possible snitch. Later, Carver and Herc find Bodie, but their interrogation doesn't turn up results.

'They can chew you up, but they gotta spit you out.' -- McNulty Major Valchek gets back at Sobotka for the church gift fiasco, and a feud begins. 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.

"There's never been a paper bag." -- Colvin Omar continues his bold strikes on Barksdale stash houses, now heavily guarded. Under orders from Stringer Bell, Bodie faces a critical test against Marlo, a fierce young dealer with lucrative corners. As the wire on Proposition Joe continues to yield little, McNulty launches his own reinvestigation of last year's prison suicide of D'Angelo Barksdale.

"The gods will not save you." -- Burrell Colvin feels the sting of Burrell and Rawls during a Comstat assessment of his district's felony numbers; a blown wiretap forces Daniels's detail to turn to a new target; Proposition Joe cautions Stringer Bell that the police have been tapping phones. Carcetti continues to curry favor in Mayor Royce's inner circle.

'What they need is a union.' -- Russell Bunk and Freamon chase their crime scene, a container ship, to Philly. Lt. Cedric Daniels--disgusted with his exile to the evidence control unit--makes it known that he's leaving. On orders from Barksdale, Bell finds a way to set up the correctional officer who's been harassing Wee-Bey. McNulty pursues the identity of the Jane Doe found floating in the harbor.