Landsman is angry at the sudden drop in his squad clearance rate and calls Freamon a Hun, a Vandal and a Visigoth.
He spots Detective Crutchfield leaving the unit office and is downcast once again when he learns that Freamon has found yet another body.
She reports that forensics teams are attending each crime scene and they are recovering 9 mm bullet casings, vacuuming for hair and fiber and laser printing for footprints.
He explains that Major Crimes was building a case against Stanfield until three months ago when their wiretaps were pulled by Lieutenant Marimow.
Freamon receives word from Daniels and assigns Leander Sydnor and Kenneth Dozerman to introduce the specifics of the search to the patrol division.
Herc spends the whole time questioning why IID is investigating him when Marimow has been transferred away and Daniels had already given him a mild punishment for the incident with the minister.
When Herc admits the falsified paperwork and stolen camera, Greggs and her partner Bunk Moreland shake their heads in disbelief.
They are instructed to report any such houses to their sector sergeant and told that they can enter, but upon finding a body, they are not to disturb the scene further.
With their warrant - obtained with the apparently decisive hearsay input of this second source - Greggs, Freamon and Bunk perform a stop-and-search of Chris and Snoop.
The team arrests them for the weapons charge and immediately obtains a grand jury warrant for blood and hair samples.
Freamon suggests that a trace DNA match or a witness could break the case, but that they are probably facing a lengthy investigation.
Butchie suggests selling it back to Proposition Joe for a profit; it is initially taken as a joke, but Renaldo and Omar begin to see the idea's potential.
Proposition Joe hosts a meeting with the heads of the New Day Co-Op consortium of drug dealers.
The rest of the Co-Op members are dubious and tell Joe that as the drugs were in the possession of his people when they were stolen, he will have to make up for the loss.
Joe is more pragmatic and listens to Omar's sales pitch of returning the heroin at "twenty cents on the dollar".
Duquan "Dukie" Weems arrives home and overhears his friend Michael Lee having sex with an unknown girl.
Prez tells him that he can stop by any time, but later sees him dealing drugs on a corner and realizes that he has dropped out of high school.
In the special class, the majority of the students are not participating, but Namond, Zenobia, and Darnell Tyson are attempting the test.
Miss Sampson grounds him by explaining that a score of proficient means reading at a level two grades below the student's age.
Sergeant Ellis Carver desperately tries to find somewhere suitable for Randy Wagstaff to stay following the firebombing of his previous home and serious injuries to his foster mother.
Carver visits the social services offices personally and tries to convince them to put Randy at the top of the list for foster placement.
The next morning Mello gives Carver an angry tirade when he discovers Randy and orders him to hand him over to DSS.
Colvin tells Wee-Bey that Namond is a bright boy with a lot of potential, but that he will not survive life on the streets.
Norman Wilson remarks that the bodies are attributable to the Royce administration and Michael Steintorf, the new chief of staff, states that the silver lining of the story is that it draws attention away from the massive school deficit.
Wilson is disappointed to see that Carcetti is willing to trade fulfilling his responsibilities as mayor with increasing his chances of becoming governor.
He tells McNulty that the game is rigged and that he feels like a pawn on a chessboard, showing that some of D'Angelo Barksdale's teachings were not lost on him.
As Paul Weller's cover of Dr. John's "Walk On Gilded Splinters" plays, a montage of scenes unfolds: Wee-Bey tells Namond that he is still his father and passes him into Colvin's custody; McNulty is welcomed back to Major Crimes, where Michael's picture is already on the board (although he is labeled as an "unknown" for the time being); Herc faces an internal investigations trial board, where he appears to fear for his job, with the words "conduct unbecoming" heard from the investigators; Vondas and Joe meet while Marlo watches them undetected from a distance; Parenti presents his findings to an academic audience, and a disenchanted Colvin walks out in frustration during his presentation; Bunk briefs the homicide unit on the corpses found in vacant buildings; Landsman is distraught at the state of his homicides board; Daniels and Pearlman eat lunch with Carcetti while Burrell and Clay Davis look on; Prez tracks Dukie down, working on Michael's corner with Poot and Kenard, but drives away without approaching him; Randy's bed is daubed with the words "Snitch Bitch", his money is stolen, and he is assaulted by his roommates; Cutty shows the newly adoring nurse his gym; Carcetti suffers through a budget meeting; Carver moves a group of children on from Randy, Dukie, Michael and Namond's old hangout; and in what might be a dream or a memory, Michael tutors Bug, only to be roused by Chris—he is still in the back of the car after his second murder and is instructed to drop his gun down a storm drain.
[1][2] Although most obviously referring to the test grades received by the school's students, the title also refers to the final evaluation of Parenti and Colvin's pilot program, Chris and Snoop's evaluations of O-Dog and Michael's skills, and to the end-of-year statistics which Carcetti leaves in Royce's name.
[3] Paul Weller's cover version of "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" plays over the episode's closing montage.
He made us think these four boys—Namond (Julito McCullum), Michael (Tristan Wilds), Randy (Maestro Harrell) and Duquan (Jermaine Crawford)—could have at the very least a future and ripped the rug out from under nearly all of them.