Senator Clay Davis meets with Commissioner Ervin Burrell and tries to reassure him that he is safe from Tommy Carcetti's plans to unseat him now that Carcetti has won the election and has already put de facto Deputy Commissioner William Rawls in charge of his position.
Davis believes that Burrell's race is his trump card, and knows he has got the City Council President's, Nerese Campbell, as well as the Ministers' support, but urges him to impress the mayor with police work.
He brings up Burrell's precarious position and Wilson reveals that they hope that his supporters will be swayed if they attract a better candidate.
Davis speculates that they will need assistance getting the pay raise they need approved and offers to provide this for a future favor.
Davis asks Campbell to withhold the full pay raise the mayor is requesting, so that Burrell will have time to impress him and defame Daniels.
Namond is unable to contact his mother, who is out of town, and Carver explains that he will have to spend the night in juvenile booking.
When Baker explains he is following orders, McNulty states that as patrolmen, they are entitled to the "one true dictatorship" in America: choosing how to spend their shift.
The desk sergeant initially tells them to send the suspects in line with all the other detainees, until hearing that they are responsible for the church burglaries.
The sergeant is then relieved that some "real criminals" are actually left in Baltimore, as the police station is filled with people arrested for minor infractions.
Mello takes his concerns about the new strategy to Cedric Daniels, reluctant to execute the arrest hikes ordered to them by Commissioner Burrell.
After hearing that neighborhood people are being locked up in what appears to be an unnecessary arrest hike to serve Burrell, Daniels agrees that it is just more of the same from command.
Daniels talks with Mayor Carcetti and presents the information as indicative of Commissioner Burrell's new initiative to influence arrest stats.
Little Kevin does as they suggest and faces hostility from Marlo and Chris when they learn that instead of organizing a meeting with Lex himself, he passed the task on to Randy Wagstaff.
On concluding that Marlo is more ruthless than Stringer, Poot tells Bodie that while the world is getting hotter the people are becoming colder.
Chris presses the point, making reference to inappropriate contact with kids, as well as getting him to admit to having had homosexual relations in prison.
Chris in a rage unleashes a flurry of pistol-whips and kicks and brutally beats him to death, as a stunned Snoop looks on.
Later, Michael happily observes his mother sitting by herself at home, knowing that Bug's father won't be coming back.
Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski mentions the sudden increase in the temperature of his room to his colleague Grace Sampson.
Sampson explains that at this time of year the school switches to longer classes for exam preparation, and that increasing the temperature makes the kids drowsy and less disruptive.
In the special class Miss Duquette coordinates a roleplaying exercise with Kwame and Darnell Tyson pretending to be at a restaurant.
She has bad news: despite the class being especially aimed at socializing disruptive students, they still have to follow the school board's missive that they teach to the upcoming test.
At the meeting, Parenti and Colvin discuss the pupils' recent visit to a restaurant with Miss Sheperdson, the assistant superintendent.
Randy Wagstaff faces bullying in the corridors as rumors of his snitching spreads, and he gets the cold shoulder from his friend Karim Williams in class when looking for a partner to roll dice with.
Herc discusses his problem about the missing camera with Officer Kenneth Dozerman and Detective Leander Sydnor.
Miss Sheperdson has misgivings about the appropriateness of the special class while many teachers feel the same way about her insistence upon teaching test questions.
World goin' one way, people another.Poot uses this phrase to explain the increasingly cold and ruthless nature of the drug trade against the backdrop of global warming.
Although credited John Doman, Deirdre Lovejoy, Clarke Peters, Sonja Sohn, Chad L. Coleman and Glynn Turman do not appear in this episode.