Back Burners

Daniels (Lance Reddick) gives the unit their new targets, Stringer (Idris Elba) and Marlo (Jamie Hector). He's furious when McNulty (Dominic West) confirms that he went to Colvin (Robert Wisdom). "When the cuffs go on Stringer," Daniels tells McNulty, "you need to find a new home." Because crime is going down everywhere in his district except near the designated drug zones, Colvin is able to redeploy his forces to focus on the high crime areas. In "Hamsterdam," Carver (Seth Gilliam) realizes that since the dealers no longer need lookouts or runners, the little kids that worked for them have been cut loose. He institutes a "tax" on the dealers to take care of them. Cutty (Chad L. Coleman) is back to doing yard work, and seeks further help in dealing with his new life. Omar (Michael K. Williams), genuinely dismayed by his talk with Bunk (Wendell Pierce), decides to do the cop a huge favor. Kima's (Sonja Sohn) late night drinking and carousing cause further deterioration in her relationship with Cheryl (Melanie Nicholls-King). Marlo waits for Avon's (Wood Harris) crew to retake the abandoned corners before his own crew retaliates. Bernard (Melvin Jackson, Jr.), who goes to Virginia to buy burners for Avon's crew, is pressured by his impatient girlfriend, Squeak (Mia Arnice Chambers), to be a lot less careful in his work. The wiretap unit begins to figure out how the dealers' cell network works, but Lester (Clarke Peters) points out that by the time they could get a wiretap up, the phones would be discarded. In an effort to obtain an active burner, the wiretap unit busts Bodie (J.D. Williams) and his crew with a G-pack on their way to Hamsterdam, causing an awkward situation for Colvin. Herc (Dominick Lombardozzi) also gives the wiretap unit some dismaying news.