(Knocking)
McNULTY: Heard you ain't much as an eyeball witness. Bad as any civilian.
GREGGS: Guess so. (Clearing throat) Where we at?
McNULTY: With what?
GREGGS: With the case, fool.
McNULTY: Jesus, give it a rest.
GREGGS: What's on the wire? C'mon, man.
McNULTY: Wire's dead. They changed up after we hit 'em with raids. Daniels didn't tell you?
GREGGS: Hell, naw. He only talks to me about the good shit. About how y'all were onto my shooters and stuff.
McNULTY: Yeah, well, yeah, we lost the wire, but the good news is D'Angelo's flipped, and we're talking to the feds about maybe--
CHERYL: Fuck both y'all.
GREGGS: She wants me to quit. Says there ain't nothing worth this. So, I promised her I'd think about it. Well, what do you say?
McNULTY: I don't know. I guess you should do what you need to. But she's right... It isn't worth it.
GREGGS: No? Yeah. Probably not. Anyway, what took you so long getting up in here? Shit, no cards, no flowers. I mean, what the fuck, Jimmy?
McNULTY: I couldn't, I, uh... I felt, uh... A case like this, It's always you or Sydnor or some other black cop who ends up going undercover. I swear, if I could do it over... If I...
GREGGS: If I could do it over, you know what I'd do? Put more tape on that fucking gun.
McNULTY: I'm sorry, Kima. I'm sorry.
GREGGS: Anyway, since I got you up in here acting like my bitch and shit, with all your guilty-ass cryin' and whatnot, maybe you can do something for me.

McNULTY: She said you were doin' good. Said she was proud of you.
BUBBLES: How she doin'?
McNULTY: Still shook. But she wanted you to have that. And told me to tell you she's sorry to be late with it.
BUBBLES: Girl got such heart, you know?
McNULTY: Yeah. This is enough for what I got goin' now, man. You, uh, you give the rest back to her.
McNULTY: Are you sure?
BUBBLES: Give her my love.
McNULTY: Right.
BUBBLES: Hey, McNutty. Don't tell her. What you got, man?
DEALER: Over there, man.

HERC: Un-fucking-believable. Five guys got jumped. Not just you. Four other guys jumped me.
CARVER: I'm sorry, man.
HERC: It's gotta be all the brutality complaints. Which means it ain't never gonna matter how well I do on no fucking test.
CARVER: You don't know that. You might make the next list, you know? You don't know.
HERC: Guess I ain't leadership material. Well, congratulations, Carv.
CARVER: Thanks.
(Phone ringing)
PREZ: Yeah?
CARVER: The world is on its ass.
PREZ: Guy called for you from the phone company. Says he's got the number you wanted for a house in Philadelphia. FREAMON: Beautiful, thank you.

1ST DEPUTY US ATTORNEY: Good casework.
DANIELS: Thank you.
1ST DEPUTY US ATTORNEY: I don't think I'm giving anything away by telling that Arnold here has had a file on Senator Davis for two and a half years.
FREAMON: It took us a while to see it, but the quid-pro-quo is right there in that Westside redevelopment mess. Barksdale or his fronts grease enough city politicians and word comes back years in advance where the development zone's gonna be.
DANIELS: He buys up every piece of garbage real estate he can, flips it three or four times, exaggerating the values.
FREAMON: And now the city's gonna pay him millions to condemn the properties for the renewal project.
1ST DEPUTY US ATTORNEY: It's a lot to work with, but we're willing. The question is, can your cooperator give us the senator? Or any other political figure?
McNULTY: The cooperator?
A.D.A.: D'Angelo Barksdale. What does he have on the money?
DANIELS: Nothing. He gives you the drugs and the violence. He gives you Avon Barksdale. Stringer Bell.
1ST DEPUTY US ATTORNEY: And they give us the senator.
FREAMON: Maybe, yeah.
McNULTY: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're talking about turning Barksdale and Bell into cooperators, and making the politicians the primary target?
F.B.I. SUIT: Of course.
McNULTY: No, fuck the politicians. Just Barksdale and Bell. Those guys have turned West Baltimore into a free-fire zone.
A.D.A.: No one's saying they walk.
FREAMON: But what you are saying is that if we bring you guys the case, it's your intention to let Barksdale and Bell reduce any sentence they get through cooperation, huh?
MCNULTY: Jesus christ, are you kidding? You're seeing all this ass-backwards.
Detective, in this office, we have a mandate to pursue political corruption can you believe these guys?
FITZ: Jimmy, look...
McNULTY: What? Drugs and murder don't cut it anymore, huh? Well, how 'bout terrorism? These guys have dropped 14, 15 bodies. The witnesses, cooperators...
1ST DEPUTY US ATTORNEY: That kind of hyperbole doesn't serve anyone, detective.
DANIELS: I think we're going with a different direction on this. Thank you for your time.
McNULTY: West Baltimore is dying and you empty suits are running around to pin some politician's pelt to the wall. Thought you was real police, brother.

(Chattering)
BRIANNA: So, they got you all the way out here, huh? I started out thinkin' you was in Jersey. You ain't in Jersey, I figure they still got you down in central booking. All the way out here. Do send a message though.
DEE: Yeah, well, a message needs sending. How y'all even find me?
BRIANNAAin't no one gonna keep a mother from her son, right?
BRIANNA: You know, he's always talkin' family. "Family is the heart," he say. Well, I'm family, ain't I? Well, what about me for once? It ain't right.
BRIANNA: What's right? Hmm? You like for him to step up, take all the weight, and let you walk? 'Cause he will. You know he will. But if he gotta go away, that mean you got to step up and fill his shoes. You ready for that?
DEE: Ma, you know I ain't. I ain't ready and I ain't never gonna be ready for this game.
BRIANNA: Dee, c'mon.
DEE: Look, they giving me a chance to walk away, to start again someplace else.
BRIANNA: And what you givin' them? Look... He messed up, Dee, he knows it. Now if you want to get even with him, you can. But you hurt him, whole family. All of us. Me and Trina and the cousins. And Donette, too. And your baby. Your own baby boy. This right here is part of the game, Dee. And without the game, this whole family would be down in the fuckin' terrace, livin' off scraps. Shit, we probably wouldn't even be a family. Start over, huh? How the fuck you gonna start over without your peoples, without your own child even? You ain't got family what the hell you got?
 

(Cocking gun)
HERC: This motherfucker Wee-Bey twitches, there won't even be a trial.
DANIELS: Detective Carver, a word? Shut the door.
CARVER: What's up, L.T.?
DANIELS: Anything you want to tell me? Been weeks, now. The deputy ops knows what's going on in this unit almost before I do. Except last week, we run the bug up into Barksdale's club office and Burrell... For once, he's a step behind. You see it?
CARVER: Maybe, he...
DANIELS: I see it. I look around the office and I see that one of my people is at the academy for in-service.
CARVER: Lieutenant, I swear, it wasn't my idea. I mean, I'm minding my business, doin' my fuckin' job, when the man calls me upstairs for coffee and a danish, right? I mean, I never even been on the eighth floor of that fucking building. And there's the deputy fucking ops telling me how concerned he is about the case, how he needs to be informed. I mean, he's the deputy fucking ops, man.
DANIELS: Couple weeks from now, you're gonna be in some district somewhere with 11 or 12 uniforms looking to you for everything. And some of them are gonna be good police. Some of them are gonna be young and stupid. A few are gonna be pieces of shit. But all of them will take their cue from you. You show loyalty, they learn loyalty. You show them it's about the work, it'll be about the work. You show them some other kinda game, then that's the game they'll play. I came on in the Eastern, and there was a piece-of-shit lieutenant hoping to be a captain, piece-of-shit sergeants hoping to be lieutenants. Pretty soon we had piece-of-shit patrolmen trying to figure the job for themselves. And some of what happens then is hard as hell to let down. Comes a day you're gonna have to decide whether it's about you or about the work. Grand jury came in Tuesday. But you knew that, right? We're working a flight warrant today.
PREZ: There's... There's a lot to do here in-office.
DANIELS: I'd be careful with that, though. I understand the trigger pull used to be light.

(Helicopter hovering) (Car alarm going off)
McNULTY: Keep him down, keep him down. You got him? Get him up there, get him up.
BEY: Oh! Bunch of low-bottom bitches.
(Male) Get his wrists.
BEY: Y'all ain't have to fuck with my ride. Motherfuckers got lucky.

(Phone ringing)
PEARLMAN: Yeah? Podunk lawyer in Denton's giving the guards a hard time about moving D'Angelo from original jurisdiction. Put the call through. Okay. Officer Mace, A.S.A. Pearlman, you got a problem with the lawyer? Okay, put the asshole on.
LEVY: This is he.

RAWLS: You do not make it easy, Jimmy. I have to admit, I am deeply ambivalent.
McNULTY: Excuse me?
RAWLS: Sit. Sit! Here. I heard from Bunk. Philly. Great work. You all did and the number of clearances I'm looking at here, I mean, Christ, for the first time this year, we got the clearance rate up over 40%. That's on the one hand. On the other hand, I know the deputy ops got a call from the first deputy U.S. Attorney this morning asking whether an asshole such as yourself really works for us. And, of course, this is the first the deputy hears his troops are creeping behind his back, trying to take a case federal when they've already been told the case is closed. You're a good detective. And I've got to admit you got some stones on you. Did you actually call the first deputy an empty suit? (Chuckling) I want to see you land okay, Jimmy. So, tell me, where don't you wanna go?

LEVY: You all know as well as I do that Baltimore City jurors are capable of just about anything. Now, look, you want to sit around for months on end, scratching our way through a bunch of half-heard, half-said telephone conversations and see how well you do, I'll certainly respect the effort.
PEARLMAN: It's not just talk on the wire. We've got seized money and a lot of dope on the table.
S.A.: And a lot of violence.
LEVY: All of which stops way short of Mr. Barksdale. You know this.
DANIELS: All of it except for the New Jersey bust. That one he eats.
LEVY: Maybe he does. Maybe he pleads to one count of attempted possession, and takes, I don't know, three, four. Maybe he can arrange for everyone you have on those tapes to follow suit. Maybe you get five-year pleas from those with no prior felony convictions, 10 years for those with one prior, 15 for two or more.
S.A.: What about the murders?
LEVY: Maybe we acknowledge you've got Mr. Brice cold for the murder of Orlando Blocker and the wounding of the police officer.
PEARLMAN: Who?
DANIELS: Wee-Bey.
BEY'S ATTORNEY: Representing Mr. Brice, I'm fairly confident that to avoid the death penalty, he'll proffer to at least a half dozen of your open murders.
S.A.: Naming co-conspirators? For that kind of cooperation, I'd be willing to consider straight life.
LEVY: No, indeed. I believe Mr. Brice is ready to take sole responsibility for all of his crimes. Still, you walk away with at least a half dozen clearances.
PEARLMAN: Assets.
LEVY: You take the strip club and take whatever trucks and cars you can link to the drug trafficking, and, of course, whatever cash you've seized.
DANIELS: He's got dozens of other properties. The funeral parlor, the towing company.
LEVY: No, no, you get the cars, because you can tie them to illegal activity, but there's nothing else in his name to take.
PEARLMAN: So, you keep most of the money, most of the real estate. And Stringer Bell stays on the street with his hand on the throttle.
LEVY: If you have a charge against Mr. Bell, file it. Otherwise, it's my understanding that nothing in all those hours of tape implicates him.
PEARLMAN: Three or four years ain't enough, Maury. Not for Avon Barksdale.
LEVY: No? Make an offer.

BAILIFF: Part 14 of the circuit court of Baltimore City now in session. Be seated.
JUDGE: First up.
PEARLMAN: State versus Avon Randolph Barksdale, your honor. One count of possession with intent to distribute, to wit, a kilogram of heroin.
JUDGE: You have a statement of facts?
PEARLMAN: Yes, your honor. Mr. Barksdale is offering a plea of guilty in exchange for a maximum of seven years in D.O.C. in consideration of the following agreed-upon facts on or about the date of September 17th, 2002, in the jurisdiction of Essex County, New Jersey, trooper Robert Warren of the Newark Barracks effected a traffic stop on a rented Ford Taurus traveling southbound near exit 13. That traffic stop resulted from information gleaned from electronic surveillance of Mr. Barksdale and his nephew, D'Angelo Barksdale, by detectives assigned to a special detail under the command of a city narcotics supervisor. A search of the vehicle, which was rented from the Avis location at B.W.I. Airport, revealed that a kilogram of nearly pure heroin was concealed beneath the spare tire in the car trunk. In accepting this plea, Mr. Barksdale acknowledges his role in procuring those drugs with the intent to dilute, package, and sell retail amounts of heroin...

BUNK: Deidre Kresson, Roland Leggett, Toreen Boyd, all tied to the same gun. Plus, we got the stick-up boys, Brandon Wright, John Bailey. With Orlando, that makes six, plus the attempted murder on a police.
NORRIS: That it?
BEY: I do better if I give 'em more?
BEY'S ATTORNEY: Life, no parole means what it says. This proffer keeps you off death row, but that's all it does.
A.S.A.: You were on the wrong side of a cop getting shot, Mr. Brice. You want to even dream about straight life for all these bodies, you gotta wake up talking about Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell.
BEY: Naw.
BEY'S ATTORNEY: But as to murders, you might as well give them what you have, because anything you leave out is outside the deal. If they learn about it later, they can charge you later.
BEY: Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll go a few more.
NORRIS: How you want that?
BEY: Medium rare, a lot of horseradish. Alright, I did Little Man. Thinkin' he might get weak on that cop gettin' shot.
BUNK: Yeah? Where's the body?
BEY: Druid Hill. Behind the reptile house. You get back in them weeds, you might could find what's left of him.
BUNK: Alright, that's seven. What else you got?
BEY: How 'bout them witnesses? The security lady and what's-his-name, the maintenance man.
BUNK: Gant?
BEY: Yeah, Gant.
BUNK: You did Gant, alone?
NORRIS: They're out of 'tater salad, how 'bout slaw?

PEARLMAN: Information gleaned from electronic surveillance would also show that Mr. Watkins, a.k.a. Ronnie Mo, was integrally involved in the distribution of heroin and cocaine in the high-rises at 734 Fayette Fremont. In exchange for his pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy, he agrees to a sentence not to exceed 15 years in D.O.C. Mr. Watkins, who is on probation for a drug distribution charge that was adjudicated in Judge Prevas' court in August 2001...

CANTRELL: Cedric, hey.
DANIELS: Major Cantrell. Congrats.
CANTRELL: Thanks.
DANIELS: So, where they sending you?
CANTRELL: Northwest, Spurgeon's retiring.
DANIELS: Yeah, I heard that was gonna happen.
CANTRELL: You ever feel like a change, give a yell. I could use a good shift lieutenant. I mean, right now, the whole fucking district's a mess.
DANIELS: What isn't?
CANTRELL: Hey, good seeing you.
DANIELS: You, too.

HERC: You see, this ain't no D.E.U. It ain't like that. When you all came downtown, the job changed. Down here, we make big cases, big hairy-balled cases, like this Barksdale thing, right? And all that mess you call police work down in the districts, all that fuck-somebody-up and rip-and-run bullshit, it won't play down here. You think I'm kidding. This is what makes cases, gentlemen. This! Remember that.

STRINGER: Nicely done.

BODIE: Motherfucker, I been here since lunch, waitin'. Ain't nobody been through here. You hear me? I been waitin' and y'all ain't about shit. Yeah, listen, listen to me. Look, if you feel like that, his phone, come down here and step to me then, nigga. Yeah, a-ight. Yo, if Roc-Roc ain't here in 10 minutes with my re-up, whoop his ass, man. (Radio playing)

RAWLS: Now, I understand you did a tour in homicide years ago, but let me tell you how I run this unit, because how I run it is how it runs. We work on a strict rotation, you're up until you catch a call, and then you step down and work your case and someone else up behind you. This is the way we do business in a town with 250, 300 murders a year. And it works. You do not play the game for yourself, you play it for us. If you remember these few rules, you'll find me to be supportive and reasonable.
LANDSMAN: Very reasonable, sir.
RAWLS: That's what they say about me.
LANDSMAN: They say that, they do.

(Male) Red tops.
(Rap music playing)
POOT: Yo, Dink! What the fuck was that?
DINK: Huh?
POOT: You take a nigga's money, then you serve him? What the fuck? I'm sayin', you take their money, then you send 'em 'round an' let some other nigga serve. The way you doin' it, someone snappin' pictures got the whole deal. You hear? We gotta tighten up around here, yo!

PHELAN: Jimmy. Hell of a case. Read all about it in the papers. You done good, kiddo. I gotta--

PEARLMAN: D'Angelo Barksdale supervised distribution in the low-rise courtyards and was also integrally involved in the violence attributed to the organization. Further, he was arrested by authorities in New Jersey in possession of a kilo of raw heroin intended for distribution in Baltimore. He acknowledges his role as a leading conspirator and is already on parole for two earlier counts of distribution dating from March 1999.
JUDGE: What are you asking here?
PEARLMAN: As Mr. Barksdale has two prior convictions and is insisting that the effort to purchase and transport the kilo was undertaken on his own behest and is refusing gainst others in the conspiracy, the state is offering only the maximum allowable 20 years, your honor.
JUDGE: Mr. Levy... This is your understanding of the plea agreement?
LEVY: Yes, sir.
JUDGE: Very well then, Mr. Barksdale. Can you hear me distinctly?
DEE: Yes.
JUDGE: Are you now under the influence of alcohol...
BUNK: Wee-Bey, man.
McNULTY: How'd it go?
BUNK: For life, no-parole. He puts himself in for Orlando and the attempt murder on Greggs. Then he also takes Nakeisha Lyles, Deidre Kresson, the two project murders that match that gun, both the stick-up boys, and Little Man.
McNULTY: Little Man?
BUNK: Yeah, body found up behind the reptile house in Druid Hill. He gave us that one just for fun, I think. He also takes William Gant. I know, it's bullshit.
McNULTY: Well, how'd he tell it?
BUNK: Boom.
McNULTY: He said a contact wound?
BUNK: Yeah.
McNULTY: It doesn't play. Gant had no compression, no stippling. Wound was Bey's talkin' out of his ass.
BUNK: I know it, but this motherfucker's just taking murders just to take 'em.
McNULTY: He's taking life, no-parole for shooting a cop, what the fuck? Might as well try to spring bird for killing Gant.
BAILIFF: All rise.
McNULTY: Jesus, what the fuck did I do?
BUNK: You happy now, bitch?

(Honking)
(Whistling "The Farmer in The Dell")
OMAR: Are you the man with them jumbo sixes?
DEALER: How many you fuckin' want?
OMAR: Take about three or four hundred.
DEALER: Damn.
OMAR: All in the game, yo. All in the game.
DEALER: Right, but I didn't think--
OMAR: Mm, mm, mm, for sure.