McNulty is still cooking up his wild idea to fabricate a serial killer case that will eventually get put on Marlo and his crew. Bunk is still not feeling the plan at all, but you know who is? Fucking Lester! Love that guy. Anyway, having noticed that one of the dead vagrants from a previous file had a red ribbon tied around his wrist, McNulty just writes another into a previous file and a current one, establishing a pattern. Oh, McNutty. Will you ever learn? Yeah, I hope not.
Things at The Sun are super uncool. Alma is pissed not only because her homicide story got pushed way back beyond the fold, but she woke up early and went to the press to see it. Everyone else is pissed because apparently Chicago has decided to make a bunch of the staff redundant, including Twigg, which makes me sad. Augustus Haynes, too. Whiting makes a lame attempt at an apology, continuing the "more with less" theme. What a dicksmack.
Wilson leaks to Augustus the shakeup that Carcetti has in mind for the police department, namely that Daniels will be taking commissioner instead of Burrell. Burrell is not psyched to find this out in the paper. Too bad Templeton had to be such a little sneak and throw in an out-of-context quote from Daniels, making the situation worse. I hate that smarmy little prick. I hope he gets his, but knowing this show, he never will.
The grand jury hearings are under way, and Rhonda is kicking all kinds of ass (well, inasmuch as that"s possible, seeing as half the jurors are watching The Wire on their new iPods), illustrating clearly how the money trail worked its way from the streets up to Davis"s pockets. Even Ashy Larry returns as Clay Davis"s driver! Love.
Speaking of money trails, Marlo"s trying to clean his up. Vondas is unthrilled with his initial offering, because the cash Marlo brings the Greeks is literally dirty, coming straight from the streets. Stanfield decides to ask Prop Joe for guidance in cleaning the cash (both literally and figuratively), and he even gets an offshore account.
In what is, to me, the most heartbreaking part of the episode, Michael and Dukie go to Six Flags for the day, and meet a couple of cute girls, getting a taste of a life that usually seems out of reach. Upon their return, however, reality sets back in, as the corner boys who had to cover for Michael berate him and tell him that Chris has already been notified of his absenteeism. So sad. Prediction: dead by Easter.
Actually, there is another piece of sadness: in an attempt to get to Omar, Chris and Snoop kill Butchie, his blind, bar-owning buddy. To his credit, Butchie never blabs about Omar"s location, even after getting blasted twice in the kneecaps, but it doesn"t matter, because Chris and Snoop know that by killing him, they"re effectively bringing Omar out of his retirement, something I"m frankly quite amped about. Can"t wait to see what happens next week.