Though Lester is now officially working on Clay Davis full time (and Clay is not happy about this), he's also still thinking about Marlo, and following him to his meetings. McNulty, of course, is also thinking about Marlo, and the two of them go to Fitz to try and get the FBI to help them out. Unfortunately, thanks to Carcetti's run-in with the U.S. Attorney, that ship has already sailed. Pissed, McNulty, to Bunk's horror, decides to do something drastic; having heard from detective colleague Nancy Porter that postmortem marks on a fresh dead body can make a death by natural causes look like a homicide, McNulty decides to make the natural-seeming death of a homeless man look like the work of a Serial Killer.
Marlo, meanwhile, decides to take advantage of the withdrawal of police watching him by having Chris and Snoop drop a few enemies of his. He also tries to get in touch with Sergei, and eventually does contact him (though he has to go through Avon to do so) to get a message he wants to meet with Spiros.
Scott is assigned by Klebanow to write the Opening Day piece. He claims to get an interview with a teen in a wheelchair trying to scalp a ticket, but Gus being naturally inquisitive questions there being no picture of the kid. Whiting and Klebanow, however deter Gus' raised questions.
Bubbles is going to meetings, but he's having trouble opening up (to Walon's dismay), and he also is having trouble dealing with people in general. He does take the small step of volunteering at a soup kitchen.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: While Lester is staking out Marlo, he overhears a mother threatening to "beat the black" off of her son. At a soup kitchen, Bubbles also sees a woman threatening her child while he's crying, which prompts one of the workers at the kitchen to ask her if she wants help, because "(they) don't do that here."
- All Men Are Perverts: When Bunk tells the others in Homicide they may all have to go find honest work just to get paid:McNulty: What are you qualified to do? (Bunk points at his crotch) Aside from that, I mean.
- Berserk Button: Kima is furious at the fact no other cop at the scene of a shooting noticed there was a little kid hiding in the closet.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Phelps, at least, would like to see more examples of this in the newspaper.
- Call-Back: When McNulty takes a call, Bunk cracks, "There you are, giving a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck."
- In assessing Naresse's chances of becoming mayor, Norman brings up the article in the paper about her.
- Chekhov's Gun: McNulty hearing from colleague Nancy Porter how a postmortem mark on a body can easily look as if it was done before a death if the body's still warm.
- Continuity Nod: The woman who gets up to share at the Narcotics Anonymous meeting at the beginning is the same one who was seen buying at 8-ball in Hamsterdam, and buying something in Old Face Andre's store.
- Description Cut:
- Sydnor wonders what Marlo is up to now the surveillance is off of him, and Lester says, "Celebrating." Cut to Marlo getting the good news from Chris and Snoop that there's no more surveillance on them.
- Also, when Rhonda assures Lester Clay knows an investigation is coming, we cut to Clay yelling at Burrell about it.
- Disposable Vagrant: Part of McNulty's rationale for using dead homeless people to fake a serial killer; he figures no one will care enough to offer conflicting details.
- Enemy Mine: Avon is willing to temporarily work with Marlo if it means prevailing over Proposition Joe, or any of the other Eastside drug dealers.
- Epigraph: "This ain't Aruba, bitch," said by Bunk, bitterly saying why no one cares about Marlo's victims.
- Foreshadowing: Clay's upcoming trial, the Serial Killer plotline, Marlo's continued efforts to get in with the Greeks - and to get Omar once and for all - Bubbles' continued struggles, and Gus' suspicions about Scott all become important later.
- Gangsta Style: Averted by Chris and Snoop.Snoop: Fuck them west coast niggas. In B'more, we aim to hit a nigga, you heard?
- Gratuitous Latin: Parodied; when McNulty complains about Rhonda letting Chris and Snoop postpone their gun charge, Rhonda says it's pro forma, which McNulty translates as Latin for "lawyers jacking each other off".
- Hard-Work Montage: Scott outside the stadium, trying to get a good story for the Opening Day piece (or course, he gets nothing, so it's implied he makes one up instead).
- Headbutting Heroes: Bunk and McNulty become this at the end of the episode, and stay that way the rest of the season, thanks to McNulty faking a Serial Killer.
- It's Personal: Fitz uses this exact term to explain why the U.S. Attorney refuses to get involved in the investigation of Marlo.
- Let Me Get This Straight...:
- After Sydnor says he'd rather be out on the street than working on the Clay Davis case:Lester: You'd rather sit in a surveillance van days on end waiting to catch Tater handing Pee Wee a vial? This, Detective, is what you're telling me? A case like this here, where you show who gets paid behind all the tragedy and the fraud, where you show how the money routes itself, how we're all, all of us vested, all of us complicit?
Sydnor: Career case, huh?
Lester: Baby, I could die happy. - Gus does this to Scott concerning his Opening Day piece:Gus: So we got a poor black kid in a wheelchair with no ticket. He rolls himself from somewhere in West Baltimore to "the shadow of the mighty brick-faced coliseum known as Oriole Park", "listening to the cheers from the crowd, which told the whole tale." We're gonna give good play to a kid who declines to give his name because he skipped school, he's got no parents, he lives with his aunt. I'm not saying that this kid isn't everything you say he is, but, Scott, damn, as an editor, I need a little more to go on if I'm gonna fly this thing.
- After Sydnor says he'd rather be out on the street than working on the Clay Davis case:
- Missing White Woman Syndrome: Discussed (in a reference to the Natalee Holloway real-life case)Bunk: You can go a long way in this country killing black folk. Young males especially. "Misdemeanor homicides."
McNulty: If Marlo was killing white women...[..] One white...ex-cheerleader tourist missing in Aruba.
Bunk: Trouble is, this ain't Aruba, bitch.
Lester: You think if three-hundred white people were killed in this city, every year, they wouldn't send the 82nd Airborne? Negro, please. - Phrase Catcher: When he hears how Brown gets over a hangover (throws up a couple of times and then goes to work), McNulty calls that "the western district way".
- Also, when Avon asks Marlo how he is, Marlo shrugs and says, "The game is the game", which is something both Avon and Stringer said from time to time.
- Shout-Out: Whiting describes the situation at the schools as "Dickensian".
- O-Dog suggests doing a drive-by on a rival crew, a la Boyz n the Hood.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Scott trying to interview people outside the stadium.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: When Michael stakes out the back running of the house Chris and Snoop are commencing a hit on, he raises his gun on instinct due to the the back door suddenly swinging open but upon seeing it's one of the target's children, he lets the child go.
