Edward Tilghman Middle School. Principal Claudell Withers (Richard Hildebird) and Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly (Tootsie Duvall) are having an end-of-summer meeting in an administration office, running down which teachers will be back for the coming school year. Donnelly is one of the few characters with a really hardcore Baltimore accent: it's half southern drawl (that would be the Virginia influence, I guess), but then the northern component is the kind of pointy schwas I'm used to hearing from people in upstate New York. Anyway, the receptionist comes in and says there's a guy outside without ID, who says he's a new teacher. Donnelly tells her to let him in before he changes his mind, and the receptionist goes back to buzz him in, but the door is busted, like everything up in that bitch probably is. After a moment, the receptionist returns with Prez! She is not interested in attempting his name, telling him to introduce himself. Donnelly recognizes his name, saying he's new in Math, and Prez says he won't have his certificate for a while, but was told he would get classes because of staff shortages. "Lambs to the slaughter," mutters Donnelly sadly. Withers asks Prez what he did before becoming a teacher, and Prez says that he was a cop. Donnelly and Withers exchange an excited look that finally someone is coming to work there who might actually be up to the challenge, little knowing what kind of cop Prez was. Probably there are a couple of kids in the school who might benefit by getting accidentally shot, anyway.

At the Westside District office, Major Daniels and Lt. Mello are talking about assignments. Another officer in the hall sends McNulty in to see Daniels, who exposits that he'd already offered when he first arrived at the District, but is there any way he can get McNulty out of a radio car? McNulty smiles, and politely declines. Daniels adds that he's short a guy in Ops, and that his follow-up squad can't make cases, but McNulty graciously maintains his position, and takes off. Once he's gone, Mello (who also has a righteous accent) asks whether Daniels thinks Mello didn't ask McNulty the same thing "ten times" when he was Acting Commander, and says that McNulty's in "the wrong fucking place." "For us, yeah," says Daniels philosophically. "For him...?" Well, sure. He didn't look drunk; that tells you something.