Carcetti pipes up at this point to ask what's being done to protect non-murdered homeless people. Stepped-up patrols in the relevant districts, Daniels says, and undercover officers posing as vagrants working in staggered shifts. Hey, speaking of undercover things, McNulty also puts in a request for some undercover cars, noting that motorpool has been a little stingy with the wheels as of late. "Whatever you need, detective," Carcetti promises before McNulty can even complete his plea, and when Rawls begins to mention that the public works department has put the kibosh on such expenditures, the mayor suggests hitting rental car agencies. There's an Enterprise Rental Car commercial I'd love to see. ("Enterprise? I'm in pursuit of a serial killer." "We'll be right by to get you, detective." Enterprise -- we pick you up!) "People are disappearing," Carcetti adds. "They're dying, for chrissake. Just do what you need to do." And with that, Carcetti scurries off, his flacks and attendants in tow.

Rawls waits until the mayor is safely out of earshot before addressing his charges: "The bad news, gentlemen, is we're actually going to have to catch this motherfucker." Everyone laughs again, because, once more, they are sycophantic, and also because Rawls isn't talking about how he likes to get kinky. "The good news," Rawls adds, "is our mayor finally needs a police department more than he needs a school system." From the podium, McNulty grins one of his increasingly irritating grins. It's good to be the king.

Credits. Garden. Devil. Hole. And I don't know about you, but with us in the home stretch of The Wire, I've increasingly begun thinking about how this show is going to end. My best guess so far: one of those musical montages like the ones that have ended past seasons, only this one features McNulty sitting on a tree stump in the burnt-out crater where Baltimore used to be and sobbing while the Bee Gees' "I Started A Joke" plays in the background. (Too much?)