Detail office. Looks like Herc shouldn't have counted his stripey chickens before they'd hatched; turns out he's not getting promoted after all. In fact, five guys beat Herc to it -- including Carver! Wah-wah. Given the way Herc was throwing his weight around, Carver could be such a dick about this news, but he just says he's sorry, actually sounding sincere. Herc theorizes that he was passed over due to "all the brutality complaints," which I guess means that they're at least worth the paper they're filed on after all. Anyway, Herc thinks the black marks on his record mean that it won't ever matter how well he does on a test, but Carver kindly says that Herc doesn't know that. Sure -- he could eventually be up against dudes with even more brutality complaints against them. (God forbid.) He congratulates Carver with a fist-bump, though Carver isn't really that psyched about it. Prez picks up the ringing phone just as Lester enters, a couple of takeout containers in his hand and Shardene in his wake. The two of them head into an adjacent room, where Lester starts to lay out the food and Shardene sits on the table next to him, leaning down to give him a kiss as he beams back at her. Aw! God, they are cute. Watching them, Carver and Herc share a "get it, Lester!" look, Carver commenting, "The world is on its ass." Actually, superfly Lester landing his sweet-natured, hot-assed dream girl is one of the few things on this show that really makes sense. Speaking of Lester, Prez enters the room where he and Shardene are dining to give Lester a phone number in Philadelphia that he'd asked for. Lester takes it, thanking him, whereupon he notices Carver spying on him and closes the door on his love nest. Hee.

FBI conference room. The super-WASPy agent leading the meeting compliments the cops on "good casework." Daniels thanks him guardedly. Agent WASP adds that an Agent Arnold, present in the meeting, has had a file on Davis for a while. Lester comments that it took them some time to see the connection, "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 going to be." Daniels takes up the narrative: "He buys up every piece of garbage real estate he can, flips it three or four times, exaggerating the values." Lester brings it home: "And now the city's going to pay him millions to condemn the properties for the renewal project." Agent WASP says that it's a lot to work with, but that the FBI is willing: "The question is, can your co-operator give us the senator, or any other political figure?" McNulty doesn't know who they think the co-operator is, and Agentess reminds him, "D'Angelo Barksdale," asking the cops what D'Angelo knows about the money. Ronnie freezes, Lester shifts uncomfortably, McNulty incredulously smirks, and Daniels finally snorts, "Nothing. He gives you the drugs and the violence. He gives you Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell." "And they give us the senator," says Agent WASP, like this is police kindergarten. "Maybe, yeah," offers Lester pessimistically.