We're at a Comstat meeting, where Rawls is in the process of ripping one of his majors for having a poor command of crime data. While that's going on, Burrell is chuckling in sotto voce to one of his hangers-on about that impudent Carcetti. "What can a white councilman give me that a black mayor can't?" Burrell says. Ah yes, Acting Commissioner -- you sure showed him. I am absolutely certain that your rebuff will never come back to haunt you, ever. Back to our regularly scheduled dressing-down of majors: "Goddammit, Marvin," Rawls is saying. "Did you just invoke the word 'responsibility' to explain why you didn't get on top of this shit?...I don't think you know what the word means, when I can look at the 24s and plainly see that some .38 caliber asshole is raping your entire district, all the way from Greenmount to fucking Edison Highway. It's policing like that that makes it possible for us to get hit with five fucking homicides in a single fucking night, people." Ah, yes -- last night's murder spree. That's why Rawls is in such a fine fettle today. "Poor fucking Marvin," Colvin murmurs to Lt. Mello, his faithful right-hand man. "Better him than us, right? the real-life Jay Landsman murmurs right back.

Major Case is prepping Sydnor for the bust that will, they hope, set into motion the chain of events that will see poor, dumb Drac rise to a position beyond his capabilities and talents. Pearlman pokes her head into Daniels's office to tell him that the team is ready for a pre-bust pep talk. Those motivational pick-me-ups in the Wire-verse must be some real uplifting stuff, let me tell you: "Try to stave off the system's inevitable failure for one more day, fellas!" Anyhow, Pearlman pieces together that Daniels's office is doubling as a residence hotel, and gets a cold stare from Daniels as a reward for her efforts. "All right, Drac is depending on you people," Daniels tells the troops. "Mount up. And find your way back home." As far as calming words of wisdom goes, that's not better -- certainly better than you average Successories poster.

At the bust, Sydnor plays his part to perfection. The drugs change hands in exchange for money, and McNulty and Kima sweep in with a bunch of uniforms to make the collar. "Somebody snitching!" an in-character Sydnor sneers, as Kima leads him away. "Shut the fuck up!" she bellows back; she slaps him playfully on the cheek once they're safely out of view of the actual criminals. All told, this went a lot more smoothly than if the bust had been handled by, say, the crew from Reno 911!.