Back to the home of the grieving parents in the middle of Kima's debriefing. Their son was in and out of rehab, they tried to do what they could for him, but eventually decided they had to cut him off, even if it meant that he was going to die from a drug overdose. But they weren't expecting him to fall prey to a serial killer -- or, if we want to be completely accurate, fall prey to an out-of-control homicide cop who fabricated him into the victim of a serial killer. The parents are understandably devastated by this turn of events: "This thing in the newspaper," the father says. "This sex stuff...the biting or whatever...Jesus, nobody deserves that." Let's just add "grieving next-of-kin" to the collateral damage McNulty's caused and move on before Kima tears up.

Back to the Sun, where Gus is complaining about the copy of...Fletch? Alma? The guy who covers Orioles games? No, it's Templeton, but you probably guessed that right away. It's not that Templeton's news story is written in the first person that's bothering Gus: "But this business about him 'being out there day and night with the homeless.' I mean, this stuff about him sharing their 'darkest corners with them...'" Gus is sharing these objections with Snidely Whiplash and Dick Dastardly... oh, my mistake, it's Klebanow and Whiting. But I hope you can understand why I might have confused them for poorly drawn cartoon villains. Anyhow Snidely...er...Whiting points out that Templeton is writing as more of an essayist and he points it out in the tone of voice one normally reserves for explaining things to an especially thick child. Gus wonders if writing things in the voice of an essayist would be a more appropriate task for...hmm, I'm grasping for words here...an essayist, not unlike the columnist who is already employed by the Sun and turned in copy on the homeless killings. "This stuff Scott's written," Gus continues, "it makes it sound like he's been living with the homeless for weeks. He spends one night under the J.F.X., another half-day quoting people in a homeless shelter. It ain't exactly Studs Terkel." "You don't think the piece should run as it is?" Klebanow asks. Gee, professor, what keen insight into the human mind allowed you to leap to that conclusion? Of course, Gus doesn't think the piece should run as is, you nitwit. Anyhow, Klebanow gives Gus the ol' "I respect your concerns" treatment and offers to edit Templeton's piece personally. And by "edit," I think we can all agree that he means "run it without a touched syllable but pretend like I will if it means shutting you up for the rest of the goddamn evening." Gus hands over the copy and takes his leave so that Snidely and Dastardly can chortle over their plot to cheat Penelope Pitstop out of winning the next Wacky Race.