Season 3

The heat is on in Baltimore. The drug war is being lost, bodies are piling up, and a desperate mayor wants the tide turned before the election. But the police department hasn't got any answers. Wiretaps haven’t worked. Neither have stakeouts or street busts. With the demolition of the Franklin Terrace towers, Stringer Bell and the Barksdale crew have been forced to improvise. But no matter how hard McNulty and the detail try, the dealers always seem to be one step ahead of the game. It’s time to change the rules.

episodes

1. Time After Time 2004-09-19 59 min 7.9 "Don't matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin' the same." -- Bodie A wave of urban reform brings down the notorious Franklin Terrace public housing towers, forcing the Barksdale drug...
2. All Due Respect 2004-09-26 59 min 8.1 "There's never been a paper bag." -- Colvin Omar continues his bold strikes on Barksdale stash houses, now heavily guarded. Under orders from Stringer Bell, Bodie faces a critical test against Marlo,...
3. Dead Soldiers 2004-10-03 59 min 7.7 "The gods will not save you." -- Burrell Colvin feels the sting of Burrell and Rawls during a Comstat assessment of his district's felony numbers; a blown wiretap forces Daniels's detail to turn to a...
4. Amsterdam 2004-10-10 59 min 8.0 "Why you got to go and fuck with the program?" -- Fruit West Baltimore residents get surprising straight talk at a community meeting from Major Colvin. Bubbles finds gainful employment; Stringer lunc...
5. Straight and True 2004-10-17 59 min 7.9 "I had such fuckin' hopes for us." -- McNulty Frustrated in his grass-roots reform efforts, Colvin arms himself with intelligence from Daniels's detail and personally delivers a message to the next l...
6. Homecoming 2004-10-31 58 min 8.3 "Just a gangster, I suppose." -- Avon Barksdale Stringer Bell gets an education in construction management; Bunk uses shoe-leather to catch up with Omar and deliver a searing message; a frustrated Co...
7. Back Burners 2004-11-07 56 min 8.2 "Conscience do cost." -- Butchie Herc discovers a blast from the past, which he belatedly reveals to his ex-colleagues. Daniels blows a gasket over the real reason the detail was reassigned from an i...
8. Moral Midgetry 2004-11-14 59 min 8.5 "Crawl, walk, and then run." -- Clay Davis With Amsterdam running full-tilt, Carver and Truck discover there really is no honor among thieves. Prez impresses the detail with what he's found out from...
9. Slapstick 2004-11-21 59 min 7.9 "...while you're waiting for moments that never come." -- Freamon Responding to an officer's call for help, McNulty and Prez turn down the wrong alley, with unanticipated results. A Barksdale crew vi...
10. Reformation 2004-11-28 59 min 8.3 "Call it a crisis of leadership." -- Proposition Joe Brother Mouzone returns to Baltimore on a mission of revenge and casts a wide net in his search for Omar, who has his own plan. Colvin manages, fo...
11. Middle Ground 2004-12-12 59 min 9.0 "We ain't gotta dream no more." -- Stringer Bell The wire begins to yield information about the Barksdale organization, while Stringer and Avon reminisce on how far they have come.
12. Mission Accomplished 2004-12-19 64 min 8.2 "...we fight on the lie." -- Slim Charles In the Season Three finale, a reticent Avon readies his troops for a war against Marlo. Meanwhile, as the detail works towards the top rungs of the Barksdale...