''The Wire'': Cold Serial Killer

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Elsewhere Alma, our industrious young reporter, was trying to ferret out a fresh copy of The Baltimore Sun in the middle of the night, and she wandered into the same store where McNulty was buying a spool of special serial-killer red ribbon. If the city won't give him the resources to bring Marlo down, he'll force them to pony up the dough to catch a serial killer. Bunk is right. Our hero has gone bye-bye, sailing away on a tidal wave of booze. After planting a ribbon bracelet on a dead homeless man and cooking some files, our man thought he'd saved the day. But nobody cares about city vagrants, and all Alma could do — they finally met over a cup of coffee while McNulty tried to use her in every which way — was get a story buried in the metro section.

McNulty is obsessed with justice. And however ill he's treating Beadie (sock him with the fry pan if he ever drags himself home!), he's about the only one. ''Jimmy, I just bought brand-new lawn chairs and a glass patio table,'' Bunk said. ''Now you don't buy s--- like that if you're planning on losing your job and going to prison.'' Looked like Bunk thought Lester might talk some sense into our fair Irishman, but Lester got positively starry-eyed about the prospect of breathing life into the Marlo case through the serial-killer scam. Sex it up! he said. Sensationalize it! People want a sick, gruesome story they can really sink their teeth into. Look at any story leading the evening news, or any episode of Special Victims Unit or CSI, and you know Lester has got us all nailed. I appreciate that The Wire knows that a serial-killer angle is trite and that it's twisted stuff like this that gets people's blood pumping. So they may be spinning the trope on its head, but there's still a serial-killer angle on my favorite show. I'd say dump this plot in the river, but I'm probably jumping the gun. McNulty's right: ''Marlo doesn't get to win. We get to win.'' He's acting a little bit like a brat there, but it comes from a good place. My criticism is a little bratty too, but it's just because I don't want nothing messing with my favorite show.

Finally, the funniest moment of the episode: The boss man has asked his staff to gather round him in the newsroom. Pulitzers? someone wonders. ''If we won a Pulitzer, the executive editor would be tumescent.'' ''Tu- what? Speak English — I'm just a police reporter.'' ''Tumescent. Engorged.''

Also, perhaps my nerves can be attributed less to where this whole plot is going and more to the fact that I fear the next time my husband farts, he'll turn to me and say, ''Oh, like Chanel No. 5 comes out of your ass?''

But what did you all think? Are you digging McNulty's manufacturing of a serial killer? Are Daniels and his ex-wife going to find their way back into each other's arms? Do you have a subscription to your hometown newspaper? And whose ass would you most like to see kicked on this show?