Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
With the Franklin Terrace towers demolished, Avon Barksdale’s crew must compete for street corners against Marlo Stanfield, while Stringer Bell tries to shift the business toward cooperation and property development. Major Bunny Colvin, frustrated by orders to lower crime statistics, quietly directs dealers into a few abandoned blocks where police stop enforcing drug laws; the arrangement becomes known as Hamsterdam. The open dealing brings services and calmer streets inside the zone, but Colvin has hidden the experiment from his superiors. Councilman Tommy Carcetti considers a mayoral run and watches the administration’s response to Colvin’s experiment. Cutty, recently released from prison, discovers that returning to the drug trade is not for him and begins building a boxing gym for neighborhood boys.
The detail restarts its investigation of Stringer and Avon, using a new wire to follow the Barksdale organization as the gang war with Marlo escalates. Stringer’s business arrangements and Avon’s return to corner warfare pull the partners apart; each makes a separate move against the other, and Stringer is killed by Omar and Brother Mouzone. Avon is arrested after the renewed case closes in. The exposure ends Hamsterdam and costs Colvin his command. Carcetti wants to be mayor, but the race continues into the next season. The detail’s arrests disrupt the Barksdale crew, but Marlo’s organization survives and gains ground. Cutty’s gym opens, giving him a new role among neighborhood boys.