Detective Bolander decides to convince Detective Munch to help him solve one of his unfinished cases. Rookie Detective Tim Bayliss has to team with Detective Pembleton to investigate the death of an 11 year old girl. Meanwhile, Detectives Crosetti and Lewis discover that a woman has been killing all her husbands for their insurance money.
Rookie Tim Bayliss is assigned to investigate the killing of a young girl. He hasn’t even been given a desk yet, but he is forced into the public spotlight.
Crosetti tries to get to the bottom of a shooting with close personal ties. Meanwhile new evidence uncovered relating to the Calpurnia Church case.
Bayliss is getting worn out by the pressure from the Watson probe. Pembleton goes on a wild-goose chase. Crosetti zeroes in on a suspect in his former partner’s killing, while Lewis continues to investigate the case.
Bayliss is convinced he knows who killed Adena Watson, but his suspect of choice has already been interviewed a number of times. Now they have only twelve hours left to make a case against the man.
According to Baltimore Municipal Code, the death of a police dog is required to be given the same level of investigation as a human cop’s death. A less than enthusiastic Bayliss and Pembleton are assigned to the case. Meanwhile Howard and Felton deal with a woman who has been killed with rather unusual bullets.
One of the student leaders from the Tiananmen Square protests is killed in Baltimore and Crosetti & Lewis are assigned to investigate the crime with international implications. Meanwhile the Pony Johnson case comes to trial.
Two cases have the same suspect but the combined stakeout is made more difficult because two of the cops are trying to quit smoking. Meanwhile, Munch and Bolander have to sort out why a teenager who was beaten to death waited days after the incident to get medical help.
On the hottest night of the year, no calls come in and bored detectives have to sit around discussing personal problems.
This episode focuses on the ordeal of a man who’s wife has been killed in front of him, during a botched robbery. Guest star Robin Williams, who had previously worked with Barry Levinson on the big screen, was featured in a dramatic role, for which he received an Emmy nomination.
An apparent suicide turns out to be more than meets the eye when detectives suspect that the victim’s son, a childhood friend of Det. Felton, may have assisted in the deed. Meanwhile Pembleton and Bayliss believe they have found evidence of a police shooting cover-up.
Lt. Giardello feels that Pembleton is being disloyal to fellow officers when he suspects a well liked senior officer in the shooting of a fellow cop. Matters are further confused when it is revealed that Det. Howard once had a relationship with the suspect.
A murder investigation leads Bayliss and Pembleton to a phone sex company and an S & M club. Meanwhile Crosetti and Lewis deal with a man who stabbed another in a public library over a pen.
The new second shift commander gets a “red ball” case and Lieutenant Giardello and his team are ordered to assist. The lead detective on the case is something of a bigot and immediately clashes with Pembleton.
Lieutenant Russert removes Det. Gaffney from the white-glove case and puts Frank Pembleton in charge. Later, an entrepreneur offers to buy the gloves from the evidence room.
Frank is under a lot of pressure to solve the white-glove murders, when he seems to get a break with a new witness. Lt. Russert has an unexpected meeting with Felton’s wife. Munch, Lewis and Bayliss meet the Inspectors.
Munch & Howard investigate a shooting, while legal problems hound the squad. The “White Glove Murderer” sues the department claiming they violated her civil liberties.
A publisher friend of Lt. Giardello has been killed. Everyone assumes the crime was a result of a major expose the man was working on, but it turns out to be related to a petty crime. Meanwhile Bayliss breaks up with Emma Zoole and it very nearly drives him over the edge.
Detective Crosetti is found dead shortly before he is scheduled to return from vacation. Det. Lewis is unwilling to accept the idea that his partner may have committed wuicide and becomes angry when Bolander’s investigation finds that all the evidence indeed points to suicide.
Kay Howard is getting burnt out from investigating crime in the big city. She takes time off to visit her family home on Maryland’s Eastern shore. She finds everything has changed a bit. And there may also be a bit of murder, which goes to show that the dark side of humanity is not limited to the big city.
It’s the Christmas Eve graveyard shift. The detectives are hard pressed to feel the Christmas spirit. A Salvation Army Santa Clause is found dead, and detectives find that their investigation is ruining another family’s Christmas.
A thirteen year old kills a fourteen year old. Pembleton and Bayliss investigated the child-on-child killing and find out that the young thug intended to kill another boy but made a mistake.
Munch and Lewis investigate a murder within a biker gang, and Deputy Commissioner Harris asks Pembleton to look into the kidnapping claim of a local Congressman.
The trial of Congressman Wade puts Detective Pembleton on the spot. In the end, Frank takes the blame so those above him don’t get in trouble. Lieutenant Russert deals with a friend’s abusive marriage, but it has a tragic result.
Bolander, Howard and Felton are ambushed on their way to serving a warrant. The second shift is brought in to help on the investigation, and Pembleton gets on the nerves of his coworkers when they see his concentration on the case as not caring for his friends who had been shot.
Pembleton brings in the child killer Glenn Holton, who Bolander, Howard and Felton were on their way to apprehend when they were ambushed, unfortunately, he has nothing to do with the detectives getting shot, so that case goes back to square one.
Detectives return to a suspect they overlooked earlier in the investigation when they were trying to apprehend Glenn Holton. Steve Buscemi guest stars as gun toting racist Gordon Pratt. While seemingly unfazed by the shooting of his coworkers, Frank Pembleton’s emotions nearly get the best of him when he deals with the bigoted racist, Pratt.
The man accused of shooting Felton, Howard and Bolander is found dead, and Bayliss has to investigate his friends who are natural suspects in the killing. Felton is well enough to return, but maybe it’s too soon to be back at work.
Detective Howard is finally back at work and jealous that Felton and Bolander returned first and are already back on the street. Gee uncovers corruption in the city government, resulting in Col. Granger’s getting the boot. Barnfather is promoted to Colonel and Megan is promoted to Captain instead of Geiardello
The daughter of a death-row inmate takes Colonel Barnfather hostage to force Bolander to reopen the case against her father. Sure enough, he finds that his sloppy police work sixteen years earlier caused the man to be erroneously convicted.
Crosetti’s pending cases get doled out to the other dectectives when Gee romeoves the dead man from the board. Felton’s drinking begins to effect his job, and his partner Kay Howard.
In a rare “ripped from the headlines” story, a foreign student on his way to a costume party gets shot when he goes to the wrong address. To make matters worse, the shooter is Jim Bayliss, Tim’s cousin. Flashbacks reminiscent of Kurasawa’s Rashomon leave viewers guessing as to what actually happened.
A man Pembleton put away six years earlier, for installing a defective gas heater that ultimately killed an entire family, is released, but still holds a bit of a grudge against the man who responsible for his incarceration. Guest star Bruno Kirby steals crucial evidence from a case where a woman has been decapitated, in hopes of getting back at Frank.
Arson detective Mike Kellerman joins Pembleton and Bayliss in a fire investigation. They dispute over whether a burned body found in the building was a murder victim or an unintended death.
Continued from the previous episode, a second fire seems to confirm the serial arson theory, but the evidence doesn’t connect the fires. Kellerman breaks the case in the interrogation room, impressing Lt. Giardello so much he offers the young man a spot on the Homicide squad.
Arson turned Homicide Detective Kellerman is paired with Det. Lewis to investigate a murder. A local TV news cameraman gets the killers on videotape and sacrifices his job in the TV news by turning the footage over to the police. Meanwhile a pair of lunkheads who have been taping their own crimes get busted.
A serial killer is working his way toward Baltimore and the FBI give the squad warning. Bayliss thinks he has arrested the man, but finds it is the real killer’s identical twin brother.
Kellerman and Lewis discover new leads in the Erica Chilton case. Kay Howard was the lead detective on the case which was reassigned on her promotion to sergeant. She feels a bit of resentment that the detectives are succeeding on the case where she had stalled. Meanwhile a killing outside of a gay bar may not be what it appears.
Two teenagers’ fight over a girl winds up in a gunfight that results in the accidental shooting of a child who is left brain dead. The kid’s parents have to decide if they should take their son off life-support so his organs can be donated.
A dead body is found walled up in a cellar, reopening a ten year old cold case. The case is assigned to Munch and Howard, who recognize the Edgar Allan Poe theme. Richard Belzer (Munch) has a romantic sub-plot with his real life wife, Harley McBride, playing ME Alyssa Dyer.
Both shifts are brought in for a “red ball” case, where a sniper is shooting at people from rooftops. The shootings happen at precise time increments, putting the detectives under even more time pressure. Colonel Barnfather gets fed up with Russert’s loyalty to her people rather tan him.
Continued from the previous episode, the sniper has killed himself, but the killings continue on the regular schedule. When the detectives look over the evidence they find a common eyewitness at the new shootings.
Lewis and Kellerman go to Pennsylvania to take custody of a murderer. Unfortunately they return to the squad empty-handed, because the woman escaped. To make matters worse, the murderess kills again before being recaptured.
Lewis and Kellerman are on the trail of a paranoid schizophrenic. The case hits home when Lewis reveals he has a brother who has been institutionalized for over twenty years. Pembleton and Bayliss deal with a known criminal who died due to poor emergency room care.
As detectives from Baltimore and New York connect a pair of poison gas attacks in the two cities five years apart, the prime suspect's wife is murdered to keep him from giving up any more information. His son tips off the police, leading to the arrest of an anarchist ex-Special Forces colonel who is trying to start a race war.
Munch and Russert are paired up to investigate the case of a retired police officer who is found strangled in a cemetery. The dead cop turns out to be the father Lewis’s friend. Gee has trouble with his homicide unit “family” and when the cop killer is acquitted it gets no better.
Kellerman comes back from Wisconsin in time to join in the tracking down of the acquitted cop killer from part one. Sgt. Howard suspects Lewis’s friend (and son of the slain cop) Jake Rodzinski, so she sends Lewis off chasing other leads, and has Kellerman look into Rodzinski. Meanwhile Tim and Frank dispute over grilled-cheese sandwiches.
The entire squad take turns in round the clock surveillance on a serial killer. The stake-out gives the characters time to spill information to one another. Tim lets on that he is thinking about moving to Los Angeles to start his own security company.
Pembleton and Bayliss have to deal with the body of a young girl who was assaulted and killed, bring back memories of the Adena Watson case. The reflection on the old case dredges up bad memories and bad feelings which they try to put behind them. Gee warns Frank that he gets too worked up over things and it could land him in the hospital.
On the night of a full moon, Lewis and Kellerman are sent to the New Moon Hotel to question guests. They don’t find many useful clues, but they meet a lot of strange people with plenty to hide.
The mistrust of the black community towards the police department is highlighted in this episode. A murder has taken place in an apartment complex that is patrolled by a Muslim run security company. When Kellerman and Lewis go to investigate they have a hard time finding anyone who is willing to talk to them. Russert and Munch learn while investigating a separate case, that the black community may have a very good reason to distrust the police.
Lewis must team up with a narcotics detective to discover who is putting bad heroin on the streets. Meanwhile, Kellerman in under investigation for corruption.
Their rotation in robbery is up, Frank and Tim return to the homicide unit. They find that citations are being handed out to the unit and a delighted Gee, whose clearance rate is the highest it has been in five years. Kellerman and Lewis are also scheduled to return. Howard is still on assignment with the fugitive squad. Additions to the unit through rotated assignment include Det. Ballard who actually comes from a Seattle homicide unit, Det. Falsone and Det. Gharty.
While Pembleton is still interested in the housekeeper's ex-boyfriend, Ballard still thinks that the Wilson family needs to be looked at more closely.
The Wilsons go on television to offer a reward. The newspapers are making the Homicide unit look bad and Barnfather wants quick resolution to the case.
A young woman is viciously attacked. Falsone and Lewis are called to the scene because the victim wasn't expected to make it.
Assistant district attorneys Jack McCoy and Jamie Ross realize they must follow the leads from their only witness, a spurned admirer who claims he saw the victim's assault. Meanwhile, Briscoe, Munch, Curtis, and Falsone go to question the victim's parents and are surprised to learn that they have returned to Baltimore. After a jurisdictional struggle, McCoy and Danvers prosecute the case together, in Baltimore.
The young man that was stalking Brittany in Baltimore is interviewed and relates that he saw her being attacked by someone.
A man falls between the subway and the platform and severs his spine. He will die as soon as they can get him free. The homicide detectives are called in because some witnesses say he was pushed, while others say he fell. Was it murder or an accident?
A man is killed in a Laundromat. The detectives are looking through his extensive little black book for a suspect when an autopsy reveals he was HIV positive. Even though his mother says he was always careful, the do find a former girlfriend with full-blown AIDS. But did she do it and would it make sense to charge her as she would not live to see a trial?
The semi-nude body of a man is found in a dumpster outside of a restaurant.
A white man is found lynched in a historic black section of the city; Falsone and Lewis investigate.
Julianna wins the recognition of her peers. At dinner, Julianna and her colleagues swap stories about how they've cracked cases.
Kellerman is trying to find Lewis, who's disappeared since his suspension. Bayliss is on vacation. Stivers rotates into homicide and Kellerman isn't happy to see her.
With the addition of the latest murder, the "red ball" investigation continues full force. The detectives and the returning Bayliss pose as priests in an attempt to flush out any leads.
A slightly intoxicated man (driving with his wife) aggressively whips his car around a state-owned truck; the offended truck driver rams their car; their aggression results in a collision where both drivers die.
Pembleton and Falsone look into the death of an elderly man who might have been killed by the pit bulls owned by his grandson.
Homicide is called in when a woman is distressed at the fact the Dr. Turner helped her brother stop suffering from his colon cancer by injecting him with a lethal dose of morphine.
A four-year-old boy is abducted while riding a merry-go-round in the park under the supervision of his mother. The Homicide unit, which helps in the investigation of all child abductions, is called in.
Munch and Gharty probe the death of a high-school athlete who appeared to have everything going for him.
Ballard and Gharty investigate the deaths of two single women who were bought drinks by a married couple.
Ballard and Munch catch a case involving the death of a prominent businesswoman. Pembleton and Bayliss catch a similar case.
An elderly man comes to the Homicide unit to confess to Bayliss that his father had committed a murder 66 years ago.
Judge Gibbons has been stabbed.
The search for Georgia Rae and the war against her organization begin.
Detectives Munch and Bayliss and Lieutenant Giardello investigate the brutal murder of one of Little Italy's residents. The case becomes personal when Giardello's cousin turns up as a victim and his estranged son, Mike, now an FBI agent, turns up to help out. Back in the squad room, the regulars welcome a surprising new detective to the unit.
Detectives Ballard and Gharty must join the Washington, D.C. narcotics team to track down the killer in a drive-by shooting. Meanwhile, the investigation into the death of a murdered identical twin leads detectives Lewis and Sheppart down a bizarre path.
Mike Giardello and Ballard investigate the shooting of a prowler outside the home of a well-known sports medicine doctor. Back in the squad room, the new female addition to the unit has the male detectives giddy, and the IRS has it in for Munch.
Detectives Ballard and Gharty investigate the mysterious disappearance of a best-selling author and soon discover everyone they've questioned has a motive. Munch and Bayliss check out an odd burglary while the squad room is left dumbfounded after a mean game of trash trivia.
A suspicious and terminal flu has the entire squad concerned. Special agent Mike Giardello joins Sheppard and Bayliss, only to knock heads with Gee over his decisions. Ballard and Falsone get the squad abuzz when they go out on their first date, and Munch takes a very personal trip to the doctor.
Falsone and Stivers discover that the prime suspects in a shooting are the Bounty Hunters, a state sanctioned pseudo-law enforcement group that tracks down bail-jumpers and other fugitives. As the rivals join forces to find missing evidence, Lewis is seriously injured when Mike Giardello crashes a police car while chasing down a suspect. Gharty recounts his Vietnam days, much to the chagrin of Munch. Falsone and Ballard's relationship heats up.
Lewis struggles to regain consciousness as Mike Giardello steps up his pursuit of the suspect. He and Bayliss leave Baltimore for sunny South Beach, and they meet bounty hunter Dennis Knoll, after a potential partnership is quashed by Al Giardello. Mike Giardello faces a lawsuit after a woman, whose car he crashed into, dies. He and Lewis try to talk the widower out of the lawsuit with no success. Gharty battles his own divorce suit, eventually deciding he's going to spend as much money as possible to minimize the amount his ex-wife gets.
Mike Kellerman's new vocation is private investigation, where the majority of the work involves catching cheating spouses.
Debbie Straub signs the plea agreement, pointing to Craig as the killer of the baby.
A white bus driver striking a black female pedestrian sparks a riot.
A body buried for 6 - 20 years is uncovered at a construction site. Munch and Lewis begin the process of trying to solve this old crime.
Gharty has a Vietnam flashback. Sheppard is placed back into rotation.
The Internet is stage for a ritual murder, which was staged -- which was staged, or was it?
Ballard and Bayliss are called to the scene of the mysterious death of a woman, whose body is found at the bottom of a forty-foot cliff.
Munch and Sheppard question the prisoner who arranged the hit on a slain government official. Danvers is appointed to the federal bench, but the independent counsel's office tries to railroad his case. Even though a key witness agrees to testify to the identity of the man who arranged the murder, the independent counsel trumps the arrest and wants to use the man to go after potentially bigger targets. In the process, the independent counsel digs up dirt on Danvers's past, a racially motivated beating Danvers took part in as a teenager, which threatens to derail his nomination. Meanwhile, Lewis continues to worry about Sheppard's abilities on the street and tells Falsone. Stivers tells Ballard that she thinks Sheppard probably shouldn't have pulled her gun.
A woman comes looking for Falsone, knowing that he solved a real old case, wants him to look into a case for her from 1972.
Lewis and Munch begin to investigate the death of a Buddhist monk beaten to death.
In Stivers and Falsone's case, a man is found shot dead in his bed, with no signs of a struggle.
Falsone and Lewis investigate the murder of a man in his own backyard. The victim's nose was removed from his body. Ballard and Gharty investigate the murder of a bartender at a strip club.
Emmet Carey is holding his two children hostage in the apartment of his wife's sister.
When the men are nowhere to be found, Sheppard and Ballard team up to investigate the death of young girl, who's a teenage gang member.
Sheppard and Bayliss await the trial of Luke Ryland, the Internet killer.