While Dutch and Claudette investigate the murder of Nancy Reborg, they discover that her daughter is missing and has been sold by her addict father to a child molester. Meanwhile, David tries to crack corruption in the barn by recruiting Terry to help him take down Vic, which results in Terry's murder. Plus, Danny and Julien arrest a man who slashed his ex-girlfriend's tires.

Internal Affairs launches an investigation into Terry's death. David begins his own investigation into Vic's actions. Claudette and Dutch investigate the shooting of a churro vendor. The Strike Team busts a gang initiation. Rookie Julien gets pointers from Danny and experiences one of his own initiation rituals as a cop.

It's warrant sweep day at the Barn. Vic and the Strike Team discover visiting NBA superstar Derrick Tripp hanging out with his homies before the evening game with the Lakers. Vic decides to do his part for the home team by keeping Tripp as a friendly hostage. One of Vic's street informants, Connie, approaches him after having been roughed up by a new john. Vic hands off the case to Claudette and Dutch, who is convinced they're on the trail of a serial killer. Dutch's theories are proved wrong when he and Claudette ultimately discover that their perp is not a serial killer but rather a disturbed man who is raping women in a desperate attempt to procreate. Danny and Julien stumble upon a gun smuggling ring while delivering one of their warrants and disaster is averted only by Danny's sharp instincts. David has his hands full overseeing the sweep, managing an increasingly packed cage, soothing the frazzled nerves of the attending desk sergeant, and avoiding a potential lawsuit from Derrick Tripp's lawyer over the disappearance of his star client.

Vic must broker a peace between Kern Little and T-Bonz, two rappers whose personal animosity towards each other is broiling over in to the streets. Danny is attacked after identifying a shooter. Julien helps a woman whose son's body has been stolen. Dutch and Claudette search for a missing migrant worker. David allies himself with Kingmaker Jorge Machado to further his political ambitions.

David insists that Vic and the Strike Team take some uniform cops along as support, including Danny and Julien, when they bust an Armenian gang's drug buy. The Strike Team arrives as one of the Armenians is assassinated and proceed to remove the pink coke from the scene while the Unis bring out the surviving thugs. Julien witnesses Vic dividing the confiscated drugs into two and hand off the second bag to Shane. After much deliberation, Julien approaches David with his suspicions about Vic and the evidence. Claudette and Dutch interrogate the Armenians for more information on their drug connections. After storing the drugs in the lock box of his SUV, Shane drives to his girlfriend's, and later he discovers the SUV has been stolen. David and the Strike Team race to find the missing SUV and the drugs. The race ends at a dead junkie's apartment where Vic and the boys are able to get rid of all but one brick of the coke before David arrives and must decide whether to search Vic in front of fellow officers.

When the body of a young, unidentified hooker is found in the district, aspects of the crime and Dutch's conviction that this murder is the work of a serial killer persuade David to provide Dutch and Claudette the full resources of the Barn. Dutch has 24 hours in which to break the case before the clues grow cold and resources are demanded elsewhere. While Dutch, with the aid of an FBI profiler, wrestles with the responsibilities and pitfalls of leading his first large-scale investigation, Claudette revisits an old case that has haunted her through her career. The precinct focuses on canvassing the neighborhood for leads on the dead hooker's identity. Danny seriously contemplates taking the sergeant's exam and Julien wrestles with whether he should follow through with an affidavit regarding Vic's theft of the Armenian gang's drugs. Vic and the Strike Team uncover an underage prostitution and pornography ring. Vic must take quick, brutal action to protect one of his informants unsettled by the murder spree.

Vic and the Strike Team go to the aid of another precinct to stop a spree killer. David receives Julien's affidavit about Vic's illegal behavior and contacts Internal Affairs. Dutch and Claudette investigate a psychic charged with fraud. Danny and Julien's rift grows.

When the Strike Team is split apart and its members reassigned to other partners, Vic and Claudette find themselves following the destructive trail of a bad batch of cupid meth while Dutch and Shane just try to get along.

The Strike Team must clean up its own mess after planting a gun on the wrong guy in a truck-jacking case while Claudette deals with the mess of her family during a visit from her daughter.

Vic helps Connie through drug withdrawal in a desperate attempt to keep her kid, leaving Shane and Lemonhead to break a strip club mugging ring, while Dutch follows his instincts about a serial killer and Danny is bitten by an HIV-infected perp.

Vic and the Strike Team mediate between Rondell Robinson and the Nation of Islam while Dutch and Claudette investigate a brutal home invasion within the tight-lipped Korean community and Captain Aceveda revisits his past.

While Vic answers Assistant Chief Gilroy’s call for help in covering up a hit and run before Dutch intuits the facts of the case, Shane and Lemonhead follow the trail of a gunrunner with a penchant for cockfights and David turns to Claudette after a double homicide raises ire and fear within an ignored community.

Vic and David must join forces to stop the bogus 9-1-1 calls that are luring cops into deadly ambushes in the aftermath of a riot and Assistant Chief Gilroy attempts to play them against each other and destroy their careers in a desperate effort to save his own.