8.7/1034 votes#1 - Sentencing
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 9/8/2002
"all in the game..." - Traditional West Baltimore. Every crew has weak links--including Avon Barksdale's. With the heat turned up in the high-rises, Daniels and McNulty turn to a higher authority in an effort to crack the case wide open. Season finale.
Director: Tim Van Patten
Writer: Ed Burns
8.7/1030 votes#2 - -30-
Season 5 Episode 10 - Aired 3/9/2008
"...the life of kings." - H.L. Mencken A damaging report by Pearlman and Daniels gets a reaction from Carcetti, while Haynes finds little support for his concerns about a reporters work from the bosses. Meanwhile, McNulty wants to put a homeless case to an end, Dukie searches for an old mentor and a fallen officer is given a wake.
Director: Clark Johnson
Writer: Ed Burns
8.4/1029 votes#3 - Reformation
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 11/28/2004
"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, for now, to put off a 'Sun' reporter inquiring about Amsterdam. Carver learns how much he doesn't know about good policing, while Pearlman and Daniels plead their case for a new kind of wiretap to Judge Phelan.
Director: Ed Bianchi
Writer: Ed Burns
8.3/1031 votes#4 - Storm Warnings
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 8/10/2003
'It pays to go with the union card every time.' -- Ziggy The Detail uses satellite technology to its advantage. Bodie is unhappy that Proposition Joe's people are slinging on his turf, but business flows--until a new face arrives. Stringer Bell looks to an unlikely solution to the problem. Valcheck visits the FBI in an attempt to get real results on the docks. Ziggy's deal with Double-G goes bad in a big way.
Director: Rob Bailey
Writer: Ed Burns
8.3/1026 votes#5 - A New Day
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 11/26/2006
"You play in dirt, you get dirty." - McNulty Randy has trouble with his friends at school, while Carcetti faces a huge dilemma. Meanwhile, Omar visits Proposition Joe, while Freamon reveals a secret.
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Ed Burns
8.2/1026 votes#6 - Misgivings
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/2006
"World goin' one way, people another." -Poot Walker catches Donut boosting cars and teaches him a lesson; Commissioner Burrell gets advice from Senator Davis; Little Kevin has a talk with Marlo and regrets it; Herc ignores Bubbles call and regrets it; the Area Superintendent questions the success of Colvin and Parenti's project class; Senator Davis attempts to con Carcetti; Carver arrests Namond but keeps him out of baby booking; Burrell has the police force juke the numbers with street sweeps; Marlo puts the word out that Randy is a snitch; Elena sees McNulty as a grown up; Chris Partlow and Snoop target Bug's father for Michael.
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Writer: Ed Burns
8.2/1025 votes#7 - Transitions
Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 1/27/2008
"Buyer's market out there." - Templeton Omar plots his revenge for his former associates murder now that he's returned from exile. Gus stresses the need for a city-court reporter, after missing out on a grand jury probe. Carcetti finds there are strings attached in his desire to get rid of Burrell. While McNulty investigates the deaths of homeless men, Freamon needs the help of an old friend. Also, Marlo looks to the future in his dealings with the Greeks.
Director: Daniel Attias
Writer: Ed Burns
8.0/1030 votes#8 - Straight and True
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/17/2004
"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 level of corner management. McNulty sees Stringer Bell's legitimate business dealings as a sign that he is now unreachable as a drug target. Bubbles shakes the tree for Johnny one more time.
Director: Daniel Attias
Writer: Ed Burns
8.0/1025 votes#9 - The Dickensian Aspect
Season 5 Episode 6 - Aired 2/10/2008
"If you have a problem with this. I understand completely." - Freamon Marlo's crew goes on full alert after Omar's mysterious disappearance. Meanwhile, Carcetti concentrates on the plight of the homeless, while Bunk has an interview with a witness connected with the row-house case, and Templeton looks to a follow up to his recent front page story.
Director: Seith Mann
Writer: Ed Burns
7.9/1031 votes#10 - Undertow
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 6/29/2003
'They used to make steel there, no?' -- Spiros Vondas Ziggy loses his prized Camaro to drug dealers. Unable to dump the homicide investigation on other agencies, Rawls measures Bunk for the blame, if the cases go unsolved. Homicide detectives hand out grand jury summonses to stevedores involved in the homicide case, and port cop Beadie Russell talks to an old boyfriend to find out how cargo disappears from the docks.
Director: Steve Shill
Writer: Ed Burns
7.8/1042 votes#11 - The Pager
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 6/30/2002
"..a little slow, a little late." - Avon Barksdale. McNulty's detail finally gets 'clone' pagers to track Barksdale and his gang, but nobody can crack the codes used by the callers. Meanwhile, Bell instructs D'Angelo on how to school his lookouts while simultaneously flushing out a possible snitch. Later, Carver and Herc find Bodie, but their interrogation doesn't turn up results.
Director: Clark Johnson
Writer: Ed Burns
7.8/1026 votes#12 - Alliances
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/2006
"If you with us, you with us." - Chris Partlow Commissioner Burrell loses Royce's support; Chris Partlow tries to recruit Michael to become a soldier in Marlo's unit; Dukie shows Randy and the boys that the missing are really dead; Odell Watkins drops his support for Royce and considers an offer from Councilman Carcetti.
Director: David Platt
Writer: Ed Burns
7.8/106 votes#13 - Part Four
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 5/16/2022
Jenkins pivots after a high-speed car chase yields no drugs. During his interview with the Feds, former officer Maurice Ward recalls how Jenkins remained unscathed as the GTTF’s supervisor – despite a series of illegal incidents. Steele confronts Davis about a list of cops who lied in court, and the city is rocked by the Freddie Gray protests.
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Writer: Ed Burns
7.7/1010 votes#14 - The Cradle of Civilization
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 7/20/2008
Bravo Company gets an order to treat any Iraqi, holding a weapon, as a hostile.
Director: Susanna White
Writer: Ed Burns
7.7/1012 votes#15 - A Burning Dog
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 8/10/2008
First Recon get their orders to cross a local Iraqi bridge, which gives them their first chance to use local Iraqi citizens. As First Recon gets closer to the bridge, they are ambushed.
Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Writer: Ed Burns
7.7/1012 votes#16 - Stay Frosty
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 8/17/2008
First Recon get their next mission, which is to help escort the Iraqi civilians leaving Baghdad from a nearby highway, while trying to help them flee, the men see the humanity in the Iraqi civilians; First Recon come to the realization that since Baghdad is the next stop for American and Coalition forces, their war is almost at a close.
Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Writer: Ed Burns
7.5/1011 votes#17 - Screwby
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 7/27/2008
Bravo Company waits for their next orders, while scoping out a roadside firefight, they watch in shock as a regimental combat team arrives with guns blazing.
Director: Susanna White
Writer: Ed Burns
7.3/106 votes#18 - Part Two
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 5/2/2022
In his first days on the job, Jenkins learns the true weight of city politics in policing. Jensen and Sieracki interview an eager to talk Jemell Rayam about the GTTF’s tactics. Sean Suiter is assigned to a new murder case, McDougall links with Scott Kilpatrick to take their case to the Feds, and Steele hears from Hersl’s vocal critics.
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Writer: Ed Burns
6.3/1014 votes#19 - Get Some
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 7/13/2008
Marines prepare to invade Iraq at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom; while the Marines wait to receive their orders at Camp Mathilda in Kuwait, they learn that Rolling Stone columnist Evan Wright will be embedded with them.
Director: Susanna White
Writer: Ed Burns
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Ed Burns Ratings Summary
"Sentencing" is the best rated episode written by Ed Burns. It scored 8.7/10 based on 34 votes. It was directed by Tim Van Patten. It aired on 9/8/2002 and is rated 0.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "-30-".