Don't read this if you don't want to read a hypothetical scenario for the end of season four of The Wire.

Marlo has a problem. He knows the cops are up on him. Now Little Kevin was pinched, and he knows it's because Randy snitched about Lex's murder. Already dropping bodies, Marlo can't have the end of this situation -- that is, the end of young Randy Wagstaff -- come back to him. So he decides not to use Chris and Snoop for this one.

This can go one of two ways. Michael has just reached out to Marlo to kill his abusive stepfather, so Michael is now indebted to Marlo. He can tell Michael that Michael needs to take care of Randy. Alternatively, he can tell Little Kevin to take care of it so that it doesn't come back to the crew. In either case, there's one answer here: Namond Brice, from whom Randy will never expect the bullet that ends his life. Namond, under pressure from De'londa and Wee-bey, has to prove himself, and this is the way of the soldier. Either Little Kevin comes to Nay to kill Randy or Michael takes the message from Marlo to Nay directly. In any event, Namond kills Randy.

But something goes wrong. Namond, we know, is not a real soldier. He was the one who ran away when the piss-balloon caper went sour. Something goes wrong -- either Namond left witnesses, or he told too many people after it happened, or something else. And since Michael is corrupted by his debt to Marlo, there's only one member of the crew left to go to the cops: Dukie, with his big heart, and his strong sense of right and wrong. Dukie will be the one who turns to Prez about what happened. Namond goes to be with his father in prison, and this sets up the fifth season -- the downfall of Marlo Stanfield.