While Wagenbach and Wyms go to Mackey for help in recovering a kidnapped little girl, the Strike Team exerts more control on the streets.
Aceveda speaks at the funeral of Det. Crowley, whose death is being investigated by Internal Affairs. While a new officer goes through the induction process, the squad investigates the murder of a churro vendor.
In going after outstanding warrants, the cops bring in even bigger criminals than they expected: Mackey busts in on drug dealers only to find a pro-basketball player in their midst; Julien and Danny rout gun smugglers. In the end, the detectives find a way to give their beloved Lakers with an unexpected home-court advantage.
"Kingmaker" Machado turns out to be an ally for Aceveda; when the rivalry between rappers spills onto the streets, Mackey tries to broker peace between the recording artists.
As Mackey copes with the news that his son is autistic, the Strike Team bust an Armenian drug ring only to have the drugs they confiscated later stolen from them.
Dutch teams with an FBI profiler to hunt down a serial killer; Aceveda continues investigating Mackey while the Strike Force brings down dealers in underage prostitution.
Vendrell exacerbates a tense situation following a shoot-out by hurling a racial slur at one of the suspects; in searching for a serial killer, Wyms and Dutch bring in a psychic.
The Strike Team is temporarily disbanded pending an investigation of allegations of misconduct that lands them on the front page of the newspapers.
As the schism between Lowe and Sofer deepens, forcing Aceveda to get involved, a gun planted in a truck-jacking case causes trouble for the Strike Team. Meanwhile, Wyms has problems at home.
While Danny suffers a bite from a perpetrator infected with HIV, Dutch pursues a serial killer. Lemansky and Vendrell look into a string of strip club muggings and Mackey tries to help Connie, his hooker friend, quit using crack so she can keep her son.
As Wyms and Wagenbach try to get at the bottom of a home invasion in a tight-lipped Korean community, Mackey leads the Strike Team in an attempt to broker peace between Rondell Robinson and the Nation of Islam.
As Lemansky and Vendrell chase a gun dealer who dabbles in cockfights, and a double murder inspires fear in a neglected community, Gilroy seeks Mackey's help to conceal a hit-and-run Dutch is investigating.
Despite Gilroy's attempts to pit the two against each other to save his own job, Mackey and Aceveda work together to stop attacks on cops lured into danger by false 911 calls following a riot.