In the wake of the dissolution of the Strike Team and the haunting return payment for his illegal misdeeds, Vic finds himself demoralized and empty as he now oversees a surveillance unit from behind a desk. Meanwhile, with Captain Aceveda moving up to the City Council, a new Captain, Monica Rawling, comes in to run the Barn, armed with some new gang warfare methods that could put her at odds with the rest of her new team.
Vic tries to help find a missing teenager at the behest of a friend, but the situation goes south when the teen soon turns up and enters into a shootout with officers from the Barn. Vic also seeks to locate a drug dealer who may be linked to reformed gang member Antwon Mitchell and suspects that Shane and his new partner may too be in leagues with Antwon. Meanwhile, Aceveda plans to bring Vic down on his final day overseeing the Barn.
Monica's first day on the job includes her public appointment of Vic to the head of the Barn's new gang task force, made necessary as the Barn attempts to clean up the blood of gang members after a drive-by shooting escalates the war between two rival gangs, the One-Niners and the Spookstreet Souljahs.
At Monica's request, Vic is on the hunt for a fugitive on the loose with several rapes under his belt, and he must use every resource at his disposal to keep the offender from raping yet again. When he fails to stop another rape from happening, however, Vic unwisely enlists Los Profetas, a spiritual street gang, to do some surveillance for him. Vic finally utilizes some patterns on serial rapists from Dutch to helps him nab his man.
The search is on for the killer responsible for the murder of a methadone clinic employee, and insight into the crime as well as a big bust comes in the form of a tip from Lem about a user's mother who was there with the employee upon his death, leading to a huge heroin collar for the Barn. Meanwhile, Monica tries to rationalize the new seizure protocol to an entire community.
Monica's new plan to bring in revenue for the Barn and surrounding community through property seizures proves to be successful right off the bat. Vic and the Strike Team also put a crimp in Antwon Mitchell's attempts to deal with the 1-Niners by getting some injunctions enacted against the gang.
Just as a Monica and Vic draw nearer to cracking the Garage Sting, a PR nightmare brought on by the tape of Vic at the church bust, leaked by Aceveda, gets the case transferred to the Organized Crime division. Meanwhile, Vic pulls some strings to keep a Russian mobster from making a convenient escape out of the country, and Monica tries to get to the bottom of two social workers' neglect of a young foster home orphan girl.
After two of their informants are murdered, Vic and Monica try to get the rest off of the streets. During an investigation, alongside Claudette, of a robbery in which someone was badly beaten, Dutch's past catches up to him and a prior case causes him to get shot while making the rounds on duty.
After two 911 officers go missing in Farmington after going out on a call, Monica has the unit comb the streets. When Dutch and Claudette come aboard as the lead investigators in the case, they find that their two main witnesses have been certified as insane. Meanwhile, Shane tries to get back in Vic and the team's good graces, and Vic agrees to help him break free of Antwon's influence, but the effort proves to be a disaster.
Vic goes out with Ronnie, Shane, Lem, and Army to try and find Angie's body in Griffith Park. Lem tries to coax the information of her whereabouts from Pitarrio through a violent intimidation, and decides to take Pitarrio's heroin in order to keep him from lying.
Vic decides to shake down the One-Niners in order to determine their, and anyone else's, role in the cop murders. With Antwon's incarceration, Vic and the team get into the business of two bangers believed to be the gang's next leader and turn them against one another to obtain information on the murders. Meanwhile, ordered by Monica to take a polygraph, Shane and Army prepare themselves by trying to figure out to beat the test.
The Strike Team discovers a C4 smuggling operation while pursuing the Russian mob boss, Tretiak, who had his car pulled over by Carl and Scooby. When the team brings him into custody and uses C4 explosives to try and threaten a confession out of the mobster, the plan backfires as the explosive strapped to Tretiak goes off after he falls from his chair.
Through the DEA has cut a deal with Antwon, Vic and the Strike Team, along with Monica, want him back in prison for the killings of Carl and Scooby. Upon learning that Bonilla, a drug-trafficker from El Salvador is being handed by Antwon to the DEA as part of his deal, Vic and the team move fast to try and snatch him before the DEA can get him in their midst, a move which would force the DEA to t