 |
|
Home
Wrestling
WWE
TNA
Tape Reviews
Other
Sports
Basketball
Football
Baseball
Hockey
International
Entertainment
Movies / TV
Music
Gaming
Technology
Books / Comics
" The Gravel Pit "
|
|
|
|
Entertainment
>
Movies / TV
The Shield Season Finale (Episode 413: "Ain't That A Shame") Review
Posted by Jesse Baker on Jul 2, 2005, 21:51
|
|
The Shield Season Four Finale Recap
By Jesse Baker
Previously on "The Shield": Lots of stuff happened. For those who are completely unaware of what "The Shield" is about or who the characters I'm talking about are, I would suggest reading the following "The Shield Character Guide" by The Smart Marks.com writer Brandon Truitt which is available at http://thesmartmarks.com/artman/publish/article_1438.shtml
But since Brandon's guide only goes as far as midway through season three, here is a brief synopsis of everything you need to know about the fourth season:
Police Captain David Acaveda is elected to the position of city councilman after spending the last two and a half seasons campaigning in between trying to arrest corrupt cop Detective Vic Mackey for mass corruption and threatening to unleash holy hell upon the gang member who forced Acaveda to perform oral sex on him or else be shot in the head at point blank range. To replace him as Captain of the Farmington District's police force, The Powers That Be select a woman by the name of Monica Rawling to take over running the Barn. Captain Rawling immediately makes waves by implementing a new and highly controversial policy of asset forfeiture as a means to stop crime in Farmington.
She also elects to use everyone's favorite corrupt cop Detective Vic Mackey, who as a final "Fuck You" has been blackballed so as to prevent Vic from getting any sort of high profile assignment at any other precinct by Acaveda right before leaving his job as captain, to spearhead the asset forfeiture program. This of course creates a public backlash against Monica and the department, masterminded by former gang leader/conman Antwon Mitchell.
Exploiting the community's pre-existing hate for the police department and armed with the a book of self-improvement book cliches, Antwon reinvents himself as a community activist who seeks to help the black residents of Farmington rise out of the gutter. But Monica, who knows all about Antwon and his evil ways, vows to fight Antwon's smear campaign against the police and expose him as the new drug kinpin in Farmington. Monica (seeing that she's stuck with Vic) and Vic (seeing that his only chance at getting out of the department's doghouse is to hope and pray Monica succeeds as Captain) begin work to destroy Antwon's crime syndicate and are aided by former Strike Team members Detective Ronnie Gardocki (Vic's close friend and partner) and Curtis "Lem" Lemansky (another friend of Vic's who's working with juvenile offenders after suffering a complete physical and mental breakdown last season), both of which agree to join in the quest to bring down Mitchell.
Along the way, Rawling wins over the support of her fellow cops, most notably the outspoken and self-appointed voice of morality at the Barn, Detective Claudette Wyms. Despite a rocky start (Claudette originally was supposed to have been promoted to Captain until she exposed a infamously incompetent public defender as being a drug addict, which caused her to be passed over and the job given to Monica, who outright stated that she had no sympathy for Claudette, who not only ended up losing a promotion but ended up being assigned to small time criminal cases as punishment) they bond while investigating a corrupt home for foster children. Monica, who has absolutely no love for the apathetic, pencil pushing bureaucrats who run Family Services, vowed swift and violent retribution on the bureaucrats in charge of the home under investigation if she ever received any further word of abuse and corruption going on there.
But things get complicated big time when Vic's former partner and best friend Detective Shane Vendrell forms an alliance with Antwon Mitchell. Vic and Shane had a falling out at the end of the third season, as longtime resentments and Shane's homoerotic obsession with Vic led to the two ending their longtime friendship. Now Shane, working with a new partner, are busy arresting Antwon's rivals and giving him information about the police investigation against his growing drug empire. But Shane, ever the dullard, oversteps and in his quest to prove he can be a better and more powerful corrupt cop than Vic, ends up pissing Antwon Mitchell by repeatedly telling Antwon that he is the dominant one in their working relationship.
So Antwon decides to show Shane who's boss and after beating the crap out of Shane and his partner, steals their guns and uses them to kill a young girl who had given damning evidence against Antwon that caused the police to shut down one of his biggest drug operations. Hiding the body away, Antwon vows to have it turn up and get Shane and his partner arrested for murder if he doesn't stop with the trash talk and accept that he and his partner now belong to Antwon body and soul. However, as Monica and Vic make headway to shut down Antwon's organization, Antwon offers to turn over the body with the incriminating bullets to Shane if he kills Vic.
Unfortunately for Antwon, he makes the mistake of repeating his deal with the devil to Shane inside Shane's car. Why is this bad? Because Shane's car has a hidden camera installed allowing Vic to spy on Shane, since Vic, Ronnie, and Lem are terrified of the prospect of Shane getting busted and ratting out his former friends for all of the illegal stuff they did in exchange for immunity. Shane calls a meeting with Vic but rather than killing him, Shane begs Vic (who's ready for a kill or be killed confrontation) for forgiveness for his acting like an asshole and for help getting the dead girl's body back so as to free him from Antwon's grasp. Vic agrees but before any real course of action can be taken, tragedy strikes the Barn with two patrol officers named Carl and Scooby are kidnapped off the streets and executed in cold blood. To add insult to injury, the bodies are dumped in a house recently seized by the police. This makes The Powers That Be EXTREMELY nervous, as they decide to suspend the asset forfeiture program until further notice out of fear that cops are being killed by those people who hate the program.
Vic and Monica both agree that Antwon has to have had involvement in Carl and Scooby's deaths, since Antwon has an iron fist control over all gang activity in Farmington. Monica wants to bring Antwon in for questioning, but Vic and the Strike Team are terrified that Antwon will implicate Shane and his partner for killing the girl out of spite. Hoping to buy some time while they search for the dead girl's body, Vic meets with Antwon (who mysteriously left town when Carl and Scooby were murdered) to arrange for himself to willingly turn himself over to the police for questioning. While driving Antwon to the Barn, Vic attempts to broker a deal between himself and Antwon to win Shane's release from blackmail bondage by way of Vic promising to help Antwon when he's brought in for questioning. However the plan falls apart when Monica begins bringing forth dark secrets from Antwon's past as ammo to use against him. Secrets like Antwon's son being gay and the dark secrets of Antwon's abusive childhood, that threaten to cause Antwon to expose Shane's secrets to Monica.
Meanwhile the person who gives Shane, Ronnie, and Lem the information on the girl's body's location gives ultra-vague directions that forces Lem to go back to his apartment and use the old "I'm stealing your drugs and won't give them back unless you tell me EXACTLY where the body is" strong-arm tactic that is sadly viewed by the dealer's girlfriend. By the time they get the right information, Antwon gives up the location of the girl's body and tells Monica "Oh by the way, I've had Detective Shane Vendrell and his partner on my payroll giving me police information" to spite Vic.
Screwed, Vic rejects Shane's notion of letting him kill Antwon in the police interrogation room then and there and comes up with a convoluted scheme that would either save their asses or damn the entire gang of four (plus Shane's partner). Vic gives the tape of Antwon restating his "kill Vic and I'll give you the dead body I'm blackmailing you with" threat to Monica and spins a web of lies involving Antwon ambushing Shane and his partner who then took their guns and used them to kill Angie so as to put Shane and his partner at his mercy, to the point of trying to get them to kill a fellow cop under threat of blackmail. Monica sees this as a crock of shit on Vic's part and threatens to fire Vic and Ronnie (who Vic accidentally mentions knowing about the tape, when Monica simply assumes that only Vic is aware of it) on the spot for not telling her of the tape as soon as they recorded said conversation. But Vic uses his charms to convince Monica that it's worth the risk to go along with his scheme and Antwon soon ends up agreeing to plea guilty to murdering the girl and for ordering the death of a cop. However, Antwon pleads ignorance on the issue of the two dead patrol officers though as he is led off to prison, he tells Vic that he knows all about the deaths and will be keeping the secrets of who was involved in the plot secret as his private victory over Monica and Vic. Meanwhile, Monica orders an IAD agent to gather intel on Vic and his allies from afar to prove that they aren't corrupt as hell as the scam she pulled with Vic has left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Vic and the Strike Team take over the investigation of Carl and Scooby's deaths and find a dark cabal at the heart of the plot to kill the two cops involving a motley crew of international crime syndicates with Antwon as the brains of the plot. Ultimately the Strike Team get evidence implicating Antwon's half-brother to the plot, as Antwon used his half-brother as his go-between between the various mob factions that helped carry out the murders.
While Vic and Monica are connecting the proverbial dots and trying to get Antwon's half-brother to agree to testify again his brother, Acaveda is having his own crisis as his rapist threatens to publically reveal that he made Acaveda suck his cock if Acaveda doesn't help him get out of jail. Wanting to silence his rapist once and for all, Acaveda agrees to broker a plea agreement between Antwon Mitchell and the Feds where Antwon will give up the leadership of the El Salvadorian drug cartel and gets vaguely defined full immunity for everything he's done in Farmington and a place in witness protection. Oh and he's also got to "convince" a fellow inmate (who happens to be Acaveda's rapist) "to not testify in an upcoming case" as a sign of good will to the Feds. Word gets leaked about the deal just as Monica finally gets Antwon's half-brother to implicate Antwon as the mastermind of the murders. Furious, Monica and Vic storm into Acaveda's office and yell at him for arranging a deal that would give Antwon immunity for killing the two cops, culminating in Vic accusing Acaveda as never being a real cop.
That's a hell of a long introduction! If you made it this far, let's go to the recap:
THE SHIELD EPISODE 413: "Ain't That A Shame"
The episode opens with the show title card flashing on screen as Monica explains to her fellow cops about Antwon's immunity deal and wanting them to not take their frustration out on the citizens of the Farmington District. We see Vic making his way through the crowd of officers as one officer makes reference to how unfair it is that a cop killer is going to get away with his crimes thanks to a plea bargin. Monica assures the rank and file that they are hard at work trying to come up with a way to void Antwon's deal. Seeking to change the mood, Officer Julien Lowe asks about the fate of the asset forfeiture program, which Monica tells him will be decided in the following day during a meeting of the department heads. Monica restates that they can't let their anger cloud their minds as they do their job but then the camera cuts to Monica storming into the Strike Team's office where she starts yelling at Shane and Vic that they have to find a way to kill Antwon's deal with the Feds. Shane and Vic second Monica's statement of the obvious but point out that Monica is already in deep trouble with her bosses as it is, that having her fuck up the DEA's deal with Antwon might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets her fired. Monica rationalizes going ahead with the plot on the basis that her superiors both want the same thing she wants, Antwon to pay for killing the two patrol officers. Vic once again plays "voice of reason", pointing out that they'll never get official permission to kill Antwon's deal with the Feds. At which point Monica goes "Duh! That's why we do it secretly and suprise them with it after the fact!".
We cut to the hospital, where Dani is in the hospital after being shot in the shoulder. Julien is praying as Dani wakes up and tells him to stop praying since God, by way of having Dani get shot in the shoulder and not in a place that would cause instant death or worse, has already answered his prayers. She does tell Julien to pray for some more painkillers and then thanks him as he heads out of the room.
Cut back to the Strike Team office as Vic enters and asks the Strike Team how their investigation of Acaveda is going, as we cut through the cat and mouse game and go straight to Vic knowing that Acaveda made some sort of corrupt deal with Antwon regarding the immunity deal. Ronnie (wearing a spiffy blue/white polo shirt, a fact I'm pointing out since David Snell's contribution to the show's official website's "Web-Log" for season four has him mentioning that he's into clothing and other fashion-related stuff) comments that Acaveda visited only Antwon in jail once and has had no other contact with him. Shane adds in that Acaveda did visit another inmate at the jail, one by the name of Juan Rodriguez. Rodriguez is of course the man who forced Acaveda to suck his cock at gunpoint though since Vic is still oblivious towards knowing about the rape, the name doesn't set off any bells in Vic's head towards the nature of Acaveda's deal with Antwon.
Vic asks who Juan Rodriguez is as Shane tells Vic that Juan is now a dead convict, having been recently killed. Vic begins to put the pieces together towards Juan's death being the pay-off for Acaveda making a deal with Antwon but Vic questions why Acaveda would want Juan dead. Cut to Acaveda (holding his daughter in his arms) opening his door and finding Vic waiting outside for him. He immediately asks why he visited Juan Rodriguez and informs Acaveda that he's dead. Acaveda dismisses his death as someone who had a ton of enemies who could have killed him, but Vic politely points out the facts (that he knows) regarding how he beat Acaveda up and how Acaveda ended up arresting him for armed robbery several weeks later. Acaveda stonewalls Vic, who decides to switch tactics to get information from Acaveda. He casually suggests that Antwon might have had Rodriguez killed which Acaveda buys into, spinning the scenerio of Rodriguez messing with Antwon to try and improve his reputation in jail and getting killed as a result. Acaveda then fakes horror that Antwon could have killed another prisoner after making his deal with the DEA then states again how sorry he is about cutting the deal before finding out that Monica and Vic had obtained proof of Antwon's involvement in the murder of the two patrol officers. Acaveda vows to look into the connection as Vic leaves.
We cut to Antwon as he's filling in the details about the head of the El Salvadorian mob, who according to Antwon hates modern technology and avoids using things like cell phones that could get him tracked down. We cut back to another location where several federal agents are watching Antwon spill his guts as Monica enters with some additional files on Antwon. The head DEA agent tells Monica she didn't have to bring the files personally, but Monica says she brought him over to see Antwon one last time before he gets put in the witness protection program. Oh and to find out any information she can use to invalidate their deal with Antwon. We cut back to Antwon mentioning the head of the crime syndicate's name (Bonilla) as we cut back to Monica, who mentions in a "by the way" manner that Antwon's deal is only good if the it leads to arrests of the people he rats out. The DEA agent confirms as he offers his sympathy for fucking up Monica's investigation of the two cops Antwon had killed. Monica cryptically accepts the apology as the show's theme plays and the show's logo/"Created by Shawn Ryan" title card flashes upon the screen.
We then cut to an outside location as Monica and the Strike Team discuss their mission: arresting Bonilla before the Feds arrest him and doing so in a way that makes it look like they caught him on their own, independently and without Antwon's information. The Strike Team comment on how they've never heard of Bonilla before this day and that without any further information about him, it's going to be hard as hell to find him. Monica restates their mission though as they have to find him and arrest him ASAP, since Bonilla apparently the big fish Antwon is preparing to give up in exchange for his deal.
The Strike Team raid a home of Gusano, an El Salvadorian drug dealer who they force to give up information about how to find Bonilla. Gusano tells Vic that he'll get the information he's looking for at a nearby flower shop and Vic has Lem guard Gusano and two goons who were present when the Strike Team entered the drug dealer's home while he, Ronnie, and Shane head to the flower shop store.
We then cut to a murder scene as we see Dutch and Claudette investigating a murder of a hispanic male at his daughter's quinceanera, which is the hispanic version of a "Coming Out Party" for teenage girls. Talking to the victim's daughter and another female family member, Dutch and Claudette find out that the shooter was was either the victim's daughter's boyfriend or the boyfriend's mysterious new friend who he brought with him to his girlfriend's coming out party.
The Strike Team search the flower store as they quickly realize that Gusano lied to them. Meanwhile, a rather surly Lem watches over the three drug El Salvadorians and orders them to speak English when they suddenly start talking amongst themselves. Lem is called by Vic, who tells Lem that Gusano lied to them and that they are coming back to get the truth from Gusano. While Vic is talking, the three drug dealers get up and start yelling to Lem that they'll never find Bonilla and advance towards Lem.
As Vic calls for back-up as they race back to Gusano's house, Lem (wielding a shotgun) faces off against the trio of drug dealers with nothing to lose and who want Lem dead. Gusano flees as his friends corner Lem against a wall and jump him but Lem is able to shove his way out of their corner. The two goons then double-team Lem and ram him against a window (which they break and knocks goon number one out) and ultimately to the floor. What follows is an intense sequence as the remaining goon gets the shotgun from Lem's hands and Lem, grabbing the barral of the gun, has to keep it from shooting him. Still holding the barral, Lem moves it out of the way so that the shot fired shoots out a window (but doesn't show any signs of his hands burning from the barrel being ultra-hot after being fired). Lem is able to wrestle the gun away from the goon and uses the shotgun as a club to knock the guy out. Lem then moves towards a doorway in the house, trips and falls on his ass, but recovers quickly enough to avoid looking like a clumsy oaf by pointing the gun at the unconscious goon squad while laying on his back with his head leaned up to see if they were trying to get off the ground.
We then cut to the Strike Team busting into the house where they find Lem alive and well and on his feet. We learn Gusano has escaped as we see footage of Monica and a slew of patrol cars arrive at the scene. Shane tells Monica how Lem kicked the asses of the goons who were trying to kill him and how Gusano escaped. We cut back to the Barn as Vic tells Monica about Emolia, the girlfriend/single mother who caught Lem stealing drugs from her boyfriend that he's taken under his wing as a confidential informant. Vic vows that she'll be able to help them catch Bonilla as her boyfriend was the guy who led them to Gusano in the first place. As they walk into an interrogation room, we find Emolia already there as Monca introduces herself to him. She gives up the location of Gusano's girlfriend and we cut to the Strike Team entering the girlfriend's home. They lead her out of the house as they find the house empty except for the girlfriend, who is packing her bags and getting ready to leave town. As Monica cuffs girlfriend, the team continues to look for clues as Lem finds an address near the phone for a discount clothing store. Ronnie recognizes the place as the place where he regularly buys his clothes from and the team head out to the store to follow the lead. On their way out, Vic asks the girlfriend about her plans to meet her boyfriend at the store and takes her denial as a definate yes.
We cut back to an interrogation room as Dutch and Claudette question the daughter about her father's murder. Dutch tries to convince her to give up her boyfriend's friend who killed her dad but the daughter is too busy cursing her dad for being a jerk who got himself killed while hassling her boyfriend, who never liked her boyfriend and was trying to keep him from attending his daughter's coming out party. The detectives threaten to arrest her boyfriend as an accomplice to murder if she doesn't give them the friend's name, which she does while at the same time pleading with them over how her boyfriend is a good guy.
We cut back to the Strike Team, Monica, and several patrol officers raiding the clothing store and finding Gusano hiding in the backroom of the place. Lem finds Gusano first and shoves him to the ground and whispers "bitch" into Gusano's ear as he points his gun at the drug dealer's head. We then cut again to the interrogation room as Monica and Vic inform Gusano of the shit he's in, what with the drug dealing and trying to kill a police detective. But they offer to be merciful with him if he gives up Bonilla to them. Vic asks Monica to leave as he offers to get Lem to not press charges if he gives up Bonilla. Gusano responds that Vic still owes him from when Lem stole the drugs from one of his flunkies several episodes back. Gusano claims that the drugs Vic and Lem returned to him wasn't drugs and how he ended up having to pay his contacts money out of his own pocket when it was revealed that the drugs were fake. Vic's face takes on an expression of shock when he hears this but rather than pondering what the hell happened he grabs Gusano by the neck. Gusano repeats his claims as the truth as Vic applies force to his neck.
We then go to Vic entering the Strike Team's office where Emolia is with the rest of the team. As we see Ronnie inspecting a cell phone in the background, Vic questions Emolia about the fake drugs and Emolia claims ignorance towards the drugs being fake. She then asks Vic if he said anything about her to Gusano at which point Vic simply states that they are going to hide her for the time being. Before Vic can continue to question the pathetic single-mother/drug dealer helper, Ronnie comes over to Vic with good news. The phone he's been fiddling with? It's Gusano's. Apparently Gusano has a ton of phone numbers in his cell phone and while there were no names for the numbers, he encoded all of his numbers by adding one to each digit in each phone number. As Vic looks at the phone, Acaveda comes barging in with news that there is no connection between Antwon and Juan Rodriguez and that the sky is indeed blue. As they leave the office, Vic decides to lay his proverbial cards on the table and asks for an answer for why Acaveda visited the two guys in jail and how come one of the two is now dead and the other one given an immunity deal. Acaveda, clearly unshaken, threatens to stir shit up with regards to why Vic wants to know about his brokering of Antwon's deal.
Realizing he's fucked, Vic decides to tell Acaveda that the Strike Team is trying to find Bonilla before the Feds do so that they can FUBAR Antwon's deal with the Feds and put Antwon on trial for ordering the deaths of the two cops. Vic begs Acaveda to keep quiet and help Monica get the plan to go off without a hitch but Acaveda isn't biting, stating the obvious fact of why would he risk his neck for Monica and her insane scheme? Vic threatens to continue investigating Acaveda, who vows that he has nothing to hide but he'll help because he doesn't want to look like a soulless bastard who let a man who ordered the deaths of two cops walk away scott free.
We go to Vic and Shane confronting Gusano in the interrogation room, as Shane gets to be the one who tells Gusano that they've broke the code he used for his cell phone numbers. Vic follows up by mocking Gusano's intelligence by making a nonsensical World War II reference and starts calling numbers on the phone at random. Gusano decides to spill the beans and tells them that Bonilla at a dance club he goes to so as to listen to music and hook up with black prostitutes. We then cut to the Strike Team, all crammed into a single car, as they see a bunch of elderly people sitting outside in the club's patio section. The team crack jokes about the old people, with Shane requesting he be killed if he ends up as an old guy hanging out at dance clubs so he can get laid. Lem humorously suggests that it will happen and that Shane will be on wife number six when he gets that old. Shane laughs, as we get the picture of the Strike Team now back together as one big, happy, quasi-homoerotic family after the events of this past season. They catch Bonilla with several black hookers as he enters the club and Shane cracks some additional jokes about wanting to be with the hookers.
We cut to the Barn as Dutch and Claudette approach Monica with news about the best friend of the boyfriend of the girl who's dad got killed during her quinceanera. They caught the guy but found that he was buying prescription drugs from one of the new kids assigned to the foster home that Claudette and Monica investigated several episodes back. Monica is livid for obvious reasons but the big one being that the foster home was supposed to have been shut down but instead they've stuck a bunch of pill popping/selling drug addicts in the home.
We then cut to Dani and Julien, Dani apologizes for being a cunt towards Julien. Given how the last batch of episodes of the Shield all take place one after the other after the other with little to no breathing room, Dani is glad that Julien has decided to make repeated visits to see how she's doing after being shot. Julien said she'd do the same for him, provided she hadn't been fired and stabbed in the back by the only other man she trusts to be her fuck buddy, and is too busy shooting her gun at the local shooting range and imagining that she was killing the man who let her get screwed.
We now go to Monica and the black woman from Family Services, who are arguing as the Family Service woman argues that the people in charge of the foster home are still allowed to operate and take in kids while appealling the ruling that they are unfit to take in foster kids. Monica, who's pissed off at recent events, decides to seize the foster house and tells the Family Service woman to get out of her face. Monica orders Dutch and Claudette to prepare a team of cops to shut the foster home down. Dutch and Claudette naturally tell Monica she's going to piss off The Powers That Be and ruin her chances at the hearing tomorrow, but Monica doesn't care and swears to Dutch and Claudette that if TPTB try and punish someone for the seizure, that Monica will take full responsibility.
Monica then walks off as Dutch, his face blank at the realization that Monica is off to commit career suicide, turns to look at Claudette. I'll transcribe their conversation since it features Claudette and Dutch assuming the part of the Greek Chorus for the show:
Dutch: She's going to hang herself. There's nothing you can do about it.
Claudette: I'm not sticking my nose anywhere.
Dutch: You know if she goes, they'll come to you to take over...
Claudette: They don't want me. They'll get some company yes-man jellyfish from outside to keep us all in line.
One of the hookers walk away from the dance club and is followed by the Strike Team into a nearby store. All four detectives corner her inside the store and notice that she's not well and assume she's high. They ask if she's seen Bonilla and ask if anyone's told them that the police are looking for him. Vic gets impatiant and shoves the hooker, who leans over a nearby counter and vomits up a whole lot of blood from her mouth. Lem, who was vomitting up blood himself in season three thanks to an ulcer, diagnoses her and asks if she is getting medical help for her ulcer problem. The hooker says no and that she's planning on the ulcer to kill her and take her from her sad and pathetic life. Vic offers to get the department to pay for medical treatment for her ulcer if she'll help them and confirms that Bonilla is at the club. So we cut to Vic calling Monica, who reveals that the Feds were going to take Gusano away in a couple of minutes, since Antwon named him to DEA as part of his plea bargin. So Monica rushes into the interrogation room with Gusano's phone and forces him to call Bonilla, who contrary to what Antwon told the Feds, does carry a cell phone around. Gusano tells Bonilla that he needs to flee now since the cops are after him.
We then cut to Bonilla and his flunkies fleeing while several flunkies haul file cabinets outside to burn. While Lem and Shane go after Bonilla, Ronnie and Vic try and stop Bonilla's flunkies from burning evidence of their boss's criminal activities. Unfortunately for Vic and Ronnie they get spotted as a gunfight ensues. Vic goes after Bonilla as Shane and Lem help Ronnie get rid of Bonilla's flunkies. Ronnie shoots one of the goons while Shane and Lem beat the crap out of the others. One goon though has the misfortune of falling onto one of the burning file cabinets and quickly catches fire. Ronnie and Shane put out the flames on the files while Lem saves the other guy from burning to death. Vic brings Bonilla over to the rest of the gang and comments that the files are stuff that the DEA would love to get their hands on.
We flash forward several hours as Vic gloats at the files they saved from being burned and how they've done major damage to the El Salvadorian drug cartels with this bust. However Vic steps back as the main event title fight takes place between Monica and the DEA, and Chief Phillips. Monica won't let the Feds have any of the files OR access to Bonilla since she plans on holding Bonilla and company in jail for firing upon the Strike Team, which will give Bonilla's drug dealers time to run damage control and render Bonilla useless to the Feds. So the deal is made to trade Bonilla for Antwon, which delights Monica so much that she decides to leave Vic to do clean-up and go lead her seizure raid against the foster home. Vic naturally wonders if this is a good idea, but Monica dismisses Vic's concerns with girlish glee as she believes that getting catching Bonilla and making Antwon pay for the deaths of two cop will make her breaking the ban on seizing property be overlooked. Vic begs Monica to stop while she's ahead but Monica doesn't care. She's on top of the world and totally oblivious to the fact that her entire world is about to fall apart.
It's suddenly night as Monica has the kids led out of the foster home as Dutch and Claudette are there to tell Monica that they've arrested the kid (who's fourteen years old) that was selling his medication on the street. The Family Service woman shows up to condemn Monica for shutting down the home and forcing her to open her office as a place for the kids to sleep. She also condemns Monica as being out of control but as Monica tells the Family Service woman, it's Family Services that is out of control and that what she's doing is her taking a stand against Family Services being able to get away with not caring about the welfare of the children it's supposed to protect.
Now we enter the belly of the beast as Corrine Mackey, Vic's soon to be ex-wife, comes over to Vic's apartment and catches her daughter Cassidy alone with another boy without any adult supervision. Even though Cassidy and the boy are fully dress, the delay in Cassidy opening the door is all Corrine needs to go into over-protective mother mode and calls out their "we were studying" excuse. We cut to outside the Barn as Vic is confronted by his soon-to-be ex about the incident. Cassidy caught with a boy, no adult supervision, not talking to her mother, children having sex at younger and younger age, blah blah blah blah......
We then cut to Vic closing the door in the Strike Team office as Vic Mackey faces his toughest task to date: talking to his daughter about boys and why she can't have a boyfriend until she's 21. Vic tries to be the "good cop" parent to his daughter as Cassidy tells her dad that her male friend is "cool" just like Vic in that he doesn't take shit from anyone. Vic reacts in horror at the fact that his daughter is into bad boys (let alone ones that remind her of dear old corrupt cop dad) and gives the lecture that basically amount to "don't date bad boys" as Cassidy goes off on a tangent about how Corrine is evil and doesn't understand her or Vic. At this point, most fathers would get pissed and argue that their soon to be ex-wife DOES get their troubled daughter and that she needs to realize that her mother is only looking out for their kid's well being. But Vic just looks shocked as we cut to away from this trainwreck.
And now we get the big moment of the episode, as Monica has been summoned to the office of Chief Phillips. At this point, the timeline for the episode gets quite murky so bare in mind my attempt to put everything in the proper continuity context. It seems that Monica has been given a direct order to report to the office of Chief Phillips immeadiately after seizing the house around sundown. Monica thinks the entire meeting is about her seizing the foster home but it's not. At this point we see Acaveda in the room too, though we are not outright told if he ratted out Monica. Monica rightfully realizes the shithammer is about to swing down upon her, as Chief Phillips informs her that the Feds are angry as hell at Monica's gambit to break their deal with Antwon and are now out for blood. The Department of Justice are threatening to pull federal funds from the city and have taken their threat directly to the Mayor. And the only way to get the Department of Justice to back off their threat is if Monica loses her job. Acaveda then announces that Monica is to be "relieved of duty", which is of course double-speak for "you're fired but not officially fired so as to provide you with SOME dignity as we take away your ability to provide for yourself". Monica is speachless for several seconds before asking if they are going to fight for her keeping her job. At which point, Acaveda reveals that it took all of his power to get the Feds to honor their "Bonilla for Antwon" trade so saving Monica's job wasn't even an option. Monica then asks Phillips if he'll fight for her, at which point Phillips gives Monica the silent treatment as Monica reminds him of all of the things she's done for Farmington to make it a better place and the department by doing what she did to ensure Antwon paid for ordering the murders of the two cops without breaking into a vow of vengence.
We then cut to Monica meeting up with Gino, the IAD cop she assigned to make sure Vic and the Strike Team weren't as corrupt as she feared. And if losing her job wasn't bad enough, what she'll find in Gino's apartment will do what losing her job couldn't do; absolutely destroy her.
Gino confirms that Vic and the Strike Team are corrupt as Gino brings out Emolia. Yep, the single mother girlfriend of a drug dealer Vic encountered and took under his protective wing is an evil soulless bitch who sold the entire Strike Team out weeks ago to Gino for money. It's revealed that Gino replaced the drugs from Lem's car with fake drugs prior to it being returrned to Emolia's boyfriend and that with Emolia's testimony that she saw Lem take the drugs, Lemansky is fucked six ways to Sunday. Monica asks when they plan to arrest Lem for stealing evidence. Gino replies that his supervisor wants to wait and arrest the entire team outright as opposed to arresting Lem and gangpressing him to turn against his friends. Further adding to the ghoulish spectacle is Emolia bragging that she has Vic wrapped around her finger and that with her help, the Strike Team will be in rotting in prison after IAD gets done with them. Monica turns away from Gino and Emolia and for a brief second, we see a look of utter and complete defeat on her face.
Having lost her job do to political backstabbing and now finding out that her worst fears about the only confidant and friend she's had since taking over the Farmington District's police force turn out to be corrupt, let alone IAD salivating at the chance to destroy him with help from someone Vic has tried to help out of the goodness of his heart? That's soul crushing, that's what that is. But true to character, Monica quickly disguises the emotional pain of mass betrayal that she's feeling and tells Gino that she's lost her job and that IAD's investigation of Vic and company is someone else's problem. Monica then walks out the door and really, if I was writting this episode I would have Monica breaking out in tears as soon as she got in her car and drove a decent distance from the IAD agent's home. I do find it interesting though that they opted to make the revelation that Vic is indeed the evil corrupt cop Acaveda warned her about be the moment that Monica's soul is ripped in two. But it works in the context of Monica's entire life falling apart, that she would learn the shocking truth about Vic just to add salt to the wound of losing her job.
We reach the final act of the episode, at which point in order to make the timeline make any sort of sense, a full day has passed and that it is now the following night. Monica is boxing up her stuff as Vic walks in and asks why she isn't appealing her being relieved of duty. Monica reminds Vic that being "relieved of duty" means she'll remain eligable to keep her pension and that appealing would mean ending up outright fired and losing said pension. As we see in the background, all of the detectives at the precinct, including Dutch, Claudette, Shane, and Lem are watching as Vic is handed a small display case containing Carl and Scooby's badges. Monica asks Vic to hang the case where everyone can see them, which Vic vows to do. Suddenly two police officers show up and claim that they have been sent by Chief Phillips to escourt Monica out of the building. The crowd of detectives (now including Ronnie and several patrol officers, including Julien) moves in to surround the cops sent by Phillips. Dutch steps towards the officers and tells them that before she is to be relieved as captain, Monica has been allowed as her last act as Captain to oversee Antwon Mitchell being formally arrested with the ordering Carl and Scooby killed. Phillip's men agree to wait until they do this and walk away.
We now cut to outside the Barn as Vic is turning Cassidy over to Corrine just as the prison van containing Antwon Mitchell arrives at the Barn. The general point of this scene is that Vic wants to give up being a single dad as Vic thinks Corrine is better equipped to deal with their daughter even though Cassidy has outright stated that she hates her mom and blames her for the family breaking up. Corrine initially thinks that this is Vic's revenge for her dating Dutch but Vic assures her he's just being a rational parent, in that as Cassidy reaches puberty that she needs her mother to help her through this puberty and boys. We see Antwon (who's being led inside) and Vic stare at each other as Vic sends his ex-wife on her way as we cut back to the inside of the precinct.
Everyone is in the hallway as Antwon is led towards the station's holding cage. Monica leaves her office and follows Antwon so as to officially arrest him. Ronnie, Lem, and Shane have staked out the standing room outside the cage itself with Shane right at the doorway. Ronnie and Lem have grim "Angels of Death" looks on their faces as they behind Shane. Shane and Antwon meanwhile exchange fake smiles as Vic rushes to the cage just in time to watch Monica officially arrest Antwon. Shane grabs Antwon and tries to put him inside the holding cage but Antwon offers to go into the holding cage of his own free will, he drops the grin and realizes that he's lost and now has to pay the price for his crimes.
We then cut to Monica's house, where Vic is helping her move the last load of stuff from her office. The two make small talk about how Monica signed a six month lease for her new home and that she plans to stay the full six months even though her neighbors apparently don't want her around. Monica and Vic stare at each other for a moment before Vic breaks the silence by telling Monica that he liked working with her. But Monica has other things on her mind:
Monica (talking in sad, motherly tone) : What's going to happen to you now?
Vic: What do you mean?
Monica: I feel like I started something with you that I didn't get to finish.
Vic: We got Antwon Mitchell....
Monica: You ever think about... how it's all going to end up for you?
Vic: I'll take things as they come....
Monica: Promise me.... you'll take a good look at where you're going. And take care of yourself
Vic: As long as you promise to do the same.
This scene can be taken several different ways, as either Monica regretting that she won't be around to see Vic get busted by IAD or Monica realizing that she started Vic on the road to redemption and that now she won't be in a position to ensure that he stays on the path now that Vic has gotten himself in trouble again. As for Vic, an argument can be made that either that Vic thought that Monica was talking in code about how lost she herself was now that her was all but officially fired as Captain or that Vic's even more oblivious that viewers have been led to believe him being, in that he is oblivius to the fact that his lifestyle as a corrupt cop is going to end badly for him and his fellow Strike Team members so long as he continues it.
Vic and Monica wish each other luck as Vic leaves and once he's gone, Monica locks the door and cries. She cries and cries at how her entire life has turned to shit and how she lost her job and found that her only friend was a monster in disguise. Then, as suddenly as the tears start they stop as she starts moving the boxes in her living room.
We cut back to the Barn as Chief Phillips shows up and tells Dutch that The Powers That Be want him to appoint him interim Captain over the Barn with the possibility of the position being given to him on a permenant basis if he does a good job. Dutch, seeing Claudette lookin on from across the room, turns down the offer since he feels he'd more valuable to the precinct as a detective. Phillips tries again but Dutch shuts him down cold, stating in no uncertain terms that he isn't a spineless yes-man so don't bother asking me to be your bitch. Dutch walks toward Claudette and tells her what happened: that he refused to be The Powers That Be's spineless yes-man jellyfish and opted to take the moral high road of staying a lowly detective than take the promotion and lose his moral high ground. Claudette smiles in approval of Dutch's decision as Vic walks over to Dutch and Claudette. He invites the two detectives to join the Strike Team and several other cops at the Barn at a local bar to celebrate the arrest of Antwon for ordering the murder of Carl and Scooby. Claudette and Dutch take a second to think about Vic's invitation as we cut to the bar and see the cops from the Barn celebrating Antwon's arrest for the deaths of Carl and Scooby.
We see Ronnie chatting with a woman, Duch and Claudette playing pool, and Vic sitting with Lem and Shane, who are laughing it up over something Shane is saying. The scene is one of celebration at having caught the bad guy who killed two of their own. Suddenly we cut to Dani and Julien arriving to the bar. The cops acknowledge Dani's own brush with mortality by bursting into applause as she enters the bar. The guys offer to get her a drink, which Dani declines at first before grabbing a pitcher of beer from Lem. Vic then decides it's time to remember the two cops who's deaths they have avenged. As the cops toast to the memory of Carl and Scooby, we cut to Monica's house where she's drinking a bottle of beer and maintaining her sliver of sanity after horrific last couple of days that she's been through.
We then cut back to the bar as we see Dani and Dutch playing darts and Shane and Lem horseplaying as they tumble onto a pool table as Vic and the rest of the cops cheer them on. Suddenly the camera zooms into the entrance of the bar as Gino, the IAD cop who is on a mission to destroy the Strike Team, enters the bar. He says hello to several generic cops near the doorway, stares at Vic for a second, and then heads towards the back of the bar. Vic, oblivious to Gino even being in the bar, watches along with Ronnie and his date the sight of Shane and Lem goofing off. Cute to Shawn Ryan's "Executive Producer" title card as the fourth season of "The Shield" comes to a end.
We then get the standard stock footage, James Bond-esque teaser announcing that "The Shield" will return to the airwaves with new episodes in 2006. The stock footage is interesting as we get a clip from the season four premire teaser which shows Vic walking around a crime scene, then some stock footage of the Strike Team (including Ronnie) standing in a group shot, and then two clips, one of Vic pointing his gun at Shane from episode 408 ("Cut Throat") and the other from episode 412 ("Judas Priest") where the Russian mobster explodes himself. This is followed by a two minute excerpt from the Fantastic Four trailer and a five second teaser announcing the return of Rescue Me the following week in The Shield's timeslot.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
