So, just when everything got back to normal at the end of season four, Shawn Ryan and his brilliant writers had to go and shake things up again. Of course, not everything ended on a good note, with IAD’s investigation into the Strike Team breaking the news that they would be going after Lem first. Heading up the investigation is Jon Kavanaugh (season guest star Forest Whitaker), an unorthodox IAD agent determined to take down Mackey and his team for the death of Terry Crowley (from season one), and the first guy he visits for information is perhaps the only guy more bent on burning Mackey’s reputation: Aceveda. They’re not the only ones looking to cut him loose either, as Vic is astonished to discover when the Assistant Chief offers him an early retirement package due to budget cuts and a shady past.
Meanwhile, as the Strike Team is caught up in a local rivalry between the Mexicans and the Blacks, Dutch and Claudette are investigating their own race-involved case concerning school shootings. It seems that they’re back on top as the lead detectives in the Barn, but that could only be because Billings took the captain position that nobody seems to want anymore. Is it just me, or is that position jinxed almost as bad as the Defense Against the Dark Arts spot at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? A Harry Potter/Vic Mackey spin-off anybody? Nah, that would never work. Anyways, it becomes pretty clear after about five minutes into the first episode that Billings is a big time doofus who has no idea what he’s doing. This, of course, could be considered good news for the Strike Team if only they hadn’t actually gone straight. Funny how those things work out. These four guys are just trying to do their jobs, and now they’re about to get in trouble for something that happened four years ago? Welcome to the suck.
The not-so-interesting partnership of Danny and Julien is no longer and issue, mostly because Danny is now pregnant, and so the writers have decided to give Julien the glorious job of training a new cop (Tina) who’s more concerned with the way she looks than doing her job. This means that Julien has finally been given something interesting to do, but I don’t know how long that will last. Danny, on the other hand, is the talk of the Barn as no one even knows who the father of the child is. My money’s on the black hustler dude that was always hitting on her in seasons three and four, but then again, it could always be Vic. Let’s just hope that the writers don’t make too big of a deal out of it. This isn’t a soap opera you know.
Finally, we come to what will likely be the meat of the story in the fifth season and the beginning of the end to a fabulous series: Lem being taken in by Kavanaugh. Most of the investigation looks to be taking place next week, but we all know that Lem will more than likely become a rat for IAD since he doesn’t want to land jail time. Hopefully, though, nothing bad will come of it, but the Shawn Ryan has more than enough aces up his sleeve to change anyone’s mind. Don’t forget about a few key players here that could easily show up from past years, like Tavon, Army and Antwone. It’s too early to start guessing, but it should get very interesting over these next few weeks.
