Author: Jason Zingale (Page 144 of 154)

For fans of the show who always thought that Kenneth Johnson (Lem) didn’t play a big enough part can rest easy. It looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of him over the next few weeks, especially considering he’s the guy that behind the wheel of the Strike Team’s destiny. His loyalty is a bit shaky, especially considering his ulcer-causing conscience, but no matter what happens, he’ll pull through for the team by the end of the season; even if it means killing Kavanaugh himself. The unbalanced IAD agent doesn’t seem to have much effect on Lem, but his head will be on chopping block as soon as Vic discovers that he’s sweet-talking his way to the truth via Vic’s ex Corrine.

In fact, Lem doesn’t seem to believe any of the bullshit until Aceveda walks through the door and convinces him of it. By doing so, both Aceveda and Kavanaugh discover that Lem really doesn’t know about Vic’s cop killing, and it looks as if Lem is even a little pissed at the prospect of not being kept in the loop. And while Kavanaugh continues to bear down on Lem with threats of a twenty-year prison sentence, Vic and Co. track down a psycho El Salvadorian (called Doomsday) with the hope that they can regain some respect on the streets. This is less important as a subplot than it is as a reason for the Strike Team to be busy while Kavanaugh convinces Lem to wear a wire. Lem finally agrees, if only to uncover what he believes to be the truth, but when he confronts Vic about the death of Terry (sans wire), he receives a concerned look that tells him all he wants to know. Lem finally learns the truth about Terry, but Kavanaugh still doesn’t, and unless the IAD agent can bring in another suspect (like, say, Antwon Mitchell), he probably won’t get much more cooperation from his little rat.

And while not much else took place this week, it would be impossible to come away from this without at least mentioning Tina going apeshit with her baton, as well as the obvious problems Claudette is experiencing. I failed to touch on this subject after the season premiere, but it looks as if that mysterious collection of pill bottles on Claudette’s bathroom counter is set to play a big part in the season five. We still don’t know exactly what she’s on, but leave it to super sleuth Dutch to investigate the situation.

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.