After last week’s surprisingly boring show, it was nice to get things back on track tonight with what might just be one of the best episodes of the season. Okay, so Corrine is still a major pain in the ass (and apparently on downers now), and Tina, Julian and Danny continue to prove worthless as part of the big picture, but that’s old news. The only thing that really worries me is that Dutch has sort of fallen by the wayside as a character.
His more recent run-in with the teenage serial killer seemed to offer some hope that he might finally be getting a good storyline, but that died off last week when he was, as Billings put it, “burned” by the kid. This week, he caused a suspect to commit suicide when he forced his conspiracy theory on the poor guy during interrogation, and now that he has blood on his hands, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Asking Billings for help was a huge step when you consider their history together, but if he’s just going to keep working unrelated murders through the end of the season, well, the writers are going to have to do a lot better to keep me interested.
Thankfully, that isn’t the case with the Strike Team. Vic, Shane and Ronnie’s storylines this season have been captivating since Day One, and their relationship was taken to new heights (or should that be new lows?) this week when Vic – desperate to kill three birds with one stone – designs a plan that will ensure his family’s safety from the Armenians, put Pezeula behind bars, and pay back Shane for killing Lem. He’s only got one day to get it done (since Aceveda has decided to turn in the blackmail box before he suffers any blowback), but when Shane begins working an old case with Tavon (welcome back Brian White) on the side, Vic is worried that he’ll miss the meet. It’s not helping that Shane is making it really hard to hate him these days. The guy clearly knows that he’s done something wrong, and he’s made sure Vic and Ronnie know about it every chance he gets.
Vic decides to go through with it anyway, and had it all gone according to plan, the Mexicans would have killed Rezian and Shane and left the $100,000 that the Armenians brought to the meet. Unfortunately, Shane’s luck saves his ass once again, and when the Mexicans stop by to tear up the place with some Uzis, he just happens to be away at the moment. When Vic gets there worried that Shane was killed in the firefight, Shane assures him that he got out just in time. The money is missing, but Vic figures the Mexicans must have taken it with them after the hit.
What he doesn’t realize is that Shane is the one who took the money, and he now knows that Vic and Ronnie set him up. What’s a little unsettling is that he seemed okay it. Does Shane even want to fight back any more or will he just transfer out like he suggested earlier in the episode? I personally can’t see Shane backing down from this fight, but then again, he seems to have changed, so maybe he’ll be the bigger man and walk away.
