Category: The Shield (Page 10 of 11)

Um, excuse me, Claudette? That was supposed to be taken figuratively, not literally. Oh well, I guess that it was bound to happen sometime. She did have lupus, and what better time for her to pass out then right after she got Kleevon to confess to all of the murders he’s been suspected of for the past year? Don’t count out Claudette too soon though; she’s an integral part of this series. Dutch, on the other hand, looks absolutely devastated – not because he was accused of knocking her down the stairs, but rather because he pushed her so hard to close the case. And now, he doesn’t have a partner. Maybe he should’ve taken that captain position after all…

Meanwhile, the Strike Team is working alongside the new Crime Unit on a case involving a murdered mother and daughter, and lots of stolen crystal meth. The man in charge of the unit, whom I believe to be Paul Reyes (the man that beat out Vic for the top job last season), offers Vic and his crew a spot on the team, but is later forced to withdraw the offer when he discovers just how deep the IAD investigate goes. No harm done, really, since there wouldn’t be a show if the Strike Team wasn’t working out of the barn. Still, it was a nice break from the usual week-to-week monotony, which doesn’t usually include blowing up the side of a house with C4 in order to save a hostage held at gunpoint.

In between all of this running around, Kavanaugh finds the time to interrogate the guys again, including Ronnie, who we discover has been perfect with his money management skills. Shane, on the other hand, isn’t as cool and composed, and it looks like Kavanaugh is finally getting under his skin – especially since he’s threatening to drag Shane’s personal life through all of this. It doesn’t help, of course, that Vic finds it necessary to tell Hot Lawyer Chick all about their past money skimming, and when the other guys hear about this, they decide that getting their own lawyers might better represent their individual needs; and simultaneously cause an even bigger headache for Kavanaugh.

By the way, what’s with Aceveda’s sudden interest in helping out the Strike Team? Is he really concerned about their futures, or is just out to save his own ass? Regardless of what happens from here on out, Aceveda is in the doghouse with Kavanaugh. The IAD agent is certain that he’s up to no good (even though he’s not), but that doesn’t change the fact that his past dealings with Antoine Mitchell will come back to bite him just as hard. Maybe Vic and Aceveda need to sit down and make a deal?

Oh, and for those wondering: yes, that was ex-NFL coach Jimmy Johnson in the cage at the Barn. When did he find the time to grow a beard?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen “The Shield” acknowledge a holiday (for the record, I’m still waiting for the Halloween-themed episode), but this had to have been the worst Valentine’s Day ever for our boys and girls at the Barn. First off, I doubt that Kavanaugh’s decision to set up shop in the station was a welcome one by any member of the police force – including Captain Billings, who although has command over the IAD Lieutenant cannot stop him from taking over his office. Bummer. And so the first round of interrogations begins, with Vic playing his lawyer card and Shane treating the investigation as a mockery. We already knew that all of the guys on the Strike Team wouldn’t talk, but Vic’s fugly ex-wife Corrine just had to open her big fat mouth and tell Kavanaugh about the mysterious $65,000 that he gave her at the beginning of last season. Was her nose not taking up enough of her ugly face? Did she have to open her fat mouth and start crying too? Ye gods, and on VALENTINE’S DAY!

That wasn’t all folks. Even poor Danny Sofer got the shake down for having a past relationship with Vic. Not like she’ll get punished for it, but it was a nice zinger to use against Corrine during her investigation. Kavanaugh is good at manipulating the weak, and the cards are in his favor for the time being, but what happens when the bulk of the case comes down to getting one of the four guys to turn? We’ve seen how brutal he can be in the interrogation room, but will Kavanaugh really have the balls to drag Shane’s wife Mara into the mix? If he does, God help us. If Corrine cracked under pressure, Mara will surely be more problematic down the road.

Meanwhile, Dutch and Claudette revisit an old murder case from last season involving the cool and composed killer, Kleevon, when his sister goes “missing” and they think that he killed her. We know she’s okay, of course, because we caught a quick glimpse of her in the previews for next week’s episode, but another black woman was found raped and murdered mere hours after he was released from question, and she bears an uncanny resemblance to Claudettte. Looks like she may have pissed him off just a bit, but the reckless death job may be his final curtain call. And in a short subplot of ouch-that’s-gotta-hurt hilarity, Julien and Tina walk in on a guy who’s suspended at a glory hole because his dick is stuck in a… what for it… mousetrap! Yowzers! That’ll teach you, if nothing else, to NOT stick important body parts into foreign holes.

To quote a character from last week’s episode, “the volume on this thing just got turned way up.” After walking in on Vic’s visit to Amoya at the safe house, Kavanaugh now knows that Lem’s wire tap has been compromised. His solution? Bug the Strike Team’s “club house.” This, of course, comes with the some interesting results. Kavanaugh is now aware that 1) Vic has hired a lawyer (and a sexy one at that) to represent all four of them should IAD take the court, and 2) the Strike Team is striking a deal with a Russian drug lord that involves getting a cut of the profit.

Meanwhile, Dutch continues to flirt with Tina, who seems to tell her she’s doing a good job even during her biggest slip ups, and Claudette reveals to her partner that she has lupus. A bit strange, no? Well, actually, what’s even stranger is my roommate calling it out two weeks ago. And as Dutch and Claudette work on a murder case involving a mummified ex-boyfriend, Vic consoles Danny about her baby. Was it just me or did Danny pretty much tell him that it was his kid? I’m still not convinced it is, but it’s more likely just a ploy to trick the audience into thinking so.

As the night of the deal gets closer, Kavanaugh calls in Aceveda to help him plan a stakeout so that they’re ready to pounce on Vic as soon as he takes the dirty money. Here’s the kicker, and I’m pretty sure everybody knew this was coming: it was all a set-up. Turns out, Vic is a pretty clever guy, and while IAD has Vic pegged as the bad guy – believing him to have just shot an innocent man in cold blood – they really just botched a sting-in-progress that would have landed Russian Bad Guy #32 in the big house for a long time. Chalk this one up as a win for the Strike Team, because no matter how hard Kavanaugh tries to bust these guys now, he’ll have this charade to answer for. Kavanaugh doesn’t take things lightly either, and after discovering that Vic has pitched the bug in the club house, he proceeds to trash his motel room in fury. The lines have been drawn folks. This is about to get very interesting…

Is it true Vic? Did you really hire a lawyer to represent the Strike Team for the impending IAD investigation? Say it ain’t so. Whatever happened to the good old days of cutting yourself loose of any villainous ties by either killing or blackmailing the person in charge? Well, I guess I should stop there, since he did almost kill Amoya after discovering that she had willingly ratted Lem out for taking that block of heroin, but he didn’t do it. Perhaps the threat was a bit more effective. You know, save a life with the same result. Plus, it’s not like Kavanaugh didn’t walk in to the safe house mere seconds after Vic put away the knife that he was holding to Amoya’s neck.

This is definitely a major problem for Kavanaugh, because if he wasn’t sure about Lem leaking information to his friends before, he has to be almost certain about it now. It looks like he might have to make the official arrest a whole lot sooner than he expected unless, of course, he has another key witness dangling in the background. Like, say, Antwon Mitchell perhaps? Why else would the shifty IAD agent be so confident with his case against Mackey and Co.? If Kavanaugh only knew that Shane was really the weak link in the group, because then maybe he’d be hassling Shane’s wife Mara instead of Vic’s ex.

Corrine isn’t stupid enough to give up any info either, and instead calls out Kavanugh for being a sneaky little cop behind her back. She promptly runs to Dutch for advice, though he hardly has time for a brief chat with his former girlfriend. Dutch and Claudette are being kept busy with a strange case that involves the shooting of a pregnant woman who has also had her baby cut out of her stomach. Strange, indeed. Meanwhile, Julien and Tina butt heads over rookie mistakes, and Danny plays the mother role yet again.

Whatever happens in the following weeks, you can be sure that Aceveda will be keeping much closer tabs on how the investigation is progressing, especially since Vic plans to drag Aceveda’s name through the mud on the way to trial. Next week’s episode looks even more like classic “Shield” action, but this season’s evens result in an end-of-the-season court trial, this could very well be the best season yet.

If season five of “The Shield” were any more like its debut season, Michael Chiklis will be polishing his new Golden Globe about this time next year. I mentioned in a past blog that I thought the show had gotten back to the basics, and if last nights episode was any indication, I was right on the money. The Strike Team is back to kicking ass and taking names, albeit at a low enough level so that Lem’s wiretap doesn’t pick it up. All four guys know about Kavanaugh now and it looks like their going to walk the straight and narrow until they can figure out how to get rid of the monkey on their backs. It’s true that they have to watch what they say when they’re out in the field, but if they’re just lounging around in the Barn, typing in Microsoft Word seems to do the trick.

And for the first time this season, the filler cases used to pad the major plotlines were actually interesting. While the Strike Team track down an underage Mexican slave trade with the help of newbie cop Tina’s undercover work, Dutch and Claudette are forced to reopen a case involving the wrongful imprisonment of a suspect in the school shootings. So, Dutch, was wrong… big deal. If he would have had Claudette’s full attention on day one, maybe they wouldn’t have made that mistake. More interesting, though, is the fact that Super Detective Dutch couldn’t figure out that the “face reader” specialist was more into him than the case at hand. Is Dutch really losing his edge, or is his Gaydar just a little fuzzy?

Meanwhile, the countdown to Vic and Kavanugh’s first face-to-face begins when Corrine runs to Vic about a man who’s approached her numerous times at the school. Vic knows right away that it’s Kavanaugh, confirming Corrine’s statement with a newspaper photo Ronnie dug up in the archives while searching for dirt on the IAD agent. Seems that Kavanaugh is worse than they thought, going so far as turning in his own partner while on the job years before. That really shouldn’t be surprising considering the level of determination (desperation?) that his character has shown thus far this season, but it’ll certainly play a part down the road.

All queries about Kavanaugh aside, why in God’s name would Shane mention his work problems to Mara again? Doesn’t he realize that this is the same psycho bitch who botched up the money train two years ago? I doubt Shane would ever give Lem up to save his ass, especially since Lem is in this trouble precisely because of Shane, but I wouldn’t give Mara those same odds. She’ll do anything to keep her husband out of prison, and screwing over the other three guys is probably on the top of her list.