The Shield Season Finale (SPOILERS)

Actually, the spoilers may come later if this thread grows. I'm already up too late to go into detail. All I can say now is...

HOLY CRAP!!!

Did anyone else see the season finale of The Shield? I can't believe the season ended this way!!!

A shocking ending. A few who have already posted about it at www.TV.com are honked off about it. I have mixed feelings about this show because sometimes it can cross the lines of decency, and yet the stories are often compelling. Never has that been more true this season. You could feel the tension ramping up. I just didn't think it would lead to this. Despite the disadvantages of losing a likable character (analagous to the loss of Marcus in B5 season 4), this was a logical final step in this season's progression. It's both believable and shocking at the same time.

Okay, I've already said more than I planned, and I haven't come right out and said what the big climax was. I'll let someone else do it or do it myself later. I need to go to bed.

If you haven't watched this season finale yet, look for the rerun of it. It's worth it.

HUGE SPOILER WARNING

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Okay, here's the BIG thing that happened in last night's season finale...

The remaining three members of the Strike Team are trying to establish safe grounds in Mexico for Lem to hide out in. Lem is now a fugitive on the run and desparate to make a deal with the DA's office. He wants to admit to the Armenian money train robbery but cover up the other three's involvement. He wants to take the hit himself in exchange for a safer prison where Antoinne Mitchell or his thugs can't kill him.

Lem wants to see the other Strike Team members one more time before turning himself in because they are his only family. In three separate cars, Vic and Ronnie both get tailed by Kavanaugh's men, but Shane is able to slip away and meet Lem at an alternate location before Vic & Ronnie can shake their followers.

Shane and Lem argue a little over how to handle the situation, but Lem insists that he wants to turn himself in and take the hit for the team rather than struggle in Mexico or risk murder in an Antoinne-influenced prison. They pal around a little. Shane claims (don't know whether it's true or not) that his wife Mara is pregnant again with their second child and says family is very important.

Shane tells Lem to get in the car so they can he hide the car somewhere but then asks if Lem is hungry. Shane goes back to his truck for a sandwich. At this point I got worried he was going back for a gun to kill Lem and put him out of his misery. That's not what happened.

Shane hands Lem, now in the car, a sandwich. Shane has something in his hand. Earlier in the episode Shane, Vic, and Ronnie, without back-up, had taken down a 9-thug drug house where the thugs were packaging up two huge cases of grenades.

That's what Shane has in his hand--A GRENADE. He drops the grenade in the car and runs. The driver side of the car EXPLODES before Lem can react. (This is not a fiery Hollywood style explosion but more of a shrapnel and concussive force kind of explosion.)

Lem is *torn* up *bad* but is still moving his eyes. Shane starts crying and apologizing, saying he had to do it and that it was the only way (hello, not true). Lem tries to say something which comes out as a little more than a whispered grunt and eventually dies.

Shane meets back up with Vic and Ronnie at the place they were actually supposed to be meeting Lem. Shane hides his actions. Back at the barn, everybody gets the news, and Vic gets a call on his cell phone. Practically the whole barn, even Kavanaugh and Aceveda, are there at Lem's car. Everyone is stunned but trying to hold it together except for the inept rookie cop who is sobbing like a baby.

Vic gets there; is shocked. Shane feins being shocked. Newly appointed Captain Claudette Wyms denies Dutch's earlier request for transfer and says he's on Lem's murder case. Kavanaugh makes an off-handed remark to Vic. Vic attacks him and they roll around on the ground until the others separate them.

Vic, Ronnie, and Shane storm away, and Vic says they're not going to stop until they find Lem's murderer, and when they do, they're going to kill him--not knowing that the person WALKING RIGHT BEHIND HIM IS THE ONE WHO DID IT.

WOW!!!

I wonder what season six is going to be about.

Kavanaugh makes an off-handed remark to Vic.

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"Off-handed remark"? He askes if Vic is happy now that Lem's dead. (And he probably assumes that Vic is somehow behind all this.)

So many questions.

Did Shane not have a tail? Or did he really shake it? (Shane is not the best cop in the bunch, he's the constant screw-up of the group, so how good would he really be a a) spotting and b) losing a tail? Because he tells Vic he doesn't have one when they talk by cellphone, and later tells Lem that Vic and Ronnie had tails they had to lose, but says nothing about a tail of his own.)

The grenades seem an obvious connection to the Strike Team - but Ronnie and Vic were being followed, which oddly gives them alibis. I doubt anyone thinks Shane has the stones to do something like this, so it may seem plausible to blame it on the Columbians who escaped. They could have stumbled across Lem, recognized him, and killed him to send a message to Vic and company.

Wonder what happens when Vic finds out the truth? Maybe he'll kill Shane - which I think he almost did and probably should have done at the end of season two. Shane's always been their weakest link. It would be ironic if by the end Vic ends up dead as well and Ronnie - the least featured and probaby 2nd most decent Strike Team member ends up as the last man standing.

They're shooting 10 more episodes starting in April, to air in late 2006 or early 2007. Once they get into the writing, Shawn Ryan will decide whether to make season 5.2 the last for the series or come back for one more year. Either way he's told the network that he wants a promise that he'll get to do a decent ending for the show and know in advance when that end is going to happen. He's certainly been setting things up so he can end the show with 10 more episodes this year. But he could also plausibly extend things for another 13 episode season.

I'm still waiting for those images of Acevada to surface. He needs to pay a price for everything he's done, as well.

Deep down, in spite of everything, I'm still rooting for Vic. Like Tony Soprano, he's too great a character not to root for.

Oh - and memo to the Academy of Television Arts and sciences: Just give the damned Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama to Forest Whittaker now. Engrave his name on it, mail it to him at home, forget taking nominations or wasting our time on the TV broadcast.

Regards,

Joe

"Off-handed remark"? He askes if Vic is happy now that Lem's dead.

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Well, okay, so I was being a little vague.

Did Shane not have a tail? Or did he really shake it?

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Good question. It may be that off camera Shane did have a tail. When he used the food excuse to go back to his truck, he actually did retrieve a sandwich. Perhaps, by stopping somewhere for a sandwich, his tailer gave up on him thinking, "Who would bother stopping somewhere for a sandwich if they're about to commit a crime."

Also, redirecting Lem to an alternate location bought him all the time he needed. If Vic or Ronnie had gotten to Lem first, Shane's plan would have been over. By sending him somewhere different, he guaranteed himself being the only one to get to Lem regardless of whether he was tailed or not.

Wonder what happens when Vic finds out the truth? Maybe he'll kill Shane - which I think he almost did and probably should have done at the end of season two.

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I'm wondering the same thing.

Don't you mean season three? I thought season two ended with them standing around the table overflowing with the Armenian money train cash, and season three ended--rather boringly--with Vic and Shane getting into an argument over loyalty to Lem after Lem burned some of the cash.

The grenades seem an obvious connection to the Strike Team - but Ronnie and Vic were being followed, which oddly gives them alibis.

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Yes, and thanks to virtually every cop in the whole barn standing around the crime scene and Vic and Kavanaugh wrestling on the ground, I doubt they'll be able to trace footprints or tire tracks back to Shane, especially since showing up at the crime scene later with everyone else is his alibi for that too.

It would be ironic if by the end Vic ends up dead as well and Ronnie - the least featured and probaby 2nd most decent Strike Team member ends up as the last man standing.

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That exact same thought has crossed my mind too.

While I'm not advocating murder for revenge or taking the law into your own hands in real life, in the world of this show, Shane definitely deserves to be killed.

Despite the fact that he's also done a lot of good through his harsh & unorthodox methods, Vic really deserves to go down too.

If he's not killed, he should at least be fired from the police dept and probably denied his pension too. For Vic, that might be a fate worse than death. Perhaps he should go to jail where he'd be surrounded by the people he's put away. Without a team to rely and being in the lion's den of his enemies, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't survive.

I also wonder if some mental breakdown might be in his future. He's wound so tight, I wouldn't be surprised if he snapped. The lawyer is right, he's told so many lies (and he's so good at it), that I think he's actually come to believe his own lies.

Those lies have cost him the life of one of his team members. If he discovers Shane's actions, the disloyalty may unravel his control over everything. And if his actions eventually lead to the harm or maybe even death of his ex-wife and/or kids, yeah, I think that'll send him right over the edge.

If he's not killed, he should at least be fired from the police dept and probably denied his pension too. For Vic, that might be a fate worse than death. Perhaps he should go to jail where he'd be surrounded by the people he's put away. Without a team to rely and being in the lion's den of his enemies, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't survive.

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Maybe in a cell with Antwon Mitchell.

By sending him somewhere different, he guaranteed himself being the only one to get to Lem regardless of whether he was tailed or not.

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But if he had a tail and either never picked it up or thought he lost it when he didn't, there could be a witness to his murder of Lem.

I don't see Vic ending up in a cell with Antwon. I think Antwon is going down hard before the end. He's built up waaayyy to much bad karma to make it out of this show alive.

This has to be the best current show on TV. Isn't it amazing how it is all these "arc" shows that are the hits today, whereas 10 or 15 years ago people kept saying they couldn't be done?

Joe

I'm re-watching the episode right now so that I can see it one more time before freeing up TiVo space.

I'm in the part of the episode where Vic's informant is saying she got pretty "ripped up" getting Vic an allegedly important piece of information. Vic's response is blatant evidence for how he's told so many lies that he doesn't even see his own guilt any more.

He says, "If you had made different choices, from the beginning, none of us would be ripped up right now."

The director made sure that the camera was close on Vic's face at that moment. The way Michael Chiklis delivers that line, it's as if it is the summary of the whole series.

If Vic had made better choices, not killing Terry Crowley, not getting involved with drug dealers, not robbing the Armenian money train, not burning the face of that one guy who retaliated by having Ronnie's face burned... If Vic had made none of those choices, Lem would not be on the run and in risk of jail and possible death, Ronnie's face wouldn't be scarred, the whole team wouldn't be under such mistrust and scrutiny, and maybe Vic could have even saved his marriage. Granted that would be boring, and there'd be no show.

I look forward to seeing if season six (or 5.2 or 5.5, whatever you wanna call it) is going to put a mirror in front of Vic and have him hear those same words about himself. I just think that one line is a great way of summing up the story arc of all five seasons (hmm, choices being an underlying theme of a five-year story--sounds familiar).