Another one of television’s great dramas has come to a close, and if I were to rank the series finale compared to some of the other big ones from the past year or so, it would probably fall somewhere between the disappointing conclusion to “The Sopranos” and the pitch-perfect ending to “The Wire.” It wasn’t great, but it was certainly satisfying, and it wrapped up just about every loose end other than Aceveda’s bid for mayor. Fans of the series have been following these characters for seven years now, and instead of just running through the episode as usual, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to discuss the fates of each character one at a time.

Vic Mackey:

For as much bad shit that happened throughout the episode, this was probably one of the more shocking of the bunch. A lot of people didn’t think it was possible for Vic to get his comeuppance without death or incarceration, but when you consider the kind of person that he really is, it made sense. Vic only needs a few things in life – family, friends, and a badge – and the fact that he no longer has any of them is kind of like sentencing him to his own personal hell. Olivia said it best after Vic begged her to tell him where his children were: “You said goodbye to them the minute you shot another cop in the face.”

All of Vic’s friends are gone, Corrine has put his kids into witness protection, and his new gig at ICE is a boring desk job typing up weekly analysis reports on gang activity in the city. Some might say he’s got it good compared to what could have happened (after all, he’s only obligated to work at ICE for three years and he’s a free man), but the look on his face when he was being shepherded through the mandatory tour of the facilities said enough. That last moment when he grabs his gun and walks out of the office seemed to indicate that he might actually be okay with the cards he’s been dealt, but if that’s the case, then it doesn’t seem like he’s really paid for his crimes at all.

Shane Vendrell:

I’d like to say that I didn’t see Shane’s suicide coming, but it’s been building to this for the past few weeks. In fact, Shane has been in a downward spiral longer than it may seem, and this isn’t the first time he’s contemplated killing himself either. It’s been so upsetting to see him become this way over the last few seasons (as he was one of my favorite characters when the show debuted), and it’s even more upsetting that the writers decided he was such a selfish person that he would kill Mara, Jackson and his unborn baby girl as well. Shooting yourself is one thing, and you could even make an argument as to why he killed Mara as well (though that’d be a hard argument to make considering she was pregnant), but what about poor Jackson? Shane certainly deserved to die, but not on his own terms, and most certainly not after he’s just murdered his own family. With that said, Walton Goggins has never deserved an Emmy nomination more. His performance throughout this season has been nothing short of spectacular, but the scene with him talking on the phone with Vic was some of his best work yet.

Ronnie Gardocki:

Poor, poor Ronnie. He might not have been as innocent as Lem, but he also wasn’t as bad as Vic or Shane either. The chances of him escaping arrest, however, were pretty slim after Vic hung him out to dry last week. There was always the chance that Vic had a backup plan to help Ronnie escape, and I even thought at one point that he might make a deal with Claudette to renege on his deal with the feds in exchange of letting Ronnie go free, but that became less and less likely as the episode went on. And when Claudette ordered Ronnie back to the Barn after he helped Vic take down Beltran, you just knew it was only a matter of time before he’d be arrested. It’s too bad it had to come to this, as I’ve really grown to appreciate Ronnie over the course of the series, but what I don’t understand is how it’s even possible? Can they really take Vic’s confession and use it to prosecute Ronnie, because if so, that sucks.

Dutch Wagenbach:

Not everyone had an unhappy ending, and if there’s one person that deserved it the most, it's Dutch. Sure, he wasn’t able to put Lloyd away himself (which was kind of bittersweet not only because that was Dutch’s main storyline for the season, but also because we never actually got to see Lloyd confess to murdering his own mother), but at least he managed to score a date with Billings’ lawyer. Plus, after Claudette eventually does retire (which will probably happen sooner rather than later), he’s probably the top candidate to take over as captain. It’s just too bad it didn’t happen in tonight’s episode, because it would have been the perfect topper to one of the best TV characters of the last decade.

David Aceveda:

After taking all of the credit from the Beltran bust, Aceveda appears to be a shoo-in for mayor. But is that really the end of his story? I was left wondering whether or not Aceveda had any involvement in the death of Andre Benjamin's character. It seemed too much like coincidence that he'd be shot the same day that he challenged Aceveda at a community meeting (and was doing a darn good job of winning supporters), but at the same time, there wasn't any real evidence that supported that theory. You'd think Ryan would have at least hinted at it if was true, and I don't recall Aceveda acting suspicious in his final scene with Claudette. Then again, I wouldn't put it past Aceveda to take such precautions, and it's just one of the many questions left unanswered after tonight's finale.

Now, I know that I said I was going to discuss each character one at a time, but the truth of the matter is, it's getting late and there isn’t a whole lot to say about the rest of the cast. Claudette has finally cleansed the Barn of all things Vic Mackey, and that seems good enough for her, especially now that she’s accepted the fact that she’s dying; Billings won his case against the city and was rewarded with a whopping two days of pay; Julien, Danny and Tina seem poised for promising careers within the department; and Corrine finally got free of Vic's control.

All in all, not too shabby for a series finale. From the looks of the comments pouring in on last week’s blog post, however, not too many fans are as content with it as I am. Still, even though it wasn’t perfect, Shawn Ryan deserves credit for being able to wrap up as the series as well as he did. It’s always difficult to say goodbye to the shows you love – especially ones as good as this – and though you could debate for hours on how the show should have ended, at least we got a real ending and not some freaking black screen of death.

If there’s one conclusion to “The Shield” I never thought possible, it was Vic Mackey receiving a Get Out of Jail Free card for all the crimes he’s committed in the past. Death? Sure. Jail? Why not? Heck, I’d even expect Vic to run away to Mexico before the feds ever agreed to give him full immunity, and after the events of this week’s episode, I still don’t think that’s how it’ll end. Of course, I have to start at the beginning first, as so much happened tonight that it felt epic compared to most weeks.

After Shane and Mara’s last robbery failed to yield the kind of cash they were hoping for, the fugitive couple has hit a dead end. Mara physically can’t take anymore, and she’s not doing so well mentally either after killing two people in an attempt to save Shane from a robbery gone wrong. With her shoulder busted and her pregnancy in its final stages, she begs Shane to throw in the towel and take her home. Shane isn’t doing so hot (he might have a big of drug problem and he nearly kills Tina when she tries to bring him in), but he isn’t about to give up any time soon. Unfortunately, I don’t think Shane has much of a choice. The presidential motorcade that will allow them to make their escape is less than 24 hours away, but with Mara hurt and no car to get around, it’s only a matter of time before Shane either gets arrested or killed.

Sure, they’ve got Corrine working to find them a new mode of transportation (which Vic agrees to take care of), but when the meet is compromised when Vic smells a trap, it pretty much guarantees that Shane and Mara are screwed. It also means that Corrine has to be arrested and thrown in jail to give Vic the impression that she wasn’t in on the set-up, and now, all Vic can think about is saving his annoying traitor of a wife. Luckily, Olivia has managed to secure Vic a job at ICE, as well as full immunity as long as he is able to successfully take down Beltran and his drug ring. When he discovers that the deal is only for him, however, and not Ronnie as well, he quickly turns it down.

That is, until he hears about Corrine’s arrest, at which point he promptly goes back to make the deal. As part of receiving immunity, Vic must confess to every crime he wishes to be protected from, and before he’s even finished with his first statement (the murder of Terry Crowley), Olivia is appalled. Her boss couldn’t have put it any better when he says, “He’s our bastard now.” It was an award-worthy performance by Michael Chiklis for sure, but the look on Claudette’s face when she arrives to find out that Vic has just been exonerated of every bad thing he ever did was absolutely priceless. Claudette takes her anger out on Dutch by firing him, only to realize that it’s the lupus that’s making her act that way. I think it was a given that Claudette would no longer be sitting in the captain’s chair by the end of the series finale, but this more or less confirms that she’ll be gone, and Dutch, most likely, will take her place.

As for Vic, well, he’s put himself in quite the predicament. Not only has he just screwed over Ronnie (who deserves this about as much as Lem getting a grenade dropped in his lap), but Olivia as well, who must now live with the fact that she set a guilty man free, and even set him up with a sweet three-year gig that brings in just over $60,000 a year. I’d hate to think that Vic doesn’t have some kind of contingency plan for Ronnie, but who knows at this point? One thing’s for sure: when Vic finds out about Corrine’s betrayal, it isn’t going to be pretty. That is, unless Ronnie (or God help him, Dutch) decides to strike back at Vic first. Should be an interesting season finale.

Does Vic Mackey ever read the newspaper? Because if he did, maybe he would know that there are a lot easier ways to find a job than getting in bed with the Mexican drug cartel. Vic’s been really pushing his luck this season, but none of that compares to his latest plan, which involves convincing Beltran to do business with the blacks (who control 40% of the drug trade in Farmington) and then skimming cash from their first deal. Forget for a moment that Vic has severely pissed off his black associates by essentially forcing them into business with the Mexicans, because once Beltran finds out about Vic stealing money from him, all bets are off.

Vic is hoping that the feds will be able to nail Beltran before it ever comes to that, and for the time being, his plan seems to be working. Not only has he gained trust with Beltran (claiming that he’s his own personal action hero), but he also has the cash needed to pay back Shane. Of course, he’s so busy running around town like a chicken with its head cut off that he gets Ronnie to deliver the package to Corrine. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that by doing so, he’s also escaped certain arrest at the hands of Claudette, who’s idly waiting by with Dutch to pounce on him when he arrives. That’s the good news. The bad news is that now Claudette has even more to pin on poor Ronnie when it’s time for his comeuppance.

Vic hopes that he’ll be able to change both his and Ronnie’s futures by securing jobs with ICE and thereby earning immunity from their less righteous pasts, but while helping bring down Beltran should make Olivia’s boss at least consider that option, he knows that it’s going to take a little more than that. This explains why he’s returned Olivia’s blackmail file to her with no strings attached. Of course, though he isn’t holding the file as leverage against her like Aceveda, giving it back to her and then demanding a big favor is pretty much the same thing. It seems to have worked, however, and Vic and Ronnie are one step closer to being clear of this giant shit storm. They’ve even intercepted the letter that Shane sent to Claudette, but when Ronnie opened it, all he found was a note addressed to him teasing how he was Vic’s little bitch.

No matter what happens in the end, one thing is for sure: Shane is a lot smarter than everyone thought. By sending that bogus letter and setting up the meet that he had no intentions of going to, Shane bought himself a lot of time – time that he needed to put together some extra cash before him and Mara leave town. Though his first plan to rob a stash house doesn’t go quite as planned, Mara suggests they break into the safe at her real estate company. Though they got much less for the cashier’s checks than they were expecting, it should be more than enough to get them where they need to go. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to matter in the long run, because unless Vic gets off scot-free, there’s no reason Shane should either. Then again, Vic seems to have won over the approval of Corrine yet again with his handling of Cassidy in his final scene, and though it may not seem like she has any more worth to Claudette and Dutch, she might just end up being the wild card when all is said and done.

The last thing Shawn Ryan needed to do was to give his wife (Cathy Cahlin Ryan) a bigger part to play in the final stretch of his grand opus known as “The Shield.” Of course, I should have known that if anyone was going to bring down Vic Mackey it would be Corrine, and, well, that only makes her character that much more annoying. Is Vic Mackey a good guy? Not really, but the reason he went crooked in the first place was so that he could give his family a better life. Now, Corrine is punishing him for doing exactly that by turning to Dutch and Claudette for protection.

Protection? Has it really come down to that, even though Vic has stated time and again that he would never lay a finger on the mother of his children? And while we’re at it, would you like some cheese with that whine? Fer chrissakes, can someone just kill this woman already? She’s done nothing but cause trouble for Vic throughout the course of these last seven years, and he’s done nothing but protect her from the consequences. If anyone needs protecting, it’s Vic. Unfortunately, that’s not how the cards have fallen, and after being guaranteed immunity by Dutch and Claudette (even though the Assistant Chief would rather just arrest her instead), she spills the beans on everything she knows.

Of course, Vic isn’t aware of his ex-wife selling him out, because if he were, he might’ve gone on the run with Ronnie as soon as the idea was brought up. Instead, he convinces his last loyal friend to stick by his side, hoping that if everything goes as planned, he can land both him and Ronnie a gig with the feds. That isn’t going to be possible with Aceveda stealing all his thunder, though. Just when Vic tries to prove his worth to Pezeula and “the cause” in front of his new cartel friend, Beltran, Aceveda hijacks the meeting and beats the shit out of Pezuela as a way of saying, “Who’s dick is in who’s ass now?” It was a rare shining moment for Aceveda, but at what cost? Vic is quick to jump at the chance to talk directly to Beltran, and his first order of business as a member of Team Drug Cartel is to assassinate Pezuela. Instead, Vic fakes his death and brings him to the feds so that he can testify against Beltran, and in doing so makes himself look all the more important to the case.

Meanwhile, as everyone in town is busy looking for Shane, the happy couple is having a gay old time in their temporary living arrangements – skinny-dipping in the pool, cooking out on the back porch, and playing hide-and-seek in the house. That is, until a real estate agent walks in on them and Shane is forced to lock her in the pantry as they make their escape. With only one more day until the motorcade comes to town, Shane is persistent that they just lay low, but he didn’t plan on Vic putting a bounty on his head. When a couple of gang members recognize him while he’s picking up some groceries, they hold him at a gun point while they call their boss for the reward. Desperate to escape, Shane offers them twice as much ($20,000) only for them to take all $100,000 when they notice there’s still money in the bag. In response, Shane gives Vic a call to let him know what a terrible mistake he’s just made. Not only has he sent Claudette a letter exposing “one of his many sins,” but he demands that the money be repaid by tomorrow.

What Vic doesn’t know is that while Mara is on the other line with Corrine filling her in on the details, Claudette jumps in to offer Mara immunity and Shane a better deal than Vic will get if they turn themselves in. Luckily for Vic, I don’t think Shane is going to take the bait. Of course, I've been wrong before, but it just doesn't seem like a smart move on Shane's part - especially when their ride to freedom is less than 24 hours away.

To call this week’s episode of “The Shield” a disappointment would be to admit that the cast/crew did something wrong, and, well, that’s just not the case. Nevertheless, I found it to be less eventful than most shows, and that probably has something to do with the fact that with four episodes to go, Shawn Ryan and Co. seem to be holding off on playing their final hand. This is something that I warned against a few weeks back, and though it isn’t so bad that it feels like the characters are just standing around waiting for the end to come, this week’s episode felt like it was stretching out the story a little more than usual.

The spotlight was shifted to Shane this week now that he’s on the run from the cops, and though his initial check-in with Corrine doesn’t go as planned (he knows Vic is there coaching her the minute she asks too much), Shane really seems to have a handle on how to properly evade capture. For starters, he’s not planning on leaving LA anytime soon, since he knows the entire police department is out searching for him, and he’s quick to trade in his flashy Lexus for another car with clean papers. The wrench in his plans, however, is that Mara forgot to bring Jackson’s medicine with her before leaving, and the kid’s whooping cough could escalate into pneumonia at any minute. This forces to Shane to head to a nearby pharmacy to pick up new medicine, and when that causes some bad reaction, Mara begs him to take Jackson to the hospital. It’s there that Vic finally catches up with him, but when he pulls out his gun to take Shane down, a squad car pulls up and the cops arrest Vic instead.

Now, I find it hard to believe that every cop within the city limits wasn’t shown a picture of Shane before heading out on patrol, but even if they didn’t recognize him in the dark, don’t you think one of the officers would have at least pulled Shane and Mara aside to take down a statement? It seems like a pretty sorry excuse for Shane to get away, especially considering the circumstances. Still, he’s free for the time being, and though he suggests that Mara go turn herself in so that she may properly take care of Jackson, she refuses, claiming that family sticks together. And for all the trouble that Mara has caused over the last few years, you’ve got to respect that she’s still standing by Shane’s side.

The only really interesting Strike Team-related event of the night is when Claudette, officially tired of all of Ronnie’s lying, gave him an ultimatum: either tell her the truth about why Shane was gunning for him or risk losing his job. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ronnie tells her just enough (including Shane’s murder of Lem) without incriminating him or Vic. I’m not exactly sure Claudette actually buys into or not, but at least Ronnie has bought himself a little more time at the Barn. Unfortunately, he no longer has a Strike Team to run now that Claudette has disbanded the team, leaving him chained to a desk until Shane is captures, and Julian forced to head back to the street with Tina.

The rest of the episode was made up of little mini-subplots that weren’t especially productive, but they still proved to be more interesting than the main story. Dutch still believes he can prevent Lloyd from turning to the Dark Side; Billings taps into his inner Vic Mackey in order to get a registered sex offender thrown back in jail; and Aceveda wrestles with Pezuela over his increasing control of his campaign. Pezuela is starting to get really cocky now that his boss is in town (“The dick is up your ass, and I am the one who decides if and when it comes out.”), and it’s only a matter of time before DEA takes him down. Or is it? They’ve already screwed it up once before, so what’s to say they won’t do it again? And where in the world is Danni? She was clearly planning on skipping town at the end of last week’s episode, but has anyone actually realized that she’s gone?

If there was ever any doubt that “The Shield” was really coming to an end, tonight’s episode stamped it out with the boldest statement they could make: Vic’s decision to call it quits as a cop. I don’t think anyone imagined that he would give up fighting for his badge (even when his official termination had been all but confirmed), but after the events that transpired, it makes sense that Vic wouldn’t want the restrictions of law enforcement to get in the way of what needs to be done.

It didn’t take very long for Shane to go forward with his retaliation on Vic and Ronnie, and after setting up an alibi with Mara, he heads to Vic’s house to exact revenge. What he doesn’t know, however, is that Two-Man’s assassination attempt on Ronnie didn’t go as planned. Ronnie escaped unscathed, while his date just caught a stray to the arm, and when Vic gets a call about the situation outside of his house, Shane is there to watch as his chance slips away right in front of his eyes. What I don’t understand is why Two-Man didn’t take a similar approach. Granted, the last thing I want to see happen is Ronnie getting shot for all the shit that Vic and Shane have dragged him through, but it just doesn’t make sense that the guy would try and kill someone from afar when he could have just as easily done it at point blank range.

Nevertheless, with both Ronnie and Vic still alive, Shane is forced to go on the defensive – especially when Two-Man is captured and brought to the Barn for questioning. Dutch and Billings fail to trick him into confessing the first time around, but with the help of Vic (who suggests they just lie about having witnesses), they eventually get Two-Man to take the bait and give up Shane. Unbeknownst to everyone else in the captain’s office, however, Shane has already gotten the hell out of dodge. Claudette is curious as to why Shane would even want Ronnie dead, but as expected, Vic and Ronnie are both mum on the subject. In fact, Vic is so certain that Claudette will tie him to a desk for his final week on the job, that he just decides to up and quit right there, since it means he can go after Shane himself. Claudette warns him against it, but really, who’s going to stop him?

Of course, Shane has taken certain precautions as well. Though it seems he really did destroy that file he created on the Strike Team several months back, he sends Mara over to Corrine’s house to deliver a message: either Vic and Ronnie help Shane evade capture or he’ll testify against them in court. One thing he hasn’t considered, however, is Vic just killing him. I mean, that would solve all their problems, right? Perhaps Vic is worried about having to deal with Mara, but if he truly wants to move forward and make his current gig with the feds a permanent thing, he’s going to have to make Shane disappear – one way or another.

It might sound silly to admit, but the only thing currently working against “The Shield” is that it’s almost too proficient at progressing the main story. We’re only at the halfway point and it feels like we should be gearing up for the season finale instead. This isn’t the first time this has happened, either (one could even say that the whole season has been nothing but build up to the top secret finale), but it doesn’t make me any less worried that things are going to slow down in the coming weeks.

With Vic’s chance to arrest Pezeula squandered, Aceveda decides it’s time to turn in the blackmail box to the feds. They’re not happy about the way Vic and Aceveda handled the situation, and they make sure to let them know how bad they screwed up. Olivia is just worried that her boss will discover that there’s a file on her in the box, but Aceveda has made sure that won’t happen. No, he didn’t give Olivia the file, but he did remove it from the box for his own safe keeping. Which begs to ask the question: is Aceveda really any better than Pezuela if he’s willing to resort to the same tactics? He’s been playing both sides ever since he left the Barn to become councilman, and one could even argue that it began much earlier than that.

The blowback from the blackmail box probably hits Vic the hardest, however, as someone within the department uses it as a means of bumping up his appeals hearing. Not only is his termination effective in 10 days, but he also loses his entire pension. Claudette offers him a piece of his retirement money if he’ll leave right away, but Vic kindly declines, stating that he still has a few loose ends to tie up. One of those loose ends is Pezuela, and when he warns him about an impending federal raid on his warehouse, Vic is hoping that he’ll be rewarded with a promotion. Instead, Pezuela gives him a severance bonus and shows him the door, claiming that Vic is no longer any help if he’s not a cop.

Vic isn’t down and out just yet, though. After the feds botch up their takedown of Pezuela, Olivia’s boss brings in Vic for help with the investigation. Obviously, Vic wants to exact a little revenge on Pezuela for screwing him over, but he’s probably more interested in exploiting the opportunity as a way of saving his badge. Of course, that’s not going to matter one bit if Shane succeeds in killing him first. Apparently, I was wrong in my original assessment that he might be the bigger man. Shane’s got a contract out on (presumably) both Ronnie and Vic’s heads, and he doesn’t even know all the details. It’s like Lem all over again, only things are going to end much worse than they did the last time around.

Meanwhile, the whole subplot involving Claudette’s illness is back this week as Dutch discovers that she’s having more trouble than she’s letting on. When a breaking-and-entering in Claudette’s neighborhood prompts Dutch to stop by her house to check in on her, he finds the inside a total mess. We’re not talking about a little clutter either, but mounds of garbage piled in the kitchen. She’s also not driving to work any more and it’s got Dutch worried. So, in an attempt to lend a helping hand, he hires a cleaning lady to help out. I’d like to say that’s all we’ll ever hear from this subject again, but the chance of that happening is slim. The writers are clearly struggling to write good material for Dutch and Claudette, and with the end of the series coming so soon, they’ve put all their marbles in this subplot – one that will no doubt see the firing/death of Claudette as captain and perhaps even Dutch stepping up to take her place. It wouldn’t be the worst possible ending, but that doesn’t change the fact that I still miss the days when they just solved cool crimes together.

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.

It doesn’t happen very often, but tonight’s episode was a complete bore. The whole subplot involving Claudette’s run-in with Kleevon Gardner didn’t accomplish a single thing, other than to reemphasize the fact that her duties as captain are being affected by her systemic lupus. It was a clever twist to have Kleevon not only act as his own lawyer, but to be smart enough to secure an empty pill bottle from Claudette’s trash for evidence, but when all was said and done (including a plea bargain that wiped the proposed death penalty off the table for Kleevon’s impending trial), it seemed like an utter waste of time. Sure, Claudette’s bosses now know about her illness, but with Danny double-checking everything she does anyway, I can’t imagine it being a problem further down the road.

As for the Strike Team, they’re part in the Mexican/Armenian gang war took a back seat this week as they helped Agent Murray sort out a federal matter involving a dirty businessman whose case could be blown if they don’t recover his recently kidnapped daughter. It all happened as part of a routine carjacking by a group of Caribbean thugs, and after making the rounds (including getting into a car chase with a suped-up ricer that they never would have caught in real life), the Strike Team tracks down the warehouse where they're hiding out with the stolen car and girl.

Because it would alert the businessman to his investigation if a bunch of cops just raided the place, Vic comes up with an ingenious plan that, while Claudette approves, she doesn’t particularly like. It involves recruiting a couple of gang members to go in with Julian and pretend like they’re robbing the place – only to let the kidnapped girl escape amidst all the chaos – and it goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, the whole takedown was about one-fifth as exciting as last week’s preview made it out to be. In fact, the only thing really worth mentioning about the whole encounter is when one of the gang members asked Vic if they could be deputized beforehand. Vic tells them to raise their right hand, and when the thugs all do so in excitement, he has them pat their head and rub their stomach at the same time.

They didn’t seem to think it was very humorous, but I thought it was the funniest thing I’ve seen Vic do in a long time – especially when he’s had to deal with his idiotic daughter for the last few weeks. This time, he discovers that she not only took part in a Pimps and Hos party that included drug use and the girls only wearing lingerie, but that she was the one who planned it. Hopefully, this gives Vic enough reason to punish her properly, because the last time he tried to scold her about her idiotic ways, she made it look like he was attacking her. Vic should just send her to Africa so we never have to see her again. Maybe then she’ll learn some freaking manners.

Of course, the big revelation of the night was that Agent Murray is, in fact, in Pezuela’s pocket, but I can’t imagine she won’t accept Vic’s help to get out. As it happens, the reason she became indebted to him in the first place was as a result of “losing” some documents in a racketeering case that her brother happened to be tied up in. Now, she’s looking for help, and she knows Vic is the only man that can give it to her. Unfortunately, he’s still not in possession of the blackmail box, and until that happens, everyone involved (Vic, Murray, Aceveda, Shane and Ronnie) will be sleeping with one eye open. It's only a matter of time before the backstabbing begins, and I bet it happens sooner than we expect.

The Armenian/Mexican gang war really heated up this week as the Strike Team (perhaps unsurprisingly) found themselves once again stuck in the middle. Vic had to know that his plan was bound to go sideways at some point, and when Rezian demands a sitdown following a Mexican barbeque of two of his lieutenants, Vic tries to convince him otherwise. Unfortunately, Rezian is insistent on explaining to the Mexicans that he has nothing to do with their missing property, and so Vic (as his second favor to him) heads to Cruz Pezuela to set up the meet. Pezuela, in turn, offers up his right-hand man, Armando Rios, as the voice of the Mexican side, but he doesn’t see any point in talking with the Armenians if they don’t plan on returning the blackmail box.

When Vic relays the message to Rezian, he’s both surprised and confused to discover that the Armenian boss is willing to admit he’s in possession of the box. This is all Pezuela needs to hear, and the meeting is goes on as planned. What Vic doesn’t understand, however, is how Rezian is going to explain the missing box, so when Rezian sandbags him at the meeting by explaining to Rios that he never had anything to do with its disappearance, Vic is understandably pissed off. Rezian simply wants to form a true with the Mexicans, and he’s even willing to ignore the recent murders and help them track down the real owners of the box in trade for leaving him and his guys alone. Vic attempts to convince Pezuela that Rezian is only lying, but when that isn’t enough, he heads to Aceveda for help.

For as much as Aceveda has to lose by refusing to work with Vic, he sure treats him like an unwanted mouth sore. Nevertheless, when he’s brought up to speed on the day’s events, he agrees to let Vic dive into the blackmail box for a little help convincing Pezuela that Rezian was lying. What he gets is a tip about a city planner (the same one that screwed Vic out of his favor last season) who has repeatedly refused to sign off on a memorial in Little Armenia. When Vic and Ronnie threaten to release info about his insider trading if he doesn’t greenlight the latest request, however, the Armenians get their memorial, and Pezuela is led to believe that it was Rezian who set it up. Instead of gunning for the Armenians, however, Pezuela has the city planner assassinated, which upsets Aceveda greatly. Vic tries to calm him down by informing him that Agent Murray is using her federal connections to help bring down Pezuela and the drug cartel, but then Aceveda drops a bombshell. Agent Olivia Murray – the woman we know so little about, but Vic seems to trust immensely – is also in the blackmail box. In the words of Scooby-Doo: "Ruh-Roh."

It’s nice to see Murray getting involved in the story, but the setup was so subtle that I’m really curious to see what kind of dirt Pezuela has on her. Obviously, it has something to do with why she’s trying to regain favor with her boss, but if it was anything really bad, how in the world could she still retain her status within the FBI? It’ll be interesting to see where Shawn Ryan goes with this one, but for the time being, you can hardly criticize the guy for continuing to progress the main story. Every episode has had at least one major revelation so far, and it really feels like this season has been well planned out.

Still, with as much that’s going on, I still found myself gravitating more towards Dutch’s (possibly) standalone story this week. His interactions with the kid (who he believes is a serial killer in the making) were some of the episode’s best moments, and though he got away this time, it would be really fun to watch Dutch continue to chase him down for the rest of the season. His character is clearly never going to get involved with Vic and Aceveda, and between solving cases like this and keeping tabs on Claudette, he should have more than enough to keep him busy in the short term. The whole Cassidy subplot, on the other hand, is dead weight that never should have been introduced, and if she somehow plays a role in Vic’s death/incarceration/whatever before the end of the season, it won’t be so much shocking as it will be a total disappointment.