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Finalewatch: 'The Shield' -- Let the rain fall down on me...
"That you may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and unjust." -- Matthew 5:45
Twice during FX's broadcast of the The Shield's 90-minute
finale here in Los Angeles, the emergency broadcast system broke in to warn of flash flooding. From Santa Barbara to Yorba Linda, heavy rains are falling on scorched earth, threatening deadly floods and mudslides to the rich and the not-so-rich alike, to the honest and the cheaters, the young and the old, the righteous and the heinous.
Life is not fair.
Whether or not you believe any of the above is true will likely affect how you feel about the final scene of The Shield. After seven seasons, born in murder and raised in corruption, does rogue LAPD Detective Vic Mackey get what he deserves?
I'm getting ahead of myself. Family Meeting begins...
As the episode opens, Vic is negotiating with drug-cartel boss Beltran, his ace in the hole in his deal for immunity from Olivia Murray and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- a deal which conspicuously does not include his last remaining Strike Team member, Ronnie Gardocki, who is
blissfully unaware of his own impending doom.
Meanwhile, Dutch tries to convince Corinne that her husband going scot-free won't wind up with her and her kids facedown in a ditch somewhere, but she's not buying it.
Back on the run with Shane and pregnant Mara and little Jackson, the Vendrells finally come home, at the end of their wits, their resources and, with Mara's injury and her shooting of an innocent woman, their will and ability to keep running. Mara frets that her son will wind up in foster care -- which might as well be "death by hanging," the way she says it -- and that her daughter will be ripped from her after birth in a prison hospital.
Together, Shane and Mara decide to name the unborn child Frances Abigail, or Franny Abby for short. Father-of-the-year Vic Mackey swings by Corinne's to give her the good news that she's off the hook for her fake arrest, and she gets an Academy Award pretending she's relieved and OK with having him in her house.
Here, let me pause for a theory. I've come to think Vic is a sociopath, incapable of true emotion. His extravagant devotion to his wife and children is a way he convinces himself he's still human. As long as he's doing his "heinous sh-t," as Dutch puts it, for them, it's excusable.
Of course, life won't be worth living if he doesn't have them. More on this later.
Shane confronts slacker Steve and offers him surrender terms to pass to Claudette -- Mara stays out of jail, and he'll come in.
Vic leads ICE in a raid and comes up snake eyes. Things aren't looking so good for that immunity right now.
Back at the Vendrells', Mara needs Shane's help to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Anyone who's ever had a major injury or surgery knows what a nightmare it can be to perform the simplest necessary bodily functions. The scene plays out with honesty, pathos and tenderness. It's sweet and sad and foreboding all at the same time.
Out in a patrol car, uniformed officer Tina muses if she'll get a cake for being one year out of the Police Academy, while partner Julien flicks on the mental wayback machine upon seeing some hot young men. Ah, the graveyard of abandoned plot twists...
In the middle of this reverie comes a call, and the two are confronted with loud and proud mayoral candidate Robert Huggins (Andre Benjamin from OutKast), who's whipping up support on the street for his New Paradigm Party, which promises radical change. He's a young African-American,
and his buttons are round with a round design. Mark this moment -- it's about as close as The Shield has ever come to commenting on the real world. The parallels thankfully grow less obvious as we go along.
Shane, having found Los Angeles' last working pay phone -- and it looks it -- gets bad news from Steve. He rings up Vic and tries to bully him into helping, but Vic's all immunity-wunity, boo-hoo for you. Shane rears back and throws a haymaker, telling Vic that Corinne's working behind his
back to bring him down, while he, Shane, still has his family on his side.
Vic hits back where it hurts, threatening to pay visits to Shane's family while he's in jail, tell them bedtime stories about the good old Strike Team days. Shane, who worships the innocence of his wife and children, goes into a blind panic.
Back at the Barn, the subplot about Ted Bundy Jr. -- a k a Lloyd -- and his mysteriously dead mother starts looking like a frame-up for Dutch, whom Claudette yanks off the case. His fate now rests in Steve's hands. Looks like the dam just burst all over our Dutch Boy.
On the bright side, Steve's lawyer -- who looks suspiciously like Julia Campbell, the real-life wife of Jay Karnes, who plays Dutch -- drops by to chat with Dutch. When he stalks away, she gives him The Look...you know the one.
Shane, now calm and even a bit cheerful, enters a convenience store to buy a pad, pens and a toy police car, then drops a wad of cash on the luckiest Asian-American teen girl to ever sit behind a bulletproof glass panel.
Vic, the same as ever, bulldogs forward with his plan to take down Beltran and make Olivia happy. In another part of town, Huggins makes life tough for campaigning Aceveda, who is plainly irritated at having to go through all these boring electoral formalities. It all ends with a slavery
reference and some very nice singing.
Shane comes home and calls a family meeting, unaware that a neighbor has ratted him out to Claudette, who has just been doing her best and silkiest mindfrack on young Lloyd.
Mackey makes the nice with Aceveda, who's willing to play. I always thought these boys protested too much.
Arriving at Shane's house, Claudette and the team decide to go in quiet. Inside, where it's already awfully quiet, Shane is writing a note. The cops come in. Turns out Shane's sitting on the toilet. The cops fan out. There's a bang, and Danny looks into the bathroom to see Shane slumped against blood spatter on the wall.
Claudette is taking this in when she's called into the bedroom. Lying on the bed are Mara, holding yellow flowers on her belly, and Jackson, one leg slightly bent, wearing white socks and holding the toy police car on his belly.
I'd like to say I was surprised when I saw this scene at a screening of this episode, but I wasn't. Shane signaled his suicidal intent at the convenience store by giving away money. He also fits the profile for a "family annihilator," a white male in his 30s or 40s who has lost
control over his fate and sees no way out.
But instead of taking out his rage on his family, as many annihilators do, Shane's motivation is love, but also a good dose of narcissism (the same word Claudette will eventually throw at Lloyd). Shane is his family; his family is Shane. Preserving his vision of their innocence -- even at the
cost of their lives -- is both his penance and his redemption.
Of course, Mara, Jackson and little unborn Frances Abigail have to make the ultimate sacrifice for this to happen, but that's beside the point.
Anyway, Ronnie and Vic head in to take out Beltran and his boys. Olivia shows up and is immediately all, "So where's the drugs, big boy?" But, hey, there they are. Vic wins the immunity lottery.
Back at the Barn, lawyer lady drops the date-me hammer on Dutch, who's too dense to realize he's been hit. Luckily, Danny is there to clue him in.
Aceveda, true to form, throws on his Superman cape and explains to credulous member of the press how he managed to run a mayoral campaign and work undercover to bring down a drug cartel, all at the same time. All hail Super Aceveda! He don't need no stinkin' election..
After metaphorically slapping Lloyd around a bit more, ailing and pained Claudette falls, metaphorically, into the arms of Dutch, who mother-hens all over her, until she drops the "dying" word on him. But it's OK, the lupus won't get her today, and Dutch just has to go on being her good friend.
While his romantic skills are nonexistent, that, the Dutch Boy can do.
Things are not so indefinite for Huggins, who is gunned down. In the ambulance, he loses his life, but first he gets Tina's vote.
Summoned back to the Barn, Vic sees Ronnie sobbing, partly in grief over Shane and his family but, I think, mostly in relief that the last one who knew of their crimes is now gone. Good one, Ronnie. As long as you come out of this smelling like a rose, it's all just ducky. You're dead to
me.
Vic meets Claudette in interrogation, where she crisply orders him into the perp's chair. She then reads him Shane's last words, which are:
"I guess enough painkillers can make even the worst kind of hurt go away. The thing you need to know is that Mara was innocent, and Jackson was innocent. They didn't know what they were drinking, and their last moments together were happy ones. They left the way I first found them, perfect and innocent. They were innocent; they're in heaven now; and we'll always be a family.
"The guilty ones are me and Vic. Vic led, but I kept Following. I don't think one's worse than the other, but we made each other into something worse than our individual selves. I wish I'd never met him. I can see it all now, there's no apologies I can make, no explanations I can give.
"I was who I was, and I can't be that person anymore. I can't let myself..."
Oh, yeah, and she also brought pictures.
"You must be very proud of yourself," Claudette says, cool as an executioner. "This is what the hero left on his way out the door."
Vic takes a look then takes out his anger on the camera. At least he didn't punch the wall. That's so bad-action-movie.
He tells her to bill him for it, and his first payment is to see Ronnie arrested and dragged off, howling in rage. Eat it, Ronnie. You're no Boy Scout.
Vic shows up for work at ICE, and Olivia informs him he's going to spend his days at a bland cubicle, writing 10-page, single-spaced memos on gang-crime patterns, all while pissing into a cup once a week. Oh, and lose the leather jacket, bucky, this is a suit-and-tie kind of place.
Vic's every kind of pissed, but Olivia's like, oh, well, you're my rented mule now.
Aceveda drops by to see Claudette, who congratulates him on winning the election that hasn't happened yet. He waves her off with false humility. I'm sure he'll do just dandy.
Back at the ICE offices, Vic, wearing possibly the worst-fitting gray suit the wardrobe department could find, gets the HR briefing. Most important -- don't mess with the thermostat.
Somewhere in America, a Handsome Marshal -- no kidding, that's what the credits said -- played by director (and former Homicide: Life on the Street star) Clark Johnson, shows Corinne and the Viclets their new small-town home, proudly proclaiming that a local museum has "the largest and finest juvenile T-Rex" around.
Corinne's cool with the house, the new life and the T-Rex.
Dutch takes one last swing at Lloyd, asking him what serial-killer nickname he wants, telling him about public-works employee Mack Ray Edwards, who murdered children and buried them under the Los
Angeles freeways (totally real, BTW). Then he muses that 50 percent of known serial killers have spent at least part of their lives in Southern California.
He asks Lloyd why, and Lloyd says it's because folks come to L.A to get famous.
Nah, it's the weather. Nothing's worse than burying your victims in snow or rain. It just sucks all the fun out of it.
Down in the Barn's kitchen, Tina's gotten her cake, but a call comes in before it can be sliced, and off go the real cops.
At ICE, under humming fluorescent lights, Vic puts out pictures of his progeny and a two-shot of himself and the unfortunately fragged Lemansky. A police siren wails outside, and the old firehorse sprints to the window, looking like a Dickensian orphan peering at a bakery display full of sugary goodness.
Poor Vic, stuck behind a desk. He sits, ponders, ponders some more, starts to get a bit misty -- then the lights go out (but at least that stops the infernal humming). But, wait, Vic's got a gun in the lockbox. He pulls it out, smiles at it, tucks it in his belt, tosses on his ill-fitting suit coat and
prepares to head out and do ...what?
Who knows? But I have another theory.
Look at it this way, now unencumbered by family, friends or having to maintain a facade of upholding the law, Vic is finally free to be the soulless shark that he is. If you doubt me, watch last week's episode again, as he confesses his many, many crimes to Olivia. Gosh, he's been waiting for years to tell somebody about all the cool stuff he's done. He enjoyed it. Oh, yes, he surely did.
Sadly, I think Vic will be just fine. Oh, he's likely to get himself or a lot of other people killed, but he's going to have plenty of fun first.
And the rain falls down...
Trust me. Those emergency break ins were the most exciting thing in that hour and a half. Except for the fate of Shane and family - signaled episodes ago - there was nothing in this episode - actually it wasn't even an episode it was a prolonged string of commercials interrupted by short clips of a show.
Vic pondering - saw it last week
Ronnie panicking - saw it weeks ago
Corinne at the end of her wits - she's been there
Claudette resigned to the worst - she's also been there
Dutch being Dutch - not exactly strangling a cat moment
Danny - Didn't she pack up and take off a couple weeks ago?
Julian - what ever happened to his storyline.
David's ambitious - I'm shocked, shocked.
Boy this was dull, recycled stuff that looked like it had been thrown together in a rush because everyone else was busy lining up their next job. Has any series finale ever lived up? I can't remember one (no, not even MASH).
I actually started feeling sorry for Shane during this episode. Mara thankfully stopped the whine-fest from the last episode and became almost likeable. You could see Shane was willing to do anything possible to take the blame and save his family. But then, he killed his family, and all that sympathy for his character dissapeared.
Shane in some ways is worse than Vic...he's an incompetent, loose cannon always ruled by his emotions, lacking Vic's intelligence, and ultimately ends up doing just as much harm as Vic, if not more so.
BTW, I believe his suicide note was simply a last stab at Vic, not much more than that. If he "never met Vic", it is most likely he would have never met Mara either and had his "perfect family".
The only downside to this episode, really, was Vic basically getting away while everyone around him is dead. Lets face it: Ronnie is dead as soon as Antowan Mitchell's friends get ahold of him. Shane is dead. Lem is dead. Yeah, sure, Vic is trapped in a metaphorical prison of that office, but he is at least alive and free, if he chooses to leave ICE and run for the rest of his life. Hey, he can even go look for his family, another downside of the "prison" he is currently stuck in.
In the end, you probably end up rooting for nobody, and that was the genius of this series: the "good" or "relatively good" guys (Aceveda: pompous ass, Dutch: smarter than you egotism, Claudette: Self Righteous, etc.) were always significantly less likeable than the bad guys you ended up rooting for.
Like Vic, Shane, etc.
And when they had done their final, terrible deeds, you were left rooting for nothing.
Pat D. | Nov 26, 2008 5:09:54 AM | #That is how a series like this should end. The shots of Vic's facials with no music, just the silence he was hearing, was perfect. Blew away the Sopprano's final.
Mike R. | Nov 26, 2008 5:33:43 AM | #I thought this was a great finale. I had predicted Shane's murder/suicide (but then, who didn't see that coming?) but it was still sad to see Mara and Jackson lying on the bed. Jackson was the only true innocent in that situation.
I thought that the show could have ended right when Vic was leaving the Barn after Paulette said, "You can go now," leaving Vic with the knowledge that his family was gone, Shane and his whole family were dead, he had betrayed Ronnie, and he had no career or respect left. Everything he ever had was taken away as a result of his own actions. However, I did see the significance of reporting to work at ICE and basically being in the worst job (prison) he could imagine--stuck in an office in a suit, with essentially no purpose to his life. The fact that Vic got away with no punishment (in the criminal justice system, that is) still sickens me.
The last scene of that all sinking in was brilliant. I hope Chiklis gets an Emmy nomination...I think Walton Goggins deserves one as well.
Mel | Nov 26, 2008 7:49:19 AM | #I'm sorry, but why does every series finale have to leave you with a question about what actually does happen? At first I thought Vic would kill himself, then I thought he might become a vigilante (a la Charles Bronson). Why do we have to figure out our own endings. Why can't there actually be an ACTUAL ending?
Michele | Nov 26, 2008 9:01:56 AM | #Great finale. In many ways Vic ended up in the worst possible situation for him - I agree with Kate that he somehow justified everything a sbeing for hi sfamily, so with the family gone .. Also, as a street thug to be stuck behind a desk is hell - Vic would even prefer prison, where he could either run a gang or go down in a blaze of glory, as opposed to this nothing he's in. And of course all the cops in the Barn saw him betray Ronnie so there's no colleagues or friends there.
He thought he was so clever, but in the end he ends up with nothing. The look on his face as this sinks in was priceless.
I concur with Michele. It makes me mad. Thanks for saying it!
Jerry | Nov 26, 2008 10:28:19 AM | #Shane was a woose [correct spelling?]. Never cared for him. Unsure how Mara ever connected with him. A loose cannon and incompitent.
Nothing beats Vic's line after first mentioning the cop killing in the previous episode. Asked by Olivia if anything else [she already shocked] and he answers that he hopes the recording device can record plenty!
I see series creator Ryan brought out a few guests to finish the series.
Gisabun | Nov 26, 2008 10:38:45 AM | #I'm STILL stunned by everything that happened in the last episode. Despite what people said that Vic got off scott-free, I have to disagree on it. He has to live with the fact that Shane killed himself and his family, that Ronnie, knowing what Vic did, is going to jail (And certainly get killed there because he's a cop), that his family wants nothing to do with him (And in protective custody), and that he's no longer part of the street action that he craved. He'll have to live with his conscience for the rest of his life, stuck behind a desk. Look at the final scene. The close-up of his eyes as he realizes the scope of everything he's lost is punishment enough. He will NEVER be trusted by ANYONE. EVERYONE knows the crimes he's committed, and EVERYONE knows he's a rat.
Yolanda | Nov 26, 2008 11:01:12 AM | #"Somewhere in America" is Rockford, Illinois -- Handsome Marshal mentions the 'Burpee Museum' and that's where it is.
Ryan | Nov 26, 2008 11:16:51 AM | #It was a good finale. A good finale should show the moment, while acknowledging for the world around it, and it did that. It wrapped up storylines, but acknowledged that, while we may not see it, the world will still continue. Some of the twists were expected (Shane's murder/suicide) which probably took away their emotional resonance.
As Shawn Ryan repeatedly said in interviews, the Shark keeps on swimming. I think, in Ryan's mind, Vic Mackey finds a way out of it, with that final smirk as an indication that he'll get back on his feet. For all the complaints about Vic, and yes, he committed heinous crimes, there is a certainty necessity for that type of individual. The reality is, the Claudette's and Dutch's of the world are effective in what they do, but asking them to take care of what Vic did?
In that lies my only complaint about the finale. They didn't revisit the moral ambiguity, and rather, tried to paint things black and white, as much as they could. There has been no indication given in the series that the Claudette's and Dutch's of the world can handle the gangs and the streets. In fact, most indications are they can't, as they are too methodical and lacking knowledge. I can see the Barn deteriorating under Claudette, due to the lack of an effective force in place. Even she knows she needs a little Mackey (season 6). The question of, to what extent are we willing to sacrifice, the core of this show, wasn't addressed at the end. Well, they sort of did with Andre Benjamin, but they didn't go far enough.
Tony | Nov 26, 2008 11:20:36 AM | #Tony is exactly right. As a law enforcement officer I know that the Vic style police officers are needed in this country-particularly in high crime city areas. Whether you agree with this style or not usually depends on your involvement with the police. As a victim of a violent crime would you want Vic working your case or Dutch? Criminals are so protected by laws that it is easy to see how some turn out to be like Vic because they HAVE to bend the rules to effect an arrest. I certainly do not condone him killing of Crowley but I think Vic started out as a good cop and lost some of his morals to get convictions. The truth is, if we did not have cops like him in the gang units, narcotics, etc. that these crime infested areas would only be worse. I believe the saying is true "If you want to catch a devil, you have to go to hell and back."
joe | Nov 26, 2008 5:25:53 PM | #Both Vic and Dutch get results, but under different circumstances and in different time frames.
I don't doubt that the Vics of the police world clear a lot of cases and get a lot of bad guys off the street -- and on behalf of all taxpayers, I say, thank you.
When I wrote my analysis, I had in mind what sort of a man Vic had become, not making a value judgment on whether that sort of a man should exist.
No doubt there will always be Vics, but I suspect they pay a terrible price for what they have to shed along the way in order to do what they do. Whether it's cops or soldiers or spies, there will always be frontline warriors who go where ordinary people won't or can't -- and some of them never come all the way back.
The real problem arises when individuals who've strayed as far as Vic go entirely off the reservation, beyond constraints of morality or law. It looked to me like that was the path Vic was taking.
It's an ever-present risk for guys in Vic's line of work -- a risk that we all implicitly agree to when we want our law-enforcement officers to do what it takes to ensure our safety.
Vic was always a danger to bad guys or cops that stood in his way, but now? I would fear that the next taxpayer that gets in Vic's way might suffer the same fate.
Kate | Nov 26, 2008 7:32:33 PM | #I thought Shane's final fate was a bit like WWE's chris benoit final fate
eric | Nov 26, 2008 9:51:46 PM | #Who sang that song in the closing credits? Sounded like Edie Brickel.
Al | Nov 27, 2008 7:52:10 PM | #Welcome to hell Vic no action; no friends; no family; just that automatic
bill | Nov 28, 2008 2:51:07 AM | #GREAT FINALE, to a great show. They do not do a good job with shows these days with finales. I think they did a Great, Great, job with The Shield. Wraped it up very well. I just was stuned at the screen for like 10mins after the finale was over. A little because it was all over and because of the ending. Ryan out did himself this time. GREAT GREAT GREAT.
James | Nov 28, 2008 9:24:12 AM | #Still hoping for a spin-off starring Dutch and Billings ... maybe as roomates ! Dutch picking up Steve's cigar but with his umbrealla ?
Scott | Nov 29, 2008 8:43:25 AM | #LONG LIVE THE STRIKE TEAM. I watched some of my Shield DVD's Yesterday I have Seasons 1 - 6. Watched Season 3 Yesterday.
James | Nov 29, 2008 9:52:24 AM | #Great episode.
Great ending.
Great series.
Will the Shield go down as one of the greatest dramas in the history of American TV?
I found myself watching Shane with 1 eye open twice: when he was in the store buying supplies and I heard the bell of the door opening/closing. I thought he was going to get shot. Second was when he finally got back home with supplies listening to Mara & Jackson. I thought the police would be there telling Mara to act normal and police wouldn't shoot Shane.
I thought Vic would get killed, possibly by Corinne or Cassidy(!). To be inprisoned from family and friends probably balances out Vic's good side/bad side.
Lastly, could they do a Shield movie? Lloyd's body count is climbing and he's still Teflon. Maybe ICE loans Vic out to the Barn and an almost incapacitated Claudette. This could close up some of the loose ends like Vic visiting Ronnie in jail, Dutch and Danny, Aceveda's mayoral run, and Julien.
Brian4.com | Nov 29, 2008 5:04:32 PM | #I thought it was a great finale and even if Vic didn't get the justice that some think he deserved, i think he got just about the worst possible fate. If he slips up just once, he's dead meat and will go to jail for violating his agreement. He's got to keep to the terms of the deal he made with ICE for three years and once he does, he's free to roam again. I don't think he's off the hook by any means because its not like the Mexican cartel just disappeared, nor did the Black gangs. He could very likely have those guys gunning for him too. I actually thought that somehow or another his daughter would figure into things, possibly even killing Vic.
I actually felt bad for Shane too and was hoping that somehow his wife and kid could be spared, but this show doesn't do happy endings.
Good job handling the serial killer plot and always love the Claudette/Dutch teamups as well as her faceoffs with Vic. Good job by Jay Karnes with the wife too! Very cute babe!
Loved the tip of the cap to Julien's long retired gay storyline. I always thought that was a very effective plotline that they for some reason decided to ditch. I look forward to seeing these actors in other projects particularly Walton Goggins, who really is a great actor.
Can't say i'm surprised
I don't think Lloyd did it.
I think Dutch killed Rita, setting up the 'Lloyd implicating Dutch' scenario. There's a new breed of serial killer here, and it's within the police department! Paving over the bodies is not enough these days; these days you pave them over by creating tons of casework.
Lloyd killed Rita. He made a revealing mistake. Claudette mentionned that some of his mother's clothes had been found near Dutch's house. Later in the conversation he spoke about the burnt clothes. How could he know that the clothes were burnt?
This is enough to conclude it was all a set-up, as the calls from Rita's phone had been. It's just a matter of time before Lloyd confesses because, as he pointed it out himself, the element of fame is important for serial killers.
Dwigt | Dec 6, 2008 7:35:04 AM | #Brilliant finale, from start to finish. To me, the ending scene says: you can put someone like Vic in a cubicle and take away his friends, family, respect - but he doesn't go away. He still exists. You can hide him, but you can't eliminate him. I also very much enjoyed seeing Dutch and Claudette one last time: they were the heart of this show, and its conscience, an important counterpoint to the Strike Team's craziness. Congratulations to The Shield for 7 amazing seasons.
Brandon | Mar 1, 2009 8:49:49 AM | #
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