[Morethings index for The Shield]
Season 2, Episode 8 "Scar Tissue"
Air date: 2-25-03

Odd though it may seem based on his rep, you could fault Vic for sometimes in the series not being thuggish enough. In "Scar Tissue" he was, as Shane observed, "holding back." In the pilot of the series, Vic committed a cold blooded murder. Since then, however, he has not absolutely assassinated anyone - even a couple of times when arguably he should have.

He's restrained by some small burden of guilt that he glancingly references from time to time, such as when he asked his old training partner about having "gone too far." The old trainer replied something like that going TOO far gets you kicked off the force for brutality, not going far enough will get you killed.

I suppose Vic deserves to feel some guilt over the original sin, but he's had a couple of cases now that really screamed for assassination. Gilroy shows up at the house threatening MY people and planting a murder weapon in my child's room, he'd best get where I'll never, ever find him. I'd consider that self-defense. From that point, my family would not be considered safe as long as this guy was walking around. As a juror, I would absolutely acquit a guy charged with murder under those circumstances.

This case with Armadillo was another. He was not simply a dope dealer, but a uniquely cruel and murderous bastard, clearly the worst customer in the entire run of the series, probably by numbers even worse than Shawn the serial killer. He pretty openly declared war on the Strike Team. Again, here's a guy who was willing to go after his family. Arguably Vic's mistake was burning Armadillo rather than just outright killing the satanic bastard.