Season 3, Episode 2 "Blood & Water"
Air date: 3-16-04
Only after several viewings did it jump out to me how much of this two episode arms-race gun story was explained in one short statement from the pre-credits scene at the warehouse. Garza, the head of the Byz-Lats, says to Vic Mackey, "I've already lived five years longer than I ever expected. All the vatos I came up with, they're gone."
In short, this Garza has a strong death wish, which makes him perfectly willing to engage in extremely high risk behavior, and throws off everyone else's calculations. He was the driving force behind starting the whole arms race that we're spending the entire first two episodes of season 3 working through. He's perfectly willing to absolutely start a war with the black gang, including killing the leader's right hand man Slap in the "Playing Tight" episode.
Moreover, Garza's death wish throws off Vic's calculations, notably in this warehouse scene. The Strike Team get compromised, and Vic and Shane absolutely take hits to the nuts, and the whole group could have easily come up massacred. Vic later accepted responsibility for screwing it up, but that screw-up came specifically from the working assumption that Garza wouldn't want to get killed.
Even when his guys got behind Lem and brought him down into the yard, Vic still had Ronnie in a backup position to extract them. Ronnie stood there with a rifle pointed at Garza's head, which should have stopped them.
This didn't work because Garza simply didn't care if he got killed, thus the quote above made while Ronnie's standing there with a rifle pointed at his head. "Go ahead, make me a hero." A sumbitch who would be perfectly happy to get killed over a lousy $100K and a few dozen guns is likely going to be erratic and highly dangerous.
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Article comments
1 - Nyx
I found this episode boring. It's the first one I haven't cared enough to watch all the way through.
What is up with Mackie? Has he lost his edge? In the first season he would have called the guys bluff. He had just as much of a death wish as the gang leader. He would have just ordered the trigger pulled and hoped he survived.
Since he's divorced now I don't buy it. He would have even more of a deathwish than he used to.
The writers don't seem to know where they are going with the show, anymore.
2 - Al Barger
Perhaps you need to watch the show more closely. Mackey has never had a death wish. He's all macho, and prone to take a risk- but he ain't trying to get killed.
Further, in this particular case, it wasn't him who was going to get shot, but Lemmonhead- one of his team. He surely wouldn't sacrifice the life of a loyal subordinate for the sake of a little money. That's sure not what Vic's ever been about.
If you found the show boring, then I'm not sure what you were looking for. There was character development, dialogue, politics and some good old fashioned ass kicking. Whaddya want, a rubber biscuit?