Though all in all I was somewhat disappointed in this season of The Shield, it definitely picked up speed in the end, and the season closer had promise that was somewhat fulfilled.
For this season’s final episode they chose to lead with their best plotline: Vic strong-arming Aceveda into helping him keep his job by threatening him with the photograph of his oral rape. “I’m surprised that whoever pasted this photo together didn’t give me tits!” Oh my, seems Aceveda’s internal struggles over the incident still hold much shame.
Aceveda’s legal counsel shows up at the barn threatening Vic with all kinds of lawsuits. Vic manages to get the originals and the story from Cruz and then tells Aceveda where he got it (and Aceveda seems really surprised at Cruz’s bad side… go figure). This gains Aceveda’s confidence and thus begins an unlikely alliance. They get the briefcase full o’ dinero back to Romero in the hopes of uncovering more about Cruz’s involvement and how high the corruption goes. Vic gives Aceveda all the copies of the photos and the memory stick to further gain his trust so they can work together to discover the deeper implications of Cruz’s skeletons.
Meanwhile, Diro’s father is getting sicker, and she is determined to retaliate against Vic for the money train robbery that Shane spilled the beans on. Shane makes a feeble attempt to convince her not to go after Vic, but it fails. He then visits the rival mob boss in prison to get information on the hit on Vic to try and protect him. Seems the Armenian mob goes after the wives and children first, and then kills the men involved. Once again Shane is in over his head. He puts an APB out on the mob member most likely to make the hit, but Diro is one step ahead of him and tells him to accept his associates’ death sentences. Ironically Shane ends up in the position of protecting Vic’s family, but in order to do so he has to kidnap Corinne and Cassidy. He then waits at Corinne’s house, and a shady guy shows up to “check the alarm system.” Yeah, right. They scuffle and Shane tells him that either he partners with the rival boss against Diro or he bleeds to death on the Mackies' hardwood floor. Which do you think he chooses?
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
This was a great episode - but then pretty nearly every episode of the series is outstanding. One thing though here, for the penultimate season finale they dialed down the mayhem. There's all kinds of action and intrigue, but I don't think anyone got killed - other than Diro shutting off Dad's life support.
Here's several thousand words on this episode.
2 - Mat Brewster
I think I have decided that this season wasn't all that because of the late decision to not make it the last season ever.
It is as if they worked out a great final season, then decided to make the same plot lines work over two seasons. So we didn't get the vic/shane showdown we expected and many of the other characters went nowhere because it was all worked out for them to have a nice ending. Maybe that's why Dutch and Danny had their thing at the end.
I know I'm just talking out my arse, but isn't that what fandome is all about?