Shane goes to the hospital to warn Diro about the impending hit on her and her father, and rather then let them kill dear old Dad, she pulls the plug on his life support and leaves. Her closing words to Shane are: “Your sentiment will destroy you.” Now if that isn’t a sign of plotlines to come, I don’t know what is.
In tracking down Cruz, Vic follows Romero and busts into a storefront business. There he bullies his way past the “secretary” (“So, he keeps his oral recreation in house”) and discovers a room full of weapons. She doesn’t know much, but at least he has confirmation that there is more than meets the eye. He’s certain Cruz is going to ask for a favor from Aceveda. Turns out he wants to create a grant for a local college to do demographic research: seems he wants to expand voting territories to increase his influence with the politicians who are “friendly” to his business efforts. Cruz is buying up Farmington to support his shady business connections in Mexico. Vic asks once again for Aceveda’s help with the hearing.
Dutch and Steve investigate the murder of Miracle Joe, a well-known and beloved Farmington homeless person, and they uncover a guy who extorts money from the homeless, a begging tax. But it seems he watched Joe get hit by a bus and get up and walk away, so he left him alone. Poor Dutch is the laughing stock of the Barn as the word of his witnessing Tina and Hiatt’s session has gotten out. (Hmmm… think it was Steve? What a jerk.) And Tina is paying for it too, with the stares and jeers from the male cops.
When Tina goes to talk to Dutch, he is great, telling her she has nothing to apologize for. Dutch then asks Danny in to help in interrogation and Tina feels the sting. Turns out Joe died of natural causes, so the kid decides to drop his body off in front of the mini-mart where he was treated badly. Steve shows up with official paper and tells Claudette he is going to sue the district for 3.4 million dollars due to his “disability” supposedly incurred when trying to break off the fight between Mackie and Cavanaugh. Dutch brings in Miracle Joe’s nephew, turns out Joe stepped in to take care of him when his father took ill, but flipped out when his brother died and chose a life on the streets. Dutch is clearly emotionally affected by the conversation, and Danny finds him crying in the locker room They console each other and end up kissing. All I can say is: it’s about time.
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?