With this episode, the series finale is approaching for the Shield and all of the surviving members of the Strike Team are running out of options. The last half dozen episodes of this show are all very strong, and the final story-lines are in full flower in this exceptional episode.
Vic, alone among the former Strike Team is still making the right moves--he is like a shark, always hunting for the angles that maximize the likelihood of his own survival. Corinne, like her ex-husband Vic, is playing things smartly and toughly, as is Aceveda, and both characters have strong scenes in this episode. Claudette and Dutch are working together again, which is great to see, but it is bittersweet as the crooks they are targeting are none other than Vic, Shane, and Ronnie.
At times the tension is almost unbearable in this episode, and viewed through the prism of the show's final episode, the scenes involving Shane and Mara and Jackson are heartbreaking. Ronnie's scenes are also excellent and are also highly bittersweet--he knows he's in a very perilous position, and he's waking up to the reality that he's got to protect himself--but is he moving fast enough for this situation?
In the real world, as in the Shield, corrupt cops are brought down the same way any organized criminals are brought down--somebody rats out his buddies to save his own tail. That doesn't happen in this episode, but the dominoes are lining up. The Strike Team, which terrorized the gangsters of the Farmington district for the run of the show, is now scattered: Shane is a fugitive; Vic has quit the LAPD and is working every angle on the street and with the Feds and with the Cartel; and Ronnie is still at the Barn, trying to use what remains of his insider status to save this desperate situation. The pursuer is now the pursued: the best honest Detectives on the show, Claudette and Dutch, are on the heels of the Strike Team, and time is running out.
Vic, alone among the former Strike Team is still making the right moves--he is like a shark, always hunting for the angles that maximize the likelihood of his own survival. Corinne, like her ex-husband Vic, is playing things smartly and toughly, as is Aceveda, and both characters have strong scenes in this episode. Claudette and Dutch are working together again, which is great to see, but it is bittersweet as the crooks they are targeting are none other than Vic, Shane, and Ronnie.
At times the tension is almost unbearable in this episode, and viewed through the prism of the show's final episode, the scenes involving Shane and Mara and Jackson are heartbreaking. Ronnie's scenes are also excellent and are also highly bittersweet--he knows he's in a very perilous position, and he's waking up to the reality that he's got to protect himself--but is he moving fast enough for this situation?
In the real world, as in the Shield, corrupt cops are brought down the same way any organized criminals are brought down--somebody rats out his buddies to save his own tail. That doesn't happen in this episode, but the dominoes are lining up. The Strike Team, which terrorized the gangsters of the Farmington district for the run of the show, is now scattered: Shane is a fugitive; Vic has quit the LAPD and is working every angle on the street and with the Feds and with the Cartel; and Ronnie is still at the Barn, trying to use what remains of his insider status to save this desperate situation. The pursuer is now the pursued: the best honest Detectives on the show, Claudette and Dutch, are on the heels of the Strike Team, and time is running out.
