The Shield — rated M, LV for language and violence. WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR ‘S’??
We open on the auction block where a nice seized Escalade is being bid upon. Because of the hard work of the department, Captain Rawling breaks the news to Vic that they have been given injunctions to serve on the 1-9ers. This gang, as you may recall, runs for Antoine Mitchell.
Meantime, Shane and his lovely partner Army are meeting with the aformentioned Mitchell once again; Antoine hands over the address of a competing dealer who is receiving a shipment of tar heroin. Of course, he wants half of the shipment as payment for his “good deed.”
Congratulations to the barn for raising over $900,000 at the auction, hooray! Now it’s time to bust some 1-9ers.
Lem visits with Vic regarding the continued missing status of the girl Angie who assisted with the cul-de-sac drug bust last week. She hasn’t been seen, nothing was packed, her relatives haven’t heard from her. And Lem “knows” Shane has something to do with it.
Not exactly started off with a bang, but regardless, TITLE SEQUENCE! THE SHIELD! YOU’RE WATCHING IT! Or just reading this out of boredom and/or curiosity — in which case, get to watching! FX repeats their series about 800 times a week!
Vic, Ronnie, Julian and Danny roll up on a basketball court of 1-9ers. Howdy, fellas, you are no longer allowed to associate with one another as part of a known crime organization. “You mean I can’t even hang around with my own brother?” “We came out of the same vagina.” Awww, how dare the cops bust up a family reunion?
Next hole for bustage leads Vic into the hands of an undercover cop; he hauls the guy back to the barn to find out what’s going on. Turns out he’s a DEA fed, and they’ve been sitting on the 1-9ers who are trading stolen cars for tar heroin, from LA to El Salvador. Capt. Rawling does her best to try and work out a way for the feds and the Farmington cops to work together; first stop, busting Spider, the first drug runner on the list.
Shane and Army discuss their sticky situation from last week. First priority now is finding where Antoine’s boys stashed Angie’s body. Because, as we all saw, when it turns up, it’s their bullets that will be found inside.
Vic, your nanny is here! Oh no, the nanny’s daughter is having a baby — hi, Cassidy! After introducing his daughter to Monica, she insists that he take Cassidy home and let Shane take over the Spider bust. Vic immediately refuses as he has a backup sitter on the way.
Another meeting with Antoine leads Shane and Army to make a trade: Spider for Verdice, the “real” big drug runner involved in the El Salvadorian ring.
And so, Vic and pals bust Spider — he’s got lots of handguns. Shane finds a big ol’ duffel bag of cashola, at least a hundred grand. After some drooling, Vic clearly remembers the events of last season and says to call it in.
Dutch and Claudette are called to the scene of a murder. The body was in the street, so the guy who found her decided to chalk outline her and pull her out of the way. A female named Rain, she was sort of a straight-laced computer nerd who followed all of the rules, including parking away from the main lot, an act which in itself may have gotten her killed.
Julian discusses his issues with the ethics of the seizures with Monica. He doesn’t like the “guilty until proven innocent” method in which it seems these are enforced.
It’s time to go bust Verdice, and the feds are backing up the Farmington cops. Unfortunately, surprise to everyone but Shane and Army and those of us at home, the place is cleared out.
As Monica gets into it with the DEA guys, Vic heads outside and borrows Spider for a bit. He threatens his younger brother with deportation if he doesn’t give up some sort of trafficking location. Verdice says he works through a church on Avon. Nice.
After this ugly bust gone wrong, Monica is getting pissed about the snafus being found left and right between Angie missing and now this nowheresville antibust with Spider, with Verdice still missing. Vic mentions to Shane and Monica about the info he got from Spider; Rawling says she’ll get the warrant, but Vic would like to keep the info about the church between themselves and Ronnie. “People we trust,” he says.
COMMERCIAL!
Back at the barn, Dutch and Wyms are meeting with Davon Gardner, a recently relocated San Antonio resident whose previous crimes have included multiple murders of young black females. Juarez, apparently someone tied into this situation, tried warning the department that he was in town. Claudette speaks with Davon who is remarkably passive about the entire situation, noting that Juarez had it in for him because he slept with Juarez’s wife. Nice.
Dutch talks to Bear, apparently the girlfriend of Rain. He pulls out her diary in which he speaks about her being angry about his association with a girl named Janelle. Where was he on the night of the murder? At Janelle’s house. Sleeping, under the covers. But TOTALLY platonic, dude. Totally.
Captain Rawling heads to the church on Avon to speak with the Reverend. She would like to do a search and to speak with the altar boys, and while apprehensive, he seems open enough to allow her to do that much.
Meanwhile, Shane and Army are being watched by Vic and Ronnie as they were setting to sting Verdice. The guy rolls up, gets spooked by the cops and starts to bail — but Army won’t let him and slams his car into Verdice’s. As he pulls him out of the car, he takes the time to seethe at him that Mitchell’s name had better not come up. The reverend, along with Monica, witnessed the car-ramming, and the rev promptly takes back his polite gesture of cooperation.
Wyms is again talking to Davon. He was home the night of the murder, of course. Dutch brings up the murder and spreads out the lovely photos of the corpse. Cool as can be, the man responds, “yeah, I didn’t kill her.”
Cassidy is still at the station as Vic’s backup sitter didn’t show. Dutch offers to bring her to Mission Cross, where her mom/Vic’s ex-wife-in-the-making, Corrine, works. Corrine was understandably upset at the notion that her daughter was stuck at the precinct all day. Dutch of course then uses this opportunity to ask her out to dinner. Once again… nice.
This time, when Rawling heads back to the church on Avon, she’s got a warrant. The Reverend still refuses to let her in. Now it’s a judgement call — bust down the doors of a church? Well, if it’s a drug house… Ronnie smashes down that door like the pro that he is. Monica insists that they treat the civilians with respect and “be gentle.” The kids are caught, but now the place must be searched.
Why, lookee here, Shane stumbles across church candles imported from El Salvador. Vic goes to work busting then open and finds quite the nice little bonus shipment hidden inside.
COMMERCIALS! It’s the Sneaker Pimps commercial again, right on schedule.
Lem is talking to Vic about the autopsy done on Angie’s mom; massive, MASSIVE quantities of heroin were found in her system, clearly more than the woman could ever afford. No, that doesn’t smell fishy at all.
Vic heads to Mission Cross to go pick up Cassidy where he bickers with Corrine about the situation. When the time came for them to leave, Cassidy seemed torn between staying with her mother and going with her father, but Corrine nudged her in Vic’s direction.
Dutch and Claudette met with Dave, a guy who worked with Rain. Dutch lays out the scenario where the chick had found out that he was changing invoices and stealing from their employer, and she was going to blow the whistle. Parallels to Dutch and Claudette’s situation are more than clear. He caves in, saying that he offered her a cut, but she pulled the moral high ground, so he axed her.
As far as the guy from San Antonio? Nothing more to be done with him, as he was apparently telling the truth. Still, Dutch confonts Claudette on her coldness; he can’t stand being frozen out, and she can’t stand that she sold him out.
Monica talks to Julian about going on desk duty for the next couple of days. See, at the big church bust, he was adamant that he was not going to break down a church. Rawling wants him to think about what he wants to accomplish in Farmington, and if he’s not on board, perhaps he should apply for a transfer.
Vic speaks with Verdice, letting him know that the altar boys pinned him as the head honcho, but giving him the opportunity to sell out Antoine Mitchell. He’s not playing ball. Oh yeah, and whatever that cop said to him after being pulled out of the car? Just standard police arrest banter.
Next on Vic’s hit list is Dutch, who made him look like a prick in front of his wife. Dutch of course points out Vic’s own contribution to the prickishness.
Antoine and Shane meet up yet again (you would think they were sleeping together by this point); Shane wants all of Antoine’s intel or he risks being of any assistance by merely following the whims of whatever Vic “might” be up to at any given time. Antoine will think on it, of course. Back in the vehicle, Army is pissed at the situation. Shane insists they will find the body, give her a proper burial, and then get back at Mitchell.
COMMERCIALS!
We open to Captain Rawling presenting a check to a local free clinic for ten grand, all taken from seizure money. The reporters have a field day with questions about the church bust, all of which Monica handles not just in stride but also with vehement dedication to the good it is doing for the community.
Monica then takes the time to speak to Vic about the leak that has caused the issues they discussed previously. There’s a lot of pressure and scrutiny, and there can’t afford to be problems. Vic proclaims, “I don’t step aside, I step up.” She reiterates: FIND THE LEAK.
Of course, if Vic’s not doing it, there’s always Lem. As Shane and Army are heading out, Lem comes tearing ass after Shane in what is only just short of a fistfight over the Angie situation. Shane pleads innocent, but Lem can tell he’s lying.
Julian is out to lunch with Aceveda, speaking to him about his issues with the seizures and whether or not he should transfer. Aceveda notes that he wouldn’t have come to him if he truly wanted to transfer. Julian wants Aceveda’s help to stop Rawling and the seizure program.
Anyway, Lem’s next target is Vic, wanting proof that he’s not in cahoots with Shane AND Antoine. Vic of course denies, and Lem insists that he wants back in to stop things like this from going on…
Ronnie reveals that yet another of their hidden cameras has been hidden, this time in Shane’s vehicle. What they hear and see on the tape is nothing short of exactly what everyone suspected, and what we have all been privy to as viewers. The room is full of silence.
Vic makes one grand proclamation: “It’s not about protecting Shane anymore, it’s about stopping him.”
DRAMA! And we’re done.
A rather average episode with some aggressive plot movement — and Army actually has become his own character to the point where I have started acknowledging him by using his name.
And if Dutch starts gettin’ it on with Mackey’s wife, I swear I’m going to vomit.
Until next week!
–gloomchen
