WE OPEN this lovely episode with our Strike Team guys in their vehicle watching the Russians. One of the guys hits a hooker and Vic struggles not to blow their cover. They head over to his office to comb his files and finds records of “steak” being shipped. Funny, no dry ice necessary? This must be some sort of SUPER STEAK that never goes bad.
The assistant chief meets with Captain Rawling to let her know that the chief has decided to shelve the seizures, and he wants Monica to sell it to the press.
Monica heads to Aceveda for a little bit of help. Crime is down, but the stats aren’t updated enough to show it. She thinks of a plan where the two of them work together under the table, but Aceveda is worried about how the cop killings may be tied to the seizures.
As our Strike Team guys convene to watch the Russians exchange “steak,” they notice that they just left the stuff sitting. Shane goes in to investigate but the guys pull him back. Gee wilikers, Batman, that’s not steak! That’s C4!
YAY THE SHIELD THEME SONG!
Vic stops a guy who was on his way headed off from dealing with the Russians. Turns out he was down on his luck and looking to make some extra dollars, so he helped aid the Russians with shipping C4 overseas. How much? A FREAKIN’ TON! When Vic reports this, Monica says she wants to ride along when ATF gets the goods. And it’s a huge sting, tons of cops, and much fun knocking guys out along the way.
Dutch and Wyms get their assignment for the day: a guy who took a 12-gauge shotgun blast point blank to the genitals. He was in anger management classes as well.
While the ATF bust went down, Vic took aside one of the russians as well as the hooker who he was smacking around before. Vic offers her amnesty if she’ll translate. But the crazy chick just keeps flipping out no matter how much they get her to try and just get him to answer the questions.
Oh look, someone wrote “BITCH” on Dutch’s car; he sees it as backlash when everyone discovered he was dating Vic’s ex-wife, Corrine. But back to work, he took aside the shot guy’s chicky for questioning. Apparently he was getting fake ID and money and she mentioned it at one of her meetings. A guy in a wheelchair took her aside and offered his help.
Vic is looking to crack this russian dude, so they tie him to a chair and wire him up with some C4. As the guys try questioning another one of the russians with threats that they’ll blow up his buddy, the guy starts freaking out in his chair and knocks it over! HE BLOWED HIMSELF UP! It’s body parts everywhere! Time for the Strike Team guys to grab their shit and roll on out of there ASAP.
Talking through the hooker to the other russian guy, he says that the setup to kill the cops wasn’t over a ticket because even though that guy was crazy, he’s not stupid. He has no idea why it happened. (And of course the only guy who did now is now in pieces.)
Aceveda in his office is given an affadavit; he arrives to the county lockup to face Juan Lozano, his favorite Mexican buddy with his favorite Mexican penis. Juan explains that he’s up for appeal; he says his confession was coerced and will explain exactly why it was coerced. He tells David that he has no more leverage as all of the threats of what he’d do to his family no longer matter — most of them have died or have other issues. In other words, Aceveda needs to pull some strings or everyone will know about the sucky sucky long time.
Monica et al discover Mr. Explodey, and Vic goes back to the lead he had on a restaurant.
COMMERCIALS! They sure make “Rescue Me” look like it’s going to be a good season, no?
They’ve got a new lead on a Jason Porter re: the bling found at the scene (JP necklace). He’s a kid with foreign language skills, a bright student who recently skipped out on school. Oh yes, and he’s got Nigerian friends. Turns out this guy is Antoine Mitchell’s half brother — his dad knocked up Antoine’s incarcerated mother. The dad doesn’t know where Jason is.
Uh oh, someone put tampons in Dutch’s lunch! Har har! Dutch takes Billings aside and asks him if he’ll keep an eye out for who is playing the pranks.
In an effort to find the JP kid, a plan is formulated to put the word out on the street that a particular jewelry shop has found the bling and will return it to its rightful owner.
Dutch responds to a call from Joanna, the wife of the serial killer from earlier this season. She’s being harassed by someone on the phone who knows what she’s wearing and asks for a carry permit for a gun. Dutch says they’ll look at her phone records for connections to her ex’s victims.
At the jewelry store, Jason is there to pick up the necklace. The shop owner, Mr. Smoothman, got him to admit it was his and that he lost it in a gutter. Jason also tosses out that the’s Antoine Mitchell’s brother, and that’s when Vic and pals bust in to take him down.
Dutch is at Joanna’s house as she thinks someone may have broken in. Dutch had noticed on her call records that she had tried to call him not long after the capture of her husband; she says she wanted to make Dutch dinner in apology. Dutch pretty much blows this off and says the cops will keep watching her house.
Aceveda went to meet Juan’s girlfriend who was trying to get him to talk shit but he denied knowing her, then frisked to confiscate a tape she was using to record the conversation. She went on to claim that she has the photo but David doesn’t believe that; she gives the same sorts of threats as Juan did.
Aceveda, back at home, is clearly troubled by everything going on. He leaves, to “finish things up.”
COMMERCIAL!
Jason is in for interrogation; Aceveda is there and hints at the seizure connection. Monica and Vic confront the boy; they tell him that they know the Nigerian connection and mention they see Antoine paid for his college and if Antoine’s money helped his dad, his house could be seized. The kid cracks. He says he met one of the russians at school and arranged their meeting with Nigerians. He says he did it to prove to Antoine that he was in his league.
Vic and Monica converse. The connection to the seizures is bad, but Monica presses that she would rather have the whole truth.
Dutch and other cops have the guy in the wheelchair and are trying to get him up to the interrogation room (up stairs which are clearly not wheelchair accessible) and dump him over. Nice.
Aceveda meets with Antoine at the county lockup. He says the DEA is looking to offer him witness protection in exchange for names of Salvadorans, major connections. Antoine says he’s interested. Aceveda then drops a note that he’d like Juan Lozano to miss his court date.
Dutch goes to sit in his chair, and OH NO HE FALLS! THE CHAIR IS BROKEN! Everyone laughs, and Dutch notices even Billings was laughing.
Dutch is with the wheelchair guy now regarding the fake ID connection. Dutch notes the guy has a brand new wheelchair ramp built at his house, how did he get the money to do that? He also notes that in some sort of shooting scenario, he would be face to balls with the guy.
Further investigating the calls to Joanna’s house, a guy is taken into custody but he won’t confess to making threatening phone calls.
Dutch takes aside Billings and calls him out for laughing at him, for not fighting for him. Things escalate and out back, a full-on fight erupts! Vic and the rest of the guys are giving running commentary as Dutch and Billings hilariously attempt to bitch-fight each other. Soon enough, Vic breaks them up, but Dutch then turns on Vic and punches him but good. To say the least, Vic was rather stunned.
LAST COMMERCIAL BREAK!
Monica is with Jason; Antoine’s lawyer won’t help him. She tells him his bling from Antoine was stolen before Antoine gave it to him. She mentions the seizure policy again; Jason talks, but wants a deal on paper first that he won’t be pursued for the cop killings.
Corrine and Dutch meet and she gives him back all of his stuff. Dutch tries reasoning with her, saying he’s not afraid of their bad start. If she wants another chance, she should call.
Jason’s pouring it all out now: the russians had a beef, and the nigerians were used as an emissary. The kid translated between the two of them, and killing the two cops was to be a handshake between the two groups. The cops were chosen due to the particular russian who got the traffic ticket earlier.
Danny and Julian are at Joanna’s house. They knock on the door with no answer, and things get worrisome. They check her yard and continuously call for her to answer them. Suddenly, through the door, a gun is fired and Danny is shot. Yes, it’s Joanna, panicking that they were an intruder.
The assistant chief comes to talk to Monica. Antoine’s going to walk due to his deal with the DEA that Aceveda brokered. Monica absolutely freaks out and tells Jason as she passes by that their deal is off and he’s going down.
Monica charges into Aceveda’s office along with Vic. Aceveda relents that he can’t call off the deal and that it’s in the DEA’s hands now. Monica tells Aceveda to take his bullshit and shove it up his ass. After she spits her venom, Vic gets in his face, angrily telling him, “You’re not a cop. You never were.”
FIN!
One more episode to go, OMG WHAT WILL HAPPEN!
–gloomchen
