This week’s episode was fairly quiet; well, quiet in terms of The Shield. We were treated to a smattering of suggestive imagery and various racial epithets, but for the most part, it was alot of running around and barking orders in terms of Vic trying to quell the Armenian threat hanging over his family.
One interesting facet of tonight’s episode was the Spook Street ordeal bleeding into Mackey’s machinations; he went to ol’ Moses Hernandez and offered up a peace treaty between him and the cops in return for Moses getting his county lockups to protect Rezian, who was greenlit by the slimy Cruz Pezuela, who gets creepier the longer he’s in play. I don’t imagine he’s going to cotton to much more of Vic’s brute force suggestions on how to run his business practices – you can see it simmering beneath those ghoulish eyes of his.
Once again, Billings provides some comic relief and continues to be a serious putz. He’s in this for his pension only, of course, so he’s not above cashing in bills for quarters so the latino witnesses in the case he’s working (being held for 24 hours) can grab a bite to eat from his (illegal) quick mealer. Then he goes on this tirade to Dutch about getting some respect. Has he even earned it? Not really, but then you ALMOST have to give him props for picking up on the much-lauded apartment manager’s rapport with his tenants. Why did Dutch miss this? Billings pretty much solves the case, so his elbow grease in closing the books will buy him some (begrudging) respect from Dutch long enough for him to possibly take a nap at his desk.
Meanwhile, Danny and Tina have a spat. Yawn.
After last week’s cold-blooded murder by Ronnie, I was hoping to see more of him, but he took back the old role of background guy this week. With as much talking as Vic had to do to put out several fires scorching his feet, I guess there wasn’t alot of room for him.
You have to love some of the underlying irony of The Shield. Claudette is a voice against the stereotype of blacks using that 6 letter N word to turn a person into a thing. She uses it to make a point, and a damn good one, and she’s labeled a racist. Ho, ho, ho.
Aceveda was nowhere to be seen tonight. You’d think since he’s such a figurehead in this Cruz Pezuela mess, he’d be around a bit more. Oh well.
Back to Vic and the gang war he started. Did he REALLY expect his creation to start small? Of course Cruz was going to go after Rezian straight off. This is the guy who was, in a roundabout way, responsible for the San Marcos massacre last season. Did Vic think he would start by capping some low-level hitman and work his way up the food chain? Regardless, Vic is in some serious business now. He thinks he has a handle on everything by shipping Aramboles off, protecting Rezian, etc, but he’s clearly lying to himself. His pushy demeanor towards Pezuela eerily mirrors Shane’s early involvement with Antwon Mitchell. Antwon played his role until his cards were in place, and then Shane was in trouble. While I don’t see Vic getting a boot on his throat, or watching a little girl die, he most-likely will be pushed into a corner. Then again, maybe not.
Eleven episodes remain. Tick, tock, Vic. Tick, tock.
Joseph Henson is a film-critic and would-be screenwriter. If you enjoyed his observations, please feel free to leave him a comment or two.
