I suppose last week’s episode, Game Face, was the proverbial calm before the storm. Tonight’s episode, Animal Control, was a full-on, Gale Force, tearing up the trailer parks of Oklahoma kind of episode! Easily the best of the season so far.
Where to begin?
Vic and Ronnie stood over Lem’s grave, lamenting the fact that they’ve yet to make good on their vow to take care of his killer. They’ve known it was Shane for a while now, but circumstances have kept them from putting Shane down. With the Armenian threat against his family and his quest to take down Pezuela and secure his badge taking up alot of his time, Vic’s need to kill Shane has been on the backburner, until he conjures up one of his great Machiavellian schemes to take care of all of his current problems, which includes stopping Shane from breathing.
Meanwhile, into the clubhouse walks Tavon, last seen lying in a hospital bed during Season 3 after his bloody fist fight with Shane left him with an iron to his head and munching the curb after flying through the windshield of his van. He had long thought that he clocked Mara (wishful thinking), especially after Lem had told him just; he comes in working a case that is connected to Shane’s past on Vice. So, there’s the requisite uneasiness between them. Tavon apologizes for his actions that night, and Shane kind of brushes it off. So they’re on this case, trying to keep a little girl safe, and Tavon starts asking him about that night. Shane is quick to dismiss it and let the past stay where it is, but Tavon is unsure. Finally, Tavon confronts him, fully remembering everything that happened that night. Rather than give Shane another deserved-beatdown, they bring the point home and beautifully wrap Tavon’s character up with his understanding of who Shane really is, and how he relied on others to help him out of his predicament. Basically, a coward. Shane’s a bit shocked, but you can see the truth hit him as Tavon gives him one final look and walks away. Fans of the show have LONG complained that Tavon’s story felt unfinished, and desperately wanted closure. I think they succeeded admirably.
Dutch’s story this week was trying to figure out why a somnambulist was covered in blood and disoriented behind a dumpster in an alley. After letting the would-be serial killer, Lloyd, slip from his grasp in the last episode, he’s obviously eager to get back on his game, so he digs deeper into this guy and figures out that he’s using his sleepwalking as an excuse to partake in exhibitionism, and his latest bout had turned violent. They just needed to find a victim. I wasn’t really digging the story at first, but they pulled a fast one on me when it was revealed that the guy WAS completely innocent. Yeah, he was still kind of creepy, but the blood had come from a girl who slipped on the sidewalk after having too many drinks, hitting her head. He was just trying to help her up. Claudette goes back into interrogation to tell the guy he’s free to go, but Dutch put the scare into him, and he killed himself. With this on his conscious, Dutch tries to pull a “I need balance” gesture with Billings, which is basically a nice way of saying, “stop being such a douchebag, Steve, and help me help myself.” – one of the finer side-stories in a good while.
Anyway, the real meat of the story was Vic’s vow to take care of Shane while also solving his Armenian problem. He had told pertinent information to both Rezian and Pezuela, and obviously kept Shane out of the loop. Essentially, Pezuela thinks Rezian has the blackmail box. Vic tells him where he’s going to be. Rezian thinks a rogue Salva has the box and wants to sell it. Shane thinks he’s walking into an easy brokering deal with a 100 grand payoff. He has no idea he’s about to be flatly executed alongside the Armenians. During the whole setting up of this moment, Ronnie is almost giddy in setting Shane up to be gunned down by Pezuela’s henchmen. But Vic gets a second wind. He’s obviously tied to Shane through alot of history, and even though this is the guy who killed Lem, Vic’s excuse is that he’s NOT Shane. So, he’s desperately trying to reach Shane on his phone during the meet; he’s decided he can’t kill Shane. At least for the time being. Ronnie is understandably pissed off. Shane has brought nothing but bad vibes to the team for the longest time. That, and he murdered the one guy on the team with the conscious. His bill is long overdue. But, so is Vic’s. He’s essentially the catalyst for EVERY bad thing that has happened on this show. Ronnie needs to be thinking about himself, and not Vic. And with Vic’s recent bout of mercurialism, he may want to sever his ties for good, because Vic’s letting his history with Shane stand in the way of eliminating the whole Shane problem, not to mention he’s getting in deeper and deeper with Pezuela. This isn’t some thug on a street corner. This is a VERY powerful business man with ties to a friggin’ cartel. Anyway, Shane makes it out alive, but he knows Vic and Ronnie tried to set him up. And he made off with the 100 grand before the cops arrived on the scene. What now?
So, tonight, we saw the return of a character from season’s past who finally got proper closure (now you Tavon fans can FINALLY shut yer’ yaps), a truckload of plot twists, and Rezian signing out. Seven more episodes until it’s all over, and there’s going to be a massive whirlwind of debris every step of the way.
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.
