For the third episode in a row, they’ve ended with shots of Shane and Mara pondering their next step. This has got to mean something.
You have to wonder just how long Vic Mackey’s luck is going to hold out. Everything is crumbling around him; everyone he knows or even comes into contact with is getting dragged deeper and deeper into the muck, and yet here we are, only two episodes left, and Vic skating and getting that Fed position looks like a certainty. Of course, anyone who is even remotely familiar with the Mackey character and the show in general knows that the final two episodes will most likely see him finally get his just desserts, but considering the moral grey area in which the show is set, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see Mackey skate while everyone else around him suffers.
Ronnie looks like the next casualty. He’s easily the most pragmatic character on the show, so you have to wonder if he’s putting all the weird vibes around The Barn into a box to see the cohesive whole. Claudette, Dutch and Julien saw him make the money drop in place of Vic, so he’s in deep; yet he’s got a look about him that seems to indicate that he senses something is amiss. He’s the one member of the (former) Strike Team I’d really like to see, as Van Bro (returning from the past) put it, as the last man standing. Either that, or I’d like to see him make good on his word and get the hell out of town while the getting is good. Run, Ronnie, run!
Meanwhile, Claudette’s hard-on for Vic is really starting to grate. She’s made contact with Shane (through Mara) and could easily set up a way to nab Shane, who she knows is guilty of alot of things, two of which are the murder of Lem and the attempted murder of Ronnie, yet she goes out of her way to make sure it’s Vic she catches. Let’s say she does… What charge does she have on him? Aiding and abetting? Ooooh, there’s a good three year prison sretch. Shane would get life and his arrest would certainly go towards the image she’s trying to put on The Barn, but she’s so wrapped up in nailing Vic, and she has ZERO proof of any wrong-doing on his part; she’s beginning to lose her cool all the while remaining pig-headed. I know she’s the moral conscious of the show, but seriously, how inconsistent can a POLICE CAPTAIN be?
Shane, meanwhile, is resorting to attempted stash house robberies to get enough cash to get out of town. When that fails, he and Mara rob a safe in her old real estate office. They’re in deep. So much focus has been put on these two for the past few episodes; I see them finlly getting busted really soon.
Will Vic actually get out of all this? Ronnie as well? There’s so much stuff up in the air right now, I have absolutely no idea how they’re going to wrap everything up in a manner of two and a half hours – and that’s with commercials. But I have faith they will – satisfyingly.
I’m really going to miss this show once it’s over.
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.
