The brilliance of this episode is that for once the audience knows less than the characters. Usually The Shield has some of the best use of dramatic irony I've seen in any piece of literature, but this time they do the opposite, leaving the audience in the dark so its set up in a way to put the audience in the shoes of Kavanaugh, making it as intense and exciting as possible. It also plays with our emotions as many of us kinda do want to see the strike team get away with it, but also finally pay for their crimes.
Kavanaugh is losing his grip on Emolia, so he's especially desperate now to get Vic and the strike team. The plot is set up with some fake medicine being sold by the Gruhani Brothers, and the russian mob gets involved (I like how they brought this back from last season), so the strike team is off to get them. We see from Kavanaugh perspective that he ended up bugging the strike team's room so he's hearing everything even when Lem leaves. This is huge, instantly creating tension since from our perspective we think the strike team don't know so they could expose themselves. So when the team brings the lawyer into the room and start telling her some useful information for Kavanaugh the intensity keeps rising. I love how it edits between the characters as Kavanaugh takes notes, but then he finds out they have attorney client privilege so he can't use that information. This is just the beginning of the misdirection, twists and turns of this episode that make it so intense and exciting.
The team finds a Russian mobster that can help out with the Gruhani Brothers situation, and decide to make a deal with him in the same room. Now of course Kavanaugh is excited, while the audience (assuming they're rooting for the strike team) are now truly scared for the team. The intensity just keeps rising, and this episode is a masterclass in structure, and using dramatic irony to build as much tension as possible. I believe the master of suspense himself, Hitchcock, would be proud. We had one fake out already, and they make it seem as real as possible this time. Kavanaugh has a squad of cops ready to get them. Is this the end of the strike team?! The suspense has never been higher.
Meanwhile before we get to a big finale the episode decides to focus more on some subplot's to keep you waiting and guessing to see what will happen with the strike team for longer, and these subplots are still great. Billings is comically very obsessed with the "sophisticated machinery" that are Vending machines, or as he calls them, "Gourmet Quick-mealer." This may seem like a pointless funny scene, but believe it or not it has actual importance later. Danni gets an excellent scene, which she needs more of, with Claudette after bumping into a pole and starting to cry. I love how everyone instantly ran to her. She relates this back to the conversation she had with Tina last episode, and Claudette gives a little bit of backstory and helps out as she's a mother herself.
"I just- I don't- I don't know what I'm doing here." "None of us do, sweetheart." It's just a really nice and touching scene. There's The other case Dutch and Claudette are working on is also a good one because of the suspects. Dutch keeps prying into Claudette's well being warning her that her medicine is dangerous, Claudette is obviously frustrated which creates some tension between them. However she does finally reveal she has lupus at the end of the episode! There's also some surprisingly funny moments this case, Dutch's jokes made me laugh a few times. The case is great because once again we get the misdirection this episode is so good at, but the suspects were very entertaining. Peaches has an ex who supposedly ghosted her because (according to an email) he was dying and didn't want to give her pain. In the house Peaches used to live in where her roommate is now, his body is found, so Peaches is the obvious suspect. But when Claudette and Dutch tell her about this she bursts out crying in the most over the top way, and at first it seemed almost as if she was over exaggerating as a lie, which made me find it funny, but then we realize its not as she keeps crying. When they confront the roommate she instantly snaps and denies it in the most aggressive way. Honestly in concept this could be an average case, its just the execution that brought so much personality and even comedy to it. The actress for the roommate was really good as she realized she messed up and explains the actual story.
But anyways, we know what we were really waiting for. The strike team except Lem go meet up with the Russian mobster to make the deal and trade, and tensions are as high as ever because we know Kavanaugh is coming. The confidence and banter between the strike team and the Russian mobster really adds to the uneasy feeling that everything is about to go wrong. It's already excruciatingly intense knowing what's about to happen, but once again that's not enough for The Shield. "You got that tingling feeling like I do?" Now the trade goes wrong, and there's so many layers of tension added because of this. The strike team is about to be arrested, but also now their lives could be in danger too, plus Kavanaugh's plan might derail because of this. To make things even worse now the russian mobster is forcing the strike team to kill someone which makes it even worse for them, and something Kavanaugh has to deal with. And BAM, Vic shoots the guy, and the all the cops swarm into the room to arrest them. This was easily one of the most intense and exciting moments I've watched in any movie or TV show, truly riveting.
The twists and misdirection keep coming as it's revealed that Vic set the whole thing up! In the beginning of the episode I thought some parts seemed a little contrived or unrealistic for the strike team, and that's because it was meant to be since they planned the whole thing from the start. Ronnie has been sweeping for bugs just in car end when they found one they decided to play Kavanaugh in the most brilliant way, humiliating him and making Vic seem like a victim who's being scapegoated. This scene is just pure brilliance as Vic plays the audience in the room to make him seem better, and Kavanaugh is just left alone in shock realizing he truly underestimated Vic Mackey. The way this episode was set up and structured made it so brilliant because maximized the intensity for the audience with the information the show choose to either show us or withhold from us. If we would've known this from the start it wouldn't have been nearly as intense or exciting. The icing on the cake is the strike team deciding to do some celebrating and cleaning up the room including the trophy with the bug, throwing it away like they just threw away Kavanaugh's whole case. The episode ends with an amazing use of Forest Whitaker's talent as Kavanaugh completely rages almost in an animalistic way, completely trashing the place, in what to me is one of my favorite rage scenes ever. WOW, just WOW. What an episode, truly one of the best.
Kavanaugh is losing his grip on Emolia, so he's especially desperate now to get Vic and the strike team. The plot is set up with some fake medicine being sold by the Gruhani Brothers, and the russian mob gets involved (I like how they brought this back from last season), so the strike team is off to get them. We see from Kavanaugh perspective that he ended up bugging the strike team's room so he's hearing everything even when Lem leaves. This is huge, instantly creating tension since from our perspective we think the strike team don't know so they could expose themselves. So when the team brings the lawyer into the room and start telling her some useful information for Kavanaugh the intensity keeps rising. I love how it edits between the characters as Kavanaugh takes notes, but then he finds out they have attorney client privilege so he can't use that information. This is just the beginning of the misdirection, twists and turns of this episode that make it so intense and exciting.
The team finds a Russian mobster that can help out with the Gruhani Brothers situation, and decide to make a deal with him in the same room. Now of course Kavanaugh is excited, while the audience (assuming they're rooting for the strike team) are now truly scared for the team. The intensity just keeps rising, and this episode is a masterclass in structure, and using dramatic irony to build as much tension as possible. I believe the master of suspense himself, Hitchcock, would be proud. We had one fake out already, and they make it seem as real as possible this time. Kavanaugh has a squad of cops ready to get them. Is this the end of the strike team?! The suspense has never been higher.
Meanwhile before we get to a big finale the episode decides to focus more on some subplot's to keep you waiting and guessing to see what will happen with the strike team for longer, and these subplots are still great. Billings is comically very obsessed with the "sophisticated machinery" that are Vending machines, or as he calls them, "Gourmet Quick-mealer." This may seem like a pointless funny scene, but believe it or not it has actual importance later. Danni gets an excellent scene, which she needs more of, with Claudette after bumping into a pole and starting to cry. I love how everyone instantly ran to her. She relates this back to the conversation she had with Tina last episode, and Claudette gives a little bit of backstory and helps out as she's a mother herself.
"I just- I don't- I don't know what I'm doing here." "None of us do, sweetheart." It's just a really nice and touching scene. There's The other case Dutch and Claudette are working on is also a good one because of the suspects. Dutch keeps prying into Claudette's well being warning her that her medicine is dangerous, Claudette is obviously frustrated which creates some tension between them. However she does finally reveal she has lupus at the end of the episode! There's also some surprisingly funny moments this case, Dutch's jokes made me laugh a few times. The case is great because once again we get the misdirection this episode is so good at, but the suspects were very entertaining. Peaches has an ex who supposedly ghosted her because (according to an email) he was dying and didn't want to give her pain. In the house Peaches used to live in where her roommate is now, his body is found, so Peaches is the obvious suspect. But when Claudette and Dutch tell her about this she bursts out crying in the most over the top way, and at first it seemed almost as if she was over exaggerating as a lie, which made me find it funny, but then we realize its not as she keeps crying. When they confront the roommate she instantly snaps and denies it in the most aggressive way. Honestly in concept this could be an average case, its just the execution that brought so much personality and even comedy to it. The actress for the roommate was really good as she realized she messed up and explains the actual story.
But anyways, we know what we were really waiting for. The strike team except Lem go meet up with the Russian mobster to make the deal and trade, and tensions are as high as ever because we know Kavanaugh is coming. The confidence and banter between the strike team and the Russian mobster really adds to the uneasy feeling that everything is about to go wrong. It's already excruciatingly intense knowing what's about to happen, but once again that's not enough for The Shield. "You got that tingling feeling like I do?" Now the trade goes wrong, and there's so many layers of tension added because of this. The strike team is about to be arrested, but also now their lives could be in danger too, plus Kavanaugh's plan might derail because of this. To make things even worse now the russian mobster is forcing the strike team to kill someone which makes it even worse for them, and something Kavanaugh has to deal with. And BAM, Vic shoots the guy, and the all the cops swarm into the room to arrest them. This was easily one of the most intense and exciting moments I've watched in any movie or TV show, truly riveting.
The twists and misdirection keep coming as it's revealed that Vic set the whole thing up! In the beginning of the episode I thought some parts seemed a little contrived or unrealistic for the strike team, and that's because it was meant to be since they planned the whole thing from the start. Ronnie has been sweeping for bugs just in car end when they found one they decided to play Kavanaugh in the most brilliant way, humiliating him and making Vic seem like a victim who's being scapegoated. This scene is just pure brilliance as Vic plays the audience in the room to make him seem better, and Kavanaugh is just left alone in shock realizing he truly underestimated Vic Mackey. The way this episode was set up and structured made it so brilliant because maximized the intensity for the audience with the information the show choose to either show us or withhold from us. If we would've known this from the start it wouldn't have been nearly as intense or exciting. The icing on the cake is the strike team deciding to do some celebrating and cleaning up the room including the trophy with the bug, throwing it away like they just threw away Kavanaugh's whole case. The episode ends with an amazing use of Forest Whitaker's talent as Kavanaugh completely rages almost in an animalistic way, completely trashing the place, in what to me is one of my favorite rage scenes ever. WOW, just WOW. What an episode, truly one of the best.
