The Shield: Under the Gun

Vic Mackey just has WAY too much to do.

Of course, this has been the case for six seasons (and three episodes) of "The Shield", but last night was one of the few times Vic's multi-tasking overwhelmed him and someone close to him got hurt. Sure, Ronnie's going to be ok (though it's easy for me to say since I've never been assaulted by a mammoth dog), but the fact that Vic wasn't there to back his boy up is a clear symbol of how all of Mackey and the Strike Team's sins have stacked up — with the show ending in a little more than two months, the whole thing will almost certainly come tumbling down like a wobbly Jenga structure after one too many turns.

Since Shane made a deal with the Armenian mob to keep Vic's family safe, this week Rezian asked him to deliver a shipment of police department guns which were to be disposed of. Obviously, Vic wasn't in love with the idea of stealing guns from the department so he went looking for the blackmail box only he and Aceveda know about.

As we all knew thanks to previews from a few weeks ago, Aceveda had taken the box and moved it, correctly assuming that Mackey would eventually use the box for personal gain. Nevermind that Aceveda is also using the box for personal gain (the difference is that Vic isn't kidding himself), but I enjoyed the brief, tense scene between these two uneasy allies, who've pretty much hated each other since the pilot.

As a result, Vic had to find another way to get the guns, which the Armenians promised to ship out of town to Chicago. In what turned out to be a remarkably easy heist, Shane was snuck into the department warehouse with the guns via a confiscated Escalade, and simply drove out with the guns when the security guard wasn't looking (it didn't matter that Vic wasn't there to watch his back). Though the heist itself was easy, the planning was masterful — I loved the way Vic was able to subtly find out the location of the guns and get the Escalade in there without arising the slightest bit of suspicion.

It also helped that the Armenians appear to be a bunch of dumbasses. First they fall for Shane pretending to be scanning for bugs (the device he was using was really so that Vic and Ronnie could listen in), and later Rezian comically fell for Vic's assertion that Rezian's phone had been bugged (Vic had the bug in his hand, and simply turned his back to Rezian while he scanned the room), resulting in the authorities knowing about the gun heist. In the end, Vic made himself indispensible to Rezian, and was able to find out how many Armenians know about his involvement in the money train heist. Things aren't looking good for our friends from Armenia.

I also liked that Laurie Holden's Agent Murray went from a complete non-factor to mostly a non-factor in this episode. I'm still waiting for her to become a more prominent presence on the show, but I was glad to see the character is smart enough to know when she's being used. Of course, that didn't stop her from taking Vic's tip and catching the Armenians red-handed.

Of course, with Vic running around making deals with Murray, having tense confrontations with Shane (I fell for his speech at the end about understanding that Shane just did what he had to do when he fragged Lem — until he scoffed when Shane left), and bailing his ex-wife out of jail, someone was bound to get the short shrift.

Last night, that was Ronnie, who led the sorta Strike Team (Julien and Tina) on an undercover bust of a porn producer who was dealing drugs. Tina did a good job during the operation as an aspiring porn star (though she didn't appreciate the crack about her small breasts) and the porn producer gave them the name of a drug dealer Vic and Ronnie have been trying to catch for years. When Ronnie and the sorta Strike Team to his house, they found out the guy had been tipped off, resulting in Ronnie's arm being mauled by the dog.

With this incident, and Shane's reference to Ronnie as a lapdog, you can't help but sense that Ronnie is going to play some significant part in the resolution to Vic and Shane's stories.

Meanwhile, even the requisite Dutch and Billings subplot was an improvement over last week. Their case — a girl came into the station and said her friend had been kidnapped, though the girl's mom didn't see to want to acknowledge it — started out predictably (Billings being useless, Dutch doing all the work), but the story had some good twists (the girl's brother had her kidnapped so a therapist could "rape the gay out of her," and the girl who reported the crime was her lover) and Billings shockingly started giving a damn a LOT earlier than usual.

Danny (pictured, left) played an important part in cracking the case by relating the real story of her attack a few weeks ago (she lied and told Dutch she'd made it up). Dutch sensed she was lying to him and eventually suggested to Claudette that Danny might feel more comfortable doing administrative work out of the line of fire. I Dutch's assumption was kind of a leap, but Danny didn't seem TOO upset about desk duty, so I guess the new mom will be out of danger for the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Vic will mostly likely have to deal with the Mexicans (who were absent this episode) and an angry (and clueless) Rezian.

So what'd you think of this episode? Shane told Mara that he had another copy of the file detailing all the Strike Team's misdeeds before giving the original to Mackey. Do you believe him, or was that just something to reassure Mara? Didn't Julien make for a surprisingly convincing boyfriend-of-a-porn star? Finally, wouldn't all of Vic's double dealings feel more urgent if his family were actually likable? For those of you scoring at home, Cassidy tried to have her dad arrested last week and got her mom tossed in jail this week? As my girl Erica (who's just started watching the show this season) said: "I don't like his family."