The Shield: A Walk in the Park

Ok, so I think we can pretty much all agree that there is really no such thing as a BAD episode of "The Shield." Shawn Ryan and his writers, directors and cast have done a remarkable job of sustaining an incredibly high level of quality for seven seasons.

So let's just go ahead and call last night's episode "disappointing."

Of course, there were more than a few things to like and even a couple of noteworthy plot development. However, when you consider that after "Petty Cash" there are only TWO original episodes of "The Shield" left, the hour mostly had the characters stuck in neutral and felt more like a setup for the show's conclusion.

Vic was still running around trying to desperately prove himself to both I.C.E. and cartel bigwig Beltran. Shane, Mara and Jackson were still on the lam, Claudette was still determined to bust Shane and, ESPECIALLY Vic, while Ronnie was still scrambling to help Vic at the Barn while fighting the urge to flee the country. Oh yeah, Billings is still a completely incompetent tool (but we kinda like him that way).

Even the big exchange of money at the (crackhead) park was a big flop for both Claudette and the audience since Beltran's cartel guys prevented Vic from showing up and delivering the money himself. You've gotta believe Vic's luck is going to run out sometime in the next two episodes.

In an effort to become Beltran's new (and effective) Pezuela, Vic offered to facilitate a pact between Beltran's cartel and the area's black drug dealers. The scene (pictured, right) where Vic convinced the group, who looked like they watched "Shaft" everyday and were stuck in 1975, was another triumph for Michael Chiklis. Vic Mackey keeps pulling off near-impossible moves to manipulate others and save himself and a big part of that is due to Chiklis mix of menace, profane charm and intensity.

Of course, Vic got the $200,000 from the dealers, discreetly separated $100,000 to give to Shane and Mara and had Ronnie pick up the cash and deliver it to Corinne at the local sketchy park.

By that time, Shane and Mara had set up Vic to be busted. Mara convinced Claudette that she was working behind her husband's back and that Shane would show up at the park to collect the cash and that Claudette would be able to arrest Vic and Shane. Instead, Vic was supposed to show up with a huge wad of cash he couldn't account for and Claudette could get her man, who still elicited sympathy from his ex-wife.

So when Ronnie showed up instead and dropped the money off quickly, Claudette was furious. I mean, is there anybody who could've said "God damn it!" better than CCH Pounder. On the other hand, they have Ronnie "dead to rights," according to Dutch (thanks to the wire Corinne was wearing) after years of being the one Strike Team member who kept his hands clean. Like I said last week — he should've run when he had the chance.

The way you can tell your world is slowly unraveling is when you have to depend on Billings for ANYTHING. Since Claudette had sent Ronnie along with Julien on a murder, Ronnie was counting on Billings to intercept the letter from Shane to Claudette that allegedly included on of their indiscretions (or an angry letter from one of Ronnie's many conquests, as Billings was led to believe). Of course, Billings completely blew the task, but Ronnie got a hold of the letter anyway, which turned out to be a trick by Shane. The letter mocked Ronnie by telling him he got "punked," but it could've just as easily been written to us in the audience — this episode was a big tease!

The murder of a promising high school football star that Julien was investigating was only slightly interesting. Sure, it was a nice twist to have the killer be a mother who shot the athlete by accident because she was targeting the college coach who rejected her son a year before, but this storyline mostly felt like a throwaway. We've known that places like Farmington are tough ever since "Boyz in the Hood" almost 20 years ago.

I was actually more interested by Julien's increasing distance between himself and his former Strike Teammates. I feel like he has a significant role to play in the final two episodes, though that may be wishful thinking on my part for a character and an actor who was a HUGE part of the show at the start and is now a glorified extra.

Even the Shane and Mara scenes were just ok. Since Shane obviously wasn't going to get himself arrested trying to collect Vic's money, he set about acquiring some cash in different ways. I'll admit that it was amusing watching him unsuccessfully try to rob from a stash house and, for a second, I thought it would've been the cruelest of fates to have him get shot by a random insane homeless guy. On the other hand, the scene where Shane and Mara broke into the safe to steal the cashiers' checks while they held a helpful cleaning crew hostage was just odd.

In the end, the scenes were meant to illustrate how alone Shane and Mara were in the world (Mara's obviously not close to her family either, as we saw in the last episode). But we already knew these two were ABSOLUTELY devoted to each other and that they're all the other person needs, so we didn't need that reiterated.

Finally, Aceveda is annoying us almost as much as he's annoying Vic. He's not buying the story in the paper about Pezuela killing himself and threatened to tell Beltran the truth. I get that Aceveda's always been kind of an ass, but I'm having trouble believing he would actually jeopardize a major investigation and (as much as he hates him) risk Mackey or anyone else's life, just so he can get credit for helping bring Beltran down.

They've been setting up Aceveda to do something major, and he's been increasingly desperate and petty for a good while now. Just hurry up and do something man.

I realize this episode is the classic "calm before the storm," but I guess I just expected more with only three episodes left until the END OF THE SHOW. If they wanted to spin their wheels on the main Vic/Shane storyline, maybe they could've devoted some time to the minor characters. Just sayin'. Either way, can't wait for the next two weeks.

So what'd you think of this episode? Which reference to past "Shield" episodes were you happier to see? Van Bro or the name "Cletus Van Damme" on the envelope Shane sent to Claudette? Do Claudette and Dutch really have anything on Ronnie? (I didn't catch anything really incriminating.) Finally, there are several rumors out there that the finale will feature FOUR significant deaths — who do you think that could be? (I'm going with Aceveda, Dutch, Shane and Ronnie.)