The Shield - About damn time!!! - Page 6

That's really what I see happening, although I'd rather see the whole thing resolve more ambiguously.

Question. Does anyone watch the three minute summary shown late Saturday night just to get that little bit extra or is it just me?

Yeah, I loved the grin. Scary path for Julien to be going down.

I have both The Shield and Sons of Anarchy season passed on my TiVo so these 3 minute replays automatically record. I do watch them as they give a nice summary of the previous weeks episode.

Is there anything new in the summaries? I've just been deleting them without watching them.

No, nothing new. Just a refresher on the weekend.

Holy shit, it's Tavon!

Prediction: Tavon is in on the setup on Shane. Paybacks a bitch.

Tough day to be Shane.

And Shane's wife listens to Porcupine Tree? Huh.

They've awakened the beast.

One of the best episodes of the entire series. I thought they were going to kill Shane when I saw the Lem scene in the "previously on the shield" montage.

I have no idea how this is going to end

That was a little intense. I knew that Shane was going to make but I really didn't know. The whole episode I was looking to see how Shane was going to survive but when the Armenian took his phone I thought it was the end for him.

The ending reminded me of this prophetic scene from the last season of the Sopranos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DShC4GhVc

Ronnie's giving me some bad vibes.

On first impression, this is the second best episode of the series entire run (so far). It's that good. At first, I thought that Tavon was playing Shane and was a part of the whole setup with Vic and Ronnie, but then you remember just what an honest guy he is in this world of people who are constantly lying and cheating each other. I loved the Vic breakdown when he realized he couldn't go through with the set up. I loved the scene with Corrine in the parking lot, and I loved the B-story with the sleepwalking naked dude. Good performance.

Just a great episode.

I think Vic wants to forget everything Tavon and would never bring him in.

Only snag in Vic's plan to kill Shane is Shane's wife. Does Vic really think she'd be quiet with Shane dead? She is a major loose end.

What about the Shane's cell phone that got left at the scene!?

WHAT ABOUT THE CELL PHONE!?

I also liked that Tavon confronted Shane about having Lem lie for him. Some nice closure for fans.

I think he may have snatched it up before the cops showed up.

Shane's cell is ringing as he walks up to Vic. He got it after the massacre, before the cops showed up.

edit: what Bub said

Yea, I heard the ring, but I thought it was coming from somewhere in the room, not off of Shane. I'm re-watching the episode now, so maybe I missed something.

Indeed, one of the best episodes of this or any season. I was shocked when I saw Tavon show up. The exchanges he had with Shane were great, it was like he was trying to make Shane feel guilty for what he did to Lem. Tavon, such a class act no way his character would have ever fit in with the Strike Team.

I honestly thought this was the end for Shane. But like Vic told Ronny, "I'm not Shane."
So Shane took the money, figures. And did anyone spot any clues as to how Shane figured out he was set up by Vic and Ronny. When he told Mara about what happened my chin dropped, never saw that coming.

Right when Shane says he's going to be late to the meet, and Vic confronts him about it by (Billings) vending machines. There's a moment at the end of the scene that makes you think Shane is suspicious and that something is going down.

And the chess match continues.

Suspicious, perhaps but Shane all but figured out that Vic and Ronny were setting him up for a hit by the Mexicans.

So i guess this means the Armenian story arc is finally over. We've probably heard the last of the money train.

"Now I know who you really are."

Who else wishes "nothin' but a bitch" was added to the end of that sentence?

I watched it the second time and I'm still not sure how the naked guy killed himself.

He used one of the soda cans.

Shit, man. Like someone else said, I knew Shane wasn't going to die, but maybe not. It is the last season. And the Shield certainly has more than enough balls to do something like that. Vic's been Expression Man this season. This week's episode: as they're driving to the "shots fired." It stays on him as he realizes he might be seeing Shane's body and then he turns on the lights and it just lingers and the dread washes over him. And Shane's mirror talk with his wife? "I'm not as stupid as they think." These last seven episodes are going to be Vic and Shane wreaking huge swathes of destruction across Farmington trying to hurt, imprison, embarrass and/or kill each other.

I've been avoiding this thread like the plague in the off-chance of spoilers (FUCK YOU FINAL SEASON OF THE WIRE THREAD), but I had to peek in to see what folks think the final resolution of the Strike Team Wars will be. I don't think any of the Strike Team survive, personally, but god knows the show has thrown me enough curves thus far.

I'll be back when the season is over.

I still think Vic's going to survive the season, but lose everything. The whole reason he "turned", so to speak, was to protect his family, and, to a lesser extent, enrich his friends and himself. He's going to lose all of that. I think he's going to lose his family. He's not going to have a cent left from anything he's done. And I think Ronnie and Shane are going to probably kill each other.

On the other hand, I also think it's possible Ronnie's going to die, or get arrested, or something, totally unrelated to anything Shane does, and Vic is going to get to the point where Shane the only person he has left.

I think Shane figured out he was set up because things didn't go at all according to plan, Vic's excuse about "late intel" was fairly lame, and in retrospect he acted a bit suspiciously setting it up. And he also may know enough about guns to realize that the firing pin had been shaved down or whatever Ronnie did to it.

Really, Vic is not impressing me in the smarts department this season. Shane's stupid, sure, but set-ups and double-crosses are his areas of expertise. And they're still just taking it on faith that Rezian (also not a tactical genius) only told 3-4 of his guys about the money train, and they didn't tell anyone.

Still, a pretty great episode, even if I never thought for a second that Shane wouldn't make it out. Not that the Shield wouldn't kill him off, but the situation they set up was too impersonal for how they'd go about it.

Shane knew Vic tried to have him done in because it was obviously such a premeditated massacre, plus we saw Shane checking his gun out sometime near the start of last night's episode (so he knew it must have been tampered with).

I wasn't at all surprised to see Vic's conscience get the better of him. Lem was the only remotely good/pure one out of the whole bunch and so Vic will always hate Shane for what he did, but things Shane had said and done over the last couple of episodes had definitely ameliorated the situation somewhat. Actually, I don't think Vic would have ever gone through with it. But Vic isn't Shane, and Shane isn't Vic, and now it's switched around with Shane out to get Vic/Ronnie without them knowing it. This is gonna be some classic TV!

It's fucking amazing that this show is going stronger than ever in its 7th season, when so many don't even last past a pilot.

Shane is such a fantastic character. I can't wait to see what he does from this point on. We've officially reached the beginning of the end for Vic. While last night's setup and Shane's escape was fairly predictable, I have no idea where things are going to go from here. I trust Ryan wasn't kidding when he said they'll be going all out for the end. And what is up with Dutch? Things don't look too good. The cat incident a couple seasons back was too important to not come back full circle at some point. Dutch has some screws loose, and he needs a good partner to stay sane, not just solve cases.

How many are left? 6? 7? As Disciple said, this is gonna be some classic TV.

Thinking about it, Shane knew that Vic and Ronny were setting him up because he knew his gun was tampered with and as was stated it was such an obvious pre-meditated massacre there wasn't going to be any sort of 'deal' taking place.

I hope they resolve this whole 'Box of Sins' storyline pretty soon so they can concentrate on the Vic/Ronny vs. Shane chess-match.

I see bad things looming for Ronnie, which is a shame because I always liked the guy, even if it took him 6 years to step out of the edge of the frame. He strikes me as having (at least) the smarts of Vic without his, and to some extent Lem's, self-deception, while never exhibiting the arrogance or sadistic tendencies of Shane. Also, the poker player in me appreciates that while constantly lying, he doesn't go for the complicated or falsely emotional route of Vic/Shane, but remains generally stoic and reticent at all times, which means he doesn't give away much when, say, the partner he set up to have killed shows up at the murder scene (loved his resistance to Vic's change of heart, btw).

Random thought: I often see the Shield compared to the Wire. Don't worry, I have no desire to rehash the sizzle vs. steak argument, because I don't think they're actually similar beyond the utterly superficial level of featuring cops. Rather, I think the show's actual HBO cousin is the Sopranos, as more than being a Cop Show and a Mob Show, both are very much Liar Shows. It seems, especially as their respective seasons added up, that every scene has someone hiding their true reaction to whatever is going on from someone else. It's impressive that the casts have done such a good job of it in both cases, as I imagine that one of the most difficult things for a professional actor to do is act like an amateur acting.

I've felt the same way, even though I think Seasons 5-7 capture more of The Sopranos feel than the first 4 do. I certainly think the writers were influenced by it, and Sutter definitely used The Sopranos as a template for Sons of Anarchy.

I'm dying to know how Aceveda is gonna factor in all this.

It's easy to forget him this season, with all the other shit that's going on. Still, you know he is going to influence, and be a part of, the end in some way. I just wish I didn't have to wait a week for next episode.

You may have escaped this time, but you'll pay for Lem! Huh? What?

Sorry Molt, I don't know what comes over me.

His decision is looking more justified every day. I'm glad to see he's looking out for #1 again. Teamwork? Phooey.

Vic's decision to not let Shane die in the shootout tells me that maybe Shane will survive after all. And yes, I fear that the two major characters that will RIP will be either Dutch or Ronny.

Aceveda's role should prove to be crucial. I think its only fair to the show that he have a major hand in how things play out, especially considering his history with Vic and the Strike Team members.

If Dutch bites the dust, I can see it being from the kid.

This is shaping to be a season as good as season 5. Just fantastic. Dutch's little reach to Billings was great.

Ronnie is going to end badly.
God i love this show.

I finished catching my dad up on S6 and now I have him watching the new season. I don't know if he enjoyed last season as much as I did but he is loving this season. Especially episode 1 and the body parts on the street. We Russians are slightly sick people. But not as sick as the Armos and their foot fetish.

The agonizing part is waiting for the next episode, the last one definitely had one of the greatest endings.

I loved how they don't quite show the massacre of the armenians, only from a distance. I must also confess to being sadden by Rezians death, for some reason I liked him.

Someone remind me again exactly what happened with Tavon?

A couple pf seasons back Tavon and Shane got into a fist fight at Shane's place and Mara whacked him in the head with an iron. After that he staggered to his car where he was in shape to drive and promptly crashed it into a parked car and flew through the windshield, fucking himself up pretty good.

And like it was mentioned in the episode Lem lied for Shane about what happened while Tavon was in the hospital.

Is that the extent of Tavon's payback? A stern talking-to?

I doubt that.

Random addendum to the Sopranos comparison: am I crazy, or did they also use "Farewell Ride" in the promos for their final season?

WOW.

that was intense.