Boy howdy, but they dropped a bomb tonight- well, a hand grenade actually, but they cashed Lemansky in. It's pointed that general direction all season, and hurtled rapidly to this breaking point. They killed off one of the till now intact founding eight central characters, but they got huge dramatic payoffs flying all directions from it.
But let's start at the beginning, with Lt Kavanaugh showing up at Corrine's very early in the morning, and talking out his damned mind, like he thinks he hitting on her. What, he's going to get some, and get even with Vic for humping HIS ex? Except that this wouldn't happen in a million years. Besides being ugly lying squirrelbait, a hot dude wouldn't be getting any after the malicious way he's treated her.
But that doesn't stop the guy from trying. "You liked me, right?" If it hadn't been for the whole lying rat cop thing, "Our relationship could have taken a different turn." No.
Well, that's just not happening, and she's made him coffee and listened to his sad story, so, uh, "Why are you still here?" Answer: "Because there's nowhere else."
The really infuriating thing here is how he comes on acting like her protector. "If I take this fight to him and I win, I need to know you'll be alright." Say what? HE was the prick that had even her minor checking account shut down so that she couldn't even buy frickin' groceries. Yet he's somehow telling himself that he's the one who would take care of her, not the husband who actually has took care of her and their children. Thankfully, Cassidy came out about that time, and scared him away.
Right after that, he's hearing that Lemansky has jumped bail, which gives Kavanaugh a good excuse to stick around. As he puts it just before the opening credits, "Thank you for bringing me back into your life." Not having one of his own, he's grateful for the chance to destroy others- in the interests of justice, of course.
Like the old maid aunt in the Elvis Costello song, I almost had a weakness last week. I almost felt sorry for poor dumb acting captain Steve Billings. He disabused us this week of such foolishness with his petty profiteering and his petty martyrdom. After all he had done for the department, he was stabbed in the back and left "like Caesar lying in a pool of blood," as he explained it to Dutch. Self-aggrandize much?
But then there was the ridiculous pettiness with the stupid goddamn vending machines. After all the constant problems with these new machines, Dutch has significantly injured himself when the malfunctioning machine dumps scalding hot coffee on him. "It could have been user error," says Billings.
Now, that would have been crappy to say at that point anyway, but being mad enough to be motivated, Dutch keeps pushing till he figures out that Billings himself actually owns the vending machines. This might be kind of like against every possible rule. What an idiot. But it does explain why he was so motivated to catch the vending machine thieves, and how he got into the dumb situation with Officer Hanlin and the surveillance photos.
But the piece de resistance of Billings worthlessness was in response to suggestions that he transfer away from this place where he's been so horribly abused. "It's only 56 months till I retire." He's just going to run out the clock for near to five years.
Then for that little grace note of total schmuckness, he insists on dragging Dutch down when he has to confess to the new Captain Wyms. She's ready to fire the richly deserving Officer Tina Hanlin. This means that Billings has to explain about the stupid surveillance photos, and the little deal to groom her for a promotion to detective. Rather than just take the humiliation on himself, he makes a big point of making Dutch out as a partner in the deal. Indeed, he explicitly pitches it to Captain Wyms to honor his deal, or he'll be taking her old partner down with him to get his career ruined.
Captain Wyms does seem to be starting out at least a little more sensible than she has sometimes been with her moral imperatives. She lets it go. But she gives Dutch a little twist, as Miss Thing explains. "She wants me to increase the hours that I trail you." This was clearly a little subtle slap from his old partner, which Dutch would surely understand, and Tina did not.
But even before that Captain Wyms was screwing with her somewhat estranged ex-partner, partnering Dutch with the crapweasel Billings. They get sent to deal with a minor assault. A woman who volunteers reading to disadvantaged children at the local community center got beat up on the street. "What were you doing here, besides prettying up the place?" Dutch asks. She didn't seem too interested in hanging out with police and such, but Billings absolutely insisted on bringing her in. "I was acting captain, remember? I'm making the call."
In Billings defense here, he turned out to be right in looking deeper. They caught up with the attacker, and he turned out to have a reasonable excuse. Little Miss Tori turns out to be a prostitute, and she had set this guy up to be mugged and beaten by her pimp boyfriend and a colleague. This seedy looking little black dude showed up at the station claiming to be her lawyer. Naturally, they found the guy putting to his hoe up in the interrogation room a few minutes later. "Dutch's girlfriend has a pimp?" asks the jerk Billings.
The hoe Tori Burk turns out to have an MBA from UCLA and a resume, yet she's turning tricks for this skanky pimp and thinks that he's actually saved her. "He dragged me out of the steaming shitpiles of...." middle class complacency or some such malarkey. Being Dutch, he's fascinated to discuss philosophy with the prostitute. "What exactly does equal love?" Answer: convincing a middle aged divorcee that she's still the prom queen.
But this whole story was basically a setup for a conversation between Dutch and this pimp "Spank." Pieces of this exchange will doubtless be showing up in the "previously on The Shield" segments. Knowing that he's going to skate and feeling generous, Spank offers Dutch a brief lesson in "pimpology." "Every chick's got a hole in her heart, and it's connected to the one between her legs." Find the things she needs to hear to fill that hole then threaten to take them away, and you're God to her. "If you're born a woman, I can make you my whore." This is having "game."
I don't know whether to take it for funny or alarming or some of both, but in his next scene he's applying the lesson in pimpology to Officer Hanlin, who has (most innocently for her part) already been a source of grief and frustration to poor Dutch. So now he's telling her forcefully how good a detective she'll be cause she's so smart. "But you're not nearly as smart as you need to be." Of course, hanging with him will be the way for her to get smarter. But if he's going to put all this time into her, she'd better make it worth his while. Hearing this, she's already eager to reassure him. We'll see next season how far Dutch is willing to take his pimpology. Famously, he did not "put the 'pimp' in 'pimp juice.'" Will he overcompensate?
In the midst of all the despair and murder and whatnot, Danny and Vic's quiet scene was a nice breath of hope and decency. Danny ended up getting the money from the office pool betting on the paternity of her child. Vic visits her in the maternity ward to deliver the money. That question is apparently answered in an understated exchange in which Mom says, "When he's old enough, I'll tell him." To which, Vic answers, "When he's old enough."
Then there's poor hurt Becca Doyle. The lawyer gave it up for Vic last week. But after talking to Lemansky on the run, she's shocked, shocked that Vic had not told her all of his questionable dealings. Actually, she still doesn't really know. Lem was explaining a bit of what he was willing to plead to, but their whole conversation was only a couple of minutes. He didn't get past a couple of little hints.
Still, she's mad as hell at Vic, and more than willing to do the proper lawyerly thing for Lem, and urge him to co-operate with prosecutors and tell them all he knows. Besides that it's the right thing for himself, it'll be good if "People pay a price for what they did." Get over yourself, woman. Geez. To his credit, Lemansky will have nothing to do with this. "You're trying to get me to turn on my family."
What responsibility for his own fate must the late Officer Lemansky bear? He does get set up a bit like Jesus, dying for other people's sins. They do that specifically with the scene in the trailer park that sets up his final run. He busts into the neighbor's trailer on a mission of mercy to help a screaming, bleeding child. This results in the kid's grossly negligent folks calling the cops, and Lemansky fleeing.
Of course, he's paying for Vic's sins. The #1 thing driving IAD is the original Crowley murder from the pilot. Ronnie was on the hook as well. Plus, the specific half-assed offense that destroy Lemansky was in the purpose of rescuing Shane's dumb ass from his ill-advised involvement with Antwon Mitchell.
Then again, Officer Lemansky was kind of complicit in a lot of this stuff himself. He walked voluntarily into the Money Train debacle, and was getting his cut of various dirty dealings. The fact that he felt bad about some of it while he was doing it made him no less guilty. Still, he was the recognized top voice of conscience on the Strike Team, and certainly less guilty than others. But even only partial guilt pretty much punctures the Jesus effect.
Still, I blame Kavanaugh most of anyone. He was the driving force looking for a pound of flesh. He was pushing a fairly marginal case absolutely to the wall with full malice. He was unmistakably setting Lemansky up to be murdered in prison by the wicked Antwon. For all the nice words Kavanaugh said to him, he wanted Lem dead. That Antwon threat was the rock that Lem couldn't get away from. Of course, the hard place was the threat that he'd eventually - maybe in a year - be broken into testifying against his brother Strike Team members.
Or perhaps it was poor Shane caught between the rock and the hard place. It sounds bad to defend Shane Vendrell in the murder of his brother in arms, but to a some extent I must. Lemansky was screwed, and was getting ready to have misery and possibly destroy everyone around him. Shane really tried to do EVERYTHING. He took out a mortgage on his house- with a young son and a pregnant wife.
Our first big clue to this turn probably should have been Shane's conversation with Vic earlier in the show. Vic was trying to take responsibility on himself (if only privately with Shane) for Crowley and other things, and Shane's having none of it. "Terri was a decision we both made." He went on that it had been for the family, and that Crowley being killed was the only way that could have played out. Watching it again, you can see the wheels turning on the eventuality of putting Lem down.
Really, thinking it through a few times, it almost seems like a suicide. They had an escape route for him, money in a bank account, and a nice farm in the mountains of Mexico where he could stay while they figure out something better. Shane begged and pleaded with him. You've got one chance. "Take that chance right now." When he refused, Shane begged more. "Don't do this, man." Basically, Lem would rather face death than be like the late, grossly pathetic Gilroy hiding in Mexico alone. So Lem put him down.
I almost saw it coming. Last week's episode was called "Of Mice and Lem." The hounds were baying and the police cars wailing around them. I started smelling "Of Mice and Men." By the time they got to Shane and Lem's final scene, it was getting very George and Lennie- except that this George really did have a farm lined up for him to go to. I just didn't think they'd actually play that all the way out.
Lem flatly rejected the deal, refusing to go to Mexico even after much pleading. Then Shane sort of relaxed. After a couple of viewings, it seems like right there was where Shane knew what he had to do. When he started the quiet family talking, it was talking lovingly to poor suffering Fido while you're leading him out the woods to put him down. When they were talking about Shane's pregnant wife, and looking forward to seeing the baby, it had a very definite air of George and Lennie talking about the rabbits.
Really, this has been coming for a long time. He pretty well lost his grip two seasons ago, specifically when he unilaterally burned the Money Train cash. He's been nutsy and miserable, guilt ridden and having an ongoing low level nervous breakdown ever since. It's like he was waiting for someone to put him out of his misery, and now pretty much pushing the point.
"It's all about family, right?" Shane asks. Yes, Lem confirms, and then tries to comfort Shane. It's going to be alright, man. So there we are.
But after all the setup, they didn't milk the scene too far. Are you hungry? I brought you some food. He leans into Lem's car, and hands him the sandwich. Unseen by Lem or the viewers, he has dropped a grenade confiscated from the Salvadorans into the car and hurries away.
In his last seconds, Lem's gratefully unwrapping his sandwich. His last words, smiling over his sandwich, "My favorite, buddy!" Then noticing his partner hurrying away, "Shane?" BOOM!
They got just the least bit of discreet last mileage out of Lem. It seems unlikely he'd even be in one piece, but the blast didn't absolutely immediately kill him. As Shane came back to the car, Lem was still slightly moaning. They certainly weren't getting a Jon Lovitz master thespian death scene out of it; he didn't really seem to have any consciousness left. He was just twitching a little, with just enough bit of a dying moan to cut right through Shane.
Shane got the master thespian scene here- and made good use of it, apologizing to his friend for murdering him. "I'm sorry, but I had too, right?" There are many excellent performers in The Shield, but Walt Goggins may well be the truly best actor in a distinguished company. He really sells the material, and gives the sometimes extremely wicked Shane Vendrell pathos.
But this didn't feel very wicked. In theory, Shane's murdering not just a brother officer, but one of his closest partners. But it wasn't in hate, or really even just for himself I'd almost consider this a mercy killing.
Of course, if Lem's status as a Jesus character is a bit short, Shane's WAY short of acting on clean motives. Obviously, having Lem in prison and testifying to everything he knows would not be good for Mr Vendrell. "It's all about family, right?" That's the last thing he says to Lem before offering him the fateful sandwich. That's what he's telling himself, anyway.
Shane thrashes around just a bit, and then composes himself and heads off to catch up with Vic and Ronnie at the original meeting place he'd just lured Lem away from. Of course, he's playing it off. Lem's WAY late, and obviously not coming. They're worrying that perhaps he's made that deal with prosecutors. It makes for an interesting scene where Shane and viewers know more than Vic and Ronnie. Ronnie's panicky, and Vic eventually sends him off to clean up anything incriminating he might have back home. He's about ready to give up on Lem showing. "No, we wait." insists Shane. Big man, there, scoring points for composure.
Pretty soon, the barn was emptying out as everyone came running to calls of "officer down," setting up the big dramatic crime scene for the final moments of the season. For one thing, Captain Wyms arrives on scene telling Dutch that his request for transfer is denied. "I need my best detective on this."
Dutch has to stop Vic from reaching into the remains of the car to touch Lem's body. Officer Hanlin had a small breakdown, crying in horror at the sight of her massacred brother officer.
Then of course, there's Lt Kavanaugh, who asks Vic, "Happy now? Are You Happy Now?" That's just goddamn gratuitous maliciousness. Yet if Vic had put a bullet in this bastard's head, they would have made HIM out to be the bad guy. Vic restrained himself to just jumping up on his dumb ass. The boys pulled him off before he hurt the bastard.
They end the season then with Vic striding away from the scene with Shane and Ronnie, declaring forcefully, "I'm going to find out who did this, and we're going to kill him."
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