Season 5, Episode 7 "Man Inside"  

Air date:  2-21-06

Consistent excellence is simply a way of life for the writers and producers of The Shield, but they really outdid themselves with the final scenes of "Man Inside."  The climactic scenes of Dutch and Claudette working on serial killer Cleavon Gardner may be their finest, most compelling work in the whole series.  But we'll get back to that.

Kavanaugh's IAD investigation is driving much of the action this season, though he didn't really have any especially big moves this week.  Mostly he's just harassing people this week, demanding that Strike Team members drop their petty little kiddie murderer hunt so he can make countless baseless accusations.  He's looked into Ronnie's finances and sees nothing whatsoever.  So how have you done so good at hiding all your dirty money?

The main thing for Kavanaugh is that he's looking for connections from last season between Antwon Mitchell in prison, Aceveda who visited him in prison, and Aceveda's attacker Juan, who not co-incidentally got murdered in that same prison shortly after that visit.  Rewinding to season four, in his lowest moment, Aceveda absolutely had Antwon kill Juan rather than let him get on a witness stand and explain in open court about having raped Aceveda.

Kavanaugh of course smells something, which sets up the big re-appearance of Anthony Anderson as Antwon Mitchell for next week.  The funny thing about it for this week is that Kavanaugh suspects Vic Mackey of being involved.  It's funny because it's the one big corrupt thing that Vic really did NOT have any involvement with.  He has no clue.  Also, for all the baseless accusations Kavanaugh's throwing around, this one really looks more legitimate than a lot of the stuff Vic's really done.

Meanwhile, Vic works in his standard MO.  He's showing good compassion, honest contrition- and really continuing to lie his ass off even when he has himself about half convinced that he's being honest.  His heartfelt confession of past corruption to his lawyer Becca Doyle is classic Vic.  Since Corrine has told Kavanaugh about the specific $65,000 in cash, he has to explain that to her.  He admits to having done some taking of money here and there.

But of course the little bit of "skimming" that he's admitting to doesn't BEGIN to describe the stuff he's done.  It's far enough from the truth to just be flatly a lie.  Plus, of course, he's nowhere NEAR admitting even to his attorney his original sin, the assassination of Officer Crowley in the pilot.

Yet he artfully cuts close enough that it almost looks like a sincere confession.  He seems genuinely ashamed of his past bad dealings.  Other than CYA moves, Vic really has been trying to play more or less straight since the Money Train debacle two years ago.  He really IS contrite- just not enough so to come clean and take his punishment.  But then, that would pretty much be the end of his life.  That would be asking quite a bit.

Also, he  had an interesting move with Corrine, telling her to lawyer up, and tell EVERYTHING she knows.  Now, really that's probably not much, other than that $65K he came up with for her.  But, "it makes amends" to have her do that, to specifically tell her to take care of her own interests and disregard his.  

I'm sure he feels better about it, and certainly this helps his family situation.  He got a nice fuzzy feeling out of taking Corrine to an old greasy spoon from the early days to make the arrangements.  As Corrine notes, "The menu hasn't changed."  To which Vic replies, "Some things never do."

But that's sure not showing consideration for his Strike Team, is it?  Perhaps they'd have some objection to Corrine completely spilling her guts.  He sure didn't ask them squat.

What's really WAY out of whack with that though is the attorney Becca Doyle.  She of course advised against such a move, but she obviously doesn't control Vic.  But supposedly, she is the attorney representing ALL FOUR Strike Team members.  How is it that she's letting this go on without telling her other clients.

In short, Ronnie is absolutely right that they should all have separate attorneys.  This situation with Doyle is a classic example of the bazillions of conflicts that Vic constantly papers over with his all-for-one shtick

What with the constant covering of ass, it's a wonder that the Strike Team gets any actual police work done at all.  This week's interaction with the team from division was like an idyllic break for him- child murdering meth head and all.  The opening scene of the police league softball league was the set up for what to Vic would be the kind of wistful good copping that he can never get back to.  His new buddy would just LOVE to bring Vic over to work with him- but no way is a good clean division head going to have Mackey's baggage brought in on them.

Their perp du jour was not a particularly interesting character- but then he really only got a couple of minutes of screen time.  The nickname "Someshit" was kind of clever. 

They got one bit of good dramatic payoff on this character in his last minute on screen.  In the process of typical drug robbing nonsense, he murdered an old girlfriend Jenny and her two year old daughter Violet- who turned out unbeknownst to be HIS daughter.  Now, he never expressed any remorse over any killings or anything, except to say in passing that he wouldn't kill his own daughter, not if he knew.  

The payoff was his last sentence.  Having been finally told that the girl he murdered was his daughter, as the detectives are leaving, Someshit's left with one forlorn expression of human emotion, screaming after the detectives "What was her name?"  They didn't answer.

Now, that was all good, but this show was all about Claudette and Dutch and Cleavon Gardner.  This wicked bastard has been stewing on the show for a year, methodical and untouchable.  I'm not sure we've even got a rough body count.

Plus, he's really skillful in his wickedness, leaving NO evidence, and changing style flawlessly.  As Dutch put it, "He went from serial killer to thrill killer without missing a beat."  Dutch wanted to try to push the point in interrogation that this latest killing was sloppy - though in fact it was not.  There was just NO traction there.

Claudette was in the throes of a health crisis with her lupus, barely able to function, but desperate to break this guy.  With his profile, and his need for dominance over black women, and thus his special hatred for Claudette, it was all on her.  He's just laughing at Dutch or anyone else.

Cleavon was also tuned into Claudette's health crisis that no one else in the building other than her partner had even picked up on.  With his strong predatory instincts, he's picking right up on her vulnerability, and is of course happy to throw it back at her.  "You're wobbling more than a squirrel fell out of a tree."  The actor was particularly menacing in delivering the line "Your needle's going back and forth."  When her nose bleed during intense interrogation, you can sense that Cleavon can almost taste it.

They're working on him over the missing and presumed murdered sister Fatima.  Trying to break him down, they're telling him all about her co-operation.  She let them search the house.  She brought them his bloody shirt.

Then it's all ratcheted up a notch.  Fatima's not dead, it turns out.  She just got scared and went into hiding.  There was some accumulated dramatic weight behind the simple scene of officers Julien and Tina finding her freaking out in a motel bathroom.

So now it's really on back at the station with brother Cleavon.  They've got absolutely nothing on the guy.  Yet he's certainly killed innumerable women- and he's a half dozen kinds of mad like never before.  Besides the extremely high likelihood that he'd come looking for Claudette, the sister's going to be exposed from what they were saying thinking that she was already dead.

This all sets up perhaps the best dramatic moments of the story, the talks in the hallway between Dutch and Claudette.  Cleavon has Claudette broken.  He's just physically and emotionally stronger than her at this point.  She gives up.  She can't go any further.  Her needle IS going back and forth.

Which leaves Dutch to push her.  They let this guy go, and there's absolutely going to be killings, probably including the sick partner.  For his last victim, Cleavon had picked someone because they looked like Claudette- and went to the bother of cutting the victim's hair to look like her.  It pretty much has to be Claudette.

On top of which, there was all the relationship between Dutch and Claudette.  Most of the dramatic point of Claudette's health crisis running this season has come from how it played between them- with no one else in the department even aware of the situation.  But they got into trouble with Cleavon partly because of Dutch trying to spare his weakened partner, and Claudette had been very sensitive to being coddled.

But besides any petty issues of professional pride, she's the only possible person her to stop this guy from doing crazy violence.  Thus, with great and full pain of the love and empathy of years, Dutch has to refuse his partner's surrender.  "I don't give a shit how weak, or tired, or pained you are."  He most certainly DOES, but that can't matter.

So it's Claudette and Cleavon in the interrogation room.  The one thing that they've got on him is that he still thinks the sister is dead, and Claudette works on him right there, with a conjured crime scene photo of the supposedly dead sister.  He had grown up with this older sister and houseful of women.  He was such a golden boy, she had explained, and they just wanted him to know how special he was.  "Unfortunately, that resulted in his narcism" says Dutch.

This leaves Claudette working on him over the dead sister that he needed but resented.  "You killed her over and over" through these other women, as Claudette explains it, until you got up the courage to actually kill her.

It was this one point of vulnerability where she finally broke Cleavon- his intense need to make sister Claudette as stand in believe that he had nothing to do with killing his sister.  This last woman?  "She was nothing"  What about Mary Simpson and Lana Gregory?  "They were just things.  You could hardly call that 'killing.'"

Which all leads up to the big double drama in the final scene out in the main cathedral of the barn, as they're bringing out the newly confessed killer from the upstairs interrogation room- and he sees his sister there very much alive.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but he was unhappy that sis had conspired with the police against him.  

For all her earlier (and thoroughly understandable) freaking, Sister Fatima had found her strength again, and was no longer that afraid of the evil brother.  "You're going to burn in hell."

Then finally at that moment, a few feet away on that high balcony, Claudette simply physically collapses unconscious down the stairs.  There's some real freaky energy on the screen here in those seconds of Cleavon gloating over this collapse.  But that was no higher drama than the closing final shot of the high level intellectual and hardened cop Dutch reduced to wordless animal fear and helplessness, sitting in the corner quivering.

Folks, I can't think of even a big time theatrically released movie in the last year that I'd take over "Man Inside."  This was pretty good stuff.




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