The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
February 22, 2003
The Shield [Morethings index for The Shield]
Season 2, Episode 7 �Barnstormers�
Air date: 2-18-03
Man, what a trip into Dutch headspace. I felt some anxiety that Dutch was going to take Vic's advice that sometimes you had to "make the evidence fit the crime." You could see how he's driven to the edge of foolish behavior by the professional pressure coming down through Aceveda, coupled with his own internal humiliation for having screwed up with Bob and Marcy.
Then watch how he displaces his own humiliation and social inadequacy, exorcising it and also using it to break down his suspect. "When was the last time you saw your own dick without a mirror?" Man, that's cold, if you have any empathy for the other guy- which Dutch totally does. Oh yes, Dutch understands this guy and his self-hatred only all too well.
The perp noted in passing that he worked at a rib joint. Of all the jobs in the world, what is someone like this whose life is TOTALLY dominated by weight issues doing working in a rib joint? It�s a perfect detail of his self-hatred.
A big part of what makes this series so good is the detail of the dialogue, such as here when Dutch explains exactly what happened- with all the suspect�s internal rage and despair over his weight issues. He sets up just that moment, where the gross fat guy is humiliating himself by making out with the gross fat blind date, then she has to get at that candy in her pocket even then. Yeah, his rage and self-hatred comes pouring out. His behavior has been very precisely explained, and all the shadings of personal meaning for Dutch just make it that much better.
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Shane also had a particularly interesting day. His woundedness and vulnerability over Tulips was really touching. His hurt and mistrust toward her were quite strong, and totally understandable.
Yet she was all about making up today, with no tricks. Mistrust and ulterior motives or no, Shane couldn't help but take some confused gratification from hearing her mocking the old lover by contrast to Shane, her new "big dick" boyfriend. Indeed, by the end of the show when she insisted on being "interrogated" she seems to be acting out of genuine affection for poor dumb Shane.
Either way, she's ended up with another "yammy full of Georgia joy juice." Wonder if Shane might not yet end up with that baby Vic was teasing him about.
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Thank Shawn Ryan's muse for all the obvious stupid lame plot turns that we get spared in The Shield. I was dreading Connie's inevitable relapse into hooking and drugs. Hey, it ain't gonna happen now.
I dreaded even worse the possible plotlines where Julien's fiancee finds out about his homosexual background. There was every kind of cheap dramatic possibility there for Tomas to show up at a bad time, or spitefully out him, all kinds of stupidity possible.
Instead Julien does the rational thing and just tells her. They got a couple of episodes since his engagement out of Julien's internal angst over whether to tell her, and then they resolved it simply and quietly- and with reasonable adult behavior.
Now, just please don't give us some cheap "uncontrollable" homosexual relapse. Thank you.
