The End of The Shield Explained – What Happens to the Strike Team?

Michael B.‘S The shield-with Michael Chiklis as the head of a corrupt police unit – premiered on FX in 2002, at the height of the Golden Age of prestige television. Although the series pushed the boundaries of what a series could portray, it was always considered a notch or two lower than the shows that aired on HBO around the same time, especially Deadwood, The SopranosAnd The cable.

The shield ran for seven seasons, but by the final season, the series had been idling plot-wise for quite a while and slowly declining. But with an end in sight, the final few episodes packed enough punch to preserve the show’s legacy as one of television’s most complete artistic statements, and its reputation has only recently increased, especially when compared to The cablewhich also criticized American police work. But without this strong conclusion, it is not so clear what reputation The shield would have today.

The shield

Release date

March 12, 2002

Main genre

theatre

Seasons

7

Studio

Effects

What happens in the final episodes of “The Shield”?

The shield was always first and foremost the story of Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike Team. Tasked with breaking up street gangs, the Strike Team instead worked with them to control and profit from the drug trade in Los Angeles. The series was inspired by a real-life police corruption scandal within the LAPD Rampart Division’s similar anti-gang unit CRASH (in which dozens of officers were implicated) and The criticism in the broadcast was so direct that the LAPD threatened to sue if The shield has not used any of its trademarks. For this reason, The shield always took place in a slightly unreal version of Los Angeles with an unnamed police department in the fictional district of Farmington in southern Los Angeles.

Vic Mackey’s corruption was already evident in the pilot episode of the series, when the audience was led to believe that the series would be about the investigation into the Strike Team led by undercover investigator Terry Crawley (Reed Diamond). But in the final moments, Mackey murders Crawley with the help of Detective Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins). For seven seasons, Mackey dealt with the consequences of this murderoften with the vague intention of returning to regular police work once the situation was finally under control. However, he was never able to put out all the fires, so he was forced to constantly tap into his dark side. Over the course of seven seasons, the endless series of narratively forced decisions made Vic Mackey seem more like a plaything of fate than a bad person who did bad things. The finale, however, went to great lengths to make it clear that Mackey was a villain.

The end of “The Shield” decides the fate of the Strike Team

The Strike Team consisted of four core members: Vic, the sleazy and weak Shane, the well-meaning but overwhelmed Detective Curtis Lemansky (Kenny Johnson) and the eternally boring detective Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell). Season 4 of the series ended explosively when Shane murdered Curtis to prevent him from testifying against the team. When Mackey found out what Shane had done, He swore revenge on him for breaking the Strike Team’s only rule: “Never turn against each other.”

In the finale, Vic breaks his own rules. As an investigation approaches, he makes a deal with the then-new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Vic receives full immunity for his crimes in exchange for his help in arresting a drug lordbut his deal doesn’t cover Ronnie, and Vic lies to his friend to get him taken into custody. The arrest is arranged to take place in front of him so that Vic is forced to face the consequences of his betrayal.

Even worse, however, is what happens to Shane. After being sidelined by Vic, Shane’s failed attempts to follow the pattern of corruption he learned from Vic lead to a series of escalating problems. Forced to flee with his pregnant wife and young son, Shane eventually realizes that his crimes have led to a desperate and inescapable situation where both he and his wife will go to prison and his children will grow up without a family. Faced with this, Shane takes his own life, killing his wife and child as well. In his note, Shane takes responsibility for what he has done. but also makes it clear that Vic is responsible for corrupting him in the first place.

The finale of “The Shield” is generous to Aceveda, Dutch and Wyms

In the course of its course, The shield struggled to introduce meaningful new characters and provide stories for most of the cast introduced in the pilot. However, it succeeded brilliantly in serving three of the best characters in prestige television: The detectives Claudette Wyms and “Dutch” Wagenbach (CCH tamper And Jay Karnes) and former police captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), who starts out as a cop but later goes into politics. These characters were used to balance out the Strike Force; they were cops who were not quite as morally corrupt as Vic Mackey, even if they had their faults. They were all easier to root for than anyone else on the Strike Team, and The shield has a somewhat happy ending for all three.

The finale offered the audience a classic Dutch subplot in which Lloyd frames him for murder (Kyle Gallner), the sociopathic son of a woman with whom he has an awkward romantic relationship. Dutch’s partner is Claudette Wyms, who is righteous and invulnerable, but despite being one of the coolest TV characters in history, her constant sincerity makes her a little less compelling than Dutch. In the finale, Claudette has been promoted to captain, but she and Dutch get to solve one last case together. The two turn the tables; their friendship is confirmed and Dutch gets a glimmer of romantic hope as the series nears its end.

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Although The shield Farmington finally got the captaincy it deserved in Claudette. The victory is bittersweet as it turns out she is dying. Although it is not quite a happy ending, The show makes it clear that she will stay in her job as long as her health allows. David It also looks like Aceveda could become the next mayor of Los Angeles after he falsely claimed responsibility for a major drug bust. David has always put his political ambitions above doing what is right, but it was still easy to root for him. This was especially true after he was sexually assaulted in Season 3 and evidence of the attack was used against him as political blackmail. By the finale, not only has he destroyed that evidence, but it also seems like he has overcome the psychological damage caused by the attack. He may be a creep, but he is our Grease, and we wish him all the best.

What does the finale of “The Shield” mean thematically?

Compare The shield And The cable has become quite common over the years. It is often pointed out that The cable criticizes the way police departments are run, but nevertheless values ​​individual officers, while The shield is even more relentless in portraying the police as little more than a gang. However, there is an obvious truth to all this. The cablethe worst cops were political players like David Aceveda, and there were no Vic Mackeys. David Simon, the creator of The cablereturned to Baltimore to tell the true story of another extremely corrupt “elite police unit” in 2022 We own this city, it was as if he admitted that The shield was right there.

Nevertheless, the story was in many seasons The shield was told of a cop who fate did not allow to escape his past sins. Vic Mackey’s true nature was obscured by how ruthlessly the plot mechanics kept forcing him to make terrible decisions without forcing him to choose between himself and the only principle he supposedly had: loyalty to his team. The finale does a lot to clear the air, and reminds the audience that Vic was nothing but a destructive force.

In the show’s memorable final scene, Vic, after completing his day shift for ICE, dons his gun and badge and heads out into the night as if returning to his old ways. The moment is ambiguous, and the show encourages us to believe that Vic is finally going out to do real police work because it’s in his blood. That said, in these very final moments, the show seems to shy away from its criticism. Still, it seems extremely naive to think that this timeVic will do it right, and even if he gets off to a clean start, he won’t end up with heroin blocks in his car again, because The show finally honestly showed that he is irredeemably evil.

The shield can be streamed on Hulu in the US

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