Let me just come out and say it, "The Shield" kicks some serious butt! If you have to choose just one crime show to watch on television today, the automatic choice has to be FX´s gritty crime drama, "The Shield". Why, you might ask? Well, let me lay it all out for you.
Tales of police corruption and gang violence are familiar territory for many TV audiences but "The Shield", in one fell swoop, ratchets this once-tired genre up to an entirely new level, infusing a volatile mix of grim subject matters with a raw sense of realism typically absent from many crime shows on television today. "The Shield" casts a weary eye on the Californian district of Farmington, a place where gangs, drugs, prostitution and many other vices run rampant on the streets. For the past 4 seasons, the police department in Farmington (also known as the Barn) has tried various methods to clean up the streets. Heading this effort is a rogue tough-as-nails detective named Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), whose menacing presence alone strikes absolute fear in the criminals that he pursues. In his most successful and best role to date, Chiklis sheds his teddy bear image from his old days as "The Commish" (together with his hair) for the bulldog look of Vic Mackey, a criminal´s worst nightmare.
However, Mackey is not your typical law enforcement officer. You see, Mackey´s world is neither black nor white--gray is more his color. Sometimes when you deal with the bad guys and the bad things that they do, day in and day out, your hands tend to get dirty as well. For four seasons now, fans of this show have had eye-opening front row seats to Mackey and his Strike Team´s dirty dealings and collaborations with the very people that they are supposed to police. Mackey´s not a bad cop per se, a somewhat dirty one perhaps. He is someone who is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get the job done and put the really bad guys behind bars. Mackey runs things under his own brand of questionable ethics, fighting crime by whatever means available to him even if it means using unconventional methods and sometimes even breaking the law in the process. To him and his team, the ends totally justify the means, even if it means breaking a few heads or framing the bad guys to get a conviction. Call them dirty cops with half a conscience. However, there are also times when he recognizes a financial incentive to strike a deal with the lesser criminals. One can´t really survive on a detective´s salary alone, especially with two special needs children and a teenage daughter in the family. As I said earlier, it´s neither black nor white. Mackey´s the epitome of an antihero, someone you loathe and can´t help but cheer on at the same time. Drives you absolutely nuts, doesn´t it?
In the preceding four seasons, Mackey and his team (made up of Shane (Walton Goggins), Lemansky or Lem (Kenneth Johnson) and Ronnie (David Rees Snell)) have murdered a fellow cop, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) who was sent to spy on them, put another cop, Detective Tavon Garris (Brian J. White) in the hospital with critical injuries, stole a large sum of money from the Armenian mob, blackmail, tamper with evidence, beat up suspects, lied, framed and practically broke just about every rule in the police handbook. With every lie they tell and every cover-up they fabricate, the team slowly comes to the realization that as the amount of deceit piles on, it only makes it so much harder to get away with it. In this, the fifth season of the show, Mackey and his team´s biggest crime is about to come back and bite them hard.
Back in the very first episode of the show´s first season, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond), a newcomer, was assigned to Mackey´s Strike Team by then-precinct chief Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez). Crowley is actually working for Aceveda, who is trying to uncover the illegal deals that Mackey and his team has struck with the various drug dealers around town. Smelling a rat in the team, Mackey and the guys planned and carried out a vicious plan to eliminate Crowley during a drug bust and blame it on the perp they were trying to arrest. Shocking everyone (including me) watching the show for the first time, that first episode ended with Mackey putting a bullet in Crowley´s head, effectively establishing Mackey´s antihero role with literally a loud bang. Although Aceveda suspected the Strike Team´s involvement with Crowley´s death, he couldn´t prove it and the matter was eventually put on the backburner and was largely forgotten for the next four seasons.
Until now.
Let me introduce you to Vic Mackey´s latest and probably his most formidable nemesis yet, Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) of the LAPD´s Internal Affairs Division (IAD). Cops, in general do not take too kindly to the IAD. After you meet Kavanaugh, you would understand why. Sent to Farmington to reopen the Crowley murder investigation, Kavanaugh has Mackey´s head purely in his sights, as he goes about breaking down the people closest to Mackey in order to get to the tough guy himself. Kavanaugh´s number one target is none other than Lem, the most vulnerable person on Mackey´s team. And to further demonstrate his doggedness in pursuing his prey by whatever means necessary, Kavanaugh went as far as falsely befriending Corrine (Cathy Cahlin Ryan), Mackey´s wife, in order to elicit her cooperation and even stooped real low to cut a deal with Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson), last season´s bad guy, who is now behind bars.
Unlike Shane and Ronnie, the team´s past bad deeds hasn´t sat well with Lem, which led to him transferring out of Farmington last season to work with juvenile offenders (probably to try to atone for his past sins). Not only is Lem the only one on the Strike Team with a real conscience, he has always been the moral center for the team. However, with Shane (who also left the Strike Team for a while last season) going rogue on the streets, Mackey managed to convince Lem to return to the team to keep an eye on Shane´s activities. If Shane goes down, who knows who else he might bring with him. Eventually the team reconciled but not after some tense moments in their efforts to bring down Antwon Mitchell and his drug operation. One of those efforts involved Lem taking a package of heroin from an informant´s house in order to gain leverage against the informer. That seemingly innocuous act is now the basis for Kavanaugh´s IAD case against Lem, charging him with stealing the drugs and calculating that Lem would cut a deal for himself in exchange for bringing down Mackey. What Kavanaugh didn´t count on was Lem´s rock solid loyalty to Mackey and his buddies and also Mackey´s ability to hit back where it really hurts. And hit back he does.
For what its worth, "The Shield" is not only about the Strike Team´s troubles. The show´s other regulars get their fair share of screen time as well. Officer "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) is pregnant and per the Barn´s tradition, there is a betting pool inside the precinct trying to guess who the father is. Most of everyone´s bet is on Mackey being the daddy. Aceveda, who has entered politics and is now a Councilman, is called back to help Kavanaugh with his investigations. However, Aceveda--who himself has had side dealings with Mackey in the past--soon finds himself coming under the unwelcome scrutiny of IAD too. Detective Wyms (CCH Pounder), the self-appointed moral voice of the Barn, has had her eye on the post of Captain since Season 3 (she intends to clean up the place). However, her ascension to the post has so far been thwarted by Aceveda and later on, her own refusal to drop the case of a prosecutor who was found to be a drug addict, thus jeopardizing and bringing into question the prosecutor´s past criminal convictions. However, Season 5 is a new time for Wyms as she battles an illness and finds herself at the threshold of gaining control of the Barn. Then there´s her partner, Detective Wagenbach (Jay Karnes), who is not particularly popular around the precinct because of the egotistical way he goes about trying to solve cases. Thinking himself to be smarter than most anyone in the Barn, Wagenbach has so far solved some really tough cases but was also caught off-guard a couple of times. This season, Wagenbach finds himself attracted to Officer Tina Hanlon (Paula Garces), a pretty, but so far, incompetent junior officer in training.
Tales of police corruption and gang violence are familiar territory for many TV audiences but "The Shield", in one fell swoop, ratchets this once-tired genre up to an entirely new level, infusing a volatile mix of grim subject matters with a raw sense of realism typically absent from many crime shows on television today. "The Shield" casts a weary eye on the Californian district of Farmington, a place where gangs, drugs, prostitution and many other vices run rampant on the streets. For the past 4 seasons, the police department in Farmington (also known as the Barn) has tried various methods to clean up the streets. Heading this effort is a rogue tough-as-nails detective named Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), whose menacing presence alone strikes absolute fear in the criminals that he pursues. In his most successful and best role to date, Chiklis sheds his teddy bear image from his old days as "The Commish" (together with his hair) for the bulldog look of Vic Mackey, a criminal´s worst nightmare.
However, Mackey is not your typical law enforcement officer. You see, Mackey´s world is neither black nor white--gray is more his color. Sometimes when you deal with the bad guys and the bad things that they do, day in and day out, your hands tend to get dirty as well. For four seasons now, fans of this show have had eye-opening front row seats to Mackey and his Strike Team´s dirty dealings and collaborations with the very people that they are supposed to police. Mackey´s not a bad cop per se, a somewhat dirty one perhaps. He is someone who is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get the job done and put the really bad guys behind bars. Mackey runs things under his own brand of questionable ethics, fighting crime by whatever means available to him even if it means using unconventional methods and sometimes even breaking the law in the process. To him and his team, the ends totally justify the means, even if it means breaking a few heads or framing the bad guys to get a conviction. Call them dirty cops with half a conscience. However, there are also times when he recognizes a financial incentive to strike a deal with the lesser criminals. One can´t really survive on a detective´s salary alone, especially with two special needs children and a teenage daughter in the family. As I said earlier, it´s neither black nor white. Mackey´s the epitome of an antihero, someone you loathe and can´t help but cheer on at the same time. Drives you absolutely nuts, doesn´t it?
In the preceding four seasons, Mackey and his team (made up of Shane (Walton Goggins), Lemansky or Lem (Kenneth Johnson) and Ronnie (David Rees Snell)) have murdered a fellow cop, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) who was sent to spy on them, put another cop, Detective Tavon Garris (Brian J. White) in the hospital with critical injuries, stole a large sum of money from the Armenian mob, blackmail, tamper with evidence, beat up suspects, lied, framed and practically broke just about every rule in the police handbook. With every lie they tell and every cover-up they fabricate, the team slowly comes to the realization that as the amount of deceit piles on, it only makes it so much harder to get away with it. In this, the fifth season of the show, Mackey and his team´s biggest crime is about to come back and bite them hard.
Back in the very first episode of the show´s first season, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond), a newcomer, was assigned to Mackey´s Strike Team by then-precinct chief Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez). Crowley is actually working for Aceveda, who is trying to uncover the illegal deals that Mackey and his team has struck with the various drug dealers around town. Smelling a rat in the team, Mackey and the guys planned and carried out a vicious plan to eliminate Crowley during a drug bust and blame it on the perp they were trying to arrest. Shocking everyone (including me) watching the show for the first time, that first episode ended with Mackey putting a bullet in Crowley´s head, effectively establishing Mackey´s antihero role with literally a loud bang. Although Aceveda suspected the Strike Team´s involvement with Crowley´s death, he couldn´t prove it and the matter was eventually put on the backburner and was largely forgotten for the next four seasons.
Until now.
Let me introduce you to Vic Mackey´s latest and probably his most formidable nemesis yet, Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) of the LAPD´s Internal Affairs Division (IAD). Cops, in general do not take too kindly to the IAD. After you meet Kavanaugh, you would understand why. Sent to Farmington to reopen the Crowley murder investigation, Kavanaugh has Mackey´s head purely in his sights, as he goes about breaking down the people closest to Mackey in order to get to the tough guy himself. Kavanaugh´s number one target is none other than Lem, the most vulnerable person on Mackey´s team. And to further demonstrate his doggedness in pursuing his prey by whatever means necessary, Kavanaugh went as far as falsely befriending Corrine (Cathy Cahlin Ryan), Mackey´s wife, in order to elicit her cooperation and even stooped real low to cut a deal with Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson), last season´s bad guy, who is now behind bars.
Unlike Shane and Ronnie, the team´s past bad deeds hasn´t sat well with Lem, which led to him transferring out of Farmington last season to work with juvenile offenders (probably to try to atone for his past sins). Not only is Lem the only one on the Strike Team with a real conscience, he has always been the moral center for the team. However, with Shane (who also left the Strike Team for a while last season) going rogue on the streets, Mackey managed to convince Lem to return to the team to keep an eye on Shane´s activities. If Shane goes down, who knows who else he might bring with him. Eventually the team reconciled but not after some tense moments in their efforts to bring down Antwon Mitchell and his drug operation. One of those efforts involved Lem taking a package of heroin from an informant´s house in order to gain leverage against the informer. That seemingly innocuous act is now the basis for Kavanaugh´s IAD case against Lem, charging him with stealing the drugs and calculating that Lem would cut a deal for himself in exchange for bringing down Mackey. What Kavanaugh didn´t count on was Lem´s rock solid loyalty to Mackey and his buddies and also Mackey´s ability to hit back where it really hurts. And hit back he does.
For what its worth, "The Shield" is not only about the Strike Team´s troubles. The show´s other regulars get their fair share of screen time as well. Officer "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) is pregnant and per the Barn´s tradition, there is a betting pool inside the precinct trying to guess who the father is. Most of everyone´s bet is on Mackey being the daddy. Aceveda, who has entered politics and is now a Councilman, is called back to help Kavanaugh with his investigations. However, Aceveda--who himself has had side dealings with Mackey in the past--soon finds himself coming under the unwelcome scrutiny of IAD too. Detective Wyms (CCH Pounder), the self-appointed moral voice of the Barn, has had her eye on the post of Captain since Season 3 (she intends to clean up the place). However, her ascension to the post has so far been thwarted by Aceveda and later on, her own refusal to drop the case of a prosecutor who was found to be a drug addict, thus jeopardizing and bringing into question the prosecutor´s past criminal convictions. However, Season 5 is a new time for Wyms as she battles an illness and finds herself at the threshold of gaining control of the Barn. Then there´s her partner, Detective Wagenbach (Jay Karnes), who is not particularly popular around the precinct because of the egotistical way he goes about trying to solve cases. Thinking himself to be smarter than most anyone in the Barn, Wagenbach has so far solved some really tough cases but was also caught off-guard a couple of times. This season, Wagenbach finds himself attracted to Officer Tina Hanlon (Paula Garces), a pretty, but so far, incompetent junior officer in training.
Let me just come out and say it, "The Shield" kicks some serious butt! If you have to choose just one crime show to watch on television today, the automatic choice has to be FX´s gritty crime drama, "The Shield". Why, you might ask? Well, let me lay it all out for you.
Tales of police corruption and gang violence are familiar territory for many TV audiences but "The Shield", in one fell swoop, ratchets this once-tired genre up to an entirely new level, infusing a volatile mix of grim subject matters with a raw sense of realism typically absent from many crime shows on television today. "The Shield" casts a weary eye on the Californian district of Farmington, a place where gangs, drugs, prostitution and many other vices run rampant on the streets. For the past 4 seasons, the police department in Farmington (also known as the Barn) has tried various methods to clean up the streets. Heading this effort is a rogue tough-as-nails detective named Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), whose menacing presence alone strikes absolute fear in the criminals that he pursues. In his most successful and best role to date, Chiklis sheds his teddy bear image from his old days as "The Commish" (together with his hair) for the bulldog look of Vic Mackey, a criminal´s worst nightmare.
However, Mackey is not your typical law enforcement officer. You see, Mackey´s world is neither black nor white--gray is more his color. Sometimes when you deal with the bad guys and the bad things that they do, day in and day out, your hands tend to get dirty as well. For four seasons now, fans of this show have had eye-opening front row seats to Mackey and his Strike Team´s dirty dealings and collaborations with the very people that they are supposed to police. Mackey´s not a bad cop per se, a somewhat dirty one perhaps. He is someone who is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get the job done and put the really bad guys behind bars. Mackey runs things under his own brand of questionable ethics, fighting crime by whatever means available to him even if it means using unconventional methods and sometimes even breaking the law in the process. To him and his team, the ends totally justify the means, even if it means breaking a few heads or framing the bad guys to get a conviction. Call them dirty cops with half a conscience. However, there are also times when he recognizes a financial incentive to strike a deal with the lesser criminals. One can´t really survive on a detective´s salary alone, especially with two special needs children and a teenage daughter in the family. As I said earlier, it´s neither black nor white. Mackey´s the epitome of an antihero, someone you loathe and can´t help but cheer on at the same time. Drives you absolutely nuts, doesn´t it?
In the preceding four seasons, Mackey and his team (made up of Shane (Walton Goggins), Lemansky or Lem (Kenneth Johnson) and Ronnie (David Rees Snell)) have murdered a fellow cop, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) who was sent to spy on them, put another cop, Detective Tavon Garris (Brian J. White) in the hospital with critical injuries, stole a large sum of money from the Armenian mob, blackmail, tamper with evidence, beat up suspects, lied, framed and practically broke just about every rule in the police handbook. With every lie they tell and every cover-up they fabricate, the team slowly comes to the realization that as the amount of deceit piles on, it only makes it so much harder to get away with it. In this, the fifth season of the show, Mackey and his team´s biggest crime is about to come back and bite them hard.
Back in the very first episode of the show´s first season, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond), a newcomer, was assigned to Mackey´s Strike Team by then-precinct chief Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez). Crowley is actually working for Aceveda, who is trying to uncover the illegal deals that Mackey and his team has struck with the various drug dealers around town. Smelling a rat in the team, Mackey and the guys planned and carried out a vicious plan to eliminate Crowley during a drug bust and blame it on the perp they were trying to arrest. Shocking everyone (including me) watching the show for the first time, that first episode ended with Mackey putting a bullet in Crowley´s head, effectively establishing Mackey´s antihero role with literally a loud bang. Although Aceveda suspected the Strike Team´s involvement with Crowley´s death, he couldn´t prove it and the matter was eventually put on the backburner and was largely forgotten for the next four seasons.
Until now.
Let me introduce you to Vic Mackey´s latest and probably his most formidable nemesis yet, Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) of the LAPD´s Internal Affairs Division (IAD). Cops, in general do not take too kindly to the IAD. After you meet Kavanaugh, you would understand why. Sent to Farmington to reopen the Crowley murder investigation, Kavanaugh has Mackey´s head purely in his sights, as he goes about breaking down the people closest to Mackey in order to get to the tough guy himself. Kavanaugh´s number one target is none other than Lem, the most vulnerable person on Mackey´s team. And to further demonstrate his doggedness in pursuing his prey by whatever means necessary, Kavanaugh went as far as falsely befriending Corrine (Cathy Cahlin Ryan), Mackey´s wife, in order to elicit her cooperation and even stooped real low to cut a deal with Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson), last season´s bad guy, who is now behind bars.
Unlike Shane and Ronnie, the team´s past bad deeds hasn´t sat well with Lem, which led to him transferring out of Farmington last season to work with juvenile offenders (probably to try to atone for his past sins). Not only is Lem the only one on the Strike Team with a real conscience, he has always been the moral center for the team. However, with Shane (who also left the Strike Team for a while last season) going rogue on the streets, Mackey managed to convince Lem to return to the team to keep an eye on Shane´s activities. If Shane goes down, who knows who else he might bring with him. Eventually the team reconciled but not after some tense moments in their efforts to bring down Antwon Mitchell and his drug operation. One of those efforts involved Lem taking a package of heroin from an informant´s house in order to gain leverage against the informer. That seemingly innocuous act is now the basis for Kavanaugh´s IAD case against Lem, charging him with stealing the drugs and calculating that Lem would cut a deal for himself in exchange for bringing down Mackey. What Kavanaugh didn´t count on was Lem´s rock solid loyalty to Mackey and his buddies and also Mackey´s ability to hit back where it really hurts. And hit back he does.
For what its worth, "The Shield" is not only about the Strike Team´s troubles. The show´s other regulars get their fair share of screen time as well. Officer "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) is pregnant and per the Barn´s tradition, there is a betting pool inside the precinct trying to guess who the father is. Most of everyone´s bet is on Mackey being the daddy. Aceveda, who has entered politics and is now a Councilman, is called back to help Kavanaugh with his investigations. However, Aceveda--who himself has had side dealings with Mackey in the past--soon finds himself coming under the unwelcome scrutiny of IAD too. Detective Wyms (CCH Pounder), the self-appointed moral voice of the Barn, has had her eye on the post of Captain since Season 3 (she intends to clean up the place). However, her ascension to the post has so far been thwarted by Aceveda and later on, her own refusal to drop the case of a prosecutor who was found to be a drug addict, thus jeopardizing and bringing into question the prosecutor´s past criminal convictions. However, Season 5 is a new time for Wyms as she battles an illness and finds herself at the threshold of gaining control of the Barn. Then there´s her partner, Detective Wagenbach (Jay Karnes), who is not particularly popular around the precinct because of the egotistical way he goes about trying to solve cases. Thinking himself to be smarter than most anyone in the Barn, Wagenbach has so far solved some really tough cases but was also caught off-guard a couple of times. This season, Wagenbach finds himself attracted to Officer Tina Hanlon (Paula Garces), a pretty, but so far, incompetent junior officer in training.
Tales of police corruption and gang violence are familiar territory for many TV audiences but "The Shield", in one fell swoop, ratchets this once-tired genre up to an entirely new level, infusing a volatile mix of grim subject matters with a raw sense of realism typically absent from many crime shows on television today. "The Shield" casts a weary eye on the Californian district of Farmington, a place where gangs, drugs, prostitution and many other vices run rampant on the streets. For the past 4 seasons, the police department in Farmington (also known as the Barn) has tried various methods to clean up the streets. Heading this effort is a rogue tough-as-nails detective named Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), whose menacing presence alone strikes absolute fear in the criminals that he pursues. In his most successful and best role to date, Chiklis sheds his teddy bear image from his old days as "The Commish" (together with his hair) for the bulldog look of Vic Mackey, a criminal´s worst nightmare.
However, Mackey is not your typical law enforcement officer. You see, Mackey´s world is neither black nor white--gray is more his color. Sometimes when you deal with the bad guys and the bad things that they do, day in and day out, your hands tend to get dirty as well. For four seasons now, fans of this show have had eye-opening front row seats to Mackey and his Strike Team´s dirty dealings and collaborations with the very people that they are supposed to police. Mackey´s not a bad cop per se, a somewhat dirty one perhaps. He is someone who is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get the job done and put the really bad guys behind bars. Mackey runs things under his own brand of questionable ethics, fighting crime by whatever means available to him even if it means using unconventional methods and sometimes even breaking the law in the process. To him and his team, the ends totally justify the means, even if it means breaking a few heads or framing the bad guys to get a conviction. Call them dirty cops with half a conscience. However, there are also times when he recognizes a financial incentive to strike a deal with the lesser criminals. One can´t really survive on a detective´s salary alone, especially with two special needs children and a teenage daughter in the family. As I said earlier, it´s neither black nor white. Mackey´s the epitome of an antihero, someone you loathe and can´t help but cheer on at the same time. Drives you absolutely nuts, doesn´t it?
In the preceding four seasons, Mackey and his team (made up of Shane (Walton Goggins), Lemansky or Lem (Kenneth Johnson) and Ronnie (David Rees Snell)) have murdered a fellow cop, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) who was sent to spy on them, put another cop, Detective Tavon Garris (Brian J. White) in the hospital with critical injuries, stole a large sum of money from the Armenian mob, blackmail, tamper with evidence, beat up suspects, lied, framed and practically broke just about every rule in the police handbook. With every lie they tell and every cover-up they fabricate, the team slowly comes to the realization that as the amount of deceit piles on, it only makes it so much harder to get away with it. In this, the fifth season of the show, Mackey and his team´s biggest crime is about to come back and bite them hard.
Back in the very first episode of the show´s first season, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond), a newcomer, was assigned to Mackey´s Strike Team by then-precinct chief Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez). Crowley is actually working for Aceveda, who is trying to uncover the illegal deals that Mackey and his team has struck with the various drug dealers around town. Smelling a rat in the team, Mackey and the guys planned and carried out a vicious plan to eliminate Crowley during a drug bust and blame it on the perp they were trying to arrest. Shocking everyone (including me) watching the show for the first time, that first episode ended with Mackey putting a bullet in Crowley´s head, effectively establishing Mackey´s antihero role with literally a loud bang. Although Aceveda suspected the Strike Team´s involvement with Crowley´s death, he couldn´t prove it and the matter was eventually put on the backburner and was largely forgotten for the next four seasons.
Until now.
Let me introduce you to Vic Mackey´s latest and probably his most formidable nemesis yet, Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) of the LAPD´s Internal Affairs Division (IAD). Cops, in general do not take too kindly to the IAD. After you meet Kavanaugh, you would understand why. Sent to Farmington to reopen the Crowley murder investigation, Kavanaugh has Mackey´s head purely in his sights, as he goes about breaking down the people closest to Mackey in order to get to the tough guy himself. Kavanaugh´s number one target is none other than Lem, the most vulnerable person on Mackey´s team. And to further demonstrate his doggedness in pursuing his prey by whatever means necessary, Kavanaugh went as far as falsely befriending Corrine (Cathy Cahlin Ryan), Mackey´s wife, in order to elicit her cooperation and even stooped real low to cut a deal with Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson), last season´s bad guy, who is now behind bars.
Unlike Shane and Ronnie, the team´s past bad deeds hasn´t sat well with Lem, which led to him transferring out of Farmington last season to work with juvenile offenders (probably to try to atone for his past sins). Not only is Lem the only one on the Strike Team with a real conscience, he has always been the moral center for the team. However, with Shane (who also left the Strike Team for a while last season) going rogue on the streets, Mackey managed to convince Lem to return to the team to keep an eye on Shane´s activities. If Shane goes down, who knows who else he might bring with him. Eventually the team reconciled but not after some tense moments in their efforts to bring down Antwon Mitchell and his drug operation. One of those efforts involved Lem taking a package of heroin from an informant´s house in order to gain leverage against the informer. That seemingly innocuous act is now the basis for Kavanaugh´s IAD case against Lem, charging him with stealing the drugs and calculating that Lem would cut a deal for himself in exchange for bringing down Mackey. What Kavanaugh didn´t count on was Lem´s rock solid loyalty to Mackey and his buddies and also Mackey´s ability to hit back where it really hurts. And hit back he does.
For what its worth, "The Shield" is not only about the Strike Team´s troubles. The show´s other regulars get their fair share of screen time as well. Officer "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) is pregnant and per the Barn´s tradition, there is a betting pool inside the precinct trying to guess who the father is. Most of everyone´s bet is on Mackey being the daddy. Aceveda, who has entered politics and is now a Councilman, is called back to help Kavanaugh with his investigations. However, Aceveda--who himself has had side dealings with Mackey in the past--soon finds himself coming under the unwelcome scrutiny of IAD too. Detective Wyms (CCH Pounder), the self-appointed moral voice of the Barn, has had her eye on the post of Captain since Season 3 (she intends to clean up the place). However, her ascension to the post has so far been thwarted by Aceveda and later on, her own refusal to drop the case of a prosecutor who was found to be a drug addict, thus jeopardizing and bringing into question the prosecutor´s past criminal convictions. However, Season 5 is a new time for Wyms as she battles an illness and finds herself at the threshold of gaining control of the Barn. Then there´s her partner, Detective Wagenbach (Jay Karnes), who is not particularly popular around the precinct because of the egotistical way he goes about trying to solve cases. Thinking himself to be smarter than most anyone in the Barn, Wagenbach has so far solved some really tough cases but was also caught off-guard a couple of times. This season, Wagenbach finds himself attracted to Officer Tina Hanlon (Paula Garces), a pretty, but so far, incompetent junior officer in training.
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