The Shield

[LanTheWarder]

So I recently watched the first episode of Season 7. It felt a little like more of the same, but I want to see how they wrap up the series.

Does anyone watch this show?

[HaemishM]

I've watched all the seasons. It has had a lot of same shit different group of Latin Americans feel at times, but the characters keep me coming back. Lot of good acting. It's definitely time to wrap it up, though.

[stu]

I love this show, but I'm only ever able to catch it when I least expect to see it on. I'm no good at episode schedules. One of these days, I'll rent the DVDs and start from the beginning.

[Margalis]

I watch it, own the first 5 seasons on DVD. The scheduling has gotten really weird lately with the show maybe going away, then coming back, Shawn Ryan working on The Unit, the last season being split in two, etc etc.

Watching it from the beginning is how you have to do it.

[Margalis]

After moving I still don't have TV or cable so I've been watching Season  5. Just finished the penultimate episode, wow. Even though I've seen it before it's still so powerful, for the first time in five seasons it's clear that things have gone to shit with no way out. The ending scene is so great with Vic, who normally can come up with something, admitting he has no idea what to do next.

[ahoythematey]

Which episode was that again?

It's funny, but I never realized before just how much backstory has developed for pretty much all the characters over the course of the show and how powerful their storytelling remains despite having done so much.  Watching it with my roommate and trying to explain what was going on to him felt like information overload.  Every tuesday I am excited to watch TV again.

[Margalis]

That's the one where Antwon forces the team to help bust into the police warehouse and things go bad.

[Nevermore]

Things are certainly moving along now!  I was wondering when they'd finally ditch the status quo.

[AngryGumball]

yeah so I seem to think I know where the series will end up with.
Pure guesswork. Not sure since people seem to not be watching it weekly currently if this is a good place to speculate final thoughts on how it will end so tag until someone says or does so.

[Abagadro]

I seriously doubt it will be that tidy.

[Margalis]

Here is what I hope happens:

Shane ends up on a goat farm in Mexico.
Vic ends up crippled and his family is dead.

I've always liked Shane but now I hate Vic and Ronnie. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel (what the writers are going for) but to me they've both turned evil, despite Vic blabbing about wanting to keep guns off of streets and such. I think the turning point was when Ronnie found out that Vic killed Terry and his reaction was "I wish you had told me sooner so I could help protect you better."

I think they did that because Ronnie is too smart not to know deep down that Vic had done the deed. But it made his character totally unsympathetic, and now Vic and Ronnie are teaming up to kill Shane for no real reason.

I suspect Vic will end up totally screwed by ICE or perhaps the Armenians.

[Nevermore]

I've always figured, ever since I first started watching the show, that in the end Vic would end up in prison.  Death would be a cop-out and I really can't see him getting away with everything he's done.  I'll be disappointed if he doesn't finally end up caught.  It would be fitting if he murders Shane and that's what he ends up in prison for.

[Abagadro]

but to me they've both turned evil

Well, Vic did murder a federal agent in cold blood in the first episode of the series. You're just now coming around to him being evil?  

One of my favorite TV critics to read (Alan Sepinwall)  is a big fan of the show and has seen the last two episodes:

The final two episodes are AMAZING. The finale may be the best I've ever seen from a drama of this caliber -- and I say that as someone who dug the "Sopranos" finale and obviously worships "The Wire." The experience of watching them back-to-back left me shaking, they were so intense.

Giggity!

[AngryGumball]

no way no how....

Vic and Ronnie are like the beacons of shining light that.....yeah well I still like them.
I still feel bad for Ronnie got his face cooked by that Druglord few years back now he must wear a beard to hide his horrible scaring. :P *crafty writing/makeup fix - Ronnie now wears beard for rest of life of show*

I don't see many more ways they can go this series seasons are historically short they don't' have a full 22 episode season. I get the feeling we are on the final push of episodes and its starting to like quick wrap up time. I mean we'll have two good episodes of Vic and Shane battling...but I worry they won't have enough time to finalize the other storylines plus the big wrap up with the other bad guy can't think of his name or the Mexican Cartel. Or simply wrapping up the story of Farmington will there be peace or a vacuum after they take down the last badguy. They sure ended those Armenians quickly and without much fanfare. Isn't it time to ship over the 3rd controlling leader from the east now. Where is the wrap up for the big hole that's left from killing the leaders there.

[HaemishM]

This last episode was such a great payoff. Shane squirming as the whole thing he attempted started to unravel. Apparently there are 5 or 6 episodes left. Shane isn't going to make it through all of those, IMO. Vic is going to kill him. All of this season has been Vic trying to "balance the scales" to try to make up for all the shit he's done without losing all the things that matter to him. Unfortunately, he's losing everything. His job, his family, his children - he's not going to have anything left, which means he's really going to go buck wild. Vic's entire motivation has been doing what needs to be done to keep the streets peaceful, only to do so, he's lost his own sense of what's right and wrong. Without the job and the family to provide him some structure, he's going to go down in some kind of blaze of glory. I don't think he'll survive the last episode.

I predict he'll kill Pezeula (or someone higher up) but take a huge hit himself. The last frame will be him bleeding out but still breathing on the floor of some building where he had a major shootout. Fade to black.

[ahoythematey]

I'm thinking that Vic lives, but everybody else ends up dead and Vic confronts the hard truth of how he is responsible for all of it.  His family, Shane and Mara, Ronnie, Dutch, Wimms, Olivia, and maybe Aceveda.  Maybe with Cavanaugh making an appearance at the end of it all to gloat.

I can't wait for tonight, last weeks episode was so ZOMG!!! hard to watch as Shane's cover fell apart, tiny piece by tiny piece.

[Margalis]

I hope Dutch and Claudette end up catching Vic. They've been hinting at confontation between them since the very start but it's never quite boiled over.

Or maybe Billings could make the collar. That would be 

[Nevermore]

Well they'll certainly get a great leg up on that, since it looks like next episode Corrine will finally spill the beans.

[Abagadro]

Please no non-hidden spoilers for those of us who don't watch the preview for next week.

[ahoythematey]

Billings taking in Vic would be  , especially after he's dodged Cavanaugh and Claudette this whole time.  My latest guess is Ronnie ends up dead and Vic sees Claudettes actions helping contribute to that, causing him to finally snap that last nerve and go THING SMASH on the entirety of Farmington.

[AngryGumball]

I would be completely ok if Dutch were the one to catch Vic, but thats because in previous seasons Dutch seemed to be trying to catch Vic in a web of lies. That is not the case for this season or last season. So I think thats an old story that us the watchers cling to as a good ending.

[Nevermore]

I could see Dutch actually getting the evidence and putting the case against Vic together, but I couldn't see him actually bringing Vic in or breaking him in interrogation.

[HaemishM]

Vic has totally lost it, as of this last episode.

[ahoythematey]

I'm thinking Vic is more wanting them both dead because of

[ahoythematey]

AND the noose keeps tightening around everybody.

Oh.  Wow.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, last night's was good. Talk about everyone heading to an explosive conclusion. No one gets out unscathed.

[Nevermore]

I'm curious about how the drug cartel angle will end up fitting in.

[Margalis]

Can anyone catch what the ICE woman said in the preview?

Was it "do you have any idea what you've done to me" or "for me"? Based on the look on her face and Vic's I've done worse I assume "to." Wonder what goes down.

Two episodes left and I have no idea where this is going. I hope Bonnie and Clyde don't go out in a blaze of glory.

[Sauced]

I heard "to".  Unless it's editing, the response seemed to be "I've done worse."

Two weeks of hell breaking loose coming right up!  I'm going to miss this show, but it is going out in style.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, this is a great ramping up. After all the years of tension that ended up being only slightly released, it's all going to come crashing down. I expect a blowup ending.

[ahoythematey]

 

This might be most prolonged climax I've ever experienced.  None of this is going to end well.

[Abagadro]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

[Nevermore]

Jesus.

[Margalis]

Maybe Ronnie will "accidentally" shoot him.

Poor Shane is fucked, now that Vic has immunity he can't make any sort of deal. Ronnie is totally fucked as well. But I suspect that Vic will end up at least partially fucked, I can't see him just landing in a nice cushy job and that's the end of the show.

Two other thoughts:

1. I wonder how the Dutch / kid sociopath story will play out. It must play some part in the finale, I can't see it being totally dropped after being brought up again this episode. I have no idea where that is going.

2. I have to pick my mom up from the airport next Tuesday. She'll be on East Coast time, I guess I could make her sleep in my room while I watch it. It's not really watch with your mom material. There is no way in hell I can record it and wait until after Thanksgiving to watch.

[Triforcer]