Yep, last night’s episode was good, but a lot of set up. That’s fine. More signs of Claudette’s clouded judgment. As I said before, she’s going to make a big mistake in the next episode or two that will cause her to blow the investigation/get someone killed and retire.
Ronnie doesn’t know he’s been made. He’s smart though and he’ll be able to make things work, as long as he and Vic keep communicating. Still no idea how this will end up ultimately, and there’s only two episodes left!
General TV show pacing says that at least one central character will not make it through the next week (the penultimate show of the series). Any guesses as to whom it might be?
Also TV 101, which does not necessarily apply to The Shield, says that someone in Vic’s family dies in the finale. Does anyone think that will happen?
I can’t really see anyone in Vic’s family dying (though they are annoying enough that it wouldn’t bother me) - doesn’t feel right for this show. I do wonder if there will be any closure to Dutch’s serial killer kid storyline - there’s too much main action to cram into the last 2 episodes to go off on subplots. Maybe the kid will kill Claudette, giving Vic and Ronnie a break? Probably not. Will Julian play a part in the strike team’s downfall? No real solid ideas on how this is all going to go down.
The following is PURE speculation.
Claudette specifically asked Julian stand point on the team going after Vic, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he went down.
But knowing the show, I’d say the drop him along with Dutch. Dutch has been Claudette’s Yin to her Yang. He’s doing his job of keeping her in check and dropping hints to her to ease up a bit. If he goes down, that would be catastrophic to Claudette, both personally and functionally, as well as free up the serial killer kid angle because he’s the only one looking in to it. Then, with those two out of the picture and no one to lead the man hunt, the investigation stalls; Ronnie, Vic, and Shane are free to do whatever they want. I have no idea what’s going to happen to those guys.
Does anyone know if the finale will be a 90 minute or 2 hour episode? I don’t need everything wrapped up nicely, but there are so many story lines going on that I can’t see ~130 minutes total being enough to get close to it.
I loved that they went 20 minutes last night before the first commercial, and I’m hopeful that the finale, if it’s not an extended episode, has maybe just 1 commercial break halfway through.
I need a couple commercial breaks if it’s going to be over an hour. I love the show, but I gotta pee, too! And I don’t have a DVR/Tivo to pause for bathroom breaks!
Everyone on shieldforum.com has been saying the finale episode is 90 minutes long.
Bump. Wow. Just wow. Is it Tuesday the 25th yet?
This episode was epic. Set in place a lot of things for the finale. I wonder if next week we’ll have a two-hour episode?
It’ll be 90 minutes. This episode was unbelievably intense. I’ve watched every episode of The Shield, most of them twice, but this one is the best there’s ever been so far. I know they’re awful people, but I can’t help but feel sorry for Shane and Mara
Going into the finale it looks like Vic is golden and Shane/Mara are screwed. I have a feeling that these roles will reverse and reverse again in next Tuesday’s finale. This is going to be the most amazing series finale ever.
And has Vic ever looked as evil as he looked in tonight’s finale scene?
Screw Shane and Mara, what about poor Ronnie? I know Vic is an asshole of grand proportions but I just can’t believe he is going to let Ronnie go down like that. I hop he has something up his sleeve but right now I can’t think of anything.
I’d like to think Vic gave Ronnie warning, but who knows… Since they showed Ronnie in scenes for next week, it’s a crazy plan Vic would have to have.
Vic does have to pull off the Beltran bust to stay in the clear though…
Is Ronnie screwed if he doesn’t make it to Mexico?
Vic could have simply warned Ronnie before he went in for the immunity, and he could’ve admitted to that on tape as well (how funny would that have been?)
I think at this point Vic really is planning on playing Ronnie. A few episodes ago Ronnie said that’s he’s not going to go down for Shane or Vic - looks like Vic shares the sentiment.
I’m really curious as to what role Aceveda will play in all of this. He said he’s going to pursue Beltran at the city level. If he can crack him before Vic can, then Vic’s deal is off!
I do not think Vic is going to play Ronnie. The more I thought about it last night the more I realized there is a way to save Ronnie. Let’s say Vic warned Ronnie what happened to Corrine and how he has no choice but to take immunity but at the same time they hatch a plan for Ronnie to go to the DA, or some other appropriate government figure, and tell them he is willing to roll on Vic for full immunity. We’ve all seen Vic has a lot of enemies and someone would jump at the chance to take him down. Think about it, that’s why Claudette got the call that Vic was at the ICE offices. So now Vic has full immunity from ICE and Ronnie from the city or state or whatever and the only person going down for the Strike Team’s indiscretions is going to be Shane because at this point they don’t even need to kill him and Shane can’t cut any type of deal because there is no one left to turn over on. Shane going to jail is way worse than killing him.
I don’t see Shane going to jail - he’s even said a couple of times that neither he nor Mara will ever go to jail. Shane will go out guns blazing before he’s put behind bars.
I think Mackey might actually forgive Shane, once he realizes that he’s at least as bad as Shane, and is the one responsible for turning Shane into what he’s become.
There could be no deal for Ronnie to make. No one at the DA’s office is going to make Ronnie a deal to testify against a man that has immunity for all of the crimes they’d be going after him for. Even if Ronnie started the process and they agreed because they were unaware that Vic had his own ongoing deal, they’d cancel the deal the moment they discovered it. The main stipulation of any deal the DA could make would involve Ronnie testifying, and since Vic has immunity, there’ll be no trial for Ronnie to testify at.
Ronnie’s fucked.
At this point, with Claudette’s failing health, and her display of rage for Vic getting away with everything, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her walk up to Vic and put one in his head herself.
Vic sold everyone down the river last night, and I don’t think he has a plan for Ronnie. He honestly doesn’t know Corinne was in on the police takedown, and he is going to save Corinne (and himself) at everyone else’s expense. His ICE girl (whom I thought he would have bed this season) is screwed, Claudette is screwed (she went off the deep end), her boss should be screwed (but won’t be), Aceveda should be screwed (but you know he won’t be either), Ronnie is maximum security for life screwed, Shane and Mara have been screwed all season but Vic got in one last post-breakup screw. Heck, the only ones not screwed by Vic in the end are Dani (but she, of course, was screwed by Vic before), and Julian (I don’t think Vic is his type).