"The Shield " Series Finale

[Donoghus]

I'm not sure how many people on here watch "The Shield" on FX but tonight in the final episode in the series.  I happen to think its one of the best shows on television with its hardhitting portrayal of police officers.  Obviously, the main theme being police corruption led by Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis).

Anybody have any predictions for tonight?  Does Vic survive?  Do we get a Shane/Vic confrontation?  What's Gardocki gonna do when he finds out about Vic's immunity?

(Please no spoilers if you happen to have priveleged info from leaks)

[CelticsWhat35]

I actually meant to start a thread like this as well.  Good job Donoghus.  Please people, let's keep this thread on The Shield.  I know that most people feel The Wire is a better show, but that was established in another thread.

In my opinion, I think Vic dies at the end.  I have no idea how, or by who.  But either way, I expect this episode to be incredible.  This season has been great, especially the last few episodes leading up to the finale.  I can't wait!!

[crownsy]

I'll  skip it for now, as i haven't caught up on the shield since season 3 (i am planning to though) but it is a great show, thats for sure. I don't want to make any predictions, but if vic survives or dies, i just hope it has a better ending than the sopronos, which seemed to write itself into a corner.

Side note: I know people who defend that ending say "its great because its open ended, america just needs everything spelled out for them" but i disagree. I mean, i loved the ending to (major geek reach here) The evangelion series, and it was as open ended as it comes. Cutting to a black screen after a crap setup is not an acceptable "gt out of jail free" card.

[CelticsWhat35]

I had a theory before the season started that Tevon (sp?) was gonna come back and kill Shane.  He did come back, but only for one episode, and just confronted Shane about his lies.  That was pretty cool, but I was hoping he'd have a bigger part this season.

Now that I think about it, I think it would make sense for Vic to be killed by the Mexican crime boss, or someone affiliated with him.  He's done so much side stuff with criminals, it would be fitting if it cought up with him.  But truthfully, I'm a big Vic Mackey fan, and I'd still be happy if it all ended good for him.  He's definitely an antihero, but you can't help but like the guy after watching him for 7 seasons.

[cornbreadsmart]

worst ending ever. i regret ever giving my time to this show.

[cornbreadsmart]

horrible, horrible writing. just a complete mess of an episode. every episode of this show was kick ass up until the ending. i've never actually been upset by a tv show but no way could i dedicate any time to anything this director puts out again.

[Roy Hobbs]

horrible, horrible writing. just a complete mess of an episode. every episode of this show was kick ass up until the ending. i've never actually been upset by a tv show but no way could i dedicate any time to anything this director puts out again.

What didn't you like about it / what were you hoping would end differently?

I'm not a Shield junkie -- meaning I haven't seen every episode -- but I've followed the series, and I thought the ending seemed fitting.

[cornbreadsmart]

they pulled a sopranos. i'm not sure which way i wanted it to end for vic. i was just watching and could'nt wait to see and then they leave it up to the viewer to decide crap. uggh. what a letdown.
  why the hell did they introduce this other mayoral candidate when that storyline went nowhere? introduce that for the finale? makes no sense. shane's stuff was chilling. ronnie i wanted him to get off but man, that was also some dramatic chilling stuff.
  wait,what the heck was with the whole kid serial killer thing. they can't get him , "oh let me try , "now i'll talk to him"  etc. then all of a sudden it's getb ready for your closeup. so again we are just left to assume they found some evidence. they just chose again to not share that with the audience?

[guava_wrench]

Great last episode. The whole final season was great, especially the second to last episod.

Vic is truly detestable. I would have like to see him painfully killed, but that would have been to easy. The actual ending made sense if you buy the whole immunity thing.

The idea of making Vic feel guilty was interesting, but the guy is a sociopath and completely narcissistic. That was the point of him grabbing his gun at the end. He won't commit suicide. He won't even get depressed. He will just be angry at everyone who doesn't let him do everything he wants. He is incapable of the kind of honesty that Shane showed.

Vic was a great character. Very unlikeable, like Tony Soprano. What I liked better about Vic is that The Shield didn't bother with therapy sessions, which was essentially narration and spoon feeding.

Hopefully "Dutch" can get laid if he calls up the lawyer.

[guava_wrench]

Great last episode. The whole final season was great, especially the second to last episod.

Vic is truly detestable. I would have like to see him painfully killed, but that would have been to easy. The actual ending made sense if you buy the whole immunity thing.

The idea of making Vic feel guilty was interesting, but the guy is a sociopath and completely narcissistic. That was the point of him grabbing his gun at the end. He won't commit suicide. He won't even get depressed. He will just be angry at everyone who doesn't let him do everything he wants. He is incapable of the kind of honesty that Shane showed.

Vic was a great character. Very unlikeable, like Tony Soprano. What I liked better about Vic is that The Shield didn't bother with therapy sessions, which was essentially narration and spoon feeding.

Hopefully "Dutch" can get laid if he calls up the lawyer.

Now that I think about it, did Dutch ever get laid during the 7 seasons of the Shield?

[bucknersrevenge]

Great last episode. The whole final season was great, especially the second to last episod.

Vic is truly detestable. I would have like to see him painfully killed, but that would have been to easy. The actual ending made sense if you buy the whole immunity thing.

The idea of making Vic feel guilty was interesting, but the guy is a sociopath and completely narcissistic. That was the point of him grabbing his gun at the end. He won't commit suicide. He won't even get depressed. He will just be angry at everyone who doesn't let him do everything he wants. He is incapable of the kind of honesty that Shane showed.

Vic was a great character. Very unlikeable, like Tony Soprano. What I liked better about Vic is that The Shield didn't bother with therapy sessions, which was essentially narration and spoon feeding.

Hopefully "Dutch" can get laid if he calls up the lawyer.

Yeah I don't know what's not to like about the ending either. Made perfect sense to me. Killing Vic would let a guy like him off too easy. Instead you strip him of everything that made him "Vic Mackey". His family finally leaves him. Make him watch Gardocki get arrested. Then banish him to a lifetime of paperwork in a suit and tie in an FBI building. And great point about the ending. You could see in the end he was finally broken down. Left to deal with just himself and his choices but still he keeps his gun, the last little bit of his former self that he has.

I knew Shane would eat a bullet. Stevie Wonder could see that coming. Didn't see him taking Jackson and Mara with him though. As for the kid, I dont think they had any new evidence. He just became the serial killer he was meant to be in spite of everything Dutch tried to do. Hey not everything is meant to be tied up in a little bow at the end.

In the end this series is really about the rise and the fall of the Strike Team.

[CelticsWhat35]

Great last episode. The whole final season was great, especially the second to last episod.

Vic is truly detestable. I would have like to see him painfully killed, but that would have been to easy. The actual ending made sense if you buy the whole immunity thing.

The idea of making Vic feel guilty was interesting, but the guy is a sociopath and completely narcissistic. That was the point of him grabbing his gun at the end. He won't commit suicide. He won't even get depressed. He will just be angry at everyone who doesn't let him do everything he wants. He is incapable of the kind of honesty that Shane showed.

Vic was a great character. Very unlikeable, like Tony Soprano. What I liked better about Vic is that The Shield didn't bother with therapy sessions, which was essentially narration and spoon feeding.

Hopefully "Dutch" can get laid if he calls up the lawyer.

Yeah I don't know what's not to like about the ending either. Made perfect sense to me. Killing Vic would let a guy like him off too easy. Instead you strip him of everything that made him "Vic Mackey". His family finally leaves him. Make him watch Gardocki get arrested. Then banish him to a lifetime of paperwork in a suit and tie in an FBI building. And great point about the ending. You could see in the end he was finally broken down. Left to deal with just himself and his choices but still he keeps his gun, the last little bit of his former self that he has.

I knew Shane would eat a bullet. Stevie Wonder could see that coming. Didn't see him taking Jackson and Mara with him though. As for the kid, I dont think they had any new evidence. He just became the serial killer he was meant to be in spite of everything Dutch tried to do. Hey not everything is meant to be tied up in a little bow at the end.

In the end this series is really about the rise and the fall of the Strike Team.

I think you summed it up pretty well.  Too many people think that the only way a series can end is for the main character to die.  And going into the final episode, since we already knew he had immunity, it seemed that Vic dying would be the only way he could lose.  But that wasn't the case.  He lost his family, his friends, his job, and any respect he had among his peers.  That scene in the barn where everyone was just looking down on Vic was great.  I also liked when they were celebrating they rookie's official completion of the police academy.  It gave you a sense that their was no more corruption in The Barn.  That they had weeded out the bad apples.

Throughout the whole series, Vic played by his own rules, and used his badge as a "shield" to get away with it.  Now, he's stuck behind a desk having to work a boring job with a bunch of meaningless rules that he has to abide by.

I personally thought it was a great ending to a great series.

[Brendan]

Perfect ending in my opinion.

One of the themes was that Vic was too good to get caught - but that the trade off is he would destroy everything else. He could have - when Lem was under arrest - come forward and got his team cleared. He could have run with Ronnie, etc. But he didn't he was at his heart a survivor something evil that could be used, but at a high price. He got his team paid, with corrupt money and the big score, but all of them paid a high price.

It didn't "6 feet under" you and answer every question, but you know how the rest went. And in the end, Vic got away with everything and will be able to get past losing his family, and betraying his last real friend.

[Birdbrain]

I thought it was outstanding.  RIP Jackson.

[BigDanz2000]

Im sad to see this show go, every tuesday night for the past 7 years I didnt miss an episode.
I enjoyed the finale, it was great to see Vic powerless, it was shocking to see Shane take out his whole family, and i was hoping that Ronnie would have much more of a negative reaction to Vic betraying him.  So I am glad that he didnt die, even though for half a second I thought at the end when he pulled out the gun he might off himself, but thought that would be an easy way out to end the show, and would have been extremely disappointing.  
I did like the twist of Wagenbach being framed by a serial killer, when Wagenbach is supposed to be the expert on the subject, it would have been nice to see him potentially go down, but in the time frame and with the direction of the show I know that storyline was a dead storyline.  
I thought that Claudette was going to end up dying in this final episode, only because they had set it up that way for the past 2 seasons. I liked Claudette, I thought she was a great character. She always stood up to everyone but could never take down Vic and the Strike team.  

Just an overall great show, ill miss it.