The Shield - "Back to One"

For the first time in a long time, the Strike Force finds themselves in the clear since Kavanaugh has admitted his shenanigans in framing Mackey, but they decide to celebrate by brutally beating a man with a length of chain. Perfect. That's what I love about this show. Despite being incredibly good at their jobs, Mackey and his crew can't help but take the easy way (or criminal way) out of most situations and therefore dirty their hands in the process. My other favorite bit of the episode was Ronnie getting a chance to shine. While working outside the Strike Team, he comes off looking like a supercop even though we know he is simply operating on his Strike Team Lite setting. But man, the center of the episode is the brutal beating. Even before the blood starts flowing, Mackey hitting Guardo in the head with a chain just feels painful. As painful as Morpheus's head going through a toilet bowl in The Matrix and far more painful than Morris taking a drill to the shoulder on 24. I continue to be angry that this show only airs in runs of 10 to 12 episodes whenever FX feels like it.

We begin this week with Mackey continuing to sit on Guardo's woman. She of course is antsy and wants to call Guardo, but Mackey is keeping up the ruse. He even manages to remember the fake name that he pulled out of a hat and doesn't call him “Salsa-something” even once. He spins a convincing story... for a gangster's squeeze. At Shane's place, Mrs. Ex-Mackey stops by with some hand-me-down toys for Shane's boy, who has apparently been taking bovine growth hormone. I don't know the last time we saw the kid or Shane's wife, Mara, but the kid is a giant. Mrs. Ex-Mackey knows that Vic is going to find Lem's killer and she's worried about the retribution that Vic will take. Shane does his best to reassure her, but you get the impression that he's worrying about his own butt. The deeper Shane lets this go, the more horrible it is going to be when the truth comes out... and I can't wait for that day. It's a classic tension builder plotline; give the audience all the information about a bomb and every scene is tense waiting for it to go off.

Elsewhere, Dutch and Billings continue to try to work together on a triple murder at a pharmacy. It looks like most likely it was all done in order to continue to trade in my southland favorite, crystal meth. The government has gotten wise to the easy availability of the cooking materials, hence the reason that you have jump through hoops to by Sudafed now. The criminals did little to cover their tracks as the only thing missing is medications with Ephedra in them. For some reason it takes Dutch to realize that it was most likely cookers and not meth heads that did the deed. Claudette needs to close this case posthaste. The Barn isn't looking so good since she took over. Outside, Billings, in all his wisdom, decides to let Dutch in on how clever he is. He suspects that Dutch is riding him so hard simply because he felt that Claudette pulled him along. Now that he's with Billings, he's setting him up for the fall so when stuff doesn't go down well, he can pass off all the blame. Dutch's ego cries.

Shane and Ronnie meet up with Mackey and Shane tries to convince Vic to ease up. They're in the clear for the first time and he thinks that they should lay low for a little while. But Vic doesn't want to hear it. Since the department hung Lem out to dry, and Dutch is working other cases now, this is their only chance to make good for Lem. Vic sends the boys back to the barn to take personal time with Claudette and to pickup more firepower. This is going to get a lot uglier.

Mexican Metal Music. Titles.

At the Barn, Billings and Dutch review the Ephedra case with Claudette. Dutch wants to be back on the Lemansky murder and thinks the Strike Team should be on the drug case. There's a lead that he wants to follow. A name keeps popping up in all his interviews: Hernan. Dutch thinks he's either hiding something, is smart, or both. Claudette snags Shane and Ronnie for duty. Shane dodges it with personal days, but Ronnie used up all of his on his wisdom teeth. Way to go, dude. He seems pretty bummed about it too. While this looks like he's taken out of action, Ronnie actually is probably involved more this week because of this oversight. Hooray for dentistry! Claudette wants Lem's locker cleared out and Mackey back in the barn. There's things to be done outside of the Lemansky murder. Billings and Dutch have a tattoo on one of the killers from the pharmacy. They both draw a blank, but Ronnie is all over it. Dutch has his own “Strike Team” and Claudette tasks him to pay attention to Ronnie to see if Vic and Shane are looking for Lemansky's killer.

At the safehouse, the chica gets a call from Guardo, but Mackey takes the opportunity to threaten the man. He wastes no time in getting Guardo in motion, threatening to kill and/or rape the girl, in no uncertain terms. They set up a money drop in MacArthur Park, but of course Mackey just wants to grab the man. Mackey gets him to speed up his timetable by pointing out that Guardo not being able to protect his own woman won't reflect well on him protecting the cartel. The place and time is set, but Vic and Shane are well aware that they might be set up by the Salvadorans, so they head off to scope the location in advance.

At the Barn, Dutch continues to make calls about Hernan, but he does a good job keeping Ronnie off of it. Ronnie meanwhile is coming up with all sorts of information that Dutch and Billings need on the pharmacy case. He takes the lead on storming the house of a former military suspect and they discover a methlab in the garage. Looks like they've got the right guy. And looks like Dutch and Billings are going to owe Ronnie a beer.

Mackey and Shane sit at MacArthur Park and keep an eye on the location to “see if the population gets any browner”. Recapist is going to fire me just for quoting that. I call Basic Cable Immunity! Shane continues to try to make Mackey see that Guardo might not be the right guy. But Vic's logic is flawless with the information that he has. Shane mentions Mrs. Ex-Mackey coming by, and the kids, to try to calm Vic down. The El Salvadorans start arriving by the SUV-load and Shane is worried that they might need an army... literally.

At the Barn, new Sergeant Danny puts Dutch and company onto another pharmacy robbery. Poor Danny used to have plotlines, but now her whole story takes place off camera. I know she just (well as of filming) had a baby in real life, but the only character more strangely MIA is Julian. Aceveda shows up to prove that he is still on the series, with a photographer for a PR campaign in tow. At the new pharmacy crime scene, Dutch Strike Team discovers that no one was killed, but again all the Ephedra is gone. The secretary from Andy Barker, P.I. wonders why they were allowed to live. Ronnie thinks it's because the robbers didn't have enough bullets for the whole crowd. Jesus, I love LA. Ronnie talks to Vic about the situation on Guardo, but has to be careful because Dutch tries to listen in... and with not a bit of subtlety. Some unis picked up one suspect from the meth den, so Dutch and Ronnie head back to interrogate. The suspect gives up his cousin for the murders and tells them how they were looking for enough Ephedra to cook up meth for the Horde, the gang of white bikers. They had a connection through Mexico, but the source brought the actual plants and they had no idea how to do anything with them. The suspect puts him on to his cousin's “new pussy” in Van Nuys (Basic Cable Immunity). Apparently this is enough information to lead the crew directly to him. The Dutch Strike Team lies in wait for the cousin and when he shows his face, the crew swarms. Ronnie alpha-males the suspect to the ground making CuteCop's heart go all a flutter (this show would never describe that so cleanly).

At the park, Guardo shows up. The whole of the El Salvadoran mob is watching at the park, but they of course are looking for someone to pick up the money. But like evil geniuses, Vic and Shane aren't after the money but the man. Shane leaves to take the girlfriend back home and Vic tracks Guardo. Guardo has of course put all of his men on the money drop, since his reputation is on the line. When Mackey breaks into Guardo's safehouse, he finds him all alone. You can tell Mackey uses all of his willpower to not take him out right away. Shane leaves the guy's girl at home and she confuses Shane even more as she thanks him for all he has done. She continues and tells Shane that she's pregnant. This of course tears Shane up even more. Torment sits well on this character, and on Walter Goggins, but I kind of miss the freewheeling days of Cletus Van Damme.

The Dutch Strike Team gives Claudette the lowdown on closing the pharmacy murder cases, but CuteCop has learned too much from Dutch and comes up with a plan to go after the Horde as well. They decide to put Ronnie in place as the suspect's brother and bust the Horde with some weight. Poor Ronnie just wants to go play with his friends (that description is evil for what is coming up), but he keeps getting assigned more and more homework.

Vic arrives at a middle of nowhere location and strings Guardo up for torturing. As I learned from Michael Scott, Vic has all the power because he's not speaking. Guardo offers money and whatever else he can think of to get out of this situation. Vic thinks that he's lying, but Guardo knows nothing about Lem's death. Only by again threatening to rape his woman does Mackey get Guardo to talk. Of course, he starts spinning lies, telling Vic what he wants to hear. He didn't do it, someone else did, but he heard about the order.

Commercials. If I have to hear the “FX has the movies” song one more time, I'm going to throw a grenade in someone's car. It's timed just right so I still have to catch the end of it on my TiVo.

Mackey gets an address on Guardo's stooge and gets an update from Vic all while under the watchful eye of Dutch. Vic busts into the home of the stooge only to find out that he's been in jail since long before Lem's death. He's been played.

At a gas station, everyone is waiting for the Horde buy to go down. Billings shows some more amazing insight in this episode when he tries to point out to Dutch that Ronnie is someone to watch, as in his copping skills. Dutch wants to give Billings some of his own “constructive criticism,” but Billings is comfortable in his nonsense existence. The Horde buy goes down exactly as expected, with Billings taking a flying leap onto a suspect and CuteCop shoving around a biker and being appreciative of Ronnie. At the station, she wants some more lessons from Dutch, but Ronnie is out the door to catch up with the Strike Team.

In the middle of nowhere, Shane is being mentally tortured by Guardo. Guardo still tries to talk his way out this situation. He's innocent, but Shane knows he's guilty for plenty else. Shane decides to let Guardo know that he's going to be a father. I don't know if this is to mess with his head or to give him some information man to man because he feels bad. Moments later, Vic returns and is none too happy. He proceeds to beat on Guardo with a heavy chain in one of the most painful scenes that I have ever seen in my life. Through the blood, Mackey wants to know who else was in on it. Kavanaugh? Aceveda? Emolia? Mackey is out of control, but Shane tries again to talk Vic down from the edge. He thinks he's finally talked some logic into Vic, and with a single camera shot I start to think that Ronnie suspects something is up with Shane. And then with a single gun shot, Guardo is gone and Vic feels a lot better.

In the Barn, Dutch catches Claudette up on everything and refreshes his ego with some validation from Wyms on their time spent together. CuteCop tries to pick Dutch's brain some more and in the most pitiful pick-up line since ever, Dutch offers to show CuteCop his decades of freelance detective work and CuteCop actually takes him up on it. Almost. The moment is squashed by a mystery lady waiting on Dutch's doorstep. She's a fed and she lets Dutch know that the Hernan he's been asking about is an undercover agent, but Dutch won't be able to talk to him. She knows that they are looking at Guardo and she knows that Guardo didn't do it. And that he's back in LA now. This is going to bite Vic and the guys squarely in the ass.

With more underhandedness, the remaining Strike Team members burn Guardo's body in a shallow grave. They never want the body to be found, and as long as Guardo is at large, he'll always be the primary suspect in Lem's murder. Shane should be happy about that, right? Back at the Barn, the gang says goodbye to Lem while cleaning out his locker. Ronnie and Vic's spirits are greatly improved, but Shane is still looking guilty as hell. Claudette hands over a file on Mackey's replacement. Mackey's going to be out, no matter what he thinks that he's going to pull off in the next month. Don't forget the last time a new member got added to the Strike Team, Mara ended up taking an iron to his head. And before that, Terry Crowley took a bullet in the face. This should end real well.

NEXT WEEK: The new guy arrives and Mackey redecorates.