Oh Shield, where have you been?  It's been over a year since your last episode aired and I remember reading stories during the writers' strike in the spring about how Shawn Ryan couldn't be around for the filming of the final episode.  Amazingly enough though, even with the amount of time that has passed, this show jumps right back in the deep end, both feet first, picking up exactly where they left off, so much so that if in the future you're simply flipping between DVDs, you'll never notice how much "real world" time went by in the blink of an eye.

Very rarely do I actually get angry that a show is about to end, but about fifteen minutes from the end of this super-sized finale for The Shield I realized that not a single thing was going to be wrapped up and that a ridiculous amount of story was going to be left in the balance for next season. Which, who knows exactly when that will be. I mean, seasons of this show always felt so short to me, but I was a late-comer and it was never a big deal to switch off to the next DVD set. But then I caught up to the airing schedule around the end of season three. And then the wait. And season four came and went in a flash. And then the wait. And then a shortened season five. And then the wait. And now I feel like I just began recapping these ten episodes, and they're over already. And there's just one thirteen episode season left to go. I'm just amazed so much was set up in this episode and yet nothing was resolved. There's just a lot of story that is yet to be covered.

Most shows have no idea how to pull of the “penultimate” episode of the season, leaving most viewers saying to themselves, “Well, they had to take a bit of breather before what will surely be the awesome season finale.”  But The Shield never takes a breather.  I don't know if it's simply the fact that they just have so much awesome material to play with and that the writing really is that good, or if they are forced to make every hour awesome simply because they don't have that many episodes to play with. It leaves me hopeful for these abbreviated seasons of Lost at least.  With twenty-two (or more) packed into a season, it seems like any creative team would run out steam and spoil a great season with some filler.

Again, I partook in a little piracy to enjoy this episode of The Shield a little early. Thanks to our friends in France, who in their wisdom are airing episodes two at a time, I've been able to curb my Mackey cravings and kick my FX dealer to the curb. I would have finished the whole season by now... alas, if I only had more time! The French, apparently, wouldn't be able to understand a title like “The Math of the Wrath” (plus, it wouldn't rhyme and would be all sloppy) so they called this episode “La Loi De Shane,” which according to my trusty internet translation tools roughly translates to... “The Law of Shane”. Boo. I was hoping for something much more ridiculous. Still, it makes you wonder what else might be lost in translation when these American television programs go overseas. You don't have to worry about the reverse, because when was the last time you saw a French show on the air here?

Of course, the exiled person that the title refers to is none other than Shane, murder of friends and holder of secrets. I think I can clearly see the way that the rest of this season is going to shape up, with Mackey and Shane going head to head, but I still have trouble understanding what the entire next (final?) season will be? The undoing of Vic Mackey? I'm not crazy right? There is a next season? At any rate, I know that FX is already looking ahead to the time that they will no longer have The Shield to rely on for awesomeness and they have already made statements that they want another cop show similar to The Shield when it ends its run. Aspiring writers of the world, get cracking.

This week, the Shield leaves me at somewhat of a loss. I have no idea what to expect going forward with the season. Unless I calculate wrong, there should still be another season greenlit after this run of episodes that we're watching, which means that there are a ton of twists and turns to come, because right now it feels more like a set-up for an endgame. Shane's secret is finally out, which of course puts him and Mackey on the outs, but there's still four more episodes left in this split season by my count.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, so I won't say again how The Shield is the most consistently excellent show airing on broadcast television today. It's a breath of fresh air when placed up against other shows I watch that can't even begin to touch the excellent of their early days *cough* 24 *cough* Lost *cough*. This week I watched again broadcast from France, apparently, but rewatched again from FX's broadcast last night. At least they were identical as far as I could tell, outside of the titles. Apparently “Haunts” translates to “Passage A Tabac”. Okay. Outside the titles though, France is broadcasting episodes of the show two at a time, now weeks in advance. I believe they've aired all the way up through episode seven of this season. Bittorrent is your friend.

If you're questioning the title, then let me start of by asking "Ain't technology grand?" If you read my 24 recap, then you already know that I am recapping my shows via Slingbox from jolly old England. But wait, that doesn't explain the french! Well, even odder than setting the record for longest distance recap, this time, with the help of Recapist's scheduling feature, I am performing the most convoluted, longest distance, multi-language, pirated from the internet recap. In fact, I am writing this at 08:00 GMT on Monday morning from Cambridge, which is midnight Sunday night at home in Los Angeles, and recapping an episode of The Shield that won't air in the US until 10pm Eastern on Tuesday (which is now for you), which is still almost forty-eight hours away (from me now), but that I downloaded through bittorrent which was apparently aired in Quebec, complete with credits and subtitles in French, and that I watched back on Friday, April 20th before I even left the country. And now you're reading this through the Recapist scheduler at 10pm EST on Tuesday. Got it? No? Well, I'm confused as well and I'm the one that did it. In fact, I also have had the one for next Tuesday on my laptop since last Friday, but that's even more confusing. Anyways, on to the episode.

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.

Another week, another great new episode from The Shield. I fall into this strange comfort level when this show is airing, knowing that there's another extremely tense episode waiting for me each week, and then inevitably the season is over before I even realize it and the rug gets yanked out from under me. I find myself wandering the wasteland that is Tuesday Night programming, wondering why so many people watch an amateur singer talent contest and why that little Indian boy keeps winning even though everyone hates him. Vic Mackey would snap Sanjaya in half like a twig. Unfortunately, it's not the same case when it comes to ratings for these shows, but hey, they're not on up against each other (even with my east coast DirecTV feed of FX) and how much can you expect from a basic cable network anyway? Keep the audience small and the questionable content plentiful, that's what I say.