I decided to make this review cause I thought nobody was doing this episode justice, and it deserves a lot more praise. Coming off quite closely from the amazing season 1 finale the show doesn't waste any time reintroducing us to the new plot and what the characters have been doing in exciting ways. The villain is already set up brutally as he burns some people trapped in tires. One thing I instantly noticed was that this season was instantly a lot better shot. The shaky cam from last season is a bit more toned down, and the lighting is better making the shots nicer to look at.
Vic is trying to find his wife against her wishes with a private investigator. Shane, Lem, and Ronnie are continuing the strike team's drug operation almost being caught by other cops, but it's revealed that Aceveda now has got their backs, at least partially, as was set up last season with his getting a taste of corruption from Vic. Also most importantly... Dutch is learning Spanish because not knowing it was limiting him at his job. I love Dutch. Everyone's back together now working on this new case against our new villain Armadillo, and Vic hilariously recreates the tire burnings. I love Vic. The civilian auditor is introduced, which brings extra tension for the strike team, which is already reeling with the repercussions of last season. To make matter's worse now Armadillo is not only a problem for the cops, but the new competition on the drug side, which can connect everything as well. The drugs they now have almost killed someone and they can't sell it.
One of my favorite elements of this season is how it feels like everything is unraveling for Vic. Once again Vic is getting hit from every direction. Now he has to pay 50k to the PI to find his wife, so he wants to take some money from their retirement fund, but turns out Shane took some to "invest." This is the scene that made me realize how much this show has already improved. Michael Chiklis' acting is seriously great in this scene, and made me believe he definitely was on his way to be on the level of the other anti-hero TV protagonists. This is also a very important scene for Shane's character as he says "I'm not doing anything we weren't doing before, I'm just bumping things up a level." Walton Goggins is also great, but I think we all know that already. This scene definitely gives a great feel for the rest of the season, and is one of my favorite scenes this season. Vic revealing to Shane that his family left is quite powerful and Chiklis completely sells it.
The best part of this episode is how Armadillo is set up. Not only is the interrogation scene with him great showing his personality and how he plays Dutch and Claudette, but it's what he does after, and what it sets up. Earlier Dutch and Claudette were interrogating this girl with a dove tattoo in her face, which reveals Armadillo raped her and put the tattoo on her face, leading to her boyfriend knowing what happened leaving her. This is already a pretty dark and messed up scene and shows how evil Armadillo is, but the pay off to this scene is even more powerful and dark. Earlier in the episode Dutch was asking this family about Armadillo, and it seemed like a little girl knew him, but the family obviously didn't want her to talk. So Dutch inconspicuously leaves a notebook for her to write the information, which she brings back later. During that interrogation later on, while Dutch and Claudette are away, Armadillo is seen laughing and looking at the ground. This bugs Dutch so they lol over the camera footage and they see that the little girl left something in the room so now Armadillo knows. I think the greatness of this reveal is that you can piece it together before it happens, which I did, so it added a lot to the intensity of the episode. And then BAM... we see the little girl slowly walking back home with the dove tattoo on her face. No words need to be spoken, we know what happens, and it's one of the darkest and most devastating moments I've seen on TV for a character we've only seen in 2 scenes before. My only slight issue with this scene is that they cut away a little too quickly to the next scene, but in a way it does sort of work because in a cops life hey can't take a moment to let them feel these things cause before they know it there's another case or victim to work on.
This was already a really great episode but it's brought to new heights when Vic desperate for money to pay his PI, and wanting to fix the issue with their drugs, goes outside his jurisdiction by crossing the border to get Armadillo. This entire sequence is just awesome, so intense and exciting. First they have to find guns since they can't smuggle weapons through the border. So Shane and Lem go get them but get mugged instead. Hilariously Shane's and Lem's badges are stollen which is actually brought up in a later episode. Honestly this episode is very close to a 10 for me, but the reason I don't give it a 10 is because admittedly its a bit too convenient for the strike team. They find some gang members and Armadillo's brother, so they're able to steal guns from and get the money, but the way it's executed is just very well done and exciting. They essentially hold his brother for ransom, but then Vic just speeds away with the brother and the money. I love how the characters argue about what to do in this scene and Ronnie is just mad the car he just leased got shot. He's even able to get through the border in a very intense scene, which again was a bit convenient but I just love this episode so much so I'll let it slide. Regardless The Shield doesn't have contrivances like this as much as most other shows so having a moment like this once in a while is totally acceptable, and the characters are allowed to get lucky too. This also sets up Vic's distrust for the team now which will bring for great drama throughout the season and longer even.
This episode is just amazing all around. It has some devastating moments, sets up a really menacing villain, and it's just filled with excitement and emotion. A ton of stuff in this episode is actually subtly setting up many events for later which you wouldn't realize at first. Another really emotional moment is when Julien talks to the kid that is shoplifting and vandalizing with his mother, who will actually become recurring characters later on. I really thought they just started with a bang and the rest of the season wasn't going to be as good as this episode at least on average, but nope, this episode is already surpassed by literally the next episode, which is even better. An amazing start to an amazing season.
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