As much as I love The Shield, it’s getting so tense and ugly and awful that I can hardly bear to watch these final episodes.  I’m completely spoiler-free (and intend to remain so, so no spoilers in the comments, please, or I’ll find you and do things to you.  Bad things.  Vic Mackey bad kinds of things), but it’s clear that almost everyone except maybe Dutch, Claudette, Julian and Billings (of all people) is heading toward a bad end.

Everyone else is compromised:  Ronnie is a murderer.  Vic is now a drug dealer (sort of).  Acevedo is an over-reaching little bitch who’s ambition for political power is nakedly self-serving.  Shane is a thug.  Mara is an armed robbery accomplice (pregnant and with young child in toe — oh how awful).  Even Corrine may not get out of this unscathed, not to mention the long-range damage likely to result from being Mrs. Cop Killer (even ex-Mrs. Cop Killer).

The genius of this last season is the way in which it finally puts everything into perspective in a way that makes the viewer confront exactly who these people are with very little opportunity for obfuscation and also assess what they probably deserve.

I’ve never been one of those viewers who hated Vic Mackey or looked forward to his presumed downfall.  Vic’s a charismatic guy, and I have to confess: he pulled me in and won me over.  Yeah, he murdered a cop in the pilot, but at the end of the first season he was in a bad place.  His wife had left him, depriving him of family, which it was easy to believe was what was ultimately motivating his corrupt behavior back then.  The season ended with Vic suffering, and I felt bad for him, even though he’s a cop murderer.

That was my response to him for most of the series.  I grew to believe that he regretted what he’d done and was making a relatively honest attempt to atone, but ever since this final season began, it’s become impossible to miss that so much of what made Vic forgivable was a facade.  The noose has been steadily tightening on him, and the story has reached a point where we see a man who’s instincts for self-preservation have shown him to be a man capable of at least several more murders, some (Shane) ludicrously justified as revenge and others (Mara) just about as cold-blooded and ruthless as one can imagine.  Add to that Vic’s indifference to how this would destroy Shane and Mara’s living child figuratively (and Mara’s unborn child literally), and it becomes impossible to excuse and impossible to forgive.

I’ve never looked forward to Vic’s downfall, and I still won’t enjoy it, but I can see now how necessary it is.  Also, I get the feeling (and, again, this is pure speculation, as I am completely spoiler free regarding the last two episodes — I won’t even watch the previews since FX is notorious for spoiling entire episodes with them) that Vic’s comeuppance is going to be unusually rough.  I don’t think there’s going to be any easy out.  In other words, I don’t think he’s going to die, either by his hand or anyone else’s.  I think he’s going to go to prison for the rest of his life, alongside the very same scumbags he helped take off the street, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the show gives us some strong indicator that he’s due for a particularly rough time.

I shudder to even think about it.

I realize that I’m writing more about the season as a whole rather than tonight’s episode in particular, so here are just a few quick observations about “Petty Cash.”

***

One of the more fascinating perspectives this last batch of episodes has given us is the presentation of the Strike Team as almost entirely powerless and at the mercy of everyone around them from their fellow cops to the street thugs.  A homeless derelict messing around with Shane was a particular treat this week.  Watching them trying to maneuver as events close in on them has been really compelling.  Ronnie can’t get away from his desk until the very moment when he would prefer to be stuck at his desk, at which point he’s stuck with the squeekiest of clean Julian riding alongside him and eyeballing his every move.  It’s almost pitiful watching him have to enlist a clueless Billings in his efforts to steal Claudette’s mail.

But that pain is nothing compared to Mackey having to orchestrate a drug deal and then having to take orders from street thugs who are currently higher status characters than he is.  We’re starting to get a little glimpse of Vic’s humanity again as he attempts to comfort Corrine and be a good father to his daughter, but it’s clearly too little, too late, and that only serves to make the moments even more awkward.

I’m still curious to know if Corrine has it in her to take her charade all the way to the end.  She has seemed to be getting stronger as a character, but I’m not yet convinced that her strength (the strength to run away from Vic, the strength to turn on him to Claudette) is stronger than her co-dependence.  It’s one thing to leave a man.  It’s another thing entirely to be the catalyst that gets him thrown into prison for the rest of his life, especially when you know this will have a devastating effect upon his children.

It’s nice to see Julian doing some good solid detective work as the series comes to a close, putting the pieces together and figuring out who was responsible for the shooting that killed his former outreach kid.  Julian has often been sidelined in the last several seasons, but as the show comes to a close I find myself appreciating his presence and his integrity amidst all the mud and garbage has been very reassuring.

***

So we’re almost at the end now.  Only two episodes left, and Alan Sepinwall, who has seen them, has written that he was shaken by the experience of watching them.  As much as I’ll miss this amazing series, I’m ready to see how it all finally wraps up.

That’s all I’ve got at the moment.  Now you.