We once again ride the slippery slope to damnation with the strike team in the latest episode of The Shield. Vic and Shane continue to play the Armenians and Mexicans against each other while everything around them threatens to collapse...

Read about attack dogs, the Billings minimum and "alternative" sexual therapy after the link...

Ok, I'm sorry. But Blogger seriously hates this post and it's once again reverted it to my note form version so I've had to re-write it again. I've written this thing four times now and it keeps on getting screwed up... Sigh, if it goes again I'm just going to give up and ignore this thing.

Vic shows that he has some serious stones this week by revealling himself to Rezian in order to control both the Armenians and Shane directly. Not only does he show a total lack of fear by walking into the lion's den but when asked about the two million all he responds with is an offhand "We burned through the money" - Nice little callback to Lem's actions in Season 3. Vic has some balls of steel on him for sure and has certainly forgiven Lem for his actions, he's not even willing to slander the man post humously. Still, I'm thinking this is a serious mistake on Vic's part as now the kingpins of both sides know him by sight. This could blow up in his face.

It's good to see Julien and Ronnie working a case together, it's a shame this didn't happen last week as well. But at least I got what I asked for in this episode, sadly it's clear that the Strike Team struggles to operate with only two men (and Tina) and the lack of control Ronnie has over both Vic and Shane is clearly grating on him hard. This is evidenced more than anywhere else in the final scene of the episode where a resigned and angry Ronnie finally tells Vic where he stands with him. Vic's actions are starting to bite Ronnie, seriously.

The case Ronnie and Julien worked was an interesting callback to a previous season. Specifically the Granny "lover" Axl. He's not really someone I wanted to be remined about if I'm honest, but at least the story gave Julien and Tina something to do. Also after the porno dealer "Natural, but small" Tina shows her vicious streak again here.

Billings is again putting in the absolute minimum but shows he cares when it matters as he moves quickly to assist when it's discovered that Wan was abducted and sexually assaulted. It's clear that Billings is good police when he's motivated, it's just a shame that the department has beaten him down repeatedly and this has removed almost all desire to work at his job properly. If Dutch could reach him we'd have one heck of a good detective on the job. In fact it's a little surprising that Dutch hasn't attempted to get Danny paired with Billings, I'm sure she'd appreciate the chance to work as a detective (she's certainly shown the skills) and she'd probably bring out the good Billings.

Once again Vic makes use of ICE to do his dirty work for him. Olivia is suspicious of his actions, assuming that Vic is angling for something - perhaps a round in her panties. Vic of course plays the "I'm just a good cop who cares" angle, one that's worked so many times in the past (at least until the mask slips) so I'm predicting it's just a matter of time before she caves and they end up sleeping together.

It was a great little episode and I had a lot more to say about it, but all of those words I wrote are lost like tears in the rain...

(Unless someone happens to have a cached copy of the earlier version on their machine... If you do, please please help me!)