Musings on The Shield’s Series Finale

If you’re a fan of The Shield and you haven’t watched the finale yet, what are you waiting for? stop reading now. There are some spoilers here. This is the post I wrote for The Shield Rap message board. The board’s moving hot and heavy so it’s getting buried.

I’m always intrigued about how the fans view the endings. I love how we can all come together to discuss it on message boards, but I think it also leads the fans to over-imagine how they would have done it.

Sure, we collectively may have wrapped things up better in our minds by answering more questions. But in the end, these series just have to end. They don’t have to answer everything; they don’t have to resolve every outstanding storyline. They end when their creators run out of story to tell. Sometimes, these shows don’t when to end. I think this one did.

I can see why people might not like it. In a way, the ending leaves things open ended, but it doesn’t leave it open-ended the way The Sopranos did. It leaves it open ended because, depending upon your view of justice, Vic didn’t get his. He’s alive. He’s got a job. He’s safe. In three years — the same amount of time it took to kill Terry, rob the Armenian mob, cover it up, deal with Antwon, track down Lem’s killer and dispense with Cruz Pezuela — he’ll be back on the streets. Considering all the sh*t he and Strike Team did, is that justice?

But the other side of that is the “major thing,” according to Shawn Ryan, that we learned last week, and that was Vic’s undying devotion to his family. It was never about the Strike Team or Lem or Ronnie or Shane. It was about family, and in the end, Vic’s family was gone. His gun was gone. He has to wear a suit and write reports, something he never could manage while working under Aceveda. So that’s his justice.

Does every detail about what happens next matter, I ask, in all seriousness? Ronnie won’t get offed in jail. He’ll find up in some solitary cell in protection with no life. Dutch will get Lloyd. Claudette will die. Aceveda will be the mayor. And Vic will be stuck knowing that what he did ruined everyone’s life including his. The road to justice is twisted indeed.