No Good Comes From "Chasing Ghosts" (Episode 6.6)

Previously on: Shane stole a grenade from a Salvadoran gang, pulled the pin, dropped it in Lem's lap, and left him to die! Vic vowed to find and kill the person responsible; believing it was gang leader Guardo, he did just that. After a vicious assault, Mara found out Shane's been having an affair with an 18-year-old black woman and threw him out of their house. Hernan, an undercover fed, told the Strike Team that Guardo was with him the night Lem died. Shane, crying and fucked-up on pills, went back to Mara's in the middle of the night and confessed he murdered Lem.

A prison guard with a barking dog patrols a line of prisoners, ordering them to strip to their underwear and hand over their shoes. Another guard, Billy, knocks on the door of a supply closet. Inside, Antwon is cuddled up on a bunk with a woman. Billy informs Antwon he has a visitor. "I know my visitor can't be half as fine as Renee," says the gangster. Billy describes the visitor as "some white cop from L.A."

Antwon asks for a few minutes with Renee, snapping, "And shut that damn dog up!" He caresses Renee's breasts, telling her there's no time for "sweet nothings."

"My day just gets sunnier and sunnier," Antwon says when he sees Vic in the visitors' room. He's gotten most of his privileges back since Kavanaugh was arrested for framing Vic. He wasn't aware the two of them still had business. "Oh, you mean since my guy you put a hit on got a grenade in his lap?" Vic asks lightly. Antwon thinks whoever did it should get points for creativity.

Vic is sure Antwon set up guys to find Lem after he got scared and skipped town, then made it look like Guardo did it. Vic offers a deal: If Antwon gives up the names of his guys, the big man himself won't be charged as a co-conspirator. Don't cooperate and "I don't care how many guards you have on the payroll, I will find a way to get to you inside here." 

Antwon isn't afraid. He thinks his "greatest encore" is making Vic think "I'm everyone and everywhere, responsible for all the worst crimes against humanity...Chasing ghosts hasn't really gotten you anywhere."

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Antwon maintains his innocence, guessing Vic must've lost his last clue if he's blaming him.

Shane is back at work, face still bruised all to hell. Vic has bad news for him: The Salvadorans didn't kill Lem. They talked to an undercover fed who was in Mexico with Guardo when Lem got killed. Antwon swears the One-Niners weren't responsible either. Shane shakes his head: "We finished this. There's nothing more to find out, all right?"

Vic asks Dutch if he's made progress on Lem's case. Dutch is still trying to find Guardo. Vic tells him about his conversation with Hernan; Guardo has an alibi. Dutch hasn't gotten any reports back from the crime lab. "I got a dead cop and no suspect. You think you could light a fire under their Bunsen burner?" asks Vic.

Corinne calls to ask if anything happened last weekend that could've upset Cassidy; their daughter is refusing to stay with Vic when Corinne goes to San Francisco with the younger kids for an autism rally. Cassidy won't tell her mom what's bothering her. Corinne already has a hotel and plane tickets. Vic promises to smooth things over with their eldest. 

Ronnie is checking into felons who served in the military: "Maybe they got Lem's grenade from Uncle Sam." In the clubhouse, Shane has his feet up on the table, perusing the paper's real-estate section. "You wanna jump in on this Lem thing anywhere?" asks Vic. Shane doesn't want to waste his time.

Vic doesn't think Hernan had a reason to lie to them. "You were sure enough to put a bullet in Guardo," Shane points out. They all did what they had to do. Vic needs to stop asking questions that can't be answered. With that, Shane leaves the clubhouse.

"Whatever funk he's in seems to be over," Ronnie remarks. He isn't sure he can be at peace with his best friend's murder until he knows for sure that they got the right person. 

"When we took down the stash of grenades the night that Lem died, Shane did the count solo, right?" Vic says slowly, "Did he say anything weird?" Ronnie says no, then he remembers, "When Kavanaugh's frame-up job was gone and things looked really bad...he said something like: What if he said he had a grenade from the bust and he was with Lem and it went off accidentally?"

At the time, Ronnie thought Shane was just theorizing a way to get Vic off the charges. Ronnie himself told Shane that idea would never work because Shane would be admitting to aiding and abetting a fugitive. Shane didn't have a response to that. 

Vic asks if Ronnie remembers how many grenades were at the Salvadoran stash house. "Jesus, Vic, I don't wanna think like that," Ronnie mutters. He and Vic write their recollections on different pieces of paper and come up with the same number: 73. Vic wants Ronnie to quietly make sure all 73 grenades are still in the bomb squad's evidence lockup. 

Julien arrives for work, asking if he can use a clubhouse locker. Vic goes still when Julien opens one. "Was this Lem's?" Julien starts stammering an apology. Vic says it's okay to use. Shane swaggers in with a smile: "Pregnancy sex is the best sex." Kevin jokes that he'll have to call Mara and find out for himself.

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Claudette has a case for the Strike Team: Emily Martin was stabbed to death in an apartment building. Kevin didn't know they were working straight-up homicides. This particular one is a political powderkeg; Emily's father Rob is a city controller. Edgar-veda made a personal request for more manpower. "These high-profile cases are just one big invitation to get ass-reamed by the bosses," says Ronnie. Vic suggests they solve it quickly.

Emily's body is in a hallway, blood spattered up the walls. Vic doesn't think Emily's murder looks like a robbery gone bad. Kevin remarks this building is a long way from Daddy's nice neighborhood. "You guys know the drill," says Vic, "Look for nosy neighbors."

Julien points out a bloody shoe print in the carpet. "I knew they bumped him up for a reason," says Shane. It's hard to tell if the praise is sincere.

"Here comes the poster girl," says an officer as Tina steps into the squadroom. A round of clapping and whistling breaks out. Dutch immediately runs over to ask how Tina's doing. Tina was transferred to the P.R. department so she could speak at schools and police recruitment meetings. She met people in the chief's office and was able to convince them to let her come back to the streets. Dutch agrees that's where Tina belongs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Danny tells Dutch there's a woman in the lobby who wants to talk to a detective about Guardo. She knows he's the prime suspect in Lem's murder. She welcomes Tina back and informs the younger officer that she's her temporary partner since Julien is now part of the Strike Team. "Well, sergeants don't get out much," Tina sounds disappointed.

Dutch's mystery woman is Guardo's girlfriend Nydia, who wants to report her boyfriend missing. She's convinced something terrible happened (and she has no idea how right she is). Guardo hasn't called her in a week and they normally talk every day. A cop told her a Mexican rival named Salceda wanted Guardo dead. Nydia adds that she was in protective custody and wants Dutch to quit playing dumb.

Edgar-veda introduces Kevin to Emily's parents as the lead detective in their daughter's murder. Kevin politely asks if they know why Emily was in this part of town. Her mom Patricia says Emily didn't deserve what happened to her. Her dad Robert adds, "My wife doesn't deserve to be put through anything else."

Inside, Edgar-veda quietly tells Kevin the importance of not sullying Emily's reputation. Shane has news. A neighbor, Rahid, was seen carrying two heavy trash bags down the stairs from his sixth-floor apartment. Other neighbors have been threatened when they complained about Rahid's loud music and constant visitors.

Kevin approaches and repeats what Aceveda said about Emily: "We don't even know what we're supposed to be hiding yet." This worries Julien, but Vic talks him down. They're caught between a city controller and Claudette's moral code: "Whoever you screw, you get cut off at the knees." Before they can figure out what to do, they have to find out what really happened to Emily.

It seems as though Rahid may have packed up a drug stash in a hurry before leaving. The building has assigned parking spaces, so Rahid's license plate will be on file. Julien finds an address book full of phone numbers but no names. Vic tells him to start dialing. Shane finds a used syringe under the bed.

Nydia describes being taken to the safe house last week. She asks them to look for Guardo. Vic had told her Salceda would try to kidnap her to get at Guardo. Shane told her they'd caught Salceda and dropped her off at home.

Outside, Dutch confers with Claudette. Nydia's timeline has everything taking place during the personal days Vic used after Lem died. She confirmed Vic let her talk to Guardo on the phone. Dutch couldn't find records of anyone named Salceda with connections to the Salvadorans. "We are not gonna accuse Vic Mackey of murder and be wrong again," Claudette says firmly.

Dutch wants to put Vic in the room with Nydia and not tell her the camera is on. "You shook that hornet's nest once. Haven't you been stung enough yet?" asks Claudette. She reluctantly agrees to the plan, however.

Vic questions Valerie, a young, blonde mother of two, as to why they found her number in an apartment "on the shitty side of the freeway." Does her husband know she's on drugs? Vic rolls up Valerie's sleeves: "Gotta work real hard to hide that secret." He takes off her shoes, checking the veins on her ankles and between her toes.

"Stop." Valerie struggles as Vic pushes up her skirt. There are track marks on her thighs. "Don't tell Jeffrey," Valerie begs. Vic threatens to tell everyone from hubby to "the little old lady who brings cookies to your PTA meetings."

"Sure is getting hot in here," Billings whispers. Dutch tells him to stop sexually harassing Tina. He noticed the Quick Meal vending machines are still in the hall, "meaning you're still lining your pockets on the department's dime." Dutch promises not to call IAD if Billings gets rid of the machines and stops making jokes about Dutch having a crush on Tina.

Kevin asks if Vic ever thought about putting doors on the clubhouse. (Little does he know Vic is the reason they lost the doors). Valerie is waiting for Rahid to text her back about when to pick up her next fix and a code number indicating the location.

Tina is being bitchy about Danny trying to teach her the new filing system, but perks right up when Kevin appears. Danny notices and asks if Tina is done filing. "It's a three-week job. What do you think?" she asks. Danny advises her to lose the attitude. Her job performance needs to improve drastically if she doesn't want to be the "permanent filing girl."

Tina boasts about her new friends high on the food chain; Danny's new stripes don't impress her. The junior officer adds that Danny needs to watch her tone or risk explaining why she can't get along with "the new face of the department."

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Corinne is waiting in the lobby with Cassidy, the teen's face all but hidden by a curtain of hair. She pulls away when Vic tries to put his arm around her. "All right, Cass, what's going on?" he sighs. Cassidy turns to Corinne: "I don't have to talk to him."

Vic tries to make Cassidy understand the stress she's causing her mom. Cassidy wants to spend the autism rally weekend with her friend Olivia; the other girl's parents said it was okay. Vic asks what's really bothering her.

Cassidy's friend Brian has a father who's a lawyer. The kids did a LexisNexis search for Vic's name. "I saw all the shit you've done," Cassidy says fiercely, "The brutality complaints. The IAD guy thought you killed people." Corinne reminds her that people saying things doesn't make them true and "that IAD cop got caught trying to frame your father."

Cassidy doesn't want to learn any life lessons from Vic. "I'll teach you some respect--" Vic starts. Cassidy's tone is calm when she says, "Respect is earned." Vic tells her the website doesn't have the whole truth. "Like the baby you had with some other woman?" Cassidy overheard Corinne talking to Grandma about it on the phone.

Vic tells Cassidy not to worry about "adult stuff." Cassidy wants to know why she shouldn't be upset that she found out she has a half-brother she's never met. She storms out of the room and downstairs, both parents on her heels.

Kevin meets Vic at the bottom of the stairs; they know where Rahid is meeting Valerie. Dutch asks Vic to go talk to someone about Guardo: "If it's about Lemansky's murder, it could be important." Vic will get to that once they track down today's other murder suspect.

Ronnie eyes Rahid from a table at a diner. Vic, Kevin, and Julien enter. Kevin invites himself to sit with Rahid. When Rahid tries to get up, Vic puts a gun to his head.

At the Barn, Vic wants to know about the bags Rahid was seen with. Rahid asks, "Don't you guys ever take out the trash?" "Not the day after pickup," Kevin replies. They know Emily was in his apartment and they'll probably find her blood on his shoes. Rahid went downstairs afterward to dump the knife. "And Johnnie Cochran ain't alive to represent you," adds Vic.

Even though he initially claimed not to know Emily, Rahid somehow knows her dad is a city official. He admits Emily gave him oral sex, but he didn't kill her. Vic is curious why Emily would do that "aside from your winning personality." Well, Emily didn't always have money to pay for her drug habit. She also "serviced" his associate Snail in Brentwood.

"That white boy's a control freak," Rahid says of Snail, "He got her on the shit, then started rationing it out." He didn't see Snail kill Emily, but he heard a struggle and found her dead. Rahid threw away his stash because he knew the police would be coming.

Edgar-veda asks how the investigation is progressing. "Getting to a dark place," Vic says cryptically before clarifying that Emily was a "heroin-addicted whore." There may not be a way they can spin this. Edgar-veda says her dad wouldn't be able to blame the police department if the press got ahold of the story.

Claudette has words of wisdom for Kevin: "Don't let these people influence you. Follow the case where it leads, but the VIP key is only gonna open so many doors."

Ronnie pulls Vic out to the back parking lot for a chat. The bomb squad hand-counted the grenades Shane delivered as evidence; all 73 were there. Vic sighs, "I'm an asshole. First I doubted Lem, now Shane." Ronnie tells Vic not to be so hard on himself. They just wanted answers. Vic thinks Shane may have been right about there not being any.

Vic's next private conversation is with Danny in the weight room: "My daughter knows about Lee." Danny knows Corinne is the mother of Vic's children, "but that lady's been a real pain in my ass." She chose the single mom life for a reason. If Vic's learned one thing from being a dad, it's that things never go as planned.

The Strike Team descends on Snail's apartment. Kevin is about to hit the door with a battering ram when Vic stops him, noticing a mirror inside aimed their way. Suddenly, gunshots rip through the door. "That's a .45; vests aren't gonna be worth shit," says Vic. They wait for Snail to empty the magazine before entering.

Vic and Kevin comb the apartment, but Snail is nowhere to be found. At least until he pops out of a closet and tries to shoot Kevin. Vic tackles Snail to the bed.

Outside, Vic informs the others he's taking Snail in alone. There's too much at stake; Emily's dad could "eliminate the Strike Team with the stroke of a pen." Julien isn't comfortable with the idea, knowing Vic will probably tune Snail up. Vic is fine with taking the hit for everyone because he's being forced to retire at the end of the month. Julien, Kevin, Shane, and Ronnie all have something to lose.

In his car, Vic offers Snail a chance to avoid the death penalty. Emily's family wants to avoid embarrassment and scandal, which they will if Snail tells his story the right way. "What's the right story?" the kid asks.

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Back at the Barn, Vic promises Rahid the chance to leave with no pending charges. Dutch tells him that the woman with information on Guardo is still upstairs. Vic is surprised when lo and behold, it's Nydia. Claudette and Dutch watch as Vic claims he never touched Guardo.

Vic heard that Salceda wanted Guardo dead. Was Nydia aware Guardo was the prime suspect in a cop's murder? Vic never kept her prisoner and Nydia is lucky she didn't dragged off into Guardo's shit.

Vic goes to observation, asking if they want to get Kavanaugh out of jail and have him investigated again. Dutch thinks the Nydia situation sounds more like kidnapping than witness protection. Vic admits to using Salceda's name to get to Guardo; he wanted to make him pay for Lem. Claudette would be on his case if he'd ignored the rumors and Nydia had gotten killed. Vic never saw Guardo.

He thinks Nydia's appearance could be a ploy to make them think he's dead. Claudette notes Vic isn't making a compelling case for keeping his job. Vic is sure Hernan can tell them Guardo was killed by Mexicans. They can ask Kevin how to get in touch. He calmly strolls out of the room.

Robert the city controller was aware of his daughter's drug addiction, but Emily refused his offers of help. He'd cut her off as an attempt to keep her from buying heroin; Emily bragged about how she was hooking to get high. Robert had written it off as an attempt to con more money out of him.

Vic confirms that Emily was prostituting herself, "but that's not how history has to read." Just how Vic remembers Lem as a funny guy and a loyal teammate, not as a dirty cop. There are angles Vic can't cover, though, like the coroner's office. Robert isn't worried about that; he can pay to have the lab reports doctored.

Vic tells Robert about his upcoming hearing, which determines whether he'll be forced to retire. Robert will do what he can to help. "Must be good to be king," Vic muses.

In separate interrogation rooms, Emily's story is spun. Rahid was supposedly angry with her for trying to get Snail out of the drug trade. Snail said Emily followed him to Rahid's place to stop him from buying his inventory; he lost control of himself and stabbed her in the elevator. Claudette looks mildly impressed by Snail's acting skills.

Julien confronts Vic about the Strike Team playing God. The way Vic sees it, God creates everyone equal, but once you're born, He starts playing favorites. I think everyone's felt that way at some point in their lives.

Vic sees an open file in front of Dutch: lab results and Lem's autopsy report. Dutch is cagey; all he'll say is there were no fingerprints or DNA evidence. Vic demands to see for himself; nobody wants to solve the case more than he does.

Dutch displays a rare degree of sensitivity as he explains why Vic is better off not looking at the file. It includes crime scene and autopsy photos: "Curtis was eviscerated from the waist down." Vic doesn't care. He flips past a couple pictures of Lem dead in the car and notices a new sheet of paper, a report from Kavanaugh.

"Part of the deal he made when he came clean about you was full disclosure," Dutch exposits. Vic closes his eyes, sad and numb all at once.

Across the Barn, Tina is helping Kevin put the door back on the clubhouse. The Sharpie note now reads WE'RE BACK, ASSHOLES! Danny, dressed in her civvies, asks to see Tina to talk about some filing errors she made. Dutch asks how the hell Kevin managed to arrange a meeting with Hernan. "It's easier to negotiate between federal agencies," Kevin explains. He may not be a fed anymore, but he's still got his name.

In the hallway, Billings is barking orders at movers, telling them not to ding the vending machine. Dutch approaches to let him know the machines can stay. Billings is smart and knows Dutch just wants to dangle it over his head. Dutch reminds him who's losing money if the machines are gone.

Danny answers a knock to find Vic and Cassidy at her doorstep. She introduces the teen to her new half-brother Lee. His middle name is Carson, Danny's mom's maiden name. Danny offers to let Cassidy hold Lee, but she declines.

Ronnie tells Shane that Vic wants the three of them to have a little powwow at Portillo Auto Body: "walk Lem's crime scene the time of night that it happened." The CSIs might've missed something. Shane inquires about the lab report. Ronnie answers that there wasn't much in it; he has to finish paperwork on Emily's stabbing, but he'll be there soon.

Once Shane leaves, Ronnie calls Vic: "Are you sure you don't want me to be there?" Vic warns him to keep a safe distance and hangs up, scanning the horizon for Shane's truck. It's a while before he arrives. Vic tells his best friend they rolled snake eyes on forensics. Shane shrugs it off as Guardo being careful. "Not careful enough to escape us," says Vic.

Vic starts talking about Guardo: "I shot him, tortured him, and burned his body and he didn't kill Lem." The Salvadorans didn't even kill Emolia for being a rat. He doubts one of them could've thrown a grenade on Lem and disappeared without a trace.

"It wasn't One-Niners looking for Antwon revenge," Vic goes on, "Made a fool of myself up at Lompoc finding that one out. So I asked Ronnie to check if you logged all the grenades from the bust that night."

You can feel the tension hovering in the air between them, Shane just one wrong look away from tipping his hand and bringing Vic's wrath down on his head. He's carefully stone-faced when Vic plants himself a foot away from him. Vic knows all 73 grenades made it to the evidence locker.

"Which means..." he sighs heavily, "You pocketed a grenade before Aceveda even lied to us about Lem ratting us out. You lied to us at the bust about the count." There's no anger in his tone, just pain. "Before I even started to question Lem, you were looking for a way to shut him up and make it look Salvadoran."

Vic knows Shane was the last one to get to the meeting spot the night Lem died. Shane's excuse about not being able to lose his tail is looking pretty flimsy. Vic saw a report Kavanaugh wrote just before being arrested; he and one other guy were the only people looking for Lem that night. They rode together.

Tears swim in Vic's eyes. Did Shane just drop a grenade in Lem's lap and run? "I did what I thought had to be done at the time," Shane confesses. Vic buries his face in one big hand, repeating, "Oh God." He walks away from Shane, fists clenched, then whirls around and screams, "You piece of shit!"

Shane explains he went rogue because Lem refused to go to Mexico. He tried his best to sell Lem on the goat farm and assure him they'd send money: "You said if he wouldn't take the ride to Mexico that we would know that he turned." "He didn't turn!" Vic bellows.

"We couldn't afford to take that chance," says Shane. It wasn't an easy decision for him to make, never mind leaving with the guilt. "For you?" Vic is aghast, "Lem!" "At the time, it was either him or the rest of us." Vic calls bullshit.

Shane keeps trying to rationalize it: "If he would've gone to jail like he wanted, he would've been killed by Antwon or turned by Kavanaugh." Vic says they can't know that. Lem was strong; Shane only killed him because he's a coward. Shane disagrees with that.

"You were when you sat by and watched me tear Guardo apart for something you did!" Vic practically sobs out, "What did you turn me into?" Shane thinks the grenade smuggler deserved what he got. "I'm not an executioner!" Vic yells. Shane fires back, "Well, go tell that to Terry's family!" Vic plays semantics; Terry was a traitor and Lem was their friend.

Shane says something else that should make Vic wants loosen a few of his teeth: Vic thinks he's looking at Shane through a window, but it's really a mirror. Vic shakes his head: "I would've spared Lem." Shane says, "I put Lem down so you could go to bed at night believing that." It's not like he had time to consult Vic and Ronnie.

Vic argues that Lem was owed a chance. Shane pours on the crocodile tears: "Look, it's taken me a while, but you're gonna learn how to accept it--" Vic shoves him hard, saying, "I will never accept that!" Shane refuses to fight Vic and lights a cigarette. He finally figures out Ronnie was never coming to this meeting.

Did Vic say he was gonna know the truth by looking in Shane's eyes? If Vic is so good at reading people, why didn't he know Aceveda was lying about Lem? Shane points his cigarette at Vic: "All I was doin' was followin' yer game plan, Coach." Vic is still pissed; Shane was willing to make him the scapegoat. Shane swears it wouldn't have gone that far.

"I had the chance to pull the trigger on you once before. I didn't do it and Lem lost his life because of it," Vic says with his characteristic silky menace. Shane knows Lem would've cracked eventually; he did this to protect the team. Just like Vic did with Terry.

Shane thinks Vic just needs time to get used to the idea. "You and me, we're all outta time," Vic says, then reminds him Lem's case is still open. "I hope they catch you. I hope they do. I hope everybody knows what you did." His next words are a warning: "You don't get to do what you did for free. You're gonna pay that bill."

Shane doubts Vic would turn rat. Even if he did, Shane could tell IAD the truth about Terry. Vic isn't worried because Terry's case hinges on hearsay. "Our entire lives are hearsay," says Shane, "And I've got a hell of a lot more on you than you've got on me."

Vic snarls at Shane to get in his truck before he kills him. Shane knows Vic couldn't do that; he tried once and didn't have the stomach for it. Vic points out their last tiff was before Shane blew Lem in half with a grenade. "If I see you again, I will kill you," he vows. Shane calls Vic a hypocrite before peeling off in his truck. End of episode.

The Truth "Haunts" (Episode 6.5)

Previously on: Hernan, a suspect in the string of grenade murders, is actually an undercover cop. Shane's cheating on Mara. An unknown man has been sexually assaulting and branding runaway teenage girls, telling them to go home. One of his victims was able to describe the bedroom where she was held. Kevin transferred to the Strike Team. 

Shane the traitorous bastard went rogue and blew Lem up in his car to keep him from talking about the team's shady dealings. Vic murdered Guardo, a Salvadoran grenade smuggler that he believed had Lem killed.

Paramedics wheeling a gurney into the hospital give a hand-off report to the nurse: They found a man "swirlin' around in the gutter." He's stable now but bloodied with some possible fractures. Corinne pages the resident. One of the paramedics shows her something they found on the victim: a badge. More specifically, a detective's shield. Corinne glances at the man on the stretcher; it's Shane.

A short time later, Vic and Ronnie arrive. Corinne explains that Shane was beaten and doesn't remember anything about what happened. "Oh man!" Vic mutters when he gets a good look at his best friend. Shane puts up his hand: "No shit from you guys. Already took one pounding today." His head and side are bandaged, his face bruised all to hell.

Shane was walking to his truck and next thing he knew, "I'm comin' to in a meat wagon."

I've always understood that term to mean one of these.
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Shane didn't see anyone, but whoever jumped him left his wallet and gun alone. Vic and Ronnie ask if this could be payback for Guardo. If it was, Shane is sure "we wouldn't be havin' this conversation." It could've easily been someone else they sent up, though. Ronnie offers to check that angle.

"Tell me somethin'. Who's that?" asks Shane, pointing to Ronnie. Vic chuckles, squeezing Ronnie's freshly shaved cheeks. Ronnie says his new girlfriend prefers that look. Shane laughs so hard at his teammate's expense that it aggravates his broken ribs.

"Oh my God! What happened?" cries Mara, rushing to hold her husband's hand. Shane doesn't answer, just kisses her knuckles.

At the Barn, Claudette asks how Shane is feeling. "Hurtin' for certain. Not especially pleasing to the eye at the moment," Vic reports. (Was Shane ever)? Claudette will post a uniform outside Shane's hospital room until they know more details about the attack.

Claudette asks what Kevin knows about the San Marcos house murders. Only what he heard. The case was being investigated by Robbery-Homicide, but they recently kicked it back to the Strike Team. The original detective found 11 bodies and one severed arm. "Machete's the weapon of choice for the Salvadorans," Kevin notes.

No, not THAT Machete...
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The victims were all illegal immigrants from Mexico; the arm remains unidentified. The male victims had all been recently released from the same Mexican prison. Claudette tells them this case is now their top priority: "Solving it quickly is the difference between keeping the Barn open or closing it for good." Nobody else is to know that piece of information.

"So far no one on the streets is braggin' about giving Shane a beat-down," says Ronnie. He has a theory: Guardo's girlfriend figured out they used her to get to Guardo and told his friends. Vic doubts that: "Shane got hit with a fist, not a machete or a grenade."

Kevin found out the San Marcos victims were all connected to the same drug cartel. Julien, who Claudette brought onto the Strike Team, adds they had guest worker visas. "Prisoners don't get work visas," says Kevin. Vic adds, "Especially not real ones. Where do you want to start, jefe?" Ronnie looks surprised to hear the new guy referred to as such.

Kevin still knows people at INS who can help ID the arm. But where does Vic want to start? He knows the territory and the players. Vic might know someone who can forge visas this well. He shakes Julien's hand, welcoming him to the team. Julien promises not to let Vic down. Vic says, "[Kevin's] the boss now. Don't let him down."

Teenage rape victim Graciela is being released from the hospital today, but Dutch is no closer to ID'ing her attacker. Billings is canvassing with a sketch. Dutch sent a profile to the feds and is waiting to hear back from local Y's and youth shelters. The guy is escalating quickly and Dutch wouldn't be surprised if he's already found another girl.

"Oh my God," Julien sighs as he looks around the San Marcos house, a blood-spatter extravaganza that resembles a cross between the shower scene from Psycho and a production of Sweeney Todd. He takes out a pen and a pad of paper. "Who wants what and why and how slaughtering all those people in this room helped achieve that goal. That's all you need to be writin' down," advises Kevin.

Vic and Ronnie drag in a nervous-looking white guy. "I read about it in the paper. I didn't need to see it," he protests. Vic shows him the forged visas. The forger claims he changed careers and he has no idea who else could've made them. Vic tells him the police are under pressure to make an arrest "no matter how bogus the ID."

Forger can tell by the font that the visas were printed in Mexico, not the U.S. There's tension between Mexicans and Salvadorans: "Latinos can't even trust each other." Vic tells him to wait outside and the forger gladly sprints for the exit. Vic wants to start with the Salvadorans.

They ask Guardo's former second-in-command Tejado why there's a feud with the Mexicans.  The guy won't talk without a favor, namely oral sex from "a hottie" right here in the interrogation room. "Thought it was gonna be somethin' difficult," says Vic. Guardo's lieutenant believes Mexicans were responsible for Guardo's murder and the Salvadorans must avenge him.

"Guardo's dead, you're wearin' orange, so who's gonna take up the fight?" asks Vic. Tejado says that part is "bein' worked out in upper management." He lists some possible names: Octavio, Rodrigo, and Hernan. Hernan is new but wants to take over as shot-caller. Vic's phone rings and he starts to leave.

"What about my hummer?" demands Tejado. Vic calls over Officer Asher, who it should be noted is male: "You're considered a hottie in some circles, right?" "Damn straight," Asher says proudly, "Why?" "This is Tejado. He's got a request for you," says Vic.

Vic thinks Moses from the One-Niners might know who went after Shane. San Marcos is the first priority, so he'll deal with it himself. "Don't go walking into traffic, making me look bad," cautions Kevin.

Billings and Dutch interview one of Graciela's friends from the youth center. Billings gives her a sandwich. "By law, we're required to send runaways back home," says Dutch, "If you cooperate, tell us everything you know about Graciela, and promise to go back home on your own, we'll take you at your word." The girl never noticed anyone following Graciela, but there was a creepy guy named J.B. they'd see at Ray's Burger Stand. They didn't mind him much because he gave them free burgers.

Judging by J.B.'s attire, he works at Ray's Burger Stand. Billings confirms my suspicion by saying that if J.B. was giving away food, that's considered stealing and is a parole violation. J.B. swears he only talked to the girls and gave them leftovers that the restaurant would've thrown away.

"Talkin' to 'em is one thing. Spiking their soda with GHB, sodomizing, and torturin' 'em is another," says Billings, laying crime scene photos on the table. J.B. insists, "I didn't do that shit!" Dutch bets it's tough for an ex-con making minimum wage to find a nice girl his own age. However, "a homeless, hungry 15-year-old runaway is easy impress with a burger and fries."

When Ronnie and Vic arrive at Moses' hangout, the gangster has a cane. "You better pray you didn't hurt that foot stickin' it up a white cop's ass," says Vic. Moses tells Vic to relax: "I'm rockin' a pimp stick 'cause I'm cold like that." He reveals that Shane's been hooking up with his 18-year-old girlfriend Tilli.

That sounds like motive to Vic, but Moses "ain't about no sloppy seconds." Tilli, on the other hand, might have an idea.

Carlos, from a shelter called Children's Beacon, sits down with Dutch. He made a list of female residents he feels would be most at-risk, ones with known drug and prostitution issues. Helping runaways is an issue close to Carlos' heart; his own daughter Sabrina went missing three years ago. Dutch offers to take another look at the case.

When Danny arrives to guard Shane, Mara is helping him walk to the bathroom. This means Danny is treated to the sight of Shane's bare ass sticking out of his hospital gown.

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"Jesus," Danny says when she sees the damage done to Shane's face. She promises they'll find whoever attacked him. "You just saw the only part of him that's not bruised," says Mara. Claudette wants a formal statement from Shane, even though he already talked to Vic.

Shane doesn't want police protection: "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Be that as it may, Danny still has to follow orders.

Dutch didn't find anything incriminating at J.B.'s and doubts he's their guy. J.B. lives in a 4th-floor walk-up; most people wouldn't bother dragging victims up all those stairs. The building has thin walls, so a neighbor would've noticed screaming.

Carlos returns with the names of girls Children's Beacon recently lost touch with. Dutch introduces him to Billings. Carlos again relays the story of his daughter. In a corner, Billings asks Dutch for a refresher on his profile. Dutch believes it's "a single father whose daughter disappeared or died prematurely." Carlos fits that bill. And "a lot of these freaks like to insert themselves into the investigations."

Edgar-veda introduces Claudette to a man named Cruz, a Latino activist. He was the person who initially suggested a Salvadoran connection. Claudette assures him that Kevin, the lead detective, is more than qualified to deal with that angle.

In the observation room, Claudette lectures the councilman about "bringing a civilian into a confidential police matter." Edgar-veda doubts she'd take this so personally if she knew more.

Billings and Dutch bring Carlos to an interrogation room.

"Why you callin' me out in front of my people?" Tilli demands. Vic heard she likes cops. Does she knew who could've put Shane in the hospital? Tilli wants to see him; Vic is sure Mrs. Vendrell won't appreciate that. Tilli shrugs, "I'll just say I'm a friend." Vic knows that won't play: "Shane doesn't have too many teenage black friends."

Ronnie spots a bruise on Tilli's arm. It came courtesy of her stepdad after he found out she was seeing Shane. Tilli told Stepdad that if he tried to break them up or hurt her, she'd get Shane to kick his ass. She doesn't know where her stepdad is other than maybe at home because "he all about that monthly check from the county." Vic warns Tilli to stay away from both her stepdad and the hospital.

Mara stops by the nurse's station to let Corinne know Shane's Percocet isn't working. Corinne hands Mara the bag containing Shane's personal effects. Mara immediately seems upset and asks Danny to take a break. Once she's gone, Mara throws the bag at her husband, hitting him in the chest.

"Goddamn it, how could you?" shouts Mara, "Why do you need condoms when I'm three months pregnant?"

"You rang?"
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Shane, of course, plays innocent: "They must've been from before. Mara, I'm not doin' anything, baby. I swear." Mara may not be smart, but she ain't dumb. Is cheating the reason Shane wound up in the hospital? Shane tells her it's not important. When that doesn't work, he breaks out the crocodile tears and apologies.

Mara continues ranting, loud enough for Danny to hear out in the hallway: "This is us, okay? Our family. You threw it away! I've been trying to help you through all of this." ("This" presumably meaning Lem's death). "You waking up screaming. And then you're out--Oh, I can't believe you!" She grabs her purse and storms out.

Carlos talks about how everyone pitched in when Sabrina first went missing: family, neighbors, people from church. Life and eventually the police moved on. He's sure Sabrina is still out there. Billings is a father and can't imagine what Carlos is going through.

Carlos brought them 15 names. Dutch asks if there's any one girl he thinks is particularly at-risk. Carlos flips through his file: "Probably Rosanna." She got involved with a pimp and hasn't been at the shelter for at least two weeks.

Downstairs, Kevin asks for Dutch's files on the San Marcos murders and anything he knows about Hernan. Dutch quietly tells him Hernan is an undercover fed. He was already told by Hernan's ICE handler to stay away.

Vic's former partner Joe pays him a visit: "I heard about your guy. Curtis was a good kid." He was out of town during the funeral. Can he donate to a charity or a police memorial fund in Lem's name? "Audubon Society," Vic replies, "Lem was really into birds, turns out."

Joe has a business idea for Vic, but Vic can't get involved right now. Twelve people have been murdered, no suspects. Someone put Shane in the hospital. Joe just wants to repay Vic for all his help a few years back.

Vic remarks that Joe looks like he's doing all right for himself with his fancy new car. Joe also has a 26-year-old Filipino wife "to keep in Gucci." He heard his old friend might be getting forced off the job without a pension. Vic says that's just a rumor.

Joe knows a guy who owns an apartment building. His friend wants to renovate and raise the rent, "only there's an undesirable element camped out there." More specifically, Jamaican drug dealers harassing the other tenants. The landlord can't evict them because they're never late with the rent. Mr. Landlord has promised cash up front to convince the Jamaicans to move. Vic agrees to take a look at the place.

There's a spotter at the apartments. Joe gripes about how his employment with the police department ended; all his dedication and "you don't even get to leave on your own terms." Vic takes note of how many people are involved in these drug deals. He's passing on the job and thinks Joe should too. Joe can't because it's his only income this month.

Joe asks Vic to run the building for tenants with priors so he has an idea of what he's dealing with. Vic agrees to that much.

Dutch brings Princess and her mother in. He plays a tape of Carlos' interrogation. "I'm sure that's his voice," says the teen. That's enough for the detectives to be able to go to Carlos' house.

"Entrance off the alley," Dutch observes. It'd be easy to take victims there without anyone noticing. Inside, there's general disarray and dishes piled in the sink. Billings kicks in a door at the end of the hall. It's definitely a teenage girl's bedroom: pink curtains and bedspread, stuffed animals, and the boy band posters Princess described.

"What 15-year-old keeps her room this neat?" Billings wonders. He's asking the wrong person; Dutch never had kids. The carpet is freshly shampooed.

Vic and Ronnie drive Shane home from the hospital. Vic tells him they know about the affair. Shane admits Tilli's stepdad beat him up. "Jesus Christ, Shane," mutters Ronnie. Shane says it's not like he's the only one of them who's "ever had a little out-of-bounds ass before."

Vic reminds him of the risks involved with Tilli, a One-Niner's girl. Shane was told Tilli broke up with Moses. "You sayin' this is about more than gettin' laid?" Ronnie asks incredulously. Shane repeats his story: "She just shot off her mouth about us to the dickhead stepdad. I got blindsided." "Yeah, I can see that," snarks Vic.

Vic also suggests "raising the mistress bar." "If you still want a wife and kid to come home to," adds Ronnie. Shane asks if the other two have ever considered coming clean about everything. Vic's answer is an instantaneous "no."

He gives Shane a choice about Tilli's stepdad: him and Ronnie can return the ass-kicking in kind or they can wait until Shane feels well enough to do it himself. Shane wants to let it go. Vic argues about the principle of the guy knowingly hurting a cop, but Shane is adamant.

When Shane goes inside, he finds Mara has locked herself in their bedroom. She opens the door with Jackson in her arms and informs her husband, "Some black bitch called your phone...She sounded like she was 10. Is that who you're banging while I've got morning sickness?" She throws the phone at him. "You've always been an asshole." Only took a few years for her to catch on.

"Mara, please," Shane starts. Mara snaps, "Yeah, I know. You're all torn up over Lem." She tells him to leave. Furthermore, she doesn't want Jackson or the new baby growing up around Shane.

Kevin's INS contact ID'ed the severed arm as Eduardo Romero, a presidential appointment to the Mexican government. As a high-profile figure, he should've been the first person Mexico identified. Vic guesses they wanted to spare themselves the embarrassment, then snipes at Julien to stop taking notes. Kevin backs Vic's play: "This is raw intel. We don't know where it leads yet...You don't hand your superior pieces of a puzzle; you hand 'em the whole picture."

Dutch apologizes to Carlos for the wait. They were sending uniforms to canvass the area where he said Rosanna works. More information about her might help, little things like where she goes out to eat and the movies and music she likes.

"You show me a kid's room and I can tell you their life story," says Billings. Carlos knows they searched his house and is sure they didn't find anything. Not exactly. Two witnesses identified his voice and remember the posters in Sabrina's room. Carlos is confident his lawyer will have him released before the detectives clock out.

Dutch offers to personally reopen Sabrina's case if Carlos tells them what they want to know. Carlos will only do that if he can tell his daughter's story in front of a TV reporter, accusing the police of burying the case three years ago.

Vic gives Joe the tenants' priors: possession, robbery, aggravated assault. Joe looks around the clubhouse: "Lotta ghosts in this place, man." "And every day's Halloween," Vic agrees.

"Goddamn freeway. City's turnin' into a third-world shitbag," gripes a man named Lester. Hey, It's That Guy! Patrick St. Esprit later appears on another FX drama Sons of Anarchy as Charming's town mogul Elliott Oswald. Lester, an ex-cop, knows Vic by reputation.

Vic suggests Joe take a few more guys to the building. Lester is confident the dealers will be too stoned to realize what's happening: "Raids like this, I used to do 'em in my sleep. Literally." Vic's warning about a recent weapons charge falls on deaf ears, so he asks to ride along.

A female detective with a camcorder tapes Carlos' confession. Billings asks about Carlos' endgame: "Punishing these girls for running away, get back at your own kid for disappearing?" Carlos maintains that what he did was worth it if it convinced even one girl to go home.

Dutch doesn't understand how sexually assaulting young runaways would help get Sabrina back. Carlos did that out of anger at the cops for dropping her case after three months.

Dutch wants to know why Sabrina took off in the first place. Carlos gets hostile, denying he gave her a reason. Dutch wonders if Sabrina might've been murdered. "She's alive," Carlos insists, "I just can't find her myself." Dutch reminds him the deal is off unless he's totally honest. Carlos won't talk unless the camera is off, which also seems like a violation of the deal.

"Sabrina's mother died when she was 9. She never got over it. I mean, neither of us did," Carlos starts. As she grew older, Sabrina started to really resemble her dead mother. "I don't think Sabrina realized just how much like her she was. In every way." This led to him molesting her.

Carlos tearfully asks them to turn the camera again and speaks directly into the lens, telling Sabrina he's sorry for hurting her. "Oh, Jesus," Billings says disgustedly, leaving the room. Carlos begs her to come home.

Outside the apartment building, Vic, Lester, and Joe wait in a car. Lester offers the others bulbs of garlic. Is he expecting vampires? No, it's because bad breath makes for effective psychological warfare. Joe passes because "I'd like to get laid tonight."

They kick in the door of the Jamaicans' apartment. One of them tries to hit Lester with a golf club from behind. Lester wrestles the club away and chases the guy through the house. In the process of trying to stop the suspect from climbing out the window, Lester either accidentally or on purpose loses his grip. The Jamaican plummets a couple of stories to the sidewalk.

"Fore," calls Lester, tossing the club out the window. The Jamaican hobbles into the night on a probably broken leg. In the living room, Joe is cutting off another Jamaican's dreadlocks. "How much you want?" asks a third Jamaican, "We'll cut you in for half. This is some felonious bullshit!"

Vic stops Lester from super-gluing the guy's lips together. Lester drags the guy into the bathroom, holds a gun to his head, and tells him to pee. The dealer is forced to his knees and Lester orders him to drink from the toilet. Joe forces his head in. This is too sadistic even for Vic. He wrenches the dealer free and tells him to consider this an official eviction notice.

Shane is parked outside his house, sobbing. He stops long enough to snort some crushed oxycodone pills off a CD case. Ah, good old hillbilly heroin. Lovely.

Joe thanks Vic for his help. The same landlord owns another building in South Central L.A., but Vic wants no part of any further shenanigans. Joe promises he'll get rid of Lester next time. Lester pipes up with: "I guess all that badass noise I heard about you is bullshit."

Vic declines their offer of a ride back to the Barn. "Let him go, man," Lester says to Joe, "We don't need him. Word is most of the guys on his team end up dead anyhow." That was the wrong thing to say. Vic punches Lester in the nose, knocking him right on his ass.

"Did Sabrina make the news?" Carlos calls from the cage. Dutch confirms it was that morning's lead story. Another precinct got an anonymous tip that Sabrina is buried near Lake Elsinore; local officers dug up the area and found a body. Carlos is sure it can't be his daughter. Billings has heard enough. He turns around and shouts, "Your daughter's dead! You made her run away; she got killed!"

Vic meets Julien, Kevin, and Ronnie at a soccer field. Kevin points out Hernan; his handler agreed that he could talk to them as long as the Strike Team is subtle. Unfortunately, that's never been their strong suit. Vic floors it, driving right into the middle of the soccer game.

Kevin gets out of the car and tackles Hernan. "Stop fighting. We know who you are," Vic says through his teeth. Hernan tells Kevin to make this look good for the homies watching. Kevin obliges by chokeslamming the fed into a tree.

Hey, It's That Guy! Hernan is none other than Clifton Collins, Jr. He did a great job as Connor and Murphy's sidekick Romeo in Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.

Vic lays out what he heard: Salvadorans hit the San Marcos house and the Mexicans retaliated by killing Guardo. Hernan claims another Mexican faction is responsible for the San Marcos murders. "Killed their own? Unlikely," says Vic. Kevin adds, "Especially when one victim was a government official."

Hernan guesses Guardo was collateral damage. Vic thinks that serves him right after blowing up a cop. Hernan scoffs, "Guardo didn't have anything to do with that." He rattles off what he does know: Emolia ratted Lem to IAD and was put in a safe house; now she's living with her sister in Seattle. If the Salvadorans didn't kill a snitch, there's no way they went after a cop.

The late Guardo was in Mexico with Hernan the night Lem was killed. Couldn't get a better alibi than that. "Is anyone gonna make this look good?" asks Hernan. Kevin punches him in the jaw.

"Guardo didn't kill Lem," Vic repeats. Ronnie thinks Hernan could be wrong. "He's not wrong!" shouts Vic.

Mara wakes up when she hears someone jimmying the lock. She goes to investigate and finds Shane in the living room. "Ask me to come back," he pleads. He's crying and clearly high. "Our son is in the other room," Mara warns when Shane draws his pistol and shuts the door.

Shane begs for Mara's forgiveness; he knows what he did was wrong. Mara can't believe it: "You want me to forgive you for sleeping with a girl that's barely out of an inner-city middle school? Forget it. Go ahead, shoot me, shoot yourself." I'd be real careful about saying that right now. Shane doesn't want Jackson to find out what he's done.

Mara asks if Vic got Shane involved in something illegal. "He doesn't even know," Shane blubbers, "I killed Lem. I did it, I did it. I dropped a grenade in his lap and I just walked away." Mara is horrified. Shane gets into the more gruesome details, how Lem was still breathing afterward and he left him to die.

"Why?" Mara gasps. Shane explains that he thought Lem was gonna take a deal and hang them all out to dry: "I thought he was gonna take me away from you. From Jackson. From our baby." He didn't know what else to do. Shane wails at the ceiling, begging God for forgiveness.

"I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry," Shane says to Mara. "Please just ask me back." She wraps her arms around him and Shane lets out a shaky breath. Let me just say I have no clue how Walton Goggins didn't get an Emmy, based on that scene alone. End of episode.

Breaking In "The New Guy" (Episode 6.4)

Previously on: Dutch put the moves on rookie uniform Tina. Shane blew up Lem in his car. Vic killed grenade smuggling Guardo, falsely believing he was the one who murdered Lem, and Shane still didn't own up to it. Kevin Hiatt, a former INS agent, will be starting at the Barn and groomed to replace Vic.

Squad cars and helicopters are in a tense stand-off at Wings 'N Things restaurant. Vic, Shane, and Ronnie suit up in their vests. Santonino comes sprinting out the front door, yelling, "It wasn't me! They got guns in there!" Vic asks Asher for the CliffNotes version of events. They can't see inside the restaurant, so no one knows how many suspects are involved or what they might be packing. His best guess is semi-automatic. Situations like that are Vic's specialty.

Claudette pulls up, a young white man accompanying her. She introduces him to Vic as Kevin. Another shot is fired. Vic tells Kevin and Claudette to stay down. "Uh, did he just give me a time-out?" asks Kevin. Claudette raises her eyebrows, like That's Vic for ya...

Vic, Shane, and Ronnie enter. They find several armed suspects, who all look dead. A young woman with a shoulder wound lies on the floor. A guy with a gut wound is behind the counter. "One of them Niners shot us up and then took off," whimpers Chellie, presumably an employee.

There's a crash from the back, near the kitchen. "Hey! Hands on your head!" shouts Vic. Kevin has come in, carrying a shotgun: "I was gettin' splinters in my ass sitting on the bench." In 30 seconds?

A short time later, Vic brings out the guy in the black hoodie, the only one who's "not colored up." Shane isn't happy that Kevin was handling Lem's favorite gun. Vic doesn't think the kid meant anything by it; he probably just got it out of the trunk. Ronnie can't believe the department is getting rid of Vic to bring on "some cop in diapers."

Vic makes nice-nice as best as he knows how, introducing Kevin to Shane and Ronnie. Shane wastes no time in relieving Kevin of the shotgun. Kevin tells them how sorry he was to hear about Lem: "I lost my partner on the border 3 years ago. It's a bitch of a thing." "Lem was more than a partner," says Shane the Traitorous Bastard. Vic wants Kevin to ride with him; he'll fill the kid in on the Niners.

Claudette has reassigned people to uphold the One-Niner injunctions from Season 4. Working with Kevin will give Vic a chance to show he "can play well with others." Vic thinks "it's a little late in the game for me to win Miss Congeniality." Kevin already has a theory: "Spookstreet heard the Byz Lats and the One-Niners were having a square dance, decided to crash." Why don't you leave the square dancing to Shane?

Claudette tells Kevin he'll eventually be able to expand the team, handpick some more help. "What about Shane and Ronnie?" asks Vic. Kevin plans to keep them. Claudette's long-term goal is to have Kevin supervise two teams. She also arranged for Vic to see an appeals panel about his impending forced retirement.

Vic knows Edgar-veda won't okay that. Claudette wouldn't be so sure; a lot is riding on the Barn's success. He's free to continue pleading for supervisory privileges. Vic leaves to deal with a scuffle in the cage.

Up in the office, Claudette has a secret for Kevin: "I lied to Mackey. In three weeks, he's gone. Period." Vic would be sniffing for loopholes if he knew. "Well, that's kinda cold," Kevin opines. Claudette asks how much he knows about Vic. Kevin shrugs that he's just heard rumors and knows two guys have died inside of the last few years.

Claudette tells him about Tavon's unfortunate run-in with a windshield, but assures Kevin, "You'll be just fine as long as he doesn't have a problem with you." Kevin wants to start adding to the team ASAP.

Corinne stops by the clubhouse with something she wants Vic, Shane, and Ronnie to all hear: "I feel really stupid saying this out loud and normally I don't even believe in this stuff. But I woke up this morning and felt like I was given a message." She had a dream the night before. They were all having a barbecue in the Mackeys old backyard, "only it was this beautiful place by this precipice." I'm gonna stop you right there and say the old backyard was pretty damn nice.

Corinne goes on: "Lem was there and he was wearing his usual jeans, but he had on this pinstriped shirt. And his hair was shorter. And he was younger, like when I first met him." He was wrestling with one of the guys, but she doesn't remember who. "And then he wanted burgers for you guys." (Because of course). Lem requested them well-done.

"The thing is, when I handed him the burgers, he got really mad. He said I made them all wrong." Corinne had never seen Lem like that. In the dream, Vic told Lem everything was okay and he'd learn to like burgers that way. "Then [Lem] got really calm and he said, 'Okay. It's all gonna be okay.'" Then Lem stepped off the cliff and disappeared without going up or down.

I can't tell if Shane's expression is one of guilt or Shut up, this is crazy. Who the hell cares? "I know this sounds crazy, but I think it was Lem," Corinne finishes, "Maybe it means that everything's gonna be okay." Nobody says anything.

Vic tells Shane not to make himself nuts about Corinne's dream: "We've all been hurtin' lately. She thought it would give us some comfort. Just go with it." "He didn't disappear up in the sky. He disappeared sideways, How is that comforting?" asks Shane, who will most certainly disappear down below.

Vic sees Kevin in the observation room, watching one of the gangbangers on CCTV. Vic wants to work the losing friends angle but not show sympathy; gangsters can smell weakness. Kevin reminds Vic this isn't his first rodeo. "Well, this isn't the Valley or the Rio Grande. It's the majors," says Vic. He doesn't think Kevin is ready for Farmington. Kevin cuts Vic off; he saw plenty during his 4 years with Border Patrol.

Vic describes Farmington's cultural melting pot: "Mexis that were too smart to get picked up," black gangs, Russians, Asians, and let's not forget our old friends the Armenians. Kevin asks Vic to make him ready for the neighborhood.

Vic takes note of their suspect Ray's altered One-Niner tattoo: "Either you're founding a new set or you're trying to jump out. Both are punishable by death." This gives me flashbacks to another scene from a Kurt Sutter show involving gang ink.

"Fire or knife?"
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If wanting to get out is the case, Kevin doesn't think Ray is a bad guy. So why the angry look? "Because I'm a black man and you're a cop," the Niner replies. Kevin says, "So picture me holding a puppy." Interesting tactic. It's like Lem reincarnated.

Ray claims he's been out of the life for 4 months. Vic asks him to explain the .22 they caught him with. The guy shrugs it's for self-defense and wants to know if his friend Vantes made it out alive. He starts waxing philosophical: "Oppressors are oppressors," no matter their skin color. Guys who deal for the One-Niners would probably make more money working at In 'N Out.

"Breaking ties with [them] over drug money ain't exactly noble," Kevin says. Vic adds, "Banging doesn't come with an out clause." What was his grand scheme to escape? Ray and seven other guys were gonna jump out together; the meeting at the restaurant was to discuss terms (possibly the aforementioned "fire or knife" scenario). They had guns just in case and the Niners shot first.

Danny and Julien jog toward a screaming woman. Fresh off maternity leave, the newly-minted sergeant is having trouble keeping up. A heavyset man in a nearby yard pulls up his pants. It appears they're interrupting a rape in progress. Julien tackles the guy, who keeps protesting that he didn't do nothing. The female victim is semiconscious, so Danny radios for paramedics.

A neighbor on his balcony calls down, "Hey! I was watching that!" "Hey, get a life, asshole!" Danny shouts back.

Cervantes is familiar to Vic, who sent him on a year-long retreat to Corcoran for dealing. The gangbanger "spent his 8 months reading Malcolm X, Huey Newton." (In case you're wondering, Huey was one of the founding members of the Black Panthers). After Vantes got paroled, he started helping friends get out of "the life." The meeting at the wing joint was a setup.

Vic wants the survivors to have a chance to atone for their mistakes. Kevin thinks Vantes and the Niners trying to jump out need to be off the streets. "Yeah? Thanks for weighin' in," pipes up Shane. Maybe they can convince Moses to declare a cease-fire. Vic tells Kevin not to take Shane's attitude personally: "He's still real raw about Lem." I believe the term he's looking for is "guilty conscience."

"50 bucks says Mackey and the new guy get into it by the end of the day," Billings wagers. Claudette tells Dutch about the interrupted rape. The victim, Graciela, recently ran away from her fourth foster home. "I love the smell of underage sexual assault in the morning," says Billings.

Basically Claudette's reaction.
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He backpedals: "I didn't mean that the way it came out." Yes, you did, you creep. It's a wonder him and Dutch don't get along; they're both perverts. Dutch is surprised Danny is back. He asks what happened to his crush Tina. Claudette explains she transferred. "You finally make your move? Scare Hanlon and her bikini briefs out the door?" Billings jokes.

Moses' girlfriend Tilli shows the Strike Team to the backyard, where people are barbecuing and pitbull puppies are wrestling with each other. Shane worries about talking to Moses in front of Kevin, given his and Vic's history with the guy. What if Moses mentions he killed Kern? "For Christ's sake, hold it together," says Vic. He can't afford for anything to go wrong with his appeal coming up.

"Mackey's lackeys," drawls Moses. Ronnie is crouched on the ground, playing with the puppies. Moses claims, "Low-level shit ain't my concerns." He's also not responsible for what his lieutenants do. Vic asks why Moses would care if Vantes and seven other guys quit the Niners?

"You got an eye cramp?" Moses asks a glaring Shane. The Southerner thought he was clear about Moses staying away from underage girls. Moses dismisses them.

Corinne reports that Graciela's drug test showed high levels of GHB. "Why write a girl a sonnet when you can slip her a Mickey?" shrugs Billings. The teen's rape kit was positive and someone carved the words "GO HOME" into her stomach. Corinne guesses the cuts are a couple of days old.

"There's no use in lying, Mahud. Two police officers saw you raping her," says Dutch. Mahud asserts, "I screw her, I no rape her." Billings asks if Mahud roofied Graciela. Mahud thought she looked like a hooker and she accepted his offer of $20 for sex. Was he supposed to stop when she passed out? "Yeah!" shouts Dutch, the "duh" quite obvious.

Mahud tells them to check Graciela's pocket for the money, then starts yelling at them in some other language (presumably Arabic). Dutch doesn't think he cut up Graciela.

Vantes framed his mugshot, supposedly to remind him of his wrongdoings. His mom isn't interested in helping the guys find him; he's safer on his own. Two carloads of suspicious men creep down the street. Vic tells Mama Vantes to go inside, then orders the gangbangers to move along. Mama Vantes says Niners have been driving back and forth all day.

Vic asks for helping finding Vantes so he doesn't get hurt. Mama Vantes isn't worried: "A lot of people think my boy is a hero." Vic gives her a business card: "If you want your son to be a live hero, not a dead martyr, have him call me."

"If I woulda known I was gonna see you today, I woulda worn that little top you like," flirts Tilli. Shane thought she'd stopped dating Moses: "I don't want him touching you." Tilli wraps her arms around his neck.

Shane wants to know who's after Vantes. Tilli thinks Angelo is only doing that because Moses has been hard on him. She gives Shane his address, hoping this won't get her in trouble. Shane says anyone who messes with her will be the one in trouble. They kiss. "End it with Moses today," Shane tells her.

Vic, Ronnie, and Claudette ponder their next move. The new captain wants to send a message that the police will protect people who want to get out of gangs. Vic wonders what happened to Shane. Ronnie thinks he's talking a CI from his Vice days. "Shane was in Vice? That explains a lot," says Kevin. Vic tosses Kevin's earlier words at him: "Just picture Shane with a puppy."

Vic tells Ronnie that's Kevin's interrogation technique. Ronnie laughs. Is Kevin try to get answers or get laid? They all have themselves a chuckle. "Glad to see everybody's havin' fun." Shane is back. "'Course, Lem's still dead. Anyone else give a shit?"

"Hey, man, we were just--" Kevin starts. Shane snaps that Kevin doesn't belong on the Strike Team; he isn't half the man or cop Lem was. He's tired of everyone pretending everything is normal: "I actually give a shit that he's gone."

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Vic follows Shane outside. Shane lights up a cigarette. His CI told him Angelo set up the shootings. Shane chokes up; he wants Lem back. "You keep this up, I'm not gonna be the only one around here that's not gonna have a job," Vic says quietly. Shane and Ronnie could be next; Lem wouldn't want that to happen.

Vic needs Kevin on his side. The rookie needing more guidance could sway the appeals panel in Vic's favor. They avenged Lem by killing Guardo. (Never mind that he was actually innocent). Shane can't stop thinking about Corinne's dream: "She said he was pissed. Said she'd never seen him like that." Vic wants to find Angelo and "save who we can save today."

Vantes calls Vic from what looks like an abandoned house; he wants to handle his own business. Vic offers protective custody. Moses knows Vantes talked to the cops. "DuBois wrote about the path of honor and humanity." If he dies, he'll still have that. Vantes wants Vic to stop looking for him and hangs up on him.

Edgar-veda is getting lunch from a taco truck on the outskirts of a construction site. He helped his friend Cruz get the project pushed through the housing commission. Cruz heard Edgar-veda has been promoting a "cleaner, kinder" police force. Edgar-veda nods that a bad apple recently "got himself killed." It's a hard sell when 12 Mexicans were murdered and there have been no arrests.

Edgar-veda can't help with that; the case was handed off to robbery/homicide. Cruz thinks if the department cared about murdered illegals, the case would already be solved. Construction workers on the site have told him a Salvadoran gang, La Raza Guanaca, was behind it. Farmington catching the murderer would make Edgar-veda's voters believe the police care about the Latino community. Never one to miss using a race-baiting opportunity for political gain, Edgar-veda smiles.

Dutch pulled the videotaped statement of a different runaway who said she was kidnapped. When he opens the observation room door, Danny is in the midst of pumping breast milk. Dutch's "oops" sounds a little disingenuous. Fellow mom Claudette says, "You can use my office anytime." Billings makes a crude gesture referring to how big Danny's breasts have gotten.

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The runaway on the tape is a black girl named Princess, who returned home a month later. She told her mom she'd been kidnapped, sodomized, and held prisoner for 2 weeks. Princess described her abductor as Latino and said she was drugged most of the time. The last thing she remembered prior to being captured was panhandling outside a burger restaurant.

On the tape, Princess says, "He kept saying, 'Go home now. Go home.'" The same phrase that was carved into Graciela. One morning, Princess woke up lying in the street and she went home. Dutch shuts off the tape. Things didn't add up for him; Princess refused a rape kit and her drug test was negative. Their perp cut Graciela; he's escalating. Claudette will have Princess's mom bring her in to be interviewed again.

Vic almost T-bones Moses' car. He doesn't believe Angelo set up the hit without being told. Vic reminds Moses he has two strikes; one more means life in prison. Moses is all "you wouldn't plant anything on me, would you?" Vic and Kevin get out of the car. Moses refuses to talk in front of the new kid.

When Kevin leaves, Moses flatly states Vantes has to die, but he'll let the others go. In return, he wants Vic to back off the One-Niners for 6 months. Vic will leave them be for 2 months, but he can't guarantee the uniforms won't hassle them; however, he can keep Kevin on a leash.

Kevin rejoins Vic, who fills him in on Moses' terms. Kevin thinks they should arrest Moses for conspiracy to commit murder. It's a no-can-do from Vic: "I took the deal. At least, that's what he thinks." He can't teach Kevin all his tricks right away.

Dutch passes out pictures of Princess. Her mom reported she's run away again. Dutch apologizes to Danny for walking in on her: "I know it's all perfectly natural."

"Wow! They put Hanlon on a poster," says Billings. The latest wall art shows her standing next to a Latino uniform. The slogan above their heads reads: THE NEW FACES OF YOUR POLICE. "Oh, great. She gets to be Miss Farmington, huh?" Danny grumbles.

Dutch asks the secretary where the poster came from. The department, stupid. Claudette elaborates, "The old 'new face' was caught filing bogus OT." Besides the posters, Tina will be making citywide public appearances.

Dutch is confused; he thought Tina wanted to be a detective. Claudette cryptically replies, "This is straight from the chief's office." Tina was selected after yesterday's publicity photo shoot.

Billings tells Dutch that Graciela just woke up and was able to describe her kidnapper to a sketch artist.

Julien drives the patrol car while Danny speaks Spanish into her cell phone. When she ends the call, she laments, "Can't afford a babysitter that speaks English." What happened to Vic's under-the-table child support? A gold car rolls past with a man lying across the hood and nobody driving. Julien gets out, puts the car in park, and shuts off the blaring rap music.

Vic knows Angelo has hits out on Vantes, Marlen, and Jason. "Fine way to treat your friends. What do you do on birthdays?" quips Kevin. Vic says Angelo can end this with one phone call. Angelo won't cooperate: "I didn't push the button. I can't un-push it." Maybe Kevin can make a deal if he gives up Moses.

Angelo chuckles, "Cop says 'deal,' you go to jail." If he goes along with this, he and his family are next on the hit list.

Vic's car and Shane's truck screech to a stop at Julien's crime scene. The victim isn't Vantes; his name is Danyel. A guy across the street is filming the cops with his camcorder. Looks like Moses didn't keep his end of the deal. "One down, three to go," drawls Shane.

A short time later, Vic has learned Vantes sent Danyel on a peace mission. Clearly, it backfired. Handcuffed Ray is dragged over to the car. Vic asks if Ray wants his friends to die like Danyel. Whoever killed him also stole his phone, so they'll know who he's been talking to. Vic says, "Vantes might be a revolutionary, but he ain't bulletproof." "How many funerals you wanna go to?" asks Ronnie.

Vic knows Ray's done a lot of bad things. Is he willing to do one last good deed for his friends? Ray thinks Vante's cousin Aquille might know where Marlen, Vantes, and Jason are.

The guys knock on Aquille's door. When he doesn't answer, Kevin mutters, "Hell with it" and kicks it down. Vic spots a gun on the coffee table and asks, "Sending your cousin on a little trip? Where's Vantes?"

Graciela only remembers one other detail about her rapist: a red mask. Billings pulls Dutch to a corner of the room: "Girls this age need a gentle touch." That came out much creepier than I hope he intended. Billings thinks she'll open up to him because he's a great father. "Two weekends a month?" asks Dutch.

Out in the hall, Dutch says to Corinne, "Sometimes I think humans need a subspecies to categorize these bastards." She reports that Vic seems better. Dutch tells her about Kevin taking over when Vic retires. "That's not for years," says Corinne. Dutch asks if she's aware the department is forcing Vic out on his 15th anniversary, which is less than a month away.

Edgar-veda wants Claudette's take on Kevin. "He's nothing like Vic. I love him," she says. The councilman has learned from an anonymous source that a Salvadoran gang committed the San Marcos machete murders.

Kevin's stint with INS makes him the perfect guy to investigate; he had the case kicked back to the Barn: "Handled correctly, this could be the big PR win we need." "Or a crime stats nightmare that shuts this door forever," says Claudette. To Edgar-veda's way of thinking, a dozen solved murders could keep the door open.

Ronnie wires Ray for sound. Claudette brings Kevin to her office and hands him the personnel file of a possible Strike Team addition. Kevin has noticed Vic likes to deceive suspects into thinking he'll do things that aren't exactly legal and then flips the script on them. Vic's reputation could have more to do with perception than reality. Claudette doesn't think so: "Vic is showing you his good side because it's in his best interest."

Vic tosses Ray in the cage. Billings overhears Dutch leaving Tina a voicemail. Dutch has a profile on whoever abducted Graciela: a single dad whose daughter died prematurely or disappeared and is trying to teach his victims a lesson. Going home would be "good advice if it didn't involve kidnapping, rape, and torture."

Billings hits Dutch where he lives, opining that profiling is overrated. Dutch just likes to make up stories "like the one about you and Tina." She's out of his league, especially as far as appearance. Dutch points out his partner isn't exactly Adonis. "Helping her improve her skills had nothing to do with any interest in her," Dutch lies. Other people don't see how talented Tina is.

Billings thinks Dutch took advantage like their perp, "except your drug of choice was power and the false hope of career advancement." Dutch has developed a reputation for wanting what he can't have: Corinne, widows of murder victims, female uniforms. Dutch argues his job is time-consuming, so where else is he supposed to meet women?

Princess is bitter: "Congratulations on getting another girl ass-raped." Claudette apologizes for not believing her. "Ain't no never mind to me. I cried my tears all out," says the girl. Mom isn't happy either: "I gave this girl a whipping based on you telling me she lied. And now you're telling me she didn't?"

Claudette explains there was a lack of corroborating evidence at the time. Can she remember any new details that may help them? Princess's kidnapper her kept her locked in a girl's bedroom, "only from a long time ago. The posters on the wall were all whack. White boys in these gay poses."

Kinda like these?

Princess remembers one of the bands was called "65 Degrees or something." I was always more of an NSYNC girl, but I loved the 98 Degrees song from Mulan. Billings knows about 98 Degrees too; he took his oldest daughter to their concert. Dutch shows Princess the sketch from Graciela's file. "Those are his eyes," the teen says instantly.

In the clubhouse, Vic stares morosely into a box of books that just arrived. Shane reads a note stapled to the packing slip: "Not looking forward to the 8-by-10 cell or fighting for the top bunk...but I figure the least I can do is come out smarter than when I went in. Send these to me wherever I land. I'll miss you. Lem."

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According to the receipt, Lem ordered the books online the night before he skipped town. This library runs the gamut: art, sports, history, Stephen King, Birds of America, Dreams and What They Mean. Sounds like my own bookshelf. Shane is on the verge of bawling. He recovers enough to ask what Vic wants to do with them.

"Vantes is a big reader, right?" asks Vic, "We're gonna find him and the other two. We're gonna send them someplace peaceful. Safe." He's sure Vantes will appreciate the books.

In the Barn parking lot, Corinne confronts Vic about his impending forced retirement. Does he think his child support checks will magically show up in her mailbox? "I've always taken care of the kids," says Vic, which is true, at least financially. Corinne agrees with that assessment, but knows it's cost Vic more than dollars.

Shane comes outside with a location on Vantes. Before leaving, Vic tells Corinne, "I'm not gonna lose my job." Don't make promises you can't keep.

Danny hopes what she pumped today will be enough to last Lee through tomorrow. She snaps at Julien, accusing him of being judgmental about her being an unwed mother and almost immediately apologizes. Julien smiles, "It beats riding with Tina." I imagine anything would be.

Claudette has suggested that Julien be brought onto the Strike Team, but he doesn't want to work with Vic. Claudette tells him he'd be working for Kevin. The job comes with a pay raise and prestige. "It may still be called the Strike Team, but it's a different animal."

Julien agrees to the promotion. Claudette smiles and tells him he starts tomorrow. Let's hope things work out better than they did for Lem, Terry, and Tavon.

Vic and the guys cautiously walk through the abandoned house seen earlier in the episode, looking for Vantes. "He's here!" cries one of his friends, "He's hurt! He got shot this morning!" Vantes is lying on a dirty mattress, a red stain on his white T-shirt and a hole in his stomach. "And you just let him bleed?" snaps Vic. He should know gangbangers avoid hospitals, mandatory police notification and all that.

One of Vantes' friends says he was afraid Moses would find them. Vantes wouldn't even let them tell Aquille. Vantes moans something about the Niners. "Shit, he's going into shock," says Vic. Kevin calls an ambulance. Vic talks to Vantes, a steady stream of "Stay with me."

Vantes passes out, his breathing sounds funny. Vic knows there's no time to wait for EMS. He and Shane carry Vantes out to the car. Vic drives erratically while Shane sits in the backseat with Vantes. "Stay awake!" Vic shouts, "Your mom wants you to come home." He adds through gritted teeth, "You're not gonna die on me. I'm not gonna let you die."

Vic and Shane haul Vantes' limp form through the ER doors, screaming, "We need a doctor!" Vic spots Corinne in one of the trauma rooms and knocks desperately on the glass. Shane, who put a blanket over Vantes' upper body, shakes his head grimly.

Vic clutches his head and starts babbling: "Lem--In the dream--Did Lem--Your dream was--" Corinne frowns confusedly; she can't hear him. Vic punches a hole in the wall and throws a chair. Corinne leaves the relative safety of the trauma room to deal with her overwrought ex-husband just as Vic turns over a table. A security guard tells him to cut it out. "It's all right, we're cops," says Shane.

Vic heaves around an end table and a few more chairs. Out of furniture to throw, he paces, grunting and panting. Vic turns around. He realizes Kevin, Shane, and Claudette all witnessed his breakdown. Patients stare as Vic leaves. He just gets in his car like nothing happened. End of episode.

Start "Back to One" (Episode 6.3)

Previously on: Shane killed Lem by tossing a live hand grenade in his car. Vic swore to avenge him and assumed weapons smuggler Guardo was involved. He fake-kidnapped Guardo's girlfriend Lydia, demanding a $50,000 ransom. Kavanaugh confessed to getting Emolia to lie for him; he's now in jail and stripped of his badge, just like Lem was.

At the safe house, Nydia asks why no one else is watching her. Vic thinks he can handle it. He won't let her call Guardo; doing so might tip off the nonexistent kidnappers. This could be an inside job, so it's best Guardo not know anything. Nydia should wait until Guardo calls her.

Corinne brings Shane a box of hand-me-down toys for Jackson. Shane's Mr. Mom today because Mara is showing a house. Corinne heard the charges against Vic were dropped. She feels guilty for telling Kavanaugh about the money Vic gave her; if she hadn't said anything, maybe Lem would be alive. "Sweetie, no, Lem's not your fault," says Shane.

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Shane, of course, blames Kavanaugh. The Rat King is far from innocent in the situation, but he's not the one who pulled the pin.

Corinne worries that Vic hasn't been himself. What'll he do if he finds whoever killed Lem? Shane "lost one of my closest, most dearest friends" and can't stand the idea of losing Vic. Corinne feels Vic has grown distant from the kids, though part of that is her fault for not wanting Vic around. Shane promises he won't let grief stop Vic from being a good dad.

Nydia is suspicious; she's never heard of Salceda, the guy who's supposedly trying to kill Guardo. Vic thinks it's unlikely she'd know a guy who wants to take over Guardo's business. Mexicans would be thrilled to replace a Salvadoran. Maybe Vic should just let Salceda do that. Nydia stomps toward the bathroom. Vic tells her to leave her phone behind.

A drug store manager, pharmacy tech, and cashier all lie murdered behind the counter. Billings exposits that the suspects came in right at opening, shot the employees, and stole ephedrine. For those who don't know, ephedrine is a type of allergy medicine that can be used to make meth. He figures the killers were tweakers in search of a quick fix. A cook needing ingredients is an equally likely scenario.

Claudette wonders what the higher-ups will think of Farmington having two multiple murders within a few weeks of each other. "Spoken like a true captain," says Billings. He then apologizes to Dutch for resisting the idea of them being partners; they make a good team. As far as Dutch is concerned, the jury is still out on that.

"Your weaknesses are my strengths," Billings goes on, listing arrogance, overconfidence (same thing), and inability to give credit to other people. Dutch thinks Claudette is smarter than Billings (the K-9 unit dogs probably have higher IQs than our balding friend). Billings makes a good scapegoat if Dutch's closure rate goes down.

Shane tells Vic they should back off Nydia. The surviving Strike Team members are all out from under IAD's microscope for the first time in forever; they shouldn't borrow trouble. Vic refuses to allow Lem's death to go unanswered. Shane suggests telling Nydia they found Salceda, then going after Guardo again in a couple of months.

"The department doesn't want this case solved because it opens old wounds," says Vic. They hung Lem out to dry and branded him a dirty cop. "That makes us the only ones who care enough to make that right." True, it doesn't sound like the other Lemanskys gave a damn about him, dead or alive. Ronnie agrees that they owe Lem. Vic sends him and Shane to the Barn for more guns, just in case.

Shane asks how he's supposed to explain being there on his day off. If Claudette asks, they should say they're cleaning out Lem's locker. They need to get to the truth.

But, seriously, Vic, you can't.
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Vic warns, "This thing's gonna get a lot uglier before it gets better."

Claudette and Dutch watch surveillance video from the drug store. He estimates the shooters are in their 30's and they don't look like tweakers. 12 boxes of ephedrine are missing from the store's inventory. Claudette noticed one of the suspects has tattoos, so there could be an Aryan or biker gang connection. Well, they're too far south for it to have been any of the Reaper Crew.

Dutch suggests she hand off the drug murder to the Strike Team and put him back on Lem's murder. Claudette thought he ran out of leads. Dutch did too, but the name Hernan keeps coming up during interviews.

Hernan Alvarez, perchance?
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Dutch bets Hernan is smart, has something to hide, or both. Claudette wants him to stay on the pharmacy case.

In the clubhouse, Shane and Ronnie zip Lem's favorite shotgun into a case. "You two still work here?" asks Claudette. Shane tells her he's taking personal time. Ronnie, the second most honest, blurts, "I used mine up on my wisdom teeth." You didn't have those taken out in high school?

Claudette needs them both if they're still on the clock. Ronnie heads to the parking lot with the gun case. Shane gives her the story they're picking up Lem's things. Claudette is glad she didn't have to bring that up; the Barn is short on lockers. How's Vic holding up? "We lost a friend," Shane shrugs. Claudette wants Vic back at work ASAP.

Billings struck out; the picture from the video doesn't match any known gang tats. "Looks like some kinda bird," says Dutch. If the suspects weren't male, I'd suggest a SAMCRO old lady, say, Wendy? They ask Ronnie for an opinion. He guesses it could be Navy ink. Claudette asks Ronnie to help Dutch and Billings. She wants the case closed before the cooks need more Sudafed.

"I don't need another person to babysit," Dutch gripes. Claudette reminds him who said drug cases are the Strike Team's turf. Besides, if Shane and Vic are hunting Lem's killer, Dutch might hear about it through Ronnie.

Nydia answers her phone. Vic grabs it from her and goes outside. He tells Guardo that his girlfriend is alive for now, but he shouldn't count on talking to her again. Right about then, Shane arrives in the van.

Guardo threatens to kill Vic if he touches Nydia. Vic responds with a threat of his own: He'll make Guardo listen while he rapes and kills Nydia. To avoid that, Guardo needs to drop the ransom in the trash can by the lake at MacArthur Park.

Guardo thinks he can be in L.A. by the day after tomorrow. Vic is curious what the cartels will think of a guy who can't protect his own girlfriend. Guardo changes his tune; he'll be there in three hours. Vic tells him to come alone. Once he has the money, he'll reveal Nydia's location.

Vic hangs up and asks where Ronnie is. Shane shakes his head: "He blew threw his goddamn personal days on his teeth." What if Guardo tries to set them up? Vic wants to go to the park early and check for traps.

Dutch isn't having any luck trying to reach a fed, Agent Zinman, about Hernan. Ronnie checked Navy records against L.A. residents who lost military benefits due to felony convictions and found a match. "We can wrap this up by dinner," Billings says enthusiastically, offering his hand for a fist-bump.

Ronnie advises Dutch to stay behind him as they approach their suspect's house. There's a BEWARE OF DOG sign and a drooling bullmastiff in the yard. Ronnie kicks in the door. A woman calls out, "Tommy, is that you?" "I have an arrest warrant for Tom Franklin. Where is he?" Ronnie's tone is all business. Tommy's sister Lisa thinks he might be working in the detached garage.

Ronnie breaks the lock. And what to his wondering eyes should appear but a meth lab. Lisa claims to have no idea Tommy was making drugs; he told her he was fixing a car. Tommy was gone when she woke up today. Dutch informs her, "Your brother killed three people." Lisa, who appears to be perfectly able-bodied and of sound mind, asks, "If he's not here, who's gonna take care of me?"

Vic watches the trash can through his binoculars. Shane speculates Guardo could've been south of the border when Lem was killed. "Then he ordered it and he knows who did," says Vic, "He'll give it up for his life." Nydia is in the van, which is parked behind them. Guardo is still about two hours away.

Shane tells Vic about Corinne's worries over what Vic might do and how it could affect the kids. Vic promises he'll visit them after they deal with Guardo. Why doesn't Shane check on Nydia?

"Hello, Sergeant. Welcome back," Dutch greets Danny. She reports another pharmacy has been robbed. No casualties except cabinets, but all the ephedrine was stolen.

Edgar-veda introduces Claudette to Skip Osaka, a photographer who wants to take publicity shots of some of the officers. Hey, It's That Guy! Ken Jeong has been a sitcom fixture recently as Senor Chang on Community and starring in his own short-lived show Dr. Ken. Claudette invites Skip to set up his equipment on an open desk.

"After Lemansky, they thought it was a good idea that the department get some good PR," the councilman explains, "We both want this place to survive, so I made sure that the Barn gets its shot too." The only publicity Claudette wants is lower crime stats. As a reservist, they naturally want pictures of Edgar-veda himself in uniform too.

Two carloads of Mexicans park near the drop-off point. "We need an army, Vic," says Shane, "With the shit these guys might be packing, I'm talking literally." Vic wants to wait to make sure Guardo is coming.

Tina tells Dutch the pharmacy robbers herded all the employees to the back of the store and broke the drug cabinets. Leticia the assistant manager IDs Tom's photo. The other suspect looked a lot like him. She didn't see what kind of car they were in and wonders why she wasn't killed like the people at the other pharmacy.

"Probably didn't have enough bullets," Ronnie guesses quietly. When Billings praises Ronnie's investigative work, Dutch actually pouts. Ronnie goes to the sidewalk to take a call from Vic. Dutch is looking over his shoulder, so Ronnie lets Vic know he can't talk. He pretends to Dutch that he was talking to a uniform who just arrested Tom.

Tom's buddy is good at avoiding cameras, meaning only Tom himself is on the hook for two armed robberies and three murders. "The Berkeley Law grads in the D.A.'s office are gonna be tearing each other's eyes out to get this case," Dutch says. Highly graphic and specific imagery there.

Tom didn't shoot anyone; it was his cousin Bobby: "He made a deal with some dude in the Horde to cook up 20 pounds of meth."

For the love of--I said "Horde," not "Nords." You're dismissed, Darby.
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The cousins had never cooked that much before. A Mexican was supposed to supply the ephedrine, but their connection showed up with plants. "So you started killing people?" Dutch frowns confusedly.

Bobby refused to back out of the deal; he'd already been paid and spent the money on a Harley. Robbing pharmacies was the only way to get ephedrine, but no one was supposed to get hurt. They can probably find Bobby in Van Nuys with his new lady friend.

Guardo stops by the trash can to drop off Nydia's ransom. Shane tells her to stay in the van and gets in Vic's car. "He's got 10 guys between us and him," Shane worries. Well, they're not really after the money anyway. Vic bets Guardo is hiding someplace. "What if he's not there alone?" Shane asks.

Vic tells him to take Nydia back to the safe house while he tails Guardo. They probably have half an hour before anyone gets suspicious. Shane wants Vic to call him when he knows where Guardo is. "If there's time," Vic says. Shane begs Vic to wait until he's there as backup.

Vic follows Guardo to a house. Ronnie is on a stakeout and can't get away. Dutch asks him if Vic is all right. "He's dealing with things his own way," Ronnie answers cryptically. Dutch brags he was the first one to figure out Kavanaugh was lying. Bobby arrives on his brand-new motorcycle, his girlfriend riding on the back.

Nope, not that Bobby.
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The three detectives move in. Ronnie pushes Bobby against a wall. Bobby's old lady tries to pull Ronnie off her man. Uniform backup arrives. Bobby isn't listening to Ronnie's directions, so Ronnie punches him in the face. "Now you'll roll over," he says calmly. A uniform cuffs Bobby. Ronnie's knuckles are scraped open. Tina looks impressed.

Vic approaches Guardo's hideout, wearing a bulletproof vest and toting what looks like Lem's trusty shotgun. He takes a breath to steel himself, then kicks in the back door. Vic stops Guardo from climbing out the bedroom window. "Officer, you're not going to find anything here," Guardo says. Au contraire, mon ami. Vic pokes him in the stomach with the shotgun, then knocks him to the floor.

Meanwhile, Shane lies to Nadia that Salceda was hiding at Guardo's. Guardo isn't actually in town, but Salceda bought the rumor. Shane parks outside the safe house. Nydia thanks him for protecting her; she's about a month pregnant and Guardo doesn't know yet. Before leaving, Nydia plants a chaste kiss on Shane's cheek.

Dutch tells Claudette they recovered the gun and stolen ephedrine. Billings praises Ronnie for the assist. Nobody seems to notice the tension in Ronnie's voice as he asks, "So I guess we're done, right?" Not quite.

Tina is gung-ho to go after the Horde; Tom and Bobby are supposed to give them meth. "There is no meth," Dutch reminds her. They're not making a deal with murderers to get drug dealers. "The Horde doesn't know there's no meth," says Claudette. They could offer leniency for Tom.

Dutch wants to turn the case over to the D.A. The Horde is notoriously difficult to bust; Bobby gives them a valuable in. The bikers don't know what Tom looks like, so Ronnie can pose as him. Ronnie going after bikers?

This is oddly familiar...
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Vic brings a handcuffed Guardo to an abandoned house. If this is about money, Guardo offers to get more. Vic takes off his leather jacket and puts it over Guardo's face. He cuffs Guardo's hands in front, then ties a rope linking the cuffs to a pipe in the ceiling.

Guardo wants a lawyer. Vic pulls the jacket off his face and surprisingly doesn't say something along the lines of "You're gonna want a doctor in a minute."

Guardo asks what this is all about. "You killed my friend a week ago. You tossed a grenade in his car and blew his guts out," says Vic. Guardo pleads both innocence and ignorance. Vic doesn't believe him, demanding, "Who led you to him?" He's sure Guardo ordered the hit.

Guardo wants to know if Vic hurt Nydia. Vic ignores that: "His name was Curtis Lemansky. He was a good cop. He was my friend and you killed him. All I want is to hear you say it." Guardo's been in Mexico for the last two weeks. At this, Vic actually snorts like an angry bull.

Shane enters the house and sees what Vic is up to. "Your friend is making a mistake," says Guardo. Vic won't let Guardo leave until he hears every detail of what happened to Lem. Maybe they can persuade him through Nydia. Vic tells Shane to bring Nydia in and undress her.

Guardo heard Lino Prieto killed Lem. He's none too pleased that Prieto didn't go through proper gang channels for approval. Guardo doesn't know how Prieto found Lem: "[He's] the one who should be hanging here, not me." "If you're telling the truth, he will be," says Vic, leaving Shane to guard their prisoner.

Vic calls Ronnie, asking him to look up Prieto. Ronnie is channeling his fallen comrade's fashion sense in a gray sweatshirt with the sleeves cut short. He's just typed Prieto's name into the computer when Dutch loudly clears his throat behind him. "Do you need something?" Ronnie snaps. Dutch says it's time to leave. Ronnie quietly gives Vic Prieto's last known address; Vic will have to do this mission solo.

At Prieto's apartment, his brother answers the door. Vic checks Filberto's ID and asks where his brother went. Filberto's answer is a surprise: Lino's been in jail for almost a month. Filberto's been taking care of Lino's wife Margie and his brother's kids. Vic implies Filberto and Margie must be having an affair, then adds, "Guardo says your brother killed a friend of mine. A cop."

Filberto doubts it; Lino's always been a liar. He was stupid to join a gang, but he's no murderer. Lino is currently locked up for stealing a car while he was drunk and crashing it into a store. Vic asks, "Why would Guardo give me your brother's name?" The oldest motive in the book: jealousy. Nydia told Guardo she thought Lino was good-looking. "You keep this visit to yourself, you'll never see me again," Vic promises.

At a gas station, Bobby hopes the Horde won't show up. Ronnie tells him not to count on that. Billings, in a separate stakeout car with Dutch, opines, "I like Ronnie. He's quiet, but there's something there." He wishes he could join the Strike Team, have some fun and excitement. "Yeah," Dutch mutters in a bored tone, "it's too bad you get those headaches."

Three bikers ride up to the gas station. Ronnie introduces himself as Tom. The Horde asks to see the product. Ronnie passes over a paper bag. As soon as the biker takes it, two things happen: Bobby bolts and Ronnie draws his gun. Uniforms, Dutch, and Billings converge to arrest everyone. Tina pats Ronnie on the arm: "Thanks for making me look good to the captain." Well, she always has had a thing for older men. Ronnie smiles, no doubt thinking, 'I wish Lem were here to tease me about this.'

At the Barn, Dutch is a bit cool toward Tina, likely because she was flirting with Ronnie. Our bearded friend appears, asking if Dutch and Billings can cover his portion of the paperwork. Ronnie gives Tina a bat on the back as he leaves. Meanwhile, Billings is entertaining the squadroom with an exaggerated version of his exploits. Someone tells him, "You're the man" without a trace of mockery.

By now, it's dark in the abandoned house. Guardo wants to be let go. "Shut up, shithead," Shane grumbles, holding his temple like he's got a migraine. Guardo swears they got the wrong guy, a fact Shane is well aware of. Guardo offers to give up enough intel for them to take down the whole gang, repeating that he didn't kill Lem.

"What about that backyard barbecue you blew up, huh?" asks Shane. (AKA the incident that gave him the awful idea in the first place). He shouts about having to walk through the dead kids' blood. "I'll give you money. Make you rich. What do you want?" Guardo whispers. Shane's reply is almost inaudible: "Peace."

Guardo knows he wouldn't be here if Shane were an honest cop. He could untie Guardo and make up a story about how he escaped. Shane puffs on his cigarette: "I don't like the way blood money spends." He tells Guardo that Nydia is pregnant.

Vic comes back and punches Guardo in the chest. He knows Guardo was lying about Prieto. "Come on, Vic, man," Shane pleads as Vic removes a coil of chain from the duffel bag. You can stop this, Shane, with just three simple words: "I killed Lem."

Vic doubles the chain back on itself, asking Guardo who told him about Lem. Was it Emolia or Kavanaugh? When he doesn't get an answer, Vic whips him with the chain. "I didn't do it!" Guardo shrieks. Vic hits him again.

Dutch didn't get anything new about Lem from Ronnie, "just a couple of phone calls he didn't want me to hear." He lies that working with Billings is okay. Dutch hasn't found Hernan yet. He asks if Claudette ever felt like she was carrying him on her back when they were partners. "You made me a better detective," she replies.

Guardo is now semi-conscious and whipped bloody. "Just tell me what I wanna know and this'll be over," Vic tells the arms dealer. Ronnie is now watching from the corner. Vic hits Guardo twice. "Who else was involved?" Vic demands. Guardo's words are slurred as he protests, "I don't know nothing." Shane is all "Vic, maybe you should stop." Of course, Vic doesn't listen.

Vic's voice is guttural, almost insane as he accuses, "It was Emolia! That Salvadoran slut tipped you off, I know it!" Shane loudly states that Guardo might really be innocent. Vic rounds on his best friend, "If it wasn't Guardo, who was it?!" Shane thinks Guardo should've given up a name by now. Ronnie finds it more likely Guardo was working alone. "Come on, this is crazy!" says Shane.

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Vic bellows, "He killed Lem!" He knows Shane and Ronnie haven't forgotten how bad Lem looked when they found him. "Don't you think he deserves to die for what he did?!" "Look, I want you not to do this for me," says Shane. Vic snaps, "Why not?" For a wild second, I think Shane might actually tell the truth. Instead, he says Guardo has lots of money.

That answer doesn't calm Vic down in the slightest: "You're gonna put a price on Lem's life?" Shane shrugs that it always comes down to their families and futures. Guardo says the worst thing possible: "I'm glad your friend died." Vic gives him another smack with the chain.

Shane steps between Vic and Guardo. If Guardo dies, they lose their chance to find out what happened. Guardo wasn't the only one involved and...

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Vic tosses the chain to the floor. He's sweaty, wild-eyed, and exhausted. Suddenly, he draws his gun and shoots Guardo. Shane flinches. Guardo, suspended from the ceiling, swings grotesquely. Vic sighs: "You're right. If he had a real name to tell us, he would've. He acted alone."

Now it's time to dump the body. "As long as Guardo's at large, he'll always remain the primary suspect in Lem's death," says Ronnie. In shock, Shane says, "We just killed somebody." That's rich coming from you.

Dutch gives Tina a pep talk: "Detective work isn't as sexy, but it's where brainpower like yours really gets utilized." Really now? I have friends in uniform and in pretty much every police department, being a detective is considered the most glamorous job. He suggests Tina start keeping a library of interesting cases. She should also think like a detective 24/7/365.

Tina asks if Dutch really has a crime library. (It's probably more like a shrine in his closet). Dutch offers to take her to his place and let her see it sometime. As Claudette once said in another episode, "What kinda back-door con is that?" Tina falls for it.

Dutch pulls into his driveway, blasting "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. He sure has a thing for 1980's one-hit wonders. Dutch brings up the idea of ordering Chinese food and cracking open a bottle of wine. "I-Is this a date?" Tina stammers. Dutch asks, "Do you want it to be?" Tina answers with another question: Does he have a girlfriend?

There's a woman on his porch who turns out to be Zinman, the ICE agent Dutch was trying to call earlier. She can tell him more about Hernan if Tina isn't around.

Vic dumps Guardo's naked, battered corpse in a hole. He, Shane, and Ronnie pour bleach and gas over him. Shane lights the match.

"Hernan is undercover in the Salvadoran organization," Zinman explains. She can't compromise that. Dutch needs to stop trying to find Hernan. Dutch refuses: "A cop was killed by the Salvadorans." Zinman is aware of that. She also knows Guardo didn't do it.

Dutch argues being out of the country doesn't mean Guardo didn't order the hit; grenades are his calling card. Guardo is stateside now, but Zinman won't let Dutch use Hernan to find him. "This isn't a pissing contest. It's an order," says the federal agent.

The guys are back in the Barn, dealing with the matter of Lem's locker. "Guy ever clean this thing out?" asks Vic, wrinkling his nose as he holds up a pair of sneakers, "It's like being back in high school." Ronnie points to a photo of himself, Vic, and Shane. Lem took it with a disposable camera confiscated from a drug dealer. Ronnie chuckles: "Almost got the case thrown out." "Tampering with evidence," Vic says with a grin.

Shane is sitting on the other side of the locker room, not lifting a finger to help. Vic wants Shane to have the picture. Claudette comes in and asks how they're holding up. "Just had my first good night's sleep in a while," says Vic. He politely declines taking the rest of his personal days.

Claudette has file for them on Kevin Hiatt, who used to work for INS and joined LAPD a year ago. Starting next week, he'll be assigned to Farmington. "You're not adding anybody to my team that I don't have approval of," says Vic. We're talking about your job, not Cassidy's date to Homecoming.

"He's not your addition; he's your replacement," Claudette corrects. Vic's 15-year anniversary (and forced retirement) is fast approaching. The guys go quiet. With everything that's happened recently, they must've forgotten all about that. End of episode.