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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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."
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.
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.
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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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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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.
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