I do not believe that Mackey will go down in a hailstorm of bullets. I think what will happen to him will be what he most dreads, but what will best suit him in the long run: arrest, conviction and imprisonment. We'll only see the arrest part, considering there are only a few eps left and it will end with a bang, not a whimper. But killing him off would be an anticlimax; everyone will be best served by a Vic Mackey in the pen. Maybe that's wishful thinking, because every conflicting emotion Ms. Havrilesky expresses could be my own -- as despicable as Mackey is, we have been with him every step, making his way through the murky gray areas of his job. Even good ol' Ronnie has ended up damaged and dead-eyed at this point in the show, and Mackey is entirely to blame. And I don't know if Dutch can go any deeper down than strangling a cat, truly his nadir, but I'm suspecting he will...oh my, what a show, I will miss it deeply!

I thought that Mackey is going to be enjoying an extended dirt nap, too, but Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly claims that the finale ends in a way that's "insanely satisfying," so...

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20238932,00.html

I even like the beginnings, where they alternate the intro and the show and you're 12 minutes into the show before they hit you with a commercial. At that point, I'm gut-hooked.

Like Ms. Havrilesky, I often compare it the Sopranos and I liked the Sopranos ending, which was vague. To me, it's an artist's concession that they don't know what happens next in the story and expecting them to know is just silly: like us, they're along for the ride.

And what a ride Vic has given us.

I'd rather have him die than be caged. If you're going to cage him, then nearly all of us should share cage time with him, for the desire for an enforcer who gets the dirty deed done is common. Vic just manifests that desire. For us.

Vic is our dream come true.

...when I have, it's been impressive. I can't imagine the writers weaseling out of a bloody end to Vic Mackey. What I can imagine, though, is that when he dies, the world ends. That is, there will be no legacy.

I'm reminded of Dominic Flandry, the secret agent and warrior of Poul Anderson's science fiction stories. Like Mackey, he worked in a dying, toxic environment - not contemporary Los Angeles, but the declining century of the Terran Empire, dying of both internal rot and external enemies. (Very much like the United States seems now.) Flandry sold pieces of his soul with each mission, losing every woman he truly loved and even exectuing his own son by his first mistress as a traitor to the Empire. And all of it just to delay the Long Night, the fall of the Empire and of civilization, until the end of his life.

Flandry got to retire as a diplomat, and he died before the Empire did. But then, Anderson was a romantic. Whatever you can say about Mackey's world, it wasn't created by romantics. And all his blood and angst will, ultimately, result in nothing. The Long Night will go on in Los Angeles, seemingly forever.

As a huge Shield fan, I'm sorry to see it coming to an end, too, but I'm also disappointed by the direction of the show this season. It's veering way to close to parody at this point: The blackmail box has been a lousy MacGuffin and the Mexican mob vs. the Armenian mob storyline made the characters go through some pretty unconvincing moments.

Acevada looks like he's just going through the motions at this point and too many other characters are getting short-changed. Even Vic doesn't seem to be thinking anything out; what was with that scene where he tried to kill Shane and Mara at the hospital? How on earth did he think he'd get away with that?

Maybe it's just that the show had such high standards before, but I'm sad to see it going out like this. I'm hopeful the final few weeks will turn it around.

all the chickens come home to roost and it's all spiralling down to hell

It's such a great twist on typical heroism. A lying, murdering, desperate cop on the run with his wife and sick child - with no one to fall back on. Scamming his way into hospitals, squatting in empty houses...trying at the same time to protect his family and get away with murder.

And showing that borderline sociopathic loyalty to his wife and child. Telling her she should turn herself in - and her refusing to do it. Her saying that they have to stay together - and then trying to figure out how they can blackmail, extort or otherwise evilly ensure their getaway.

There's such incredible suspense in these scenes, because he's both an underdog and a mad dog. And we know that not only could Shane get it at any moment, but he ***utterly deserves*** to. And what Vic will do to them if he has a chance, can really only be imagined.

And Corinne, Claudette, Dutch, Dutch's gray-zone slacker partner - all these characters are illuminated from within by strong actors bringing their A+ game. I can't wait until the end. Ms. Havrilesky's absolutely right - it's shaping up for a big big ending.

As a big fan of The Wire (and several HBO series in general) I'm curious: I've heard great things about The Shield but am afraid I'd get season 1, watch it and go, "Meh... It's no Wire..." Would you recommend the series to me (keeping in mind that where I am I can't just Netflix it)?

One thing I'm a bit worried about is that there may be something reactionary to it, dressed up as moral ambiguity: i.e. characters doing what needs to be done, screw the law (or indeed ethics), and it's questionable but it still gives us a visceral thrill... Is this something the series does?