April 24, 2007: The New Guy
A big hearty handshake (well, not from Shane) goes out to Alex O'Loughlin, aka Detective Kevin Hiatt, as he begins his tour of duty in Farmington. Boy, he has no clue what he's being thrown into!
This was a nice semi-setup episode to get us ready for what we saw in the preview. For the first time this season, chasing Lem's killer wasn't No. 1 on the list. We saw new drama unfold and even got back to the slaughterhouse briefly, while the Lem situation still stewed in the background a bit. Of course, that's not to say that the strike team was thinking about Lem at all. Corinne brings him up with this dream of hers (more on that later), and a box of books that Lem bought arrives at the barn. Plus, the new guy is a painful reminder that the team is one short.
Right away, Hiatt learns how Vic operates when he's told to stay down as Vic storms a house. This doesn't sit well with Hiatt, but butting heads with Vic is certainly not the path to go down. I love the fact that Claudette is still playing Vic and Hiatt knows about it. Vic really thinks he's got an appeal hearing, but Hiatt knows that Vic is definitely on the way out. I'm curious to see how that plays out in the end. It's strange to see the almighty Vic Mackey not picking up on what Claudette is doing. He's always been able to see through the smoke and get to the bottom of things, but this season, he's not picking up on situations as well. And I love that. Why? Because it's realistic. He's had a rough go of it lately and it seems like the blinders are on. We all go through stages like that, so I like seeing Vic go through it as well, though he is still more on top of his game than I ever would be in his situation.
There are a lot of things going on besides that as well. The Mexican-slaughterhouse case is back in Claudette's lap so she can solve it and bring the number of closed cases back up in Farmington. Claudette doesn't quite see it this way, though - for her it's more like an extra body count is being dumped on her, especially since at least a half dozen 1-9ers have gone down in this one.
We also have a new open case with the sexual assualt that happened. Did you see that girl's stomach? "Go home" carved on it? Ouch. The biggest revelation in this whole story is that Claudette and Dutch got a case wrong. They didn't believe the last victim of this crime and so they did nothing to prevent another one from happening (and who knows, maybe another).
Then of course we have the whole festering relationship between Billings and Dutch. A few of the comments from last week mentioned that some of you look at Steve as simple comic relief, so I decided to look at it from that perspective this week and I have to say, I didn't dislike him as much as I have in the past. When Claudette was handing the assault case off to Dutch, I had to laugh at Billings comment: "I love the smell of underage sexual assault in the morning." Oh my! That statement would have gotten me a trip straight to the TV Guide human-resources department. But Billings just got a few shocked looks and some eye-rolling. I laughed again when he called Dutch out on his attempted "dating," saying that Dutch has "a pattern of sh**ing where you eat." Ha! And Billings probably has never said anything more true. I can't forget him motioning how large Danny has become or the fact that he knew who 98 Degrees was, either.
Then there was Vic trying to keep Vantes, a reformed 1-9er, from getting killed. That's awful nice of Vic, wouldn't you say? It's a shame that all of Vic's work didn't keep Vantes alive. It's also a shame that silence and brotherhood trump saving a life. If only Vantes' friends had given up the location sooner. And now we have to go back to discussing the dream, since after Vantes died at the hospital Vic went nuts again and started mumbling about it. I could be completely off base, but the dream had to do with Lem and burgers that were overcooked so the center wasn't bloody, and there at the end is Vantes with blood coming out of his gut. Am I onto something here? I could be grasping at straws, but that's all I really got out of it. If you understand what the dream meant and how it tied into the final scene, I'd love to know your thoughts on it.
And Julian? The strike team? I don't see that being a very good match, do you?
Until next week, friends.
