The Shield Series Finale

Seven seasons, 88 episodes, and it all comes down to this. Vic Mackey, one of television's greatest anti-heroes, finally got what was coming to him. The Shield is over and Tuesday nights across America just got a little less exciting. Shawn Ryan has crafted some masterful Vic Mackey moments since 2001, but this episode (and Michael Chiklis' acting in it) easily stand apart as one of the show's greatest achievements yet.

For the most part, "Family Meeting" played out exactly as I expected it to. There weren't a lot of crazy WTF moments. Much of it was logical. Even the ending was something I had considered, however, I didn't put much stock in it. In my mind, Vic Mackey had to go down in a stream of blood and bullets. That being said, the lack of blood in Vic's final "resting place" was just as powerful.

Picking up where we left off last week, Vic spilled his guts to Olivia and Chaffee, effectively hanging Ronnie out to dry. Now he needs to come through on his promise to deliver Beltran to save himself while stringing Gardocki along. It was so painful to watch the entire episode, knowing that Ronnie would either die or be hauled off to jail. Even Vic had more potential endings than him. I've said it before and I'll say it again - David Rees Snell deserves some serious props for what he did with Ronnie over the span of this show. From a guy with no lines in the pilot to this. Amazing.

Moving on to Shane, was anyone really that surprised at the murder/suicide? Sure it was shocking, but the second he gave all his extra money to the cashier at the Korean grocery, you knew exactly what was going to happen - poison Mara, Jackson, and the unborn Francis Abigail, and then shoot himself.