And Alias.

Whitaker was awesome tonight. His character was a bit too loony till now & Whitaker had been a bit over the top, but I have to say his acting skills were top notch tonight. His character's still a loon, but his acting was right on the money.

Man, this is a good show. I try to get my friends to watch it, but they only take HBO seriously as a first run cable only show.

Ironically, the same actress (Gina Torres) that played Kavanaugh's wife played the woman who eventually killed the first lady on 24.

Mitchell mentioned in the initial conversation that he wanted the Strike Team to be put away in the same cell block that he's in (and runs), supposedly just to see them in there. Kavanaugh initially refused, but after what Vic and Lem did, he went straight to Antwon and accepted his offer.

Funny thing was, the first thing I thought during the first scene with his ex was that she seemed to be acting like she had some sort of mental problem. I thought the actress was just doing a weird job of acting traumatized at first, but it turns out that she was doing a really good job of acting like a person with mental problems acting traumatized.

As far as Kavanaugh goes, it's not like he was trying to get her declared insane on the spot. He knew that she had a history of problems, and that she was previously diagnosed with several different things and that she was still pretty bad off. He was just using the fact that she filed a false report as a way to get her some treatment, since she obviously didn't think anything was wrong with her.

While I'll agree that Kavanaugh was a little more over-the-top tonight, it's hardly without reason. It was hinted last week that his ex-wife might be a potential sore spot, and we found out this episode that she's not just a sore spot, but a massive emotional open wound. I think the implication was always that his wife left him, and he just couldn't get over it (at least, that's what I always figured), but now we saw that he left her after her mental problems got bad, and he was feeling guilty over it.

Not only that, but this episode was the first one that really focused on Kavanaugh, hence the ep title. Usually we just saw him from the perspective of the other characters, as a by-the-books IAD person. Combine that with him being squeezed between the issue with his ex and having his main witness in a dangerous situation under Vic's control, it's no wonder that he snapped after seeing that Vic and Lem had just seen him with his defenses down.

On a related note, you'd think that the characters would figure out that it's less conspicuous to just turn off the TV in the observation room and pretend you're having a conversation instead of running out of there like Lem and Vic did. Of course, Vic wasn't exactly trying to keep a straight face anyway, but still...

Day-um, those last 5 minutes were chilling as hell!!!

Kavanaugh is such a hurt animal right now, knowing that Vic and Lem witnessed his own personal turmoil and tragedy w/r/t Sadie.

Now, the episode from Kavanaugh's POV felt like being deaf at a party and never being able to understand what the conversation is all about. It was very disorientating, purposefully so.

I can't believe how good this show is. Episode after episode. This season has been unbelievable.

Yeah, that last scene was as tense and emotional as anything I've seen on TV in a while. Kavanaugh was burning with humiliation and arrested Lem out of spite. Way out of line sticking him in the cage with regular criminals and next week

Is next week really the last episode for a while?

By the way, if I see one more commercial for that idiotic Black/White show, I'm going to kill something.

Agreed - this season has been firing on all cylinders and last night's episode was no exception. I loved it from the get-go when we see Kavanaugh's morning ritual (which starts at 4am) all the way through the personal issues that he is dealing with. Was the perfect time for a character-driven episode.

I did an unofficial tally last night and that show was plugged during every commercial break, but one. Definite overkill.

I definitley think this is the best season thus far, even better than season 2.

I know this is only a tv show, but when would a IA Lt be able to decide where a prisoner ends up, and cops all ways serve time in protective custody. I think Vic might have enough to take Kavanaugh down with him or instead of him.

Julian just earned himself no back up on the street. Didn't he have that happen a couple of seasons ago? I though IA had to arrest their own to keep regular cops from being labled.

How many episodes total will this season be? I assumed 13, but if it's going on hiatus for awhile maybe we're getting more?

I heard of an initial run of 12 and then 8 more in January 2007. Or maybe that was The Sopranos -- both had plans to split the season.

I'm sitting here at work after reading the above posts, and I'm all keyed up about Cavanaugh's conduct and what will happen to Lem and the strike team.

Jeez! It's a TV show; I need to get a grip. I guess it just goes to show you what truly great televison it is. If this is indeed the last season, it will be sorely missed.

Thos.

DAMMMMNNNN, I'm White!

The writers sort of cheated towards the end when they showed the audience that Lem and Vic were spying on Kavanaugh and Sadie. I wonder if it would have been more of a shock if the writers didn't show Vic and Lem watching the monitors, and just showed Kavanaugh and Sadie in the interrogation room, and then once Kavanaugh realized he was being watched, then he flies out of the room, sees Vic and Lem scurrying out of the monitor room, and then he unleashes his fury fueled by his humiliation by having Lem arrested in front of the entire Farm.

I agree, Anderson should have gotten nominated -- especially given the fact that Glenn Close did (and I didn't think her performance was anything special at all)...

In my mind, though, Whitaker is a LOCK for a nomination. To me, he's carried a couple of episodes himself and has really brought a commanding presence to just about every scene he's been in. Hell, he could get nominated just based on the scene where he interrogated Vic's wife... That was some great work!

Great episode yet again. If this is the last season, the show is definitely going out in top form. Was anyone else wishing Vic had pushed Kavanaugh at the end? When they were there with all the cops standing around after Lem's arrest had been ordered, Vic would've just had to have said something like 'You can't arrest a good cop just because your nut of a wife fucked herself with a bottle and reported it as rape.' I guarantee Kavanaugh's reaction would've been something strong enough to get him kicked off the case, if not out of IAD.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

ONLY THREE EPISODES TO GO! This is definitely some of the best television going today. No other channel is even coming close to FX in quality hour long original programs.

Quote:
Originally Posted by maxfisher
Great episode yet again. If this is the last season, the show is definitely going out in top form. Was anyone else wishing Vic had pushed Kavanaugh at the end? When they were there with all the cops standing around after Lem's arrest had been ordered, Vic would've just had to have said something like 'You can't arrest a good cop just because your nut of a wife fucked herself with a bottle and reported it as rape.' I guarantee Kavanaugh's reaction would've been something strong enough to get him kicked off the case, if not out of IAD.

I was thinking the exact same thing.




The only problem is Vic is portrayed as the classy good guy right now around the office place...had he done that it may of turned some against him a bit...hes being silent and just right now it seems!

I was thinking about 24, and how while it's still one of the best shows on TV, it's declined every year. Then there's The Shield, which started around the same time as 24, and with the exception of a slow period in season 3 has been consistently better and better. I wonder if 24 wouldn't have had that decline if it was on FX, where the standards are a little less restrictive. I know that The Shield couldn't get away with a lot of the things they do if they were on Fox, and the show would have suffered for it.

well. after the whole nip/tuck fiasco that was the season 3 finale, f/x gets pushed down a tad, but second only behind hbo imo.

Splendid episode!
Always good to see Gina Torres in anything - those lips should have their own porn site!
Forrest Whitaker is as thin as he was in the early 90's - even Gina Torres' character pointed it out, which might mean there was some radical weight loss treatment on FW's part. Hopefully he's bottomed out weight wise and manages to get to some sort of middle ground. He's way too skinny now.

This is what I had always thought as well. I love my HBO, and FX is a close second. I was reading an article one day and found out why. It said that FX was being run by an ex-HBO exec. Suddenly, everything made perfect sense.

I remember a rumor at one point where the show would end and be followed by a movie which would close the story (presumably the death of Vic). Did that rumor just die, or is there still some truth to it?