Whew. Great ending.

I almost thought until the last line, that Vic knew Shane was going to take out Lem if Lem didn't agree. Vic looked like he could tell by the look on Shane's face.

As for the rest of the episode, it was good, but I was expecting better for the mid season finale.
The Corinne/Kavanaugh thing was kind of a let down. She could have at least filed a report, or let her lawyer know.
I'm still hoping Vic has Acevade figured out and is spinning something to get Kavanaugh and Acevade.
So, Vic is the father of Danni's baby.

I don't think Shane did what he had to do because Vic would have gotten Lem down to Mexico. That's the order of things with this show. That's why it was great how they introduced the pimp character in this episode. Vic is eerily similar to him in the way he motivates people to do what he needs done. I think that's why they may not blow their wad with this Dutch story -- they may leave us with Vic having been taken down but a newly corrupt and manipulative evil Dutch there to rule the Barn.

Well I'm sure Shane can get some more grenades and literally tear them apart if he has to. WOW, he is the freakin devil!!!! I can't believe its over. I'm very emotional.

Dutchman's pimp hand is strong.

Here is the kicker though....

Does anyone think that Shane will ever admit to killing Lem?

No way Shane is that stupid. As it stands now, the case is closed since they will never find the true killer.

I think Shane eventually kills himself...hes gonna be under so much pressure...as for vik...he needs to find his ass into a convienience store and buy soem damn rubbers...hes now got 3 bastard children!


I threw my half drank soda across the room when Dutch gave into the Pimp's advice...man is he gonna dig himself a hole with that Chicana girl...

this show is so damn good and neevr disapoints!! sorry to say good bye to dear old Lem...man what an episode...what a phenominal series!

Wow.

He dropped a grenade in his lap. Not a quick bullet to the back of the head--a grenade. And he didn't die right away. He lived long enough to look at Shane and to think about what his friend had just done to him. Shane "did what he had to do"? Murdered his friend because Lem may have cracked at some point which would've put Shane in prison for crimes he committed? Right...

Genius acting all-around. Truly one of the best shows out there.

That's my guess. My friends got extremely annoyed with me tonight when I started saying "somebody's gonnna' kill Lem" about 10 minutes into the episode... The way they set it up though, it had to happen.

Dutch taking the pimps advice was great.

Can't wait for the second half

I figured Shane was gonna kill Lem but I expected a bullet to the head not a grenade on his lap. That was cold and Shane didn't have to do that. No way Lem would have talked. Especially since he was never going to turn himself in unless he had his deal.

I really liked the look on Kavanaugh's face after they pulled Vic off him. If anyone is gonna figure out that Shane killed Lem, my money is on Kavanaugh.

Thanks for the info. I was gonna wait 'til I had some extra cash to get the season sets but I'll watch the reruns on Spike for now instead.

That mother fucker...it just left a huge hole in my chest when he killed Lem.

And then I realized, LEM was the entire reason I wanted to Strike Team to get away with it all along.

That mother fucker.

I am speechless. This episode just left me feeling incredibly empty. I knew as soon as Shane led Lem to the warehouse that something bad was going to happen, but I never saw that coming. That was some cold shit. Man, that was really well done, though. I feel like I've had some kind of bad dream or something. I can't quite shake that feeling.

I sure thats what he's telling himself. Whenever do something they always find a way to rationalize it:

Vic takes drug money=Its for his family.

Vic kills Terry=He's protecting the team.

Strike team gets cop killed at evidence warehouse=Their looking out for Lem

Shane kills Lem=He's gotta look out for his kids.

Definitely painful to watch the hammer fall (I knew someone was going to bite it, and then the reveal, and it was just a matter of when and how, and it was a doozy). At least that clears away most of Kavanaugh's case against the Strike team for now.

You have to admire how Acevada was twisting the situation between the 2 desperate extremes for his own agenda. That man lies convincingly well. Must be an office holder.

Enjoyed DutchPimp employing his newly learned pimp lessons on Teena for some feigned reciprocity arrangement for taking her under his wing.

God I want to see Shane go down for that. Fucking shit...

So when is the series going to restart?
In 2007 or this fall?

So how many people are gonna spend tommorrow practicing their pimp hands?

D

Amazing finale. I knew that either Shane or Lem was gonna die. That scene was just drawn out and felt like it took weeks. Damn.

Cannot wait for next season...

That episode helps cement just how mentally ill Dutch really is. First he kills a cat because a serial killer tells him about the thrill of killing an animal, now a pimp tells him how to take advantage of women and he does that also. He's a good detective, but a very sick man.

Great finale last night. I knew Lem was was not going to last, but I didn't expect it to be from a grenade thrown in his car -- that did not kill him at first. What a tough scene to watch.

On a lighter note, loved Shane's cell ringtone (Dixie)...very fitting

Not a totally unexpected ending, but an unexpected route with the grenade. That whole scene with Lem and Shane was just as tense as the scene from two weeks ago when Kavanaugh arrested Lem. Shane has got to be shitting his pants that Vic finds out. And Lem wasn't even going to give the team up! He was saying that he did the money train heist himself to get a federal rap and be away from Antwone.

So, Lem was arrested for the heroin that he stole when he was trying to help out Shane, and Shane is the one who killed him. Nice.

Some comedy relief with Dutch and the former captain clashing as partners.

I realized why this moment hit so hard. For all the shocking, unexpected twists that The Shield takes, they're surprisingly sparing with major character deaths. The last one I can remember was Mackey's drug dealer guy in season two (unless you count Tavon's coma). While other shows (24, I'm looking at you) seem to use character deaths as a gimmick or cheap shock value, The Shield makes every single one count, and hurt.

Indeed. It was Acaveda's lie that put the possibility into Lem's head, which put the possibility into Shane's head. And as we've seen, Shane will constantly try to do what Vic does. The minute Shane gets out from under Vic's shadow, he starts landlording for Antwon, and if there's a threat to the team/family (Terry/Lem), well, he takes the most direct approach to stop that threat.

Of course, we'll never know what Vic would have done. Lem seemed pretty dead set against going to Mexico. Of course, Shane never thought to ask him if he'd given the rest of them up before the incident, which I imagine that Vic would have at least done.

Also thought it was interesting how both Kavanaugh and Vic seemed to blame each other for Lem's death, and they were technically both right. If it weren't for Vic, Lem wouldn't have gotten involved with all that he did, and if it weren't for Kavanaugh putting the pressure on Lem, he wouldn't have had to run.

I had a feeling that something was up with Shane. At first I thought that he had made a deal with IAD to give Lem up in exchange for immunity, which was why he didn't have a tail. Then during the scene at the body shop, I kept expecting Shane to just pull his gun and shoot Lem, similar to Vic shooting Terry. Then once they had the sirens in the background, I flipped back to the "Shane's a rat" idea. After that.. well.. all the questions were answered.

Not necessarily. It's possible that there's tire tracks there that would match Shane's truck, and depending on how well the Salvadoran's kept an inventory, it may come up that there was one grenade missing, which would lead the investigation right back to Vic, Ronnie and Shane, since they were the only people there. Hell, they may even match the sandwhich that Shane gave to Lem or something like that.

Can't wait to see what he does now that he won't have Claudette around all the time. We've hardly ever seen him without her, so it'll be interesting to see exactly how much she was keeping him sane. It's always been a given that he's got some serious self-confidence issues, but now it really looks like we're going to see what happens when he spends most of his time with somebody who doesn't appreciate his good qualities.

I always said that Shane is an asshole, but this. Not Lem, he did not deserve to go out like that. He never would have given Kavanaugh Vic or the others. Lem

I'm sorry to see Lem go, but he was the weakest link. Shane put up $5000 of his own cash to make sure that Lem got taken care of in Mexico. I know it wasn't the best situation for Lem, but it could have been a lot worse.

There is nothing to say that once they had Lem in custody, they wouldn't put the pressure on him to give up the team. All they said was that they would protect him until everying is sorted out, but what is to say that they would not come back and say that it wasn't enough and he would have to give up more info to seal the deal? The best senario was for Lem to leave the country, and he wasn't going to do that. Shane took care of the problem, and it was the best solution for the team. Lem should have played ball, and everything would have turned out all right - Shane even told him this.

Once Lem turned down the deal, I knew he was dead. There was no other option but to leave the country, and once that option passes, next stop is 6 feet under the ground. I first thought that he had put his gun in the bag of food and he would shoot him through the bag when he handed him the food. Once I heard that clank, I knew it was a grenade.

It was actually really smart on Shane's part. Its the perfect setup to pass blame. The DEA even warned Vic about possible grenade attacks against his Crown Vics (squad cars). Its the perfect way to pass blame.

The only thing I can see Kavanaugh getting on Shane is some finger prints on Lem's car. If they can prove that they are fresh, they can get for aiding and embedding a known crimal. But again, I don't know if that is something one car prove.

The Kavanaugh/Vic fight was a little weak to me. I would have loved to see Vic pull out his badge and start beating Kavanaugh's face in with it. These two are definitely going to duke it out again before the show is over. I can't believe Kavanaugh would be such a dick after Vic lost a friend. There is some real strong hatred there when you start kicking your enemy when their down. Dirty pool!

I thought it was a really good plan on Shane's part. When Claudette took a look at the carnage, she immediately told DutchPimp to go after Gardo(?).

The thing is though, I can't see how they could spin it that the El Salvadoreans were able to locate Lem when the entire LAPD couldn't find him.