Yup. Danny already has issues with her, and she was pretty hesitant in her answer.

One thing I wanted to be addressed....the possibility that...since Lem was alive for a little bit after the explosion, (stay with me on this one..) would Vic think that Lem thought that Vic and Ronnie agreed with Shane's plan.

As a result, Vic would be horrified to think that his friend's final moments might involve Lem thinking that Vic himself had something to do with it. Sort of like in The Fugutive when that wife gets killed and asks on tape whether Harrison Ford was trying to kill her. Then again, Lem would never doubt Vic.

Anyway, great first episode...I expected it to take place like the same week as the last season, but the next day? I love it. Great first scene as well.

And as for Billings, I don't understand why people call him incompetent. He just showed that he can do actual detective work, and he also shocked Dutch with his spot on analysis of his character in season 6. He's just lazy.

That's the one thing that I don't understand is that a show like THE SHIELD can have so many good characters not have a spin-off.
Only thing I can think of is THE SHIELD is not that good in the ratings.

Does Vic know that Lem survived the blast for a minute or two? Did Shane reveal that???

You're right...I don't think Shane revealed that, I'm guessing it would be too painful for Shane to say it, and for Vic to know.

Just finished watching it. Great season opener. I'm in agreeance with a previous poster about the series not having one bad episode. The only one i could think of was the streaking episode. I'm thinking that latino bitch paid off the guy that tried raping Danny.

I'm hoping they wrap up all the characters stories by the end. One i hope they come back to is with Dutch and his stray cat incident.

Jay Karnes has a recurring role in Sons of Anarchy, but I don't think he shows up until the 4th or 5th episode. Obviously, he's not playing Dutch, so it will be interesting to see him in a different role.

Great show last night. Watching the preview for the rest of the season had me psyched,lol.

I'm sure Vic is wondering about it, but I really believe Lem thought it was all Shane's doing. Remember he told Shane he wanted to talk to Vic instead. Lem knew something was up and I really think he didn't trust Shane as much since the end of season three.

As for Danny, I think Tina is clear on this one. Whoever cleared the room was probably in on the raiding team. Why the hell would Claudette allow Tina, of all people, anywhere near that building until it was considered cleared? I think Danny will eventually blame Tina, and we'll find out it was Julian that screwed up. He was in on the bust afterall. I'm going to watch it again tomorrow and see if there are any hints.

Ultimately, I think a big plot point that was brought forward in this episode was Mara and Corrine exchanging info. Neither of them trust Vic or Shane now. Shane or Vic would have to be willing to kill the others family now to even have a chance at getting away with it cleanly.

Something I forgot to bring up...

Who is Paula Garces blowing to get second billing in the opening credits? Or did I miss a name and she's getting third billing? Either way, she should not be getting billed over CCH, Karnes, Benny, etc.

My DVR was spazzing out during that conversation. Did they ever actually say what Mara and Corrine said? I basically just saw Corrine walk up to the door, Mara said something about what was going on with the Armenians, and then about 5-10 seconds of fuzz until they cut back to Cassidy.

Very few shows have spin offs.
David Marciano actually did propose a Dutch and Billings spin off though. It was shot down 'cause the producers feared it would be a silly, comedy show that would ruin the characters or something like that (watch the videos on the FX website)


G comes before P, K, M etc. The billing is alphabetical

This takes you to the exact scene you missed:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/...ctid1644024718

Awesome episode!

I only wish I hadn't watched all the scenes on the Shield's site.. I really screwed myself.. I seen almost half the first ep when I watched the scenes off the site so the shock value wasn't there for me.. Doh!

Good episode although I agree the Billings plotline was a little too sitcomy.

And CCH Pounder gets to go last because she gets the "and" which is considered to be a "special billing". Funny I was saying to myself while watching the credits this week that I wondered if the billing would be in a different order if Chiklis didn't come first alphabetically...

Everytime I see Billings on camera, I want to punch my TV screen. The actor who plays him does a great job playing a fucking douchebag.

Overall, a great opening episode. Looking forward to the next 12 weeks.

Personally, I don't care where Paula Garces gets billed in the show. It's nice to see a cute Latina chick in the show. Plus, one of the highlights of last season was her banging Hiatt with Dutch watching.

Earlier in the episode, Vic and the team responded to a body that was literally shreaded to pieces. Was Shane trying to make it that same M.O. by hacking up the Armenian's feet?

I like the addition of Laurie Holden.

No. Shane hacked off the the feet to make it seem that the Armenians are fueding with each other. It had nothing to do with the El Salvadorian/Mexigang fued. In a way, he saved Ronnie and Vic by doing so.

I always thought that the feet thing was more specific to Margos than it was an overall Armenian thing. Back in Season 3, the whole wave of people missing their feet ended up being the big indication that Margos was involved and in town.

One thing that really bugged me about the episode was how quick Claudette was to assume that the Strike Team had nothing to do with the dead Armenian. While Vic was around, her assessment that the rest of them were clear because they were "chasing down leads" seems a little sloppy.

On the other hand, that could be intentional. They've shown before that while Claudette is a good detective, she can get a little overwhelmed and sloppy when she's got too much going on at once. She overlooked Walon's reports about the mole in S3 when she was trying to command two teams in addition to a detective load, so perhaps this is a reference to that.

Thanks very much for that . So it's only presumed that they exchanged all of the information, and we're not sure that either was disclosing everything truthfully either.

I think the time between last season and this season was a little too long, I'm not all that vested in this show yet, hoping for some Shield momentum returns for me. I guess when time goes by, you are left with "how many lives does Vic Mackey have" before you actively roll your eyes at the plot development that the writers cook up to mush through the final season of The Shield. It was just weird to see how much of the episode revolved around Billings, who is good for comedic effect, but not so good to use even as the B-plot of the episode.