
It looks like the career of the spectacular successful--and spectacularly corrupt--Farmington District Stike Force is about to screech to a halt in the the fifth season of the gritty cop drama The Shield. It's hard for Force leader Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chilkis) to go about his business as usual (beating confessions out of prisoners, planting evidence, even committing cold-blooded murder) with Lt. Jon Kavanagh (Forest Whitaker) from Internal Affairs breathing down his neck. Dedicated to the point of manic obsession, Kavanagh puts the screws on imprisoned Force member Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemensky (Kenneth Johnson), hoping that Lem will crack and spill his guts about his coworkers' illegal tactics. Before long, each member of Mackey's team is suspected the other of disloyalty and playing along with Kavanagh, especially after the relentless investigator plants a bug in their favorite hangout, then moves into their headquarters. In other Season Five developments, closeted team member Julien Lowe (Michael Jace) is "outed", much to the astonishment of his coworkers. And after several near misses, Det. Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder), the "conscience" of the Strike Force, is finally promoted to Captain. Meanwhile, Off. Danielle "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) still refuses to reveal the identity of her baby's father, though it really isn't all that hard to figure out who it is. At season's end, Vic arranges for Lem to be moved out of the country for his own good as well as the good of his coworkers. Unfortunately, Detective Shane Vendrell (Waylon Goggins), the loosest of the Force's "loose cannons", trumps all his previous outrages by making dead certain that Lem will never talk to anyone! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi