Television Review: Baptism by Fire (The Shield, S6X02, 2007)

Baptism by Fire (S06E02)

Airdate: 11 April 2007

Written by: Scott Rosenbaum
Directed by: Guy Ferland

Running Time: 48 minutes

Most events and character arcs in The Shield, despite the authors' attempts to spice them up with a soapish "out there" twist or two, were marked with an aura of inevitability. The audience knows that Vic Mackey will, sooner or later, pay for his crimes; just as it was inevitable that Lem, the most positive and the most conscious of his accessories, would be the first to depart the plot in a tragic manner. This fatalism can be seen even in the fate of some side characters, including the one whose departure in Season 6 episode Baptism by Fire is, paradoxically, one of the most banal of all.

The character in question is Lt. Kavanaugh, whose crusade to bring down Vic and his cabal of corrupt officers has not only indirectly led to Lem's death, but also brought himself to a very dark place. He leads a fresh investigation against Vic, fuelled by claims of Emolia Melendez, Vic's former CI, that he gave up Lem to Salvadorean gangsters. He manages to obtain a search warrant for Vic's house, and this search leads to actual physical evidence—a map with the marked location of Lem's demise—which Dutch, already sceptical about the whole affair, considers too convenient to be true.

This investigation coincides with Vic's own relentless crusade, fuelled by his conviction that it was Guardo, leader of the Salvadoreans, who ordered Lem's death. His plan is simple: capture Guardo and exact his own simple, murderous brand of justice. Yet to obtain Guardo, he would have to spend a day checking and extorting contacts within the Salvadorean and Mexican underworld. Guardo is currently in Mexico, and to bring him over the border would require doing some service to shady but influential characters in that country—specifically, to return children held by a hit man named Rocha (Julian Scott Urena) to his wife, the daughter of a powerful family. In order to obtain intelligence, Vic has to go into the gated compound of the Byz Lats and, armed with a gun with a single bullet in the chamber, abduct the gang's leader Santi Galas (Benny Hernandez) and catch Rocha whilst he is trying to conduct a contract killing on a One-Niner in the street. The plan works, but Vic's Mexican contact tells him that Guardo is untouchable. Vic decides on an alternative approach: abducting Nydia Hernandez (Lela Loren), Guardo's girlfriend, in order to lure him over the border.

Vic proceeds with his scheme despite, owing to the investigation, becoming an actual wanted man. He nevertheless sends Shane and Ronnie to the Barn to "act as his eyes and ears" as he contemplates his next move. Shane and Ronnie, much to their surprise, see the investigation against Vic falling apart before their eyes. Dutch is so suspicious about the evidence against Vic being too good that he conveys his concerns to Claudette, who wants to question Emolia—on whose testimony the entire case rests—personally. Kavanaugh's desperate attempts to stop this only convince Captain Wyms that she was right all along. Seeing where this would inevitably lead, Kavanaugh approaches Wyms and freely admits that he has falsified evidence. Because of this, he has his gun and shield taken from him, is arrested, and is brought to prison. In the final scene, Vic comes to gloat over him, but Kavanaugh takes comfort in knowing that he will not have to deal with Vic anymore, and warns him that he is currently at the point that awaits Vic in the future.

Written by Scott Rosenbaum and directed by Guy Ferland, Baptism by Fire benefits a great deal from being almost completely focused on the main plot. The only possible distractions are a brief scene in which Wyms announces that Danny has passed her sergeant's exam and is likely to advance in the ranks, and another in which Aceveda, as former captain, coaches Wyms in bureaucratic tricks over jurisdiction that manipulate crime statistics.

And this focused approach benefits the episode considerably, providing a departure for Kavanaugh that is the least shocking of all major characters' departures, and the one made by a character actually doing the right thing. Kavanaugh finally realises that he has gone too far, and that by pursuing the wrong path, and even lying about it, he would become the very monster he was trying to slay. This was an excellent way for Forest Whitaker to depart the show, and the final scene in prison, in which he is well-matched by Michael Chiklis, is one of the more memorable moments of the series. In humiliating defeat, Kavanaugh restores his moral clarity and tells Vic that he will not be tortured by conscience, nor will he have to worry about "the universe taking out its trash."

There are hints that Vic might indeed go to a place much darker than he has ever been. His crusade against Guardo—ironically misguided—led him to a near-suicidal gambit in the Byz Lat den and to actually abduct his target's girlfriend. At the same time, Shane is the one who appears to be the voice of normalcy, and, being actually tortured by his conscience, even contemplates giving himself up for Lem's death to save Vic.

Captain Wyms now becomes the real moral anchor of The Shield, explaining to Dutch that she had to disregard Kavanaugh's false evidence and that pursuing the truth—even when it shows things they do not want to see—is the only proper way.

Dutch discussing the concept of Occam's Razor with Officer Tina Hanlon is an interesting scene, which confirms the nerdishness of his character and shows his clumsy way to impress a protégé towards whom he might harbour romantic feelings.

Baptism by Fire thus stands as a pivotal episode in The Shield's penultimate season, one that dispenses with the elaborate machinations that often characterise the series in favour of a stark moral reckoning. Kavanaugh's fall from grace is rendered all the more poignant by Whitaker's performance, which has consistently portrayed the Internal Affairs lieutenant as a man whose obsession with Vic Mackey has consumed him utterly. The irony is palpable: in his zeal to bring a corrupt officer to justice, Kavanaugh becomes corrupt himself, planting evidence and subverting the very system he has sworn to uphold. His admission to Claudette represents a moment of redemption that Vic himself seems incapable of achieving—and this, ultimately, is what distinguishes the two men. Vic remains convinced that his ends justify his means, whereas Kavanaugh, in his final moments as a lawman, recognises that they do not.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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