Television Review: Greenlit (The Shield, S2X05, 2003)

Greenlit (S02E05)

Airdate: February 4th 2003

Written by: Kim Clements
Directed by: Terrence O'Hara

Running Time: 45 minutes

While some of Shawn Ryan's creative decisions during the production of The Shield appeared, in the short term, to be unfortunate or uninspired, they frequently proved their genius in the long run. A prime example was the choice to make Detective Vic Mackey not the sole anti-hero, but the leader of a group of corrupt policemen, each occupying a different position on the scale of actual morality. This dynamic transformed the Strike Team from a simple vehicle for Vic’s machinations into a crucible for internal conflict and drama. The fissures within this seemingly unified front are laid bare with exceptional clarity at the beginning of the Season 2 episode, Greenlit, demonstrating how this foundational decision became the series' most potent source of narrative tension.

Greenlit, like most episodes of the series' meticulously serialised narrative, leans heavily on the content of its predecessor, Carte Blanche. The episode immediately confronts the audience with the repercussions of Vic and Shane’s discovery of the Armenian mob's 'money train'. They unveil their audacious plan to rob it to the other two Strike Team members, Lem and the quietly observant Ronnie Gardocki, presenting the heist as a means to permanently secure their financial futures. The two men react in a manner that perfectly encapsulates the team's internal schism: Ronnie, ever the loyalist, accepts with little hesitation, while Lem, the unit’s moral centre, voices serious and pragmatic doubts. He astutely recognises that stealing from high-level mobsters invites peril from two fronts – the vengeful criminals and a police force that would inevitably launch a furious investigation. Vic’s declaration that he will not proceed without unanimous agreement places immense, tangible pressure squarely on Lem’s shoulders.

While this long-term conspiracy simmers, Vic must contend with the more immediate and visceral problem of Armadillo Quintero. Defying Vic's suggestion to retreat to Mexico, Armadillo has escalated his operations in a particularly insidious manner. The intelligence, delivered by Connie Riesler—a former prostitute and addict striving for legitimacy as a professional informant—reveals that Armadillo is now targeting school children. He supplies them with free, highly addictive heroin to create a vast army of permanent, dependent customers. Vic’s pursuit leads him to a teenage dealer, Felipe Gomez (Jonathan Hernandez), whom he arrests. Seeing an opportunity, Vic attempts to manipulate the boy into becoming an undercover informant against his supplier, Duardo (Rainbow Borden), and, by extension, Armadillo himself, a strategy that immediately highlights Vic’s ruthless pragmatism.

Vic’s campaign against Armadillo is multi-pronged and characteristically aggressive. He visits Armadillo’s brother, Navaro, in prison, threatening to use his gangland connections to place a „greenlit”—a contract on his life—unless Armadillo falls into line. However, this crusade becomes complicated by internal police politics. Captain Aceveda, increasingly troubled by Vic's brutal methods and his illegal use of an underage informant, begins to sideline him. Preferring a more procedural approach, Aceveda empowers Claudette Wyms and her by-the-book tactics. This decision stings Vic personally, especially after his efforts, via Felipe, successfully deliver Duardo for interrogation. Under Claudette’s calmer, more methodical questioning, Duardo provides Armadillo’s locations, allowing Aceveda to dispatch a SWAT team for the arrest, deliberately cutting the Strike Team out of the glory.

The situation escalates dramatically when Vic learns that Navaro, from his prison cell, has been communicating with a number linked to one of Armadillo’s safe houses. The Strike Team mobilises, and in a pivotal moment, Lem—previously the voice of caution regarding the money train—agrees to participate in taking Armadillo down. This shift signifies the intense peer pressure within the unit. Yet, upon their arrival, Armadillo reveals his own chilling capacity for strategic foresight. He has orchestrated the murder of his own brother in prison to eliminate a liability and, in a stunning act of defiance, calmly informs Vic that the entire Strike Team has now been „greenlit” by Armadillo's organisation, turning the hunters into the hunted.

The episode is padded out with several side storylines of varying success. One involves Dutch and Claudette investigating the case of Jeannie Sutton (Elizabeth Anne Smith), an elderly woman with Alzheimer's who has wandered away from home. The investigation, which hinges on Jeannie's attempt to reconnect with a lost love from the 1940s named Earl (Art Frankel), takes a dark turn. Dutch, by reconstructing her movements and interpreting them as a quest to reclaim her past, deduces that she had buried an illegitimate child, likely murdered by Earl almost six decades prior. Elsewhere, Officer Danny Sofer becomes the target of vindictive harassment, which she attributes to a suspect's wife, Yassirah al-Thani, while also expressing disapproval over Officer Julien Lowe's impending marriage to Vanessa (Monnae Michaell), criticising his refusal to confess his homosexuality to his unsuspecting fiancée.

Written by Kim Clements, who would later contribute to Lost, Greenlit is an episode that consciously attempts to raise the stakes for both Vic and the Farmington district. The conflict with Armadillo escalates to near-apocalyptic levels, with the deliberate poisoning of children and subsequent fatalities lending a new, heinous dimension to the drug war. Armadillo himself borders on moustache-twirling villainy, a portrayal that, while effective in establishing him as a dire threat, somewhat diminishes the impact of his most shocking act: the cold-blooded orchestration of his own brother's murder.

Where the script excels is in its nuanced portrayal of the Strike Team's internal strife. While Shane is often depicted as a more unhinged and impulsive version of Vic, Lem is positioned as his antithesis—the unit's conscience and voice of reason. This established dynamic makes his eventual capitulation, agreeing to pursue Armadillo with lethal intent, a moment of significant dramatic power. It illustrates the corrosive influence of the group and the immense weight of Vic’s leadership, showing how even the most principled member can be swayed towards darkness.

However, Greenlit ultimately suffers from a lack of narrative focus. The subplot involving Danny’s harassment feels undercooked and is never properly resolved, petering out inconsequentially. Furthermore, her sudden, intense interest in Julien’s private life comes across less as organic character interaction and more as the script dutifully adhering to a mandate for ‘political correctness’. Similarly, the storyline with the elderly woman, while offering a character piece for Dutch, functions largely as filler, doing little to advance the season's overarching narrative. Consequently, when compared to the tightly-wound tension of its predecessor, Greenlit appears somewhat inferior and fragmented.

The most compelling and successfully realised aspect of the episode is the character arc of Felipe Gomez. Initially introduced as a swaggering, tough "gangsta" wannabe, falsely secure in the belief that his status as a minor will shield him from consequence, his facade crumbles with pathetic swiftness under Vic’s relentless pressure. Jonathan Hernandez delivers a potent performance, charting the boy’s descent from bravado to a terrified, coerced informant, utterly broken by fear of Armadillo’s wrath. In a series defined by moral compromise, Vic’s decision to honour his deal and secure Felipe a place in a rehabilitation programme provides one of the episode’s rare instances of positive closure, a fleeting glimpse of redemption in an otherwise unremittingly grim and brutal hour of television.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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