Television Review: The Cure (The Shield, S4X01, 2005)

The Cure (S04E01)

Airdate: March 15th 2005

Written by: Glen Mazzara
Directed by: Scott Brazil

Running Time: 48 minutes

The conclusion of The Shield’s third season delivered a seismic shock to its core premise: the dissolution of the corrupt yet effective Strike Team. This mandated that the series, and its central characters, embark on something of a fresh start as it entered its fourth year. While The Cure, the season premiere, does not radically stray from the show's established narrative formula of gritty, morally ambiguous police work, it distinguishes itself through the impactful introduction of several new characters, portrayed by distinguished additions to the cast. The episode successfully manages the daunting task of resetting the chessboard, establishing new conflicts, and illustrating the profound personal fallout from the Strike Team's implosion, even if it occasionally feels more like an expository prologue than a self-contained dramatic powerhouse.

The plot recommences six months after the events that shattered the unit. Officially disbanded by LAPD higher-ups and, more crucially, fractured from within due to departures by both Lem and Shane, Vic Mackey is a diminished figure. He is now left with only the loyal Ronnie Gardocki and finds himself consigned to the Barn, overseeing humiliating sting surveillance videos—a far cry from his former role roaming the streets as an untouchable power. This opening status quo is a stark visual representation of Vic's fall from grace, his aggressive energy now pent up and frustrated by bureaucratic mundanity. The opening scene immediately reacquaints us with the Farmington district's brutal comedy. A seemingly routine bust of a small-time robber turns eventful when the perpetrator's guard dog bites rookie Officer Wayne Haimes (Robert Wu), forcing him to shoot the animal dead. The subsequent dark humour, as Haimes' colleagues plant a gun on the corpse and claim "it reached," is supervised by Assistant Chief Phillips and the new, quietly observing Captain Monica Rawling (Glenn Close). She is the replacement for David Aceveda, who is finally ascending to his long-coveted seat on the City Council.

Rawling's first major test, and Vic's ticket back to meaningful work, arrives with a high-profile case also involving investigators "Dutch" Wagenbach and Claudette Wyms—the latter still embittered after being passed over for promotion. Four members of the Veneza family have been drowned in a motel, with their young son missing. The establishment is a known haunt of the One-Niners, an African American gang recently taken over by Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson). Anderson imbues Mitchell with a chilling, charismatic authority as a former gang member who, after thirteen years in prison, now publicly masquerades as a reformed, law-abiding community activist.Vic, leveraging his street connections, contacts Mitchell and demands assistance in finding the perpetrators. Mitchell complies, helping police find the missing boy, and subsequently Fernando Cruz (Lee Reyes) of the rival Latino gang Coronado Boys. Under interrogation, Cruz claims the killings spiralled from an accident: his partner Tito (Wellis Rosales) accidentally drowned one family member while interrogating him about a stash of money from a faux heroin deal. To eliminate witnesses, Tito then killed three more, while Cruz was tasked with murdering the boy—a task he found himself unable to perform, opting to hide instead. This case efficiently re-establishes Vic's unique, amoral proficiency and serves as his audition for Captain Rawling.

Simultaneously, the episode sketches the altered landscapes for other characters. Claudette Wyms faces professional isolation and shunning by colleagues and the District Attorney for her prior ethical stand in reporting a public defender's drug addiction—an act that led to numerous convicted criminals walking free on appeal. Meanwhile, Aceveda's marriage to Aurora is revealed to be in crisis, strained by the unsurmounted trauma of his sexual assault—a lingering wound from the previous season's events. These threads reinforce the series' commitment to exploring the lasting personal costs of life in the Barn.

The episode’s concluding moments are its most potent. Impressed by Vic's ruthless efficiency in the Veneza case, and sharing his background as a former street officer—unlike the politically-minded Aceveda—Rawling tentatively broaches the possibility of restarting an anti-gang unit. However, Vic, ever the schemer, has already initiated his own plan by attempting to recruit "Dead-Eye" (Marcus Harris), a drug dealer and former One-Niner leader ousted by Antwon Mitchell, as an informant. This scheme concludes on a deeply sinister note: Vic discovers Dead-Eye murdered. More ominously, he finds Shane Vendrell—now working in the Vice Unit—at the scene, rummaging through the victim's Blackberry. Shane, who reveals that his partner Mara has had their baby, claims Dead-Eye was his informant. Vic's palpable disbelief seeds a terrifying suspicion: has Shane, his former protégé and brother-in-arms, descended into becoming a cold-blooded killer, or worse, is he now making arrangements of his own with the powerful Antwon Mitchell? This chilling reunion perfectly sets the stage for the season's central conflict, suggesting Shane’s path has diverged into an even darker extreme than Vic's own.

The Cure, written by Glen Mazzara, marked the first season premiere not authored by series creator Shawn Ryan. For some, this might account for a perceived lack of the visceral, immediate impact that characterised previous openers. A significant portion of the runtime is dedicated to "where are they now" segments, with Lem relegated to a glorified cameo showcasing his new life at the California Youth Authority—a narrative choice that underscores his departure from the LAPD as a conscious escape from corruption. Glenn Close, however, proves a superlative addition. Her Captain Rawling is an enigma, her motivations and endgame carefully guarded, promising a complex dynamic with Vic. Anthony Anderson is equally compelling as Antwon Mitchell, though some of his dialogue, including references to the 1997 NYPD brutalisation of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, may elude a contemporary audience.

Ultimately, the script works most effectively by illustrating how far the fragments of the Strike Team have scattered. Vic remains fundamentally unchanged: fiercely protective of children (evidenced by his violent beating against a suspect abusing his son during the surveillance sting) and ruthlessly pragmatic.Yet, his former brothers-in-arms have spiralled in opposite directions. Lem, always the unit's moral centre, has sought redemption by leaving the force entirely. Shane, however, appears to have embraced a nihilistic darkness that even Vic never dared to fully cross—a divergence that The Cure establishes as the haunting, central tension for the season to come. The premiere may function more as table-setting than a standalone masterpiece, but it sets that table with compelling new pieces and sharpens the old knives to a perilous edge.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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