The Shield/Family Meeting

Family Meeting
Season 7, Episode 13
Airdate	November 25, 2008
Production Number	5012-07-713
Written by	Shawn Ryan
Directed by	Clark Johnson
Stream
← 7x12 Possible Kill Screen	— N/A
The Shield — Season Seven

Family Meeting is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season of The Shield, and the eighty-eighth episode overall.

Starring: Michael Chiklis (Vic Mackey), Catherine Dent (Officer Danielle "Danny" Sofer), Paula Garces (Officer Tina Hanlon), Walton Goggins (Shane Vendrell), Michael Jace (Officer Julien Lowe), Jay Karnes (Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach), David Marciano (Detective Steve Billings), Benito Martinez (Councilman David Aceveda), Cathy Cahlin Ryan (Corrine Mackey), David Rees Snell (Detective Ronnie Gardocki)

and CCH Pounder (Captain Claudette Wyms)

Guest Starring: Laurie Holden (Agent Olivia Murray), André Benjamin (Robert Huggins), Michele Hicks (Mara Sewell), Julia Campbell (Ellen Carmichael), Kyle Gallner (Lloyd Denton), Francesco Quinn (Guillermo Beltran), Peter Macon (Vernon), Stu "Large" Riley (Freeman), Paul Dillon (Chaffee), Autumn Chiklis (Cassidy Mackey)

Co-Starring: Magi Avila (Santi's Girlfriend), Joanne Baron (Marianne), Cindy Chiu (Grocery Clerk), Cherie Dvorak (Kim), Miles Greenberg (Jackson), Benny Hernandez (Santi), Clark Johnson (Handsome Marshal), M. Martin Mapoma (Detainee), Danny Pardo (Cartel Driver), Sandra Sanchez (News Reporter), J. David Shanks (Officer Stamos), Aaron Skinner (ICE Agent), Kozue Tatgoa (Lawyer), Roy Vongtama (EMT), Jack Weber (Matthew)

Plot Overview

Vic goes out of his way to guarantee he holds up his end of his immunity deal, as Shane's situation hits bottom and he begins to see no good options.

Lloyd reports his mother missing.

Aceveda's mayoral campaign is threatened by an outsider candidate.

Notes

Music

• X - "Los Angeles"

• Concrete Blonde - "...Long Time Ago"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Vic's meeting winds up busting the Black Board of Directors and some of Beltran's men. Not satisfied, he and Ronnie go out of their way to bust Beltran himself, bringing down his entire cartel.

• Lloyd claims his mother is missing and tries to make Dutch look like the suspect. However, he and Dutch believes Lloyd killed her and officially becomes the suspect.

Characters

• Vic ensures his agreement with I.C.E., only to find he will be relegated to a desk doing paperwork for the next three years.

• Shane fails to get a deal that clears Mara of any charge and learns that Vic (and, presumably, he believes Ronnie as well) got his immunity deal. After posioning Mara and Jackson, he pens a suicide note where he explains how he kept following Vic and wishes he never met him, before shooting himself.

• Ronnie is arrested for all of the crimes he learns Vic confessed to in his own immunity deal.

• Claudette reveals to Dutch that she's dying, but swears to keep showing up to the Barn until she can't. All she asks of Dutch is to "keep doing what friends do" as it means a lot.

• Corrine and the kids are put into witness protection and relocated to Rockford, Illinois.

• Aceveda holds a press conference at the site of the Beltran drug bust, which is believed to help propel his mayoral victory.

• Tina celebrates one year since she graduated from the academy is no longer a rookie.

• Dutch rewrites his statement for Billings so his lawyer can get him to drop the suit. She later gives him her card.

• Billings gets a settlement deal. While he claims there was a confidentiality agreement, his lawyer tells Dutch there wasn't and he's only going to be paid for the days he missed.

Referbacks

• Mayoral candidate Robert Huggins is the comic book store owner originally seen in "On Tilt".

Trivia

The Show

• An extended episode that ran almost half an hour longer at a total of 1 hour and 13 minutes without commercials.

• Instead of the traditional closing credits style, they are done in the same font and shaky-cam style as the rest of the credits on the show with clips from the show in between, abandoning the show's theme with "...Long Time Ago" by Concrete Blonde playing.

Behind the Scenes

• Creator and writer Shawn Ryan was not on set due to the write's strike.

Memorable Moments

• Claudette has Vic sit in the suspect's place in one of the interrogation rooms and after reading Shane's suicide note and lays out photos of him and his dead wife and son, she leaves the room to watch him on the monitor. Vic sits still before bringing himself to look at the pictures. He then gets up before pulling the camera off the wall in a rage.

Quotes

• Claudette: You heard about Shane. What he did to his pregnant wife, to his young son. He wrote a note. "I guess enough painkillers can make even the worst kind of hurt go away. The thing you need to know is that Mara was innocent. And Jackson was innocent. They didn't know what they were drinking and their last moments together were happy ones. They left the way I first found them, perfect and innocent. They were innocent and they're in Heaven now and we'll always be a family. The guilty ones are me and Vic. Vic led, but I kept following. I don't think one's worse than the other, but we made each other into something worse than our individual selves. I wish I never met him. I see it all now. There's no apologies I can make. No explanations I can give. I was who I was and I can't be that person anymore. I can't let myself..." We think this is where he was when we came in because it stops there.

• Dutch: Ronald Everett Gardocki, you're under arrest.

Ronnie: For what?

Dutch: The last three years. The Armenian money train robbery, covering up Terry Crowley's murder. Mackey gave the feds everything. Already got himself full immunity. Not you, though.

• Ronnie: You told them all of it?

Vic: Ronnie...

Ronnie: You made a deal for yourself and you're sending me to prison?

Vic: I'm sorry. My family. I-I-I thought Corrine...

Ronnie: You're goddamned sorry?

Dutch: Process him.

Danny: Take him in.

Vic: I didn't think I had a choice.

Ronnie: Well, what about my goddamn choice, Vic? Where was my goddamn choice? I was going to run! We were going to run together! God damn it! What about the team? What about protecting the goddamn team, Vic?

Claudette: (to Vic, dismissively) You can go now.