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Post by electroshockblues on May 8, 2008 12:28:56 GMT -5
I'm always dumbfounded when this question comes up among Shield fans. It really surprises me that nearly every fan of the show is a would-be cop killer in the right circumstances.
Sure, if I "was Vic" I would do it, because Vic did it. But if I was in Vic's situation, then first of all I wouldn't have let myself get into Vic's situation, and secondly I would find another way of dealing with having a "rat" on the team. Vic's back wasn't up against the wall. Terry had nothing on him beyond hearsay and suspicion.
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Post by eekay on May 9, 2008 10:10:19 GMT -5
It sounds strange to me that Vic killed a cop. The explanation for me is that he didn't see him as a cop no more but as a traitor as he says later. Nevertheless I find this reason weak. Because Vic quite always finds a solution more subtile to his problems especially when dealing with autorities. So after all the seasons, I would say no and I still don't think it fits well with the logic Vic shows later (his other cold blood murders are those of monsters).
My thoughts exactly. I was about to post this very thing and then I saw that gachabi had done it for me.
It's such a fantastically dramatic moment, and such a brilliant device by the writers to instantly and permanently set The Shield apart from all other cop dramas to that point. But really: After watching 6 seasons of Vic Mackey getting out of worse scrapes than this without deliberately causing the death of anyone who wasn't a criminal (and sparing some who were), you have to realize how totally out of character it was for him to shoot Terry. You mean to tell me that the great Houdini himself couldn't figure out a way to get Terry off the Strike Team's back without shooting him? I don't buy it.
Which is why, to answer the question, I wouldn't shoot Terry either. I like how Vic Mackey normally works; therefore, I would try to think of some typically Vic Mackeyan way of getting rid of the threat without actually shooting a police officer in the face.
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Post by ISaidWhoaDangIt on May 9, 2008 16:22:40 GMT -5
Killing Terry was part of the story line for the rest of the series. Without that moment, what would we have? Nothing. Then when Lem died in S5, the whole shock factor would have been there, but IMO, a lot of people would have quit watching by that time seeing as how there was no shocker to get you to come back to ep 2 in S1. But yes, Terry had to die for the plot to go on through the rest of the season. With him alive, Assinvader would have taken him down by the end of S1. With Terry out the way, Vic was free to do his rule of terror throughout the series. But Reed Diamond is pretty hot.
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Post by chemikalman on May 14, 2008 22:50:46 GMT -5
Maybe we should start another thread called "should Vic have killed Terry?" and then we can comment on what we would have done. But I do agree with what you said ISWDI.
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Post by Inside Man on Jan 4, 2009 22:45:31 GMT -5
yes i would if i was in the same situation. or have him offed in the line of duty for real by one of rondell's guys That's an interesting thought ... to have Terry taken out some other way. But obviously Vic had it planned out the way he did it. I suppose he didn't want to leave it to chance--what if it was botched by Rondell or whomever and put the ST at even more risk. No, Vic had to do it and he had to do it then and there. That has been the seminal moment of the entire series. By the way, some people are copping out in their posts: the question is NOT would you do it if you were Vic--the question is would YOU have done it. I wouldn't have. If anything I would have wussed out and found some other way, like having one of Rondell's boys do it. Judging from Shane's plan to have Ronnie whacked, getting someone else to do it doesn't work out too well. I'm going through Season 1 for like the umpteenth time and I'm into "Pay in Pain" now. Vic is so good at manipulating and getting the hand up, I'm sure he could have found something on Terry just like he did on Julien. Chem, you're right, too that Terry's killing has been the seminal point of the entire series, even now that it's all over with. Without that moment, I don't know if I would have come back. That ending scene of the Pilot...I'm a fan for life. It had to be done for the show, but I don't think I would have. No, I don't think so.
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Post by bachatan on Jan 4, 2009 22:56:10 GMT -5
i agree watchin vic's character through the series it seems later on he wouldnt have killed him
but people change,and vic changed, in his case, he also grew smarter, in some aspects
and we have to consider the fact, that he didnt find out about terry on his own, it was gilroy who told him, and we dont know what gilroy told him, and if he felt there was some type of deadline and had to kill him soon, or that night for some odd reason
maybe they did try to find dirt on him, and couldnt,
they couldnt find shit on kavanaugh either,
maybe he figured if this guy has a job waiting for him in DC, he is not gonna back down, he is going after us no matter what we do,
im just brainstormin here, wonderin about posibilities,
but to end my post, yea i agree him killin terry goes against character in some ways, but in my opinion not completely,
vic changed and thats why in a future similar situation he woulda found another way
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Post by Inside Man on Jan 5, 2009 0:37:03 GMT -5
Vic killing Terry doesn't go against his character, it is his character, to me.
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Post by -|E|- on Jan 5, 2009 12:11:57 GMT -5
Killing Terry may seem to be "against his character" because he didn't act that cold-blooded for much of the rest of the series. This may be because killing Terry somehow changed him.
Also, before FX decided to make this series, Shawn Ryan hadn't given a second thought to what these characters would do the next day. He was using Pilot as a spec script to get a job writing for a network. FX kind of surprised him with wanting to make a series out of it. So, some of the characters aren't exactly "true" from Pilot onward. Remember Lem goes apeshit on gang dude, and Claudette seems not to give a shit about how Vic gets the job done.
Just throwing out thoughts here.
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Post by bachatan on Jan 5, 2009 23:39:02 GMT -5
Killing Terry may seem to be "against his character" because he didn't act that cold-blooded for much of the rest of the series. This may be because killing Terry somehow changed him. Also, before FX decided to make this series, Shawn Ryan hadn't given a second thought to what these characters would do the next day. He was using Pilot as a spec script to get a job writing for a network. FX kind of surprised him with wanting to make a series out of it. So, some of the characters aren't exactly "true" from Pilot onward. Remember Lem goes apeshit on gang dude, and Claudette seems not to give a shit about how Vic gets the job done. Just throwing out thoughts here. thats true i didnt think of that, but at the same time maybe claudette's character didnt give much of a shit cause vic hadnt gotten in her way yet, like most people in the world, she only started really caring when he affected her job, she wanted armadillo and he got in the way,
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Post by thestriketeam on Jun 22, 2009 6:41:42 GMT -5
The question was: Would you have killed Terry, if you were Vic?
I would have killed him if i was a corrupted cop and it was about survival.
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