Post by n00b on Aug 14, 2008 21:18:00 GMT -5
I'm still putting this one together in my head, but thought I'd spill my brain droppings out onto the board and let some other TS fanatics add their two cents to perhaps make a coherent theory out of this.
I've always been curious about the name of the show. While I realize it was not the original intended name ("Rampart" was scrapped after complaints from LAPD brass), "The Shield" is a moniker for a police officer's badge that provides a wealth of potential interpretations.
The recurring line we've heard Vic Mackey say in teaser clips to Season 7 is "All I want to do is keep being a cop." The more recent teaser clips show Mackey's badge while he says "As long as I got this, I'm gonna use it."
So, according to the teasers at least, the importance of Mackey's job, in effect his badge or "shield", is the central theme of The Final Season. And we know from events dating back to Season 5 and all the way through Season 6 just how desperately Mackey wants to keep his job/shield. After one night of a bad-ass-for-hire gig with his old partner Joe Clark, Mackey and the audience know he is not cut out for life after the police force.
There are other allusions, old and new, to how tough life can be for a disgraced former cop (Gilroy's run to Mexico and subsequent death; Lem's fear of being sent to die at the hands of a gang-banger at a local prison; the mess of Clark's life in his first appearance; Rawlings' breakdown in tears after she is relieved of duty at The Barn; even Aceveda's strange insistence to hold onto some piece of his "shield" as a reserve officer, which he constantly reminds others "I'm still a reserve officer").
Mackey's career has included both the "good" interpretations of the police "shield" (he has shielded the public from some of the absolute worst criminals ever dreamed up) and the "bad" (he has used or "hid behind" his badge to pull off innumerable crimes against citizens, criminals, and worst of all - fellow cops).
Many on this board and elsewhere have described Vic Mackey as narcissistic. No matter whether he "tries" to do good or do bad, he always ends up doing what is "best for Vic Mackey". Many believe he is not necessarily "good" or "evil" but instead simply selfish.
But the combination of this desperate need to keep his job/"shield" with this damn-the-consequences ego-centrism leads me to another, more shocking and unforeseen conclusion ...
Vic Mackey is WEAK. Vic Mackey is SCARED. Vic Mackey is a hollow shell of low self-esteem hidden under a rampaging cauldron of anger, excessive force, and social Darwinism. (I probably should state unequivocally at this point that I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor nor do I have any particular background or study in such subjects outside a BA-minor in sociology).
Without his "shield" Vic Mackey is NOTHING. A cop without a badge is just a man.
And in fact, while Vic Mackey may well be the most "effective" cop in history, because of his equal (and opposite) effectiveness at committing crimes, he DOES NOT DESERVE the privilege/responsibility/honor of carrying a SHIELD.
My theory or guess then is that Vic Mackey begins to realize this as Season 7 progresses. His inability to keep his team, his job, his marriage, his family only adds to his self-doubt (heck, it seems he is becoming unable to even control his tween-age daughter).
I think the "shocking" but "satisfying" ending could just be Vic Mackey EATING A BULLET after losing his "shield" for good. After 7 seasons, no one is able to "stop" Vic Mackey except Vic Mackey himself.
But even if he does not off himself, I think the logical ending is that he must lose his job, if nothing else.
Many of the other proposed endings by TSRers centered on him losing everything but somehow keeping his job, thinking he would realize after it was too late that he lost all the other things he really cared about (family/friends/partners) in order to somehow keep the one thing he thought was most important - his job, which now seems meaningless.
But I'm betting the job - The Shield - is the most important thing to him and he will (and should) lose it. This loss of his job - his only real "identity" - will also likely be the lynch-pin that causes everything else to cave in around him.
Anyway, thanks for allowing me to spill that onto the board here. Add on and/or criticize as you see fit.
n00b
PS: waiting these last few weeks for 9/2/08 are going to be the hardest ....
I've always been curious about the name of the show. While I realize it was not the original intended name ("Rampart" was scrapped after complaints from LAPD brass), "The Shield" is a moniker for a police officer's badge that provides a wealth of potential interpretations.
- It can relate to a literal shield, of course, as many badges are styled after historic functional battle shields.
- It can relate to the police themselves as figurative (and all too often literal) "shields" between criminals and citizens.
- In discussing police corruption, it can also relate to the "shield" or the "thin blue line" that police officers "hide behind" to avoid accusations of wrongdoing.
The recurring line we've heard Vic Mackey say in teaser clips to Season 7 is "All I want to do is keep being a cop." The more recent teaser clips show Mackey's badge while he says "As long as I got this, I'm gonna use it."
So, according to the teasers at least, the importance of Mackey's job, in effect his badge or "shield", is the central theme of The Final Season. And we know from events dating back to Season 5 and all the way through Season 6 just how desperately Mackey wants to keep his job/shield. After one night of a bad-ass-for-hire gig with his old partner Joe Clark, Mackey and the audience know he is not cut out for life after the police force.
There are other allusions, old and new, to how tough life can be for a disgraced former cop (Gilroy's run to Mexico and subsequent death; Lem's fear of being sent to die at the hands of a gang-banger at a local prison; the mess of Clark's life in his first appearance; Rawlings' breakdown in tears after she is relieved of duty at The Barn; even Aceveda's strange insistence to hold onto some piece of his "shield" as a reserve officer, which he constantly reminds others "I'm still a reserve officer").
Mackey's career has included both the "good" interpretations of the police "shield" (he has shielded the public from some of the absolute worst criminals ever dreamed up) and the "bad" (he has used or "hid behind" his badge to pull off innumerable crimes against citizens, criminals, and worst of all - fellow cops).
Many on this board and elsewhere have described Vic Mackey as narcissistic. No matter whether he "tries" to do good or do bad, he always ends up doing what is "best for Vic Mackey". Many believe he is not necessarily "good" or "evil" but instead simply selfish.
But the combination of this desperate need to keep his job/"shield" with this damn-the-consequences ego-centrism leads me to another, more shocking and unforeseen conclusion ...
Vic Mackey is WEAK. Vic Mackey is SCARED. Vic Mackey is a hollow shell of low self-esteem hidden under a rampaging cauldron of anger, excessive force, and social Darwinism. (I probably should state unequivocally at this point that I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor nor do I have any particular background or study in such subjects outside a BA-minor in sociology).
Without his "shield" Vic Mackey is NOTHING. A cop without a badge is just a man.
And in fact, while Vic Mackey may well be the most "effective" cop in history, because of his equal (and opposite) effectiveness at committing crimes, he DOES NOT DESERVE the privilege/responsibility/honor of carrying a SHIELD.
My theory or guess then is that Vic Mackey begins to realize this as Season 7 progresses. His inability to keep his team, his job, his marriage, his family only adds to his self-doubt (heck, it seems he is becoming unable to even control his tween-age daughter).
I think the "shocking" but "satisfying" ending could just be Vic Mackey EATING A BULLET after losing his "shield" for good. After 7 seasons, no one is able to "stop" Vic Mackey except Vic Mackey himself.
But even if he does not off himself, I think the logical ending is that he must lose his job, if nothing else.
Many of the other proposed endings by TSRers centered on him losing everything but somehow keeping his job, thinking he would realize after it was too late that he lost all the other things he really cared about (family/friends/partners) in order to somehow keep the one thing he thought was most important - his job, which now seems meaningless.
But I'm betting the job - The Shield - is the most important thing to him and he will (and should) lose it. This loss of his job - his only real "identity" - will also likely be the lynch-pin that causes everything else to cave in around him.
Anyway, thanks for allowing me to spill that onto the board here. Add on and/or criticize as you see fit.
n00b
PS: waiting these last few weeks for 9/2/08 are going to be the hardest ....