(essay warning) top 2 so far. such an excellent send-off for our seasonal characters, but more importantly an amazing send-off to these first four seasons. “good luck.” “you too.” [SPOILERS] there’s been something so innocent and light-hearted about these first four seasons of the show. despite its dark subject matter of crime, injustice, and politics, its characters have always managed to leave their situations relatively unscathed. we’ve never truly seen them do something unforgivable, or be pushed to the limits, or make a trade-off of their morals for their lives. when aceveda was raped in 3x5, i thought we might see a character be pushed and do something that would break how we viewed them. with the word “power” being repeatedly used, and 3x10 being titled “what power is…”, i thought we had finally reached a point of change for aceveda. he was going to kill his rapist, and use his connections to cover up the killing. manipulating his power, aceveda would change, and we would never see him the same again. but then 3x10 came, and aceveda decided that power is not allowing someone else’s actions to best you, to not allow them to sink you to their level. and i was proud of him, and i thought it was an amazing episode and a great peak for his character. but i think we can all admit that it’s strangely positive. aceveda bests his rapist mentally while still fairly punishing him, keeping himself morally right and giving him what he deserves. i feel that, every time there was an opportunity for this show to break a character, to push them to do something extreme, (which is the fundamental formula for most crime and drama shows) it dramatically dodges any sort of idea and goes in a much more hopeful direction. in a way, it’s kind of like a really violent sitcom. i’m not critiquing this. i actually came to complete peace with this by 4x10, which i talk about in that review. i am completely content with this sort of storytelling and i was ready for next season to do the same. “promise me… you’ll take a good look at where you’re going. and you’ll take care of yourself.” monica’s farewell to vic hit very hard for me. and of course it did, it’s very well acted, built-up, etc. but i think it was such a great scene for me because of how much it felt like a goodbye to these first four seasons. there’s something about the way she talks in that scene, the confrontational tone in her voice, the way she’s almost warning him. her voice has such an intense tone of seriousness, it feels like it’s written for a show with consequences, with unalterable effects… it’s foreboding something different than what we’ve seen so far. the more i think about this scene, the scarier it becomes. i wrote everything above before watching the first two episodes of season 5, (something i haven’t reviewed yet, either) and it seems my fear was correct. monica’s conversation with vic is the turning point of the show, with the scenes after being so comedically joyous, blocking out the major issue with vic’s informant, that it seems like the show is almost mocking its characters: ending on a shot of the next seasons first present conflict, looking back at the ignorant cast. the tone changes as monica warns vic, and i’m very scared that it isn’t going to change back. what a fucking send-off.