“YOU!” i usually try to open up my 10/10 episode reviews with a paragraph that expresses how much i enjoyed the episode. it lets me talk about it generally and brief people who haven’t watched it yet. but i’m really not sure what to write here. as of writing, it’s 11:27pm, saturday december 2nd and my hands are deadass shaking ☠️ i finished the episode around twenty minutes ago. i won’t give any details on this episode here, but what the fuck? i still haven’t really caught my breath? please don’t expect some long term parking type episode, this is absolutely not like that, but this was fucking better. this is something i honestly haven’t ever seen done before, i can’t even compare this to anything, in plot, in tone, in concept, etc. watch this show. i don’t care how much i’ve critiqued the first three seasons, THIS is worth it, and i am NOT fucking exaggerating. i keep trying to figure out what i’m meant to say about this episode, trying to describe the feeling i get and losing it during my thinking, and then i go back and watch any scene from this episode and get hit with a wave of… sadness i guess? everything is so unexpected and uncanny? like i felt disoriented? when i normally watch an episode, im constantly thinking “oh that’s cool how the writers did that, i like that shot, ooh what are they doing, what will this lead to,” etc. but with this episode, from the opening to the ending, i did not think. my brain actively failed to try to make sense of what the writers were doing, until the episode was over and i realized i was completely speechless. [SPOILERS] i was initially a bit put off by the episode being titled “kavanaugh.” i’m a major fan of episode titles, i think they play a much bigger role in the memorability of episodes for me than i would like to admit. they dictate most of my expectations, they get me excited for next episode, and they can be used in incredibly clever ways. death note’s “silence” perfectly capturing the eerie atmosphere, the sopranos’ “long term parking” mirroring a characters new way of life, successions “connor’s wedding” being a straightforward and calming title for an episode that’s otherwise extremely stressful, subverting our expectations. so, when an episode i expected to be centered around kavanaugh, considering i knew this was the episode he points and says “you!” in, (although i did not know any other details outside of that, so this was very much unspoiled) is just called “kavanaugh”… i was a little underwhelmed. in a show with otherwise excellent episode titles, (“two days of blood” referring to the two day riots, “back in the hole” capturing the intensity of the strike team scrambling to shut down antwon, “what power is…” reflecting the themes of obviously power, etc) we had one of the most critically acclaimed ones being plainly titled “kavanaugh,” the name of the focus of the episode, the antagonist of the season. but no. this episode is not titled “kavanaugh” because he is the main focus, that would be too simple. this episode is titled after him because he is the protagonist of the episode. every scene is shot from his perspective, the editing has focus on him, and ALL side-plots are completely cut out. this is HIS character study, and it turns what could have been a solid progression of the plot (kavanaugh arresting lem) into one of the coolest character studies i’ve ever seen, of both him and vic. i think most people, or at least me, have come to be desensitized by a lot of vic’s actions. after four seasons of watching him torture, lie, and deceive others, the impact is kind of lost. we see his actions through vic’s eyes, when he lies to others we are in on the joke, we are not the one being made fun of. it just becomes “vic being vic.” i would say that, if this episode hadn’t been from kavanaugh’s perspective, we would have probably found his breakdown to be funny in a kind of messed up way. instead, it becomes so deeply emotional that i found myself feeling like i shouldn’t be watching it. in this episode, we become vic’s victim, enemy, etc through kavanaugh and truly understand what he is to those who oppose him. for most, his occasional lying and protecting of himself is just obnoxious; but for someone who knows what he’s done, what he can and will do if he wants or needs to, it is infuriating, degrading, and humiliating. and still, as desensitized as we are, the show is able to snap us out of this perspective, and thus carry with it one of the most uncomfortable and hostile atmospheres an episode can have. our first scene is kavanaugh, brushing his teeth and planning his day. our second scene is kavanaugh, gathering resources to make a move on vic. our third scene is him at a crime scene, being excluded from the group by vic through body language. our fourth scene is him meeting with emolia, continuing to gather resources. i started to get what this episode was doing. not really, but i understood this was his episode. shot from kavanaugh’s perspective, now becoming ours, he brings in emolia to work on a case and vic immediately begins negotiating how her involvement should be, because if he can’t do it his way, if he’s restricted by anyone, he isn’t satisfied. he makes little comments and quips at kavanaugh constantly, smiling when he does. this continues throughout. he gets our c.i. alone in a room with grenades against our approval. he dictates the situation on when to bust the el salvadorians. our dialogue with dutch, someone we know we can trust, is layered with ambiguity and fear of the strike team. getting a call from his ex-wife sadie, he learns she’s been raped, comforting her through the procedures as awkwardly as always. mentally exhausted, he returns to vic only to learn he’s made more calls while he was gone, further risking emolia. when confronted, he just looks around the room comedically. they go back to the barn. he watches as dutch interrogates the main suspect for his ex-wife’s rape. walking out and discussing the case with dutch, he sees vic preparing a major attack using his informant. reluctantly agreeing, he deals with more lies from corrine, and is questioned by dutch about the legitimacy of his wife’s claims. angered that HE is being questioned when there is a clear criminal running farmington’s police, he storms out and tries to pull emolia, fearing for her safety. vic mocks him and hangs up. arriving at the place of operation, chaos ensues with emolia nearly being killed. lem saves his life, and we look up to see vic whispering to our c.i.. when confronted, he smirks and waves it off. back at the barn, dutch is packed with evidence and bluntly drops it on kavanaugh, saying his mentally ill ex-wife is not at all a good witness and that the prime suspect has an undeniable alibi. he says he’ll go talk to her. there’s no light outside anymore. we’ve spent a full day with him. i don’t know if this is a common opinion, but i genuinely felt so thrown off and disoriented walking into the interrogation room. he walks in, restless and trying to compose himself, opposite to sadie. she manipulatively seduces him, knowing his instinct is to protect people (which is reflected in his job) she uses language that implies he would be saving her by taking her in again. it’s disgusting and sad. he crumbles under the weight of the frustration brought about by his day. he kisses her, leaning into her with his entire body, pauses, and stutters before saying she’s going to be charged for filing a false police report. she unearths old history of his, saying he left her when she was at her worst, saying he didn’t protect her. he says he was exhausted and needed to live his own life. she wails and he holds her, and at his most vulnerable, he starts crying. the scene is painfully long and it becomes unclear who’s comforting who. sadie, still sobbing, reflects kavanaugh’s insecurities in one of the best lines i’ve heard in tv: “everyone sees what i am. everyone sees me. they all see me.” everyone sees kavanaugh for who he fears he is. a man with no power in his investigation, in the department, against vic: he’s unable to save anyone. his insecurity has been building this season, and although his failures have initially resulted in frustration, (5x5 ending) he’s broken down now. like the audience, he feels demeaned, stuck in his position of humility. it’s here that it all clicked for me. vic’s small comments, his brushing off of confrontations, his blatant mockery: it makes sense why aceveda never truly pushed to take down vic. he destroys you. he destroys your reality. your job, and therefore your life, becomes a cycle of misery. aceveda stopped pushing vic and instead worked with him because, along with other things, he knew he couldn’t handle it. “you’ve never looked mackey in the eye, had him lie straight to your face, and made you doubt yourself even though you knew he was full of shit.” - aceveda, 5x3 (21:17) but kavanaugh, being the mvp of the iad, kept pushing. he kept pushing when vic made an alliance with lem, he kept pushing when vic brutalized his trophy bug lead using his lawyer, he kept pushing when vic set-up his russian pharmaceutical bust, and he KEPT PUSHING through every word of mockery, of belittlement, every hit to his honor. he’s meant to be the greatest, he’s meant to tear down the corrupt, he’s meant to save people, but vic, with his degradation and manipulation, has tore down kavanaugh himself to the point that he sits in his manipulative, mentally ill ex-wife’s arms and cries, having taken one day too many of shame and self-doubt, his identity destroyed and his insecurities on display: EVERYONE SEES HIM. can the serialzd character limit get extended please GOOGLE DOC ⬇️ https://docs.google.com/document/d/134iU4Qhht3b8pUjfac1QnoTvisTJomU_3vHNKdmmPBU/edit