SPOILERS a good introduction to season 2. this season is wasting no time in introducing lots of storylines but it does a very good job at making them easy to follow in the season opener. right off the bat i noticed the parallels between dutch and vic. dutch was off his game near the end of season 1 after he was given a stark reality check by a serial killer, and now we see that vic isn't as invincible as he likes to think he is. after corrine leaves and takes the kids there is a notable drop in the number of arrests the strike team is making, and it reaches the point where aceveda has to bring it up. although vic spent the first half of season 1 looking down on dutch, it's starting to become clear that the two are more similar than vic would like to admit, and that only a few things separate the two. besides being thrown off his game, vic also disregards his wife's wishes to be left alone as he pretty much launches an entire manhunt to find her, showing how he really does not learn from his mistakes. his disregard for her needs is what lost her in the first place. vic putting shane in charge while he stepped back was great because we got to see an increase in the strike team's screen time. i felt bad for shane when vic shouted at him over the missing money because until now a lot of shane's screw ups have been from trying to impress vic and get in his good books. this makes the ending hit even harder, since he finally loses a bit of respect for vic when he takes away his keys to the storage locker. the shaky cam and quick cuts worked best in the tijuana scenes, where the chaos of vic's idea of a 'quick fix' was intensified by the camera work. moving the story away from farmington also added a nice change of scenery that tends to work well in tv shows (succession being my main example). this plotline and aceveda's political campaign seem to be the two that are going to lead the season, so the show does a good job of quickly establishing these two storylines in the season opener. aceveda and vic working together is going to create some interesting dynamics since most of season 1 was spent developing the their 'rivalry.' dutch and claudette also tie into the gang storyline with another grim case. this was the most intense part of the episode, and both dutch and claudette killed their scenes this episode. their partnership so far has been one of my favorite parts of the show. one of the show's saddest scenes so far was when the little girl revealed the dove tattooed on her cheek, which makes her 'armadillos property.' this does a really good job at setting up armadillo as a hopefully larger character, and showing just how evil he is. the dove, a symbol of peace and love, is what he uses to brand people as his and to instill fear in their families. revealing his backstory (his iq and raping his teacher) also makes him even more interesting as to what he will do next, especially now that his brother was arrested. julien and danny play a more minor role in this episode, but their few scenes are still very important. we see danny and vic are sleeping together again, something that shows me how vulnerable vic is. his wife is gone and he seeks comfort, but he is still not vulnerable enough to share what happened unless absolutely necessary (shane and aceveda), but he does look at intercourse as a way to push his feelings deeper down. meanwhile, julien is putting some of that 'scared straight' game at work and it's actually really sad to see how he is forcing himself to be someone he's not. that's why i'm glad there's a shot of danny looking at him from afar, since it could mean she's finally going to offer some advice about his situation soon. going to try and watch 1 or 2 more episodes tonight mid 4/5, a great season opener