holy shit that ending was incredible. for the majority of the episode i kept wondering why it was so highly rated but how could it not be with such an amazing ending; i wouldn't go as far as saying it carried the episode since it definitely had it's strong points. SPOILERS i love dutch and claudette's relationship so muchhh. dutch telling claudette she completes him this episode had me smiling at my screen. i mentioned how in the last episode dutch was feeling a little abandoned by claudette splitting her time at the barn between her detective work and her new promotion and in this episode dutch tries a variety of methods to get claudette to focus on their job. i've always seen dutch as a very fragile person, who shares all too many similarities with the criminals and differentiates himself by his badge, which he holds onto dearly. he always values his arrest counts and his conviction rate and other stats besides always focusing on the right thing and what's important in the moment. claudette has acted as a veteran mentor for him since s1 and he quickly grows attached to their successful partnership, so for her now to get a promotion that leaves him working cases alone is a change in his routine that he does not enjoy. one of the things he tries is to blame claudette for his failure, in attempts to make her feel guilty, before he also decided to try some sincere flattery. i know people really hype up shane as such an incredible deuteragonist but up until now i don't think it's too far fetched to say that dutch and claudette have been at his level if not higher (but this episode definitely enhances upon shane's character a lot). these past few episodes have had a new and much more aggressive julien due to so many reasons, one of which being vic's way of getting into people's heads and convincing them to do things. he leaves a small remark that looks like an attempt to do some good but the warrior cop mentality of the barn along with vic's comments about respect motivate julien to change the way he's seen around the barn, which has resulted in some scenes where it just feels uncomfortable to watch julien because it feels like it's another person inside his skin. i've always found his character to be one of the most complex of the show so i'm loving all this development on him ever since the s2 finale's blanket party scene. in this episode danny gets a call about a disturbance at julien's house and we learn how he's been having some internal struggles since the blanket party. it's clear that despite julien's constant comments about how good his life is that in fact he is falling into a depression that is also causing his violence, both physically and verbally. for the first half of the episode i did feel like julien being verbally abusive towards his wife was a little unexpected but it all made sense when it turned out to be over the fact they're trying to conceive. julien's deeply religious mindset involves him wanting to procreate to bring his own child into the world, which directly clashes with his homosexuality which is making him even more desperate to have a child, so it is not seen as a stain on his perfectly straight life. what causes his behaviour this episode is that shane, without even trying, manages to conceive with mara out of wedlock. if julien is already frustrated with his internal battles, adding what can be interpreted as an insult to his religion by conceiving a bastard is bound to infuriate him even more. here he is trying so hard to have the 'perfect' life and shane accomplishes part of his 'dream' without even trying. this is one of the reasons why this entire episode revolves around shane at it's core, with the other reasons being a little bit more obvious. the entire strike team and decoy squad rivalry was so entertaining. that final scene with the streaking was hilarious and it's refreshing to see some actual camaraderie after so much tension in the barn recently. the wager at the start made the case pretty intense and it branched off nicely into vic and corrine's small subplot. even if it wasn't a large part of the episode, cassie running away is a great way to show how the divorce is affecting their children. i thought this would be the reason this episode was so highly rated but i wasw¡ wrong, even if it was one of the better parts of the episode. vic automatically blames corrine when he's the one who pushed everybody away to due his dedication to his job, which led to their divorce. at least he apologised in the end but this show is doing such a good job at making vic sympathetic, tragic and infuriating all at the same time. he's also very insecure about matthew's new tutor, who he sees as an opposing force that makes him look weaker due to his inability to help matthew, and also due to some jealousy and paranoia that we see very briefly in this episode. now to the best part: shane and tavon's fight. this has been brewing ever since tavon was introduced and i'm sad that this will probably be the last we see of him because he was such a great addition to the show and the strike team. there have been clear hints since s1 that shane harbors a racist mentality. he's one of the only characters to use the n-word and he's used it on more than one occasion. he also plays the part of a neo-nazi undercover with incredible ease and it makes you wonder just how much of that was him acting. tavon was the diversity hire of the strike team, so shane always valued him as subpar both due to his race and the reasoning behind his hire, which resulted in friction between the two from the start. it's no secret how fiercely loyal shane is to vic and this episode excellently reminds the viewer by showing shane's insistence at having vic at his very private wedding. tavon and vic's relationship had definitely been improving this season which posed tavon as a threat to shane which just made their relationship even more sour. finally, vic is forced to play to their tune to try and convince them both to settle their differences for the good of the team, which comes with devastating consequences. i mentioned earlier how vic has a way of playing people that convinces them to do his bidding, which he applies to tavon in this episode to perfection. he raises his status by promising big plans for him and convinces him to be the bigger man regarding shane. i need to quickly mention that this episode slightly takes away from the sour taste left by co-pilot by revealing that shane and vic have been best friends for 7 years which makes much more sense. that being said, it means vic knows shane very well and he maybe even intended for tavon and shane to get into a dispute, but that's just a theory of mine. right off the bat there's a sense of unease between shane and tavon, with tavon being a little too touchy with mara in front of shane. this imbalance of power and his need to defend his pride turn shane quickly confrontational as he gets in tavon's face and interrogates him a little. vic's manipulation comes into effect since tavon fixes things with shane but the biggest evidence of this is how proud tavon is to say that vic has plans for him. it makes vic appear like this sinister being that is corrupting all the other member's with his forked tongue. shane is on the same side of the spectrum as tavon, rambling about how vic is his best friend and he would never betray him like this. shane is quick to turn racist which causes the situation to escalate in one of the most intense and well-directed scenes of the entire show up until now. the fight between the two is one of the best shot and choreographed fight scenes i've ever seen, up there with the daredevil and oldboy hallway scenes and the hand to hand combat of the raid saga. it's brutality was also very unexpected but not surprising considering shane's character and what we've seen from him before. the tension skyrockets when mara comes in because tavon is so unrecognizable that he could've easily harmed her baby in that moment. i have to mention the brutality again because it was such a primal scene that boils down to a territorial fight over vic. shane crawling after tavon while mara tugs at his shirt was such an amazing aftermath because in shane's mind he lost the fight and he doesn't consider it over. i half expected tavon to survive but after that final crash the chances are extremely slim. the episode ends with a few devilishly oblivious remarks from vic about how the shane and tavon conflict is resolved and how they would've loved to see the decoy squad streaking in the barn, but maybe i'm reading into it too much. definitely one of the best episodes of the show and i've heard the next one is just as good so i'm really excited to start it because this episode 100% lived up to the hype. high 4.5/5