As much as I pretty regularly come across art that blows me away or impacts me in some way, it’s far more rare for me at this point to experience something that truly pushes me as a viewer. Once you hear enough albums, watch enough shows, etc, it’s pretty hard to come across stuff that feels like it’s trying to achieve something that you’ve never seen before, that affects you in a way that you’ve never felt before. I’ve reached a point in my media consumption where I’m open-minded enough that close to nothing tests what’s comfortable and normal to me, for better or for worse. For the first time in months, something has finally changed that. I’ve genuinely never watched an episode like this, that attempts what this does and that evokes a reaction like this out of me. Typically when I come into an episode with this level of praise from this kind of show there’s an expectation that what’ll occur within it has some kind of huge significance plot-wise or will be really intense and emotional, and let me say that this doesn’t really fit either of those things, at least in a more traditional sense. More than anything this episode just feels… disorienting? The final 10 minutes of this feel like something I’m not supposed to watch and I genuinely don't know how to approach it in any way. I truly doubt that impression will leave me no matter how many times I watch it or how long I sit with this, so the best I can do is try to talk about it now. [SPOILERS] Although I don’t typically have this issue, a lot of the time it can be difficult to separate the protagonist of a show from somebody who the audience is meant to root for. It’s natural to have some kind of attachment to a character simply due to how long you’ve been around them and able to understand who they are and what motivates their actions, regardless of their morality. The Shield is a show that seems to be incredibly self aware of this, particularly with the commentary provided by Vic, the show’s stubborn, unempathetic protagonist. Take the Gilroy confrontation in 1x13, despite how little care he shows for the criminals he arrests, mocks and abuses, when going against someone who he’s known for so long, he’s unable to treat him in the same way because he’s aware that no matter how bad Gilroy is, he’s still ultimately human. Not only that, but after 4 seasons of watching the strike team commit crimes, cover their own tracks and get away with horrible things that destroy other people, you become desensitised to it. Where Vic setting off a rabid police dog on a fleeing criminal may have shocked me in season 1, when it appears in 4x4 it feels unexceptional and almost comical to an extent because of how normal the horrific nature of it was to me by that point. That’s why despite the fact that Vic isn’t a good person, I still found myself wanting him and the rest of the strike team not to get caught by Kavanaugh, because even if Kavanaugh might technically be a better person with more commendable motives, he’s still framed as an antagonist opposing the people who I’ve watched since the start of the show. Once again, the show is self aware of this and the problems it implies considering that this show is about CRITIQUING police (particularly corrupt ones), and rooting for the definitive example of a corrupt cop throughout the show blatantly contradicts this. It poses the question, even if the show is constantly trying to be critical of Vic and the rest of the cast, how can that be successfully achieved when we’re around him for so long that it’s only normal to feel some kind of connection to him? After being subjected to his immorality for so long that you feel desensitised to it, how can his actions finally have some kind of an impact on the audience again? Most importantly though, how can the show manage to humanise the people trying to make him pay for what he’s done? The answer lies within this episode, aptly titled Kavanaugh. It’s a complete subversion of the show’s typical formula, now having Kavanaugh, the show’s current antagonist, be the protagonist of this one episode. Everything is shot and edited from his perspective even more thoroughly than 5x5, and right from the opening scene seeing him wake up in the morning, it’s clear that this is HIS episode, and his character study. All of the show’s typical subplots are omitted, and we spend an entire day with Kavanaugh, now with VIC being the antagonist going against the motives of the main character. What they do in this single episode through this concept is incredibly impressive, and there are three core aspects of it that are the most important to me and help lead into the brilliant final 10 minutes: The first aspect of the episode that makes it so brilliant and fundamental for Kavanaugh’s character is how it serves as the boiling point of his entire arc thus far. When the season starts off, Kavanaugh is seen in a position of confidence and power as he begins applying pressure to the strike team, and I was anticipating that this would be how he’s generally depicted throughout the entire season. He stays this way throughout the first 4 episodes of this season, however, 5x5 crushingly subverts that as Kavanaugh faces his first loss in the wake of Vic’s incredible capabilities for escaping difficult scenarios that would somehow incriminate him. After experiencing this loss, Kavanaugh becomes more and more desperate and personally driven in his conflict with Vic, which can be seen in his tactics, appearance, mannerisms, etc. However, no matter how hard he tries, Vic always manages to stay two steps ahead of Kavanaugh, largely because of Vic’s willingness to go to such immoral lengths to cover himself and his actions up, something that Kavanaugh struggles to do as a more virtuous IAD officer. This episode is the distillation of that internal conflict, providing a self-contained arc depicting Kavanaugh’s slow descent into debasing himself morally thanks to the belittlement of the person who he once thought he could overpower. The second is how the concept of this episode manages to frame Vic in a far more negative, demeaning light. Not only does this episode manage to humanise Kavanaugh, but also make his hatred of Vic so much easier to connect with as we’re also on the receiving end of his deceit, torment and self-preservation. Practically every scene here highlights Kavanaugh’s lack of control and the way Vic manages to avoid consequences for what he does. When Emolia is undercover and risking her life, it’s Vic calling the shots on what to do, when Vic communicates with his C.I against Kavanaugh’s will, he smirks at him and gets away with it, when Kavanaugh catches Vic spying on him at his most vulnerable moment later on in the episode, Vic stares at him with a condescending grin despite what he was just doing moments earlier. Once you notice this pattern you can see just how stuck up and comfortably unchallenged Vic is in literally every scene here, despite being a literal criminal running Farmington’s police division. To someone who is constantly aware of Vic’s wrongdoing and can see through to what he’s really like, this deceitful nature and lack of retribution for what he does is degrading, humiliating and frustrating, which is exactly how Kavanaugh currently feels. The final thing that makes this episode as special as it is and helps to make its final stretch so good is the addition of Kavanaugh’s ex-wife Sadie, who is the core emotional heartbeat to the entire episode. Seeing Kavanaugh, who has struggled to let go of his wife following their divorce (as shown by him still wearing their ring), see her again for the first time in years because she was supposedly raped is such an immediate way to help us connect with him thanks to how it portrays him in such a vulnerable light that we had yet to see. The evolution of Sadie’s rape case is also an intriguing way to put ourselves further into Kav’s shoes as our perception of Sadie’s rape evolves along with his, as we gradually learn that she faked it to try and get closer to him again. Beyond that though, I do think Sadie’s addition also ties very well into Kav’s conflict with Vic. Kavanaugh left Sadie while she was at a low point mentally, and as Sadie manipulatively words it in their final discussion here, “abandoned” her. In this episode, she creates a scenario where he can “save” her in order to get her back, with Sadie’s wording deliberately playing on Kavanaugh’s desire to be a saviour who can help others. His past inability to do this in regards to Sadie after getting tired of trying to save someone recontextualizes his character deeply, as we learn that his mission to take down Vic gradually revolved less around taking a dirty cop off the streets and more as a desire to prove himself, attempting to cover up the incompetence and insecurity within himself, particularly brought on by his divorce with Sadie and neglection of her when she needed saving the most. This of course brings me to the final 10 minutes of the episode, in which everything I’ve just described coalesces in what is genuinely one of the best scenes ever. After an entire emotionally exhausting day, Kavanaugh finally breaks down and delivers one of the best, most emotionally raw acting performances ever. Him and Sadie get closer and closer to one another, with Kavanaugh momentarily giving in to his less righteous urges and kissing her even though he knows it’s wrong, and that Sadie has done something she needs to be held accountable for. However, he snaps back to his senses and tells Sadie that he can’t take her back, no matter how much she urges him to. “I can’t. There are rules.” “Then break one.” “What I do is I stop cops from breaking the rules, I can’t stop them if I can’t stop myself.” The dialogue here is absolutely masterful, encapsulating Kavanaugh’s core internal conflict throughout the season so far. The final line describes his need for moral superiority and to control himself, the exact thing he’s struggling to still do (as seen by him kissing Sadie beforehand), and the very thing that stops him from catching up to Vic due to Vic’s lowered standards and heightened commitment to getting what he wants. Not only that, but him describing his self control as necessary to stop people who can’t stop themselves is important for how it tells us that Kavanaugh still views his moral high ground as a strength in his conflict with Vic despite how obviously untrue this is, with his comfort in believing this about to be stripped away from him once he learns that Vic is watching in on him. As the scene progresses from here it becomes more and more emotionally driven and difficult to watch. As they both begin to cry in each other’s arms, it starts to become unclear who’s comforting who, and then Sadie says the most significant line of the entire episode: “Everyone sees what I am. Everyone sees me. They all see me.” Although this line helps Kavanaugh make a connection in his head that I’ll get to in a second, the best part about it is that just like the dialogue earlier, it encapsulates one of his definitive character traits, in this instance referring to his insecurity. As much as Kavanaugh tries so hard to save people, everybody can see him for who he is: Someone who’s powerless, incapable of doing what he feels compelled to do most, making him the exact person he feared he never would be. He can’t save anybody, both due to his desire to be morally righteous and his own incompetence, which everyone is there to observe. While his greatest loss up until this point (5x5) showed him frustrated, here he’s completely broken down and deconstructed in the most disheartening way possible. However, aside from everyone seeing who he really is figuratively, he is also LITERALLY being seen, as Vic and Lem are watching this entire discussion with his wife play out through the interrogation cameras. After an entire episode that has been characterised by seeing things through Kav’s perspective, we now have a scene that is shown from the perspective of Vic looking in on Kavanaugh. In any other episode, I think Vic and the audience watching in on Kavanaugh’s breakdown would have felt oddly funny or entertaining in a sick sense, but after the approach of this episode, it has the exact opposite impression. Rather than feeling like we’re “in on the joke”, it feels so utterly intrusive. As I watched this scene, not only was I furious at Vic, but as a viewer I felt so deeply unwelcome to be observing this scene, like I shouldn’t be allowed to watch such an uncomfortable, emotional breakdown, with this impression achieving something that no other episode has done for me. Because of that, this arguably makes for the most thorough and effective portrayal of Vic’s revolting nature thus far into the show. I think the choice to have Lem watching Kavanaugh alongside Vic was an incredibly deliberate choice, not only because of Lem’s purpose in this season overall but because of how his reaction to Kavanaugh’s scene with his wife highlights Vic’s immorality and how it surpasses that of the rest of the strike team. While Lem shows sympathy and a reluctance to be watching Kavanaugh in this vulnerable moment as he hangs around by the door, eager to leave (emulating the intended emotions of the viewer), Vic watches it all play out without any remorse, simply noting that he’s found a weakness of his enemy that he can capitalize upon. It is genuinely hideous to see him have this reaction, and is arguably the fundamental moment of this season when it comes to disillusioning us with how we perceive Vic. Once Kavanaugh realises he’s being watched, he rushes out to catch Vic in the act, with both Vic and Lem attempting to scatter as fast as they can, and then… “YOU!” Going into this episode, I knew this would be the one where Kavanaugh says this with that iconic point and stare, I even knew that it would be directed towards Lem as he arrests him, but this moment was still the exact opposite of what I anticipated it to be. As documented in my reviews for the two episodes before this, I thought this moment would be some kind of huge reveal where Kavanaugh’s cunning plan that he was hiding all along gets revealed, ending his streak of failure and incompetence following 5x5 and showing Vic who he’s truly dealing with. As much as Kavanaugh does get a small victory here, that is not the case at all, especially tonally. Despite how thrilling and intensely performed as this moment is, it is more of a desperate power play than a masterful strategic plan and with the context of the rest of the episode, it feels more deflating than it is triumphant. After an entire day of Vic’s torment, after Vic being ahead of him every step of the way for the past few episodes, this is the moment where Kavanaugh finally cracks and is completely debased. What was a conniving, manipulative antagonist at the start of the season is now solely driven by irrational hatred rather than tactical thought, and it’s in this moment that Kavanaugh FINALLY gives in. Where just moments earlier Kavanaugh described his moral compass as a necessity to take down Vic, here he completely betrays that ideal without hesitation. He no longer tries to maintain his superiority to Vic, out of pure desperation and hatred he stoops down to Vic’s own level of dirtiness and immorality in order to no longer be losing against him by arresting the man who saved his life earlier on in this episode. Kavanaugh is now broken at the hands of Vic’s torment and mockery, and with that, his arc in this episode has been completed. EXTRA NOTES: -I didn’t find anywhere to fit it into this review but Antwon Mitchell’s return in this episode is used really well to see the progression of Kavanaugh as a character as it goes along. In the cold open Kavanaugh is hesistant to make a deal with Antwon that would benefit him because he thinks it’d be wrong, but in the final scene of the episode he makes the deal because his moral compass has now been thrown to the side, which is a perfect way to emphasise his final piece of development here. This is hardly your average exciting final scene of a Shield episode, but just like your perception of the episode overall, when you stop looking at it with the expectation of some hype BrBa S4 type thing and judge the episode based on what it’s trying to be, an incredibly unique, self contained and impressive character study, this ending is perfect. -I do want to seriously hit home that Kavanaugh and Sadie’s actors deliver lifetime performances that they should be incredibly proud of, and that anyone should be blown away by. They’re both absolutely flawless and I do think the amount of effort they poured into their performances was very necessary to make the character work throughout this episode more convincing, similar to how a season like BCS S4 would fall far more flat if it didn’t have such a talented cast that manages to pull off and enhance such nuanced writing. The best example of this is obviously Kavanaugh saying “YOU!”, it’s so incredibly sudden but simultaneously the moment that this episode’s arc revolves around and right before he does the point you can see the gears turning in his head and everything, making the climax/breaking point of Kavanaugh’s entire arc thus far all the more convincing. ///////////// This episode is a masterpiece. What I was expecting to be a phenomenal, albeit simple execution of an integral plot beat to the overall season is completely flipped on its head, instead opting out to be one of the best, most distinct character studies I’ve ever seen, as well as one of the most thematically purposeful and well realised episodes I’ve ever seen. I feel like I didn’t even fully go in depth in regards to what this episode achieves thematically simply for the sake of being concise, but I will discuss it more in depth in my full season review. This episode is absolutely not an easy watch, nor is it easy to even think about and process. It refuses to ever let you be comfortable with it, but that’s exactly what makes it as brilliant as it is. Although I loved and was floored by this episode immediately, I didn’t initially consider it to be an all-time favourite of mine purely because of how much I struggled to process and emotionally react to it on a first watch, but the more I think about it the more I absolutely adore it. Jon Kavanaugh I love you. #23 EPISODE OF ALL TIME