this is the first 4 star since the end of season 4, that's how good this stretch has been. and the peak eppy stretch isn't even over, this is just a slightly less eventful episode. the episode's title is simple yet it applies to a lot of things in this episode. i did already start writing a review for this but it got deleted so i'm just gonna write it again. SPOILERS the title obviously refers to kevin hiatt, vic's soon to be replacement, but it also refers to julien's addition to the strike team. he takes the promotion immediately and pretty much leaves danny alone after she came back early from maternity leave. it raises the question of whether or not what he did is wrong, since julien didn't ask her to come back so why should he reject a promotion? while hiatt just has to wait for vic's leave, julien has to be the observer for claudette. this could also provide some refocus to his homosexuality, something that, besides a small stint in season 4, hasn't been brought up in forever. it's one of the shows issues: making something a key part of a character only to forget about it later on. season 5 did fix this by bringing back lots of things like vic's autistic children that kavanaugh used to gain intel, and since season 6 is mostly an extension of the previous season i'd love to see this some more. hiatt seems like an interesting character but since i've already finished the show i know that his conclusion is so lazy that there's honestly no point in talking too much about him. in this episode he seems like a good foil to vic but at the same time vic quickly digs his manipulative claws in him to try and stick around for longer. as usual, what's been making these episodes strong is how everyone is dealing with lem's death. this episode uses corrine, who didn't really have such a connection with lem, to be an outside source with his death. she talks about a dream she had with lem where he walks straight off a cliff. coming from corrine's perspective, who doesn't know how lem really died, she has this dream where she wanted to believe that lem went peacefully. walking off a cliff is still pretty brutal but at least he had some sort of acceptance in her dream. this shakes both vic and shane to their cores. for shane, it's another reminder of what he did. he's still seeing the minor, representing how he's still on his downward spiral, but with hiatt now in the strike team, it's almost as if people are moving on. if people start to move on and consider lem an aftermath, his guilt will only eat away at him more because he not only killed lem but he also erased his image. it's not easy to explain what he's feeling but walton goggin's facial expressions do such a good job of showing and not telling that it makes everything easier to follow. he breaks down since hiatt isn't lem. lem is irreplaceable for him but he's the reason that new people are showing up in the first place, so how does a person deal with that? for shane the solution is to just engage in his own depravity, wallowing in his self pity. vic dismisses corrine's dream at first, but it still clearly affects him. the revolutionary who got shot in this episode was like lem in his eyes, a person who was kinder than the people around him, trying to do the right thing. when he dies, vic sees this just like how he was unable to save lem. he can't save anybody anymore. lem walked off a cliff and vic couldn't even stop him and now the revolutionary bled out in front of his own eyes. this overwhelming anger finally erupts in his biggest fit of rage in a long time. it's a very stark contrast to the charismatic cop we saw in early season 1. now, he looks small, his face all crunched up in anger as he destroys an entire hospital waiting room and shouts at corrine from across a glass door. it's enough that she can see him but not exactly hear him, his fury finally getting the better of him. killing guardo didn't make him feel better, so probably nothing ever will. it's a hard moment of realisation and by far the best scene of the episode, saved for the very end. i do hope i've remembered everything about corrine's dream correctly since in my notes all i wrote was 'lem going straight off the cliff' for the dream so i don't know how well i described it. high 4/5