if last episode was one of vic's strongest, this one is one of shane's best. the writers are taking turns fleshing them out after the events of season 5 and the character development is reaching an all time high. SPOILERS the episode name says it all. 'haunts' is about past misgivings coming back to haunt our characters, primarily shane. being in the hospital after getting beat up gives him a lot of time to battle his demons, but the battle proves tougher than he thinks once mara finds out why he's in there in the first place. both physically and mentally, this is shane's toughest episode yet. on one hand he gets beat up by tili's stepdad to the point where he's almost unrecognisable in the episode's banner, and on the other hand he's now dealing with a fight with mara besides just his guilt over killing lem. shane's moral self justification for killing lem was that he was protecting his family by doing so, but with mara finding his pack of condoms, lem effectively died for 'nothing' if his family falls apart. he gets kicked out of the house so there's really nothing left to keep him from his self pitying depravity. he sees tili again, he starts doing oxycontin (taking the jesse or chrissy deuteragonist route always means a character is about to be peak) and eventually he sees where his life is headed. he tries one last time to bring some reason to killing lem but stumbling back into his house with a gun and confessing to mara that he murdered lem to protect them. 3x4 was the first big instance of mara being on shane's level of insanity due to how she protected him from tavon, but here is the definitive proof that they're made for each other. they bring out an ugly side of each other: shane due to his need to protect mara and jackson, and mara due to her deep love for shane. even when he's drunk with a gun, having just cheated on her with a minor, mara still feels valued when shane says it was all for her. it's important to consider the context clues about how mara's mother was neglectful for a large portion of her childhood, which makes her decisions much more understandable. even if shane does end up slightly better than where he was at the start of the episode, it's clear it isn't going to last long. vic and ronnie find out from hernan that guardo didn't kill lem, so it's only a matter of time until they start to see through an unbiased lens that shane has been acting very different. julien constantly taking notes for claudette is just another thing to add to the stress that's straining their relationship, since vic and ronnie can barely find a moment to talk safely without julien or even shane now listening in on them. without the comedic due of dutch and billings the episodes would be very, very bleak, but in this one not even their storyline is very upbeat. billings' lashes out at a rapist who molested his own daughter which is some key development for his character and how much he cares for his daughter. it's great that the writers are developing and humanising billings outside of just the idiotic comedic relief, since this also allows for a more genuine relationship with dutch as we see in this episode. mid 4.5/5