I missed the season of Forrest Whitaker. I need to netflix it.

Oh, oh: SoA: Okay did anyone else think that with Gemma's outfit for the funeral they gave her that high-necked jacket for a Palinesque effect?

I was a bit disappointed in the finale of "The Shield." There are a couple of things that relate to my disappointment:

1) I think the pacing of this season was off. I think it took them too long to do some things and the finale was pretty rushed. There was a LOT of repetition from ep to ep whereby you could see the same setup and patterns each week.

2) I think I wanted Vic Mackey dead. And since this didn't happen, I didn't feel like I got the conclusion I wanted.

3) Mo Ryan said this was the best series finale she's seen (or something to this effect). Which is a flat out lie.

no, that was "The Wire" Or maybe Hill Street, where Buntz punches that creepy Chief Daniels in the nose.(He totally had it coming)

I agree with your points le nubian. I think it WAS rushed, but given the uneven pacing, I'm not sure what else they could have done.

As for Vic dying. I half expected that but I think that one of the through-line themes for the entire series relates to the indestructibility of the cockroach. With no actual disrespect to the noble and non-douchebaggy roach.

No matter how sympathetic one might ever have been tempted to be towards him (thank you Michael Chiklis and HELLO deathrow brides), given his PhD in horribleness, it just couldn't last.

Which is kind of what I took away from that final scene. There he is all crushed puppy, 'man, this didn't turn out like I expected, woe is me' and then, the suicide fake of slowly taking the pistol out...and then there it was, the schemer's smile. Yeah. Vic's got a new plan and one thing is certain, nobody but Vic will like it. Scene!

In that way, I do believe it was perfect.

SoA: I didn't get the Palinism sumi, but I did like the finale a lot. It set up the dynamic I was hoping for, just with a surprising cohort. Piney has been such a minor character, but I can see him becoming the oxygen sucking Gandolf of the new order.

Jax's outburst with Tara was the most backhanded and weirdly romantic thing I've seen in the entire series. Then again, gettin' it on 3 feet away from the psycho you just co-murdered was pretty bizarre too.

As much as I love Gemma as a character, her motivations have really bothered me and this episode went a long way to highlight the paralyzing vulnerability that causes her to behave so hard as nails. Nice work by Katie Segal.

I'm looking forward to the new eps, whenever they may be hulued.

As much as I loved "Call of the Wild" and "Not Fade Away," I think Newhart had the best series finale ever.

It was a classic.

bonnyfides - I was glad that they didn't start the all out civil war in this episode. (Even though the promos all hinted at it.) It's going to make next season interesting.

bonnyfides - I was glad that they didn't start the all out civil war in this episode. (Even though the promos all hinted at it.) It's going to make next season interesting.

Oh gosh, me too. There was so MUCH emotion flying around, I'm not sure I could have borne anybody else getting killed.

The one note I'm still mulling over vis a vis believability was the ATF Hag telling Bobby the truth about Donna's death. Still, I guess it is characteristically cruel and narcissistic. He's trapped and has to listen, plus he's powerless to do anything about it but eat his own guts out.

Okay, never mind, it was realistic.

Unser broke my heart. That character defines the rock and hard place.

Portia di Rossi didn't have much to do this episode but just that one look at the funeral was worth a pound of dialog.

Good stuff all around.

Which is kind of what I took away from that final scene. There he is all crushed puppy, 'man, this didn't turn out like I expected, woe is me' and then, the suicide fake of slowly taking the pistol out...and then there it was, the schemer's smile. Yeah. Vic's got a new plan and one thing is certain, nobody but Vic will like it. Scene!

Yes, perfect. I think this ending was beautifully tailored to the message of the whole series. Bad guys may prosper, but they have to do bad things to do so, and they suffer losses along the way. Vic had to betray Ronnie, lose Shane, and lose the wife, kids and his job.

I thought it was interesting in the scene one episode earlier where he's about to confess to everything. He has this incredibly long pause. Like confessing would reopen the old Vic that he's been trying to suppress for the last several seasons. Then mid-confession, you can see the old sneer coming back, and when he's done, that last line responding to memfault's "Do you have any idea what you've done to me?" He says, "I've done worse." Scene.

So new Vic and old Vic are the same Vic. We've been rooting for him now as a good guy for awhile, he even tries to call off the Shane/Armenian hit, but deep down he's still old Vic too.

Shane's ending felt rushed, but right, and chilling. I was okay with not knowing Rita's ending, because that's part of the show too. Things don't always get wrapped up at the end of the episode. Dutch is probably right, anyway. And woohoo for Dutch with even Danny seeing the boy's got game.

Definitely A+ series finale. One of the best ever.