List of The Shield episodes

Captain David Aceveda, seeking to usurp the current black City Council representative of Farmington by swaying the Latino vote, looks to rid his precinct, The Barn, of corruption starting with Detective Vic Mackey and the controversial yet effective Strike Team. Mackey and the Strike Team protect local drug dealer Rondell Robinson by enforcing strict rules to make the streets safer. Aceveda works with the Justice Department to bring Detective Terry Crowley onto the Strike Team to try to gain evidence to use on Vic. However, Vic is aware of Crowley's involvement due to his friendship with the Assistant Chief of Police Ben Gilroy; when the Strike Team is forced to shoot and kill Two-Time, a drug dealer, Vic and Detective Shane Vendrell use Two-Time's gun to murder Crowley (without informing team members Detective Curtis "Lem" Lemansky and Detective Ronnie Gardocki), making it look like Crowley was killed by Two-Time. Gilroy helps Vic to cover up the murder and stops Aceveda's investigation. Things come to a breaking point towards the end of the season when Gilroy's own ambitions threaten both Vic's and Aceveda's future.

Separately, rookie officer Julien Lowe learns the ropes from his training officer Danielle "Danny" Sofer, as well as tries to hide his homosexuality from the others. Julien witnesses the Strike Team smuggling a portion of a drug bust for their own personal wealth and reports this to Aceveda. When Aceveda starts investigating Julien's claims, Vic threatens to reveal Julien's homosexuality to the department. Julien backs out from his witness statement, leaving Aceveda with nothing to go on.

Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach and Detective Claudette Wyms hunt a serial killer targeting prostitutes while dealing with their own problems in The Barn. Vic, separately, has to deal with the growing rift between him and his wife Corrine, and learning his son Matthew is autistic, and uses his illicit police activities to pay for special schooling for him. Due to Vic's behavior, Corrine takes the children and disappears, leaving a note to Vic to not to come find them.

The Barn discovers that the Mexican drug gangs in Farmington are uniting under a new drug lord, Armadillo Quintero who is able to evade arrest due to lack of evidence and willing witnesses. Privately, the Strike Team learns that Armadillo has knowledge of some of their illicit activities and fear he will rat them out if he is taken to prison. They attempt to coerce Armadillo to return to Mexico by threatening to green light Armadillo's brother but Armadillo responds by having his brother murdered. Vic eventually loses his cool and burns half of Armadillo's face on stove burner only to have Armadillo do the same to Gardocki and use his new leverage against the Strike Team.

With the fallout of Gilroy's arrest The Barn, Aceveda, and Vic all find themselves under scrutiny of an independent auditor who is determined to find any corruption in The Barn. As Vic and Aceveda struggle to stay one step ahead their tactics draw the ire of Claudette who is determined to arrest Armadillo after he rapes a young girl. Claudette, initially reluctant to take a leadership role, eventually agrees to take over as The Barn's Captain after realizing she can't stay neutral any more.

Meanwhile, Danny fatally shoots a Muslim man who threatened her during a confrontation and Julien is unable to back her story. The widow threatens to sue the department and begins to create problems for Danny both professionally and personally. Shane and Lem convince a small-time criminal to kill Armadillo by passing him a knife after he is arrested and put into the cage by Danny. Separately, Vic has a private investigator search for Corrine and his kids, and eventually finds her seemingly preparing to file for divorce. He moves out of his home and preemptively files for divorce first as to have a better chance of retaining his parenting rights, but this only serves to widen the distance between them.

As the Armadillo case is resolved, the Strike Team learn that the Armenian Mob have a "money train" that passes through Farmington every so often, a means for the mob to launder their illegal funds into untraceable cash. The Strike Team privately plans to rob the money train, knowing that they would be set financially should they succeed. The season ends with the successful execution of the money train heist, Danny being fired, and Aceveda winning the primary.[4]

In the aftermath of the money train heist the Strike Team resolves to lay low and avoid any controversy but quickly find themselves marginalized and lacking vital information. When some of the money from the heist is revealed to be marked for a federal case the team struggles to stay ahead of Dutch who begins to gradually suspect Vic. The Armenian mob sends Margos Dezerian, previously seen in season one, to find the money and kill anyone with anyone involved. As Margos and the investigation closes in on the Strike Team, Lem burns a majority of the money in a desperate attempt to protect the team ultimately leading to a confrontation which causes the Strike Team to split up in the season finale.

Claudette is promised a promotion to captain and maintains a supervising role throughout the season while Aceveda prepares to move on to the city council. Near the end of the season, a public defender is shot, and the ensuing investigation leads Claudette and Dutch to discover that the victim had been a heavy drug user for the past three years. Claudette, determined to ensure justice, explores further and becomes very unpopular with the D.A. and around the Barn because she reopens (against orders) the defender's lost cases. This results in her being denied the promotion to Captain of the Farmington District.

Shane begins a serious relationship with Mara and eventually proposes to her when they find out she is pregnant. Mara encourages Shane to be more independent from Vic even after discovering the money from the heist. The conflict between Vic and Shane becomes personal by the end of the season leaving a deep rift between the two.

Dutch opens a case of a serial rapist and finds himself becoming more obsessed than usual without Claudette's backing. Julien, after suffering a beating during the season 2 finale has toughened considerably leading Claudette feeling alarmed that he may wash out. Danny makes a deal with Aceveda to be reinstated provided to provide him any pertinent information about other officers.[5]

Monica Rawling (Glenn Close) takes over the role as Farmington's new captain, who implements controversial federal asset forfeiture laws to seize any property tied to drug dealing, using the money to fund the department and give back to the community. The season deals with the fallout from the Strike Team's disbandment. Shane Vendrell, with new partner Armando "Army" Renta (Michael Peña), enters into a dangerous situation when trying to control major drug lord Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson), and seemingly accepts an order to kill Vic Mackey. The police are outraged after two officers are kidnapped and subsequently found murdered. In the end, the Strike Team is re-formed and manages to put Antwon in prison. The season also deals with the controversial asset-forfeiture policies of the new captain; Julien Lowe's opposition to these policies; and City Councilman David Aceveda's dealing with the psychological aftermath of his sexual assault incident from the previous season. The season concludes with Capt. Rawling's losing her job over a dispute with the DEA.

Other plots involve Claudette and Dutch's marginalization as detectives, because of Claudette's refusal to apologize to the DA for reopening the cases of a public defender discovered to have been a functioning drug addict. Claudette's moral stand results in many of the prosecutors' cases being overturned. This costs Claudette her shot at becoming the Farmington Captain. Dutch attempts to resolve the situation by making a back-room deal with the DA to "keep Claudette in line" and do favors for the office in return for breaking back into action. Ultimately, this causes a rift between Claudette and Dutch, in which Dutch confronts Claudette after she rebukes him for making the deal.[6][7]

The season revolves around Internal Affairs Division Lt. Jon Kavanaugh's (Forest Whitaker) investigation of the Strike Team and one of the greatest threats the team has ever faced. As a result of Kavanaugh's turning one of Mackey's informants, IAD became aware of Lem's heroin theft and failure to report during the Antwon Mitchell investigation. Finding the heroin gave IAD sufficient evidence to arrest Lem, but Kavanaugh informs him about his theory of Terry Crowley's death and has Lem wear a wire to get evidence on the Strike Team. Lem is able to warn Mackey he is wired and Mackey uses it to embarrass IAD. Kavanaugh, applying pressure to the team in any way he can, finds out about Mackey's share of the money train haul. After Mackey sleeps with Kavanaugh's wife for further humiliation Kavanaugh arrests Lem and makes a deal with Mitchell. Mackey supports Lem and gets bail, while Vendrell worries Lem will give evidence against the team. The season concludes with Vendrell, fooled by Aceveda into believing Lem was going to turn on the Strike Team, murdering his friend and fellow team member with a hand grenade.

Other plots include Dutch discovering Claudette has a chronic illness; Claudette's physical breaking point getting a killer from the past to confess; Steve Billings as the interim "jellyfish yes-man" Captain of the Barn; Sofer dealing with pregnancy and refusing to divulge the father's name; Julien training Tina, a pretty but inept rookie officer who Dutch has a crush on; and Claudette finally getting her opportunity for promotion to captain of the Barn, which she accepts on the sole condition that she gets to run the Barn her way.[8][9]

This 15-minute mini-episode was produced between the fifth and sixth seasons, and initially released to various websites in February 2007 as a promotion for season six.[10] It was later made available on the Season 5 DVD set.

Continuing directly after season 5, Mackey and the Strike Team are distraught over Lem's death. Kavanaugh refuses to let the case die and resorts to Mackey's tactics of planting evidence and coercing witnesses to lie about the Strike Team, especially Mackey. Dutch and Claudette begin to suspect Kavanaugh's integrity. Kavanaugh finally confesses to his actions and finds himself under arrest.

The first half of the season deals with Mackey and Gardocki hunting and killing Guardo Lima, the Barn's main suspect in the murder of Lem. Vendrell, overcome by guilt, becomes reckless and suicidal and enters into an affair with a teenager associated with the new One-Niner boss. The last half of the season concludes with the breakdown of Mackey and Vendrell's friendship, as Vendrell admits having killed Lem. Vendrell threatens Mackey and Gardocki with revealing their illegal exploits should Mackey attempt to arrest him for Lem's killing. Vendrell tries to get protection with the Armenians and reveals Mackey was the ringleader behind the money train robbery putting Mackey's family in danger.

Mackey learns from Claudette that the Chief plans to force him into early retirement and his attempts to make himself indispensable. After a bloody mass murder, Claudette learns the Barn could be shut down if no improvements are made by the time quarterly crime statistics are released. Julien joins the Strike Team under the leadership of a new and ineffective leader. Aceveda finds a new backer for his mayoral campaign but soon learns he might be in over his head. Dutch's relationship with Tina becomes complicated following meddling by Billings. In the final minutes of the season's last episode, Aceveda and Mackey agree to work together to take down Aceveda's new backers.

Mackey and Aceveda discover that a Mexican cartel is buying influence in Farmington through a wealthy developer that is also backing Aceveda's campaign and both agree to work with ICE through Agent Olivia Murray to end it. Mackey also sees it as a way to put the Mexicans at war with the Armenian mob to protect himself and his family, as well as securing an ICE position given that he has been forced into retirement by the police. Mackey promises that he will also get Gardocki a similar deal or else they will run together. Vendrell, despite having the written confession against Mackey to use as leverage, tries to work with Mackey and Gardocki, knowing putting away the Armenians would also protect his family. A meeting between the Armenians and cartel is arranged, one which Mackey expects the Armenians will be wiped out; as he still does not trust Vendrell, Mackey has Gardocki tamper with his sidearm, and when Vendrell is at the meeting, he barely escapes with his life, and arranges with a small-time crook to perform simultaneous hits on Mackey and Gardocki. The attack falls through, and the cops discover from the crook of Vendrell's involvement. Vendrell goes on the run with Mara and Jackson, while Mackey relinquishes his badge so he can pursue Vendrell. Wyms begins a full investigation of Mackey's corruption. Mackey puts weight on Murray to secure immunity should he provide ICE with the captivity of the cartel.

Vendrell fully blames Mackey for his situation, and has Mara coerce Corrine via phone call in providing them with information on the police's search activities, asserting she is as involved as Mackey is in his corruption. Fearing being caught in the middle of Mackey and Vendrell's war, Corrine contacts the Barn requesting witness protection and offers to help with their investigation. To coerce Mackey, Wyms appears to arrest Corrine while Mackey is watching. Mackey pushes on Murray to secure Corrine's immunity alongside his, but foregoing Gardocki's immunity without telling him. Murray is able to pull the right strings, but only on the conditions that Mackey tell them every illegal activity, and that pursuant to his ICE position, he follow their regulations exactly. Mackey proceeds to give all the details of the crimes, stunning Murray, her superior, and Wyms and Dutch, who arrive after getting a tip about Mackey's location. Wyms becomes furious that Mackey has effectively protected himself from police arrest.

Meanwhile, Vendrell learns Corrine was working with the cops, and keep his family on the run. He contacts Mackey to try to hold his blackmail over him, but Mackey reveals his ICE deal. Without any other options, Vendrell poisons Mara and Jackson, and then shoots himself after writing a confession just as the cops arrive. Meanwhile, Mackey and Gardocki trick both the cartel and black drug gangs into an ICE trap, successful arresting the leadership and their drug supply, which Aceveda uses as a publicity stunt for his mayoral campaign. The Barn notifies them of Vendrell's suicide. When Mackey arrives, Wyms accosts him, showing that Vendrell confessed his actions were a result of Mackey's own, but knows there's nothing she can do him. Wyms publicly orders Gardocki's arrest for numerous crimes; Gardocki yells at Mackey, learning he has betrayed him.

The series concludes with Corrine and the children being placed into witness protection, Wyms admitting to Dutch that her medication no longer works and she will keep her position until she dies, and Mackey being told by Murray that he will be forced to desk work at ICE, unlikely to be on the street any time soon, and any step out of line will lead to him violating his agreement and being arrested for the crimes he confessed to. The show ends as Mackey, at the ICE offices after hours, hearing police sirens race down the road. He thinks for a moment, grabs his gun, and leaves.