I am – Hercules!! The bat-brandishing “Capone” continues with his bang-up reviews of “The Shield’s” final season. After tonight, only seven installments to go … Hello again everyone. Capone in Chicago here in Coaxial. There are seven episodes and counting in "The Shield's" Final Act. When last we left Vic Mackey, he was confronting Agent Murray about where her true loyalties lie. He also found out his daughter had arranged a major drug and sex party for her high school class mates. And Danni was serving him papers from her attorney giving full custody of their son over to her. Title? ANIMAL CONTROL Writer? Writing partners John Hlavin & Angela Russo, who both wrote one other upcoming episode this season, as well of episodes of "Day Break" and "E-Ring." Director? Gwyneth Horder-Payton, director of three previous episodes of this show (including one earlier this season), as well as episodes of "The Riches" and "Bionic Woman"; first assistant director of 33 episodes of the "The Shield." What to do with that pesky blackmail box? Aceveda wants to turn it over to the feds, but Vic talks him into holding off. He wants to pull Agent Murray's file to protect her and possibly for leverage. Vic gets Aceveda to agree to hold off turning it over for 36 hours. Vic has a plan to sell the blackmail box to the Armenians through Shane...and then tell the Mexicans where the exchange buy will happen. To drive the point home, this plan is hatched with Ronnie while they two stand over Lem's grave. Getting the blackmail box is the third favor the Armenians get to ask from Vic, thus keeping his family safe. Meanwhile Vic tells the Mexicans the Armenian "board of directors" is meeting. Do any voices from the past show up this week, like Forrest Whitaker or Glenn Close? Not quite, but a gentleman named Tevon, who Shane had a run in with last season, show up unexpectedly asking shane for help capturing a rapist who vanished and has returned. Tevon suffered some memory loss when we last saw him, so I guess the question is has his memory returned Hey, don't other people do police work at "The Barn"? Danni sees a composite of the city Controller's murderer and recognizes it as the man who attacked her and was a suspect in the body dragging murders, earlier in the season. Paula finds a naked man covered in blood in an alley who claims he's a sleepwalking murderer. When Dutch investigates, he suspects the man is faking. We know things are bad in Vic's professional life. How bad are things getting in his personal life? Shane goes to Corrine's house and finds her stoned out on sleeping pills. What about Agent Murray? She wants to turn herself in rather than be beholden to the Mexicans any longer. So how does that blackmail box meeting go down? Fairly smoothly, I'd imagine. In some of the best editing the show has ever had, all of the pieces come together. Ronnie manages to get ahold of Shane's gun just before the meeting and messes with it a little, you know, just for kicks. Vic gets cold feet about taking out Shane, Shane must leave the building where the meeting is taking place, and just by dumb luck he misses a friendly visit from the Mexican Welcome Wagon. What I liked. With Vic and Ronnie finally making their move to get rid of Shane, this episode sets the stage for everything that comes from this point forward. The final sequence is among the finest "The Shield" has ever staged. I also love that Ronnie, who used to be a character whose name I couldn't even remember from week to week, has so come into his own and is really showing just how smart and manipulative even he can be. He's playing both sides at this point, trying to stay loyal to Vic but also trying to remember that in likelihood Vic is gone soon and he still needs his job. What I didn't like. The naked sleepwalker didn't impress me. But it did give Claudette a chance to really shine. Her sit down with the possible killer is fantastic. How does it end? The money the Armenians brought to buy the blackmail box is gone. Vic and Shane are both on the scene and have different versions of what went down. Shane races home to wife, shows her a souvenir he took from the crime scene, and says he knows for a fact that Vic just tried to have him killed. "They think I'm too stupid to realize it." -- Capone capone@aintitcoolmail.com

10 p.m. Tuesday. FX.

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