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{{quote|''"Good cop and bad cop left for the day; I'm a different kind of cop."''
|'''Vic Mackey''', right before one of his [[Establishing Character Moment]]s}}
The hyperactive Shakespearian counterpart to the Dickensian ''[[The Wire]]'', ''
The central focus of the show is corrupt detective Vic Mackey and the elite anti-gang task force known as "The Strike Team" that he leads. Tasked with the monumental job of keeping the streets of Farmington safe from drug dealers and gang members, Mackey and the other members of the close-knit team generally go about their task with violent efficiency and the occasional act of police corruption. The Strike Team often create Faustian deals with the criminal elements of Farmington, giving them free reign to run the drug trade within the city in exchange for bribes, intel on other gang members, and a promise to keep their illegal antics at a reasonable level so as to ensure the illusion of peace within Farmington.
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For the most part, however, Vic's conscience is driven mainly by the influence of Strike Team member Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. Lem serves as the counterpart to Vic's much abused "yes-man" partner, Shane Vendrell. Rounding out the group is Ronnie Gardocki, a quiet and nerdy police detective whose silent loyalty to Vic balances Lem and Shane's polar opposite personalities.
{{tropelist}}
* [[The Ace]]: Vic Mackey especially in
* [[Affably Evil]] / [[Faux Affably Evil]]: The Strike Team in general, with Vic and Shane under the [[Faux Affably Evil]] label and Lem and Ronnie under the [[Affably Evil]] label. Averted with Captain/Councilman Acaveda, whose arc begins with him becoming [[Affably Evil]], but later turning [[Faux Affably Evil]] by the end of the series. And toss in Antwon Mitchell, who fits the [[Affably Evil]] archetype when he's pretending to be a nice guy.
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: Dutch is largely treated as an outcast by the other cops at the precinct, with even his partner/best friend keeping him at arms' length most of the time. Strike Team member Ronnie Gardocki is also treated badly by his teammates: from making fun of his facial hair to his non-existent sex life, to being left out of the loop of many important decisions made by the Strike Team and largely treated as a gopher for Vic.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Lt. Jon Kavanaugh (Michael Chiklis even outright uses the term to describe him in interviews). The Strike Team qualify as well, if you take the stance that Claudette and Dutch are the true good guys in the story.▼
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Starting with Terry in
** Actually kind of subverted for most of the show, yes Terry's death does set that sort of tone but really with the main cast we only saw three characters who's names were in the main titles killed over the course of seven seasons which is arguably part of what made those few deaths pack the punch they did.
▲* [[Anti-Villain]]: Lt. Jon Kavanaugh (Michael Chiklis even outright uses the term to describe him in interviews). The Strike Team qualify as well, if you take the stance that Claudette and Dutch are the true good guys in the story.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Quiet a few characters, but most notably: Ronnie, Lem, and Billings. Similarly, Margos (the Armenian hitman from season three who became that season's big bad) started off as a one-off villain; at the time of filming the season one episode that introduced him, the show had no plans for the character and even had staff writer Kurt Sutter play the character as a means of saving money on casting the part.
* [[Auto Erotica]]: Danny and Vic in season four, which worked out as a perfect coincidence for the writers, as it let them use the scene to make Vic the father of Danny's baby, when the writers were forced to work Catherine Dent's pregnancy into the series.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Steve Billings is a jaded police officer who, with five years left before he can retire with a full police pension, has committed himself to doing as little work as possible as he counts down his days to retirement. The only thing that can get him to pull himself out of his lazy rut is when he comes across crimes involving children, at which point Billings will move heaven and earth to see justice done. Coincidentally, this Berserk Button is shared by Vic.
* [[Big Bad]]: Several.
** {{spoiler|Gilroy}} in Season One.
** Armadillo Quintero in Season Two.
** Margos Dezerian, the Armenian Mob, and the Granny Rapist in Season Three.
** Antwon Mitchell in Season Four.
** Lt. Kavanaugh and Guardo Lima in Season Five.
** Season Six carries over Guardo Lima as well as his organization, in the form of the El Salvadorian mob. The season also establishes the Mexican Mafia in the form of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Cruz Pezuela.
** Season Seven has multiple Big Bads running around: the Mexican Mafia (led by Guillermo Beltran), the Armenians
* [[Bizarchitecture]]: The Barn has an odd, open design which would generally be too chaotic and loud to be comfortable to work in. Justified both on camera (It's a converted former church that the LAPD was trying to save from being torn down) and off-camera (It's much easier to film in there.)▼
* [[Big Good]]: Captain Monica Rawling in Season 4. Hell even Vic Mackey is at his most heroic in this season. Shane is a different matter...
▲* [[
* [[Bluffing the Murderer]]: Subverted. In
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Dutch and Ronnie. Also Shane, as far as him being Vic's go-to punching bag whenever things in Vic's life go bad.
* [[Call Back]]: Just before Shane attempts to goad Antoine Mitchell into attacking him in Season 4 (in a desperate bid to clear his name and save his career), Shane tells Vic that "This one's on me
* [[The Cameo]]: Rapper Andre 3000 of Outkast fame appears as a comic book store owner in one episode. He returns in the series finale, where this trope becomes
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The cell phone pic of Aceveda's rape. Subverted with the MAD Document Shane produced, which Vic lied about using AGAINST Shane in the series finale. And a more literal example, {{spoiler|the stolen grenade used by Shane to kill Lem
* [[Cop Show]]
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Cruz Pezuela.
* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Pretty much everyone in the Strike Team, to varying degrees.
* [[Crapsack World]]: It's shown repeatedly that the main characters, and the LAPD in general, work a thankless job protecting a section of the city that pretty much sees the police as the enemy and the problem rather than the solution to the various gang and drug problems within their community. It's also shown that the top ranking LAPD brass pretty much are petty, self-absorbed jerks who spend their days either committing abuse of power as far as misusing police resources for illegal schemes (Gilroy) or engaging intimidation/threats towards their subordinates (Claudette, Acaveda) because they pissed off the wrong superior officer at some point. Adding to the [[Crapsack World]] nature of the finale was Vic skating on jail time for everything while his subordinate, who wasn't even deemed worthy enough to be consulted about the bulk of Vic's crimes, was made into the fall guy and will be most likely executed (assuming he isn't killed in jail) for Terry Crowley's murder when he wasn't even part of the murder plot.
* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Shane Vendrell, Ronnie Gardocki, Dutch Wagenbach, Tina Hanlon, and Steve Billings.
* [[Da Chief]]: Largely averted, but Claudette fills the role when necessary.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Subjective;
* [[Dirty Cop]]: Aceveda says it all about Vic Mackey: "Mackey's not a cop. He's Al Capone with a badge."▼
* [[Disc One Final Boss]]: Armadillo from season two, who gets killed off midway through the season.▼
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: The final fates of Ronnie and Shane.
▲* [[Dirty Cop]]: Aceveda says it all about Vic Mackey: "Mackey's not a cop. He's Al Capone with a badge."
▲* [[Disc One Final Boss]]: Armadillo from
* [[Downer Ending]]: Just about everyone gets one.
** '''Vic:''' {{spoiler|He gets full immunity from his crimes but quickly falls into his own personal hell: he's stuck working a desk job for three years with a supervisor who blatantly tells Vic that she'll do everything in her power to bait Vic into violating his immunity deal. Oh, and his ex-wife has fled town with their children, entered Witness Protection, and has an order of protection out against Vic
** '''Shane:'''
** '''Ronnie:''' {{spoiler|He's arrested as the scapegoat for all of the crimes of the Strike Team and is sent to prison (a fate that Ronnie, earlier in the season, claimed was the far worse fate than being killed), where - assuming he doesn't get killed in jail awaiting trial - he's looking at going to prison for aiding and abetting a fugitive at best and being executed for the murder of Terry Crowley (even though he was utterly oblivious to the plot to kill Terry) at worst
** '''Claudette:''' {{spoiler|Her lupus has reached the terminal stage and it's only a matter of time before she's forced to give up the job she loves more than life itself, let alone the implication that her utter failure to bring Vic to justice is eating her up inside and will haunt her to her dying day
** '''Corrine:''' {{spoiler|Corrine and her kids are forced to go into Witness Protection program, with Corrine living in fear of the day in which Vic might eventually find her and what he will do to her to punish her for betraying him. On top of that, her two kids with autism will be forced into a sub-par school system (the WP officer evasively describes the schools in the area as "improving"), essentially ruining any chance the kids had to lead independent lives. Throughout the series, it's also strongly hinted that Cassidy, whatever she decides to do with her life, is going to end up just like her father
** '''Acaveda:''' {{spoiler|He manages to avoid all of the fallout of his involvement with the Mexican drug cartel, Vic Mackey, and the Strike Team's crimes (a lot of which happened on his watch as the captain at the Barn), and is even expected to win the Mayoral election. But despite this, the character is now completely compromised morally: he is now knee-deep in corruption, having lost practically all of the morals he had at the beginning of the show. Assuming of course, the Mexican Mafia don't kill Acaveda for the way that he betrayed them and crippled their organization
** '''Julian:''' {{spoiler|He's still in his own private, closeted hell as far as being stuck in a sham marriage as well as having his brief "hazard pay" pay raise (given to him to get him to work as the fifth guy on the Strike Team) revoked when Claudette dissolves the Strike Team once and for all
** '''Billings:''' {{spoiler|He discovers that his big payday from his bogus lawsuit amounts to several days' worth of backpay
** Only Tina Hanlon (and, to a lesser extent, Dutch and Danny) seemed to have anything remotely resembling a happy ending and even that is a stretch:
*** Tina watches a beloved community activist die after being shot by criminals whose drug house he was trying to get shut down via organizing a blockade of its entrance. And while she gets Julian to hold a mini-celebration (complete with cake) for her to celebrate her first full year on the job, the celebration is cut short due to Tina and her fellow patrol officers being called out onto the street as back-up on a gang shooting.
*** Danny has Vic Mackey looming over her, as far as him suing to gain visitation rights to their son, a notion that will only intensify now that his other children are beyond his reach.
*** Dutch is manipulated into giving perjured testimony in order to get Billings' lawsuit settled and save his job, and he doesn't end up with any of the women he spent the series pining over (though Billings' lawyer, ironically played by Jay Karnes' real life wife, ends up asking Dutch out on a date
* [[Escalating War]]: Season
* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]: However you see Vic, and even Shane, [[Complete Monster]], Anti-Hero, [[Villain Protagonist]], Vic really loves his kids and Shane loves his wife and children as well.
* [[The Everyman]]: Ronnie Gardocki and Danny Sofer/Tina Hanlon.
* [[False Roulette]]: Tavon in season two.▼
* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: Everyone's attempts to bring Vic Mackey to justice fail miserably.
* [[Family Annihilator]]:
* [[Faux Action Girl]]: Tina (
* [[First Episode Spoiler]]: Vic murders Terry Crowley.
* [[Five-Man Band]]: Subversion: attempts to add a fifth member to the crew never go well.
** Still got a good four person five man bad with all the spaces filled.
** [[The Hero]]: Vic Mackey *
** [[The Lancer]]: Shane stupidly heads for the jugular, lacks Vic's cool head.
** [[The Big Guy]]/[[The Heart]]: Lem is the largest on the team and always wields a shotgun, yet is the conscience and liked helping teens with their problems.
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* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Several of them:
** Season One, Dutch faces off with a serial killer who psychoanalysis Dutch and his failures as a human being complete with using the interrogation room's white board to map out Dutch's psyche to pinpoint his failures. The subversion comes from the fact that Dutch willfully endures this to buy his partner the time needed to get a search warrant to search the killer's house, to get the evidence proving him to be the murderer. Though this strategy works and causes the rank and file officers (including Vic Mackey) to cheer Dutch for his smarts in catching the killer, viewers watch Dutch break down into tears in private following the conclusion of the interrogation.
** Dutch delivers one to Danny, in full view of the rest of the Barn, when she picks the wrong moment to ask him if he'll help her cram for her
** Gilroy gives Vic a lecture about how he will inevitably lose his family because of his corrupt antics at the end of
** Acaveda gives Vic one in
** The "Granny Rapist" does this to Dutch in season three, calling out Dutch's failure to catch him before he had the chance to go from being just a rapist to a rapist and murderer.
** Antwon Mitchell tries this on Captain Monica Rawlings at several points in
** Kavanaugh does this to Lem and Councilman Acaveda in
** Season Six has Shane unleashing one of these upon Vic Mackey, when he brings up Vic murdering Terry as a rebuttal for Vic's anger over Shane
** Finally Vic gives one to Shane in the finale which backfires when it leads to
* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Played straight with Aceveda till first 2 seasons and then becomes increasingly subverted as Aceveda puts his political ambition before bringing the strike team to justice. Double Subverted as Aceveda still goes after Vic and co. for personal reasons from
** Jon Kavanaugh also counts as a very dark version of this trope.
** Brutally averted with Terry Crowley in the ''[[Pilot]]'' itself!!!
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Subverted: every time Vic seems like he might have one, his sociopathic nature pulls him out of it right before he goes catatonic.
* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: All four members of the Strike Team are arguably these, to varying degrees (Shane and Vic are on the extreme end of the spectrum, while Ronnie and Lem are on the more tame end of the spectrum).
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Vic and Shane (which at times is portrayed as an abusive marriage with Shane as the battered spouse) and Ronnie and Vic (at least in Ronnie's mind).
* [[Hollywood Hacking]]: In the
* [[Hollywood Sex]]: Subverted: Sex is usually portrayed as unglamorously as possible.
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: The series finale: What should've been Vic's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] quickly downward spirals into a half-hour Karmic smackdown.
* [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten|If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!]]: Off-screen, a Federal undercover agent is given one of these tests. he apparently "passed" because we later see the carved up remains of his victim. Tina constantly gets these offers just about every time she does undercover work: first being asked to let a bunch of sadistic pimps gangbang her and later, when a porn director/drug dealer orders her to perform oral sex on fellow undercover cop Julian. Luckily, she is able to wiggle out of having to do so each time she's been offered the proverbial kitten to eat.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted in every season, except the sixth one. The worst cases were in
* [[Inspector Javert]]: Jon Kavanaugh (though Vic is ''much'' more dirty than The Javert's usual quarry).
* [[Internal Affairs]]: Jon Kavanaugh in Season Five.
* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Julian.▼
* [[Ironic Hell]]: {{spoiler|Vic Mackey's}} final fate.
* [[It Got Worse]]: The Money Train Heist in the
* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: In the first episode, Vic beats up a
** In Season 6, Vic beats Guardo Lima, a gang leader, with a length of chain to find out who killed Lem. But since Shane actually did it, Vic winds unknowingly up torturing (and killing with a bullet to the head afterwords when he got tired of hearing Guardo deny the charge) an innocent, though still evil, man.
* [[Jerkass]]: Shane, so very much. Also Vic, when it comes to Dutch. Aceveda becomes one in the later seasons.
* [[Jurisdiction Friction]]: Season four has this, as does
* [[Karma Houdini]]: David Acaveda ends up escaping any punishment for the crimes and amoral things he does in the end. Vic does so as well, but his fate is more of a [[Karma Houdini/Playing With|reconstruction]] (see [[
* [[Kick the Dog]]: In the finale; Vic's betrayal of Ronnie certainly qualifies as a moment designed to remind people what a monster Vic has become.
** Also the shooting of Terry Crowley in the very first episode, which was done mainly to establish Vic as not just another corrupt cop but one that was a Captain Sensible-type villain.
** Not to mention Dutch killing a stray cat for no real reason.
* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]: Subverted: Tavon and Shane did not get off on the right foot, largely because of Shane's racism and the fact that Vic was taking a liking to Tavon, even though he was also keeping the Strike Team's criminal activities a secret from him. Needless to say, Tavon and Shane ultimately came to blows and an iron to the head thanks to Mara (Shane's girlfriend) and
* [[MacGuffin]]: The plot of
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Vic MACKEY (
* [[Morality Pet]]: Vic has several (his family, Connie the crack-addicted prostitute/single-mother, Ronnie, Lem).▼
* [[Morality Chain]]: Lem would have to qualify as Ronnie's morality chain. His death effectively triggered a massive change in Ronnie's personality, causing him become hostile towards Shane and actively calling for Shane's death in order to avenge his friend.
** Subverted non-violently with Claudette/Dutch and Julian/Danny: despite the show basically setting up Dutch as a time bomb waiting to go off, it's Claudette who goes batshit crazy when the two are broken up as partners during
*** They addressed the morality chain-nature of Julian and Danny's partnership in
▲* [[Morality Pet]]: Vic has several (his family, Connie the crack-addicted prostitute/single-mother, Ronnie, Lem).
* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: If you come between Vic and Shane, Shane WILL try to kill you.
** Subverted with Vic/Ronnie/Shane as Ronnie kept pushing Vic to kill Shane to avenge Lem, even as Vic was willing to kiss and make up for real with Shane. When Vic tried to call off the hit on Shane, Ronnie cold-bloodedly exploited the fact that they were in the same car with Julian, meaning that Vic couldn't beat the crap out Ronnie and call Shane to warn him about the attempt on his life.
* [[Nakama]]: The Strike Team members consider themselves family/brothers with Vic as the Papa Bear Protector of the group. Needless to say, this ends up being subverted in the end as the entire team ends up turning against each other and Vic selling the rest of the team down the river for immunity.
** A straighter example would be Claudette and Dutch. They bicker constantly like a married couple, but they're always there for each other.
* [[National Stereotypes]]: The Team has a high-risk warrant for a Korean
* [[Never Accepted in His Hometown]]: In Season 2, a Mexican gangleader is released into Farmington after serving a long jail sentence, only to find that
▲* [[National Stereotypes]]: The Team has a high-risk warrant for a Korean perp, so naturally they almost catch him at a LAN Cafe playing ''[[Counter-Strike]]''.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: In
* [[Noble Bigot with a Badge]]: Shane, who evolved into this trope after actor Walt Goggins voiced his discomfort to the writers about playing an unashamedly racist and homophobic asshole.
* [[No Communities Were Harmed]]: Farmington is not a real LA neighborhood. It's a pastiche of Downtown, <s> South Central</s> South Los Angeles, Koreatown, and Compton.
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* [[Not So Above It All]]: Despite being shown to be one of the few honest and moral people on the show, Danny is seen (along with Tina and Corrine Mackey) making a special trip to an illegal store selling knock-off designer bags the day before the shop is to be raided and shut down by the police.
** Also, Captian David Acaveda. Despite being a moderately decent person stuck running a precinct with a corrupt anti-gang task force he inherited from the previous captain that he can't get rid of, to protect his political ambitions he will pretty much do anything, including freak Vic Mackey out with his brutal beatdown of a mob connected flunky who is blackmailing him, to cover his own ass. Not to mention the lengths he went to get revenge upon the men who sexually assaulted him.
* [[Not So Different]]: The ending of the
* [[The Odd Couple]]: Vic and Captain/City Councilman Acaveda, once they start teaming up on a regular basis as well as Dutch/Clauette.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Lem, and to a lesser extent Ronnie often fills this role within the Strike Team. Possibly Claudette, but her various moments of sanity ultimately are negated by a lot of the questionable decisions she makes (such as firing Kevin Hiatt for actually being a goody-goody and not a faux goody-goody who would get his hands dirty for Claudette so she could look good to her superiors).
* [[Out of Focus]]:
*
* [[Peer Pressure Makes You Evil]]: The root cause for why Lem is a corrupt cop. Not to mention the catch-all excuse for [[Draco in Leather Pants]] Ronnie, as far as fans projecting motive for why Ronnie did evil.
* [[Perp and Weapon]]: In
* [[Porn Stache]]: Ronnie in the first two seasons.
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Not quite, as the f-word was not allowed on FX, but when Dutch
** Said line later became a running gag, as far as various characters saying it whenever something bad happens. As for the F-word, ironically Shawn Ryan DID get it cleared for a single usage in
*** Although The F-word is used several times in the video game of the series.
* [[Pyrrhic Villainy]]: {{spoiler|Vic's final fate. While he ends up with a better job in federal law enforcement and full immunity for his sins, his victory is hollow. Vic has betrayed all of his friends, who are either dead or now rotting in jail. His ex-wife has taken extreme steps to ensure Vic can never come near her again, or their children and his mistress is moving heaven and earth to ensure Vic can never come near their son, who will inevitably learn all about what a monster his father is. Furthermore, Vic's biggest strength (his charisma and people skills) have been permenantly tarnished, due to the fact that his [[Karma Houdini]] required him to confess to all of his sins and as such, everyone knows now that he murdered a fellow law enforcement officer and betrayed one of his proteges in exchange for said immunity. And while he still has a job in law enforcement, the show portrays it as a three year prison sentence, [[Chained To A Desk]]. He's working for people who can't stand the sight of him and intend to make his life such hell - so he'll void his immunity deal. }}▼
* [[The Profiler]]: Dutch, on occasion.
* [[
▲* [[Pyrrhic Villainy]]:
* [[Rape as Drama]]: Aceveda's rape is played deadly serious with all the emotional trauma it would produce. Aceveda starts beating a prostitute in an attempt to reclaim his masculinity, and then makes a deal with Antwon Mitchell to have the rapist murdered in prison.
** Season
* [[Reality Ensues]]: When Wagenbach and Wyms discover that a city Public Defender was a drug addict. Revealing that she was on drugs would open up virtually her entire backlog of clients to appeal for [[wikipedia:Assistance of counsel|Ineffective Assistance of Counsel]] relief. Dutch warns Claudette not to do it, but she does anyway, and the resulting fallout turns almost the entire LAPD against her.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Shane (Red Oni) and Ronnie (Blue Oni); Shane is impulsive and often seen wearing a red leather jacket, while Ronnie is quiet and interverted, and wore blue.
* [[Red Shirt]]: Subverted with Ronnie, who kept surviving near-fatal incidents that would have killed most background characters over the course of the series.
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* [[The Rival]]: Dutch vs Vic. While the show technically switched horses in season two with Claudette replacing Dutch as Vic's main rival, the two remained heated rivals even after said dynamic retooling. And while he was denied the chance to have the last laugh against Vic himself, Dutch does score points for successfully turning Vic's ex-wife against him and pretty much setting into motion the events that renders Vic's [[Karma Houdini]] an empty, self-destructive victory by getting Corrine full-immunity before Vic could, as well as coming up with the plan to put her into witness protection to protect her from Vic.
* [[Ruthless Foreign Gangsters]]: Armenians, Mexicans, El Salvadorians, even Koreans.
* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: Both Ronnie and Lem (a fact that is lampshaded in the "end of series" montage during the final credits).
** Det. Terry Crowley, shot by Vic in the first episode as well.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: During season one, Vic Mackey used his close relationship with Assistant Chief Gilroy to do whatever he wanted, including defy the authority of Captain Acaveda, who was Vic's superior officer. This was displayed most notably in the pilot: Vic engages in outright insubordination, in front of his fellow officers, towards Captain Acaveda when Acaveda attempts to give Vic an order. Furthermore, the pilot (and later episodes in
** This is later lovingly subverted with in
*** This was repeated in the final season, in a moment when Vic fucks up and gets his thirty day reprieve reduced to seven days. When his lawyer tells him that the only option left was to have Claudette Wyms (Vic's nemesis) intervene by pleading the case to the review board as to why Vic should stay a cop, Vic made the following
* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: Usually Ronnie's response to Shane in the later seasons, when Shane tries to convince Ronnie to betray Vic and join forces with him.
** Vic does this to Shane in
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: The rest of the cast compared to The Strike Team.
** Also fandom being split between Ronnie and Lem versus Shane and Vic as far as which members of the Strike Team were worthy of redemption/deserving to survive the series with their badges and lives intact and which ones were [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] who should fry in the electric chair for their crimes.
** The show's ending also falls into this trope: some fans take the idealism approach that Vic's beaten and will spend the next three years in pure hell and ultimately end up with no job, no prospects, and pretty much forever rejected by family and friends. Others however take the cynical approach to the ending: Vic will somehow, by force of will and charisma, rise from his ashes and not only neutralize those inside ICE that will make his life hell, but make new allies who will ensure he not only returns to working in the field, but also gets to stay a Federal Agent once his three years are up.
*** Depends on whether or not you see Vic as a [[Complete Monster]] who's final fate was karma catching up with him. If you do, then the cynical side of the scale would be that Vic (whose luck, as noted by Acaveda, always seemed to manifest itself in his darkest hour) would somehow find SOME angle or piece of leverage that would allow him to destroy Olivia and gain Alpha-Male status within ICE, crimes be damned.
*** How is that cynical? Cynic, as in reality (
*** In
*** [[Sincerity Mode|No offense]], but...
* [[Smug Snake]]: Shane, Claudette, and Billings qualify as the biggest examples. Subverted with Acaveda and Vic, as both men generally have better track records than the other three.
* [[Stepford Smiler]]: Claudette (tries her best to keep Dutch from finding out about her failed career as a professional dancer, the fact that her daughter abandoned her husband to run off with another man, and her lupus) and Corrine (who spends the series desperately trying to cling to the illusion of a normal, if not divorced family for her children, until her husband's crimes are exposed to her by Mara is graphic detail and she is forced, against her will, by Shane and Mara, to aide their escape from the police).
** Shane as well, to the extent that the need to maintain the mask drives him to the brink of madness and ultimately to
* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: The El Salvadorian gang's usage of ''hand grenades''.▼
▲* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Julian.
* [[Throw the Book At Them]]: Vic has occasionally beaten up people using a [[Doorstopper]].▼
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]:
** Shane.
** Tina's initial incompetence is balanced with an ability to improvise and survive countless close calls when the Strike Team use her as an undercover operative during several operations.
▲* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: The El Salvadorian gang's usage of ''hand grenades''
▲* [[Throw the Book At Them]]: Vic has occasionally beaten up people using a [[Doorstopper]].
▲* [[Turn in Your Badge]]: Vic literally does this towards the end of season seven
* [[Twofer Token Minority]]: Julian (gay, black, practicing Christian), Tina (female, Hispanic), Claudette (female, black).
** In fact, twofers become a common plot point because of the racial politics in the LAPD.
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]:
** Ronnie, is made to be the fall guy for Vic's crimes due to the immunity deal Vic struck behind his back. Had he not fled or been the least bit suspicious of Vic, he might have been able to escape his fate or at the very least found a way to drag Vic down into hell with him via exploiting the massive hole in Vic's confession that was Vic omitting pretty much everything that happened in
** ICE Agent Olivia Murray is a big time example too. Vic cons her into giving him full immunity from all of his crimes and a job as a federal agent.
** A random parolee, who the Strike Team frames with some of the Money Train cash because he happens to have family in Indio, where Mara had sent some of the marked bills. He is ultimately tortured to death by the Armenian Mob for a crime he never even knew about.
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: To try and bring an end to crime in Farmington, Monica Rawlings revives the controversial concept of
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: See Shane and Ronnie in the final episode.
** Vic Mackey at the end of
** In truth, Shane starts on one the moment
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: The Strike Team.
* [[Wham! Episode]]: Several qualify:
** "Homewreckers", which features the death of the single-mother prostitute Connie.
** "Barnstormers", which featured the cliffhanger of Ronnie being disfigured and left brutally beaten in Vic's motel room home.
** "Streak and Tips", which featured the brutal fight scene between Tavon and Shane.
** "Mum", which featured the imfamous rape of Police Captain David Acaveda.
** "Back In the Hole", which featured Antwon Mitchell being interrogated by the police.
** "Kavanaugh", which features the "Holy Shit" moment of Lem being arrested by Jon Kavanaugh, after he realizes that his achilles heel (his ex-wife) has been exposed.
** "Post Partum"
** "Chasing Ghosts", which contains the mother of all confrontations between Vic and Shane.
** "Possible Kill Screen", Vic's confession as he gains immunity for all of his crimes
** "Family Meeting, the finale as the Strike Team is destroyed once and for all.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: It is never established whether or not Vic is {{spoiler|the father of Connie's son, Brian}}.
* [[Xanatos Roulette]]: Several of Vic's schemes basically amount to this, as far as Vic being able to manipulate events around him to such an extent that it seems like he's truly all-knowing, all-seeing.
* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: Arguably Vic Mackey's biggest survival skill, as Vic is able to survive for seven seasons by large due to the fact that he is able to think on his feet and talk his enemies into fighting against each other rather than killing him.
* [[You Are Too Late]]: After seven seasons of turning a blind eye to Vic Mackey's corruption, Claudette Wyms finally goes after Vic after his ex-wife turns to Claudette with airtight evidence of his illegal activities as well as catching Ronnie Gardocki, Vic's partner on tape for aiding and abedding. Sadly, in typical Claudette fashion, she
* [[You Have 48 Hours]]: Nearly all of Season 7 is Vic either giving or receiving these ultimatums.
▲* [[You Are Too Late]]: After seven seasons of turning a blind eye to Vic Mackey's corruption, Claudette Wyms finally goes after Vic after his ex-wife turns to Claudette with airtight evidence of his illegal activities as well as catching Ronnie Gardocki, Vic's partner on tape for aiding and abedding. Sadly, in typical Claudette fashion, she {{spoiler|doesn't seize the timing as far as flipping Ronnie for his testimony against Vic or arresting Vic on the spot. By the time she finally gives the order to arrest Vic, it's too late: Vic has used the delays to secure a Federal immunity deal, resulting in Claudette arriving mid-confession as Vic has already signed the paperwork.}} [[Humiliation Conga|She gets one hell of a consolation prize, though]]
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Rif Hutton]]
[[Category:American Series]]
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