R.I.P. The Shield: The Show’s 6 Most Shocking Moments

The Shield's dirty dick Vic Mackey is leaving us and the community’s all choked up.

Tonight, after seven raw seasons, FX airs the series finale of its spectacular dirty cop drama The Shield. The end is near for Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), the calculating, cold-hearted leader of Farmington's Strike Team, a fictional anti-gang unit modeled on the LAPD's very real (and very corrupt) Rampart Division CRASH unit.

Over the years, Mackey has manipulated his men into committing every crime from theft to murder while trying to get over. The show has always been brutal and gritty and it shocked the shit out of us on numerous occasions. In honor of a series well done, Complex looks back at six of the wildest “Oh shit!” moments that made The Shield special. And though we’ll miss the crew (tears in our beers and all that), at least we still have real police to give us our fix of brutality…

MACKEY KILLS A COP

The Shield set it off in the pilot episode when Mackey discovers that new Strike Force member Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) is a rat helping Captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) gather dirt on the guys. At a raid on a drug dealer’s crib, Mackey blasts the dope man, grabs his gun and shoots Crowley in the face. The bullet then ricocheted and killed the fuck out of all those lame-ass pigs on Law & Order.
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ACEVEDA GETS FACE-RAPED

In season-three, two drugged-out bangers overpower Mackey’s nemesis Captain Aceveda at a gang residence, tie him up and force him to give them dome at gunpoint while they snap photos with a camera phone (ironically, this is revenge for Mackey violating one of them with a bong). We’ve heard bulletproof vests don’t protect you from headshots but d-d-d-damn!
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WAGENBACH KILLS A CAT

Detective Dutch Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) does tremendous work profiling serial killers but fellow officers belittle him for being an over-educated, pompous cuckold. In season three, his colleagues' ridicule and an interrogation with a rapist-turned-serial-killer prompts Wags to yoke up a yowling stray cat outside his house and choke the shit out of it to feel the power of taking life. PETA felt some kinda way about it but was too scared to say shit.
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GARDOCKI GETS COOKED

In season two, after Mackey beats and burns Mexican drug lord Armadillo and orders him to leave Los Angeles, the pissed off boss ambushes Strike Team member Detective Ronald “Ronnie” Gardocki (David Rees Snell) at his home and forces his face to a red-hot electric stovetop, leaving concentric semi-circle scars on his face and the rest of him cooked to perfection.
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STICKY FINGAZ FIGHTS TO THE DEATH

In order to prevent an escalating beef between two gang-affiliated rappers from flooding the streets with blood in season one, the Strike Team locks Kern Little (Sticky Fingaz) and his rival T-Bonz in a shipping container for the night so they can either resolve their differences peacefully or fight to the death. Sticky Icky emerges in the morning and declares Kimbo Slice is a pussy.
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THE VENDRELL FAMILY SAVAGELY BEATS A BLACK COP

When Captain Aceveda thrusts young black detective Tavon Garris (Brian White) on the Strike Team in season two, it’s inevitable that racist Southerner Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins) will call him a “darkie.” He does, and when the pair get to scrapping later at Vendrell's apartment, his wife Mara (Michelle Hicks) strikes Garris in the head with an iron. After stumbling out with a concussion, Garris crashes his car and flies headfirst through his windshield, into a coma. And you thought cops only beat black civilians.