Season One, Episode Nine “Throwaway”
I haven’t mentioned Det. Curtis Lemansky — or Lem, as he’s known to the rest of the Strike Team — very much in these The Shield virgin diary entries. For the most part he’s stayed in the background, allowing me to focus on how careless Shane is. That’s good news for Shane, because in this week’s installment Lem made Shane look like he belongs in MENSA. Even if you allow for the possibility that Lem developed feelings for Tigre so quickly, his actions were those of a blathering idiot, and not a member of the “elite” Strike Team.
I get Lem being pissed off. That, and being disgusted, is a natural reaction to seeing the big “H” brand that Hector put on his ex-girlfriend. Leaving her alone when she was at risk to rough up Hector was plain stupid. He also had to know that he would get in the way of the investigation. The boy was thinking with his … um … well, I’ll say that his priorities were out of wack, and he’s not doing anyone any good.
His accidentally shooting Chaco was actually easy to understand. In fact, when he rolled over, I mistook the box of cigarettes for a water spray nozzle. You’ve got to feel for Lem (I’ll admit his guilt probably explains some of his actions) who has got to feel absolutely horrible for what he did (not to say that Chaco isn’t feeling some pain himself).
Which leads me to the bigger question: Who put this team together? Shane and Lem don’t exactly seem like they belong. A unit like this isn’t all about muscle and marksmanship; you’ve got to have some brains, and these two are lacking in that department. Vic is obviously the glue that holds things together, but I would have never thought he was the only person with anything going on between the ears.
Vic does, on the other hand, have a lot going on at home. Corrine is learning just how hard raising a child with autism is, especially without having her husband around as much as she would like. You’ve got to wonder if Vic’s absenteeism — at least in Corrine’s eyes — has as much to do with work being in the way as it does with just being afraid to learn, or change, how to be the kind of father Matthew needs.
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Aug 03, 2010 @ 15:30 EST5EDT
