Not quite as off-topic as you'd think, since there's been discussion in these threads about Shield-like material, but does anyone have a recommended starting place for James Ellroy?  Novels or nonfiction, I'm not particular.

That's a perfectly reasonable point.  I don't think "Co-Pilot" quite sells it, but if it were going to be more reasonable, continuity-wise, it should have, and I do like it as a way of making that issue make more sense. (At least when my usual strategy of ignoring "Co-Pilot" fails.)

Continued spoilers

The continuity issue with "Co-Pilot" that always bothered me the most was in relationship to the Strike Team's attempts to protect each other: one of the few pieces of back story we ever get is that Vic and Shane have been friends for years, but it really distorted things for me to think of them meeting Lem and Ronnie…

I feel like listening to someone watch The Shield for the first time is the closest I'll ever get to time travel.  Hearing "I'm halfway through season five" is like hearing Abraham Lincoln say, "I'm just going to take in a play."  You know the devastation that's coming.

Whenever I read comments from when the show was airing, they frequently have totally different takes on characters/situations than retrospective commentators: the show really is different when experienced with the end in mind.  I think it would be difficult to know Mara's whole arc and not support her in the…

BUFFY SPOILERS

Agreed.  There are some episodes that we just have to get to, and, for that matter, I'd love it if we could do a retrospective S7 set of reviews, too.  If it gets crunched into one article, it better be a long one.

I agree that it's unfortunate that Julien's storyline diminishes here.  It does seem, though, that at least there's a thematic resonance to it, even if Jace forced the writers' hands: Julien is so often, especially early on, the rule-abiding voice of morality and the polar opposite of the Strike Team, that it's…

No, I definitely agree that Hannibal does genuinely like Will and want Will to be his friend, I just think that we have evidence so far that would suggest that Hannibal's friendship doesn't preclude some toying with Will's well-being (discouraging him from the brain scan, trying to alienate him from Jack, etc.) that's…

I didn't see Jack being right about Abigail coming, but I think it's a great touch, if only because it provides us with a pattern: Will, for all his empathy, is too close to identify guilt in people he cares about.  Not like that's going to come up again.  Yes, Hannibal, we see your hand on Will's shoulder.

Doesn't Hannibal consider and then abandon the scalpel on his desk, though?  I'd say that "ridding the earth of Will" clearly crosses his mind, but don't we see him adjust it and then walk away?  Don't get me wrong, I hardly think he would have balked at killing Will if Will had seemed ready to turn him in, but…

That is an indelible image.

Exactly,  On The Shield, all the best in the characters co-exists with all the worst in them, and I think you, a week or two ago, put it even better and more inseparably as "they need what is best in them for what is worst in them," which applies equally well with this week's events.  So they're all simultaneous moral…

That scene is part of why I maintain that The Shield cannot actually be spoiled by spoilers, anymore than Hamlet could be (thanks, AV "For Our Consideration" article, for making that easy for me!): the first time I saw that scene, I already knew the full arc, and it made that moment achingly meaningful and…

I don't read it as him getting off on the terror, but that is, as @avclub-3be42d8a3412057f79af152555e39bd4:disqus points out, a subjective reading for all of us.  That said, I do think the idea that he can threaten her with that falls in line with both previous actions he's taken against suspects, some of which have…

CONTINUED SPOILERS

I (with @avclub-4ac745955b6899abd58190f970914e8a:disqus )  also don't think Shane would have followed through with the rape, especially since we've already seen him take a more subordinate role in his relationships with women, but I almost think that believing he probably wouldn't makes experiencing the scene almost…

CONTINUED SPOILERS

Agreed—I also always liked Corrine, and I think we got a nice glimpse early on of how awesome she could be if she didn't have to be afraid all the time.  There's that scene, for example, where Vic calls her when he's pretending to call Aceveda or Gilroy (I can't remember which) and she gamely plays along, teasing him…