Judas Priest (S04E12)
Airdate: June 7th 2005
Written by: Kurt Sutter & Scott Rosenbaum
Directed by: Daniel Von Ancken
Running Time: 45 minutes
By the early 2000s, a distinct narrative pattern had cemented itself in American television drama: the penultimate episode of a season often carried greater consequential weight, in terms of plot propulsion and emotional impact, than the finale that followed. This structural tendency, established by shows such as The Sopranos and The Wire, created a rhythm where the season’s true climax arrived one episode early, leaving the finale to deal with the aftermath. Judas Priest, the twelfth episode of The Shield’s fourth season, appears deliberately crafted to fit this mould. It is an episode bursting with seismic shifts for its characters, yet one that ultimately staggers under the weight of its own ambition and a cluttered narrative, saving itself from total mediocrity only through a blisteringly effective final scene.
The most significant development is the apparent termination of Captain Monica Rawlings’ controversial asset forfeiture programme. Assistant Chief Phillips informs her that the LAPD hierarchy, weary of the political and public relations fallout, has decided to shut it down. Despite her prior threat of resignation, she is instructed to prepare a statement casting the decision in the most favourable light. This moment is pivotal, representing undoing of her defining principle—that the programme’s ends justified its ethically murky means. Rawlings, however, characteristically refuses to capitulate. In a move born of desperation, she attempts to forge an alliance with Councilman David Aceveda, seeking to leverage his influence over city and police finances. Her paramount aim is to prove that the murders of two Barn officers were unrelated to her programme, thereby salvaging its reputation. This sets in motion the episode’s primary investigative thrust.
That thrust is led, unsurprisingly, by Detective Vic Mackey. Determined to follow the most obvious trail, Vic fixates on the Russian mobster Andrei Tretiak (Michael Khmourov), who allegedly ordered the hits after Officer Miller gave him a speeding ticket. In a typically reckless Mackey manoeuvre, Vic and his Strike Team arrest Tretiak’s men for smuggling C4 explosives. Later, they use the confiscated explosive as a coercion tool, threatening to detonate it unless Tretiak confesses. This tactic backfires with spectacular, fatal consequences: Tretiak chooses to trigger the explosion himself, obliterating both the evidence and any chance of a confession. This failure underscores a recurring theme—Vic’s brutal, direct methods often create larger problems than they solve, leaving investigative dead ends and bodies in their wake.
A new avenue then opens with the discovery of a necklace bearing the initials “J.P.” This clue leads to Jason Porter (LeMonde Byrd), a UC Northridge student with a gift for languages. The subsequent revelation that Porter is the half-brother of imprisoned kingpin Antwon Mitchell adds a layer of tragic inevitability. Antwon had financed Jason’s education precisely to cultivate him as a translator for international criminal dealings. Jason’s arrest and interrogation in the Barn sees Rawlings attempting to implicate Antwon in the officers’ murders. A fragile immunity deal is struck, but it is built on sand, awaiting only the next shift in the political winds to collapse.
Those winds blow in from a wholly different, yet intimately connected, quarter. Aceveda, visiting prison, is confronted by Juan Lozano, a former Byz-Lats gang member he once sent down. Lozano, who had previously sexually assaulted Aceveda, now claims to possess a recording of the incident and threatens to release it unless Aceveda recants his testimony in an appeal. Uncertain if the threat is real but unable to risk it, Aceveda makes another Faustian bargain. He approaches Antwon Mitchell in prison, offering to broker a generous immunity deal with the DEA targeting Mitchell’s former Salvadoran suppliers. In exchange, Antwon must use his prison connections to permanently silence Lozano. When news of this deal reaches the Barn, Rawlings is incensed. She considers her immunity agreement with Jason Porter null and void, likely condemning the young man to the death penalty for his role in the officers’ deaths. Aceveda’s survival instinct thus directly undermines Rawlings’ already faltering investigation.
Where Judas Priest suffers most acutely is in its lack of narrative focus. Written by Kurt Sutter and Scott Rosenbaum, the episode is burdened by subplots that feel tangential at best. The ongoing thread of Detective Dutch Wagenbach’s frustration at being the Barn’s punchline escalates into a melodramatic and unconvincing fistfight with Billings. Similarly, his abortive romantic pursuit of Vic’s ex-wife, Corrine, and his clumsy attempt to rekindle it, feels like a narrative dead end that adds little to his character or the season’s core tensions.
However, perhaps nothing seems as gratuitous as the subplot involving Joanna Faulks, wife of the infamous “Cuddling Rapist.” Arriving at the Barn to report threats, her case is handled by Dutch. The thread culminates in Joanna, in a state of paranoid panic, shooting Officer Danny Sofer in the shoulder, mistaking her and Julien for assailants. This incident resolves nothing, contributes nothing to the season’s arc, and ultimately goes nowhere. In playing the role, Rebecca Pidgeon unfortunately cemented her status as one of the series’ least popular guest stars, a distraction the episode could ill afford.
Further flaws can be found in the contrivance of certain plot mechanisms. The discovery of Antwon Mitchell’s hitherto unmentioned half-brother feels like a convenient deus ex machina to inject a new suspect. Likewise, the resurrection of Aceveda’s trauma with Juan Lozano, after the series had previously suggested that storyline was resolved, risks feeling like a repetitive exploitation of the character’s darkest moment rather than organic development.
What rescues Judas Priest from sinking into outright mediocrity is its powerful, precisely crafted final scene. Upon learning of Aceveda’s treacherous deal with Antwon Mitchell, Vic Mackey delivers a judgement that is both a personal indictment and a thematic summation of the entire series. He confronts Aceveda, not with rage, but with cold, dismissive clarity: “You’re not a cop. You never were.” In that moment, Vic—himself the ultimate corrupt cop—becomes the show’s moral arbiter. He highlights Aceveda’s complete moral descent and his severance from the life and code he once claimed to uphold. It is a devastating piece of writing and performance that encapsulates the season’s exploration of compromise, corruption, and identity.
Judas Priest succeeds as a consequential penultimate season instalment by advancing major plotlines and delivering a masterpiece of a closing scene. Yet, it fails as a cohesive episode of television. Its impact is diluted by meandering, unnecessary subplots and reliant on narrative conveniences. It embodies the tension at the heart of The Shield: when focused on the brutal pragmatism and moral decay of its central characters, it is electrifying; when it loses that focus, it becomes merely another police procedural struggling to manage its sprawling ensemble.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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