By Brandon Nolta

Once upon a time, a TV season was pretty clearly defined; it stretched from fall to late spring, included a hiatus or two and was about 22 episodes long -- give or take. Then, cable started shifting seasons around the calendar, and it was only a matter of time before some network yahoo decided that if the season start and end dates weren’t fixed, then the length didn’t have to be either. So, we now get seasons that stretch out over a year or more, and some that fit into a fiscal quarter. Such is the case with THE SHIELD, which just wrapped up season six with the tenth episode. Yes, tenth. That’s a miniseries, not a season. Despite the recent renaissance of quality television, there’s a definite sensation of getting ripped off here.
   
But, enough bitching. If last week’s episode was about betrayal, this week’s is all about desperation and what people will do when their backs are against the wall. The episode starts with Aceveda (Benito Martinez) and Det. Mackey (Michael Chiklis, still the biggest badass on basic cable) making an alliance of necessity against a developer with more fingers in more pies than a legion of Jack Horners. Det. Vendrell (Walton Goggins) tries to play two factions of Armenian mob members against each other to keep his and Mackey’s family out of the line of fire, while back at the Barn, Dutch (Jay Karnes) gets to face the fallout of accidentally peeping in on Hiatt (Alex O’Loughlin) and Tina (Paula Garces) shagging like rabbits, thanks to Billings (David Marciano) and his winning entry in the spiteful jackass sweepstakes.

Not to be left out of the first half hour, Capt. Wyms (CCH Pounder) gives Hiatt the boot because she doesn’t need the anti-Vic running the Strike Team. Stunningly bad decisions are made, a couple of people die, Billings makes an ignominious (and entirely appropriate to the character) exit from the Barn and a possible romance is started between Dutch and Danny (Catherine Dent). In the coup de grace (French for “big-ass surprise” or some such), Vic, at the end of his rope and refusing to use his family in a bid to keep his job, makes a late-night traffic stop and finds a surprise of such magnitude that a seventh season is all but guaranteed. Whew. No wonder it took 90 minutes to get it all in.

As always, the acting is impeccable across the board, but Chiklis and Goggins are, in different ways, the stars of this round. Chiklis is always in fine form, but in a few key scenes, he manages to portray cold calculation and near panic with only his eyes, never letting anything else slip past the mask of genial ferocity he wears so well. Goggins is on the same level; Vendrell spends most of the episode trying to prevent innocents from dying rather than lining his own pocket, and the fear and pangs of conscience seem to rise from his pores like steam. Toward the end, he makes a fateful deal with an Armenian mob lieutenant, and even before the trap swings shut, the abyss he’s walking into is etched into his face. Karnes also deserves notice for injecting a note of belated wisdom and humility into Det. Wagenbach, a character often too damn arrogant to like. Between his shaming from Billings and an unguarded moment with Danny, Dutch becomes human again, thanks to Karnes’ expressive yet contained work.

Call it cinema verité, or maybe TV verité, but THE SHIELD has impressed with its raw, real, gritty take on cop dramas since it burst on the scene in 2002, and after six … well, intervals, the show has lost none of its stride. Despite wanting to slap the piss out of FX for their half-assed ideas of scheduling — then again, it would be faster to slap the networks not doing something similarly stupid (I’m thinking of you, CBS) — I’ll be on pins and needles waiting for season seven … at least until BATTLESTAR GALACTICA starts up again.