At the end of the first episode after Vic Mackey, the anti-hero in FX’s The Shield, shoots another police officer in the face, we know that things probably won’t end well for Vic. And, of course, they don’t.
Vic is the leader of the Strike Team, a division within the fictional Farmington district (the Farm) of the Los Angeles Police Department. The entire Strike Team is composed of corrupt police officers all following Vic’s lead.
While they are an effective but brutal anti-gang unit they also tend to commit as many crimes as they stop. The Strike Team begins to fall apart towards the end of the show, as Internal Affairs begins to look into the team.
In the end, Vic is desperate to protect himself and his family. What Vic doesn’t know, as he begins confessing to all his crimes in exchange for his and his family’s safety, is that his family wants nothing to do with him and have gone into Witness Protection in order to get away from him.
The Strike Team had originally been comprised of four members (excluding the cop Vic killed in the first episode, who was technically a member of the team), and two of them had been killed by the final episode.
So Ronnie, the only other surviving member, ends up going down for the crimes while Vic escapes thanks to his plea deal.
But he’s not happy. His family has left him, his friends are dead and the only one still alive hates him. Though he received full immunity as a part of his deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), when ICE realizes the full extent of his crimes they’re disgusted.
However, with the deal in place the only thing they can do is saddle Vic with a desk job, knowing a man like Vic Mackey will be miserable confined to a desk.
In the first part of this clip Michael Chiklis, the actor who played Vic, talks about his thoughts on The Shield’s finale.