Mackey confessing his sins to Olivia was really a major blow - i didn't think of him as a total degenerate criminal and asshole but he is really a prick

I like to think of Vic stewing away in that purgatory with nothing else in his life, sinking deeper and deeper into a bottle until one day he walks off and goes to jail or can't face that prospect and eats his gun.

Its a fitting ending for him to be stuck there, but 3 years is not a shade on what he deserves. But the spirit of the show is he'll do his 3 years and go into a security job and get his hands dirty again and keep shadng out of going down.

He's always only been a level above the scum he deals with. He started out with the right reasons but they just allowed him to slowly release his true self and bury his conscience. I think the last 2 or 3 series as slowly eroded away all he had left to identify with and like. It's dragged him down so he can be despised and so we'll want him out of our lives. Let the bastard rot. Selling out Ronnie was the final scrap of his goodness being stripped away. We must leave, nothing left to like or sympathise with, he's now with the pondlife he's bent all the rules to bust.

Ronnie, well, I think he got what he deserved. He was often up there with Vic directing the violence, and never far behind him. And other than his strike team buddies he had no consideration for anyone else. He was never doing the wrong things for the right reasons, he was always doing them because he could, he left moralising and self justification to the others.

Absolute shocker with Shane but. I didn't see that coming. Harrowing. Same as the Shields always been. Shane's always blunderred from error to error since meeting Vic and he finally pushed him into the ultimate act of selfish evil doing possible whilst believing it was the right thing.

I never really liked Shane. I always thought he was too willing to be dragged down with few redeeming features. But despite what he did I think he always had an underlying simpleness and even a little naivety. I didn't think he was ever a truly bad person, and in the end he was fighting for his family not himself. In his belief system willing to forgoe his family and go downstairs to the fiery place to make sure they both go ustairs together, never parted.

Very wrong, but Shane all over. Doing very wrong things for the right reasons. But far too wrong for his reasons to make up for it.

And as for open endings....well....it's a cop station. We're watching the station from outside, it doesn't stop because we stop to view. It all carries on inside and it would make no sense if all ends were tied up neat. None at all.

Still thinking about it, still a little upset. Almost feel grief over the end of the characters and the end of the show. Especially Shane, the one I never liked but who in the end proved to be the least selfish of them all. Just in a really screwed up way.

but I think the whole pregnant fiance / best friend storyline is weakening his character. It's almost like they've softenned him to appeal to a wider audience. Fortunately the best friend looks like he's abouit to be wrapped in cellophane

that Mackey took the gun from the desk not to kill himself of course, but i think when he heard the cop cars sirens he went to try and break Ronnie from jail (i guess he wasn't in prison yet) hoping that he (Vic) will do it or die trying (more propable). Despite losing the kids and having limited time of freedom (Olivia said that he had 3 years if my memory serves me well) i think Mackey would have ran instead of killing himself. Not without trying at least.

Shane's episode was really a sad one - he was also a fugitive ex-cop, but his wife, son and unborn daughter were innocent therefore it was very sad to see them dead...and Shane - he got what he deserved.

Ronnie is the person who got fucked the most, he did help to rob the money train, but he was the most responsible (if u can say that) and closest to righteousness - similar to Lem. It was sad to see him get caught I thought Vic will scream "run!" before the unis catch him, that would be sweet.

I was happy to see the young seriall killer-kid to be caught after killing his mother despite him trying to frame Dutch.

After all i think the best ending would be Ronnie and Vic getting shot and killed while trying to escape. Just not like Omar in The Wire - almost randomly by a gang member (kid actually).

Despite everything i think the finale is good and solid and has a very simple message - if you're bad you either die instantly (Shane) or be a living dead (Ronnie and Vic). Crime doesn't pay.

I hope someday some similar show is going to surface and fill the gap after The Shield, a show that was fucking 10/10.