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Carte Blanche

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Carte Blanche
Season 2, Episode 04
Airdate: January 28, 2003
Actual length 46:33
Production Code: 5012-02-204
Written by Reed Steiner
Directed by Peter Horton
Previous: "Partners"
Next: "Greenlit"


"Carte Blanche" is the fourth episode of Season 2 of The Shield and the 17th episode of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on January 28, 2003.

Vic sets out to overthrow the Armenian Mafia in Farmington, with the reluctant help of Captain Aceveda. Meanwhile, Danny's career is threatened by Yassirah Al Thani's lawsuit. Finally, Claudette revisits an old case while Dutch intervenes amidst his frustration with the Marcy Lindhoff case.

Synopsis[]

A murder investigation leads Vic to a massive money-laundering scheme.

Plot[]

During a meeting about the arrest of Fleetwood Walker, David Aceveda presents Vic Mackey with a "valorant courage under fire" medal. Lanie Kellis congratulates him, and Aceveda notes that it was her idea to give him the medal. He also notes that the "toys for guns" drive is tomorrow and Vic came up with an idea while hospitalized: offer those who come in the option to fill out a raffle form for a prize, which is a way to get their name and address after testing the gun for ballistics. As Danny Sofer and Julien Lowe run the drive table out front, a little girl gives them her father's gun behind his back. Julien asks for her to fill out the raffle.

Vic and Shane Vendrell arrive on the scene of a robbery, where Aceveda informs them that the perpetrator used Shane's badge to get inside. He immediately recognizes Shane's badge as false, and he admits that it was stolen in Tijuana. He claims to have bought the fake from a Serbian man, and Vic interrupts and asks Aceveda to let him fix this. Inside, the only witness claims that the robber killed a patron and stole nothing, but refuses to talk more. Recognizing that he is hiding something, Vic offers to get his stolen diamonds back, explaining to Aceveda that the store is an Armenian Mob diamond fencing shop. Aceveda mockingly asks "going undercover as dirty cops. You think you can pull that off?" To which Vic responds "we can try."

Shane asks Vic if they are taking a cut of the diamonds, but Vic decides he is currently against it. They approach Taylor Orrs, who Vic orders to find who may be moving the diamonds despite his insistence that he doesn't know who usually would. Danny and Aceveda sit down with Yassirah Al-Thani and her lawyer Aaron Hamad, who demands five million dollars from the department on the grounds that she and Julien expressed frequent racial bias towards the Al-Thanis and did not de-escalate the situation with Alene Carmichael. Aceveda's defensive attitude changes when Hamad mentions that he is also. being named in the civil suit.

Vic and Shane force entry into the back room of a pawn shop, where they find some of the stolen diamonds. He asks the owner, Tike, to get the seller to come to the shop in exchange for getting to keep some. The gun drive gets a ballistics test hit on the little girl's gun, which was used to kill one of Manny Sandoval's debtors. Aceveda asks Claudette Wyms to find out why someone else has the murder weapon. They find a Gamblers Anonymous meeting near the owner's address and spot Sandoval outside. Knowing he is tough to get information out of, she takes Dutch Wagenbach to talk with the owner first.

Hrach, the man who sold Tike the diamonds, is arrested as soon as he walks into the store. At the Barn, he confesses to the robbery and sells out his boss Alex Eznik, an Armenian higher-up, the owner of the diamond shop. He also notes killing the patron because he stole the jewelry from a store that he provided protection for, and that Eznik likes to encourage competition between Russian Armenians like the thief and Lebanese Armenians like Hrach. He then tells them about the "money train," an operation where the mob's dirty money is transported out of L.A. to be cleaned overseas. Aceveda refuses to make a deal with Hrach, just wanting to book him, and Vic begs him to let him return the jewels to Eznik. Aceveda agrees after Vic convinces him that bringing down the mob could be good for his political career. Dutch and Claudette approach Lance Hinkle, the gun owner, and take him to the Barn. They lay out all their information for him and wonder if he was paid to let Sandoval use his gun or did the killing for him.

Aceveda informs Danny that a man she arrested in a barfight, Abu Ibish, is complaining that she expressed racism while arresting him, though she insists that she did not. He reminds her that her name is on the lawsuit as well as he leaves. Vic and Shane return the diamonds to Eznik at his club, who notes that a third of them are missing and is annoyed at the deal they made. Vic warns him that the police are going to raid his stolen auto shop in three hours, giving him the tip for free but claiming the next one will cost money. Vic tells Aceveda to raid the shop in exactly two hours to convince Eznik that he is legitimate. Aceveda reveals that he is transferring Shane off the Strike Team due to the roster being all white. Kellis reveals that it was her idea and refuses to change it.

At Eznik's club, Vic and Shane inform him of Hrach and he asks them to take him out of custody so he can be killed. Vic agrees to get him freed by violating his rights. They relay this to Aceveda, with Vic's plan being to fake Hrach's death with a dead body. Aceveda warns him that he will be taken off the Strike Team as well if he fails. Dutch and Claudette bring Sandoval in, knowing that Hinkle was in debt to him, and theorize that he cleared his debt in exchange for killing the debtors. Believing he missed the obvious in the Lindhoff case, Dutch tries to press that Hinkle killed the man without Sandoval's involvement. A pair of Korean community representatives backing Aceveda for city council meet with him about a dispute over a gang member's funeral and the subsequent attacks on the church that refuses to host it. He agrees to assign a protection detail.

Shane informs Vic that a white man around Hrach's age was called in as a suicide, asking for Hrach's clothes and wallet. Aceveda walks in on them undressing him, and Vic explains that the man had no relatives and was virtually invisible, making him the perfect fake Hrach body. At the scene, they hustle the investigators out and discover that the man shot himself cleanly, leaving his face intact. Vic orders Shane to get his shotgun from the car. Danny and Julien patrol outside the church, and she finds volunteer soccer coach Charlie Foster burying a dead squirrel because the kids he was driving were upset about it. Danny informs him that that is illegal but decides to let him go.

Vic shoots the man in the head with the shotgun, annihilating his face. They set up a hidden camera just as Aceveda arrives, who warns them to get out as soon as they get the money from Eznik, returning to the surveillance van outside. Danny continues to talk to Foster and is charmed by his dedication to the kids, accepting his offer to come to a game.

Eznik and his henchman Hagop arrive, offering Vic Hrach's protection spot. When Vic asks what that entails, Eznik asks to move to the club to talk about it. While there, Vic asks for the addresses of his businesses, which he agrees to have Hagop take him to while Shane stays with him for collateral. Claudette shows photos to the debtor's widow Marissa, who cannot identify any of them. Dutch begins to theorize in front of her that she was involved in the killing, forcing Claudette to drag him out and berate him for projecting his failure in the Lindhoff case onto this one. She demands to continue working on it alone and goes back to Hinkle, claiming Marissa identified him as the killer. She then goes to Sandoval, Hinkle having told her that he killed the man on Sandoval's behalf, and has him arrested.

Vic brings Hagop to the Barn and looks up the addresses on a department computer. Aceveda approaches him and quickly catches on to what they are doing, leaving him be until Hrach passes by in handcuffs and Hagop notices him. Vic beats him and asks what time he is supposed to check in with Eznik. Shane gets a call from Vic, who orders him to go to the bathroom. Eznik notices him go and sends a man to follow him. Shane pulls his gun on him as the police raid the club, arresting Eznik. Danny notices Foster taking money from kids to bury a hamster and realizes he has buried several on his property. She promises to write him up and leaves in disgust.

Vic gives Aceveda the addresses he got from Hagop, going to one with Shane and witnessing obscene amounts of money being loaded into a large truck—the money train. Ibish testifies to Kellis, but Aceveda brings Julien in, who counters that Danny did nothing wrong and Ibish was racist towards him. Aceveda confronts Hamad, who pressed Ibish to report Danny, and he states his plan to fight the suit.

Shane notes that the license plates of arriving vans are from all over the west coast and plans to call it in, but Vic stops him. Sandoval is placed in the cage with Hinkle on the other side, ordering him to lie to Claudette while implicating himself for ordering him to take out the debtor. Claudette then smugly reveals that Hinkle is wired.

While Aceveda has found something at every other Armenian address, Vic claims to have found nothing. He gives Aceveda the address, and he praises him for his good work. Vic agrees to both take a minority into the Strike Team and keep Shane, which Aceveda agrees to if Shane is suspended for a week. Dutch admits Claudette was right about his bias. Vic gleefully reveals to Shane that he plans to rob the money train when it comes back in a couple months. Yassirah informs Aceveda that Hamad dropped her case, calling Danny a murderer, promising that "justice will find you."

Vic plays cards with Cassidy and Matthew Mackey. After Corrine Mackey sends them to bed, they discuss how Vic is doing after going back to work, and she points out that he said he would move out despite still not having done so. Vic checks into a motel, and the proprietor notices that he is a cop and asks if he is here about the woman being abused by her husband across the street. Vic states he is not, but asks for a room with a view of her home and winks. Vic moves in to his new room.

Episode credits[]

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest starring[]

Co-starring[]

Featuring[]

Uncredited[]

Production staff[]

Featured Music[]

Running in order as they appear by scenery

  • Geddin Ug'Lee - Extreme
  • Tresspasser - Bad Medicine
  • The Rythme Machine - The Kick
  • Narine Shahbazian - Broyi Broyi
  • John Fiddy, Grahame McLean - Everytime We Meet

Episode Title[]

The term "carte blanche" means to give someone unrestricted power to act at his/her own discretion. This might refer to Captain David Aceveda giving Detective Vic Mackey the authority to operate within boundaries of the law on his effort to bring down Alex Eznik as leader of the Armenian Mafia.

Notes[]

  • International airdates:
    • Germany: February 25, 2006
    • France: August 22, 2007
  • This is the only episode of Season 2 that Curtis Lemansky did not appear. Despite this, Kenneth Johnson was credited.
  • The stolen police badge that Hrach uses is the one that Nasso stole from Shane Vendrell in the episode "The Quick Fix".
  • The episode was broadcast two days after the Super Bowl XXXVII where the Oakland Raiders lost 48-21 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dutch acknowledges this when he mentions to Claudette Wyms that he lost "$100 bucks on the goddamn Raiders."
  • This is the first mention in the show of the Armenian Money Train.

Quotes[]

  • Lanie Kellis: You thought of that while you were on a morphine drip?
  • Vic Mackey: Well, stolen guns put me there. I had three weeks to figure out how to get them off the street.


  • Tike: I'd like to see a warrant.
  • Vic Mackey: I'd like to see Anna Kournikova naked on a waterbed.

External Links[]

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