| Dragonchasers | |
|---|---|
| |
| Season 1, Episode 10 | |
| Airdate: | May 14, 2002 |
| Actual length | 46:21 |
| Production Code: | 5012-01-109 |
| Written by | Scott Rosenbaum & Kurt Sutter |
| Directed by | Nick Gomez |
| Previous: | "Throwaway" |
| Next: | "Carnivores" |
"Dragonchasers" is the tenth episode of The Shield. It was originally broadcast on May 14, 2002. The previously on segment is voiced by Jay Karnes.
Synopsis[]
As Dutch uncovers a lead to the serial killer, a reporter's questions force Aceveda to explain problems he thought were buried far in the past.
Plot[]
Vic Mackey has sex with a stripper while undercover, trying to bust a recent influx of strippers mugging clients, while the Strike Team listens in with amusement. Despite his hands-on research, the woman is not part of the crime spree. He gets a distressed call from Connie Riesler and leaves, ordering the team to keep consorting with strippers until one of them gets attacked. Ronnie Gardocki goes out next, only to be interrupted by Shane Vendrell when he shows signs of truly enjoying it. Julien Lowe and Danny Sofer catch Sean Taylor, a man from Pasadena, masturbating in an alleyway and let him off with a warning. Vic finds Connie with her infant son Brian in a grocery store, her mother dead of a stroke. Vic insists that she needs to get sober so she can be a proper mother to Brian, but she fears that going to rehab will be used against her and cause Brian to be taken. She asks for Vic to help her.
Dutch Wagenbach overhears Julien and Danny talking about Taylor and asks them for the exact location of his masturbation before leaving. While she and Julien bring in Frank Gilmore, a female-presenting queer man, Dutch asks her to ID Taylor from a photo, which she does. As Julien tries to put Gilmore in the cage, he wrestles out of his grip and bites Danny until Julien beats him with his baton and restrains him. Danny, fearing Gilmore may have HIV, goes to the hospital. Vic takes Brian from Connie and leaves her with instructions on detoxing, promising to leave an officer to watch her. Shane is lured to a back alleyway by a stripper named Tulips and attacked by her accomplice, but they are stopped by Ronnie and Curtis Lemansky. Dutch visits Taylor at his place of work and makes small talk with him before leaving.
Vic takes Brian home to his house and gives him to Corrine Mackey, who is initially upset when learning of the circumstances, but quickly adjusts to and takes care of the baby. Claudette Wyms notices Dutch saying goodbye to an old woman he was interviewing and asks what he is doing, and he reveals that he suspects Taylor to be the face-down killer. Having just talked to Taylor's aunt, he explains that he fits the profile of a serial killer's childhood and that he was masturbating two blocks from the where Sally Struthers' body was found. Claudette is initially unfazed, but reacts with visible curiosity when Dutch points out that Taylor left his nice, private apartment to masturbate publicly in a bad neighborhood. Connie slaps Ronnie, sent to watch over her, before vomiting as Vic returns to her apartment. A delirious Connie murmurs "I love you, baby" to Vic before breaking down in tears as he tucks her in. Shane interviews Tulips, who he believes is truly attracted to him, and she subtly shifts the blame onto her accomplice while still professing her attraction to the man.
Dutch and Claudette interview Taylor, the former citing his choice of menial job despite his impressive academic background and the accidental death of his old best friend while out hunting. Taylor dismisses his attempts at psychoanalysis as "out of your league." Claudette expresses doubt that Taylor is the killer, but Dutch insists that he is, more sure than ever. Vic and Ronnie restrain a manic Connie as she rambles about shooting a client of hers and suicidal ideation. Reporter Tereza Verela, doing a piece on David Aceveda, asks Claudette about the Strike Team, which she brushes off. Lem and Shane explain their findings to Vic, Tulips' associate having confessed to the former that she was behind everything, which Shane debates. As they start to argue, Vic interrupts and tells them to get to the bottom of it.
Danny returns with a bandaged arm and pills she needs to take until they get Gilmore's medical records. A couple of officers invite Julien and Danny to a "blanket party" for Gilmore for attacking her in front of other criminals, but she turns it down. Julien asks her what they meant when they leave. Dutch and Claudette return to find that Taylor has written an accurate psychoanalysis of Dutch's insecurities on a whiteboard, insisting that Dutch has become "the lowly civil servant you never hoped you'd become." An aggrieved Corrine asks Vic about the true nature of his and Connie's relationship, suspecting infidelity, and he explains that he met her two years prior after saving her from her abusive pimp, and took her under his wing after he found her heavily pregnant and trying to poorly abort Brian, saving both her life and Brian's. Tulips insists to Shane that her associate set up everything and she knows nothing about any of their victims, then asks if there is anything she can do to make a deal.
Curtis Lemansky and Shane Vendrell argue about who is responsible for the muggings.
Julien asks Gilmore why he bit Danny. Gilmore explains that police put him in jail where he got HIV, and so he wanted to give it back to the police, although Julien points out that HIV cannot be transferred through a bite. Julien becomes aggressive and spouts homophobic rhetoric at Gilmore before leaving. After learning that Danny could be fired if she gets sick, he decides to go along with Gilmore's "blanket party." Vic shows Varela around the observation room, showing her Dutch interrogating Taylor. (Although he almost accidentally shows her the other interrogation room, where Shane is having sex with Tulips.) She asks about the Strike Team's brutal tactics and wonders aloud if Aceveda encourages their behavior, only for Aceveda himself to arrive and pull Vic aside. Vic insists that, despite their mutual dislike, he would not flip on Aceveda and they need to discourage Varela from looking around. Lem reveals to Vic and Shane that all of the strippers agree that Tulips was the criminal mastermind, having manipulated her associate through sex. Shane informs her that he will not be able to get her less than two years jail time, only for her to blackmail him for her freedom by threatening to report him for sexual misconduct.
Ronnie Gardocki helps Connie Riesler clean up.
Connie steals money from Ronnie's wallet and leaves her apartment when he is distracted. Shane and Lem invite other officers to watch Taylor continue to analyze and insult Dutch in the interrogation room. Vic and Aceveda sit down with Varela, who asks if the latter allows use of brutality to inflate their statistics. Vic covers for him, only for Varela to ask Aceveda about his alleged rape of a twenty-one year old girl. Aceveda tells Vic to leave the room, and Varela explains that based on Aceveda's history with "Maureen Wilmore", she would not want him for city council. Aceveda tells her that "there's not a story here" and she leaves.
Dutch returns to the interrogation room and writes out a list of Taylor's suspicious characteristics, pointing out that, as a mechanic, he has access to cars. Taylor confirms he worked on a green car five weeks earlier and returned it to his customer with a tail light broken. Taylor suddenly becomes uncomfortable and moves to leave, only for Claudette to reveal that they secured a warrant to search his house, finding a collection of intense, bondage-themed pornography, allowing them to pull a warrant for his aunt's house, where the police found two bodies in the crawlspace. To the shock of everyone watching on the cameras, Taylor reveals that they will find seventeen more bodies inside, explaining that his following face-down murders were dumped because he ran out of room in the crawlspace and that he was responsible for the death of his friend. Dutch expresses disgust that Taylor builds himself up as "special" and that if he truly was, a "lowly civil servant" would not have caught him. The police applaud Dutch as he leaves the room, and Vic personally congratulates him.
Vic sees Tulips leaving the station and berates Shane for his stupidity, only for Ronnie to arrive and inform him that Connie is gone. Aceveda explains what happened with Varela to Aurora Aceveda, and explains that Wilmore was his college girlfriend who was into masochistic sex. When she pushed his limits too far, he broke up with her and she became obsessed, at one point cutting and scarring him. When he would not take her back, she got her famous publisher father's lawyer's involved and filed charges against him for battery and attempted rape. Aceveda insists that he will not get involved at Aurora's advice, but she instead tells him to "let the bitch come after you."
Curtis Lemansky holds Brian Riesler.
Connie returns to the Barn high and insists to Vic that she cannot be helped, asking him to put Brian up for adoption despite his insistence that she needs to keep her son. Brian reaches out for her as she leaves. As Gilmore is locked in the transport van, Julien and the other cops open it and throw a blanket on top of him while Julien beats him with his baton to the point that the others need to pull him off. Dutch continues to receive congratulations as he walks to his car. When he gets inside, he starts it but abruptly bursts into tears.
Episode credits[]
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Michael Chiklis as Detective Vic Mackey
- Catherine Dent as Officer Danny Sofer
- Walton Goggins as Detective Shane Vendrell
- Michael Jace as Officer Julien Lowe
- Kenneth Johnson as Detective Curtis Lemansky
- Jay Karnes as Detective Dutch Wagenbach
- Benito Martinez as Captain David Aceveda
- and CCH Pounder as Detective Claudette Wyms
Guest starring[]
- Jamie Brown as Connie Riesler
- Frank Grillo as Officer Paul Jackson
- Michael Kelly as Sean Taylor
- Sandra Purpuro as Tereza Varela
- Nichole Hiltz as Tulips
Co-starring[]
- Cathy Cahlin Ryan as Corrine Mackey
- David Rees Snell as Detective Ronnie Gardocki
- Camillia Sanes as Aurora Aceveda
- Matt Corboy as Officer Ray Carlson
- Taryn Carter as Sweetpea
- Jazzmun as Frank Gilmore
Uncredited[]
- Omar McClinton as Officer Roman
Production staff[]
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Featured Music[]
Note all the music originally appears in FX airing release not applicable for streaming websites,they might change music over time due legal disputes
- Zach Tempest - Anthem
- Plays at the beginning of the episode inside of the strip club
- Erinn Williams Aka Hunter - I Am King
- Surrounding sound when Dutch talks to Shawn in his car mechanic garage
- Mogwai - Helicon 1
- Connie recovers from her recent intoxication, escapes from Ronnie's watch
- Hedder - Pull You Into Me
- Dutch sitting into his car at the end of the episode
Episode Title[]
Notes[]
- International airdates:
- Germany: October 6, 2004
- France: July 26, 2007
- This episode had the highest ratings for Season 1.
- Brian, the son of Connie Riesler, is played by the son of the creator of the show, Shawn Ryan, and Cathy Cahlin Ryan.
- After seeing Shane Vendrell having sex with Tulips through the surveillance cameras in one of the interrogation rooms, Vic Mackey calls him Ron Jeremy (a porn actor) and makes a reference to The Spice Network, a cable channel featuring porn.
- The calendar in Sean Taylor's shop establishes the year as 2002.
- Shane Vendrell mocks Lem because he's "nailing Chiquita Banana" in reference to Tigre Orozco whom Lem met in the previous episode, "Throwaway". Chiquita Banana was the mascot of Chiquita Brands International, a distributor of bananas in the US.
Quotes[]
- David Aceveda: When we moved into the old church, one of the officers nicknamed the place "The Barn." The name stuck.
- Tereza Varela: It's ironic, taking over a church. God moved out. The cops moved in.
- David Aceveda: God's still here. We just sublet.
- Vic Mackey: Bottom line, who's the ringleader?
- Shane Vendrell: Him!
- Curtis Lemansky: Her!
- Vic Mackey: This has gotta be the easiest case we've had all year. Are you telling me I have to get involved?
- Shane & Lem: No.
- Vic Mackey: Then get to the bottom of it, or just nail both of 'em for kicking Shane's ass.
- Shane Vendrell: I didn't get my ass kicked. I got sucker-punched.
- Vic Mackey: Right. Sorry.
- David Aceveda: Who is that woman? What are you telling her?
- Vic Mackey: Me? She's the one looking for dirt.
- David Aceveda: So she goes where it's dirty?
- Vic Mackey: You and I don't like each other. That's not a new headline.
- David Aceveda: No, it's not.
- Vic Mackey: One thing you know, if I come after you, it'll be straight on. This one'll cut your hands off and then sweetly smile as she asks you to clap louder.
- Shane Vendrell: I'm saying that with their testimony, two years is the best I can get for you.
- Tulips: I'm sorry. How much time are you getting for sexual misconduct?
- Shane Vendrell: Pardon me?
- Tulips: I got a yammy full of Georgia joy juice, darling, enough DNA to have you writing parking tickets in Pacoima. So, am I walking out of here or do we need to call your supervisor?
