Prashant Gupta / FXVic Mackey is officially off the beat…or at the very least, off our TV screens.
After seven seasons as one of television's great, and by most accounts woefully underappreciated, dramas, The Shield's Mackey and crew went out with a bang—some more literally than others—with last night's 90-minute series finale on FX.
The Michael Chiklis-led show, which followed the Los Angeles Police Department's Strike Team as they meted out their own brand of justice with enough quality twists to warm even the hardest Mackey-esque heart.
(SPOILER ALERT: There's plot reveals aplenty from here on out.)
In perhaps the biggest shock of the night, after learning of longtime partner Vic's immunity deal, Shane (Walton Goggins) brought new meaning to the phrase bottoming out, committing suicide via shotgun on a toilet, but not before first murdering both his own son and pregnant wife.
Meanwhile, Mackey's family was granted entrée into the witness protection program in the wake of the bad cop's ill deeds, though our favorite antihero was left behind to suffer a fate worse than death: Being confined to a paperwork-heavy desk job for no less than three years.
But just when it seemed like a new era of drabness had dawned for Mackey, the closing scene let viewers decide for themselves. After contemplating his new position, the now unencumbered Mackey is seen slowly pulling a gun from a lockbox kept in his desk drawer and, with a smile and tuck of the weapon behind his back, heads back out to the streets.