Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey
The Shield character
Vic Mackey portrayed by Michael Chiklis
First appearance	"Pilot" (2002)
Last appearance	"Family Meeting" (2008)
Created by	Shawn Ryan
Portrayed by	Michael Chiklis
In-universe information
Full name	Victor Samuel Mackey
Gender	Male
Title	Analyst
Occupation	Detective (Season 1 - Season 7) ICE Analyst (Season 7)
Spouse	Corinne Mackey (ex-wife)
Children	Cassidy Mackey (daughter) Matthew Mackey (son) Megan Mackey (daughter) Lee Sofer (son)

Victor Samuel Mackey, played by Michael Chiklis, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the highly acclaimed FX crime drama series The Shield, which ran for seven seasons. Mackey is a corrupt and brutal detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. His crimes include drug dealing, extortion, police brutality, and murder. He is often depicted justifying his crimes as a means to an end. Despite his actions, Mackey considers himself a devoted father and family man.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Concept and creation

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Shawn Ryan, creator of The Shield, outlined his initial conception of Vic Mackey and how it ultimately evolved into the character portrayed on the show. He states "I had not envisioned Vic Mackey looking like [Michael Chiklis]. I’m sort of a big guy with a bald head and people always asked if I intentionally cast someone who looked like me, and absolutely not. I always described it as a young Harrison Ford role and Michael came in and made me reimagine it. He was this bulldog with this intensity and energy that matched. He saw and read the character differently and better than anyone who came in before or after him… In his audition for us, he was on his feet and pacing around like a caged tiger. Even then, as great as the performance was, I still kind of nervous… I still had some butterflies. It wasn’t until we got in front of the cameras, where I was like, 'I really do think the world will see what I did.'"^[7]

Role in The Shield

Character summary

Mackey's surname is of Irish or Scottish origin^[8], and he is occasionally seen in a shamrock T-shirt. He also mentions that his father was a bricklayer. In the show's fifth season, he tells Lt. Jon Kavanaugh that he has been a police officer for fourteen years. In a DVD commentary for season four, Chiklis mentions that the strike team members are from the same areas as the actors who portray them, implying that Mackey is a native of the Boston, Massachusetts area.

Mackey works for the Los Angeles Police Department in the fictional Farmington district of Los Angeles, an area plagued with gang-related violence, drugs, and prostitution. He leads the 'Strike Team,' an experimental anti-gang unit. The Shield and the Strike Team were inspired by the Rampart Division Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit within the Los Angeles Police Department.^[9] The team initially consists of four members, Shane Vendrell, Curtis Lemansky, and Ronnie Gardocki, led by Vic. They are all extremely close friends, although this friendship is tested multiple times throughout the series. Mackey and the Strike Team use criminal methods to coerce information and stage arrests and take a share of various drug busts.

Vic's attempts to stay one step ahead of not only his superior, David Aceveda (who is fully aware of Vic's criminality), but of IAD, various drug lords, gangsters and other criminals are all used as prominent plot devices throughout the series.

Murdering Terry Crowley

In the pilot episode, Vic murders the fifth and then-newest member of his team, Detective Terry Crowley. Crowley had been sent by Captain David Aceveda and the Justice Department to build a Federal case against the Strike Team for colluding with drug lord Rondell Robinson. Vic is secretly warned of this by his friend, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy. Vic and Shane both agree to murder Crowley for his betrayal and to ensure their freedom. During a raid on the house of drug dealer "Two Time," Vic kills Two Time, but then picks up Two Time's gun and shoots Crowley in the head. Vic and Shane then rig the crime scene evidence, claiming that "Two Time" stepped out of the bathroom, shot Terry, and was slain by their return fire. This sets in motion events that loom over the Strike Team and continue throughout the series. Shane expresses remorse and guilt in the aftermath of the murder, but Vic remains stoic, though he would later express his own feelings of regret about it.

Internal affairs investigation

In season 5, Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh of internal affairs attempts to send Vic to prison for Terry's murder. Vic and Shane, however, calmly stick to their original story and Kavanaugh's crusade ultimately changes into a personal vendetta which destroys his career. Nonetheless, throughout the course of these events Curtis Lemansky is arrested. Shane, wrongly fearing that Lemansky will betray the team to cut a better deal, kills Lemansky. This sets in motion the downfall of the Strike Team and its members. Around the same time, Vic learns he is being forced into early retirement after he reaches his 15 year milestone, a short time away.

Downfall

Vic learns of Shane's murder of Lemansky, and cannot forgive him for it. He subsequently becomes a lot closer to Gardocki, now his sole friend. With no chance of repairing their friendship, Shane and Vic both attempt to assassinate one another. Both attempts fail, though Shane is eventually exposed for the murder of Lemansky, leading to his suicide.

In exchange for helping ICE develop a Federal case against Beltran, a drug lord, Vic arranges for full immunity for himself in order to protect himself and his ex-wife Corrine, whom he believes to be in trouble. He is unable to secure the same deal for Ronnie and decides to leaves him out. The immunity agreement also provides Mackey employment with ICE, which Mackey assumes will involve work as a field agent. Mackey admits to all the crimes he has committed including the slayings of Terry Crowley, Margos Dezerian, Guardo Lima, and many others. And is granted full immunity from all of it. After he details all of his crimes, a horrified Agent Olivia Murray tells Vic that he has, "implicated Detective Gardocki in enough shit to send him to prison for the rest of his life." Vic responds that he needs Ronnie's help to bust Beltran and that he would, "string him along," until then.

In the aftermath of Beltran's arrest, Captain Wyms summons Vic and Ronnie back to their former precinct. She then brings Vic into the interrogation room and reads Shane's suicide letter aloud, while showing him photographs of his body. Although Vic and Shane's relationship was shattered by this point, Vic is nonetheless devastated. He restrains himself from reacting emotionally when he notices the surveillance camera that Wyms is watching him on. He then tears the camera off the wall and smashes it on the floor.

Vic then watches in horror as Ronnie Gardocki, his last remaining friend, is placed under arrest. Gardocki is informed that Vic took the deal with I.C.E. and confessed to everything the Strike Team did as part of his immunity deal, leaving Ronnie to take the fall for all of it and be sent to prison. Enraged and devastated that Vic lied to him and sold him out, Ronnie screams profanity at Vic as the former is handcuffed and led away. Vic explains that he thought Corrine was in trouble and didn't think he had a choice. As his former colleagues eye him with frigid loathing, Wyms dismisses Vic. Vic leaves the precinct for the last time in disgrace.

Epilogue

Frightened by what actions Vic may take for her attempts to send him to prison, Vic's ex-wife Corinne pleads with Wyms for protection from him. In response, they approach I.C.E. Agent Olivia Murray and advise her that taking Vic's children away was the best means of hurting him. Corinne and the children disappear into the Witness Protection Program.

In the aftermath, Vic begs for the opportunity to say goodbye to his children. Unmoved, Agent Murray responded, "You said goodbye to them the moment you shot another cop in the face."

Realizing that the deal didn't stipulate in what capacity they were required to employ him, Murray further vows to make Vic's three years at I.C.E time as unpleasant as possible by severely curtailing his duties: taking him off of the streets, forbidding that he carry a weapon, and demanding that he do a ten-page report every day and one weekly drug test on demand. She makes it clear to Vic that if he deviates from the rules set for him it would be a violation of his immunity deal. Forced to wear a suit and tie, Vic is trapped in a cubicle, completely alone. He scatters his desk with pictures of his three children from his marriage with Corinne, and a photo of himself drinking beer with Lemansky. There were no photos of Shane, Ronnie, or Corinne.

Hearing police sirens, Mackey looks out the office window. Returning to his desk, Vic's eyes fill with tears as he stares at the photographs of his children. Suddenly his face contorts into a snarl. Vic removed a pistol from his drawer, holsters it beneath his shirt and walks off into the night.

Relationships

Family life

Mackey was married for a little over 12 years to his wife, Corinne. They have a great marriage up until the point when the Strike Team is formed. However, problems between the two result in the marriage disintegrating. Though he had often cheated on his wife, he was devastated when she left him. He loves his three children very much and would do anything for them. At the end of season six, he refuses to parade his autistic children in front of a department review board, despite the fact that Aceveda told him that it could save his job.

In season one, his son Matthew is diagnosed with autism. Later, his youngest daughter is diagnosed with autism as well. These family problems, and the necessary financial support, are the factors Mackey uses to justify his corruption.

Relationship with Shane

Detective Shane Vendrell was Vic's best friend since before the formation of The Barn and the creation of the Strike Team. The season two prequel 'Co-Pilot' shows them working together as partners on a murder investigation. The strength of their friendship is evident in season one, in how Vic initially only keeps Shane informed of some of his darker schemes, leaving Lem and Ronnie out. However, their relationship eventually becomes strained when Shane enters into a serious relationship with Mara, who is very demanding of his time.

Season two ends with the Strike Team robbing the Armenian Mob of millions of dollars. During season three, the money is burnt by Lem, who fears that Acevada and the Armenian Mob are closing in on them. Vic is unable to resolve the subsequent animosity between Lemansky and Shane. Indeed, he finds himself embroiled in it when accuses Vic of taking other people's side against him when they are supposed to be best friends. Vic calls Mara a bitch who has got Shane so twisted that he cannot think straight anymore. The two fall out, and the strike team is disbanded.

During season 4 Shane and Vic reconcile after Shane gets involved with the drug lord and gang leader Antwon Mitchell, who kills a young girl using Shane's gun. Blackmailing Shane, he offers to hand her body over to him in return for the body of Vic Mackey. Shane contacts Vic to meet him alone. After convincing Vic of his innocence in the girl's murder, the two men work together again, along with Ronnie and Lem, to save Shane's career and put Antwon behind bars. Following this, the Strike Team is reformed.

When Vic learns the truth about Shane's murder of Lem, Vic confronts Shane, and tells him that if he ever sees him again, he would kill him. Shane drives off, calling Vic a hypocrite.

Vic and Ronnie ultimately decide that the time had come for Shane to pay with his life for murdering Lem. They arrange for him to be assassinated by a Mexican drug cartel. At the last second, Vic tries to call off the hit on Shane, but was unable to reach Shane on his cell phone. Although Shane's Armenian employers are all murdered, Shane escapes and pockets the payoff money. Shane decides to retaliate by blackmailing a small-time pimp into murdering Ronnie in his apartment, while preparing to murder Vic at his apartment himself. The attempt on Ronnie's life is botched, as well as Vic's when Ronnie alerts him about what happened. The pimp is later apprehended, and reveals the truth, forcing Shane to flee and go on the run with his pregnant wife and son.

Ultimately, Shane is horrified to learn of Vic's immunity deal during a cell phone conversation. As a result of Vic's taunts, Shane murders his pregnant wife, Mara, and his son Jackson by poison. As his fellow officers kick down the door, Shane shoots himself in the head. In the series finale, Vic places a picture of himself and Lem on his new desk at ICE headquarters. Though originally, the picture was of all four members of the Strike Team, Vic seems to have cropped Shane and Ronnie out of the frame, unable to reconcile himself with Shane's betrayal of Lem and subsequent suicide.

Relationship with Ronnie

The loyalty of Detective Ronnie Gardocki to Vic and the Strike Team is tested several times. When the Strike Team is temporarily disbanded at the end of season three, Ronnie is the only one to stay by Vic's side when Shane and Lem went their separate ways.

Gardocki's loyalty is exhibited best when Shane reveals his and Vic's murder of Terry Crowley years earlier, in order to drive a wedge between the remaining two members of the Strike Team. Ronnie reveals to Vic that he had long suspected the latter's involvement and that he understands why Vic did what he did. Furthermore, Ronnie adds that he could have provided Mackey with emotional support after the murder, citing that he would have "looked out for [Mackey] better" than Vendrell did.

Ronnie often plays Devil's Advocate to Vic. For example, in the wake of Shane's confession to Lem's murder, Ronnie presses Vic to kill Shane even when Vic has second thoughts. Gardocki feels justified when Shane tries to murder them a few days later. The Strike Team is disbanded a second time after the assassin Shane hires to kill Ronnie is captured and fingers shane. As a result, Vic resigns from the Department, and Ronnie returns to regular detective duty.

Ronnie panics at the thought of Shane, now a fugitive, being arrested and confessing to the many crimes committed by the Strike Team and even considers running to Mexico. However, Vic dissuades him and tries to arrange ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) jobs for the both of them.

When ICE offers Vic immunity but not Ronnie, Vic refuses to accept unless Ronnie receives a similar deal too. However, after witnessing the staged arrest of his ex-wife, Corinne, Vic takes the deal and confesses to everything. After a disgusted Agent Murray informs him that he had implicated Ronnie in "enough shit to send him to prison for the rest of his life," Vic promises to "string him along" until after the arrest of Mexican drug lord Guillermo Beltran.

After Beltran's arrest (the largest drug seizure in ICE history), Vic and Ronnie are summoned back to The Barn. Believing that they are both safe forever, Ronnie is shocked when he is handcuffed. Enraged and devastated by Vic's betrayal, Ronnie shouts profanity at his former mentor. Vic is noticeably crushed by seeing his last remaining friend arrested. In the series finale, Vic is seen placing a picture of himself and Lem on his new desk at ICE headquarters. Though originally the picture was of all four members of the Strike Team at a celebration, Vic cropped Shane and Ronnie out of the frame, unable to reconcile himself with his own betrayal of Ronnie.

Relationship with Lem

A running theme in the last few seasons of the series was Vic's regret towards what happened to Lem. His burning of the Armenian Mob money to elude capture ignites antagonism between him and Shane Vendrell, which ultimately brings the entire team's existence to an end.

When the Strike Team eventually returns, Vic had Lem get collateral from a drug dealer to ensure a tip regarding the whereabouts of a body that could implicate Shane. Lemansky takes a brick of heroin from the dealer. The heroin is later seized by IAD from Lemansky's car and Lemansky then becomes a means with which Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh can take down the entire Strike Team. Lem's loyalty is tested when he found out Vic killed Terry, but he remains loyal to the team. After hearing false reports that Lemansky is considering testifying against the team for a lighter sentence, Shane kills Lem with a grenade. In the aftermath, Vic undertook several actions to avenge Lem's death, including torturing and killing suspect Guardo Lima and trying to murder real killer Shane Vendrell on multiple occasions after he learns of Shane's role in Lem's death. Lem, the only one Vic still had an untainted friendship with, remained the one Strike Team member in the Strike Team photo in Vic's cubicle at ICE.

Relationship with Julien Lowe

Early in the series, Mackey is nearly taken down when rookie Officer Julien Lowe catches Vic and the Strike Team stealing cocaine from a crime scene. Although Julien approaches Captain Aceveda and promises to testify against Vic and the Team, Mackey swiftly obtains leverage against his fellow cop. While arresting a wanted fugitive, Vic notes that the latter was having homosexual relations with Julien. Holding the upper hand at last, Vic threatens to denounce Julien's homosexuality to the entire precinct. However, he offers to falsify the arrest report in exchange for Julien recanting his allegations against the Strike Team.

A terrified Julien caves in to Vic's demands. After this, Vic repeatedly attempts to be friendly to Julien, with varying degrees of reception. However, when Julien is offered a position in the Strike Team, he at first refuses, saying that he does not wish to work alongside Mackey. He only accepted the promotion after being told that Vic would soon be forced into retirement. Despite their differences, Julien and Mackey seemed to work well on cases together and have shown each other respect. Vic congratulated Lowe on his promotion into the Strike Team.

Relationship with Aceveda

The tension between Mackey and David Aceveda evolves in different ways over the course of The Shield. Although Aceveda privately detests Mackey, he was not above breaking the law himself. He also frequently blurs the lines between investigating Mackey and protecting him.

In the first season, Aceveda is heavily bent on proving Mackey's guilt, putting all his effort into taking him down. While Mackey detests Aceveda's political ambitions, Aceveda continued to label Mackey as "Al Capone with a badge."

At the start of the second season, Aceveda, not wanting a scandal in the midst of his political career, agrees to watch Mackey's back if he could make the Strike Team appear to clean up their act and exhibit professionalism at all times. This creates a very subtle, bumpy friendship between the two. This "friendship," however, ends when Aceveda left for his City Council position, but not before writing a scathing letter which accuses Mackey of the Crowley murder, irreparably damaging his career.

After Vic arranges an immunity deal with ICE, Aceveda is enraged that Vic can never be prosecuted for any of his crimes. The two collaborate one last time, however, in order to arrange the arrest of drug lord Guillermo Beltran. While speaking over the phone, Aceveda expresses satisfaction that ICE had realized that, "they have a reptile working for them." Uninterested in Aceveda's views on his character, Vic coldly reminded Aceveda about "respecting each others' endgames", marking the final communication between the two men.

Other relationships

Mackey's training officer and first partner was Joe Clark, who taught him how to deal with violent street criminals and how to bend the laws to his advantage. Clark was eventually dismissed from the force for beating a suspect. Clark's legacy to Vic was the justification that they always "did more good than bad". In season 6, Mackey re-encounters Clark, who has become a for-hire enforcer who uses his intimidation skills from his days as a cop to earn an income. Mackey participates in one raid, and realizes this type of occupation is both dangerous and unnecessarily cruel.

Mackey also has a close friendship with a prostitute, Connie Reisler, whom in an unseen story he found "lying in a bathroom in a pool of bloody crystals", trying to end her pregnancy with drain cleaner and a plunger. He told her if she ever needed any help she could call him, and they developed a deep bond. However, Connie is killed in season 2. Since her death, Mackey occasionally checks in on her son, Brian, who is in foster care.

For many years, Vic has an on-off sexual relationship with Sergeant Danny Sofer and fathered her illegitimate son Lee. In season 6, Vic's daughter Cassidy angrily confronts Mackey after listening to her mother discussing the baby's paternity over the telephone.

Reception

Mackey has been summarised as an "effective but corrupt cop who operates under his own set of rules"^[10] and is often regarded as one of the greatest antiheroes in television history.^{[11][12][13][14][15]} On Bravo TV's countdown of the 100 Greatest Television Characters, Michael Chiklis described Mackey as "a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Dirty Harry."^[16] Commenting on the casting of Chiklis, the Mail Tribune write "Given that Chiklis was stretching beyond his comedic roles, the announcement of his casting had everyone scratching their heads. But he proved to everyone he was more than capable for the challenge. His portrayal to this day stands out as one of television’s most despised and most rooted for characters. And it all started with Vic killing another cop and the coverup that follows."^[17]

James Donaghy, writing for The Guardian describes Mackey as "a character as compelling as any from the prestige TV era." He goes on to say "his game is on a whole other level. He makes Dirty Harry look like Barney Miller [...] Mackey is ferociously intelligent, utterly ruthless and terrifyingly brave. Watching him keep one step ahead of Aceveda, Internal Affairs and drug lords is one of the joys of the show." He concludes with "That you end up sympathising, even identifying with him is testament to Ryan’s deft characterisation and Chiklis’s magnificent performance. For all his flaws, Mackey sincerely loves his wife and autistic son and has a vulnerability and wit that makes it hard to hate him even when you know he’s indefensible."^[15] Men's Health also comment on the likeability of the character despite his immorality, adding "Is Mackey a violent, autism-phobic piece of shit? Yes he is. Do we still want him to avoid prison? Somehow, unbelievably, yes."^[13]

Dariel Figueroa for Uproxx however, rejects the idea that Mackey is easy to sympathise with. He writes "It’s hard to say that Vic Mackey was even an anti-hero, as anti-heroes at least have redeemable qualities. That’s not to say that Mackey didn’t exhibit some fine police work at times. Mackey put away bad guys just as well as the best TV cops. He did have a family that he cared for, but with Mackey you got a general sense that his family was just a buoy that at the back of his mind he needed to help him validate all the evil things he had done. [...] In the very first episode, Mackey murders a detective and covers it up solely for the purposes of hiding his corruption. For Mackey, it was all about his “retirement fund”. [...] When the team came across an illegal Armenian money train, policing was not at the forefront of his thoughts; it was all about “How can we steal this thing?”'^[18]

Daniel Feinberg and Inkoo Kang for The Hollywood Reporter highlight that police brutality in the United States is an issue seldom touched upon on television. They both use Vic Mackey to highlight that when such brutality is portrayed, it is often rationalised as necessary. Kang states that The Shield "sensationalized Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his crew's aggression while frequently contextualizing their violence as part of some larger effort — and therefore of strategic necessity (even if there was never any doubt that their schemes were to enrich themselves and continue terrorizing L.A.'s criminals with impunity)." While Finberg adds "with somebody like The Shield's Vic Mackey, it's supposed to be a push and pull for viewers as to whether we're willing to accept an ends-justifies-the-means approach; is Vic's success in stopping killers, wife-beaters and pedophiles enough to excuse the things he does to get there? Even if the end of The Shield leaves absolutely no ambiguity at all that Vic is a character doomed to, at the very least, a metaphorical hell for his actions, you can't stop viewers from having their own interpretations."^[19]

Vic Mackey was seen as a pattern of more violent anti-heroes on television.^[20] For example, Ginia Bellafante for The New York Times writes that Mackey "jury-rigged the rules so aggressively, and so often based on nothing more than his own self-interest, that he left the Jack Bauers and Dirty Harrys to seem like hospital gift shop volunteers."^[21] While Ben Sherlock for ScreenRant adds "Arriving between the trendsetting reign of Tony Soprano and the game-changing transformation of Walter White, Vic Mackey enjoyed a fascinating arc on The Shield. [...] It’s not easy to make a crooked cop work as the protagonist of a police procedural, but Michael Chiklis made for a riveting lead and series creator Shawn Ryan used this atypical hero to put a fun twist on a well-worn genre."^[22]

References