If The Shield made any mistakes in its seven season run, it’s that as it headed into the final stretch (really Seasons five, six and seven, which fits as five and six were really one season split apart), is that it put Vic Mackie (Michael Chiklis) and Shane Vandrell (Walton Goggins) front and center, and the supporting cast from the Barn - the show’s station for the Los Angeles cops who made up most of the cast - were put into the margins. Sure “Dutch” Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) gets to break a case or two, and Claudette Wimms (CCH Pounder) gets some moments, but they are the lucky ones compared to Michael Jace’s officer Julien, or Catherine Dent’s Danni Sofer. There wasn’t much to do, and they were sacrificed for momentum. Who did benefit? David Rees Snell, as his Detective Ronnie Gardocki went from a feature player who maybe got a line or two, to one of the show’s aces in the hole.

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