Yes, you’re reading that right….this is a preview of tonight’s stunningly great episode of The Shield on F/X. 

If you want to go in totally unspoiled, then I suggest you not read after the jump.  And just to add legitimacy to my claim of having seen it early and not post-dating this review, let me say that one non-spoiler moment early on involves Ronnie clean-shaven.

After last week’s melt-down in the ER waiting room by Vic, you knew it was only a matter of time until something triggered a melt-down in Shane.  It’s been building for weeks, ever since Shane found out that Lem hadn’t brokered a side deal to avoid prison time and that Shane didn’t need to kill him.  Watching Shane struggle with the guilt of his actions and his almost desparate desire to tell Vic or someone what he did has been one of the highlights of this sixth season.

With “Haunts” that desparation takes on a whole new edge.  Shane is brought into the ER, badly beaten.  Turns out the father of the 18-year old prostittue Shane has been hooking up with doesn’t take kindly to this older man sleeping with his daughter.   Shane is severely beat-up, which Vic takes issue with.  Whatever Shane’s sins, the men knowingly beat up a police officer.  Despite his disguist at Shane’s actions, Vic vows to make sure justice is served and the police officers are given the respect they deserve.

Mara comes to the hospital and we learn a few interesting tid-bits.  She’s pregnant with the couple’s second child.   She also learns of Shane’s indescretions (Corrin gives her Shane’s personal effects, including a couple of condoms in the plastic bag) and hits the roof.  She leaves and tells Shane not to come home.  Shane is eventually released and goes home, leading to Mara throwing him out on the street.  Shane wanders around, comes back a few hours later with a gun in hand.  He is begging for forgiveness.  Mara thinks Shane has come to kill himself and begs him not to in the same house as their child.

Shane begs Mara to forgive him….and for a while Mara assumes he wants forgiveness for his sleeping around.  (Shades of Vic….though we never see Vic begging for forgiveness).  Instead, Shane asks Mara to forgive him for the murder of Lem and breaks down in her arms sobbing as the episode concludes.  At this point, I think Emmy nods for the actors in the scene are more than deserved.   The look on Mara’s face when Shane reveals his bigger sin is superbly done.

Meanwhile, the heat is on down at the Barn.  Billings and Dutch are still on the case of the serial rapist who is escalating. Last week, he carved the words “Go home” on one of the girls he assaulted.  Dutch and Billings get an interesting tip and suspect and how that plays out over the course of the hour is interesting.

And the pressure is building on Claudette to get results and get them now.  Assavada has dumped the gang murders back in her lap, along with a tip.  His hope is to get the Barn’s “wins” up and avert the shutdown of the facility.  Bringing in a dozen or so murderers would be a huge win for everyone–esp. for Asavada, who we all know watches out for himself first and foremost.

The strike team (now with Jullian on it) is called in to look into it.  Vic still has no clue that the hearing Claudette promised him last week is a lie to keep Vic on the straight and narrow. I expect Vic to catch wind of this soon and then to see him fight like hell to keep his job.  I can see that the desparation Asavada has to score political points could be how Vic keeps his job–Vic brings down the Salvadorans and he keeps his job.  It would be just like many of the other deals the two have worked in previous seasons.

Meanwhile, there are still a ton of other plots simmering.  The great thing about The Shield is that despite having a large and talented cast, every character is serviced each week.  It may not be a long scene but they all work and the scenes don’t feel tacked on or written in to include an actor or actress. 

And like all great TV it leaves you hungry for more.  I have to wonder how much longer Shane can hold it together in front of Vic?  And how will Vic manage to stay on the force and what favors he’ll have to pull in to do it?  Or has he burned too many bridges up to now?

No matter what happens, it will be richly compelling and immininently watchable.  This is some of the best work being done on TV right now.  As I said last week, if you’re not watching this show, you should be.