Smoked (The Shield)

"Smoked (The Shield)"

"Smoked" is the sixty-third episode of the FX original series The Shield, and the ninth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft and Glen Mazzara, directed by Dean White and originally aired on Tuesday March 7, 2006.

Guest starring roles

• Rickey T. Chaney as Jaden
• Autumn Chiklis as Cassidy Mackey
• Patricia Forte as Mrs. Cooke
• V.J. Foster as Smitty
• Paula Garcés as Officer Tina Hanlon
• Laura Harring as Becca Doyle
• Gary "G-Thang" Johnson as DeKnight
• Chaney Kley as Asher

• David Marciano as Steve Billings
• Laurence Mason as Halpern White
• Christopher May as Drew Crowley
• E. Roger Mitchell as Lester Hoffman
• Montae Russell as Dijon
• Joanie Tomsky as Tasha
• Forest Whitaker as Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh
• Kenya Williams as Abenah

Episode recap

Lem is in the county jail and has his first visit with Vic Mackey and Becca Doyle. They explain that the Strike Team's finances have been frozen by Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh, but that they will find another way to come up with Lem's $100,000 bail. After Vic and Shane Vendrell are harassed by Kavanaugh and Terry Crowley's brother at Terry's murder scene, Vic tries desperately to get a case in which he can squeeze some money out of a criminal. Unfortunately, nothing is available, but Antwon Mitchell's daughter passes a message to Vic that Antwon wants to meet with him to guarantee Lem's safety in prison. He also learns that Kavanaugh made a deal with Mitchell, putting Lem in grave danger.

Tina Hanlon's future at the Barn is in doubt when she jeopardizes the safety of an undercover detective. She held a gun on him and ordered him to lay down his weapon,, allowing a perp to escape. However, he was wearing a bandanna around his arm displaying the "color of the day." He reports this to Captain Billings, who says that it would be hard to fire Tina, being that she is both female and Latina. Dutch Wagenbach later finds photos of Tina undressing in a folder on his desk. As he looks through them, he is surprised by Claudette Wyms, who notes his embarrassment. Dutch shows the pictures to Tina and although they make her angry, she is worried that she will be fired for her earlier screwups. Danny Sofer and Julien Lowe see Billings to complain about Tina's constant mishaps and he promises to have her fired, but he is soon visited by Dutch, who found out the pictures were originally on Billings' desk. Billings explained that he put a camera in the locker room to catch whoever was stealing from the vending machines and that he pulled the pictures aside so they would not get circulated. Billings makes a deal with Dutch to help him explain the picture incident to Tina and keep her on the force, rather than have her be fired, sue the department and never be seen by Dutch again. Dutch agrees and later the two speak with Tina, who agrees to be mentored by Dutch in exchange for her silence about the pictures.

Dutch investigates a dead body found in a dumpster, who turns out to be a man named Artemus Cooke. Cooke's mother explains that Cooke had a job driving donor organs to Canada and that his friend, DeKnight often helped him. When DeKnight learns that Cooke is dead, he explains that he was actually transporting an extremely strong cannabis called "cush". Dutch asks for help from Vic on the case, who agrees, seeing the chance to get bail money for Lem. The Strike Team visits Halpern White, who points them to a man named Dijon Reynolds. They make a deal with Dijon to return his missing cash, as long as they can keep 100k for Lem's bail. After coming up empty with suspects, Dijon says that his stepson, Jaden Reid might be involved. However, Claudette and Dutch both make a connection to Jaden as well and the Strike Team races to recover the cash before the other detectives arrive. They make it to the house and find the bag of cash under Jaden, passed out from smoking the cush. They grab the money and leave the home seconds before Dutch and Claudette arrive. The Strike Team makes a deal with longtime associate, Smitty, use the hundred grand to bail out Lem, and when he returns to court, he can keep the cash.

Kavanaugh and Vic have an altercation, leveling veiled threats at one another, with Vic saying that Kavanaugh doesn't have the stomach to have Lem killed. Kavanaugh responds that he didn't used to. He's later visited by David Aceveda, who plans to resign his position of reserve officer and launch an investigation into Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh smooths the situation and tells David that if he can leak false information to Vic and pretend to be his friend, it might help Kavanaugh's case. Corrine Mackey then visits Kavanaugh, upset that her assets are frozen. He says that it's Vic's fault, but that he will not relent. Angered, Corrine sees Danny Sofer and decides to confront her about her baby's paternity.

Becca Doyle is in doubt, stating that she would make a better friend than a lawyer, but Vic convinces her that she is doing the right thing. She is impressed by Vic's dedication to his friend. Lem is bailed out by Smitty and the two, along with the other Strike Team members have a beer, while Vic meets with Aceveda. Vic tells him if he or his team is brought down that he will "scorch the earth" with information about Aceveda and ruin his political career, but that if he helps Vic out, they can take down Kavanaugh, a mutual enemy. Aceveda asks what his plan is.

Title reference

• "Smoked" refers to "cush", a "super weed", which Jaden smoked and inadvertently allowed the Strike Team to steal his money.