The Shield

Cupid & Psycho

Season 1, Episode 8, Aired 4/30/02

Episode Summary

Allegations against the Strike Team are front-page news, and the team is broken up pending the investigation. Mackey threatens to reveal that Officer Lowe is gay if he won't recant his statement about the Strike Team. In the meantime, Vic and Claudette find themselves following the trail of a batch of "cupid" meth, while Shane and Dutch try to get along on a case.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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CCH Pounder

Detective Claudette Wyms
Michael Chiklis

Detective Vic Mackey
Jay Karnes

Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach

Fan Episode Reviews (3)

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The Shield seems to have hit its stride: after the couple of middling episodes following the pilot, the last several have been dynamite.

8.9

"Great"

By rockin01, Jul 29, 2007 Report Abuse

Another fine episode. The writers come up with an inventive framing device: The Strike Team is temporarily dismantled because of the media attention on them, so they partner up with the regular officers on the force. This makes for some interesting pairings, namely, Vic/Claudette and Shane/Dutch. Vic blackmails Julien into recanting his statement, which causes fallout between Julien and Aceveda. Oh, and Dutch finally gets some. You gotta be happy for the guy.

There is a subplot about college kids and methamphetamine that is a little too "Afterschool Special" for me, but that is a minor quibble. This was a very enjoyable episode, with deft direction, sharp writing and liberal doses of humor.moreless

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10

"Perfect"

By cavanagh15, Jun 07, 2007 Report Abuse

Another wonderfully written episode and I really wonder why the ratings for this middle part of the series isn't higher. I think that the writing had gotten so much better since the 2nd-4th episodes, which really got me close to not wanting to watch the rest of the seasons of the show. Season 1 now has me hooked after this episode as it shows me that the writers really do have a plan for the season. The story arch which ended with the murders of the white woman and the black man has been a story arch in the making since the first couple of episodes of the season. I really liked the look on CCH Pounders face as she beleieves that she may be responsible for telling the woman to pick someone - which turned up to be two dead bodies in the long run. Dutch has always been the out of place character, the person whos on screen presence just didnt seem to fit the show. I really liked his acting in this episode - getting a new girlfriend I hope becomes a part of the show. I thought she was a good acter too and I think that the two of them have an amazing on screen connection together. I like the double team up in this episode as it shifted a few things around and gave us some new character combos to take the same old "Vic and Shane" drama out of an epsiode. Fantastic episode, best since the pilot.moreless

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Another fantastic episode

10

"Perfect"

By Hofeman612, Jul 19, 2005 Report Abuse

I'll only write a bit about this episode.

The shake-up of partners for this episode was a great plot twist. Watching Claudette get to see the tactics which she will grow to hate from Vic and the hilarious combo of Dutch and Shane made for a great episode. The ending is another brilliant one (so many in this first season). Set as a montage over a perfect song I'd never heard before (The Magnetic Fields - All My Little Words) the scene cuts among the different stories that have occured throughout the episode. The most interesting comes when Dutch is in the shower after he'd had sex with a woman who'd he earlier helped by catching her husband's killer. When she grabs Dutch's gun there is a great moment where I thought she might kill herself(woulda been a real shocker), but she instead just hangs Dutch's suit up like she would her husband's and it lets you see that Dutch is possibly in with a very emotionally messed up woman. From there the closing of the montage is also great. Danny and Julian had a big part of this episode dealing with a love triangle fight going on between two guys and a girl. We'd seen these characters before, so this is more great work by The Shield building a storyline over multiple episodes. Anyway, in the montage we are shocked when we see that one of the men in the triangle has killed the girl and the other man. The look on Claudette and Danny's face combined with the great song playing over it give you one of those chill endings that is just fantastic.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- When Danny says "Yeah You Are," the line was added in and is louder than anything she says in the scene. On top of that, watch the van that goes behind her. It's closer to her at the top of the street than it is at the bottom, not to mention the timing of its speed and the camera angle are off. A decent edit, but it's still catchable. Edit
Notes
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- The episode got much praise from an unexpected source. A number of fathers across the nation have expressed thanks to the show and its crew for showing a father finally "smacking sense" into their child for screwing up. Edit
- The original plan for the college hazing was to have the guys naked. The network made them put on underpants at the last minute. Edit
- Lemonhead does not appear this episode. Edit
Quotes
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- Vic: Police. You knew the OD victim? Sammy: He was rushing my frat. I'm the Pledge Master. Vic: This part of rush week? (shows him the drugs) Sammy: My father's a lawyer. Vic: Mine was a bricklayer. So, what? Edit
- Dutch: What the hell am I supposed to talk to Shane Vendrell about all day? Claudette: It's good to shake things up once in a while. Dutch: I don't want to shake things up, I want my partner back. Claudette: Aren't you sweet. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Dutch: You're gonna miss me too, right? (Claudette smiles) Edit
- (Shoving a guy's face into his dead brother's face) Vic: Here, you wanna see your brother? Here, kiss your brother. Edit
Allusions
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