I kept waiting for all of the reckoning that the promos were talking about in an oh-so-serious voice.

And then there was some waiting.

And some more waiting.

I'm tuning in for the midnight encore, and maybe I'll have a better perspective then, but my initial impression is that just about every storyline I was waiting to see resolved pretty much went unresolved. A quick head count:

- RECKONING: Between Billings and the Dutchman
- RECKONING: Between Shane and Mackey
- RECKONING: Between Shane and the Armenians
- RECKONING/HUMOROUS DIALOGUE: Between the Dutchman and Hiatt and/or Tina
- RECKONING: Between Hiatt and Mackey
- RECKONING: Between Mackey and the LAPD Appeals Review Board

Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great episode, but by the end, it kind of felt like the next-to-last episode instead of the season finale.

I'm happy at having been right about Pezuela being next year's Big Baddie, as well as the 'Wire'-like detour into big-time city politics, but not at the expense of having so many questions unanswered.

Hiatt's exit was pretty boring. Vic definitely showed him up over the last couple episodes, and proved he was clearly Hiatt's superior on the streets (like Mackey said toward the beginning of the season, the guys that were too smart to get caught by Hiatt when he was working INS made their way to Farmington), but he basically got fired for doing what Wyms asked: play by the rules. So she looks awfully hypocritical canning him for essentially not playing fast and loose enough. What she's asking is impossible. She wants someone LIKE Vic, but NOT Vic. How's she going to deal with his continued presence in the Barn next season, by the way?

Of course, the writers were a little vague on that as well. DOES this Pezuela case go high enough on the food chain for Mackey to keep his job? The look on Aceveda's face (and his driving Vic's car away) seems to say yes. But he just walked out on the appeals board (and the fam), and he did it in order to pull over this Arinboles guy for no legitimate reason, beat his ass and steal his limo. Surely Arinboles is going to tell Pezuela some bald-headed cop did it, and he'll know it was Mackey. And for that matter, where is Mackey taking that limo?

Maybe all these questions are to keep us salivating for next season, which of course I am, but I still can't help feeling a but unsatisfied. This is definitely the weakest ending of any of the seasons.

No Billings/Dutch action was disappointing as well. Dutch is too smart to have not figured out what happened. I couldn't believe he didn't ask Tina if she'd lost her cellphone recently. HOWEVER, it would be hilarious to see the Dutchman make out an insurance fraud case against Billings. He doesn't live in Farmington, though, far as I know (the CRIME, technically speaking, took place there, though.... I'm out of my depth on that one; either way, I wouldn't put it past Dutch to at least look INTO it).

Not sure what the kiss with Danny means; she almost kissed him in S2, but this one was sort of in a moment of emotional chaos, so who knows what may happen there. Will Dutch become stepdaddy to Mackey's other son?

Not to change the subject, but... HOW IN THE F*%! is Cletus Van Damme gonna grab the Armenian godfather's windpipe, threaten the acting boss in the middle of a backstabbing power struggle and walk away without losing his feet? And then Diro just lets him back in the hospital room? This whole Armenian storyline did not have any kind of payoff. I'll be honest, I thought Shane was going to be dead before this episode was over (Hiatt, too, for that matter, which ties back into the Armenian storyline... I was hoping they would go kill-crazy for the Strike Team and chop off Hiatt's feet by mistake).

The whole first half of the season built up to Vic finding out for sure that Shane killed Lem, and I was certain the back nine would be Vic finding a way to get revenge. Maybe that's coming next season, but like I said before, compared to the slam-bang endings of other 'Shield' seasons, this one just didn't pack the knockout punch I expected. It sets up a lot of interesting possibilities, certainly, but... well... maybe more after the midnight showing; lemme get another one under my belt first ha ha ha.