That 90 minute ep was some bullshit. I haven't watched it since. I guess I'll check out the season finale re-air this week.

Like you, I have some problems with this season - which is the first season I made a point to watch faithfully:

The Rawlings character was unbelievable to me. Claudette and Danny are tough at times, but believable. Rawlings was too over the top and having her breakdown at the end doesn't fit in with the tough-bitch-win-at-all-costs persona that they set up all season.

The Antoine story was climaxed far too soon. I've already posted how the loose ends to catching him were tied up way too easy. Not believable at all to me.

The writing this season seemed hell bent to cash in on Glenn Close's star status. In prior seasons, The Shield was all about the ensemble and while Vic Mackey is the central figure, they didn't compromise the story by focusing on him. He was tied to every character in the show. With Rawlings, she was perched on a ivory tower and all of her policies and ideals affected the entire show, but she wasn't really CONNECTED to anybody in the show in a real way. Maybe that was the point, but it ain't feel right to me.

I need to rent the first three seasons to catch all of the episodes that I missed. Maybe if I saw everything I would have felt like this a long time ago. Or maybe The Shield just dropped the ball this season.