Victor Samuel Mackey, is a fictional character and the protagonist of The Shield, an American crime drama series, which ran for seven seasons on FX. Played by Michael Chiklis, Mackey is portrayed as a corrupt and brutal detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. He leads a small anti-gang unit primarily tasked with curbing the rampant drug trade in the fictional Farmington district of Los Angeles. He commits several crimes throughout the series including drug dealing, extortion, police brutality, and murder. He is often depicted justifying his crimes as a means to an end. Despite his actions, Mackey considers himself a devoted father and family man.
Concept, creation and casting
As part of his research for The Shield, Shawn Ryan, the creator, rode with police officers in San Francisco. Ryan always returned with what the Los Angeles Times describe as "dark, twisted tales". These experiences, combined with the then-recent Rampart scandal, became the impetus for Vic Mackey. Ryan has said "The interesting question to me was: 'What do we allow our officers to do to make us safer? How many rights of criminals are we willing to give up to ensure our safety?'"https://www.newstatesman.com/node/156414
Shawn Ryan outlined his initial conception of Vic Mackey and how it ultimately evolved into the character portrayed on the show. He states "I had not envisioned Vic Mackey looking like [Michael Chiklis]. I'm sort of a big guy with a bald head and people always asked if I intentionally cast someone who looked like me, and absolutely not. I always described it as a young Harrison Ford role and Michael came in and made me reimagine it. He was this bulldog with this intensity and energy that matched. He saw and read the character differently and better than anyone who came in before or after him... In his audition for us, he was on his feet and pacing around like a caged tiger. Even then, as great as the performance was, I still kind of nervous... I still had some butterflies. It wasn't until we got in front of the cameras, where I was like, 'I really do think the world will see what I did.'" Ryan said the writers always thought of Mackey as being like a shark, someone who, in order to survive, has to keep moving forward.
Ryan has said FX initially "wanted Eric Stoltz to play Vic Mackey" and that they made him an offer which he "almost took."
Actor Michael Chiklis had not been associated with brutish characters like Vic Mackey before his work on The Shield. He was best known at the time for portraying the balding, friendly and slightly overweight Tony Scali in The Commish (1991–96), and similar roles prior. After playing Curly Howard in the TV movie The Three Stooges (2000), Chiklis decided to reinvent his image. He underwent an intense workout regime and shaved his head, completely transforming his appearance. His casting as Mackey was seen as unusual at the time given his previous roles. Kevin Reilly, FX's then-president of entertainment, was quoted saying “I knew [Chiklis] as a soft, cuddly guy physically and emotionally. He came in with this shaved head and his biceps, and he just chewed through the scene. He blew us away."
Role in The Shield
Character summary Mackey's surname is of Irish or Scottish origin,Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press and he is occasionally seen in a shamrock T-shirt. He also mentions that his father was a bricklayer. In the show's fifth season, he tells Lt. Jon Kavanaugh that he has been a police officer for fourteen years. In a DVD commentary for season four, Chiklis mentions that the strike team members are from the same areas as the actors who portray them, implying that Mackey is a native of the Boston, Massachusetts area.
Mackey works for the Los Angeles Police Department in the fictional Farmington district of Los Angeles, an area plagued with gang-related violence, drugs, and prostitution. He leads the 'Strike Team,' an experimental anti-gang unit. The Shield and the Strike Team were inspired by the Rampart Division Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit within the Los Angeles Police Department. The team initially consists of four members, Shane Vendrell, Curtis Lemansky, and Ronnie Gardocki, led by Vic. They are all close friends, although this friendship is tested multiple times throughout the series. Mackey and the Strike Team use criminal methods to coerce information and stage arrests and take a share of various drug busts. Wired highlight the loyalty of the Strike Team to Vic, "no matter how far he crosses the line."
At the start of the series, Vic is happily married to his wife, Corrine, and they have three children, Matthew, Megan and Cassidy. Both Matthew and Megan are diagnosed with autism. The high costs incurred as a result of their tuition fees often form the justification for some of Vic's corruption. Vic struggles at times to keep his work and family separate, ultimately leading to the collapse of his marriage at the end of the first season. Though he had cheated on his wife, he was devastated when she left him.
Vic's attempts to stay one step ahead of not only his superior, David Aceveda (who is fully aware of Vic's criminality), but of IAD, various drug lords, gangsters and other criminals, all while trying to be a caring father and family man, are prominent plot devices throughout the series.
Murdering Terry Crowley In the pilot episode, Vic murders the fifth and newest member of his team, Detective Terry Crowley. Crowley had been sent by Captain David Aceveda and the Justice Department to build a Federal case against the Strike Team for colluding with drug lord Rondell Robinson. Vic is secretly warned of this by his friend, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy. Vic and Shane both agree to murder Crowley for his betrayal and to ensure their freedom. During a raid on the house of drug dealer "Two Time," Vic kills Two Time, but then picks up Two Time's gun and shoots Crowley in the face. Vic and Shane then rig the crime scene evidence, claiming that Two Time stepped out of the bathroom, shot Terry, and was slain by their return fire. This sets in motion events that loom over the Strike Team throughout the series. Shane expresses remorse and guilt in the aftermath of the murder, but Vic remains stoic, though he would later express his own feelings of regret about it. Aceveda is convinced of Mackey's guilt in the murder, but is unable to prove it.
Robbing the Armenian Mob At the conclusion of the second season, Mackey and the Strike Team rob the 'Armenian money train' - a train transporting the bi-yearly illegal profits of the Armenian mob out of Los Angeles. Mackey justifies this crime by stating the money is better off in the Strike Team's pockets, to be spent on their families, than in the hands of the Armenians. Lemansky is the only member of the team to show reluctance at partaking in the robbery, but does so anyway. Like the Crowley murder, the fallout from the money train robbery lingers over the team throughout the series.
During season three, the Armenian mob send a feared hitman, Margos Dezerian, to Los Angeles to retrieve the money train cash. Margos' search begins to point towards Vic and the Strike Team, despite the team framing a low-level hoodlum (who is murdered by Margos) to draw away suspicion. To protect himself and the team, Vic lures Margos to a house and murders him, rigging the crime scene to make it look like self-defence.
Disbandment and reformation of the Strike Team At the end of season three, with Aceveda and the Armenian mob seemingly closing in on them, Lemansky burns the money train cash to ensure their freedom. This causes deep resentment between Lemansky and the rest of the team, particularly Shane. Lem offers to transfer off the Strike Team, but with news that the team will be disbanded if that happens, Vic makes attempts to reconcile with Lem. Shane, however, proves intransigent, and is unable to make peace, leading to the disbandment of the Strike Team.
Season four begins with Vic working solely with Gardocki, both now relegated largely to desk work since the team's disbandment. Shane has moved on to vice, whereas Lem now handles juvenile crime. Their friendships with both Vic and each other have become estranged. Shane becomes deeply involved with a drug lord named Antwon Mitchell, becoming too deep when Mitchell attempts to frame Shane for murder. Shane pleads to Vic for help and Vic comes to the aid of his former best friend, joined by Ronnie, and eventually by Lemansky too. After taking down Mitchell, the camaraderie shown during the ordeal sees their strong friendship rekindle and the Strike Team is reformed.
Internal affairs investigation and Lemansky's death In season five, Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh of internal affairs attempts to send Vic to prison for Terry's murder. Vic and Shane, however, calmly stick to their original story and Kavanaugh's crusade ultimately changes into a personal vendetta which destroys his career. Nonetheless, throughout the course of these events Curtis Lemansky is arrested by Kavanagh on charges relating to some stolen heroin found in Lemansky's car, which Lemansky failed to report as evidence. A sinister plot between Kavanagh and Acevada has Shane wrongly fearing that Lemansky will betray the team to cut a better deal. Shane kills Lemansky to protect his own freedom. This sets in motion the downfall of the Strike Team and its members. Around the same time, Vic learns he is being forced into early retirement after he reaches his 15 year milestone, a short time away.
Downfall Seasons six and seven portrays the downfall of Mackey and the Strike Team. Vic learns of Shane's murder of Lemansky (though not before torturing and murdering the primary suspect, Guardo Lima) and cannot forgive him for it. He subsequently becomes a lot closer to Gardocki, now his sole friend. With no chance of repairing their friendship, Vic, Ronnie and Shane each orchestrate assassination attempts against one another. The attempts fail, though Shane's assassination attempt on Ronnie is exposed, setting off a series of events ultimately leading to Shane's suicide.
During the chaos, Vic's appeal against his forced retirement fails, and, with ten days remaining on the job, chooses to resign, knowing Captain Wyms will restrict him to desk work if he remains. The Strike Team, which Ronnie has been the de jure leader of since the news of Vic's impending retirement, is disbanded once again.
In the meantime, Vic's ex-wife Corrine has since become fearful of him. She was especially disturbed by news from Mara, Shane's wife, that Vic tried to kill her and Shane, despite Mara's pregnancy. Corrine wants Vic out of her and her children's lives. She has since been working with the police to put Vic in jail. The police begin to suspect Vic is becoming wise to Corrine's cooperation with them, so to maintain her cover, Corrine is mock-arrested in front of Vic. Vic now believes Corrine is in serious trouble with the law, and resolves to help her, unaware of her betrayal of him.
In exchange for helping ICE develop a Federal case against Beltran, a drug lord, Vic arranges for full immunity for himself and for Corrine. He is unable to secure the same deal for Ronnie and decides to leave him out. The immunity agreement also provides Mackey three years' employment with ICE, which he assumes will involve work as a field agent. Mackey admits to all the crimes he has committed including the slayings of Terry Crowley, Margos Dezerian, Guardo Lima, and many others, and receives full immunity from prosecution for all of them. After he details all of his crimes, a horrified ICE Agent Olivia Murray tells Vic that he has "implicated Gardocki in enough shit to put him away for the rest of his life." Vic responds that he needs Ronnie's help to bust Beltran and that he would, "string him along," until then.