Shane Vendrell - Aftermath

Aftermath

The remaining Strike Team members attend Lem's funeral where they discuss current leads about Guardo. Shane later meets Ronnie and Vic at Lem's grave site, where they give Lem an improvised "three-volley salute," though there are actually seven volleys as there are only three of them. The next day, however, Shane discovers, along with Vic and Ronnie, that Lem had no intention of "ratting out" the Strike Team. As a result, Shane's justification for Lem's murder was suddenly stripped away.

Shane spends a moment, crying to himself over the fact that he murdered Lem with no justification and appears to be on the verge of committing suicide when he is interrupted by Danny, who has arrived at the Barn to take care of some paperwork and to show off her son. Shane briefly holds the child before reuniting with the team. Shane is completely out of it during a hostage situation and singlehandedly destroys the strategy for dealing with the situation when he abruptly offers himself as a hostage. Vic later chides him after dealing with a gunshot sustained in the botched rescue, telling Shane to be more careful, as he does not want to lose another friend. Stressed out and racked by guilt, Shane went to have sex with the teenaged black hooker he had met earlier in the day.

When a warrant was issued for Vic's arrest, Shane and Ronnie returned to the Barn on Vic's recommendation in order to not only keep themselves clear of suspicion, but also to gather information on the investigation into the charges. Shane was interviewed by Kavanaugh and Dutch and argued that it was too convenient for Kavanaugh to have discovered the amount of evidence on Vic in a few days considering that his previous investigation of six months had failed to materialize anything. Though the argument was lost on Kavanaugh, it prompted Dutch to begin questioning the validity of Kavanaugh's investigation and corroborating evidence.

Shane briefly thought of possibly creating a story of a grenade being held by Lem accidentally exploding, but it was quickly shot down by Ronnie as being "some bullshit story." Fortunately, the charges were dropped, and Shane, wishing the affair be put behind them, pleaded for Vic to stop his pursuit of Guardo Lima, the Salvadoran drug lord believed to be responsible for Lem's murder. His pleas were ignored and Vic kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered Guardo.

Shane became emotionally unstable, especially when children were involved, but children seemed to be his attempt at redemption. Whether putting off his suicide when being shown Danny's baby, or allowing himself to be doused with gasoline to rescue a child in danger from a junkie, or even begging for Guardo's life based on the knowledge that Guardo and his girlfriend would be having a child soon, Shane's guilt and shame showed through most sharply in these circumstances.