Keeping the rage inside - for a while: The Shield

Episode 4(?), The New Man, of "The Shield" Season 6, puts Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is a unprecedented position: he's the nice guy, trying to please the boss. His boss, Capt Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder - who's also in Avatar!), tells Chiklis if he can "play well with others" she can recommend against his forced retirement (she later tells the new guy, Mackey's replacement, that it was a lie, just to get Mackey's cooperation). Mackey believes her and is uncharacteristically welcoming to the new guy, Hiatt?, from INS. The others on his team, Ronnie and especially Shane, are not welcoming, really resentful and spiteful toward Hiatt. Macky, meanwhile, seems much more at peace, having killed the guy (Guardo) whom he incorrectly believes assasinated his team member Lembrowski (Lem). In a reversal, Shane (who did kill Lem), is now broken up and seemingly angry that others have "forgotten" Lem. He's of course the most relieved of all, the heat's off him (he thinks), so he for the first time can be even tougher than Mackey about standing up for Lem. That's a lot of plot, but pretty easy to follow through the season. What's great about this episode is watching Mackey tryinig to be a nice guy - the episode builds around his attempt to protect a guy who wants to leave a gang. When the guy (Cervantes?) is shot to death, Mackey is in despair - and he goes absolutely insane, tearing up a the whole waiting room at the hospital ICU. The anger just explodes out of him. It's reminiscent of the great episode in season 5 when Kavanaugh (Forrest Whittaker) tears up his own apartment - a really quiet, tense guy who kept his rage inside, for a while.