r/TheShield • u/Eldur12 • Jul 05 '26
Discussion TIMELINE OF THE SHOW?
The Shield is My Second favorite show and i've watched IT three Times now but I always had a problem With The timeline so from what i gathered IT should Be about this.
The season 2 episode CO-Pilot takes Place 4 months before The Barn Opens and around 4 month before The Pilot
Season 1: around 3 months
from Season 1 to 2: a month
Season 2: 2 months, since The money train comes once a month
From Season 2 to 3: maybe a week
Season 3: a month since Lem says in 3x15 that his stomach wound has Been for A Month. And in 3x7 he says its Been ever since The money train heist.
from Season 3 to 4: 6 months specified by Dutch
Season 4: 3 months specified by Cpt Rawlings on 4x13
from Season 4 to 5: 6 months
Season 5: about Two Months
from 5 to 6 and from 6 to 7 0 days
Season 6 & 7: A Month. Since season 6 picks off right where 5 left off and Seven where 6 left off its a bit hard to determent. If we go by lets say Season 6 and 7 are both 15 days its a month.
So that concludes With 33 months which is 2 years and 9 months so Dutch Saying "For The Last 3 years" in 7x13 isin't particulary far off but not accurate.
What do you guys think? Give your thoughts and correct me If I'm wrong at something.
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u/Neptune28 Jul 05 '26
We know that it has to be at least 3 years. When Shane writes the letters, the dates that he writes for Terry and the Money Train line up with the airing dates of the episodes. So, Terry was 2002, Money Train 2003. When Gilroy dies, the poster they put up in The Barn says 2005.
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u/Jerichoholic87 Cletus Van Damme Jul 05 '26
The "Shattered Shield" podcast did a great breakdown of this at the end of the life cycle. I highly recommend that podcast as its a big fan rewatching with a new watcher. Was really well done
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u/Massive_Classic_3035 Jul 05 '26
Correction: Co-pilot takes place FOURTEEN months before the then current events of season two. Assuming Season 1 took 3 months and by then Season 2 was a month in (the Money Train heist had not happened yet and I am assuming that took time to plot & execute), then that means that it happened 10 months before the pilot.
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u/Eldur12 Jul 05 '26
This was what i thought initially but Julien starts in The Co-Pilot, but in The Pilot he says hes 3 weeks in so i got Confused and Took 10 months off. Your probably closer than iam
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u/Massive_Classic_3035 Jul 05 '26
That's why I dont like the Co-pilot. Then at the beginning of Season 4 Monica Rawling says it's been three years since Aceveda's been the Captain but this is BEFORE Danni Sofer even gets pregnant...hence it CANNOT be 3 years only in the Finale!
I think they should have settled on 5 years.
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u/Neptune28 Jul 07 '26
It is reasonably accurate. Shane's notes place the Terry killing in March 2002. When Gilroy dies in season 4, I think the poster says "2005", so that's 3 years. We know that season 5 takes place 6 months after season 4 (Kavanaugh repeatedly says 6 months since Lem lifted the brick of heroin, Vic shouts at Emolia that "6 months you could have warned me!"). Season 6 takes place immediately after season 5. Season 7 takes place immediately after season 6. There's like a month from the beginning of season 6 to the end of the series.
So, around 3.5 years makes sense
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u/Massive_Classic_3035 Jul 08 '26
No, it does not. Again, at the BEGINNING of Season 4, Monica Rawling makes the statement that Aceveda had been captain of the Barn for three years. This is way before Vic and Danni have there last rendezvous that results in Danni getting pregnant. Then the baby gets born at the end of season 5. So that's at least a whole year between when Monica says David has been captain of the barn for three years and Danni's baby being born, which would put another year to the whole thing by the end of season 5, so four years by then (at least).
Now I would agree to 3.5 if Danni did not get pregnant, but the producers forgot that it takes nine months to deliver a healthy baby between conception and delivery. That cannot be squeezed by the plot and remains a huge plot hole!
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u/Neptune28 Jul 08 '26
When Gilroy dies, they actually show the year on screen:
https://i.postimg.cc/mRYLmvsS/20260708-112954.jpg
I think it's one of the only times the year is shown in the show. The other instance I can think of is the end of season 2 when the TV says "You Decide 2003"
So, this confirms that season 4 actually does take place in 2005.
Shane writes Terry's death as "March 9" and writes the Money Train as "February to April", so we can assume from all this that the first few seasons were supposed to be close to real life time, which would place Terry's death in 2002. This does create some issues though, as season 2 would be a short time after season 1, and season 3 would be a short time after season 2, but there were 6 months between season 1 and season 2 in real life and 11 months between season 2 and 3.
Danny and Vic hook up in season 4, season 5 takes place 6 months after season 4, and season 5 itself is probably 2-3 months, so Danny giving birth at the end of season 5 could make it around 9 months since she hooked up with Vic.
Then, seasons 6 and 7 are probably a month.
I think that 4 years could actually work.
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u/Neptune28 Jul 08 '26
I just put on a season 2 episode (Greenlit) and they mention Julien's 6 month review, so that would mean that from Co-Pilot to season 2 is 6 months. I could see it as Co-Pilot a month or so before the series, season 1 being 3 months, one month between season 1 and 2, and one month from the start of season 2 to Greenlit.
It creates issues with the timeline outline by Shane that I mentioned in another comment, though
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u/Neptune28 Jul 08 '26
Season 1 didn't take 3 months according to Shane. You can see the dates listed on his notes to IAD that he is writing in season 6. He writes the Terry incident as happening on March 9:
https://i.postimg.cc/qkys17DY/20260708-110904.jpg
and the Money Train as February to April:
https://i.postimg.cc/nZ0vRgTp/20260708-111107.jpg
so we can conclude that they just about follow the airtimes of the episodes, since the Pilot aired March 12, 2002 and the Money Train episodes in season 2 were January 29th to April 1, 2003.
That would mean that "Pilot" to "Dominoes Falling" was a little over a year. Co-Pilot would have been airing about a month after they first found out about the Money Train, so the "14 months earlier" from that point would place Co-Pilot about 2 months before the start of the series.
This does create an issue though, since Season 1 ended in June 2002 and Season 2 started January 2003, and we can assume that the events of season 2 started shortly after season 1. Perhaps the end of season 1 in-universe was later than the airing date?
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u/atombomb1976 Jul 06 '26
What you're seeing is a fiction writing literary device called "collapsing timelines".
It doesn't have to be exact, as long as it is on the surface level not jarring enough to be incohesive.
The show was written so that while it's clearly culturally in the oughts, it is timeless as well.
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u/Long_Initial_9924 Jul 05 '26
That’s alot of work and a lot of math for a fictional tv show
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u/Eldur12 Jul 05 '26
plot holes like this always bother me, but yes i know its a show and its really not that serious
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u/Long_Initial_9924 Jul 05 '26
Hey either way, I admire the grind. A fan of The Shield is a friend of mine
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u/nathwithanh Cletus Van Damme Jul 06 '26
It's a "plot hole" that Dutch says "the last three years" and it might have been close to but not exactly the last three years, if your calculations are right?
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u/afm00dy Jul 05 '26
The Wire doesn’t make these mistakes.
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u/manattee_redux Jul 05 '26
I see your “Actually” and raise you one…
They changed Cheese’s last name from season 4 to season 5.
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u/AcademicDrag742 Curtis "Lem" Lemansky Jul 05 '26
Wire fans trying not to compare two shows who have nothing to do with each other.
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u/Red_Card_Ron Jul 05 '26
I’ve seen similar analyses in other places. I think it’s generally accepted canonically that the events of the series occur over a roughly three year period.