Ronnie Gardocki
Encyclopedia
Detective Ronald Everett "Ronnie" Gardocki, is a fictional character
who appears in the FX crime drama
The Shield
. He is portrayed by David Rees Snell
. Ronnie is known for his extremely calm demeanor, well-groomed appearance, and quiet nature.
said that all the shows characters are from where the actors themselves are from, which would mean that Gardocki is from Wichita, Kansas
) Ronnie has very few lines in comparison with the rest of the Strike Team members, and consequently it is difficult for the viewer to ascertain much information about him through what he says. He is, however, trusted implicitly by series protagonist
Vic Mackey
, who at times often shields Ronnie from the darker schemes involving the Strike Team. Ronnie, either deliberately or unconsciously, tends to stay in the background of the show, rarely speaking up about anything, though he radiates a manner of unshakable confidence.
Superficially, Gardocki can be described as "geek
y" due to his interest in electronic equipment
and computers. Besides this aptitude with computers, he has been shown to enjoy the band Journey
, beer, and is an avowed atheist. He has severe allergies
(in one episode, he comments that he's allergic to "everything but sheet metal"). He appears to favor the Beretta 8045 Cougar F as his sidearm
. He had a thick mustache in the first two seasons for which He was occasionally mocked before growing a full beard in Season Three, to cover up the scarring caused by mexican drug lord Armidillo Quintero.
Gardocki's personality changes somewhat over the course of the show. Initially he is somewhat of a geek, speaking awkwardly with a woman during a prostitution sting (and being mocked for it by his teammates). After Season Three begins, he takes on more of an extroverted manner, participating in more dangerous, hands-on police work with the Strike Team. Over the course of the show he is seen flirting with several women; he is also admired by Officer Tina Hanlon, and during Season Seven is shown taking an attractive Asia
n woman back to his apartment.
His calm personality sharply contrasts with the more aggressive members of the Strike Team. However, he has also been shown to have a violent side: As the Strike Team tried to break up a riot between a group of black
and Hispanic
gang members at a funeral home, a black gang member struck Gardocki in the back of the head with a crucifix hanging on a nearby wall. After finding out the identity of the culprit, the Strike Team tracked him down so that Gardocki could beat the man bloody.
After Mackey uses a stove
to burn the face of Armadillo, a violent Mexican drug lord, Armadillo retaliates by doing the same to Gardocki, leaving him on the brink of death. Gardocki survives, but is left permanently disfigured. It is hinted that Gardocki will not return to active duty, and detective Tavon Garris is hired to join the Strike Team. Fellow team member Shane Vendrell is initially resentful towards Garris for taking his spot on the team.
However, Gardocki returns and decides to take a more active role in the Strike Team, particularly in planning out a means for the Strike Team to hijack the Armenia
n mob's "Money Train," a convoy
used in a money laundering operation. Gardocki, initially interested in the idea, became a much larger advocate for it after his disfigurement, coming up with an alternate method of stealing the money that bypassed the problems within the original plan.
Gardocki later notices that a large sum of the "Money Train" loot is missing, and openly accuses Mackey and Vendrell of stealing the money. When the real thief is revealed as Vendrell's girlfriend, Gardocki states that it is not safe for any member to use the loot, given that the police are still looking for the identity of the people behind the heist.
Lemansky ultimately burns the remaining money from the robbery, fearing that the team's actions will eventually be discovered. When Lemansky's actions cause tension between him and Vendrell, Gardocki attempts to mediate between the two. However, tensions between the team eventually lead to the team's dissolution. Lemansky and Vendrell are transferred to different divisions, but Gardocki remains as Mackey's partner. When suspicions between Mackey, Gardocki, and Lemansky arise regarding Vendrell's involvement with drug kinpin Antwon Mitchell
, Gardocki plants a camera in Vendrell's car. The camera captures Mitchell ordering Vendrell to kill Mackey, an act that leads to Mitchell's eventual arrest.
After the Strike Team is re-formed following Mitchell's arrest, Gardocki and the rest of the team are investigated by Internal Affairs
Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh due to their suspected involvement in various crimes. Kavanaugh finds discrepancies in some of the team members' finances (a result of their using money from the "Money Train" heist), but Gardocki escapes suspicion due to careful management of his share of the money. Kavanaugh points out that because of the others, Gardocki may go down for "a mistake you were too smart to make".
Lemansky later becomes a fugitive after Kavanaugh charges him with stealing heroin from a criminal informant's house. On the way to a covert meeting with Lemansky, Gardocki and Mackey are tailed by Kavanaugh's agents. By the time they escape their pursuers and arrive at the rendezvous point, Vendrell had killed Lemansky with a grenade
in order to prevent him from giving up evidence on the other members of the Strike Team.
Gardocki begins to suspect Vendrell's involvement in the murder, but is initially unable to find evidence to justify his suspicions. Eventually, Mackey discovers the truth and threatens to kill Vendrell. Vendrell responds by creating a document detailing the various crimes committed by the Strike Team, informing Mackey that the document—containing enough evidence to put Mackey and Gardocki in prison for the rest of their lives – will find its way to the police if Mackey carries out his plans for revenge.
Vendrell approaches Gardocki with an offer to form an alliance against Mackey. When Gardocki declines, Vendrell informs him of Mackey's involvement in the murder of detective Terry Crowley. Gardocki, unmoved because he had long suspected as much, confronts Mackey to demand why he had been left out of the plot. Mackey, however, refuses to admit to the murder in front of Gardocki.
Mackey and Gardocki later discover that Vendrell has informed the Armenians of their involvement in the Money Train heist. The Armenians have vowed to get revenge by killing Mackey, his family, and Gardocki, so Mackey forges a truce with Vendrell in order to deal with the threat. When Gardocki expresses refusal to work with Vendrell, Mackey promises that they will deal with Vendrell after the threat from the Armenians is resolved. Meanwhile, Gardocki is promoted to lead the Strike Team in light of Mackey's upcoming forced retirement. This is done to marginalize Mackey during his final weeks on the job, as Gardocki would be held responsible for any wrongdoing on Mackey's part.
Mackey and Gardocki craft a plan to simultaneously eliminate both Vendrell and the leadership of the Armenian mob. Their plan succeeds in eliminating the Armenians, but Vendrell escapes and realizes he had been set up. Vendrell responds by attempting to murder both Mackey and Gardocki; this too fails, and he is exposed for conspiring to murder his two fellow teammates.
Vendrell flees, increasing pressure on Mackey and Gardocki to eliminate him before he tells the police of their involvement in various crimes. Mackey begins working with ICE
, hoping that in exchange for bringing down a Mexican drug cartel both he and Gardocki will be offered jobs and granted immunity
for any crimes committed as members of the Strike Team.
ICE refuses to grant immunity to Gardocki, extending it only to Mackey. In order to secure his own immunity, Mackey is required to confess to the various crimes committed by the Strike Team. Frustrated at her inability to prosecute Mackey for the heinous actions he admits to, ICE agent Olivia Murray tells Mackey that she has enough evidence to send Gardocki to prison for life and will have him arrested after the conclusion of the cartel investigation. Unable to warn Gardocki for fear of voiding his immunity agreement, Mackey lies and tells Gardocki that he successfully secured immunity for both of them.
After the drug cartel is brought down, Gardocki is informed that Vendrell committed suicide and killed his own family in order to avoid arrest. Gardocki is distraught at the news, but relieved that Vendrell will no longer be able to threaten him. Gardocki is shocked shortly thereafter when Claudette gives the signal to Dutch to arrest Ronnie in front of his friend (the exact charges are never stated, though Detective Wagenbach references both the Armenian Money Train robbery along with his decision not to come forward with the revelation that Mackey had murdered Detective Crowley as Ronnie is being handcuffed). Incredulous that Mackey betrayed and lied to him, Gardocki explodes with anger at Mackey as he condemns his former friend's now hypocritical rhetoric about "protecting the team" as well as his preventing Ronnie from fleeing the country several days earlier. Ronnie's demeanor during this scene contrasts greatly with his overall personality throughout the course of the series. As he is dragged away, Claudette orders a distraught Mackey to leave the precinct, having destroyed his friendship with Gardocki once and for all.
Despite being out of the loop on several deeds, Ronnie's loyalty is established during season two when he is disfigured by a pedophile
crime boss who Mackey had similarly disfigured earlier in the season. When the crime boss is arrested, he threatens to file a police brutality
complaint against Mackey if Gardocki does not recant a statement which identifies the crime boss as his attacker. When Vendrell finds out the details of the situation, Mackey responds that he would turn himself in for his act of police brutality rather than be blackmailed into forcing Gardocki to recant his sworn statement and let the man who disfigured him go free. Mackey is never forced to carry out his vow, as Vendrell arranges for the mob boss to be killed by a disgruntled minion, sparing Vic from having to destroy his career for Ronnie's sake.
Despite his friendship with Mackey, Ronnie has often been kept in dark regarding some of Vic's darker plans. Most notably, Gardocki was not involved in the murder plot against Crowley. In the aftermath of the murder, Mackey and fellow conspirator Vendrell go out of their way to avoid discussing the crime in front of him. After Vendrell's estrangement from the team following his murder of Lemansky, Vendrell reveals the truth about Crowley in order to drive a wedge between the two remaining members of the Strike Team. Gardocki reveals to Mackey that he had long suspected the latter's involvement and that he understood why Mackey did what he did. Furthermore, Gardocki adds that he could have provided Mackey with emotional support after the murder, citing that he would have "looked out for [Mackey] better" than Vendrell did.
At the series' conclusion, Mackey accepts a deal to receive a job with ICE and immunity from any crimes he committed as a member of the Strike Team in exchange for helping to bring down a Mexican drug cartel. He attempts to get Gardocki in on the deal, but ICE refuses. Mackey initially holds out until Gardocki's deal is finalized, but later comes to believe that his ex-wife is in legal trouble for unwittingly assisting Mackey in his illegal actions. Fearful for his ex-wife's immediate future, he agrees to the immunity deal for himself and his ex-wife. As a condition of the deal, he is required to confess to the Strike Team's various illegal actions, implicating Gardocki in a number of them. He lies to Gardocki, telling him that immunity was secured for both of them. In the series finale, Mackey's treachery is revealed when Gardocki is arrested for his crimes, though he does apparently feel guilty for having sold Gardocki out. Despite Gardocki's loyalty, Vic never considered him as close as he did Shane. Ironically, many thought before Vic's betrayal, that Ronnie's low key nature and ability to cover his tracks would allow him to escape the Strike Team's crimes unscathed.
During the events leading to the Strike Team's temporary dissolution, Gardocki became privy to several of Shane's misdeeds. When $7000 of the Money Train cash went missing, Ronnie suspected Shane and chastised Vic for not suspecting Shane sooner. He comes to see Vendrell as a liability who must be watched in case he does anything which could implicate the team members in any wrongdoing. When gang leader Antwon Mitchell orders Vendrell to kill Mackey, Gardocki tells Lemansky that he hopes Mackey kills Vendrell during their next meeting.
Their friendship heals to an extent when the Strike Team re-forms. He is more willing to accept Shane back into the fold than Lemansky. However, after he discovers that Vendrell killed Lemansky and then drafted up a document detailing the team's crimes as part of his scheme to protect himself from reprisals of Mackey, their friendship ends once and for all. Vendrell tries to lure Gardocki away from Mackey's side, but Gardocki remains angry at Shane, refusing to betray Vic or even engage in small talk with when the two are forced to work together on a stakeout.
Gardocki eventually pushes Mackey to deal with Vendrell "once and for all," culminating in Mackey arranging for Vendrell to be murdered along with the leaders of the Armenian Mob. However, when Vendrell informs Mackey that he would be willing to transfer to a new precinct once they cleared themselves of the problems involving the Armenians, Mackey begins having second thoughts about the murder attempt. Vendrell survives the attempt on his life and realizes that Gardocki and Mackey had tried to kill him, leading to Vendrell arranging for Gardocki to be killed, a scheme that fails as well. When he and his family goes on the run, Ronnie fears that if caught they will testify against him and Vic to receive better deals. Despite their antagonism, Gardocki shows a deal of sadness when he discovers that Vendrell killed himself and his family.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
who appears in the FX crime drama
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
The Shield
The Shield
The Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...
. He is portrayed by David Rees Snell
David Rees Snell
David Rees Snell is a television actor cast as Detective Ronnie Gardocki, on the FX Networks' crime drama The Shield.When The Shield was picked up by FX, Snell was initially hired as a supporting cast member on the show...
. Ronnie is known for his extremely calm demeanor, well-groomed appearance, and quiet nature.
Background
Little is known about the background of Detective Ronnie Gardocki. His surname is of Polish origin, but no other clues about his past are given. (A DVD commentary by Michael ChiklisMichael Chiklis
Michael Charles Chiklis is an American actor, voice actor, occasional director and television producer. Some of the previous roles for which he is best known include Commissioner Tony Scali on the ABC police drama The Commish, LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield, Thing in...
said that all the shows characters are from where the actors themselves are from, which would mean that Gardocki is from Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
) Ronnie has very few lines in comparison with the rest of the Strike Team members, and consequently it is difficult for the viewer to ascertain much information about him through what he says. He is, however, trusted implicitly by series protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Vic Mackey
Vic Mackey
Detective Victor Samuel "Vic" Mackey, portrayed by Michael Chiklis, was the antihero and main protagonist of the FX crime drama series The Shield. Mackey was a corrupt and brutal Detective in the Los Angeles Police Department; he stole from drug dealers, routinely beat suspects and committed murder...
, who at times often shields Ronnie from the darker schemes involving the Strike Team. Ronnie, either deliberately or unconsciously, tends to stay in the background of the show, rarely speaking up about anything, though he radiates a manner of unshakable confidence.
Superficially, Gardocki can be described as "geek
Geek
The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...
y" due to his interest in electronic equipment
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and computers. Besides this aptitude with computers, he has been shown to enjoy the band Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
, beer, and is an avowed atheist. He has severe allergies
Allergy
An Allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system. Allergic reactions occur when a person's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in the environment. A substance that causes a reaction is called an allergen. These reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid...
(in one episode, he comments that he's allergic to "everything but sheet metal"). He appears to favor the Beretta 8045 Cougar F as his sidearm
Sidearm
In baseball, sidearm describes balls thrown along a low, approximately horizontal axis rather than a high, mostly vertical axis ....
. He had a thick mustache in the first two seasons for which He was occasionally mocked before growing a full beard in Season Three, to cover up the scarring caused by mexican drug lord Armidillo Quintero.
Gardocki's personality changes somewhat over the course of the show. Initially he is somewhat of a geek, speaking awkwardly with a woman during a prostitution sting (and being mocked for it by his teammates). After Season Three begins, he takes on more of an extroverted manner, participating in more dangerous, hands-on police work with the Strike Team. Over the course of the show he is seen flirting with several women; he is also admired by Officer Tina Hanlon, and during Season Seven is shown taking an attractive Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n woman back to his apartment.
His calm personality sharply contrasts with the more aggressive members of the Strike Team. However, he has also been shown to have a violent side: As the Strike Team tried to break up a riot between a group of black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
gang members at a funeral home, a black gang member struck Gardocki in the back of the head with a crucifix hanging on a nearby wall. After finding out the identity of the culprit, the Strike Team tracked him down so that Gardocki could beat the man bloody.
Character history
Gardocki appeared in about two-thirds of the first season's episodes, including a brief appearance in the pilot for which Snell went uncredited. To explain why a member of the Strike Team would be missing in action so often, it was established that Mackey often has Gardocki run errands.After Mackey uses a stove
Kitchen stove
A kitchen stove, cooking stove, cookstove, or cooker is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for baking.In the industrialized world, as stoves replaced open...
to burn the face of Armadillo, a violent Mexican drug lord, Armadillo retaliates by doing the same to Gardocki, leaving him on the brink of death. Gardocki survives, but is left permanently disfigured. It is hinted that Gardocki will not return to active duty, and detective Tavon Garris is hired to join the Strike Team. Fellow team member Shane Vendrell is initially resentful towards Garris for taking his spot on the team.
However, Gardocki returns and decides to take a more active role in the Strike Team, particularly in planning out a means for the Strike Team to hijack the Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n mob's "Money Train," a convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
used in a money laundering operation. Gardocki, initially interested in the idea, became a much larger advocate for it after his disfigurement, coming up with an alternate method of stealing the money that bypassed the problems within the original plan.
Gardocki later notices that a large sum of the "Money Train" loot is missing, and openly accuses Mackey and Vendrell of stealing the money. When the real thief is revealed as Vendrell's girlfriend, Gardocki states that it is not safe for any member to use the loot, given that the police are still looking for the identity of the people behind the heist.
Lemansky ultimately burns the remaining money from the robbery, fearing that the team's actions will eventually be discovered. When Lemansky's actions cause tension between him and Vendrell, Gardocki attempts to mediate between the two. However, tensions between the team eventually lead to the team's dissolution. Lemansky and Vendrell are transferred to different divisions, but Gardocki remains as Mackey's partner. When suspicions between Mackey, Gardocki, and Lemansky arise regarding Vendrell's involvement with drug kinpin Antwon Mitchell
Antwon Mitchell
Antwon Mitchell is a fictional character from the FX television show The Shield, portrayed by Anthony Anderson.-Character overview:Mitchell is a former drug lord who, having been released from prison after a lengthy sentence, tried to reinvent himself as an upstanding community activist...
, Gardocki plants a camera in Vendrell's car. The camera captures Mitchell ordering Vendrell to kill Mackey, an act that leads to Mitchell's eventual arrest.
After the Strike Team is re-formed following Mitchell's arrest, Gardocki and the rest of the team are investigated by Internal Affairs
Internal affairs (law enforcement)
The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...
Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh due to their suspected involvement in various crimes. Kavanaugh finds discrepancies in some of the team members' finances (a result of their using money from the "Money Train" heist), but Gardocki escapes suspicion due to careful management of his share of the money. Kavanaugh points out that because of the others, Gardocki may go down for "a mistake you were too smart to make".
Lemansky later becomes a fugitive after Kavanaugh charges him with stealing heroin from a criminal informant's house. On the way to a covert meeting with Lemansky, Gardocki and Mackey are tailed by Kavanaugh's agents. By the time they escape their pursuers and arrive at the rendezvous point, Vendrell had killed Lemansky with a grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
in order to prevent him from giving up evidence on the other members of the Strike Team.
Gardocki begins to suspect Vendrell's involvement in the murder, but is initially unable to find evidence to justify his suspicions. Eventually, Mackey discovers the truth and threatens to kill Vendrell. Vendrell responds by creating a document detailing the various crimes committed by the Strike Team, informing Mackey that the document—containing enough evidence to put Mackey and Gardocki in prison for the rest of their lives – will find its way to the police if Mackey carries out his plans for revenge.
Vendrell approaches Gardocki with an offer to form an alliance against Mackey. When Gardocki declines, Vendrell informs him of Mackey's involvement in the murder of detective Terry Crowley. Gardocki, unmoved because he had long suspected as much, confronts Mackey to demand why he had been left out of the plot. Mackey, however, refuses to admit to the murder in front of Gardocki.
Mackey and Gardocki later discover that Vendrell has informed the Armenians of their involvement in the Money Train heist. The Armenians have vowed to get revenge by killing Mackey, his family, and Gardocki, so Mackey forges a truce with Vendrell in order to deal with the threat. When Gardocki expresses refusal to work with Vendrell, Mackey promises that they will deal with Vendrell after the threat from the Armenians is resolved. Meanwhile, Gardocki is promoted to lead the Strike Team in light of Mackey's upcoming forced retirement. This is done to marginalize Mackey during his final weeks on the job, as Gardocki would be held responsible for any wrongdoing on Mackey's part.
Mackey and Gardocki craft a plan to simultaneously eliminate both Vendrell and the leadership of the Armenian mob. Their plan succeeds in eliminating the Armenians, but Vendrell escapes and realizes he had been set up. Vendrell responds by attempting to murder both Mackey and Gardocki; this too fails, and he is exposed for conspiring to murder his two fellow teammates.
Vendrell flees, increasing pressure on Mackey and Gardocki to eliminate him before he tells the police of their involvement in various crimes. Mackey begins working with ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...
, hoping that in exchange for bringing down a Mexican drug cartel both he and Gardocki will be offered jobs and granted immunity
Prosecutorial immunity
Immunity from prosecution occurs when a prosecutor grants immunity, usually to a witness in exchange for testimony or production of other evidence. It is immunity because the prosecutor essentially agrees to never prosecute the crime that the witness might have committed in exchange for said...
for any crimes committed as members of the Strike Team.
ICE refuses to grant immunity to Gardocki, extending it only to Mackey. In order to secure his own immunity, Mackey is required to confess to the various crimes committed by the Strike Team. Frustrated at her inability to prosecute Mackey for the heinous actions he admits to, ICE agent Olivia Murray tells Mackey that she has enough evidence to send Gardocki to prison for life and will have him arrested after the conclusion of the cartel investigation. Unable to warn Gardocki for fear of voiding his immunity agreement, Mackey lies and tells Gardocki that he successfully secured immunity for both of them.
After the drug cartel is brought down, Gardocki is informed that Vendrell committed suicide and killed his own family in order to avoid arrest. Gardocki is distraught at the news, but relieved that Vendrell will no longer be able to threaten him. Gardocki is shocked shortly thereafter when Claudette gives the signal to Dutch to arrest Ronnie in front of his friend (the exact charges are never stated, though Detective Wagenbach references both the Armenian Money Train robbery along with his decision not to come forward with the revelation that Mackey had murdered Detective Crowley as Ronnie is being handcuffed). Incredulous that Mackey betrayed and lied to him, Gardocki explodes with anger at Mackey as he condemns his former friend's now hypocritical rhetoric about "protecting the team" as well as his preventing Ronnie from fleeing the country several days earlier. Ronnie's demeanor during this scene contrasts greatly with his overall personality throughout the course of the series. As he is dragged away, Claudette orders a distraught Mackey to leave the precinct, having destroyed his friendship with Gardocki once and for all.
Vic Mackey
One of the few elements of Gardocki's background that has been explored is his close friendship with Mackey. The season two episodes "Partners" and "Co-Pilot" established that Gardocki and Mackey met after Mackey's original partner Joe Clark was fired due to excessive force complaints, but before Mackey met and became partners with Vendrell. It was Mackey who brought Gardocki onto the Strike Team after the anti-gang task force was formed.Despite being out of the loop on several deeds, Ronnie's loyalty is established during season two when he is disfigured by a pedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
crime boss who Mackey had similarly disfigured earlier in the season. When the crime boss is arrested, he threatens to file a police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
complaint against Mackey if Gardocki does not recant a statement which identifies the crime boss as his attacker. When Vendrell finds out the details of the situation, Mackey responds that he would turn himself in for his act of police brutality rather than be blackmailed into forcing Gardocki to recant his sworn statement and let the man who disfigured him go free. Mackey is never forced to carry out his vow, as Vendrell arranges for the mob boss to be killed by a disgruntled minion, sparing Vic from having to destroy his career for Ronnie's sake.
Despite his friendship with Mackey, Ronnie has often been kept in dark regarding some of Vic's darker plans. Most notably, Gardocki was not involved in the murder plot against Crowley. In the aftermath of the murder, Mackey and fellow conspirator Vendrell go out of their way to avoid discussing the crime in front of him. After Vendrell's estrangement from the team following his murder of Lemansky, Vendrell reveals the truth about Crowley in order to drive a wedge between the two remaining members of the Strike Team. Gardocki reveals to Mackey that he had long suspected the latter's involvement and that he understood why Mackey did what he did. Furthermore, Gardocki adds that he could have provided Mackey with emotional support after the murder, citing that he would have "looked out for [Mackey] better" than Vendrell did.
At the series' conclusion, Mackey accepts a deal to receive a job with ICE and immunity from any crimes he committed as a member of the Strike Team in exchange for helping to bring down a Mexican drug cartel. He attempts to get Gardocki in on the deal, but ICE refuses. Mackey initially holds out until Gardocki's deal is finalized, but later comes to believe that his ex-wife is in legal trouble for unwittingly assisting Mackey in his illegal actions. Fearful for his ex-wife's immediate future, he agrees to the immunity deal for himself and his ex-wife. As a condition of the deal, he is required to confess to the Strike Team's various illegal actions, implicating Gardocki in a number of them. He lies to Gardocki, telling him that immunity was secured for both of them. In the series finale, Mackey's treachery is revealed when Gardocki is arrested for his crimes, though he does apparently feel guilty for having sold Gardocki out. Despite Gardocki's loyalty, Vic never considered him as close as he did Shane. Ironically, many thought before Vic's betrayal, that Ronnie's low key nature and ability to cover his tracks would allow him to escape the Strike Team's crimes unscathed.
Shane Vendrell
Gardocki's relationship with Vendrell is much more antagonistic. For the first few seasons they were shown to be good friends, albeit not as close as Shane was to the other two. This is evident in a Season one episode when Lem and Shane profit $10000 each from a cockfighting ring, and Shane gives $5000 to Vic, when Lem asks about Ronnie, Shane simply says "Screw Ronnie! He is off the clock". Later episodes would reveal that Vendrell considered Gardocki to be Mackey's "whipping boy", due to the fact that Vic often has Gardocki run errands and leaves him out of major decisions involving the Strike Team.During the events leading to the Strike Team's temporary dissolution, Gardocki became privy to several of Shane's misdeeds. When $7000 of the Money Train cash went missing, Ronnie suspected Shane and chastised Vic for not suspecting Shane sooner. He comes to see Vendrell as a liability who must be watched in case he does anything which could implicate the team members in any wrongdoing. When gang leader Antwon Mitchell orders Vendrell to kill Mackey, Gardocki tells Lemansky that he hopes Mackey kills Vendrell during their next meeting.
Their friendship heals to an extent when the Strike Team re-forms. He is more willing to accept Shane back into the fold than Lemansky. However, after he discovers that Vendrell killed Lemansky and then drafted up a document detailing the team's crimes as part of his scheme to protect himself from reprisals of Mackey, their friendship ends once and for all. Vendrell tries to lure Gardocki away from Mackey's side, but Gardocki remains angry at Shane, refusing to betray Vic or even engage in small talk with when the two are forced to work together on a stakeout.
Gardocki eventually pushes Mackey to deal with Vendrell "once and for all," culminating in Mackey arranging for Vendrell to be murdered along with the leaders of the Armenian Mob. However, when Vendrell informs Mackey that he would be willing to transfer to a new precinct once they cleared themselves of the problems involving the Armenians, Mackey begins having second thoughts about the murder attempt. Vendrell survives the attempt on his life and realizes that Gardocki and Mackey had tried to kill him, leading to Vendrell arranging for Gardocki to be killed, a scheme that fails as well. When he and his family goes on the run, Ronnie fears that if caught they will testify against him and Vic to receive better deals. Despite their antagonism, Gardocki shows a deal of sadness when he discovers that Vendrell killed himself and his family.