Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach
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Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach is a fictional character on FX Network's hit drama The Shield. He is played by actor Jay Karnes.
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[edit] Character overview
Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach is characterized by many as a socially inept nerd even though he is a successful police detective. Assigned to the Farmington District of Los Angeles, he is often the first called to investigate violent crimes due to his specialization in criminal profiling and serial killers. Dutch deals with these type of criminals that are overlooked by the gang-centric Strike Team. Along with his partner, Detective Claudette Wyms, Dutch is widely considered to be the moral center of the show due to his willingness to do the right thing in spite of the temptation to engage in illegal police activities. Out of all of the characters on "The Shield", Dutch is the one of the few characters that has had details revealed about his personal life. A divorced, middle-aged police detective who was born in the Midwest, Dutch became a police officer mainly as a means to gain the love and approval of his emotionally distant father.
[edit] Relationships with his fellow officers
Dutch is not especially popular around his precinct. Many of his fellow officers consider Dutch to be over-educated and egotistical at best and a "rube" at worst due to the fact that his ex-wife carried on an adulterous affair behind Dutch's back that resulted in her becoming pregnant with her lover's child.
[edit] Relationship with Vic Mackey
Dutch has a very heated rivalry with Detective Vic Mackey. Dutch considers Vic to be nothing more than a brutish thug. This in turn has led to Vic taking the rather public stance that he considers Dutch to be an over-educated elitist.
The two have engaged in several back-and-forth verbal fights over the course of the show, with Vic mocking Dutch's failure with women and Dutch briefly dating Vic's ex-wife Corrine. They very nearly came to fists in the fourth season when Dutch, who had just physically confronted another detective, accidentally hit Vic with a wild punch and was more than willing to escalate the confrontation before the entire incident was neutralized by Claudette.
However, there have been moments of mutual admiration between the two. Towards the end of season one, Dutch was able to successfully get a serial killer who was targeting local prostitutes to confess after a lengthy interrogation with the killer. This resulted in Vic conceding to Dutch that he is as smart as he claims to be and resulted in a truce between the two that lasted until the end of the third season.
Indeed, Dutch may be the only cop in the Barn who truly scares Vic, in terms of his potential to bring the Strike Team down if he ever put his mind towards the goal. This fear of Dutch going after the Strike Team became most notable during the Money Train Heist arc, when Dutch began to close in on the Strike Team for their part in the heist. Vic openly showed fear that Dutch would not stop until he caught the Strike Team and tried to intimidate Dutch into dropping his investigation by threatening to resume his bullying of him, a move that effectively signalled the end to their truce.
Dutch's investigation of the Money Train heist would ultimately trigger the tragic series of events that led to the death of Vic's close friend Detective Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. Dutch informed IAD Lt. John Kavanaugh about his suspicions, and Kavanaugh later used the information to trick Detective Shane Vendrell into thinking Lem had turned traitor against the Strike Team, causing Shane to murder his friend.
[edit] Relationship with Detective Billings
Dutch also has an intense dislike for fellow Detective Steve Billings and the two have come to blows at least once. Billings often humiliates Dutch, but will often turn to Dutch to cover up a mistake or illegal activities (such as purchasing vending machines for the Barn to use inside the precinct in order to turn a profit, which was expressly against department rules). Recently the two were partnered up by new Captain Claudette Wyms on the basis of the fact neither of them were currently assigned a partner, much to Dutch's displeasure. Further complicating things was Claudette openly siding with Billings when Dutch objected to the pairing.
[edit] Relationship with Claudette Wyms
Dutch’s only true friend is his partner, Claudette Wyms. The two have a rather complex and symbiotic relationship: Claudette uses her emphatic touch to counterbalance Dutch's psychological means of solving violent crimes while Dutch is able to keep Claudette grounded emotionally so as to prevent her from allowing her personal grudges and vendettas keep her from seeing the big picture towards their jobs as detectives.
Claudette does share in the criticism of Dutch's ego. Claudette's reaction to this egomania displayed by her partner has been a systematic campaign of mean spirited practical jokes waged against Dutch, including leaving dog manure inside his desk drawers. Only former police captain turned city councilman David Acaveda knows the truth about Claudette being responsible for the pranks, as he casually confronted her about them in the pilot episode. Dutch has taken upon himself to blame Vic Mackey for the pranks, a charge that Vic refuses to acknowledge or deny due to the fact that Mackey secretly takes great joy in watching Dutch blame him for all of his problems.
Because of Claudette’s unwavering determination to do the right thing, no matter the cost, Dutch has at times paid the price for his loyalty. For a time, Dutch found himself subjected to a blacklisting by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, who made it clear to the LAPD that any criminal case that involved Dutch and his partner Claudette would not be prosecuted by the DA's office. As a result, the two were demoted to working minor criminal cases for over six months before Captain Monica Rawlings confronted the DA's office and threatened them into remove the blacklisting of the two officers.
[edit] Relationships with Danny Sofer
Dutch was initially attracted to patrol officer Danny Sofer. Taking advantage of his attraction, Danny manipulated him into helping her attempt to pass an exam that would have resulted in her promotion. After Danny rejected his advances one night after visiting her home to help her prepare for her exam, Dutch lingered long enough to see his nemesis Vic Mackey arrive and passionately kiss Danny. (Dutch's response, "You've got to be shitting me!" quickly became a popular catchphrase for fans of the show and has become a running gag during the show's run used by various characters when they witness something shocking).
Dutch would ultimately call her out on her manipulation in front of the rest of the Barn, when Danny tried to schedule another study session while Dutch was deep in the middle of an investigation of a recently murdered child. Dutch showed a shocking amount of cruelty towards Danny, publicly calling her a selfish, manipulative tramp and mocking her for the insensitivity she was showing by asking him to help her while he was investigating the murder of a child. The two would eventually settle their differences and apologize to one other for their mutual bad behavior. The two have remained close friends as Dutch has continued to mentor Danny unofficially.
[edit] Relationship with Tina Hanlon
Dutch was openly attracted to Tina Hanlon since she began her duty at the Barn, much in the same way he was attracted to Danny. He would come to her defense on several occasions where her inexperience resulted in mistakes and offered his services as a mentor to her. When semi-nude photographs of Tina began circulating around the Barn, Dutch personally began to investigate the source. Much to his surprise, Acting Captain Steve Billings had installed a security camera in the locker room and had carelessly left the photos on his desk where they were stolen by several of Hanlon's fellow patrol officers. Billings, who knew of Dutch's attraction to Tina, begged Dutch to help him cover up the potential scandal before Tina could file a possible sexual harassment suit against the department. Ultimately, he pushed a plan to have Dutch begin mentoring Tina and having Danny and Officer Julien Lowe's attempt have Tina dismissed from the force overruled in exchange for her silence on the photos. When Claudette found out about the deal upon becoming Captain, she quickly tried to negate the deal Billings had reached. But upon realizing that doing so could potentially destroy Dutch's career as well, the arrangement was allowed to stay. Realizing from a form of "education" he had been given previously that day, this deal he had negotiated might make Tina smug. So Dutch then told the rookie cop that she would not be given special treatment and that she would have to prove she was worth Dutch giving up his time to mentor.
[edit] Relationship with Corrine Mackey
Dutch has also dated Corrine Mackey, ex-wife of Vic Mackey, for a period of time during the fourth season. The two dated behind Vic's back and despite the innocent nature of their relationship, Vic accused Dutch of dating his ex-wife just to spite him. When Corrine confronted Dutch about this accusation, Dutch commented that spiting Vic played a small part in his pursuing her but that he saw that she was doing the same thing as well. The two have since stopped dating, but have remained close friends, much to Vic's horror. When Corrine found herself becoming a target of Lt. John Kavanaugh's IAD investigation of the Strike Team, Corrine turned to Dutch for advice. Dutch told her to just tell the truth, a move that led to Corrine revealing to Kavanaugh that Vic gave her $65,000 several months prior to take care of their special needs kids. Dutch also suggested to Corrine that she do whatever possible to curry favor with Kavanaugh, on the belief that her cooperating would lead to Kavanaugh being willing to not follow through with his threats to indict Corrine as an accomplice to her husband's crimes. This move however backfired and only further angered Kavanaugh, who made it clear to Corrine that she would help Kavanaugh because she has no choice due to her being powerful leverage that Kavanaugh had over Vic.
[edit] Relationship with Jon Kavanaugh
Dutch's relationship with IAD Lt. Jon Kavanaugh was also complicated when Kavanaugh forced Dutch to help him investigate the rape of Kavanaugh's ex-wife. In spite of Kavanaugh using bullying tactics to force Dutch to obey his demands, Dutch did seem willing to help Kavanaugh's investigation of Vic and the Strike Team. It was Dutch who alerted Kavanaugh towards the Money Train Heist and Vic's involvement in the robbery. He personally offered to hand over to Kavanaugh his personal notes outlining the evidence he uncovered linking the Strike Team with the heist but the relationship turned sour when Dutch learned that Kavanaugh's ex-wife, Sadie, had a history of mental illness. Kavanaugh reacted violently towards Dutch bringing up the subject when he casually asked why Kavanaugh had refused to share such important information to him, throwing him against the bathroom wall.
When Dutch ultimately realized that Sadie had faked being raped, Kavanaugh refused to believe him and ordered him to continue to work over a local sex offender Sadie had identified as her attacker. Though Kavanaugh ultimately was forced to realize Dutch was right about his wife faking her sexual assault, Dutch has yet to follow through with his offer to assist Kavanaugh as a result of his negative experience working with him.
[edit] Dark side
Because of his unhappy childhood and his treatment as a pariah amongst his fellow detectives, it has been shown that Dutch carries around a great deal of anger which he keeps bottled up inside him. Often, when he has been put through a great deal of stress or frustration, Dutch has been known to unleash these darker urges often in very public outbursts.
In the first season, Dutch thoroughly interrogates and psychoanalyses a serial killer, who then with great effectivenesses does the same to Dutch, pointing out his lonely and awkward nature. While Dutch eventually gets his confession, and also recieves great accolades from the other officers including Vic for the effort, he is seen breaking down and crying as soon as he gets in his car at the end of the episode, and it seems the things said about him deeply hurt him.
Dutch's dark side became most notable during season three in a controversial sequence where Dutch kills a stray cat, partly because its caterwauling was constantly keeping him awake but mostly to see how it felt to murder another living thing. This act was influenced by Dutch's interrogations of the "cuddler rapist," a serial offender who initially sexually assaulted senior citzens and eventually graduated to murder.
[edit] Future at "The Barn"
Dutch has often forgone possible promotions to be able to stay partnered with Claudette. He once turned down a chance to replace Monica Rawling as Captain of the Barn because of his loyalty to her and partly out of the later validated belief that his superiors only offered the job to him because they felt that Dutch was spineless and as a result, controllable.
He also turned down an offer to transfer to the LAPD "Robbery-Homicide" division, which Dutch commented once was his dream assignment. He later learned however, that the offer was negotiated by Claudette, who wanted to get rid of Dutch so that he would not have to worry about his partner, who had long suffered from lupus and had recently experienced a debilitating flare-up.
When Claudette fell down a flight of stairs at the Barn and her condition suddenly became public knowledge amongst the higher ups at the department, Claudette furiously accused Dutch of being the one who told them. However, it was Billings who had revealed the information instead and though she later apologized, their relationship would never be the same. Dutch would request a transfer a few days later, partly because his new assignment with Billings but also because he was no longer with his long term partner. However, his transfer was denied in the wake of Lemansky's murder, with Claudette stating “I need my best detective on this.”
