Jon Kavanaugh
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| The Shield character | |
 |
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| Jon Kavanaugh | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Black/bald |
| Profession | Police officer |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Position | Internal affairs |
| Current status | Investigating Strike Team |
| Known relatives | Sadie (Ex-wife) |
| Portrayed by | Forest Whitaker |
| First appearance | Episode 5.1 |
Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh is a fictional character from the FX Networks television show The Shield, played by Forest Whitaker.
Contents |
[edit] Kavanaugh's career before the investigation
Kavanaugh is an internal affairs officer determined to take down the Strike Team using any means at his disposal. He has degrees in both criminology and psychology, and frequently plays mind games with people under surveillance to find out what their motivations are.
[edit] Family history
Kavanaugh was once married to a woman named Sadie (played by Gina Torres), but the two have since divorced as a result of her serious mental disorders and his own unwillingness to care for her. Despite this, he continues to wear his wedding ring and is still in love with her. She once faked a rape and reported it to the police as a means of bringing her and Kavanaugh back together. However, this would result in Kavanaugh charging her with filing a false report and remanding her to a state psychiatric ward. Sadie has since killed all hopes of reconciliation by sleeping with Vic Mackey and refusing to allow him into her home.
[edit] Investigation of the Strike Team
His initial investigation has him going after Vic Mackey through Vic's teammate, Lem, and Vic's wife, Corrine. However, Corrine became suspicious of his behavior and later identified him as a police officer. She would assist him in his investigation as per instructions from Vic. Lem would wear a wire to allow Kavanaugh to conduct surveillance and soon discovered a plot to traffic pharmaceutical drugs and to take illegal money under the table. When it appeared the deal had gone through and that the team had committed murder, Kavanaugh's task force struck and handcuffed the team. But instead of a crime scene, Kavanaugh discovered that he had unwittingly destroyed a sting operation. Humiliated, Kavanaugh privately destroyed a hotel room in his anger.
Now determined to put the team away, Kavanaugh sets up shop in "The Barn", and widens the investigation to include Councilman David Aceveda as a connection to Vic Mackey and The Strike Team. During a raid on a Salvadorian grenade factory, Lem heroically saved Kavanaugh from an active grenade tossed in his direction by rushing to grab the grenade and throwing it away from Kavanaugh seconds before it exploded. Kavanaugh responded to this act of selfless bravery by continuing to pressure Lem into turning against the Strike Team. Lem sharply refused to turn his back on his friends as Vic confronted Kavanaugh's cold treatment towards Lem, who could have easily let Kavanaugh be killed by the grenade but had risked his life to save him.
However, the raid had come during Kavanaugh's meeting with his wife. Vic and Lem entered the security monitor room to have a private conversation only to see via the monitors, a rather private conversation between Kavanaugh and Kavanaugh's distraught, mentally ill ex-wife. Viewing their disturbingly private moment on the closed-circuit television, Vic remarked that they had found Kavanaugh's weakness. Kavanaugh eventually noticed the security camera in the room and the possibility that his conversation with his wife was being observed by his enemies led him to rush out of the interrogation room. While Vic and Lem fled the room before Kavanaugh could catch the two red-handed, the now enraged Kavanaugh ordered that Lem be arrested for possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Lem was handcuffed in front of his fellow officers, placed in lockup with other criminals, processed, and sent to a detention center.
Kavanaugh would make a deal with Antwon Mitchell to use his knowledge of the Strike Team in order to imprison them. He subsequently had the Strike Team's assets frozen, and those of Vic's ex-wife Corrine, to prevent them from being able to pay Lem's bail, which was eventually paid using stolen money by the Team's old friend, Smitty.
[edit] The investigation collapses
Despite all of his maneuvering, Kavanaugh's investigation would be destroyed by external factors. In a move to seal the rest of the team off from prosecution, Lem pled guilty to theft under color of authority to serve 18 months before parole of a 5 year sentence. The Department, having lost their patience with Kavanaugh due to rising complaints from the Barn plus there seemingly being no resolution to his case, accepted and gave him 48 hours to complete his investigation. Combined with the humiliation of Sadie having a one night stand with Vic, Kavanaugh appeared to be broken.
[edit] Kavanaugh's final charge
However, when Lem did not report for processing, Kavanaugh is overjoyed to be given one final chance to try and take down Vic. Thinking (correctly) that the team was harboring Lem, he attempts to have the Strike Team arrested for aiding a fugitive. He has the team monitored at all times and even has Aceveda leak false information to Vic that Lem had in fact turned on the team to further accelerate their timetable and hopefully cause them to make a mistake.
Kavanaugh also pursues an investigation against Antwon Mitchell and confronts the gangster, enraging him to the point where Antwon swears he'll have Lem killed if he's sent to prison, showing how dark and brutal Kavanaugh had become in his obsession with the Strike Team.
Kavanaugh has the team trailed when they are to meet Lem, but is unable to follow all three of them. His tails are eventually shaken, but Kavanaugh soon receives a phone call that Lem has been killed by a grenade, presumably by the El Salvadorian Mob. When the body is discovered and Kavanaugh and Mackey are face to face once more, Kavanaugh demands to know if Vic is happy, causing a brawl at the scene of the crime.
[edit] The aftermath
With Lem now dead and his reputation soiled, Kavanaugh is ordered by Chief Johnson to leave the Barn and allow the investigation into Lem's murder to proceed. Kavanaugh requests time to look into Vic's potential involvement into the crime, as part of a possible motive in Lem's murder. Chief Johnson grudgingly gives Kavanaugh 24 hours to write a report for consideration. However, upon arriving at the Barn, word leaks out to Vic about Kavanaugh's involvement, inciting another brawl. The fight is broken up, but was witnessed by Johnson and Captain Wyms. Kavanaugh is ordered to leave the Barn immediately, his investigation apparently over. Desperate to finish his vendetta against Vic, Kavanaugh creates a story in front of Claudette and Johnson that Emolia was charged by Vic to have Lem murdered, granting him a temporary reprieve.
After coaching Emolia on the story, who agrees to follow the story in exchange for witness protection, she testifies to Claudette and Johnson about the false details of the story given to her. Kavanaugh is authorized to investigate Vic's involvement, and Kavanaugh begins by ordering officers to await Vic at his home to take him in for questioning. In addition, Kavanaugh plants several pieces of evidence in Vic's house, hoping to solidify the murder charge.
However, Kavanaugh senses that not everyone has bought into his creation. After hearing Emolia's testimony, Dutch expresses skepticism about the validity into her story and requests highway footage to check if Kavanaugh really did meet Emolia at the meeting place he specified. In an attempt to protect Emolia's credibility, Kavanaugh requests that Dutch be removed from the investigation, citing that Dutch's relationship with Vic may result in a conflict of interest.
