Grid Effect

Not exactly the follow-up most of us were looking for to one of Rescue Me’s better episodes in a while.

Predictably, as I’m sure you heard, Tommy did not kill his non-biological son. But the leap-of-faith had already been taken and soured the audience. Never-the-less, I give them credit for not completely ruining the show and just having Tommy sell his child to Sheila. Which, ultimately, is probably the best thing for Elvis (Sheila’s chosen name, I would have preferred to stick with Capernious, the name Grid Effect deigned him). Still, who the hell sells kids? Regardless of blood relations. Has Queens turned into North Korea?

Anyhow, outside of Tommy dealing with the fallout with his Janet, and Franco being torn between his loyalties to his daughter and Natalie, this episode was fairly low on the dramatics. But outside of Kenny it wasn’t particularly funny, hence the problem.

For starters, Janet ran over Tommy with her car with their daughter in the backseat. Not only is this a traumatizing moment for the kid, but a potentially deadly one for Tommy. Then for her to open her door and turn around to say, “I wasn’t driving fast enough” after Tommy said, “You could have killed me” is just too idiotic. It isn’t a feather pillow you’re hitting him with, Janet, it’s two tons of steel. People have died from a lot less. This is after she hit him with a frying pan during a scuffle in the kitchen. Classy. I think next week they accidentally tip over a trailer while arguing inside of it.

Of course this led to that unseemly hallucination scene with Tommy taking an axe to his walls. That was interesting. It seems that a lot of trouble in Tommy’s life stems from his inability to cope with death, of his friends, family and coworkers. But scenes like this are almost too grating. It did drive him to consume alcohol again, so I guess that’s a plot point.

Franco having to be lectured by Susan Sarandon about what he wanted in his relationship with Natalie like he was ten years old was kind of annoying. Honestly, is anyone that emotionally stunted? Also, it didn’t really seem like Franco was making the compelling of a case for why he proposed to Natalie, “I think she might be the one…she’s really cool” are not exactly ringing endorsements for someone you plan on marrying. But for now, that looks like the path he’s been talked into. One does have to admire he was considering marrying Sarandon just to appease his daughter, regardless of how short-sighted it is. I mean, she did kidnap his daughter in the first place.

Amy Sedaris (of Stangers with Candy fame) had a small cameo in this episode, as the quirky, talkative daughter of the new house captain, Hesh (as he was known on Sopranos, at least), but known on this show as Chief Feinberg. This led to a battle of wills between Kenny and Tommy as to who would take her on a date. In one of the more ambiguous endings this show has had, Tommy pulls some guy from a burning building while trying to ditch Sedaris on their date, only to have Gina Gershon, whom he was eyeing in the restaurant, come up and stuff her number in his shirt pocket. No word as to whether or not we’ll see Sedaris again. Maybe that’s who Kenny will end up having kids with.

Other notes:

-Mike is lonely

-Sean is going to try and rekindle his marriage with Maggie. Why? No idea.

Not that I’m not entertained by the series, but I’m certainly not interested in any of the running subplots. They seem to still be making it up as they go along, with no logical conclusion in site. I’ll still continue to watch because I’m a cheap whore, apparently, but it has nothing to do with Rescue Me still consistently being gripping drama.