Grid Effect

Let me be completely honest here, there was no reason for us to wait an entire week to post this review. The only reason this is the practice for dramas is to serve as a refresher for the new episode on the same night. Obviously, this isn’t necessary for season/series finales. There are occasions when we do not adjust for finales, look at The Sopranos this year, of course we wrote two posts targeting specific issues in the final episode, but the actual recap was a week later, in order to keep schedule, and the fact there was so much to add to it, other than just a simple recap. So, one would think that we detested this finale. And one couldn’t be further from the truth.

But we’re actually just lazy, and found it immensely enjoyable. No, Tommy didn’t wake up from a coma and prove this season to be nothing more than an illustration of his subconscious (though we’re still not ruling that out), but several of the subplots were answered, the Gavin family stayed primarily sober (even at a fucking baseball game that included Teddy), black Sean and Colleen are mutually getting back at Tommy (this story could really go either way, they could be genuinely interested in one another, they could be on different plains or they could both be using each other), Franco executed probably the best revenge I’ve ever seen, Callie Thorne brought the house down with her pitch-perfect crazy-dramatic acting, Janet looks like she’s out of the picture for good, Lieu reconciled with his cousin and, last but not least, Pa Gavin died in the middle of a baseball game. Honestly, this is Rescue Me, did anyone think a significant death wouldn’t occur?

That last scene at the minor league baseball game, where Tommy seems to be having the first wholesome fun with his dad in years, really brought home how miserable many of these characters lives have been, particularly Pa’s. He’s an alcoholic, has a second family against his better judgement, treated his wife with nothing but disdain while she was alive, the felt nothing but heartache when she died, spent his twilight years trying to repent and frightened of his own mortality. He’s one of the more tragic figures on television, and now he’s gone. It’s a damn shame to, Charles Durning was handily the best dramatic actor in the cast. Given his age, that had to be an emotional scene for him.

It seemed obvious something significant was going to happen at that baseball game. For one, the 11pm marker was fastly approaching, then Lieu went off on his baseball-as-a-metaphor-for-life tangent, and either Tommy was going to snap out of his coma, or someone was going to get plugged in the head with a foul ball, or Pa Gavin was going to die spontaneously. There seems to be mixed reviews about said speech. Personally, it did seem a little aimless and sloppy, and felt like to could have been better constructed, but it was delivered well by John Scurti and after dissecting it, it does seem to make more sense. But the metaphor is a tired one (Field of Dreams has been referenced twice this season, given me all the more reason to believe Tommy might actually be dead), and could have probably used a rewrite.

The only other real dramatic were all the rumors that Sheila’s dead husband had been walking around the firehouse and been spotted in the field (i.e. at fires). This, as we know, is Tommy walking around in his dead cousins jacket with no explanation as to why. But bviously if he didn’t tell anyone in the house, Tommy isn’t going to inform Sheila about his prank (which is essentially all it is). This really re-emphasized how much Sheila misses her passed husband and that she is still grieving, it was borderline heartbreaking to watch her fret over not getting a visit from him because she slept with Tommy, when Tommy is the one pulling the hoax. Also, on a shallow note, when I saw Callie Thorne naked in the first season of The Wire, it was probably one of the five greatest days of my life. So my assessment of her capacity for acting might be somewhat biased. Just sayin’.

As for all the less emotionally tolling subplots, Franco putting Natalie’s mind at ease about being patient with her decision making process after discovering she lied to him, then marrying Richie to the girl in the wheelchair against Natalie’s wishes was absolutely hilarious. Sure, some might call it immature, some might even call it inconsiderate, manipulative, jealous and downright evil. But on this website we call it a dish best served cold. What was he supposed to do? Wait for her to decide if she wants to get back together with him? After being dumped on a whim for another guy, then asked to watch her mentally challenged brother so she could see if she wants to move to Chicago with another guy (though claiming she is interviewing for jobs)? I thinks not.

The black Sean-Colleen storyline is one with a lot of promise. Tommy’s reaction to it should be impeccably comedic and frightening, and since this is Rescue Me, it’s going to turn out ugly for one of them. I’m hoping it’s for Sean, because all logic would point to Colleen getting the short end of the stick on this one.

Tommy’s love life, for once, wasn’t in dominating focus, which probably explains why I enjoyed this episode so much. We saw him restraining himself physically with Janet, when in every similar situation in episodes past, he has succumbed to temptation (her to). It seemed like the sobriety is working well on him, because he wisely walked out the door. He then went back and pulled the caveman stunt with Gina Gershon (Valerie), where he all but forced her into some lingerie, took off his overshirt and sat at a table in a wife beater reading a newspaper, demanding she cook him a steak. It was all to similar to Pete Campbell’s hunting fantasy in Mad Men, only he didn’t slaughter the cow himself.

So there it is, no word on whether or not there will be a fifth season, but this finale left open many loose and intriguing ends. In my opinion, it helped salvage some mediocre work from Tolan and Leary, and opened up the window for some damage control. In short, here’s hoping this precludes there best work yet. If you think about how similar the parallels are to this and a series Leary most likes to model his own after, The Sopranos, its eerily similar (though I’m sure not coincidental). And for my money, I’ll take the fifth season of Chase’s saga over any other season he did.

Actually, I’m going to compare and contrast the two series’ similarities either today or tomorrow. Stay tuned.