Last week’s episode of ‘Rescue Me’ ended with Jerry suffering a severe heart attack and Johnny getting shot multiple times in the back. This week’s episode pretty much picks up right where they left off. We learn right away that Johnny is dead. Tommy gets the call as do the rest of the friends and family. It’s a gut-wrenching sequence of everyone hearing the news with sad but not-overdone music playing through the scene.
Tommy drives as fast as he can to be with Janet and the kids. Meanwhile the guys are at the firehouse wondering where Jerry is because he’s two hours late at the firehouse. Where’s Jerry? Still on the floor where he collapsed, that’s where! Carleen really did leave him there on the floor and didn’t bother to leave even an anonymous call to 911 to get him help.
Tommy and Lou go to break the news to Mr. Gavin and the rest of the guys go to see where Jerry is. When the guys find Jerry, he’s still alive but the heart attack was indeed severe. Tommy and Lou break the news to Tommy’s dad. After taking a minute to let the news settle in, he tells Tommy that he wants the wake to be upbeat with people wearing bright colors and celebrating Johnny’s life.
When Tommy and Lou get back home, Tommy listens to his messages on his answering machine and there’s a message from Johnny. This is one of those things that rarely happens in real life – when someone dies unexpectedly but somehow managed to say all of the things they needed to say in some way (a note, an email, a voicemail, etc). So yeah, its unlikely but it worked none-the-less. In the message, Johnny apologizes to Tommy about everything and tells him he loves him.
The cops caught the guy who shot Johnny. The guy looked pretty young (late teens, early 20s). The cops let Tommy have some alone time with the in an interrogation room. Tommy uncuffs him and asks the guy how much he was paid to kill Johnny. The kid says $8000. Tommy figures that’s about $200 for each year of his brother’s life. He takes all the money out of his pocket and asks the guy how many years about $80 would be. The kid can’t do the math and that temporarily frustrates Tommy. He then makes the kid stand up and bend over the table with his butt in the air. He tells the kid to get used to that position when he’s in prison and leaves.
Tommy and Janet go to the funeral home to view the body. At first, Tommy is consoling Janet but then he takes a minute to talk to Johnny’s body. He wonders out loud to Johnny if he got the message he left him. When they get Johnny’s belongings, they check his voicemail and the message from Tommy wasn’t listened to. Janet and Tommy listen to the message Tommy left for his brother telling him he’s sorry for everything and that he still loves Janet. Janet saves the message.
At the funeral, Tommy sees all of his “ghosts”. Stack, Jimmy and Conner all appear. Then a blonde woman shows up and at first I’m wondering if this woman is another random unknown ghost but then Tommy elbows Maggie. Maggie sees the woman and signs to her “Rosemary, I f***ing love you!”. Rosemary signs back and then Tommy’s signing. Garrity is facing his back towards Rosemary but sees Maggie signing and he signs to her. For a minute everyone’s signing and its pretty funny (in context seeing as there’s a priest conducting the funeral during all of this).
We learn that Rosemary is Tommy and Maggie’s “long lost sister”. Because she was deaf, their parents basically sent her off to private school and never spoke to her again. Rosemary can speak ok and sign and appears to be able to read lips. When Mr. Gavin approaches her, he immediately apologizes for everything and asks her how to sign “I’m sorry”. She responds by hugging him.
Just as the funeral is breaking up, Maggie and Garrity decide to get married right there in the cemetery. The priest agrees for a fee of $500. It seems sort of fitting that this train wreck of a marriage should begin in a cemetery. When he asks them what their new last name is, they both say Gavin-Garrity/Garrity-Gavin. The priest pronounces them Mr. and Mrs. Gavity.
At the post funeral party, we learn a bit more about this Rosemary character. She talks to Tommy about living in San Diego with her boyfriend and being happy. She tells Tommy that it was he (Tommy) who told her how easy being happy is and that love is the key. Tommy takes all of this in and then looks over to Janet who is dancing with their daughter. Just then, Sheila dances up to him and tells him she bought the house. Tommy wants to talk to her alone. They try to find a room and end up walking in on Garrity and Maggie consummating their marriage in the kids’ bunk beds. They go to another room and find Probie “just talking” with the priest. Finally they find an empty room and Tommy tells Sheila that he wants to leave the FDNY and be with her.
In other news, Natalie and Franco are getting along swimmingly once again until Natalie looks closer at a picture of Keela and notices that she bears a striking resemblance to her. She thinks its interesting but Franco gets freaked out about it. He tells Natalie he loves her but Natalie tells him he needs to figure out this Keela situation before they can be together.
Uncle Teddy goes for another visit with his wife but she’s too distraught about Johnny’s death to want to get it on. After this, Uncle Teddy begs his lawyer to get him out of prison. He wants out of jail and out of his marriage.
The chief wakes up in the hospital all disoriented but seems like he might be ok. Lou and his nun-girlfriend agree to get the boat and retire from nunhood/firemanhood together.
That’s about the long and short of it for this week’s episode. The season finale will air next week. We should find out then if Tommy will retire from the FDNY and run off with Sheila or if he’ll patch things up with Janet (again). It seems like all of the guys are considering leaving the gang. Franco’s got his lieutenants exam, Jerry’s recovering (hopefully) from his heart attack, Lou’s planning to go live on a boat and Probie’s trying to transfer. That pretty much just leaves Garrity but who knows what his marriage to Maggie is going to do to him.
