“Rescue Me” – 8/15/07

Show opens with Mikey calling the squad room. He’s home recuperating from an injured knee from when the fire truck ran into a car carrying the woman with tomato soup all over her chest. He’s lonesome and depressed and asks Sean and Franco to stop by and see him, but they give him some excuse not to. Tommy calls Valerie (Gina Gershon) who put her business card in his pocket when he was out with Chief Feinberg’s daughter. She says come over right NOW! She doesn’t want a date, food or drink. Valerie comes into the room, shoves him into a chair, jumps on him and they have sex. She then throws herself on a bean bag chair and screams at him not to touch her as it takes her 2 hours to recover. She says she might be able to blow him in half an hour, but nothing else. He stumbles out the door as he’s pulling his pants up. What is it with Tommy? He keeps hooking up with nutcases. He should keep his pants zipped for a while . . . a long while. Tommy’s having some hard times and will probably continue to do so unless he cleans up his act.

Tommy and family hold intervention at his apartment for Maggie and Uncle Teddy. When Maggie arrives, she asks what’s happening, and when she hears it’s an intervention for her, she’s ecstatic and yells, “I’ll do it! I’m tired of this shit . . . wakin’ up God knows where, with God knows who, havin’ done God knows what, feelin’ like an atomic bomb went off inside my skull. I’m finished! Box me up and ship me to rehab!” Everyone finally decides there are enough drunks right there in the family, so they’ll hold their own AA meetings 3 times a week . . . so no rehab.

Franco cooks dinner for Natalie and tells her she was right to make him go see Alicia now that she’s back in town. It made him realize he loves Natalie more. Natalie says, “More?” He tries to get around that, but she kicks him out. Engagement off.

Tommy clears out of apartment, leaving his family pictures in a bag on the floor and throwing his keys on the floor as he walks out. Why didn’t he take the pictures? He moves into a dirty apartment and pays rent for a year. Then he walks to hockey game between the NYPD and FDNY which is the 1st Annual John Gavin Memorial Scholarship Game. Tommy’s playing with the cops for his dead brother, John, and the FDNY guys are out to get him. But Tommy comes out on top and wins the game. During game, Mikey calls Franco and asks him to come over later. He says he’s taken a few pills and is drinking vodka. Franco says he can’t because he’s moving in with Black Sean. Mikey can’t understand why he wouldn’t move in with him. The guys ask Franco how Mikey is, and he says, “Still gay.” Those guys can be so heartless without even realizing it

Katie, Tommy’s daughter, goes to see Sheila who lets her hold Elvis which is the baby’s new name. Katie runs out with Elvis and jumps into waiting car and Janet drives off with Sheila running behind screaming, “That’s my baby! He hates you!”

Chief Feinberg calls Tommy into his office and chews him out for the way he treated Beth on their date. Tommy didn’t even touch her, and that’s what makes the chief angry. He’s a real dick around Tommy and always on him. Speaking of dick, it’s known that he has a very large penis and seems to be always zipping himself up when the guys see him. I don’t like him and would like to see him removed.

Sheila calls Tommy and tells him to get her baby back right away. She’s out of her head and screaming. That’s when Tommy finds out the name of the baby.

The crew goes to a fire, and Tommy goes into burning building when it was too risky. But he makes it out with a guy on his back that he saved. Feinberg is watching and not liking it. He chews Tommy out later in front of everyone. He tells him not to pull a Steve McQueen ever again. Sean asks Lou, “Who is Steve McQueen?” and Lou smacks him over the head. Lou and Franco go to Feinberg’s office to talk to him about solidarity and everyone getting along. As they go in, Feinberg is pulling up his pants, fastening his belt and zipping up! What’s with this guy? Franco and Lou stumble out without saying a word.

Janet calls Tommy and says she needs money for Wyatt – baby’s name. So baby has two names now. Tommy says not until she gives baby back to Sheila, but she says no and hangs up. In the meantime, Mikey goes on crutches to roof where he looks over edge, contemplating suicide. He goes back downstairs and tries to slit his wrists in the bathtub, but he drops the razor blade and cuts his butt as he tries to get out of tub. He then calls Tommy and says he’s cracking up, missing his mom and asks Tommy to come over. Tommy rushes over and sees blood on Mikey’s pants and says, “If you try to commit suicide, you cut your wrists, not your ass.” Tommy grabs him, drags him up to roof and makes him show him where he was going to jump. Mikey sits on roof floor and Tommy sits on ledge and drinks the vodka, asking Mikey for a cigarette. Tommy gets very philosophical, talking about how parents are supposed to die before their children as Mikey’s mother did. He talks about 9/11 and how so many parents had to bury their children which isn’t right. He talks about Connor, his little boy, who was killed by a drunken driver, and says he’ll never get over that. He drinks some more and then puts the bottle down and asks Mikey to step on his cigarette which he drops on the floor. As Mikey is looking down at the cigarette, Tommy stands up and falls forward off the ledge! When Mikey looks up, Tommy’s gone. He looks over ledge and sees Tommy part way down on something that caught his fall. He says he’s all right. I don’t know what he fell on, but it’s breaking away from the building as he’s speaking. Tommy recites the Lord’s Prayer as he waits for help. I think Tommy’s having a meltdown or will be soon. Too many people are taking too much of him, and he’s not making the right decisions for himself. Let’s hope he gets things together very soon. I think he could use another date with Beth – she was a real fruitcake, but so funny! He could use some funny.