Rescue Me: Hot Lunch

Last week brought us a lot of laughter, and this week brought us…eh, quite a bit less. All that foreshadowing doesn’t really pay off, and I admit, I feel let down.

We begin after another successful night at the bar, as the crew heads to Scores … for the food … leaving their bag of $8,000 cash along with the dirty dishes. Everyone throws in money to donate to cancer, along with a slice of the profit. Sean offers to clean up and handle the money and donation, and we wonder if he’ll be making that donation towards his own very specific kind of cancer, that of the kidneys whose treatment he cannot pay for. However, Tommy overrules him, as he offers to clean up. The good news: Tommy’s not looking to drown himself in cash. The bad news: Er, good-bye Sobriety!

Finally alone, he has a drink. Just one, because he can control it. But then two when he starts receiving visitors, in the forms of Jimmy, Johnny, and his father, followed shortly by a coked-out version of his son, Connor. Together, they gang up on Tommy for his cowardice during 9/11, but Tommy maintains that he was worried about Jimmy – if nothing else, he knows and has confidence in his ability to handle fire emergencies.  It’s marriage and family he’s afraid of. And also, incredibly angry over a father who dealt poorly with his own post-war stress. Since the dead folks all have a good laugh at Tommy’s expense, and Connor tries to kill him while robbing the bar, Tommy ends up with a shotgun and starts shooting at his hallucinatory audience – only to come face to face – or rather, gun barrel to face – with a real life Lou who came to check up on him. That’s a little chilling, especially if you’re Lou and you’ve just watched your best friend, drunk, yelling and shooting up a bar with nobody else in it.

So, Lou, naturally, sits Tommy down to feed him more booze. Because he likes Drunk Tommy, because Drunk Tommy is funny. Well, you know. We all go by our own moral guides I guess. Pass a drink to an alcoholic, don’t turn in an old lady dealing meds. I guess it could happen. Over this drink, Tommy apologizes to Lou for those nasty comments, and Lou forgives him. But doesn’t apologize back for his comments. He then presents Genevieve’s note and drops the news about sleeping with her. Though Tommy’s dumbfounded reaction is certainly funny … really? That’s it? I thought we could get at least a phone call to Genevieve out of this.

In other news, Lou and les convince Franco to accept them as coaches and join the NYFD boxing team.  Still working the VA hospital, Uncle Teddy receives a second request to play the Grim Reaper, and this time, may have accidentally agreed to do it.

As for Sean & Shawn, the first one misses work with the “flu,” then passes out in his bathroom peeing blood. He spends the rest of the episode off camera in the hospital. No one seems alarmed, especially when Franco suggests the problem is merely gonorrhea thatFranco’sneverhadexcepttheoneandahalftimeshedidhaveit. Ahem. Black Shawn also remains off camera, still in hiding over his relationship with Colleen. Tommy breaks it to the crew that he’s known about the couple, but he assumes that Shawn’s unhappy that Colleen is bad in bed, when the truth is, Shawn’s unhappy because she’s so much better in bed than he is. Well, that’s what reading Cosmopolitan does for a girl. I mean, I’ve heard.

Anyway, our final storyline goes to Mike and Damien, who bond as Mike reveals that he’s taken guitar and voice lessons, and has his own band, Hot Lunch. Damien then educates us all on what “Hot Lunch” is, and if you think I’m providing a link to either a YouTube video or Urban Dictionary definition, you’re out of your mind. If I say, Cleveland Steamer, I hope that helps because that’s all you’re getting. Needless to say, I think the band’s name is going to change. Damien hangs around the firehouse, upsetting Tommy for reasons that also include a mandatory visit by Sheila. I’m as offended as Tommy, because how annoying is she in this scene? Answer: Very. Also, Tommy doesn’t like how comfortable and cocky Damien’s feeling.

And then – fire alarm! Damien begs his way onto the truck for a ride to the fire, and Feinberg allows it. There, after the two-alarm fire appears to have been put out, Damien begs Mike to let him in to check the place out, including the dead bodies. Nice, kid. Like the fool that he is, Mike suits Damien up and escorts him in, all undercover-like. Then he hides Damien from Tommy by throwing him into a back room on the second floor. Except a pocket of fire explodes, and Damien becomes trapped. We cut to black as Tommy angrily throws Mike down the stairs and runs back to save Damien.

Spoiler alert? We know everything’s fine because no one’s going to a funeral in next week’s previews. So, I would assume that Tommy’s quick reaction to run in and save Damien is merely to show how unafraid he is of fires and death, in an unconscious defense of his arguments with his father, Jimmy and Johnny at the top of this episode. If not, I hope this sudden development with Damien goes somewhere interesting. As for the rest of this week’s action, I’m disappointed by how nothing seemed to pay off, from the initial visions to Lou’s revelation about Genevieve. Maybe, as in most developments with this show, these are more baby steps in a larger storytelling arc. Until then…

Next week: Dwight returns, and Tommy’s a ladies’ man. Oh. Yeah.

Season 5, Episode 8: Iceman (originally aired May 26, 2009)

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Tuesdays at 10pm on FX

Photographs courtesy of FX and IMDbPro