Rescue Me: Sheila

I still get a tingly sensation in the pit of my stomach every time I start watching an episode of Rescue Me. I feel like I’ve stumbled onto this great secret that nobody knows about. Though actually, plenty of people know about and love Rescue Me, even if it has yet to get the awards attention it so richly deserves. That better change with this season, because every episode so far just keeps raising the bar. I don’t know how Peter Tolan and Denis Leary do it, frankly. I’m not just talking tv standards here, there are scenes in Rescue Me that are as good as anything I’ve ever seen on the big or small screen. And I’ve seen a lot.

In my review last week I wrote that “Sheila is the hardest character to take on the show because she’s so high-strung and emotionally insane. But she really had nothing to do last season, and so far she hasn’t had much to do this season. I wonder if Denis Leary and Peter Tolan have anything cooked up for her.” That was going to be my one criticism of the show, but I just had to laugh in bewilderment because in this episode, which is called “Sheila,” Leary and Tolan do just that. This episode is all about Sheila, and for the first time in a long time, I felt waves of sympathy for her.

Sheila is on new medication now and she’s trying to let go of her resentment and bitterness toward Tommy and her son Damian. She even tells Damian, after seasons of vehemently forbidding it, that she will support his choice to become a firefighter like his late father Jimmy. The major upset is once again the 9/11 footage that has Jimmy on it. First Lou sees it, proving Tommy isn’t crazy, and then Sheila sees it after Genevieve gives her a copy of the DVD. Callie Thorne shows a whole new side of Sheila and is absolutely phenomenal in the last scene of the episode, which consists of Sheila being interviewed by Genevieve. It’s a five minute scene with very little coverage. It’s basically a five-minute close-up of Thorne as she gives this amazing monologue talking about losing Jimmy and why she got involved with Tommy, etc. It could have been a very maudlin, over-the-top moment (especially given how emotionally turbulent Sheila has always been as a character), but Thorne displays amazing resolve and restraint. It’s a staggering bit of acting that made me see the character in a whole new light.

We also get amazing development with Sean this week. Sean has been complaining about his back and some…um, dysfunction…throughout the season thus far. These health issues have been used only for comic relief, which is usually what Sean provides anyway. So when we see him at the doctor’s office for his back, we’re expecting comedy. So when the doctor tells him that he has discovered that Sean has a malignant tumor on his kidney, it hit me like a ton of bricks to the face. Sean is no longer a vehicle for comic relief. He’s facing the loss of his job and his life. He runs into a colleague right after he gets the news and breaks down. His colleague tells him that he can’t let the FDNY know about his condition or he’ll be taken off duty. Sean marvels at the irony that he most likely got this tumor volunteering at Ground Zero, and now he can’t use his FDNY insurance. I have no idea what’s in store for Sean next. This show is so crazy I swear I wouldn’t rule it out that they’ll kill him off.

The other highlight of the episode is the return of Michael J. Fox as Dwight, Janet’s new, chaotic, paraplegic boyfriend. Tommy comes over to the house to try to figure out what Janet is doing with his youngest daughter Katie, who hasn’t been around (this after Tommy has a nightmare about Katie getting blown up by a suitcase bomb during a terrorist attack). He finds Dwight, and Dwight convinces Tommy to let him take him out for a drink while they wait for Janet to come back. The lengthy scene that follows between Dwight and Tommy-where Tommy learns that he and Dwight actually have a ton in common, including losing their cousins and being haunted by ghosts-is hilarious, surprising, and powerful, three words that typify the show itself.

This episode has definitively moved the season in a darker direction, and I’m foaming at the mouth for more. Rescue Me has done the impossible and topped itself. It’s some of the most incredible television I’ve ever seen.

Season 5, Episode 5: Sheila (originally aired May 5, 2009)

For more on Rescue Me, click here.

Tuesdays at 10pm on FX

Photographs courtesy of FX and IMDbPro