Rescue Me: Season 7, Episode 9 “Ashes” (B+)
As Franco says, all good things (must come to an end). Seven years and ninety-three episodes is nothing to scoff at, and this show has certainly evolved plenty over that time. Just looking at it in turns of Tommy’s children, it’s fitting that Janet gives birth to her fifth baby in the final episode, aided by a surprisingly put-together Tommy, moments before he goes ahead and faints. Most of the finale was somewhat more serious, as the fake-out beginning with Lou eulogizing his five fallen comrades turned out just to be Tommy’s dream, and the lieutenant was revealed to have been the lone casualty of last week’s chaotic fire. His death, while tragic, isn’t as devastating as this show has sometimes been known to me, and it paves the way for each of the remaining firehouse members to give their own reasons for leaving. There was no better biting summary of each of the boys’ characters than in Lou’s postmortem letter read by Tommy at his funeral, and that helped to add a bit of levity to a sad situation, as did Mike’s rather dumb opening of the box of ashes just as Franco and Black Shawn rolled down their windows to spit out their gum. Tommy retiring went predictably less than smoothly, with Sheila doubting him and telling him he needs two things – sex and fire – to survive, and Tommy failing miserably to respect the rules of the playground, hilariously getting the other parents mad at him for using untoward words. His final speech to the recruits was a great way of incorporating September 11th without having it dominate the episode. That final appearance of Lou as a new ghost was perfectly haunting, and an excellent way to end the series. This was a great show with a stellar first two seasons that faltered somewhere in the middle, briefly found its groove at the start of season five, and then came back with a very good final season just now. It’s definitely one of the more memorable shows on television, and I’m not sure they’ll ever again be anything quite like it.
Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Denis Leary
Series grade: B+
Series MVP: Denis Leary
Best season: Season 1
Best episode: TBD (I may yet do a retrospective)
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