Wednesday, September 1, 2010

"Rescue Me" season finale recap: "ADD"


Spoilers for last night's season finale of "Rescue Me" below. Don't click through if you don't want to know.

I don't really have all that much to say about last night's season six finale of FX's "Rescue Me." After last season's booze and bullets finale, this season's capper, "ADD," was a relatively quiet affair. Yes, there was the visceral shock of learning that Damien didn't actually die in the fire that ended in last week's episode. But he is paralyzed and severely brain-damaged, turning the already-unstable Sheila into a cure-crazed whirlwind, seeking out every "specialist" who offers her a hit of a cure. Tommy, meanwhile, has been drawn by his guilt back into Sheila's web, spending more time caring for her child than for his own wife and family.
Meanwhile, the guys at the firehouse are predictably hypocritical, blasting Mickey for ditching Sheila and the city for commemorating their friend Pat with an outhouse -- yet being fairly insensitive to Damien's plight, basically using him as a way to get women.
Overall, I've found this to be a pretty strong season of "Rescue Me," with Tommy's quest for redemption surprisingly fascinating (that booze baptism of Colleen is still harrowing to think about). But I felt the finale was a little flat. Does anyone really believe that "cliffhanger" scene with Damien at the end is anything but a dream or hallucination? And I wanted more fireworks about Tommy's imploding relationship with his family, or about Lou's health issues (are we to believe that two months have passed and NO ONE has figured out that Lou is in no shape for firefighting?).
I'm looking forward to next season, but I am a bit disappointed at the way this season ended. You?

1 comment:

Carey the librarian said...

Do I wonder where they are going with all of this? Yes. Tommy and his wife lost their son who was not much younger (or just about the same age) as Damien. With Tommy's constant fight with his mortality and mortality as a whole, he now has to deal with the non-death of his nephew. He is heading into the battle of not blaming himself when it comes to the deaths and injury of his family members (brother, son, and now nephew).
I think this is part of why his search with religion is now becoming so apparent and may end up being what causes him to grasp that these deaths and near deaths, are not his fault.

Time for him to borrow that book from Shelia.