Rescue Me Recap (Pieces)

Title: “Pieces” (aka “Tommy Gavin Hug-fest ’06”)
Original Airdate: August 1, 2006

The crew forcibly enters an apartment filled with smoke and one heavy unconscious dweller. (Dennis Rodman? Kareem Abdul-Jabaar? We’ll settle on anonymous geranium-grower.) Franco, Lou, and Tommy manage to get him out, then have a conversation about how they could all really go for some pizza. Or chips. Or dip! Sean radios to the Chief, giggling, that he found hundreds of marijuana plants in the back room. The crew’s pretty amused, but the Chief isn’t. Too bad there isn’t any reggae, but apparently there is a god, since there’s a hot dog vendor right in front of the truck. The crew gorges themselves while filling out forms that explain they were exposed to something in the line of duty.

The hospital. Tommy visits the fireman Probie pulled out of the fire, who is heavily burned and has had his legs amputated below the knee. His wife comes out of the bathroom, saying she’s been going in there to cry a few times a day, thinking he’s going to blame her when he wakes up. Tommy gives her a hug (#1) to comfort her.

Probie’s apartment. Mike’s packing up some of his stuff when roomie Chris walks up to him, asking if he was just going to slink out of there and not say anything. Mike tries to explain how he didn’t want to make a big thing out of it. Chris tells him he better be out of there in two minutes. He’s not kidding. Douchebag.

The care facility. Chief has a conversation with an employee about how he’s been trying to rustle up the money to keep Jeannie there. Apparently when he told Jeannie she could stay, she got really upset. The employee, Carlene, breezily tells him maybe he should get a little Alzheimer’s of his own and forget about it. Jerry gets offended and asks her to leave. As she does, she explains that she only meant he shouldn’t let the disease claim both Jeannie and him.

Franco’s apartment. Natalie’s making them huevos rancheros (no, not out of a Faberge egg). She took a hot picture of him to which he responds “Oh, snap!” Sometimes I just love Franco. Nat asks Franco about the little girl’s room, and he briefly explains he had a daughter, and now she’s somewhere else. When he tries to ask her about her secrets, like why they never go to her apartment, she clams up.

The firehouse. Chief and Tommy are talking, when Mike comes by. Tommy comments that he looks a little down, and Mike responds by giving him a hug (#2). Sean tries to follow suit (#2.5?), but Tommy shuts him down, even though Sean says they’ll be bros soon enough. They’re interrupted by Franco, who wants them to look at something outside. “Something” is Lou. Or, more accurately, Lou with a leather jacket and motorcycle. Lou v2.0 is all about trying new things, having a new lease on life, and, apparently, hogs. After enduring the requisite crew heckling, Lou explains to Tommy that he just wants to enjoy life and he needs Tommy’s support. Lou’s thinking of going down to Florida to work on a boat his cousin owns. Tommy disses on Florida, saying it’s not for Lou. Boo, Tommy, just tell him you want him to stay.

Tommy gets a call from Johnny, saying he has something important to say but wants to tell him in person. When can they meet? I guess Tommy thinks “never” would work for him, ’cause he hangs up without saying a word.

Franco and Sean have locker room dish. Franco explains how he suspects Natalie has another guy on the side because they never stay at her place and she’s always getting phone calls. Sean advises him to confront her, which Franco plans to do, bummed. A little Franco-ism: “Love is a pain in the balls.”

In the firehouse, Tommy’s looking over Sheila’s car. He asks her: “What have I told you a bajillion zillion goddamn times?” Sheila: “No?” Hee. Nope, Tommy means something about oil changes. It ain’t ringing any bells with Sheila, but she tells him he’s being kind of on edge. Tommy admits he’s worried because he thinks the crew might be breaking up: Franco to the lieutenant’s exam, Probie to a transfer, Lou to Florida. A lightbulb goes on in Sheila’s head and she jumps on the idea of them taking her (considerable) widow money and just—going somewhere. Together. To relax, grow old, watch the kids grow up. She’s pressuring him to accept her offer when Franco interrupts them. Tommy walks away and Sheila stares after him sadly.

Uncle Teddy and his lady love are enjoying a little conjugal visit. But they aren’t enjoying the constant phone call interruptions to check that they aren’t escaped or dead. Eventually, they give up trying to have sex and just eat fried chicken. That’s hot.

Sean’s over at the Gavin’s to belatedly ask Gavin Sr. for permission to marry Maggie. At first her dad won’t give it up, calling him an asshole, suggesting he ought to head for the door and never look back from the “bloodsucking hell-bitch.” Sean manages to shut him up by saying that he knows marrying Maggie is a big scary decision, but he loves her and it’s important to them that they have her dad’s blessing. Dad then begrudgingly gives it, in true Gavin fashion: “Welcome to the family. Retard.”

Franco calls Natalie. When he confronts her, she finally admits it: there is another man in her life. But it isn’t romantic — it’s her brother, who’s “slow”. Franco’s going to head over to meet him and Nat for dinner.

Jerry’s back at the care facility. He talks to Carlene, who encourages him that he should move on with his life. Just because Jeannie’s living in another world, Jerry doesn’t have to. He thanks her this time, her message having sunk in.

Chris stops by the firehouse, where he gives Sean an “official-looking” paper to give to Mike. It’s the transfer request, which surprises Sean. Chris says there are some other things about Mike that would surprise Sean – like the fact that Mike “likes Sex and the City” apparently. (This doesn’t surprise me. I’ve known a bunch of guys who liked S&tC. If this is supposed to mean they’re gay, I’m unconvinced.) When Sean doesn’t quite get the reference, Chris explains that Mike “plays for the other team.”

Sean goes to tell Mike that Chris came by and that now Sean knows everything. Mike’s shocked, and tries to explain, saying it was just Chris, just the blowjobs, and it’s over. Sean gapes and backs away—he thought they were just talking about the transfer. Mike then pleads with him not to tell anyone. Of course, when Lou walks in, Sean tells him immediately. Then when Franco walks in, Lou tells him. “Mike’s gay.” “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”

Down in the kitchen, Mike explains to the crew how he met Chris and ended up moving in with him and engaging in various activities. He saw Chris every day at a construction site, but then one day he was gone. (Lou: “Did you check the end of your cock?”)  Then they got to talking, and living together. The crew says that still doesn’t explain the transfer, but Mike said he only got around to filling out the form, he never submitted it. Chief tries to get them to discuss how the news will affect their day–to-day lives, and the crew starts saying how they don’t want to shower with him our hear about his gay love life. Mike insists he’s straight, and starts to get angry: “Maybe if I can’t make a little mistake in my personal life, then maybe I should transfer!” He’s about to walk out, when Tommy stops him.

Seeing the impending dissolution of his crew, Tommy stands up for Mike, saying how he’s made progress in the job and has started to pull his own weight. He thinks what’s important is that whether you’d go into a fire with the guy, and he would with Mike. Mike’s touched, and they hug (#3).

Franco arrives at Natalie’s house, where he meets Richard, Natalie’s scary-intense brother. Natalie tells him “if you want to run, do it now,” but Franco isn’t running. Instead, he’s playing checkers with Richard, who eats one of the pieces. When Franco says Rich shouldn’t do that, he’s going to tell Natalie, Rich gets Franco not to, or he’ll beat his ass. Franco’s a pretty fit guy, but Rich looks off the hinges here, really unnerving. They resume playing.

Tommy visits the hospital again. The firefighter’s wife is explaining how they bought a retirement house before the accident. Before the injury, they’d talked about how they were going to go there, so she thinks it might provide some motivation. She says she doesn’t have anything anymore—half a husband, a house, no money. Tommy gives her a hug (#4).

Walking home from dinner, Natalie and Franco hold hands as Rich trails behind. They think the evening went pretty well. Or at least, it was going well, until Rich decided to call Franco a racial epithet—and an inaccurate one at that. When Natalie explains he’s got a bit of a Tourette’s thing happening, Franco tries not to take offense. He even tries to smooth things over when another passerby assumes Rich is insulting him. But it soon becomes clear that they should get Rich home before he starts some real problems.

At the firehouse, Tommy thinks someone’s shrunk his gear, but Sean informs him that it’s HIS new gear — Maggie didn’t want to take his name, so Sean’s taking Maggie’s name. It was too long to hyphenate (or “slashy dashy thing” according to Sean), so he’s just going with Gavin. Tommy is not particularly happy.

He’s going to get less happy in about 1.2 seconds, however, because guess who’s visiting? Johnny. Johnny tells him he’s there because he didn’t want Tommy to find out from someone else…that Janet’s pregnant. Johnny says there’s an upside—maybe Dad will stop bugging them about the whole male heir thing. Tommy: “You’re asking me if it’s okay?” Johnny looks like he’s ready to be punched, but all Tommy says is congratulations. He then heads behind the truck to compose himself, looking dangerously on the edge of crying or screaming or beating up something. The alarm goes off, and Lou asks if he’s coming, but Tommy still seems paralyzed.

Next time: Tommy’s having a bad day. It may or may not involve ass-kicking, alcohol, and hijacking a taxi cab.

Julie is a GMMR recapper extraordinaire, but she also has her own fabulous TV website. Head over to TV and Sympathy to read more from Julie