Rescue Me needs to be rescued. It needs what everyone needs: some direction, a little inspiration and good old-fashioned heart. The sun is about to set on the fourth season of the show and it seems unlikely that any powerful twist will be revealed in the finale. Is it crazy that I am still hoping for a save? Hoping that maybe they have been holding back some bright, bold, radiant light that is going to illuminate and bring significance to an otherwise dark and meaningless season. They better bring something good. "I can't light no more of your darkness. All my pictures seem to fade to black and white. I'm growing tired and time stands still before me, frozen here on the ladder of my life."

Rescue Me has flat lined (again). This week's episode titled, Cycle, proved without a doubt that Three Dog Night knew what they were talking about when they wrote the lyric, "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. Two can be as bad as one. It's the loneliest number since the number one."

The entire episode swirled around Tommy Gavin. While it's true that Tommy has always served as the core of the show, in the prior seasons, there has been a hugely significant and compelling cast supporting him. It was the culmination of all the characters that captured the hearts of viewers. But the fourth season has gone to some other place-a place where the only fervor and bravery that abounds is that of Tommy Gavin. In this episode alone, let us consider the story (if that is what this is called) of ONE man: Tommy marvels us with his superior street hockey skills, is the sexual slave to a beautiful, puffy-lipped woman (Gershon), fast and furiously drives the fire truck through the streets of New York, and saves three people from death after he runs into a burning building with nothing but a borrowed coat (all this while the rest of the experienced crew just unload the truck and saunter around trying to find a way into the building). It seems that Tommy is the only hero in the bunch.

"Listen, baby. Ain't no mountain high. Ain't no valley low. Ain't no river wide enough baby." As corrupt and dysfunctional as the Gavin clan might be, in one way or another, they are always there for each other. Hereye! Hereye! The Gavin family AA meeting is now in session. It is a healing space where a higher power, mice, wild family feuds and stray dogs abound. Come one. Come all. Everyone is welcome, that is, unless you are not a member of the family (Sean), you are not an alcoholic (Sean), and you believe God to be a giant cloud of pink mass (Sean). The meeting was reminiscent of One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest, with the crazy family running amuck: squabbling, interrupting, and not listening to one another. Mick (my favorite Gavin) was the facilitator of the meeting. He tried his best to keep things moving in a positive direction, turning talk of getting high to talk of a higher power, but the Gavin's are not so easily inspired.

At long last, this week's episode of Rescue Me titled, "Animal" finally rose to the high standards of the show's prior three seasons. As I have noted, the entire 4th season has proved disappointing to most viewers, frugally doling out the quality programming that we had come to expect and love from Rescue Me. Many fans were about ready to jump ship. After suffering through this disappointing season, we were practically being pushed away, having no choice but to leave. Hell, Leary earned his second Emmy nomination, they probably wouldn't miss us anyway. "I said go if you wanna go, stay if you wanna stay, I didn't care if you hung around me. I didn't care if you went away. And I know you were never right. I'll admit I was never wrong. I could never make up my mind. I made it up as I went along." But with this episode, the quality came back and was miraculously sustained for the duration of the episode. So, for today, I am a believer again. "All I need is a miracle..."

Tonight's episode of Rescue Me was titled, Solo, for good reason—it was all about Tommy Gavin. "It's easier not to be wise, and measure these things by your brains. I sank into Eden with you, alone in the church by and by." It started off with the slap heard around the world, when Tommy returned home without the baby. Janet struck with fury. She went crazy on him. The hardest blow came when she learned that he given the baby to crazy Sheila. After bludgeoning him with a frying pan, Janet packed up their daughter and left. But not before running over Tommy in her little Ford Escort. (Just a note, why does Tommy drive some pimped out, pearl-colored Escalade truck when Janet and the kids buzz around in a tiny Escort?) After the past few weeks of watching the child neglect unfold, I was eager to see the baby swaddled up in some intense Sheila loving. Instead, she hovered over his crib like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and named the baby, Elvis.

Unlike the rest of Season 4, the heart of Rescue Me beat like a drum during the opening sequence of the episode, Seven. The men battled through a blazing inferno, catching and saving falling babies and barely making it out of the building alive. It was the essence of heroes. Still, even with their heroic efforts, they stood among seven dead babies and children that lined the sidewalk. No one survived. Silence truly does have the loudest voice. The crew was silent and devastated and empty and broken during the journey back to the firehouse. There were no words and no obvious ways to cope. The men staggered through the next day or two, trying to deal with what they witnessed and what they couldn't save. Watching these strong, flawed but vulnerable men fighting the battle and carrying the burden of loss, has been the true spirit of the show. It is the battle and burden of heroes. It was a pleasant reprieve to once again dive deep into the heart of what made Rescue Me such a compelling show. "Been trying to get down, to the heart of the matter, but the will gets weak and thoughts seems to scatter..."

"There's nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy. All you need is love..."

Calling all angels, ghosts and beyond. Will someone please, for the love of all that is good and holy, rescue that baby? Tommy Gavin is so tragically unaware of what's happening to Janet that he might as well walk around with a brown paper bag over his head. Let's look at the glaring facts: Janet either sleeps or stares at the television in a catatonic state. She barely speaks. She constantly chugs wine. She forgets to feed her daughter. And she has been having dreams of the baby drowning in the bathtub. One would hope that her partner (since high school) might recognize that something is dramatically different about his wife and do something to help his family. But that doesn't happen here. Instead, he suggests that Janet take a shower and then heads off to meet his friends at the bar. A brilliant display of the sacred family unit.

In a typical tension-filled Rescue Me opening sequence, Janet, who is exhausted and clearly still in the throes of postpartum depression, accidentally left the baby in a parking lot. As she raced back to get him, an 18-wheeler truck drove over the baby. The storyline disturbed me and I was incredibly relieved when Tommy woke up. It was just another one of his anxiety-induced dreams, probably brought on by his concern over Janet's lack of connection with the baby, but as usual, I fell for it hook-line-sinker. To imagine that Denis Leary and Peter Tolan would tragically kill off another character from the show is not unrealistic. Most recently, Chief Reilly, beautifully played by Jack McGee, bid us farewell with a gun to the head. Since his dismissal from the show, there has been press concerning ill feelings between McGee and Leary. McGee paints Leary in a not so flattering light, by referring to him as self-involved and arrogant. As much as I am a steadfast fan of the show, it makes me wonder if there is legitimacy to his claims.

Either way, it seems that Leary found a way to further snub McGee in last night's episode. The men at Ladder 62 have the Chief's ashes in their possession and they were trying to figure out what to do with them. God forbid anyone suggests that his son is allowed to keep his father's remains. Instead, they opened up the urn and peered inside. They made jokes about dust busters, pointed out what looked like teeth and then, Franco, threw his burning cigarette inside. Not all that respectful.

"PRESSURE. Pressing down on me. Pressing down on you, no man asks for. Under Pressure, that burns a building down, splits a family in two, puts people on the streets."

Tommy has lost his daughter, Colleen. The scene that I had waited for all week, the scene where the boys of Ladder 62 basically knocked down the door of Colleen's boyfriend's apartment was not as funny as I thought it would be. Outside of Tommy requesting, "Blinders!" when his daughter sauntered out of the bedroom half-naked, the scene was kind of sad. Tommy behaved badly, in an over-protective but also kind of barbaric manner. There was no thinking or strategy involved in getting his daughter home. In the normal Gavin style, he just launched into action, grabbing his daughter and pulling her out of the apartment. Colleen retaliated in rage and showed how little respect she has for him. Seems that with all of his narcissistic years, Tommy will now reap what he has sown.

And the Academy Award goes to ... Ms. Sheila Streep for her reenactment of what transpired on the night of the beach house fire. Crazy Sheila craftily pasted together a big, fat, juicy lie that involved her honest and heartfelt efforts to please and save her man and Tommy's limp, lifeless member. Tommy believed the tall tale, as did his lawyer, who considered it the most perfectly crafted story. Tommy seemed to even sell the insurance investigation team on the drunken and fragile male ego story. When leaving the hearing, he crossed paths with Sheila who was fabulously lip locked to the young and handsome firefighter that saved her from the fire. Tommy was distracted and jealous and bitter about the whole thing, which compelled him to call, Nona, the woman who had been pursuing him and finally accept her invitation for a date. "He can't, he can't, he can't stand losing..."

Janet still trapped in the hell of postpartum, is dealing not only with a colicky baby, who has lovingly transitioned from "little no name" to "puke face," but also with her 18 year old daughter, Colleen, who has seemingly runaway to live with her rocker boyfriend. Not for long though, because Tommy has tapped his contact at the police department and found out her whereabouts.

Guess who just got back today? Them wild-eyed boys that had been away. Haven't changed, haven't much to say. But man, I still think them cats are crazy. The boys are back in town. FX's summer series Rescue Me kicked off the 4th season drawing 2.8 million total viewers to the premiere, a slight (18%) drop from 3rd season. Good to have them back. The sexy and twisted firefighters of Ladder 62 offered a pleasant reprieve from my Sopranos mourning. With the moves of a jungle cat, from one flawed and dangerous character to the next, the boys of Rescue Me arrive just in the nick of time.

The season begins with Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) stumbling to recall the events that led up to the beach-house fire. Not sure how Sheila escaped the interrogation but it seems that Tommy is the prime suspect of foul play and insurance fraud. His recollection is cloudy, as it should be considering that he had vats of drugs unknowingly floating around in his body. Surprising, with such an extensive investigation underway, that no hospital records would reveal this insight.