The one thing we can be sure is this: nobody will die after what happened on Rescue Me's season finale last night.

On one part, we still have 19 episodes to go.  The show cannot afford to jerk everything entirely by killing off its major star.  Sure, this may sound more like a logistical concern, but now that the show's got an end date, the best thing to do is end it on a high note--or keep all the guns until closer to the end, in 2011.

And, the show will change terribly if Tommy dies after being shot twice by his uncle Teddy.  For someone who's struggled with so many things after 9/11, seeing him die in an instant doesn't seem fulfilling, for lack of a better term.

How this panned out is, of course, nonetheless surprising.  Tommy kicked off this season by returning to the bottle after being sober for so long--and unwittingly finding himself bringing everyone down with it.  When Teddy's wife died of alcohol-related circumstances, it's quite obvious Tommy will get the blame, and will end up paying for it.  He did.

My thoughts are pretty much the same thoughts that the show's creators, Denis Leary and Peter Tolan, had.  Talking to TVGuide.com, Leary revealed that having Teddy attempt murder was a natural choice.  "[He] was the person seeking revenge, because he's already been down that road," he said.  "Morally, he wouldn't feel held up by it.  And also, he's in a great position having done something almost at the behest of Tommy, in terms of murder.  It would fall back on Tommy really cleanly."

While killing off Tommy was an option, in this case, it didn't feel right.  "It becomes a much different show, so that doesn't seem like a real option," Tolan said.  "There's one [option] that he lives and somehow takes a different path based on that event.  And then there's probably a third option, which is the one we're doing: Some weird combination of the two."

"You don't want to see a guy who survived 9/11 and everything else kill himself or die," he added.  "It just doesn't send a life-affirming message.  It sends a dark, unpleasant message, which is not what you want.  So, we've figured out a much more humane way to end this that offers some more hope and sends Tommy in a different direction."

So what's a possible future for Tommy?  The next 19 episodes, I reckon, will finally see him really push for that change.  Ten years, after all, is too long a time to wallow in fear and anxiety.  But whatever the end result may be, at least we can be certain that he tried.  And if he does die at the very end, it doesn't have to be a worthless one.

The writers want him sober under different terms.  That's gotta be something to look for when the show returns.





- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of FX)