Rescue Me
Baptism
TV Flash files “Baptism” as a desk essential hour — Rescue Me (2004–2011) on FX, season 5, episode 1, aired 2009-04-07, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E01: listed hour 53 of 93 in the Rescue Me guide, first listed hour of season 5. It aired 2009-04-07 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Yaz” (S04E13). Next is “French” (S05E02).
Essential hour: “Baptism”. Baptism is a season-five premiere that treats ritual as craft — FX drama blessing nobody, the hose bed still the only church that fits.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Tommy deals with his father's death and a new man in Janet's life. He also finds that Chief Feinberg, who has initiated a Section 8 procedure against him, is being surprisingly nice to him. Meanwhile, Sheila finds a new way to handle her problems; Colleen has a new boyfriend; and Sean, Franco and Mike devise a surefire way to gain riches and plenty of sex from the money Mike inherited from his mother.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Baptism sit in the Rescue Me guide?
S05E01 is listed hour 53 of 93 — first listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 1.
When did Rescue Me S05E01 air?
Baptism aired 2009-04-07 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Is Rescue Me a cop-show-style procedural?
Fires happen; the show is Tommy Gavin's wreckage — ghosts, whiskey, brotherhood as alibi. Dark comedy and gut-punches share the hose bed.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Denis Leary's FDNY wreck drinks, fights fire, and argues with ghosts while the city is still smoking. Rescue Me lets trauma and dark comedy share a hose bed — brotherhood as lifeline and alibi, grief that refuses overtime, post-9/11 television with the manners stripped off.
2004, FX puts an FDNY wreck on basic cable while the city is still smoking: Tommy Gavin fights fires, ghosts, and his own worst impulses. Denis Leary and Peter Tolan ran seven seasons through 2011 — ninety-three episodes — with 9/11 still raw in cultural memory. Leary drinks, works, and argues with the dead beside Michael Lombardi, Steven Pasquale, Andrea Roth, Callie Thorne, and John Scurti. Dark comedy as survival mechanism; sitcom rhythms share a hose bed with dramatic gut-punches. Brotherhood as lifeline and…
Filed against
- Denis Leary as Tommy Gavin
Denis Leary’s Tommy Gavin drank, fought fire, and argued with ghosts on Rescue Me — FDNY wreck, post-9/11 television with the manners stripped off, brotherhood as lifeline and alibi. Trauma and dark comedy sharing a hose bed. TV Flash…
- Michael Lombardi as Mike Silletti
Michael Lombardi’s Mike Silletti rode Rescue Me’s hose bed like brotherhood was both lifeline and alibi — Denis Leary’s FDNY wreck, drinks, ghosts, a city still smoking. 2000s trauma and dark comedy sharing the truck. TV Flash files him…
- Steven Pasquale as Sean Garrity
Steven Pasquale ran into Rescue Me as Sean Garrity — FDNY wreckage, Denis Leary's drinks and ghosts, trauma and dark comedy sharing a hose bed. Brotherhood as lifeline and alibi, grief that refuses overtime. TV Flash files him as 2000s…
- Andrea Roth as Janet Gavin
Andrea Roth’s Janet Gavin stood in the blast radius of Rescue Me — Denis Leary’s FDNY wreck drinking, fighting fire, arguing with ghosts while the city is still smoking. Trauma and dark comedy sharing a hose bed, post-9/11 television with…
- Callie Thorne as Sheila Keefe
Callie Thorne played Sheila Keefe on Rescue Me — Denis Leary's FDNY wreck drinking, fighting fire, and arguing with ghosts while the city was still smoking. Brotherhood as lifeline and alibi, grief that refuses overtime. TV Flash files…
- John Scurti as Kenneth 'Lou' Shea
John Scurti’s Kenneth ‘Lou’ Shea rode Rescue Me’s hose bed — Denis Leary’s FDNY wreck drinking, fighting fire, arguing with ghosts while the city is still smoking. Trauma and dark comedy sharing a shift, brotherhood as lifeline and alibi.…