We're half-way through season five now and we've reached a point that's going to polarize a lot of fans of this show. Creatively, last night's episode of Rescue Me introduced two things that both have the potential to really turn off certain fans, depending, of course, on what they like about the show and more importantly, what they expect from Rescue Me in future episodes.

The first issue? Tommy's drinking. Last week, I made the point that we've really been rooting for something terrible, by wanting Tommy to start hitting the bottle again. However, that's always been a condition of something that many fans would like to see in the future - an actual happy, funny, and sober Tommy. We got a taste of it last season, but that was obviously far too early for Gavin to be officially done with the booze.

However, the end of last night's episode came as a bit of a shock to me. After hearing that Teddy watched all the old home movie footage of his brother and cried his eyes out (while drinking), Tommy decided that it might be cathartic for him too - a last hurrah with his dad. But only Mickey had the DVD and to get it Tommy first had to announce to AA that yes indeed, he's drinking again, he doesn't give a crap, and he loves it. That wasn't really a big deal if you consider Tommy's track record. However, what he did later that night did surprise me.

Gavin is usually prone to absorbing and respecting defining moments in his life, and when Mickey threw him into one of those moments, Tommy pissed all over it. When he got home, the DVD didn't have home movies on it, but rather, footage of Mickey Mantle's last press conference, being shown on a newscast archivally after his death. For those that don't know, Mantle was a huge drinker and eventually died from liver cancer that spread throughout his body. During that press conference (at the time, it aired only a few months before he passed) he essentially said that he wasn't and hadn't been a role model his entire life and that no one should aspire to be like him.

For Tommy, a lifelong Yankee fan and idolizer of Mantle, to look at that footage and not feel anything says a lot. He raised his glass and took a big gulp of whiskey when really, he should have been moved to pour the bottle down the sink. Again, though, at this point, we're a little early for Tommy to be done completely with the booze, but his actions here certainly don't give much hope for the future. If that won't make him think twice about drinking, then what will? Maybe Garrity won't be the only 62 Truck guy to get cancer.

Speaking of Sean, moving on to my second point - his musical number. There's two ways to look at this. Either you loved it as something funny or you hated it because it's so far from anything we've ever seen on this show that it just didn't fit in for you. Personally, I think it's great and they only get better/funnier in the coming weeks. Yes, there's more, but if I recall, this is the only one that features angelic viking nurses.

For those that are thinking that this only made the cut because there's 22 episodes and they needed some filler, think again - when I recently spoke to Denis Leary he essentially said that even if the season had been shorter, something like the musical number still may have made the cut because of the quality of actors on the show and what they bring to the table. Says a lot about the cast.

Oh, one last thing. Is that Aqua-Velva?