(Season 6, Episode 9) They certainly didn't pace this season like it was only ten episodes. After a 22-episode fifth season, it's as if the writers forgot that you need to keep things moving when that finale is barreling down on you. It's coming at us next week, making this the penultimate episode of the season, and me not sure what the main point of the season was.

Sure, Colleen's drinking was addressed and handled in the only way Tommy knows, but we really didn't get to see enough of it for her situation to really impact us. We got virtually none of how it's affected Black Shawn and their relationship, and we certainly didn't see her experience any of the trauma that Tommy and his family have throughout the series. So why did we spend so much time on it?

Now, it looks like the season is about whether our various heroes should or shouldn't stay firemen. Lou's health has become an issue, Damian has been back-and-forth about his intentions, and Tommy ... well, Tommy won't be happy unless he dies in a fire.

If I forgive the Colleen diversion, I think I could be okay with where we're at at this point in the series. One episode left this season, and one season left after this one. It's a good time for Tommy to be making some hard decisions, though they're giving him plenty of time to fall apart and screw everything up again. This week, we spent so long in the early part of the episode that other than a fun bathroom sequence at the firehouse, we spent virtually no time with the boys of Ladder 62.

But it's important for 'Rescue Me' to give us some resolution to the Tommy/Janet/Sheila love triangle. Again, there are a lot of episodes left, but I still feel pretty good about what happened this week. Sheila finally seems to have made a definitive decision about Tommy, but she's shut him out before. Can she keep him out when it's face to face? I'm not so sure she can hold her resolve; she certainly wasn't able to last week. And with Damian backing out of his decision to quit being a firefighter, I think a Sheila-Tommy confrontation is probably coming along pretty soon.

All season long I've had a sense of dread about Damian, and then they went and gave me some misdirection with Lou's health collapsing. Two heart attacks and a ticker at half capacity, he shouldn't be working. The worst part of it is that by ignoring his doctor's orders, he's putting the other guys on the crew into mortal danger. It's not like an accountant refusing to quit. If Lou falters on the job, people die. As a firefighter, he should be smart enough to know it's not worth the risk.

Now, if Lou survives being trapped under the coffins and Damian is dead from that collapsed bit of ceiling, then he has no one to blame but himself for Damian's death. Of course, they could both die and throw the whole damned show into turmoil, or Damian could live and Lou could die. Honestly, I'd be surprised if they both survived, as the writers of this show have shown in the past they have no problem killing off major characters.

Either death would completely shatter Tommy and the firehouse, but the loss of Damian just might send Sheila completely over the edge. As much as you'd hate to see her suffer more after the loss of her husband already to the job, wouldn't it be fantastic to see Callie Thorne's brilliance in that role as she dealt with the loss of her son. I would argue with anyone that she's the best performer on that show, and I think giving her a chance to really shine in these last episodes would be a privilege to watch.

Plus, we've got a whole 'nother season to get through. What better thing to deal with from a dramatic standpoint than such a significant loss ... or two. This would be a far more severe test of Tommy's resolve to quit drinking than Janet's little two-drink test at the table. Tonight, did we say goodbye to one or two firefighters? Did Sheila and Tommy truly say goodbye to the dysfunctional relationship they've had the past several years. Has Tommy truly said goodbye to drinking? If he survives, I'll bet Damian will be back on the side of saying goodbye to firefighting!